D&D 5E Variant Fighter has anyone tried it?

[DEFCON 1]

The only real downside of this variant is the same downside the Battlemaster has... which is Fighters get too few maneuvers.

Most of the maneuvers are situational at best, which means very few people will ever select a good half of them because they aren't worth using their two or three options on them. Precision Attack and Riposte can be used almost ALL the time against all manner of enemies... but how often does a Fighter really need Reach (if they don't already have it from having a reach weapon, or just throwing a javelin instead?)

Personally, I'd give all BMs 5 maneuvers to start with at a minimum (as though they took the Martial Adept feat) and keep letting them get more. Because to my mind, maneuvers are the Fighter's "spells"... and if we are going to let clerics and wizards select from dozens and dozens of options, changeable each and every day... there's absolutely no reason to be so stingy with the Fighter.

 

[DND_Reborn]

... than to just have generic tidbits

Generic was the point for our group. We've never had anyone play with any archetype that uses superiority dice or the like, to much meaningless crap to keep track of. To each, their own.

 

[Garthanos]

The only real downside of this variant is the same downside the Battlemaster has... which is Fighters get too few maneuvers.

Most of the maneuvers are situational at best, which means very few people will ever select a good half of them because they aren't worth using their two or three options on them. Precision Attack and Riposte can be used almost ALL the time against all manner of enemies... but how often does a Fighter really need Reach (if they don't already have it from having a reach weapon, or just throwing a javelin instead?)

Personally, I'd give all BMs 5 maneuvers to start with at a minimum (as though they took the Martial Adept feat) and keep letting them get more. Because to my mind, maneuvers are the Fighter's "spells"... and if we are going to let clerics and wizards select from dozens and dozens of options, changeable each and every day... there's absolutely no reason to be so stingy with the Fighter.

Situational is cool IF you have enough options...

 

[Stalker0]

While the at will maneuvers seem cool, the fact that a lot of them don’t do damage just removes the primary appeal.

The reason the battlemaster works is I get to do great damage AND add cool X feature. Most of these just do x with no damage unless I use the superiority option (which is only twice), and then I don’t get added damage.

I think in general you have replaced the battlemaster with a class that gets more often, but more watered down, maneuvers

 

[DEFCON 1]

Situational is cool IF you have enough options...

Exactly. If you start with 5 maneuvers at least, having one or two be situational can be awesome when they get a chance to be used.

And its not like all these maneuvers are unbalanced if you have many at your disposal. So why not allow the Fighter to have many different options to use when situational combat arises?

 

[Garthanos]

While the at will maneuvers seem cool, the fact that a lot of them don’t do damage just removes the primary appeal.

The reason the battlemaster works is I get to do great damage AND add cool X feature. Most of these just do x with no damage unless I use the superiority option (which is only twice), and then I don’t get added damage.

And that goes up to 4 per rest eventually or 5 if you took the martial Adept option. And its at-will usage is optional if the situation just calls for MORE damage that hasn't generally been lost.

I do feel the designer was maybe over conscious of how having more options might make it seem too powerful and the tweaks from the earlier incarnation (which I read) may have reduced its potency.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The only real downside of this variant is the same downside the Battlemaster has... which is Fighters get too few maneuvers....
...if we are going to let clerics and wizards select from dozens and dozens of options, changeable each and every day... there's absolutely no reason to be so stingy with the Fighter.

...another issue is not just too few, but the same list all the whole time. Getting to your 6th choice from a list of maneuvers that were all OK at 3rd level is pretty trivial. This fighter'd need more potent/interesting/varied 'higher level' (level-gated) maneuvers, as well as simply more.

I do feel the designer was maybe over conscious of how having more options might make it seem too powerful and the tweaks from the earlier incarnation (which I read) may have reduced its potency.

Might seem that way compared to the existing fighter or the like. Don't see how it can be a concern considering all the classes in the game, though.

 

[Wrathamon]

What does the core fighter give up to add maneuvers to it? Are the subclasses balanced with the additional power transferred to the core chassis? Doesn't appear to be. The Champion has added power as well.

I do think the Ranger replacements are interesting ideas.

overall. at a glance. Appears not balanced with other classes in mind, but might be fine in a game that is using all homebrew

 

[Wrathamon]

What does the core fighter give up to add maneuvers to it? Are the subclasses balanced with the additional power transferred to the core chassis? Doesn't appear to be. The Champion has added power as well.

I do think the Ranger replacements are interesting ideas and the subclasses adding unique maneuevers is a nice idea if the BM was the core fighter chassis.

overall. at a glance. Appears not balanced with other classes in mind, but might be fine in a game that is using all homebrew.

Some of the manuevers dont add the damage that BM did so it actually may end up weaker.

 

[Garthanos]

Some of the manuevers dont add the damage that BM did so it actually may end up weaker.

The maneuvers often trade an attack for the versatility so you still have the straight up attack as another option or your Champion (love that class name) may do their fearsome menacing glare and drive the hoards before them.