Alright, another look under the hood to see what looks good and what could use some work.
I'm doing 1st level manuevers in this round because I have a new campaign starting with 3rd level characters, so as I've helped my players look at character ideas, I've done a lot of review of the 1st level manuevers and gotten some initial reaction feedback from my players. One of the things you'll note, I am extremely stingy when it comes to exertion. If something costs 2 exertion, it better be a HELL of a maneuver
Winners
Cleaving Swings - Two exertion maneuvers have to really earn their pay with me, but I think the ability to get an extra whole attack at low levels is very strong, and this gives big weapon users a very nice niche to highlight their style.
Doubleshot - The power of this maneuver is its simplicity, just straight up more damage, but with a nice flavor effect of the classic "two arrows at once" motiff.
Warning Strike - One of the best parts of the "Sentinel Feat" put into a manuever, I can see a lot of defensive oriented players liking this one.
Perceptive Stance - Considering the general importance of perception, a maneuver that basically gives you a +3 to perception is very solid.
Legion Stance - You could argue that with the right party, this stance will generate more extra damage than many maneuvers, allowing for a double melee combo to be very deadly.
Imposing Glare - First, the flavor of this one is great. How often does a fighter just want to stare someone down and cow them. But the mechanics are great, bonus action, a nice easy charisma save, and it works until the end of your next turn giving you some time to work with it. I also really love that targets don't become immune, you can keep doing it, its just a bit harder. This is a really solid and fun maneuver.
Striding Swings - It already give you much of the benefit of some of the "charge" type maneuvers, but you get all your attacks. Add to it that you can move through enemies to get to the nice juicy backline, oh yeah, this maneuver is super fun.
Dangerous Signature - Z is for ZORRO! A great flavor and solid mechanics. This is a more restricted imposing glare but can be repeated without additional cost, a fine way to distinguish itself.
Losers
Covering Fire - This consumes your action for the round, and gives one ally a lesser disengage action, but only against certain creatures and only ones you can see. As a reaction or maybe a bonus action...maybe, but as an action this is pretty terrible.
Deceptive Stance - Considering that basically all of the other stances give you a nice solid boost to skills....why does this one only work in combat?
Eye Slash - In theory the payoff on this one could be good, but its a constitution save AND a 2 exertion cost AND doesn't work with extra attack or two-weapon fighting, etc. Now it does last longer than some of the proning maneuvers (end of your next turn instead of beginning) but at double the cost and with a lot of extra requirements.... ultimately, I think the proning maneuvers are superior for the price.
Dangerous Strikes - As cool as this looks, at the end of the day a small increase in your crit range for the round is just not worth exertion....there are better ways to spend your resources. What's worse, the Berserker, the one class that miiiiiiight consider this because of furious critical....can't take it. This maneuver should have been a stance to be worthwhile.
Exploit Footing - I think the "Speed over Strength" maneuver is generally superior to this. It costs half the exertion AND you make an attack or could do a trip as a basic maneuver anyway. While technically this manuever has more chances to be used than Speed over Strength......its 2 exertion, that's half of your pool at low levels. Way too costly.
Riding Leap - This is one of those manuevers that is cool....but is sooooo niche. How often is a few extra feet of a jump on horseback actually going to make a difference? And this takes up a maneuver slot....a precious precious maneuver slot. If this was 0 exertion I don't know if I would take it....it feels like an ability that should be a small part of one fighter knack.
Raking Strikes - It consumes your action, with 2 exertion cost. Now if that was the only thing....it is two attacks on the same creature....so as a low level maneuver I swap out later I could see it. But no....you have to hit with the first attack or your 2 exertion goes down the drain, and you still have disadvantage on the second attack. That is way too many gambles for a 2 exertion maneuver.
Victory Pose - This maneuver has potential but its too restrictive. First....I have to use a specific weapon. Now in O5e that's not that big a deal, but remember in LU weapons matter a lot more, and switching weapons in combat is a much bigger deal. So suddenly there is a solid chance you may not be using your "chosen weapon" at the moment. Then you have to select specific allies within 30 feet. And then those specific allies need death saving throws. AND then....its only advantage on one death save. That's just.....pathetic. If it was a bonus on all death saves or I autopass the first death save or even auto rolled a 20 on the first death save.....ok, maybe its worth the extreme niche use. But for a mere advantage on one roll that might not come...there are much better ways to spend my exertion.
**Wounding Strike - And I saved the worst one for last, my absolute bottom tier maneuver, so bad that I remained confused how this one made it out of beta without changes (I have reread it so many times because I thought I just must be missing something, it can't be this bad). So first, we have to use a chosen weapon, so already restricted there. Then I have to hit with my very next attack or the maneuver is wasted. Now the trick with ongoing damage, it happens at the end of the creature's turn. So, there is a good chance the creature will succeed (on a con save mind you) before it takes any damage, let alone get some medical attention to remove the effect. Now if you look at the lowly commoner, it will have a decent 30% chance to succeed on a standard DC. Over 3 rounds (aka most combats), you're doing about ~3.8 extra damage to that commoner.....which is about the best you could hope for (most monsters you'll do less). Meanwhile, Doubleshot just can slap on an extra +4.5 damage with no save needed (even more if I crit). Now if we consider how much damage the effect would generally do over 1 minute....~5.68 damage (and to a commoner remember), a little better but nothing incredible, this is not some maneuver where you could one shot a creature and expect it to bleed out in the jungle, the odds are just way too low.
Now that's already bad. Then we remember that this consumes our bonus action.....a bonus action we could have just used to make a TWF fighting attack and gotten about as much expected damage for no exertion cost. And then we remember.....this maneuver costs 2 exertion.....TWO EXERTION! This maneuver isn't really worth 1 exertion....at two it instantly goes to the bottom of the barrel.
I'm doing 1st level manuevers in this round because I have a new campaign starting with 3rd level characters, so as I've helped my players look at character ideas, I've done a lot of review of the 1st level manuevers and gotten some initial reaction feedback from my players. One of the things you'll note, I am extremely stingy when it comes to exertion. If something costs 2 exertion, it better be a HELL of a maneuver
Winners
Cleaving Swings - Two exertion maneuvers have to really earn their pay with me, but I think the ability to get an extra whole attack at low levels is very strong, and this gives big weapon users a very nice niche to highlight their style.
Doubleshot - The power of this maneuver is its simplicity, just straight up more damage, but with a nice flavor effect of the classic "two arrows at once" motiff.
Warning Strike - One of the best parts of the "Sentinel Feat" put into a manuever, I can see a lot of defensive oriented players liking this one.
Perceptive Stance - Considering the general importance of perception, a maneuver that basically gives you a +3 to perception is very solid.
Legion Stance - You could argue that with the right party, this stance will generate more extra damage than many maneuvers, allowing for a double melee combo to be very deadly.
Imposing Glare - First, the flavor of this one is great. How often does a fighter just want to stare someone down and cow them. But the mechanics are great, bonus action, a nice easy charisma save, and it works until the end of your next turn giving you some time to work with it. I also really love that targets don't become immune, you can keep doing it, its just a bit harder. This is a really solid and fun maneuver.
Striding Swings - It already give you much of the benefit of some of the "charge" type maneuvers, but you get all your attacks. Add to it that you can move through enemies to get to the nice juicy backline, oh yeah, this maneuver is super fun.
Dangerous Signature - Z is for ZORRO! A great flavor and solid mechanics. This is a more restricted imposing glare but can be repeated without additional cost, a fine way to distinguish itself.
Losers
Covering Fire - This consumes your action for the round, and gives one ally a lesser disengage action, but only against certain creatures and only ones you can see. As a reaction or maybe a bonus action...maybe, but as an action this is pretty terrible.
Deceptive Stance - Considering that basically all of the other stances give you a nice solid boost to skills....why does this one only work in combat?
Eye Slash - In theory the payoff on this one could be good, but its a constitution save AND a 2 exertion cost AND doesn't work with extra attack or two-weapon fighting, etc. Now it does last longer than some of the proning maneuvers (end of your next turn instead of beginning) but at double the cost and with a lot of extra requirements.... ultimately, I think the proning maneuvers are superior for the price.
Dangerous Strikes - As cool as this looks, at the end of the day a small increase in your crit range for the round is just not worth exertion....there are better ways to spend your resources. What's worse, the Berserker, the one class that miiiiiiight consider this because of furious critical....can't take it. This maneuver should have been a stance to be worthwhile.
Exploit Footing - I think the "Speed over Strength" maneuver is generally superior to this. It costs half the exertion AND you make an attack or could do a trip as a basic maneuver anyway. While technically this manuever has more chances to be used than Speed over Strength......its 2 exertion, that's half of your pool at low levels. Way too costly.
Riding Leap - This is one of those manuevers that is cool....but is sooooo niche. How often is a few extra feet of a jump on horseback actually going to make a difference? And this takes up a maneuver slot....a precious precious maneuver slot. If this was 0 exertion I don't know if I would take it....it feels like an ability that should be a small part of one fighter knack.
Raking Strikes - It consumes your action, with 2 exertion cost. Now if that was the only thing....it is two attacks on the same creature....so as a low level maneuver I swap out later I could see it. But no....you have to hit with the first attack or your 2 exertion goes down the drain, and you still have disadvantage on the second attack. That is way too many gambles for a 2 exertion maneuver.
Victory Pose - This maneuver has potential but its too restrictive. First....I have to use a specific weapon. Now in O5e that's not that big a deal, but remember in LU weapons matter a lot more, and switching weapons in combat is a much bigger deal. So suddenly there is a solid chance you may not be using your "chosen weapon" at the moment. Then you have to select specific allies within 30 feet. And then those specific allies need death saving throws. AND then....its only advantage on one death save. That's just.....pathetic. If it was a bonus on all death saves or I autopass the first death save or even auto rolled a 20 on the first death save.....ok, maybe its worth the extreme niche use. But for a mere advantage on one roll that might not come...there are much better ways to spend my exertion.
**Wounding Strike - And I saved the worst one for last, my absolute bottom tier maneuver, so bad that I remained confused how this one made it out of beta without changes (I have reread it so many times because I thought I just must be missing something, it can't be this bad). So first, we have to use a chosen weapon, so already restricted there. Then I have to hit with my very next attack or the maneuver is wasted. Now the trick with ongoing damage, it happens at the end of the creature's turn. So, there is a good chance the creature will succeed (on a con save mind you) before it takes any damage, let alone get some medical attention to remove the effect. Now if you look at the lowly commoner, it will have a decent 30% chance to succeed on a standard DC. Over 3 rounds (aka most combats), you're doing about ~3.8 extra damage to that commoner.....which is about the best you could hope for (most monsters you'll do less). Meanwhile, Doubleshot just can slap on an extra +4.5 damage with no save needed (even more if I crit). Now if we consider how much damage the effect would generally do over 1 minute....~5.68 damage (and to a commoner remember), a little better but nothing incredible, this is not some maneuver where you could one shot a creature and expect it to bleed out in the jungle, the odds are just way too low.
Now that's already bad. Then we remember that this consumes our bonus action.....a bonus action we could have just used to make a TWF fighting attack and gotten about as much expected damage for no exertion cost. And then we remember.....this maneuver costs 2 exertion.....TWO EXERTION! This maneuver isn't really worth 1 exertion....at two it instantly goes to the bottom of the barrel.
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