Sacrosanct
Legend
Disclaimer: Of course this is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree. You will. It's the internet. And I'm open to adjusting based on other arguments. But this is my evaluation of the fighting styles in the PHB and various UA. Rating system:
Great
Good
Mediocre
Poor
Garbage.
Edits after discussion in purple.
Archery: +2 to attack rolls with ranged weapons. A really good fighting style for the ranged PC. In fact, a must have for archers. Combined with sharpshooter feat, and it helps nullify the penalty to get massive increase in damage. Also applies to more than just bows. Would be great, but is pretty situational.
Blessed Warrior (UA): learn 2 cantrips from cleric spell list. Paladin only. Get two cantrips? A hugely powerful fighting style for the paladin. Guidance anyone?
Blind Fighting (UA): unable to see target no longer imposes disadvantage Sounds cool (Shades of 80s Rutger Hauer). But rarely used in actual game play
Close quarters shooter (UA): when making ranged attack within 5ft, do not have disadvantage. Ignore half cover and ¾ cover against targets within 30ft. +1 bonus to attack rolls on ranged attacks Kind of a cross between archery style and sharpshooter feat benefits without needing to take the feat, but at a lesser bonus to hit and obviously missing the -5/+10 feature of sharpshooter. Still pretty good, especially for those non humans who can't have the option of taking sharpshooter before level 4. Gloom stalkers should have a style like this as almost mandatory.
Defense: +1 to AC when wearing armor Yes, I'm rating this garbage. Why? Because it's one of the few styles that don't scale. As you gain attacks, the other styles that give bonuses to hit or damage or other features apply to all attacks. Your +1 bonus here never changes, and at higher levels, an extra +1 just isn't that much of a difference. Yes, it applies to every attack against you, but that's about it's only saving grace. I'd houserule this to be a +1 bonus to AC for every attack action you get. Raising this one category based on feedback below. Still not a fan, but some folks find the value in it.
Druidic order (UA): learn 2 cantrips from druid list. Ranger only Similar to blessed warrior. Cantrips have a ton of utility, and are used often.
Dueling: +2 damage with melee weapon when only wielding one weapon in one hand I really like this feat. It's a must have for sword and board. One of my PCs has a spear and shield, using polearm mastery, and this fighting style. Very effective at dealing out damage on a consistent basis, and it applies to every attack.
Great Weapon Fighting: reroll 1 or 2 with 2-handed weapons On it's own, it's comparable to dueling. IIRC, the math I've seen comes out to an extra 1.1 points of damage per attack or something similar.
Interception (UA): When a creature you see within 5ft of you hits a target, use reaction to reduce damage by 1d10+prof bonus I like this much better than protection fighting style. Even at low levels, you're still reducing an average of 7.5 points of damage per round, and you can impact every attack this way. With protection, the attacker can still hit even with the disadvantage, and that would be full damage.
Mariner (UA): as long as not wearing heavy armor or shield, swim speed and climb speed equals normal speed and +1 bonus to AC Gives the same bonus as defense, and additional benefits. So it's an improvement, but still not a really good fighting style. Highly situational dependent. Good if you're a monk multiclass I suppose.
Protection: impose disadvantage on attacker attacking ally within 5ft of you, using reaction Similar to Interception, but less utility and not as effective. It's decent, but if you had the choice of either, I'd always choose Interception instead. I haven't run the math, but I'm guessing that this only begins to outpace Interception as far as damage reduction goes at high levels. Seeing as how most game play is not at high level, it's not as good.
Superior Technique (UA): Learn a battlemaster maneuver. D6 superiority die. Short rest recharge. Fighter only Gain a battlemaster maneuver as a champion that gets bonus crits? yes please. And since you can choose which maneuver to learn, a ton of flexibility with this one fighting style. If you haven't noticed, options that give you flexibility rate pretty high on my list. The limited number of times makes me drop this, as per discussion below.
Thrown Weapon Fighting (UA): +1 damage to thrown weapons +1 damage might not seem like a lot, but you also draw the weapon as part of an attack, and you can attack more than just once. For example, dueling is +2 damage, but that's just one attack while you can throw 2 daggers in the same round (1 attack, 1 bonus). The drawback is you are limited to ammunition carried.
Tunnel Fighter (UA): as bonus action, enter stance where you can make opportunity attack without using reaction, and use reaction to make melee attack against target that moves more than 5ft while within reach of you I know this can be situational, but I think it happens pretty often when combat has you close to more than one opponent. Being able to have unlimited attacks of opportunity would be enough for great as it is, but then you also can make an extra melee attack once per round as well? Pair this with polearm mastery and....ouch.
Two-weapon fighting: add ability modifier to bonus off hand attack Basically, getting a +3 bonus to damage for one attack per round on average (assuming your stat is decent; some will have only +2, others a +4, etc). That's not insignificant. It's more than dueling, but it's only ever to one attack per round.
Unarmed Fighting (UA): unarmed strikes do 1d6+str modifier. If both hands are free, damage is 1d8. When you start a grapple, deal 1d4 dmg and 1d4 added to each attack while grappled. For the record, I'm a fan of niche protection so I totally buy into the reason why they did this feat they way they did, not wanting to overshadow the monk, who is supposed to be the best an unarmed attacks. That said, this is still so situational I don't really see much value. If you're a fighter, why would you skip one of the above styles in favor for this? If you want to be good at unarmed combat, be a monk. Then you factor that this isn't finesse, so it eliminated all of those DEX based fighters. Who in their right mind, as a STR based fighter, would skip GWF or dueling in order to get this? Bueller? It would have to be highly situational and a very specific build (like a boxer).
Feel free to tear my arguments apart
Great
Good
Mediocre
Poor
Garbage.
Edits after discussion in purple.
Archery: +2 to attack rolls with ranged weapons. A really good fighting style for the ranged PC. In fact, a must have for archers. Combined with sharpshooter feat, and it helps nullify the penalty to get massive increase in damage. Also applies to more than just bows. Would be great, but is pretty situational.
Blessed Warrior (UA): learn 2 cantrips from cleric spell list. Paladin only. Get two cantrips? A hugely powerful fighting style for the paladin. Guidance anyone?
Blind Fighting (UA): unable to see target no longer imposes disadvantage Sounds cool (Shades of 80s Rutger Hauer). But rarely used in actual game play
Close quarters shooter (UA): when making ranged attack within 5ft, do not have disadvantage. Ignore half cover and ¾ cover against targets within 30ft. +1 bonus to attack rolls on ranged attacks Kind of a cross between archery style and sharpshooter feat benefits without needing to take the feat, but at a lesser bonus to hit and obviously missing the -5/+10 feature of sharpshooter. Still pretty good, especially for those non humans who can't have the option of taking sharpshooter before level 4. Gloom stalkers should have a style like this as almost mandatory.
Defense: +1 to AC when wearing armor Yes, I'm rating this garbage. Why? Because it's one of the few styles that don't scale. As you gain attacks, the other styles that give bonuses to hit or damage or other features apply to all attacks. Your +1 bonus here never changes, and at higher levels, an extra +1 just isn't that much of a difference. Yes, it applies to every attack against you, but that's about it's only saving grace. I'd houserule this to be a +1 bonus to AC for every attack action you get. Raising this one category based on feedback below. Still not a fan, but some folks find the value in it.
Druidic order (UA): learn 2 cantrips from druid list. Ranger only Similar to blessed warrior. Cantrips have a ton of utility, and are used often.
Dueling: +2 damage with melee weapon when only wielding one weapon in one hand I really like this feat. It's a must have for sword and board. One of my PCs has a spear and shield, using polearm mastery, and this fighting style. Very effective at dealing out damage on a consistent basis, and it applies to every attack.
Great Weapon Fighting: reroll 1 or 2 with 2-handed weapons On it's own, it's comparable to dueling. IIRC, the math I've seen comes out to an extra 1.1 points of damage per attack or something similar.
Interception (UA): When a creature you see within 5ft of you hits a target, use reaction to reduce damage by 1d10+prof bonus I like this much better than protection fighting style. Even at low levels, you're still reducing an average of 7.5 points of damage per round, and you can impact every attack this way. With protection, the attacker can still hit even with the disadvantage, and that would be full damage.
Mariner (UA): as long as not wearing heavy armor or shield, swim speed and climb speed equals normal speed and +1 bonus to AC Gives the same bonus as defense, and additional benefits. So it's an improvement, but still not a really good fighting style. Highly situational dependent. Good if you're a monk multiclass I suppose.
Protection: impose disadvantage on attacker attacking ally within 5ft of you, using reaction Similar to Interception, but less utility and not as effective. It's decent, but if you had the choice of either, I'd always choose Interception instead. I haven't run the math, but I'm guessing that this only begins to outpace Interception as far as damage reduction goes at high levels. Seeing as how most game play is not at high level, it's not as good.
Superior Technique (UA): Learn a battlemaster maneuver. D6 superiority die. Short rest recharge. Fighter only Gain a battlemaster maneuver as a champion that gets bonus crits? yes please. And since you can choose which maneuver to learn, a ton of flexibility with this one fighting style. If you haven't noticed, options that give you flexibility rate pretty high on my list. The limited number of times makes me drop this, as per discussion below.
Thrown Weapon Fighting (UA): +1 damage to thrown weapons +1 damage might not seem like a lot, but you also draw the weapon as part of an attack, and you can attack more than just once. For example, dueling is +2 damage, but that's just one attack while you can throw 2 daggers in the same round (1 attack, 1 bonus). The drawback is you are limited to ammunition carried.
Tunnel Fighter (UA): as bonus action, enter stance where you can make opportunity attack without using reaction, and use reaction to make melee attack against target that moves more than 5ft while within reach of you I know this can be situational, but I think it happens pretty often when combat has you close to more than one opponent. Being able to have unlimited attacks of opportunity would be enough for great as it is, but then you also can make an extra melee attack once per round as well? Pair this with polearm mastery and....ouch.
Two-weapon fighting: add ability modifier to bonus off hand attack Basically, getting a +3 bonus to damage for one attack per round on average (assuming your stat is decent; some will have only +2, others a +4, etc). That's not insignificant. It's more than dueling, but it's only ever to one attack per round.
Unarmed Fighting (UA): unarmed strikes do 1d6+str modifier. If both hands are free, damage is 1d8. When you start a grapple, deal 1d4 dmg and 1d4 added to each attack while grappled. For the record, I'm a fan of niche protection so I totally buy into the reason why they did this feat they way they did, not wanting to overshadow the monk, who is supposed to be the best an unarmed attacks. That said, this is still so situational I don't really see much value. If you're a fighter, why would you skip one of the above styles in favor for this? If you want to be good at unarmed combat, be a monk. Then you factor that this isn't finesse, so it eliminated all of those DEX based fighters. Who in their right mind, as a STR based fighter, would skip GWF or dueling in order to get this? Bueller? It would have to be highly situational and a very specific build (like a boxer).
Feel free to tear my arguments apart
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