D&D 5E Why Not? A Variant Captain Fighter

[Garthanos]

Use the UA fighting style that grants maneuvers.

only granted one... kind of like instead of getting a style that affects every move you do ... you pick one as an encounter power ok its more potent but.

 

[Garthanos]

Just writing down a few things not much nailed down
Charge Option (modifies Dash Action to melee attack as bonus action if you have extra attacks)
Enable At-wills (basically spending an extra attack to get a maneuver benefit)
Heroic Surges(hd spending in battle to make bigger battles less swingy)
Risky Maneuvering (trigger Opportunity Attack to gain Extra Attack)
Extreme Exertion (spend Hit points to gain an Extra Attack - maybe including Temp Hit Points)
Training Regimen (spend 1/2 hour and Action Surge to gain more maneuvers and CS die = 1 + extra attack for the day)
Allow maneuvers (effectively higher level) to use more than one Attack and more than one CS die.
Berserk Attack Spend 2 attacks to harm all adjacent creatures (discourage focus fire attack on fighter.)
Running Attack Spend 3 attacks (and obligatory CS die) to harm/affect all creatures adjacent during your turn to allow larger area affects not just current location centered ones.
Scan For Openings ( trade attack for CS maneuver effect with mental stat bonus)
Fix Weaker Fighting Styles
Add Leader Fighting Styles (like Opening Strike and Leading Strike)
Fix Weaker Maneuvers
Add Maneuvers including Defender Oriented Ones like Harrying Shout (Threatens near enemies marking them) Leader Oriented Ones
Battle Ready to help Str + other mental stat fighters have decent initiative and War Cry to share initiative.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

only granted one... kind of like instead of getting a style that affects every move you do ... you pick one as an encounter power ok its more potent but.

Right, so a protecting feature that can protect multiple characters would be a good fit for a cavalier.

 

[Garthanos]

Right, so a protecting feature that can protect multiple characters would be a good fit for a cavalier.

Could but I think we can find significantly more possibilities on exactly how to do that.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Could but I think we can find significantly more possibilities on exactly how to do that.

I mean at some point, why not make a new class?

 

[Garthanos]

I mean at some point, why not make a new class?

That is why there is a recommendation usually to make the Warlord its own class by many proponents. Making the Fighter THE class that encompasses all non-rogue style combatants is kind of the temptation frome 1e and 2e era and 5e rather did that too (but not exactly Fighters and Paladins and Rangers and Barbarians in 2e were all Warrior Subclasses)

 

[Garthanos]

In that regards one could indeed make a Weaponmaster who is a full Defender and captures that Damned if you do Damned if you don't paradigm

 

[Garthanos]

I think generally unfavourable - which is fine. It’s a good way to have the opportunity when it’s situationally favourable.

I’d probably simplify it. You can give up an attack to restore a superiority die.

@Don Durito hoping you will revisit this thinking. Some recent analysis for instance of Riposte indicates a CS die is equal in value to an extra attack with a CS Die of damage on top. (Other effects might not always unless they are optimally used) Or is that just a problem of a couple of the maneuvers being easier to hit that potency than most of the others.

The scan for openings may require some small penalty for its effect to be convert a raw attack to a maneuver with a full effect CS die. I was considering making scan for opening a skill check of some sort which might be quite appealing flavor wise What do you think? (a skill check that gains advantage if you have advantage on attacks against the subject already of course)

Or instead of a skill check make your effective CS die just the secondary stat rating like Wisdom or Intellect.

 

[Don Durito]

@Don Durito hoping you will revisit this thinking. Some recent analysis for instance of Riposte indicates a CS die is equal in value to an extra attack with a CS Die of damage on top. (Other effects might not always unless they are optimally used) Or is that just a problem of a couple of the maneuvers being easier to hit that potency than most of the others.

The scan for openings may require some small penalty for its effect to be convert a raw attack to a maneuver with a full effect CS die. I was considering making scan for opening a skill check of some sort which might be quite appealing flavor wise What do you think? (a skill check that gains advantage if you have advantage on attacks against the subject already of course)

Or instead of a skill check make your effective CS die just the secondary stat rating like Wisdom or Intellect.

Riposte is a problem manoeuvre anyway, as it's far better than most of the others (Precision attack being the only real exception in most situations).

But you're giving up an extra attack for a chance to do an extra attack with a little bit more damage on top. (The enemy may not miss you, or they may not choose to attack you - which is pretty logical if you've previously riposted).

So the trade-off really depends on both how high your defence is (so they miss a lot) and how low your normal damage (so that a superiority dice represents a significant add on to be worth the risk of not making the trade off at all).

So it may be worthwhile for a very high AC defender style Sword and Board cavalier with Sentinel that has the means of locking an enemy into place.

But the issue I think, for me anyway, is that this encourages more the strategic expenditure of character build resources, rather than dynamic tactical decision making in play (once you optimise to make something en effective option - then you're always going to default to it when you can - and therefore a problem is "solved" and ceases to be interesting.)

 

[Garthanos]

But the issue I think, for me anyway, is that this encourages more the strategic expenditure of character build resources

I am just saying battlemaster fighters can scan for openings if they want to on that turn they give up an attack its a dynamic choice each round

Oh wait you are saying that by getting impossible to hit that creates a problem isnt being impossible to hit kind of a problem ? elsewhere ?

I figured it probably will not be used on a riposte but probably on a trip or some other (maybe a precision attack)