Level Up (A5E) A full list of combat maneuvers

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
With a caveat. Draft version. Not edited. Will likely change. But this is the approximate shape that combat maneuvers are in. This is just an alphabetical list, nothing fancy.

Agile Feint: Gain advantage against a nearby creature.
Anticipate Spell: Attack an adjacent creature which tries to cast a spell.
Any Weapon Stance: Focusing on your in depth training with certain weaponry gives you proficiency with all weapons.
Armor Lock: Use an enemy’s armor against them, paralyzing them.
Assisted Roll: Roll away from an opponent who misses you.
Back To Back: Both you and an adjacent ally gain +2 AC.
Battering Strike: Knock your opponent’s weapon flying.
Become One: Assault an enemy in concert with your mount.
Blinding Blow Stance: Attack in a shifting flow of deft strikes that make it easy to blind enemies.
Blinding Strikes: Deprive your opponents of any ability to see, whether with their eyes or otherwise.
Blind Instinct: Briefly see without the use of sight and use a reaction to chase down a fleeing enemy.
Blindshot: Attack hidden targets without disadvantage.
Blood Bond: Feed upon the anger of seeing an ally wounded to deal extra damage against their attacker.
Bloody Roar: Unleash a powerful yell that injures and frightens your foes.
Bodyguard: Take a hit for an ally and reduce the damage it inflicts on you.
Bounding Strike: Jump at an enemy and use your ability check as your attack roll.
Bowling Blitz: Strike an enemy with immense force, sending them careening into other foes.
Branding Steel: Brand a foe to make it reticent to approach or attack you.
Brave Shield: Make an attack while bracing with your shield to gain advantage on saving throws.
Break Spell: Make a melee attack against an enemy casting a spell.
Brotherhood Stance: Take the Help action whenever you hit with a melee weapon attack.
Burning Embers of Faith: Use a reaction when you would be reduced to 0 hit points to heal yourself.
Catch Your Breath: Pause to regain hit points.
Cavalier Stance: Increase your mount’s AC.
Charge: Move and make a melee attack.
Challenge Foe: Provoke an enemy into focusing their assault on you and you alone.
Cleaving Swing: Make an additional attack with a heavy weapon.
Create An Opening: Respond to an opponent’s attack with a move that sets them up for a critical hit with your next strike.
Countershot: Shoot a missile out of the air.
Covering Fire: Protect an ally from opportunity attack.
Crushing Blow: Paralyze your opponent with a heavy weapon.
Dashing Razor: Charge forward to strike an enemy and feed off of the adrenaline from hitting, increasing your Speed.
Dangerous Signature: Cut a symbol into your target in order to frighten it.
Dangerous Strikes: Score critical hits on a roll of 19–20 for one round.
Death Blow: Make an attack that critically hits and possibly even incapacitates your opponent.
Deceptive Stance: Gain an expertise die on Deception and Sleight of Hand checks in combat.
Deflect Strike: Reduce damage from an attack.
Defy Magic: Make a spellcaster miss you with its spell attack.
Devastating Charge: Barrel into enemies without fear of immediate reprisal, gaining an edge on attacks and stunning foes you hit.
Devoted Assault: Ignoring other enemies allows you to strike one foe more accurately.
Disarming Assault: Knock your enemy’s weapon or shield from their grasp.
Disarming Counter: Your enemy drops their weapon when they miss you.
Discerning Strike: Learn the health and defenses of opponents you damage.
Dispelling Assault: Your attacks are critical hits on rolls of 19–20 and they end spells.
Dispelling Charge: Dart up to an opponent casting a spell and strike them, possibly disrupting the magic.
Distant Death: Unleash a lethal missile certain to hit and likely to inflict great pain.
Distant Shot: Attack with accuracy as far as your weapon can fly.
Dive For Cover: Use your reaction to take cover behind a creature or object when a ranged attack misses you.
Doubleshot: Fire two missiles and do extra damage.
Double Tackle: You and an ally knock a creature prone.
Doubleteam: A nearby ally can push a creature as a bonus action.
Doubletime: You and up to 3 allies can disengage and move their Speed.
Douse: Dash a container of liquid over a nearby foe.
Drive Back: Push your foe 10 feet on a hit.
Dual Grapple: You and an ally restrain a creature.
Expert Sidestep: Gain an AC bonus when you are hit.
Expert Tumble: Increase your AC as long as you move at full Speed.
Exploit Footing: Trip a creature which misses you.
Explosive Step: After moving your Speed your next attack is more accurate and inflicts greater harm.
Eye Slash: Blind your enemy with a well-aimed strike.
Faith Within: Reroll a saving throw when charmed, frightened, poisoned, or stunned.
Farshot Stance: Increase the range of your missiles.
Feinting Strike: Use a Sleight of Hand check as your attack bonus.
First Blood: React to danger with unnatural swiftness.
Flowing Form: Make melee attacks against all enemies who miss you.
Flowing Steps Stance: Ignore difficult terrain and be better able to resist being immobilized.
Focused Edge: Turn your concentration into increased damage with your next weapon attack.
Focus Foe: Hit an enemy and focus on defeating them, gaining advantage on your attacks against them as long as you concentrate.
Follow-Up Topple: Attack a creature and ally has attacked to knock it prone.
Force Hesitation: Trick a creature into not attacking.
Furious Barrage: Make a frenetic series of attacks until one of your strikes misses.
Gaze Of Conviction: Force a creature to attack you.
Guarded Draw: Use a ranged weapon without disadvantage when adjacent to an enemy and make ranged opportunity attacks against those who move away from you.
Gut Strike: Strike your enemy and cause fatigue.
Hear The Wind: Concentrate on what you can hear to see what cannot be seen and deftly evade attacks.
Heart Of The Sword: Focusing on your training with a weapon, you make your attacks more devastating and ignore an enemy’s defenses.
Heartseeker: Aim for and exploit a foe’s weak spot with a dangerous shot.
Heavy Stance: Gain expertise die on Athletics checks and reduce difficult terrain.
Heightened Concentration: Use a reaction to retain concentration when you would otherwise lose it.
Heightened Reflexes: Gain additional reactions for this round.
Holy Pyre Stance: Strike an opponent and briefly remove its defenses against fire.
Horizon Shot: Use a ranged weapon to attack to shoot a creature from as far away as you can see.
Howl At The Moon: Make a howl that fills you with a vigor that makes your attacks more dangerous.
Hurl Ally: Throw a smaller ally at a creature within 20 feet.
Imposing Glare: Frighten a nearby foe.
Instant Strike: Quickly draw a melee weapon and attack a creature.
Instinctive Counterattack: Use a reaction to make a melee attack.
Iron Will: Get advantage to resist being charmed or frightened.
Knockdown Assault: Knock your target prone when you hit with a melee attack.
Lancer Strike: Deal extra damage and knock your target prone with a lance.
Launched Strike: Leap from your mount to score a critical hit against an enemy.
Leading Throw: Use your reaction to throw an enemy who misses you.
Lean Into It: Knock your target prone when you hit with a melee attack.
Leaping Strike: Move up to 40 feet and either push or knock your target prone.
Legion Stance: An ally can attack a foe you hit with a critical hit.
Look At Me!: Turn your weapon attacks into distractions that allow allies to move through the battlefield more freely.
Master of Tempered Iron: Deal extra damage to frightened opponents and those who utilize magic.
Matching Steps: Move lockstep with a foe.
Mercurial Striking Stance: Focus on making every hit with a natural weapon, unarmed strike, or Light weapon have a satisfying impact.
Mighty Melee: Deal extra damage with a Heavy weapon.
Mind Over Body: Reduce the damage you take.
Mirror Shard Puzzle: Evade attacks and gather shards of the complex puzzle of battle that you can use to recover exertion or deal more damage.
Missile Volley: Attack a group of creatures within 10 feet of a focal point.
Mistaken Opportunity: Use a reaction to turn a strike that misses into an attack against a different opponent.
Mounted Charge: Move your mount’s Speed and gain advantage on your first attack.
Mugging Hit: Make a Sleight of Hand check against a creature you have hit.
Off-Balancing Strikes: Knock your target off-balance, reducing its Speed and agility.
Oncoming Storm: Unleash a flurry of attacks, including an extra strike when you connect with a hit.
Painful Pickpocket. Use your reaction to make a Sleight of Hand check against a target which hits you.
Parrying Counter: Increase your AC against one creature and gain a free attack if it misses you.
Perceptive Stance: Enhance your perception.
Perfect Edge Stance: Focus on making your strikes as devastating as possible, increasing how often you score a critical hit.
Perplexing Flurry: Cause your enemy to suffer disadvantage while you focus all your attacks on them.
Pickpocket: Use your reaction to make a Sleight of Hand check.
Pilfer Object: Move next to an enemy about to use an item and take it from their hands.
Practiced Roll: Move 20 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
Preternatural Strikes: Strike targets who normally require magic.
Prey On The Weak: Use a reaction to rush up to a creature wounded by an ally to deliver a strike of your own.
Primal Intercept: Attack a creature which grapples you.
Prodigious Leap: Use a reaction and spur your mount to jump impossible distances.
Purge Magic: Make a melee attack against an enemy casting a spell.
Quickdraw: Use your reaction to draw a weapon and make a ranged attack when initiative is rolled.
Rake: Do extra damage when making multiple attacks.
Raking Strikes: On a hit, hit the target again with disadvantage.
Rallying Cry: Use a reaction to inspire an ally to fight onward when they take a hit.
Rapid Drink: Quickly consume or administer a potion.
Rapid Strike: Make an additional attack against a creature you have hit.
Reactive Knockdown: Trip your foe as an opportunity attack.
Rearing Menace: Frighten nearby foes from atop your mount.
Reassuring Pat: Encourage your mount and restore some of its hit points.
Redirect: Redirect an attack to strike an adjacent creature.
Reflect Attack: Use a reaction to turn an attacker’s strike back upon them.
Retributive Blow: Use a reaction to respond to a weapon attack with a strike of your own that disrupts a foe’s offensive.
Ricochet: Ignore your target’s cover with a ranged attack.
Ride Enemy: Jump onto a larger creature.
Riding Leap: Increase the size of your mount’s jump.
Rolling Strike: Move and make a melee attack.
Sacrifice Mount: Make your mount the target of an attack.
Saddled Blows: On a hit, make your target confused, prone, or slowed.
Sharpened Awareness: Use a reaction when attacked to evade it by relying on your Perception, gaining an edge on your attacker with a successful dodge.
Shield Wall: Adjacent allies with shields gain +2 AC.
Shifting Currents: Respond to a missed attack by moving and striking with a quick weapon.
Shoulder Check: Shove a creature 10 feet when it attacks an ally.
Shrug It Off: Use your reaction to avoid being frightened, poisoned, or stunned.
Simultaneous Slash: One concentrated attack replaces your normal strikes but denies any reprisal and ignores whatever defenses your opponent has.
Speed Over Strength: Make a quick attack against a large foe or a foe which attacks you with a heavy weapon.
Spell Shattering Strike: Disrupt an enemy’s spellcasting and fray the magic to disorient them as well.
Spinning Parry: Use a reaction to evade an opponent’s attack and swap place with your attacker, stunning them.
Spirited Whistle: As long as your mount can see you with but a whistle it rushes to your side.
Springing Stance: Increase your jump distances.
Spur Mount: Grant advantage to your mount’s ability checks and saving throws.
Stand Tall Stance: Be bigger than you really are.
Steal Momentum: Make a quick strike against a foe that moves within your reach and arrest their movement.
Steely Steed Stance: Fight with and alongside your mount, altering your assault to make it deadlier and harder to hurt.
Striding Swings: Move up to 15 feet though hostile spaces.
Strike the Cracks Stance: Focus on weak spots to deal more critical hits that inflict more damage.
Stunning Assault: Stun your target with a successful attack.
Swift Stance: Increase your Speed by 5 feet.
Take Weapon: Snatch your foe’s weapon away when they miss you.
Throwing Stance: Give your weapon the Thrown property.
Throw Anything Stance: Give nearly any weapon the Thrown property.
Tidal Parry: Use a reaction when hit with an attack to possibly turn it into a miss.
Trample: Move and knock those in your path prone.
Trickshot: Perform an impressive trick with a ranged weapon attack.
Tsunami Dash: Flow past your enemies and deliver a strike against each ofthem.
Twist The Blade: Use a reaction to turn a roll of 18 or more into a critical hit.
Unbreakable: Defy death.
United We Stand: Fall upon an enemy in concert with your allies and make their attacks more effective with every blow struck.
Unparalleled Under Heaven: Exhaust your exertion pool to transform all of your attacks into combat maneuvers.
Unsettling Injury: Make your target unable to cast spells or use combat maneuvers.
Unstoppable: Prevent yourself from being paralyzed, petrified, or stunned.
Unyielding: Heal yourself when reduced to 0 hit points.
Use The Pain: Get a free attack against a foe who scores a critical hit against you.
Victory Pose: Grant allies advantage on death saving throws when you score a critical hit.
Warding Wield: Increase your AC by 2 for one round.
Warning Strike: Stop a creature from moving away from you.
Wary Stance: Gain an expertise die on Insight checks and increase your passive Insight score.
Wheeling Charge: Caper about an enemy and rain down attacks from atop your mount, circling back with every strike.
Whirlpool Strike: Attack all creatures adjacent to you and deal extra damage.
Whirlwind Strike: Attack all creatures adjacent to you.
Wild Capering: Move and gain a climb speed.
Wild Swing: Turn a miss with a Heavy weapon into an attack against a different target.
Wind Strike: Make a strike so superb that the wake it cuts through the air damages an enemy beyond your reach.
World Shaking Strike: Create a massive shockwave by striking the ground with a Heavy weapon.
Wounded Animal Gambit: Pretend to die and then strike when an opponent makes themself vulnerable.
Wounding Strike: Cause ongoing damage to your target.
Zealous Stance: Gain expertise dice on attacks in exchange for granting expertise dice to your foes.
 

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rules.mechanic

Craft homebrewer
Loving these, really inventive and a great way of capturing all the flair that can otherwise be hard to represent in combat - making the martial classes a lot more interesting. A concept that I hadn't spotted in the playtests is Anticipate Spell, Break Spell, Dispelling Charge & Purge Magic (and Unsettling Injury, although a bit different) - fills a real gap in 5e. Really looking forward to these!
 

Faolyn

(she/her)
Thanks for the list! A lot of them seem really cool and nicely cinematic, and I'm glad to see some of the archery feats from 3x get brought back. But, of course, the inevitable list of questions.

1. Is there going to be any way to get a maneuver if it's not part of your class? Like, through a feat, trading out knacks, anything like that? In one of the games I'm running, there's a blind hexblade. I decided that when he holds his pact weapon, he has blindsight that only works on living or once-living things (he can faintly see undead, but he can't see constructs, walls, holes in the ground, etc.--which kinda sucks because it's Ravenloft and I like constructs). However, some of the abilities on this list--Blind Instinct, for instance--would be great for him. But he's a warlock, so he can't take maneuvers.

Likewise, there are several maneuvers I can see a regular spellcaster take, and several that have Faith or Holy in the title, which indicates that a cleric should be able to take them.

2. What is going to be the maximum number of maneuvers any particular character--say, a fighter--is going to be able to have? Warlords have 6 at level 10 and stop at 11. Is that going to be roughly the same for Fighters?

3. Are combat-related feats going to be a Thing anymore?

4. Individual maneuvers:

Any Weapon Stance: I guess this one is more for bards and rogues than for full martials? Or does this include improvised weapons, siege weapons, and--does LU have more weapon groups?

Assisted Roll: Do you have to be prone to use this one?

Blinding Strikes and Eye Slash: Please tell me you can use these with a missile weapon. Back when I played GURPS, our archers loved making called shots and blinding targets was a favorite of ours.

Dangerous Strikes: What if you already have an increased crit range (say, from Champion fighter)? Does it stack, giving you 18-20?

Discerning Strike: This one's a bit odd. I'm used to DMs going "that one looks really badly hurt" or "that one seems uninjured." And of course, we all say "Well, a 16 didn't hit but an 18 did, so its AC must be 16 or 17" (we do tie goes to the defender in our group). So how precise is the info we're going to get from this one?

Douse: Isn't this just a normal attack action with an improvised weapon? Why do you need a maneuver for it?

Force Hesitation: So in some groups, this might call for a Deception check to do a feint or something like that. How will you handle people who want to perform a trick like this but who don't have the maneuver? Disad on the roll? Or does this maneuver simply give expertise dice in Deception (or whatever) and someone who doesn't have the maneuver doesn't get the bonus?

Holy Pyre Stance. This one is... weird. I mean, I get what you're going for--this isn't fire, it's (un)holy fire! (and what about chaosfire or lawfire, hmm?) But it makes me wonder why fire? And why isn't this a spell or alchemical/magical item instead?

Iron Will: This seems weird for a maneuver. Is it something you can use as a reaction, because it seems odd to use the maneuver just in case the creature you're against is going to try to charm you.

Reassuring Pat: Awww! Not a question, just awww!

Simultaneous Slash: "Ignores whatever defenses." Does this mean cover or AC?

Spirited Whistle: Shouldn't that be "as long as your mount can see or hear you?

Again, I can't wait to see the final product. These look really good!
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
So many questions! The answer to nearly all of them is "You'll find that information in the maneuver description" but this is just a list of the maneuvers. It's not the actual maneuvers!

2. What is going to be the maximum number of maneuvers any particular character--say, a fighter--is going to be able to have? Warlords have 6 at level 10 and stop at 11. Is that going to be roughly the same for Fighters?

Offhand I can't remember how many they get, but the fighter playtest is still up on the site.

Douse: Isn't this just a normal attack action with an improvised weapon? Why do you need a maneuver for it?

Because this one isn't an attack action. Some maneuvers let you do stuff you can already do but better or quicker.
 

Faolyn

(she/her)
So many questions! The answer to nearly all of them is "You'll find that information in the maneuver description" but I'm only posting a list for now.
I'm inquisitive and impatient. 😜

Offhand I can't remember how many they get, but the fighter playtest is still up on the site.
Yeah, but it only goes to level 10, not 20. But since Warlords have 6 at 10th level and 11 at 20th level, and Fighters have 7 at 10th level, I can assume Fighters have somewhere in the 10-12 range at 20th level.

Because this one isn't an attack action. Some maneuvers let you do stuff you can already do but better or quicker.
Ah, gotcha. So for anyone else, it would take an attack action, but for you, it's going to be in a free action/bonus action/reaction thing.

That potentially clears up a lot of other questions I had and didn't ask (believe me, I whittled that list down), so thanks.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Yeah, but it only goes to level 10, not 20. But since Warlords have 6 at 10th level and 11 at 20th level, and Fighters have 7 at 10th level, I can assume Fighters have somewhere in the 10-12 range at 20th level.
Ah right. Let me check.

20th level fighter has 5 exploration knacks and 17 combat maneuvers up to grade 5 in the current draft. They really are the very best at combat maneuvers and weapons.
 

Praeden

Explorer
Looking at this list (which is awesome, by the way), it reads like a list of 3e feats. And I've been thinking - with spells and maneuvers providing optional combat abilities, and exploration knacks (and other spells) taking care of the exploration side of things, and various class features filling in signature abilites and social tricks...

Do we need feats any more?

I know they are optional in 5e anyway, but it seems as though a lot of them will have been pulled apart to add to maneuvers and knacks. And so, in the interests of avoiding duplication, as well as not having endless lists of stuff to add to each character sheet, is the plan to do away with feats (while still technically allowing for them in the interests of backward compatibility) and just have ASIs?
 


This. Is. Awesome.

Seriously, guys, this list alone is a compelling reason to pledge for the KS!

What's even cooler is that each of these maneuvers is an excellent idea for a monster action. Literally every single goblin fight could so be much more interesting! It's a godsend for DMs and players alike.

It also seems that spellcasters should really be more careful before entering in melee. But also, there are ways for melee spellcasters that require concentration to not lose concentration! This is fantastic news for paladins and clerics!

Unparalleled Under Heaven: OMG.
 

Timespike

A5E Designer and third-party publisher
Looking at this list (which is awesome, by the way), it reads like a list of 3e feats. And I've been thinking - with spells and maneuvers providing optional combat abilities, and exploration knacks (and other spells) taking care of the exploration side of things, and various class features filling in signature abilites and social tricks...

Do we need feats any more?

I know they are optional in 5e anyway, but it seems as though a lot of them will have been pulled apart to add to maneuvers and knacks.
Surprisingly few, actually. Maneuvers and knacks are both their own things.
 

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