D&D 5E (2024) Greater Fighting Styles

[Minigiant]

Been thinking.
Fighting Style Feats are feats. But they are not the best ones to choose as a general feat upon level up.

But Martials who gets the Fighting style feat gets them for free at level 1 or 2. And they can swap them for free independently of other feat swaps at level up.

So technically if you were to create new Fighting style feats with level and/or stat requirements, you could boost or adjust martials to match the concepts of high level martials while remaining in the system.

For example there could be feats like:

Greater Archery
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+, Dexterity 19+, Fighting Style Feature)

You gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls you make with Ranged weapons.

Greater Thrown Weapon Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+ Fighting Style Feature)
When you hit with a ranged attack roll using a weapon that has the Thrown property, you gain a +4 bonus to the damage roll.
In addition, the normal and long range of ranged attacks you make with a weapon increase a number of feet equal to your Strength score.

Strong Handed Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+, Strength 17+, Fighting Style Feature,)
You can weild and make melee attacks with a melee weapon with the Two-Handed property while holding it with one hand.

Oversized Weapon Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+, Strength 17+, Fighting Style Feature,)
You can weild and make attacks with a weapon designed for a Creature of one size Larger with a -2 penalty to attack rolls. The weapon must not have the Two-Handed property and you must hold it with two hands to make attacks.

This would also let DMs tailor the martials of their table to the game while not placing a tax on feats. You could go gonzo and wacky or add in other pillar aspects or just push numbers up a little bit.

So what do you think?
Would you implement or use this idea at you table if available?
What kind of level gated Fighting styles would you like to see?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Small Weapons Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+ Fighting Style Feature)
any weapon that deals less that 1d8 damage has it's damage increased to 1d8.

i think this would be neat for players that want to do something like the 'knifemaster' aesthetic or otherwise open up the viability of the simple weapon options.

 

[bedir than]

I think this is a wonderful idea and may even call it Specialization as a nod to that historic term.

 

[Corinnguard]

Laser Llama has something similar with his takes on the various Fighting Styles.

Archery​

Prerequisite: Dexterity of 13 or higher
You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with ranged weapons,
and your attacks with ranged weapons ignore half-cover
and treat three-quarter's cover as half cover.

Archery Expert​

Prerequisite: 6th-level Fighter, Archery
You gain an additional +1 bonus to your attack rolls with ranged weapons. Attacking at a weapon's long range no longer imposes disadvantage on your attack rolls.

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Dual Wielding​

Prerequisite: Strength or Dexterity of 13 or higher
While two-weapon fighting, you make your off-hand attack as part of your Attack action instead of your bonus action, and you add your ability modifier to the damage of this attack. You cannot also make an attack with your bonus action that turn.

Dual Wielding Expert​

Prerequisite: 6th-level Fighter, Dual Wielding
One-handed melee weapons are considered to have the Light property for you, and when you are wielding a melee weapon in each hand, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.

 

[Minigiant]

Small Weapons Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+ Fighting Style Feature)
any weapon that deals less that 1d8 damage has it's damage increased to 1d8.

i think this would be neat for players that want to do something like the 'knifemaster' aesthetic or otherwise open up the viability of the simple weapon options.

Little clearer language:

Small Weapons Fighting
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Level 6+, Fighting Style Feature)
When you hit with a weapon and deal damage, you can roll 1d8 as the weapon damage dice instead of the normal damage dice of the weapon.

Good for a daggermaster or dartmaster.

 

[ECMO3]

I think this sounds kind of like 3E, it is not generating fond memories, but it might be good for some people.

 

[Silam]

A few thoughts in no particular order:

1. I think it makes sense to reward martial characters for specializing in their pursuit. There could be various degrees of rewarding specialization. For example, auto-scaling benefits (e.g., based on proficiency bonus or levels as cantrips do) do not reward sticking to a class (and this is why the most effective users of Eldritch Blast have no more than 1 or 2 levels in Warlock). Another approach, which seems to be the one taken in the OP, is to have FS feats with a minimum level (and/or high stats, etc), and this rewards a little bit of stickiness because you need to level up in a class that grants the fighting style feature to actually change it, so starting off with a Fighter 1 dip to get Con save proficiency does not allow you to take those more advanced FS feats later on if you don’t level Fighter again. An even more sticky approach would be to require "N total levels in classes that grant the FS feature". Depending how much specialization is to be rewarded (versus just giving scalable bonuses for free to any dipper), this knob can be turned one way or the other.

2. Another thing I’ve been pondering is a FS that "feeds" off of weapon masteries. It’s a bit useless for the Fighter to get so many of them. When are you going to use this many weapons? Instead, it could make sense to have some kind of mechanic where a FS scales according to the number of weapon masteries you spend on it (and only for that weapon you’re mastering). Again, a form of specialization. It should ideally not yield extreme bonuses, but just a little bit to reward giving up a bit of weapon versatility.

3. This is probably the most important… just increasing bonuses is not that interesting, and especially given 5e’s bounded accuracy design, it doesn’t jive well. Gaining flexibility in one way or another may be preferable. Maybe things similar to Battle Master maneuvers or some other stuff. I don’t have very concrete suggestions, but hopefully that makes sense.

 

[SkidAce]

Not a bad idea, could work.

Got to admit I had flashbacks to the 3.5e Monkey Grip feat.

 

[Corinnguard]

2. Another thing I’ve been pondering is a FS that "feeds" off of weapon masteries. It’s a bit useless for the Fighter to get so many of them. When are you going to use this many weapons? Instead, it could make sense to have some kind of mechanic where a FS scales according to the number of weapon masteries you spend on it (and only for that weapon you’re mastering). Again, a form of specialization. It should ideally not yield extreme bonuses, but just a little bit to reward giving up a bit of weapon versatility.

What about a FS based off of whatever properties a given group of weapons possesses? Ex. Finesse and Light. There are a number of weapons that have one or both of these properties.

 

[aco175]

I would be more open to this idea being more just for fighters at higher level and not a feat for anyone who took a dip in fighter to get the benefits.

I also agree that it should be more than just another +1 to hit and damage.