Unfortunately Action Surge proves far too useful in combat to use it elsewhere, as a fighter you already are behind compared to other martials for most of the game without gimping yourself further.
I'm not sure I agree, although I don't see the recharge as quite as easy/frequent/assured as Mistwell suggests. At least in my games, you are absolutely not assured of a short rest in between an out of combat scene and a fight. Still, I'd be willing to make short rests shorter if you haven't had a fight since your last rest, to accommodate stuff like this and Warlocks and MOnks in games with a lot more out of combat than combat, etc. Or maybe just allow some freebie usage outside of combat for those games. Basically, you can use it once per short rest outside of combat, as a separate resource? Klunky, but workable for some groups.
Is it just a new year resolution or skill monkey fighter are becoming a trend?
People have had these conversations every single year I've been on the internet talking about dnd. So, at least 04. I don't remember how long the Dragonlance Nexus has been around. Wait, no, definately before 03, because I was on slovotskyslaws.com talking about dnd back in high school.
Anyway, this isn't new. Once a post goes up on the topic, others will follow, until it dies down for a while. In no wotc edition of dnd have fighters been so strong in combat that it makes sense to deny them out of combat resources, and yet they always get the bare minimum skills, and no special features for out of combat. 5e actually isn't as bad as some editions, since you've got subclasses with more out of combat stuff, but the two phb subclasses are still pretty lacking in that regard. 4e at least had good Utility Powers, and eventually Martial Practices.
They re-charge on a short rest, and you're already out of combat, so the odds are you can re-charge it after use prior to the next combat. I disagree they are behind other martials but regardless in use I don't think Action Surge can't be used out of combat more...it's already used out of combat plenty by some players as it is.
Action Surge is not a combat resource. People USE it in combat, I think because they perceive the Fighter to be about combat, but the ability is not a strictly combat ability, and plenty of players use it for out of combat challenges as well.
I wonder if we could easily work out how much the average game differs from other games within the average in terms of frequency of short rests. My experience is that your statements about refreshing on a short rest being a frequent use thing seem totally out of line with normal play to me, but might be totally within the norm.
Anyway, I do agree about Action Surge already being a resource that can be used in combat or out of combat, but I think the person who has me blocked (and yes, this is awkward, IMO) has a great point, in that relying on it out of combat puts a strain on the resources that the class relies on to keep up in a fight. I'm not sure that point convinces me that it's a bad idea, though.
Is there anything which would break or work unusually if we simply added some battle master superiority dice options for out of combat functions? Seems like you could add a die to an ability check pretty easily. In fact, adding advantage to someone else's check AND adding the die seems balanced given the other manuevers available.
That would definitely help the BM. I'd add at least 1 Die per tier, if I did that. Or do something fun like, you regain one die when you roll a 20 on a check while using a maneuver.
I would suggest half the die for balance. At any rate I believe that Superiority dice and manuevers should of been part of the core fighter and also allow to add to ability checks (and saves thus freeing up the space indomitable takes up).
I don't know about half the die. You want to reduce the number of die while adding to the number of things you can use them for? You're just going to further "punish" players for not specializing in one pillar, which is the opposite of the goal.
I wouldn't mind SD as part of the core fighter, as long as the Champion gets a single, very very simple, mechanic that uses them to either use extra Healing Surges, or add Damage to a successful attack, and that's it. Even that is pushing the level of complexity that a lot of people want from the Champion, though. And the champion isn't at the bottom of subclasses, in popularity, so it's subpar power balance isn't hurting people's fun too much, it seems.