D&D 5E Reworking Protection

[doctorbadwolf]

So a while ago I had an idea to rewrite defensive duelist, and the monk’s deflect missiles.

Take Deflect Missiles, allow the character to deflect any attack. For the feat, just use a lower amount, like 1d8+Dex mod+ pb, and tune from there. Counter pb/lr.

But what about the protection fighting style? I’ve got two ideas.

1) Deflect Attack, against your allies within 5ft. Only counter melee attacks, pb/lr.

2) A protective aura activated and maintained as a bonus action (every other turn, ie, “until the end of your next turn”). Either grant THP, or reduce damage dealt within the aura by 1d4+pb once per turn.


Any thoughts about these ideas? Would you allow any as a DM?

 

[Stoutstien]

I just rolled protection and defense into a single option.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I just rolled protection and defense into a single option.

That wouldn’t fix what I see as the issue with protection, which is that it uses your reaction for fairly small benefit, and comes up much less often the other fighting styles.

 

[Stoutstien]

That wouldn’t fix what I see as the issue with protection, which is that it uses your reaction for fairly small benefit, and comes up much less often the other fighting styles.

True but fighting styles are simple by nature. If you wanted to modify it to be more useful then I'd say move it to be more akin to runic shield so the user can decide to use it after the roll has been determined to be a hit/miss/critical.
It's the timing that kills it.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I replaced Protection with a version of Sentinel without the ''attack on disengage'' bullet-point.

Yours arent bad, but I prefer fighting styles to be passive, so being tied to a resource does not appeal to me, but if you dont personally mind, I think both your option are goof, if waaayyyy better than the PHB protection (which is terrible).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

True but fighting styles are simple by nature. If you wanted to modify it to be more useful then I'd say move it to be more akin to runic shield so the user can decide to use it after the roll has been determined to be a hit/miss/critical.
It's the timing that kills it.

Yeah I think reducing damage within 5ft of you is more like other fighting styles than option 1.

But I do also like simply changing it to “when an ally within 5ft of you is hit, reroll yada yada” might be better. I think I’d also not have it use your reaction, and instead you can just do it 1/turn.

I replaced Protection with a version of Sentinel without the ''attack on disengage'' bullet-point.

Yours arent bad, but I prefer fighting styles to be passive, so being tied to a resource does not appeal to me, but if you dont personally mind, I think both your option are goof, if waaayyyy better than the PHB protection (which is terrible).

Yeah the goal is simply to make it good at protecting others, and not use more action economy than it’s worth. No other PHB fighting style uses up any extra action economy, after all.

Another way to go could be to protect by punishing enemies that damage your allies. Just a damage bonus against enemies who have hit one of your allies. That might be an idea for a separate FS, actually.

Maybe I’ll make something like the DMG mark into a fighting style…

 

[Iry]

I saw a table that tossed out Protection, and simply gave Spirit Shield instead.

"If another creature you can see within 10 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce that damage by 2d6. When you reach certain levels in this class, you can reduce the damage by more: by 3d6 at 10th level and by 4d6 at 14th level."

The player decides what they do to prevent the damage, either by shouting a warning, interposing a shield, etc. Hilariously, they eventually came out with the Interception style, which partially validated their house rule.

 

[Charlaquin]

How about just, while you’re wielding a shield, you can choose to add your shield’s AC bonus to another creature within 5ft of you?

 

[Immoralkickass]

How about just, while you’re wielding a shield, you can choose to add your shield’s AC bonus to another creature within 5ft of you?

Without any action economy or cost, isnt it essentially a +2AC aura?

 

[Stoutstien]

Hmm I wonder if you just rolled protection and interception into a single reaction? You grant disadvantage and if it still hits you reduce the damage. Probably fix the scaling a little bit other than that it's a flavor win that doesn't make it harder to use.