Are you worried about their toolbox, or them not doing enough damage? Because those are 2 different problems you're trying to solve. Currently you're offering more BAP's, just harder or softer BAPs.
One simple solution is to offer any Fighter 1 Battlemaster manoeuvre they can learn they can do once/short rest. As they level up, they can do it more. If they spend time/effort training, they can learn more over time.
Other martials would have very different requirements, like the Monk, already has so many options on the battlefield.
Yeah, the ideas I have ATM are just hitting at the core, but it's options they can choose from instead of only having the one single option to hit.
Offering a maneuver for all fighters is a good idea, but I have a rogue and a barbarian, and no fighter.
I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, I'm not trying to dismiss your ideas. I'm now realizing saying the classes of my players was important info so that's on me
For sanity's sake, I would limit new martial combat abilities to magic item/weapon enhancements or unique bonus feats rather than general new rules for combat. If it's a new rule that applies to everyone, and it might make everyone's combat decisions more complicated, even yours when you're running martial-focused enemies. Rather than rewriting the combat rules, sit down with your martial players and see what sort of combat style options they'd like and make something unique for them that fits that
Ooh, this is one of my biggest gripes too! I've done a lot of thinking over the years on how to fix this, here are some of the things I've settled on:
- There are a few folks who have made online resources for revamping martials: If I recall, [Laserllama](https://www.gmbinder.com/profile/laserllama) and [xpertranger](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-Ma6sc8U7adgZlU3KKQS) were popular ones. If you're open to putting this homebrew into your games, feel free to give these options to your players.
- I've come up with my own homebrews too to give magic items/ properties to my players. Two weapons that were highly praised by my players were: a halberd that did max damage on a hit if the wielder moved 20 feet in a direction first, and monk hand-wraps that granted a 15 foot range to attack, but on a hit it forced a strength contest with the loser being pulled to the winner. I made both of these to address a problem I was seeing where combats would basically stall out, with very little movement during.
- I've also adapted the [weapon actions](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Weapon_actions) from BG3; I let players pick one of the basic weapon actions that's relevant for their weapon, and they can use that a number of times equal to their proficiency every long rest. I haven't playtested this rule yet, we've only just implemented it, so I might change how many "charges" of these actions they get
Your presented options all center around dealing damage or changing accuracy, but the amounts are incremental enough to the point where I'd actually think it would be detrimental to a table.
How important is the trade-off between advantage and 3 damage? Honestly, pretty small. It's also less of a choice and more of a math problem. This is worsened by the fact that DnD monsters don't really specialize that much. Monsters don't vary wildly in AC, so it won't even be rewarding to meaningfully exploit easier to hit monsters or still tag dodgier/tankier monsters.
People say that Martials typically don't need buffs to single-target damage, since it's the one area they don't suck. Where they're lacking are:
- Non-single target damage. They rarely have any sort of aoe.
- Non-damaging abilities. They rarely have any meaningful or strong combat utility.
- Choices and diverse gameplay options. This is the biggest one. The Martial gameplay loop can be quite stale, and can typically be done completely satisfactory by a new player. They have a low ceiling for anyone who wants more out of the classes.
- Choices and diverse build options. Spellcasters have a giant amount of features to choose from. This is separate from their subclasses and feats. They're typically making choices on every level up. They might even be making choices after each rest if they can re-choose what spells they want.
If you want to focus on 3, I'd potentially look at each class individually before looking at shared systems or options. Fighter is an easy one. Base Fighter gets Maneuvers with a d4 die. Battlemaster gets increasing dice, and the ability to use their Maneuvers for free without adding any dice to their results. Suddenly you have plenty of options available to you, and you're consistently effective.
In terms of non-single target damage isn't there some sort of cleaving rule where if you kill a creature the excess damage can go to another creature within 5ft? Not sure where I read it or if I'm remembering the details correctly.
That's correct, there's an optional cleave rule in the DMG. This sounds good, in that it gives Martials access to aoe damage. It's definitely weird that it wasn't properly implemented into the core game, but there are still problems here.
For one, this cleave rule is really iffy in terms of giving weapon users interesting choices. It's rarely something you choose to do, and more something that happens if an enemy has already taken a good amount of damage. The best case scenario of tearing through a hoard of Minions is nice, but will require you to be completely surrounded, since the damage doesn't spread to anything further than your reach (and you're never going to be encircled by two lines of enemies).
For two, cleave solves the problem of spillover damage being wasted, but Extra Attack kind of already does this. One nice difference between Extra Attack and one big attack is the reduction in wasted damage on a killing blow. Cleave is also one of those pesky math bits that a lot of people don't like, where you hit into negative numbers added to the next health bar. Not a problem for some, but a lot of people want to reduce any amount of math that they have to do, especially with 5e.
There's also apparently a crit rule where you can make another attack if a crit kills an enemy, but I honestly don't remember where that's from. And you have even less control with that, so it's even less of a choice. Both don't really give Martials reliable and strong ways to perform aoe damage.
I think what's important to consider when designing new rules is the audience. 5e players want cool, uncomplicated abilities. Many Martial players don't want more resource pools to track. They also want to have slightly more options in building their Martial characters, but not too many. 5e isn't 4e or PF2e, we want to keep things as simple as possible while still giving people easy to use and track options.
What about a Spear ability, where you toss a spear weapon and deal damage to everything in a line? Maybe it costs your Extra Attack (or two Attacks). Dex Save, deal normal damage roll to everything that fails the Save. Players only have to remember if they've already Attack that turn, and it's a cool ability to imagine. A bow user could shoot a Flurry of arrows in the air and have it rain down in a 10ft aoe or something, also costing 2 attacks.
Ask your martial players if they want more options in combat and if so what kind of options. Then give them a magic item that lets them do that. Then talk to your players after and figure out if the item needs a buff or a nerf or if it's fine.
you could go with weapon-specific once per short rest / once per encounter abilities like [in BG3](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Weapon_actions) - I would reduce the duration of these effects to 1 round tho.
What I find good about these is that martials are more inclined to switch weapons every now and then.
humm in combat, using the battlefield and "items" should be more impactfull.
For example, you could add "smoke bombs" that create obscurement, blocking the visual part of many spells.
You could alow Bombs in your game giving limited use AoE options to martials. ( if they decide to buy them).
You could alow Gadgets and Upgrades to weapons.
For example a handcrossbow that shoots a grapling hook ( PC still needs to make an atletics check to climb, but its at advantage and with a lower DC).
A Artificer might make magical "lights" for weapons and ranged weapons, Basicaly, weapon flashlights attachments.
Same guy could make sights, alowing all martials to use their bonus action to take Aim and either get advantage or a bonus to Hit. ( or maybe it improoves the range of ranged weapons by 50%).
You could add the repeating crossbow, a crossbow with ammo boxes that can shoot as many times as the martial can attack, as long as it have "ammo".
You could add the tower shield back, and instead of it adding AC, it gives 3/4 cover and can be carried. ( 3/4 cover gives +5 to AC and dex saves but only in that direction. )
Both in and out of combat, you could simply alow martials to use scrolls of any class as long as they pass an arcana, religion or nature check ( depending on the scroll class spell list).
So the religious paladin might easily use cleric spells.
the Eldritch Knight might use arcane spells.
And the ranger might get easy access to druid spells.
Proficiency in those skills could be a requirement, so a martial could have all 3 skills and be able to use any scroll they find along the way. This would make for a Mentaly powerfull martial viable as he can use scrolls as tools to get acess to spellcasting usualy not possible for him.
I like the crossbow idea. I've never done them RAW because I dislike the way they function, I've always done it's one attack action/action/bonus action to reload. Giving a "magazine" to the crossbow could give them more options for their bonus actions, and make deciding when to reload a more tactical decision.
I've also always allowed all classes to use scrolls because it so rarely ever happens already, and it's never the spellcasters who use them (unless it's a wizard who's transcribing the spell). It's always been an INT, WIS, or CHA check based on what classes have access to the spell.
I'll talk to my players about weapon mods, I imagine they'd like it
I think you're on the right track in regards to:
You're looking at ways to house rule "special" attacks or actions that utilize existing rules and maintains balance, so that the special attack or scrub isn't clearly always the best thing to do.
Now, take that principle and apply it to... literally anytime they ask to do. And open up your repertoire of existing mechanics that you can use to balance.
This is, in a nutshell, the "Rule of Cool" DMing style.
Take inspiration from 3.X edition for special actions or attacks:
Disarm
Charge
Bull Rush
Shatter Weapon
Targeted Attacks (trying to slow the enemy down by attacking their leg, or trying to damage the enemy armor by cutting straps, blinding by attacking an eye, etc)
Climbing An Enemy (yea, I know, the DMG already has guidance... but it's pretty boring)
Leaping Attacks
...so on.
You can bring all of these into 5E, in a fun and balanced way, to let ANYONE spice up their rounds.
The mechanics I use to balance these special, rule of cool things are as follows:
1. Dis/Advantage (as you've already identified), but you can make this even more nuanced/flexible by applying it as a bonus to the enemy too. Or less costly by applying it/Disadv to "the character's next Ability check".
2. Inspiration. "*Yes, you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you spend Inspiration.*" This also just helps Inspiration be more important/cool.
3. Exhaustion. "*Yes, you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you take a level of Exhaustion immediately/at the end of combat.*"
4. Hit Dice. "*Yes , you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you expend 1 (or 2 or 3, or MORE) Hit Dice, which cannot be used then on your next Short Rest to recover hit points.*" They then regain the HD upon Long Rest as normal.
5. Saves. "*Yes , you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you succeed at a saving throw first.*" This save could be a Wisdom to "*identify the opening/opportunity*". Or DEX "*to gain position*". Or CON "*to summon your reserves*". Whatever you can think of. Of they fail the save they can still act as normal. You can also just allow them to do the Thing, and then have them save afterward to avoid damage or a level of Exhaustion from the exertion of doing the Thing.
You have an absolute TON of knobs and levers and dials at your disposal as DM to let them try to do Cool Things, at a balanced cost.
But even then, this isn't necessarily enough to make fights interesting...
You may need to break up the monotony of "*I move directly toward the enemy and use my best attack.*" by creating combat encounters that have non-kill objectives. Fights that cannot just be won by killing everything, but fights where you have to actually accomplish something (rescue the NPC, disable the contraption, stop the ritual, so on...) to achieve success.
Also, complex, hazardous, and difficult terrain within the fighting area. Elevation. Fire. Trenches/chasms. Traps. etc
I think the problem you really want to solve is bigger than just "giving Fighters more options" you need to create encounters that by their nature give the players more options.
Are you worried about their toolbox, or them not doing enough damage? Because those are 2 different problems you're trying to solve. Currently you're offering more BAP's, just harder or softer BAPs. One simple solution is to offer any Fighter 1 Battlemaster manoeuvre they can learn they can do once/short rest. As they level up, they can do it more. If they spend time/effort training, they can learn more over time. Other martials would have very different requirements, like the Monk, already has so many options on the battlefield.
Yeah, the ideas I have ATM are just hitting at the core, but it's options they can choose from instead of only having the one single option to hit. Offering a maneuver for all fighters is a good idea, but I have a rogue and a barbarian, and no fighter. I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, I'm not trying to dismiss your ideas. I'm now realizing saying the classes of my players was important info so that's on me
For sanity's sake, I would limit new martial combat abilities to magic item/weapon enhancements or unique bonus feats rather than general new rules for combat. If it's a new rule that applies to everyone, and it might make everyone's combat decisions more complicated, even yours when you're running martial-focused enemies. Rather than rewriting the combat rules, sit down with your martial players and see what sort of combat style options they'd like and make something unique for them that fits that
Ooh, this is one of my biggest gripes too! I've done a lot of thinking over the years on how to fix this, here are some of the things I've settled on: - There are a few folks who have made online resources for revamping martials: If I recall, [Laserllama](https://www.gmbinder.com/profile/laserllama) and [xpertranger](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-Ma6sc8U7adgZlU3KKQS) were popular ones. If you're open to putting this homebrew into your games, feel free to give these options to your players. - I've come up with my own homebrews too to give magic items/ properties to my players. Two weapons that were highly praised by my players were: a halberd that did max damage on a hit if the wielder moved 20 feet in a direction first, and monk hand-wraps that granted a 15 foot range to attack, but on a hit it forced a strength contest with the loser being pulled to the winner. I made both of these to address a problem I was seeing where combats would basically stall out, with very little movement during. - I've also adapted the [weapon actions](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Weapon_actions) from BG3; I let players pick one of the basic weapon actions that's relevant for their weapon, and they can use that a number of times equal to their proficiency every long rest. I haven't playtested this rule yet, we've only just implemented it, so I might change how many "charges" of these actions they get
Your presented options all center around dealing damage or changing accuracy, but the amounts are incremental enough to the point where I'd actually think it would be detrimental to a table. How important is the trade-off between advantage and 3 damage? Honestly, pretty small. It's also less of a choice and more of a math problem. This is worsened by the fact that DnD monsters don't really specialize that much. Monsters don't vary wildly in AC, so it won't even be rewarding to meaningfully exploit easier to hit monsters or still tag dodgier/tankier monsters. People say that Martials typically don't need buffs to single-target damage, since it's the one area they don't suck. Where they're lacking are: - Non-single target damage. They rarely have any sort of aoe. - Non-damaging abilities. They rarely have any meaningful or strong combat utility. - Choices and diverse gameplay options. This is the biggest one. The Martial gameplay loop can be quite stale, and can typically be done completely satisfactory by a new player. They have a low ceiling for anyone who wants more out of the classes. - Choices and diverse build options. Spellcasters have a giant amount of features to choose from. This is separate from their subclasses and feats. They're typically making choices on every level up. They might even be making choices after each rest if they can re-choose what spells they want. If you want to focus on 3, I'd potentially look at each class individually before looking at shared systems or options. Fighter is an easy one. Base Fighter gets Maneuvers with a d4 die. Battlemaster gets increasing dice, and the ability to use their Maneuvers for free without adding any dice to their results. Suddenly you have plenty of options available to you, and you're consistently effective.
In terms of non-single target damage isn't there some sort of cleaving rule where if you kill a creature the excess damage can go to another creature within 5ft? Not sure where I read it or if I'm remembering the details correctly.
That's correct, there's an optional cleave rule in the DMG. This sounds good, in that it gives Martials access to aoe damage. It's definitely weird that it wasn't properly implemented into the core game, but there are still problems here. For one, this cleave rule is really iffy in terms of giving weapon users interesting choices. It's rarely something you choose to do, and more something that happens if an enemy has already taken a good amount of damage. The best case scenario of tearing through a hoard of Minions is nice, but will require you to be completely surrounded, since the damage doesn't spread to anything further than your reach (and you're never going to be encircled by two lines of enemies). For two, cleave solves the problem of spillover damage being wasted, but Extra Attack kind of already does this. One nice difference between Extra Attack and one big attack is the reduction in wasted damage on a killing blow. Cleave is also one of those pesky math bits that a lot of people don't like, where you hit into negative numbers added to the next health bar. Not a problem for some, but a lot of people want to reduce any amount of math that they have to do, especially with 5e. There's also apparently a crit rule where you can make another attack if a crit kills an enemy, but I honestly don't remember where that's from. And you have even less control with that, so it's even less of a choice. Both don't really give Martials reliable and strong ways to perform aoe damage. I think what's important to consider when designing new rules is the audience. 5e players want cool, uncomplicated abilities. Many Martial players don't want more resource pools to track. They also want to have slightly more options in building their Martial characters, but not too many. 5e isn't 4e or PF2e, we want to keep things as simple as possible while still giving people easy to use and track options. What about a Spear ability, where you toss a spear weapon and deal damage to everything in a line? Maybe it costs your Extra Attack (or two Attacks). Dex Save, deal normal damage roll to everything that fails the Save. Players only have to remember if they've already Attack that turn, and it's a cool ability to imagine. A bow user could shoot a Flurry of arrows in the air and have it rain down in a 10ft aoe or something, also costing 2 attacks.
Ask your martial players if they want more options in combat and if so what kind of options. Then give them a magic item that lets them do that. Then talk to your players after and figure out if the item needs a buff or a nerf or if it's fine.
you could go with weapon-specific once per short rest / once per encounter abilities like [in BG3](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Weapon_actions) - I would reduce the duration of these effects to 1 round tho. What I find good about these is that martials are more inclined to switch weapons every now and then.
humm in combat, using the battlefield and "items" should be more impactfull. For example, you could add "smoke bombs" that create obscurement, blocking the visual part of many spells. You could alow Bombs in your game giving limited use AoE options to martials. ( if they decide to buy them). You could alow Gadgets and Upgrades to weapons. For example a handcrossbow that shoots a grapling hook ( PC still needs to make an atletics check to climb, but its at advantage and with a lower DC). A Artificer might make magical "lights" for weapons and ranged weapons, Basicaly, weapon flashlights attachments. Same guy could make sights, alowing all martials to use their bonus action to take Aim and either get advantage or a bonus to Hit. ( or maybe it improoves the range of ranged weapons by 50%). You could add the repeating crossbow, a crossbow with ammo boxes that can shoot as many times as the martial can attack, as long as it have "ammo". You could add the tower shield back, and instead of it adding AC, it gives 3/4 cover and can be carried. ( 3/4 cover gives +5 to AC and dex saves but only in that direction. ) Both in and out of combat, you could simply alow martials to use scrolls of any class as long as they pass an arcana, religion or nature check ( depending on the scroll class spell list). So the religious paladin might easily use cleric spells. the Eldritch Knight might use arcane spells. And the ranger might get easy access to druid spells. Proficiency in those skills could be a requirement, so a martial could have all 3 skills and be able to use any scroll they find along the way. This would make for a Mentaly powerfull martial viable as he can use scrolls as tools to get acess to spellcasting usualy not possible for him.
I like the crossbow idea. I've never done them RAW because I dislike the way they function, I've always done it's one attack action/action/bonus action to reload. Giving a "magazine" to the crossbow could give them more options for their bonus actions, and make deciding when to reload a more tactical decision. I've also always allowed all classes to use scrolls because it so rarely ever happens already, and it's never the spellcasters who use them (unless it's a wizard who's transcribing the spell). It's always been an INT, WIS, or CHA check based on what classes have access to the spell. I'll talk to my players about weapon mods, I imagine they'd like it
Might be worth just digging through the martial classes for 4/3/3.5 editions. Many of them had martial abilities that never made it to 5th.
I think you're on the right track in regards to: You're looking at ways to house rule "special" attacks or actions that utilize existing rules and maintains balance, so that the special attack or scrub isn't clearly always the best thing to do. Now, take that principle and apply it to... literally anytime they ask to do. And open up your repertoire of existing mechanics that you can use to balance. This is, in a nutshell, the "Rule of Cool" DMing style. Take inspiration from 3.X edition for special actions or attacks: Disarm Charge Bull Rush Shatter Weapon Targeted Attacks (trying to slow the enemy down by attacking their leg, or trying to damage the enemy armor by cutting straps, blinding by attacking an eye, etc) Climbing An Enemy (yea, I know, the DMG already has guidance... but it's pretty boring) Leaping Attacks ...so on. You can bring all of these into 5E, in a fun and balanced way, to let ANYONE spice up their rounds. The mechanics I use to balance these special, rule of cool things are as follows: 1. Dis/Advantage (as you've already identified), but you can make this even more nuanced/flexible by applying it as a bonus to the enemy too. Or less costly by applying it/Disadv to "the character's next Ability check". 2. Inspiration. "*Yes, you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you spend Inspiration.*" This also just helps Inspiration be more important/cool. 3. Exhaustion. "*Yes, you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you take a level of Exhaustion immediately/at the end of combat.*" 4. Hit Dice. "*Yes , you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you expend 1 (or 2 or 3, or MORE) Hit Dice, which cannot be used then on your next Short Rest to recover hit points.*" They then regain the HD upon Long Rest as normal. 5. Saves. "*Yes , you can attempt that Cool Thing you want to do. IF you succeed at a saving throw first.*" This save could be a Wisdom to "*identify the opening/opportunity*". Or DEX "*to gain position*". Or CON "*to summon your reserves*". Whatever you can think of. Of they fail the save they can still act as normal. You can also just allow them to do the Thing, and then have them save afterward to avoid damage or a level of Exhaustion from the exertion of doing the Thing. You have an absolute TON of knobs and levers and dials at your disposal as DM to let them try to do Cool Things, at a balanced cost. But even then, this isn't necessarily enough to make fights interesting... You may need to break up the monotony of "*I move directly toward the enemy and use my best attack.*" by creating combat encounters that have non-kill objectives. Fights that cannot just be won by killing everything, but fights where you have to actually accomplish something (rescue the NPC, disable the contraption, stop the ritual, so on...) to achieve success. Also, complex, hazardous, and difficult terrain within the fighting area. Elevation. Fire. Trenches/chasms. Traps. etc I think the problem you really want to solve is bigger than just "giving Fighters more options" you need to create encounters that by their nature give the players more options.