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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8497094" data-attributes="member: 907">Doing Fancy Stuff in combat is generally hard to handle in an RPG, partially because most RPGs have the person acting stating a goal with their action, and then rolling to see if they achieve that goal. But in an actual fight, it's more often about spotting the right opportunity. Another issue is that you either make Fancy Stuff too strong and/or too easy, and then that's all people are going to do, or it's too hard and/or too weak and then people will never do it. One solution is to make the Fancy Stuff into limited-use powers (like Battlemaster maneuvers), but that just turns it into a resource management issue instead.This is one area where I think Fantasy AGE's stunt system works well, though it would be hard to transfer to D&D. In AGE, rolls are made with 3d6 + modifier versus a difficulty. One of the dice is a different color, and that's the stunt die. Should you roll doubles on any two dice (which turns out to be about a 50% chance), you get Stunt points equal to the number on the stunt die, which you can use to deal extra damage, knock the enemy over, knock them back, disarm them, and so on. This reflects that you generally don't go into a swordfight intending to trip your opponent, but if the shot comes up you're sure going to take it.</blockquote>