Level Up (A5E) Let's make Dangerous Strikes good on a Fighter

[Anonymous3]

I had a little dig on the forums to find input for Dangerous Strikes and on the surface it doesn't appear promising.
As @Stalker0 points out a few years ago:

"Dangerous Strikes - As cool as this looks, at the end of the day a small increase in your crit range for the round is just not worth exertion....there are better ways to spend your resources. What's worse, the Berserker, the one class that miiiiiiight consider this because of furious critical....can't take it. This maneuver should have been a stance to be worthwhile."

I tend to agree with this statement. @Kinematics also points out that it might be better on the Berserker given the secondary benefits they get from Furious Critical so using a feat to take this would have a greater impact than other classes might. This was immediately taken up by the Berserker at our table and has made a large impact on fights already.

What about on a Fighter? Spending one exertion on the chance of getting a critical hit seems like a poor decision. Using Twist the Blade would be a better investment of exertion because there is no chance involved. It also doesn't seem to work well with Maneuver Specialization because it costs only 1 exertion and has no saving throw so you don't benefit fully from the feature.

What if we ignore all this and instead spend an ASI to gain access to the Surgical Combatant (as a Berserker would). We then combine it with Technical Fighting and Maneuver Specialization to gain additional damage whenever you use Dangerous Strikes. For the cost of a feat we now have a 0 zero exertion maneuver that adds 4 additional damage to every attack. If we spent the ASI on Strength we'd have a better chance to hit but only net +1 damage.

Thoughts?

 

[Morrus]

I'd like to try changing DS so it doesn't take an action and you can choose to spend an exertion after an attack roll to increase your crit range, turning a non-crit into a crit. So you'd use it almost like a reaction (but not costing your reaction) when you missed a crit by 1 point. Then again I suppose it's basically Twist the Blade at that point. I am of agreement that it's way too weak as it is.

 

[Anonymous3]

That sounds like a Divine Smite type maneuver.

 

[lichmaster]

Technical fighting and Maneuver Specialization make this maneuver OK, but as it stands I agree that it is a bit underwhelming.
Turning it into a stance may be too good though: for the cost of 1 exertion you increase crit range by 1 for the rest of the day (would be a no brainer in that case).

What if it stayed an action but it increased crit range to 18-20? This way there's still a bit of synergy potential with other maneuvers or vicious weapons without it becoming too good.
That would mean (assuming a roll of 18 also results in a hit):
15% crit chance without other synergies, single attack, no advantage (vs 10% vanilla)
27,75% crit chance without other synergies, single attack, advantage (vs 19% vanilla)

So this would actually become "dangerous", albeit situationally. Definitely something worth using when benefiting form advantage (and even better when using Extra attack and/or two weapon fighting)

 

[Anonymous3]

Could you compare this to another ASI/feat choice where the outcome is better?
I thought of the really strong Powerful Attacker feat as a comparison. If I had to choose, I would pick my Dangerous Attack setup instead of this feat because it can be used on ranged and melee attacks. This makes it a very versatile choice.

Additionally, we now can actually use the Brute subclass feature in combination because we have available exertion for damage. The Brute's feature is thematically great but mechanically you almost never have available exertion to use it - at least in Tier 1 and 2 of play. You now have a little more freedom to use other knacks or maneuvers.

 

[lichmaster]

Not sure what is the question.

Also, not sure if it's related to what you're saying, but I'm really not a fan of ASI. They're the most boring choice, albeit often the most effective. If anything IMO they set the bar for feats: if anyone preferred an ASI over a given feat, the feat is not good enough.

 

[Anonymous3]

Not sure what is the question.

Also, not sure if it's related to what you're saying, but I'm really not a fan of ASI. They're the most boring choice, albeit often the most effective. If anything IMO they set the bar for feats: if anyone preferred an ASI over a given feat, the feat is not good enough.

Sorry it's not clear. The setup to make Dangerous Strikes good requires a feat. At zero exertion cost and applying 4 damage you've stated it is "OK". I'm happy with that.

What I am asking is your perspective on how you came to that conclusion. I'm interested in what you're comparing it to.

EDIT: Agreed on ASI - feats are way more fun.