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Battle master combat maneuvers
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<blockquote data-quote="brehobit" data-source="post: 6595974" data-attributes="member: 12032"><p>Playing a battle master (dex-based, dual-weapon) and looking for thoughts on the various maneuvers. I'm going to place them in the order I'm thinking of taking them and include my thoughts.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Parry</strong>: Very nice for a dex-based character, at least at lower-levels. It's like d8+3 healing for your reaction and gets to d8+5 at level 6. Only usable agaist melee attacks is a huge drawback.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Trip attack</strong>: In an ideal world, knocking someone down could give much of the rest of the party advantage. Even better, if you do knock a baddy down, might be time for an action surge to get advantage yourself. Also will knock a flyer out of the air and works at range! <em>Limitations</em>: Extremely dependent on initiative order and exactly what you are fighting. Plus opponent gets a STR save. Plus creatures larger than large are immune.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Menacing attack</strong>: Frighten is huge. Giving the target disadvantage on attack rolls and skill checks is a big deal. Lasts until the end of your next turn, which could be darn useful. Add in the movement restriction and it could be gross. <em>Limitations</em>: Lots of things immune to fear. Creature may be able to move out of line-of-sight easily enough and still be effective.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Commander's strike</strong>: If you've got someone in the party that packs a huge attack, this could be huge. Very very useful with a rogue. Crazy useful if they are an assassin and you have surprise. <em>Limitations</em>: Uses an attack and bonus action from you and a reaction from them. Very party dependent. I only see my character using it when attacking from range. Mostly will take this for roleplaying reasons (my character much prefers to avoid "messy" melee engagements). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Pushing attack</strong>: Very DM/world specific really. If your GM ran a lot of 4e and likes to have "fun" terrain, this could be great. Otherwise, might be basically useless or even actively hurtful to your team (pushes them out of reach allowing them more flexibility in their next action). That said, I'm playing a pirate game so expect/hope for opportunities to push folks overboard. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Distracting attack</strong>: Very useful if you have a big hitter. Trip is often better, but no save here and size/initiative order do not matter. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Goading attack</strong>: Very useful if the target happens to be immune to fear and you are attacking at range (so you can't use menacing attack which is almost always better). Not horrible, just prefer menacing attack...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Precision Attack</strong>. Probably more useful for those two-hander folks due to the extra damage a hit does or anyone with a -5/+10 feat. But sometimes you just really want a hit. <em>Limitations</em>: Biggest problem is that you can only use one maneuver per attack so you can't stack a trip or something on it now.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Disarming attack</strong>: This one I'm mixed on. If you have a way to prevent them from just picking up their weapon, could be huge. If not, very weak. </li> </ul><p>Others: <strong>Rally </strong>sounds okay if you've got a high charisma for some reason. But even then seems weak. Do notice, there is no built-in expiration date on those temp. hit points. So you could, AFAICT, grant them for use in a later fight (even after a rest?) <strong>Sweeping attack</strong> could be useful, but how often does an extra d8 damage to a secondary target matter? I'm going to guess "almost never". <strong>Lunging attack</strong> could be useful where your plan is to attack and run I guess? Or where you just can't quite close for whatever reason? Eh.</p><p></p><p>Thoughts? Anything I'm missing? Any cool ideas for these maneuvers?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="brehobit, post: 6595974, member: 12032"] Playing a battle master (dex-based, dual-weapon) and looking for thoughts on the various maneuvers. I'm going to place them in the order I'm thinking of taking them and include my thoughts. [LIST] [*][B]Parry[/B]: Very nice for a dex-based character, at least at lower-levels. It's like d8+3 healing for your reaction and gets to d8+5 at level 6. Only usable agaist melee attacks is a huge drawback. [*][B]Trip attack[/B]: In an ideal world, knocking someone down could give much of the rest of the party advantage. Even better, if you do knock a baddy down, might be time for an action surge to get advantage yourself. Also will knock a flyer out of the air and works at range! [I]Limitations[/I]: Extremely dependent on initiative order and exactly what you are fighting. Plus opponent gets a STR save. Plus creatures larger than large are immune. [*][B]Menacing attack[/B]: Frighten is huge. Giving the target disadvantage on attack rolls and skill checks is a big deal. Lasts until the end of your next turn, which could be darn useful. Add in the movement restriction and it could be gross. [I]Limitations[/I]: Lots of things immune to fear. Creature may be able to move out of line-of-sight easily enough and still be effective. [*][B]Commander's strike[/B]: If you've got someone in the party that packs a huge attack, this could be huge. Very very useful with a rogue. Crazy useful if they are an assassin and you have surprise. [I]Limitations[/I]: Uses an attack and bonus action from you and a reaction from them. Very party dependent. I only see my character using it when attacking from range. Mostly will take this for roleplaying reasons (my character much prefers to avoid "messy" melee engagements). [*][B]Pushing attack[/B]: Very DM/world specific really. If your GM ran a lot of 4e and likes to have "fun" terrain, this could be great. Otherwise, might be basically useless or even actively hurtful to your team (pushes them out of reach allowing them more flexibility in their next action). That said, I'm playing a pirate game so expect/hope for opportunities to push folks overboard. [*][B]Distracting attack[/b]: Very useful if you have a big hitter. Trip is often better, but no save here and size/initiative order do not matter. [*][b]Goading attack[/b]: Very useful if the target happens to be immune to fear and you are attacking at range (so you can't use menacing attack which is almost always better). Not horrible, just prefer menacing attack... [*][B]Precision Attack[/B]. Probably more useful for those two-hander folks due to the extra damage a hit does or anyone with a -5/+10 feat. But sometimes you just really want a hit. [I]Limitations[/I]: Biggest problem is that you can only use one maneuver per attack so you can't stack a trip or something on it now. [*][B]Disarming attack[/b]: This one I'm mixed on. If you have a way to prevent them from just picking up their weapon, could be huge. If not, very weak. [/LIST] Others: [B]Rally [/B]sounds okay if you've got a high charisma for some reason. But even then seems weak. Do notice, there is no built-in expiration date on those temp. hit points. So you could, AFAICT, grant them for use in a later fight (even after a rest?) [B]Sweeping attack[/B] could be useful, but how often does an extra d8 damage to a secondary target matter? I'm going to guess "almost never". [B]Lunging attack[/B] could be useful where your plan is to attack and run I guess? Or where you just can't quite close for whatever reason? Eh. Thoughts? Anything I'm missing? Any cool ideas for these maneuvers? [/QUOTE]
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