First, what I want from combat maneuvers:
- They should be possible for everyone, but significantly easier for appropriately trained characters (fighter, monk)
- Every maneuver should be useful sometimes, but none should be always optimal; their usefulness should depend on tactical situation.
- They shouldn't be spammable (it leads to very strange, uninteresting fighting styles), but also shouldn't have hard, artificial limits (like: once per encounter)
- They shouldn't have too high opportunity cost (do you prefer to just hit, or try to disarm - which has low chance of success, provokes an AoO and does not deal damage?)
- They should be simple to use in play
It's not easy to meet these requirements. The idea I have for implementing the maneuvers is just a sketch, and probably full of holes, but I'd like to share it anyway:
1. You don't declare maneuvers before you attack. They are activated based on the margin of success.
2. When you hit at least (let's say) 5 points above target's AC, or if you roll natural 20, you may add a maneuver to your hit. If you exceed the AC by more, one additional maneuver for each 5 points.
3. Characters trained in maneuvers may activate them with lower margin of success. Some monsters may have vulnerabilities or resistances to specific maneuvers that also affect the required MoS (eg. a huge creature may be harder to trip, but easier to feint).
4. Maneuvers may include things like converting inflicted damage to nonlethal, cleaving through several foes etc.
A character trained in many maneuvers, fighting against much weaker foes, should be able to tie them in knots by stacking maneuvers on each hit - but against a strong opponent, only one or two maneuvers would be successful (that is, mechanically, only one or two hits would allow a maneuver to be performed).
- They should be possible for everyone, but significantly easier for appropriately trained characters (fighter, monk)
- Every maneuver should be useful sometimes, but none should be always optimal; their usefulness should depend on tactical situation.
- They shouldn't be spammable (it leads to very strange, uninteresting fighting styles), but also shouldn't have hard, artificial limits (like: once per encounter)
- They shouldn't have too high opportunity cost (do you prefer to just hit, or try to disarm - which has low chance of success, provokes an AoO and does not deal damage?)
- They should be simple to use in play
It's not easy to meet these requirements. The idea I have for implementing the maneuvers is just a sketch, and probably full of holes, but I'd like to share it anyway:
1. You don't declare maneuvers before you attack. They are activated based on the margin of success.
2. When you hit at least (let's say) 5 points above target's AC, or if you roll natural 20, you may add a maneuver to your hit. If you exceed the AC by more, one additional maneuver for each 5 points.
3. Characters trained in maneuvers may activate them with lower margin of success. Some monsters may have vulnerabilities or resistances to specific maneuvers that also affect the required MoS (eg. a huge creature may be harder to trip, but easier to feint).
4. Maneuvers may include things like converting inflicted damage to nonlethal, cleaving through several foes etc.
A character trained in many maneuvers, fighting against much weaker foes, should be able to tie them in knots by stacking maneuvers on each hit - but against a strong opponent, only one or two maneuvers would be successful (that is, mechanically, only one or two hits would allow a maneuver to be performed).