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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Timespike" data-source="post: 8427500" data-attributes="member: 29665">Do you give all of your spellcasters access to the entire selection of spells, too? That's a pretty good analogy for what you're suggesting here.Fighters are very much the exception with having access to all the combat schools. The "normal" state of affairs is to have access to a limited set of maneuvers (much like spellcasters have access to a limited set of spells). Working within those constrained palettes definitely helps the flavor of the martial classes, too. It would be pretty odd for a "normal" adept to have access to the Tooth and Claw (savage, animalistic attacks) or Spirited Steed (cavalry maneuvers) combat schools because Adepts are presented as highly-trained, disciplined people who have put a lot of effort into perfecting their own bodies and weapon skills through extensive practice. Sheer, animalistic fury (Tooth and Claw) doesn't fit that baseline, and neither does relying on another creature for mobility and striking force (Spirited Steed). Now, could there be a specific archetype that granted access to one of these combat schools? Sure! But that would be a special thing about that archetype, much like getting access to all those cool fire spells is for the Light Domain in O5E. If every cleric (or every spellcaster, period) could already cast every spell, there'd not be much point in even having subclasses, or, for that matter, even different classes at all.It's not a perfect analogy, of course, because there's no spellcasting class that gets access to the full spell list, but even among the primary casters, it's pretty obvious that the wizard gets a larger slice of the spell list pie than the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, or warlock does. That's because the thing that makes wizards special is that they are better at raw, straight-up knowing of magic than anyone else. The same is true for the A5E fighter with regards to maneuvers. They don't have the rage and hit points of a berserker. They don't have the speed and crazy traversal abilities of an adept. They don't have the divine powers of a herald. The don't have the political connections of a marshal. They don't have the survival and tracking training of a ranger, and they don't have the stealthiness of a rogue. But what they do have is a level of sheer martial expertise that nobody else does. To reference a cringey old internet meme: "While you were learning to wall run, I studied the blade. While you were learning to throw truly epic temper tantrums, I studied the blade. While you were learning your prayer book, I studied the blade. While you were reading Machiavelli, I studied the blade. While you made fires out of sticks and snuck around back alleys, I studied the blade."THAT is the fighter. The palace guard, the lone samurai, the Spartan at the Hot Gates, the hardened mercenary who has killed more people than you've met in your life.The other classes can do things the fighter can't, but when it comes to actually fighting, well, look at what it says on the tin. They don't have to rely on getting mad, having superhuman abilities, calling on a higher power, having people to order around, being able to outlast you in the wilderness, or getting the drop on you to beat you down. They can, and will, take you down with nothing but a weapon and their peerless skill at using it. Their free choice of maneuvers is designed to depict just how deep and/or broad that training is in comparison to the other classes that can fight, but split their focus in one way or another.</blockquote>

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