D&D 5E And Lo, the Fighter Did Get a Shtick of his Own... COMBAT SUPERIORITY!

[Jack99]

Reflecting on the article and comments, I wonder whether this is functioning on a per-round basis on whether there will be a per-encounter element too. There are three ways I think this mechanic could work:

1. You gain your dice each round to spend before the end of the round or they are lost.
   
2. You gain a pool of dice at the start of the encounter to spend during that encounter.
   
3. You gain a pool of dice at the start of the encounter, and some more dice every round that accumulate.

The first could lead to spamming. The second could lead to boredom towards the end of combat. The third, in my opinion, would work best, allowing for frequent usage or saving up for a big kickass stunt.

It nr 1
(Edit: I should probably clarify that it's the only thing that makes sense to me)

 

[Jack99]

Also, I am not sure I understand the spamming comment. Compared to what? Making a basic attack every round? At least this way (assuming the different options are balanced somehow) you have some variety.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Well, in a discussion long ago about potential Fighter tweaks, it was resolved that it's rather difficult to balance manoeuvres whilst keeping them interesting.

For instance, I think bonus damage or damage reduction are straight-forward and will work every round. Inflicting a status, even if you offer a save, becomes a bit tedious. Some of the bonus actions they mentioned have potential though. I guess it depends whether the biggest thing you can do is an extra action, or if there will be 'throw in all your dice' moves that let you whirlwind attack or shrug off a critical hit.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm reserving judgment until I see it in practice, but right now I'm unimpressed.

Adding dice to different numbers is not that different from adding a bonus to different numbers...except that adding dice is more complicated (from the player side) and more "swingy" (from the DM side). Instead of adding a bonus to certain rolls, you are adding a range of bonuses to a variety of rolls.

On the other hand, I like that they are thinking outside the box and listening to feedback. And I like bonuses better than pseudo-magical wuxia abilities that can only be used once a day/minute for some reason. So who knows?

 

[Jack99]

Well, in a discussion long ago about potential Fighter tweaks, it was resolved that it's rather difficult to balance manoeuvres whilst keeping them interesting.

For instance, I think bonus damage or damage reduction are straight-forward and will work every round. Inflicting a status, even if you offer a save, becomes a bit tedious. Some of the bonus actions they mentioned have potential though. I guess it depends whether the biggest thing you can do is an extra action, or if there will be 'throw in all your dice' moves that let you whirlwind attack or shrug off a critical hit.

Damage doesn't work if you miss. Damage reduction doesn't work if you aren't hit. A retributive strike doesn't work if you aren't missed. Shielding your ally doesn't help if he isn't hit. Nothing always works. Lots of situations with options. That's good, no?

I think my point is that they do not have to be completely balanced, merely balanced enough to create the illusion of balance, so that people playing the fighter feel they have to make a choice.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Extra dice sound plausible. As long as they keep any reference to 'encounters' out, this could work.

In the long run, I'm not really seeing this as something that should be 100% unique to the fighter. I'm hoping they see this early and simply make the fighter significantly better at it than the other combat classes. Maybe if a fighter gets 2d6 at level X, a barbarian gets 1d8 and a rogue gets 1d4. The fighter gets more dice and more and better ways of using them.

 

[Jack99]

Extra dice sound plausible. As long as they keep any reference to 'encounters' out, this could work.

In the long run, I'm not really seeing this as something that should be 100% unique to the fighter. I'm hoping they see this early and simply make the fighter significantly better at it than the other combat classes. Maybe if a fighter gets 2d6 at level X, a barbarian gets 1d8 and a rogue gets 1d4. The fighter gets more dice and more and better ways of using them.

Why don't you want this to be an exclusive mechanic to the fighter?

 

[TwoSix]

Why don't you want this to be an exclusive mechanic to the fighter?

Because the fighter being good at something isn't realistic and/or in keeping with D&D genre conventions?

 

[Jack99]

Because the fighter being good at something isn't realistic and/or in keeping with D&D genre conventions?

You have obviously never played 4e

 

[DEFCON 1]

Plus, it's kind of funny that one of the main complaints of AEDU was "sameiness", so why you'd want a new mechanic available to everybody to use is beyond me.