Fighting Styles
Duncehack Edition
So who are you?
Just some tosser with an over inflated sense of self importance.
Send verbal abuse via Minds.com
What is the Duncehack?
It emerged from a place of frustration. There's quite a number of areas where 5e could be improved but... it's not going to happen for various reasons.
The Duncehack is my attempt to fix these problems I have. Plan is to go through the whole game - all of it - and homebrew it into the game I think is should have been.
Feel free to disagree with me, but ultimately I think there's no harm in putting my thoughts out there, at the very least if even one DM decides to adopt these rules, then my job is done.
No DM Guild? No OGL Release?
I chafe under binding contracts and both of these are exactly that.
The DM Guild gives you more room to mess with established rules, but basically demands that all be under the service of flagship settings.
The SRD on the other hand gives more room for interesting settings but clamps down extremely hard on what established rules you're allowed to use. Their biggest contention is that they don't want someone to sell a sourcebook that removes the need for core books. Translation: they don't want Pathfinder to happen all over again.
More to the point, both assume money will change hands. I don't want money, I just want Wizards to fix their game.
Groundrules
Groundrules for the Duncehack are as follows:
No Nerfs: the goal is to bring weaker archetypes on the level of the stronger ones.
Remove Traps: incentives built into classes and archetypes should provide an active payoff, rather than be the suboptimal choice.
Frontload Agency, Backend Power: Generally speaking, people like having more options to do things, rather than more raw power. As a design rule: things that feel like core class features, or are defining class mechanics, should happen in the first ten levels, sheer numeric increases in power should come after that.
No money changed hands here
This is a passion project. I want to keep it that way.
I also want to avoid legal issues for self-evident reasons.
No UA?
Too much changes between UA and official release.
The fewer corrections I have the do between UA changes, the better.
Obligatory Natural Crit Plug
Someone else made a thing that lets me make homebrews without having to post them on pastebin or something. They deserve a lot of credit for that.
Obligatory /tg/ Plug
The feedback I got from various Anons on this helped me build it into something that wasn't bad and stupid.
No Images?
Needed to get it under 8mb so I could upload it literally anywhere.
So what is this?
Just a listing of all my Fighting Style Changes (and the rationale for them).
Class Variants UA
The Class Variants UA gives a few new fighting styles, so I thought I'd roll them into here.
Combat Options
This writeup assumes you're using my Combat Options writeup.
No Mariner Fighting Style?
That's better handled as part of the Athlete feat to be perfectly honest. If it's not handled by the time you read this, just assume it's going to be.
No Cantrip Fighting Styles?
Probably better off handled in my feat/half-feat paradigm as it's just half of Magic Initiate.
Also, I already gave Paladins and Rangers cantrips without needing to give up their fighting style for it.
Fighting Style Purchasing
When a character gains an Ability Score Increase, they may spend one of the points provided to acquire a new fighting style.
Martial Versatility
Whenever you gain a level, you can replace a fighting style you know with another style available to your class. This change represents a shift of focus in your martial training and practice, causing you to lose the benefits of one style and gain the benefits of another style.
Fighting Style Options
Unless otherwise stated, there's no benefit to picking a fighting style more than once outside of picking one of the other options provided under the style.
Martial Adept
You learn two manoeuvers of your choice from among those available to the Battle Master archetype in the fighter class. If a manoeuver you use requires your target to make a saving throw to resist the manoeuver's effects, the saving throw DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).
You gain a number of superiority dice, equal to half your proficiency modifier. These dice are d4s (these dice are added to any superiority dice you have from another source). These dice is used to fuel your manoeuvers. A superiority die is expended when you use it.
These dice become d6s at 5th level, d8s at 9th, d10s at 13th, and d12s at 17th.
You regain your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest.
This style can be taken multiple times to acquire new manoeuvres and extra superiority dice.
Defensive Duellist
When you are wielding a finesse weapon with which you are proficient and another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can add your proficiency bonus to your AC for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you.
You can only do this a number of times equal to your Dexterity Modifier (minimum once) until the beginning of your next turn.
Martial Adept
One superiority die seems way too few in the higher levels, but its a big deal in the lower levels as it's 'baby smite that comes back on short rest'.
Giving a number equal to half proficiency modifier means that you're getting half of what my overhaul on Fighters get base (and a tiny fraction of what Battlemasters get).
Defensive Duellist
Increased the number of times it can be used to match Dex Mod and decoupled it from the reaction - the classes that would interested in using it have class-based reaction features that are more reliable for survivability anyway.
Cavalier
You gain the following benefits:
- You have advantage on saving throws made to avoid falling off your mount.
- If you fall off your mount and descend no more than 10 feet, you can land on your feet if you're not incapacitated.
- Mounting or dismounting a creature costs you only 5 feet of movement, rather than half your speed.
While you are mounted and aren't incapacitated, you gain the following benefits:
- You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.
- You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.
- If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
As a Mount
If you have this fighting style, and serve mount to another creature (such as the case of a Centaur), you may confer a version of these bonuses to that creature instead.
The following rules apply if you wish to be a mounted Cavalier:
- Your rider have advantage on saving throws made to avoid falling off you.
- If your rider falls off you and descends no more than 10 feet, they can land on their feet if they're not incapacitated.
- Mounting or dismounting you costs them only 5 feet of movement, rather than half their speed.
While you are serving as a mount and aren't incapacitated, you gain the following benefits:
- They have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than yourself.
- You can force an attack targeted at your rider to target you instead.
- If your rider is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
If you are conferring benefits to a rider with this fighting style, you cannot gain this feature's benefits from mounting another creature.
Fighting Style Weight
The UA confirmed it, but I suspected for a while that fighting styles were worth half a feat (because of the Fighter/Ranger/Paladin specific styles). Also confirmed that cantrips are worth a quarter of a feat. Make of that what you will.
Mount Rules
This will be expanded on properly in its own document, but the 'dependent/independent' dichotomy wasn't terribly fleshed out.
Scaling Mount
Main thing I want to cover here is that if a character is investing in this fighting style, they want their mount to be an extension of their character. To put another way: they want a mount that's not going to just spontaneously die on them the moment they're hit with a fireball (an issue with the purchasable mounts in the PHB).
So what I'd suggest is that it costs them a feat/ASI to have an animal companion that functions more like the Beastmaster animal companion (i.e. scales with level, revivable/replacable, etc.) if they want the whole 'Knight with trusty steed' fantasy.
As a Mount...
Centaurs are a player race.
Need I actually say more?
Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
This affects all additional damage added to the weapon attack, including effects such as Divine Smite and hunter's mark.
When you select this fighting style, choose one of the following options:
Heavy Weapons: While wielding a weapon with the heavy property, whenever you make a critical strike you may select one of the damage dice and set it to its maximum value. You may choose to do this before or after all 1s and 2s are rerolled.
Versatile Weapons: When you make a two-handed attack with a versatile weapon and miss, you may make an extra one-handed attack with that weapon.
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack. When you critically strike with a weapon attack while two-weapon fighting, you add your other hand's weapon damage die to the damage total.
You may use the attack provided by your bonus action to make disarm or shove checks. You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.
When you select this fighting style, choose one of the following options:
Dual Wielder: You can engage in two-weapon fighting without disadvantage, even if both the weapons used do not have the light property. So long as you have a different weapon in each hand, you gain +1 AC.
Light Weapons: Your critical window with weapons that have the light property is increased by 1.
(If you would crit on a 20, this feature allows you to crit on a 19 or a 20. If another feature would allow you to crit on a 19 or a 20, this feature allows you to crit on an 18 and so on).
Great Weapon Fighting
As it stands, it only gives +1 to your damage rolls, unless you allow it to reroll non-weapon damage dice. Given that I'm ripping apart Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master, I'm able to get the design room to add to it.
Clarified that it can work on non-weapon damage dice applied to the weapon attack because nearly every instance of that costs resources with limited uses to begin with.
- Heavy Weapons means that greatswords are more reliable damage on a crit, greataxes crit harder and have a higher damage ceilling... and I didn't have to specifically call them out.
- Versatile Weapons was originally a homebrew feat of mine, but I broke it up into the fighting style because... well, what I'm doing to fighting styles in general.
Two-Weapon Fighting
Giving a reason to actually bother past level 4 essentially, as anyone who would do well in TWF is probably better served just going Archery instead. (The utility of the extra damage falls off quickly if you don't have features that benefit from 'on-hit' effects like hunter's mark.)
- Dual Wielder is just the rest of the feat as a fighting style, where it probably should have belonged to begin with.
- Light Weapons is there to give light weapons a reason to exist in world where Dual Wielder is only a fighting style away.
Two Weapon Fighting Core Rules
Changed a couple words that will matter here. In essence, you can now go two weapon fighting without light weapons, but doing so does the offhand attack at disadvantage. The main hand weapon no longer has to be light.
Two Weapon Fighting
When you take the Attack action and attack with a melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative. If the bonus action attack is made with a weapon that does not have the Light property, that attack is made at disadvantage.
If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.
Sharpshooter
You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged attacks.
You do not need to keep a free hand to reload a ranged weapon you are holding.
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls and your ranged weapon attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
When you select this fighting style, you may choose one of the following features:
Thrown: You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to the damage roll.
Marksman: You ignore the loading property of weapons with which you are proficient.
Archer: When you hit with an attack with a ranged weapon without the loading or reload properties (such as Bows and Slings), you can add your Strength Modifier (Minimum 1) to the damage roll.
Vanguard
When you critically strike a creature, or reduce its HP to 0, with a weapon attack roll, you may spend either your bonus action or reaction to make a weapon attack. You may draw a new weapon to make this attack.
Both your Bonus Action and your Reaction may be spent on extra attacks by this feature on your turn.
Sentinel
Being unable to see a creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it.
This fighting style may be selected twice to acquire both Opportunist and Punisher features. If you do, you can make up to your Proficiency Modifier number of opportunity attacks without using your reaction until the start of your next turn.
(You can still use your reaction to make opportunity attacks)
When you select this fighting style, you may choose one of the following features:
Opportunist: When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you, you can make an opportunity attack against that creature.
You can make an opportunity attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach, or when they enter your reach.
Punisher: When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
Sharpshooter
Renamed from Archery, so I could use the word 'Archery' as one of the subtypes.
The previous version had a mini, 1d4 smite thing that cost bonus action attached to it (Basically Kensei shot), but damage wasn't the issue with Archery: it was the feat tax of Sharpshooter + Crossbow Expert.
So I rolled part of crossbow expert into the base Archery fighting style.
The stuff about hand crossbows can be dealt with elsewhere, but you can already kind of infer it just from the fact that the Light property is on the weapon's profile even in the PHB. The only thing that's really missing is the fact that Crossbow Expert as a feat allows the Hand Crossbow to be fired alongside non-light weapons (i.e. rapiers). Given that these Fighting Styles have a lower price attached (Essentially costing half a feat), I'm content leaving that specific case being a property of picking up both this and the Two Weapon Fighting style - Feat wise it's costing the same in the end.
Thrown is just imported in from the UA, it was a decent solution, credit where it's due.
Marksman The most important line of Crossbow Expert, now in a form that blowgun uses (all eight individual people on the planet) can appreciate.
Archer A reason for bows and slings to exist. "Why strength!?" You might angrily ask? Characters who were dumping strength were likely minmaxing into Crossbow Expert anyway, whereas handling it like this gives an avenue for bows to be potentially more powerful than crossbows, but at a clear opportunity cost. If it's not what you want out of bows, there's a good chance Vanguard has you covered anyway.
Vanguard
I moved a buffed version of the second half of Great Weapon Master over here (buffed in the sense that it's open to ranged weapons). It's not a bad design and I wanted to preserve it somewhere. This ended in a case of less is more, cutting out a lot of the wording means that it's now open to any weapon attack.
So this fighting style exists purely for characters who were never going to use their bonus action, or their reaction, on anything else anyway.
Sentinel
So one line of Polearm Master was ripped off and added in here. The other half (the bonus action 1d4 hit) will be part of the base profile of polearm weapons, so assume that to be the case.
It's the unholy combination of Sentinel, Tunnel Fighter, Blind Fighting and that Polearm Master line above (or to put another way, Sentinel and everything required to make Sentinel work).
Admittedly it's a mildly nerfed version of Tunnel Fighter, but the whole packet costs a feat.
Defense
You gain a +1 bonus to AC while wearing armour or under the effects of the mage armor spell.
When you select this fighting style, you may choose one of the following features:
Lightly Armoured: While wearing light armour or no armour, you gain 5 movement speed.
In addition, you may treat Chain Shirts as if they are light armour.
Moderately Armoured: Wearing medium armour doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
In addition, you can add 3, rather than 2, to your AC if you have a Dexterity of 16 or higher.
Heavily Armoured: While wearing heavy armour, when you are struck by an attack, you ignore up to your proficiency modifier in nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
If you are wearing magical armour, this effect extends to magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
Magically Armoured: You learn the mage armor spell and can cast it on yourself without expending a spell slot.
Unarmoured Defense
When you select this fighting style, you may select your choice of Constitution, Wisdom or Intelligence. While you are wearing no armor, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + the chosen modifier. You may benefit from this feature while using a shield. While gaining the benefits of this feature, you also gain 10 extra movement speed.
Protection
When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you within 5 ft of you, you can impose disadvantage on the attack. You may do this against a number of attacks equal to your proficiency modifier until the beginning of your next turn. You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this feature.
This fighting style may be selected twice to acquire both Interposition and Intervention features. If you do, you may use this feature to defend against attacks targing yourself as well.
When you select this fighting style, choose one of the following features:
Interposition: If the attack still hits the target of your Protection fighting style, you reduce the damage done to them by an amount equal to 1d10 + Your proficiency modifier. If you are using a shield, you reduce this by 1d12 + your proficiency modifier instead.
Intervention: If a creature within 15 ft. of you is struck by a weapon attack that you can see, you can spend your reaction to move directly towards them. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. When you spend your reaction this way, you must defend the creature you moved towards from the attack.
Defense
So the Moderately, and Heavily Armoured feats being rolled into here makes a lot of sense to me - a feat is way too high an opportunity cost for what they provided, but at the same time providing these for free is too powerful out the gate.
Light Armour is something that should already have been in the game in some form. Even the Warforged race entry show that the game assumes 13 to be the best base AC for the light armour class, yet the only way to get there is the mage armour spell.
Magically Armoured is a similar logic, given what mage armor provides, it's a bit powerful for a cantrip, but having it as a spell slot is also a bit high an asking price for what it does. It doesn't get extra love like the others because it gives you the spell, which sidesteps the need for proficiency at all. Anything more would make it better than the Lightly Armoured version.
Unarmoured Defense
I ummed, erred, and went back and forth on this one for so long. But in the end...
Well, in the end I dealt with the case that was making it impossible to balance (Bladesinger) by just changing it directly. I was concerned for a while about Int based Warlock abuse, but seeing as how I outline ways to curb Hexblade, (which was already using medium armour) and Warlocks have the invocation that does the Magically Armoured thing above as well, it seemed no more powerful than what Warlocks can already abuse.
Protection
The new Interposition fighting style is essentially 'better than Protection, but didn't fix the problem' (The problem being that it's unreliable due to being dependent on initiative and positioning).
But simply rolling it into what I had with Protection made it too powerful.
So instead, went with breaking Protection into a couple of forms, each form taking a different take on how to fix the problem.
Interposition essentially making the Protection strong enough to justify party members going out of their way to seek it.
Intervention giving the person with the fighting style the mobility to guarantee its use every round.
Both providing the ability to use it for yourself is my way of having 'shield spec' characters in the game.
Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
When you select this fighting style, choose one of the following features:
Sword and Board: When you roll initiative, you may don your shield alongside drawing your weapon. You may don or doff your shield as a bonus action. You may use your bonus action to make shove actions with a shield. This may be done before or after your weapon attacks.
Empty Hand: If you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and your other hand is empty, you may spend your bonus action to make a shove, grapple or disarm action, or unarmed strike.
Unarmed
Your unarmed strikes use a d4 for damage. Your unarmed strikes are also considered to have the finesse and light properties. You add your Ability Score Modifier to off-hand damage rolls made with your unarmed strikes. The die type of the damage improves with level, becoming a d6 at 5th level, a d8 at 9th, d10 at 13th, d12 at 17th.
If you would have improved Unarmed Strike damage from another source (such as a race's natural weapons, or a class ability such as the Monk's Martial Arts) then the damage of your unarmed strikes starts at d6 instead, becoming d8 at 5th, d10 at 9th, d12 at 13th and 2d6 at 17th.
This fighting style may be selected twice to acquire both Grappler and Brawler features. If you do, improvised weapons don't affect your ability to grapple (i.e. a hand holding an improvised weapon counts as a 'free hand').
When you select this fighting style, you may choose one of the following features:
Grappler: You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling. When you successfully start a grapple, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to the grappled creature. Until the grapple ends, you can also add this damage to the attack whenever you hit it with a melee attack.
In addition, Pinning a creature costs a weapon attack instead of your whole action and when you pin a creature, you do not suffer disadvantage when attacking other creatures. You no longer have to spend a weapon attack on your turn to maintain the pin.
Brawler: When you make an attack with an improvised weapon that would be destroyed by the attack (such as breaking a bottle on someone's head), you can add your unarmed damage die to the attack. You may pick up a new improvised weapon as part of your improvised weapon attacks.
When you succeed a weapon attack with an item that has the 'improvised' property that won't necessarily be destroyed by the attack (such as a makeshift shiv), you may choose to destroy it as part of the attack to gain this benefit (it cannot be repaired after).
Dueling
Dueling is a weird one in that it's appears to be written with a one handed weapon, and an empty hand in mind, but is phrased in such a way that sword and shield are permitted.
I ain't going to dwell too hard on Rules as Intended though, so I thought I'd just give rules for both options.
The Sword and Board option is there as a partial replacement for Shield Master (the rest of it broken into other rules). It also allows for shield using characters to switch it up and use versatile weapons in two hands if the occasion calls for it... for whatever reason.
Empty Hand might seem... well, empty here, I did a lot of work in the Combat Options writeup to make things like grappling worthwhile.
Unarmed
Tavern Brawler and Grappler was never exactly an optimal build. I wrote Grappler, and half of Tavern Brawler into the base rules anyway.
I know the UA took a completely different route on the damage, but I prefer scaling mechanics as a general rule.
- Grappler: If you're wondering what the pinning stuff is, I rolled the old grappler feat into the Combat Options writeup and just called the Restrain part of that feat 'pinning'.
- Brawler: Tavern Brawler, but buffed significantly with an on-demand smite that costs the weapon you've got at hand.
The benefits you gain for getting both Unarmed features, when combined with the Combat Options above, essentially means "so long as you're only using improvised weapons, you always have advantage on your grapple checks".