D&D 5E Alternative Battlemaster Fighter

[LapBandit]

Now that I've played a Battlemaster Fighter to 9th level I'd like to offer up an alternative that I'd like your collective opinion on. What if the Battlemaster Fighter, his maneuvers, and dice operated more like a divine caster in terms of preparing moves and regaining a larger pool of dice daily rather than on a short rest.

Under this regime the BM would:
1. Prepare the a number of maneuvers he would normally know for his level on a long rest from the entire list of maneuvers.
2. Regain X (I propose 8) Superiority dice on a Long Rest.
3. Regain Y (I propose 2) Superiority dice on a Short Rest.

I feel this would give the Battle Master more flexibility to marshall his points into nova strikes or spreading them out over a day not unlike a paladin with his smites and spells or a cleric with their spells.

What do you think?

 

[Valmarius]

I think the theme of the fighter (in general, not just battlemasters) is to be the person in the party who is steady and consistent across long periods of time. The current short rest reliance is what creates that rhythm for them.
The other thing that seems off to me is the swapping out of maneuvers. Memorizing a spell from your book or being granted it by your deity makes sense. But practicing and learning a new maneuver overnight, while simultaneously forgetting the one you knew yesterday, doesn't quite make sense to me.

As always, you're free to house rule and mix things up to your liking. I think it just helps to be aware of the roles certain classes play, so you can deviate from that in an informed way.
If you want the ability to do more nova with your fighter at the cost of staying power then I think switching Superiority dice to a Long Rest Recovery would be fine.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think the theme of the fighter (in general, not just battlemasters) is to be the person in the party who is steady and consistent across long periods of time. The current short rest reliance is what creates that rhythm for them.
The other thing that seems off to me is the swapping out of maneuvers. Memorizing a spell from your book or being granted it by your deity makes sense. But practicing and learning a new maneuver overnight, while simultaneously forgetting the one you knew yesterday, doesn't quite make sense to me.

Agree on both points.

 

[LapBandit]

The other thing that seems off to me is the swapping out of maneuvers. Memorizing a spell from your book or being granted it by your deity makes sense. But practicing and learning a new maneuver overnight, while simultaneously forgetting the one you knew yesterday, doesn't quite make sense to me.

You mistake me, they are not learning them overnight rather they'd know all of them. The idea is you'd be preparing yourself and your gear to perform the maneuvers the following day much like any craftsman prepares to the task at hand by having the appropriate tools configured and ready.

 

[Valmarius]

You mistake me, they are not learning them overnight rather they'd know all of them. The idea is you'd be preparing yourself and your gear to perform the maneuvers the following day much like any craftsman prepares to the task at hand by having the appropriate tools configured and ready.

Yeah, that sounds cool. I wasn't trying to dissuade you from the effort, just pointing out what I thought was a bit odd.
You mentioned gear and now I'm imagining an intelligent battlemaster fighter who uses tools/gadgets to perform various maneuvers. "Hey, today I think I'll ready my tripping hook." "Today I shall wear my weighted cloak, for feinting." etc. That character sounds rad.

 

[Quickleaf]

Totally do-able.

However, the battlemaster maneuvers don't really fit the narrative you're going for - prepping for battle, today I'll wear my weighted cloak for fencing, today I'll study up on chimeras, etc.

The sorts of maneuvers that would fit your desired narrative are things like "Weighted cloak", "Spring-loaded wrist dagger", "Vampire lore", or "Werewolf lore", etc.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Under this regime the BM would:
1. Prepare the a number of maneuvers he would normally know for his level on a long rest from the entire list of maneuvers.
2. Regain X (I propose 8) Superiority dice on a Long Rest.
3. Regain Y (I propose 2) Superiority dice on a Short Rest.
What do you think?

One problem the Battlemaster runs into is that it doesn't improve with regards to maneuvers much as it levels. You pick the 3 'best' (for your build, AFAYCT) maneuvers and later make 4th-and-worse choices. You probably use those first 3 - maybe even only 1 or 2 of them, for most of your career.

What you propose would make playing a Battlemaster more interesting. Still wouldn't rival any caster, but less boring. It'd also probably result in any given Battlemaster playing exactly like any other Battlemaster given similar expectations at the start of the day. Which is one of the down-sides of casters (they all tend to gravitate towards certain perceived-'best' spells), but it'd be a lot worse with only 17 maneuvers, instead of hundreds of spells, to choose from.

I'm imagining an intelligent battlemaster fighter who uses tools/gadgets to perform various maneuvers. "Hey, today I think I'll ready my tripping hook." "Today I shall wear my weighted cloak, for feinting." etc. That character sounds rad.

The 'right tool for the job' fighter. Weapon Specialization killed it, 3.5 bonus feats didn't do much revive, it, 4e tried to as the obscure Weapon Master build (later used as the name for the Essentials-retconned original fighter, then as the name of the playtest sub-class that eventually became the Battlemaster), and 5e Styles and archetypes and 'big feats' don't exactly encourage it.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

How about just give Battlemaster Fighters all the maneuvers when they pick up the subclass at 3rd level? As it is most players at most tables are going to rely on only a handful of them anyway, but it does give them a bit of flexibility for corner cases that occasionally crop up where a maneuver they would have never picked might actually be useful even if the character wasn't built for it. It shouldn't significantly overpower the game.

I think the 8 dice on long rest/2 on short rest should be fine at most tables. I actually like that a lot.

 

[Eubani]

I think that if the designers put even half the effort into creating new maneuvers that they put into creating new spells and Battlemasters were able to with guidelines learn more of them then there will be little reason to make a new battlemaster, mind you I believe mid to higher level BM's also need more dice.

 

[Sezarious]

Why don't you just avoid tinkering with the number of manoeuvres/ long or short rest and just make it that you can memorise different ones daily. The less tampering to achieve the same results, the better.

It could certainly be fun as mentioned above if your manoeuvres rely on gadgets 'Van Helsing' style. Good luck