D&D 5E Dilemmas and decisions - an experiment in melee combat choices

[Sunseeker]

Sure, they're a bit like 4e at-wills. But this is meant to set up next round, whereas 4e at-wills usually just had an effect right now. Also, if everyone has access to the same suite of five types of attacks, it becomes something you can respond to and learn. Most of the time 4e critters died before you could learn their pattern.

I would argue that much like "combat maneuvers" in the past, there should be certain generic riders that anyone could do. I like the idea that the Fighter gets something special on top of that. You could probably give a few special ones to Rogues and Barbarians as well.

 

[EvanNave55]

I don't understand what 'Evade' does. Do you get 5 extra feet? Is your movement limited to 5' ? Any movement away from them should almost always move you out of their reach so do you just (almost) always get 'cover'? What do you mean by the get 'cover' do you mean half cover, three-quarter cover, total cover? Is it you get one of the partial covers (half or three-quarter) for moving out of their reach and if your movement would also give you total cover from them the attack misses? Is that your total movement on your turn, just the first five feet of it? Five feet and that's all the movement you're allowed?
This option is very unclear.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using EN World mobile app

 

[RangerWickett]

The idea is, as a reaction when you're attacked you move 5 ft. (This does not affect any other movement you take on your turn.) If you move out of your attacker's reach, instead of causing an auto miss, you just get +2 AC as if you had half-cover, unless you actually move into somewhere with better cover, in which case you get that benefit. So if you're in the open and you try to evade out of reach, you get +2 AC. If you duck behind a heavy tree that fills most of the space between you and the attacker, you get 3/4 cover for +5 AC. If manage to duck behind a full wall so there's no straight line between you and your attacker, it's total cover and the attack misses.

You might even decide to evade around your attacker without getting farther away, which probably will not help right now, but might help you run past an enemy on your next turn.

A lot of my inspiration was just to encourage small movement around the battlefield.

 

[Wulffolk]

Have you read Iron Heroes, by Mike Mearls? It's an alternate PHB for 3.x which posits the existence of nine different martial classes who each have their own resource which they generate and spend in different ways. The Archer, for example, gains points by aiming and spend them to make called shots with various effects.

That sounds interesting. I will have to check it out.

 

[Wulffolk]

[MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION]
I think I would prefer Stances a little more than what you had initially posted. However, I had begun a thread a short time ago exploring the possibility of damage dice being based on the Hit Dice of a particular Class, and the weapons having specific riders that could be applied as tactical choices.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?590882-5e-Weapon-Damage-Option

Maybe a combination of Stances with weapon riders would offer a decent level of tactical choices without too much complexity. I like your intent, and completely agree that D&D needs more tactical choices to make combat interesting.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

The idea is, as a reaction when you're attacked you move 5 ft. (This does not affect any other movement you take on your turn.) If you move out of your attacker's reach, instead of causing an auto miss, you just get +2 AC as if you had half-cover, unless you actually move into somewhere with better cover, in which case you get that benefit. So if you're in the open and you try to evade out of reach, you get +2 AC. If you duck behind a heavy tree that fills most of the space between you and the attacker, you get 3/4 cover for +5 AC. If manage to duck behind a full wall so there's no straight line between you and your attacker, it's total cover and the attack misses.

You might even decide to evade around your attacker without getting farther away, which probably will not help right now, but might help you run past an enemy on your next turn.

A lot of my inspiration was just to encourage small movement around the battlefield.

This is an interesting idea. But rather than +2/+5 AC bonus, you have the reaction grant the 5' movement, which might take the player out of reach any additional attacks by that enemy, and add a bonus to AC equal to half proficiency bonus rounded down. That way you don't step on the toes of spells like shield, but have an opportunity to be tactical.