In other threads, several people have expressed an interest in having a fighter archetype more complex than the battlemaster, perhaps on par with the spellcasters, but not using spells. Maneuvers, stances, martial powers, etc.
I asked this there, but it was threatening to derail the thread, so I figured I'd make a new thread for it.
For those of you who want this subclass, what sorts of abilities would this hypothetical complex-fighter have? What would it do that's
1) Not already covered by BM maneuvers, and
2) Not already covered by the additional combat options in the DMG, and
3) Not skill-monkey-related, and
4) Not more appropriately modeled via the magic/spell system?
What are some examples of what you're actually looking for? And I don't mean a vague answer like, "Powers like fighters had in other editions," I mean specific examples. What do you want to be able to do that cannot currently be matched, or at least approximated, by existing 5E rules options?
(This isn't meant to sound snide. I'm honestly curious.)
For me? Tactical, effective
at-will options.
Basically, cantrips for fighters.
As for why, tactical games generally revolve around making the best choice in a given situation and getting rewarded for it: right now, I don't feel that a class that's supposed to be all about combat gets enough
good, effective options in combat.
As an example, being able to choose if you want to adopt an offensive approach or a defensive one strikes me as a very basic choice you should be able to make during each and every combat round.
As far as fighters go, on this front, they're vastly inferior to a bunch of other classes, mechanically: pretty much the only active, at-will defensive option for the supposedly "best-at-combat" class is, short of swiching to a one hander and a shield, dodging, which forces you to give up your attack action entirely.
Since combat in D&D is a matter of HP attrition, dodging is rarely a good idea, and generally one you only use as a last-ditch attempt to stay alive for a couple more rounds, as you're reducing your damage output to 0 while still taking damage yourself.
Every other "defensive option" the class gets is limited-use, and either situational ( like imposing disadvantage on attack rolls to an opponent who's not immune to fear ) or has terrible scaling ( "parry", for example, which is pretty worthless by the time you're high level ), and, generally, a bunch of other classes get better defensive options (uncanny dodge quickly outpaces parry, for example, and can be used all day long. Barbarians eventually halve all damage taken, even if I'd not really consider "rage" an "active" ability, all day long. High level wizards can spam shield, and so forth ).
And that's just an example.
Currently, (high level) fighters are all about damage: great if you're trying to build a glass cannon, less so if what you want is a flexible character that's good at reading the flow of combat and adapting; even the battlemaster's Superiority Dice mechanic is more strategic in nature than it is tactical, since it depends on the amounts of short rests your DM decides to hand out: try playing a battlemaster in a fast paced adventure where you can't really afford frequent short rests and you might quickly realize that you're pretty much stuck playing a weak Champion.
Basically, as far as I'm concerned, the Battlemaster doesn't live up to Mearls's promise that it would fulfill the "tactical warrior" role, and that would be able to choose "a different option every combat round" ( in Mearls's own words...unfortunately, I can't seem to reach the relevant L&L article on the website anymore. IIRC, it was the one about fighter maneuvers, dated January 2014 ): depending on the pacing of the campaign, it might end up being more of a "strategic warrior", which is another thing entirely.
I'm not sure this answers your question, but, especially in light of the fact that casters
do get a bunch of varied, interesting
at-will options, that's the main reason I dislike the way the 5e fighter is designed, at the moment.
TL;DR: to me, at the moment, the (high level) fighter is only really effective as a one-trick pony who doesn't have enough good options, aside from its spectacular burst damage, to justify giving up almost entirely the other two pillars around which the game is supposed to be built.