Martial Prowess DM's Checklist

Frequently Asked Questions

Changelog 2.5:

• Fixed Greataxe table inconsistencies.
• Light Hammer gains Finisher, Paired Weapon techniques. Handaxe gains Finisher.
• Javelin range increased to 60/240.
• Charge now adds damage based on your Extra Attacks, if you hit with Strength.
• Sprint now adds the hit die roll to Athletics checks until end of turn. Power-tackle someone, or jump way farther!
• Defense Fighting Style no longer requires an advanced style to increase to +2 AC. Elder Mountain removed.
• Unarmed/Tiger Claw and Pugilism now include improvised weapons in their description. Still have to get improvised fighting proficiency from somewhere, though.
• Fencing no longer increases die size, but adds proficiency bonus to superiority die rolls - a true weapon master using skill with maneuvers. Advanced stances shouldn't feel "necessary" to every build.
• Added Supremacy as a subfeature to Superiority dice, allowing the user to add damage to their maneuvers in a similar way to upcasting a spell.
• Branding Spellstrike pierces illusions and invisibility for the attack it modifies, rather than being an on-hit effect like branding smite.
• Chilling Spellstrike is now an action (no longer on-hit) and AOE
• Ground Eruption gains knockdown at 10th level.
• Unstable Emanation extends duration to start of next turn, and to one minute at 10th level.
• Heroic Might adds double the die roll to base Strength for the heroic act, making those long jumps longer.
• Sundering Strike no longer requires a bonus action at level 10.
• Inciting Strike die result bonus increased to two. One point of expanded crit threat is mathematically a low chance of being good, even with multiple attackers.
• Word of Authority, War Master's Charge, Phalanx Formation, Absolute Territory level requirements reduced.

Changelog 2.4:

• Instances of "ranged weapon attack" revised to "ranged attack", similarly with "melee weapon attack"
• Small adjustments to language for techniques to clarify what bonuses count: "When a technique deals damage to a creature, you can add any appropriate bonus from your weapon or class features to the damage roll, such as a barbarian's rage bonus or a flametongue's fire damage, but not an effect that triggers on a hit, such as sneak attack or smite.
• Disarm pushes the disarmed item 15 feet from the target, rather than dropping at the feet. Cinematic and increases tactical choice.
• Added Brutal property to sling, sickle, cestus.
• Added to the Covert property: sneak attacks with these weapons deal additional damage (d8s instead of d6s). Rogues start preferring daggers to rapiers around level 5-7.
• Siege works with Sunder.
• Added Swashbuckler to subclasses that gain techniques.
• Heavy Crossbow gains Split Shot; this could also be flavored as a penetrating shot that punches through one enemy into another.
• Abwenden attack roll is at disadvantage against a larger opponent
• Simplified armor damage rules for Crushing Blow and Piercing Strike, which can be fixed with an action or regaining hit points. The maneuver Sundering Strike is stronger, and lasts until armor is repaired (1hr) or the creature gets magical healing/rests.
• Weapon Master feat rolled into Fighting Initiate (Revised). The latter no longer grants a half-feat. Now with just one feat, the martial-curious can dip into techniques, stances and/or maneuvers.
• Added "starts in" to damage conditions for Thrash.
• I was finding that martials didn't get quite enough stances to encourage changing stances - it's often better to take an advanced stance and maneuvers than multiple basics, and martials only got 3 total stances. Martials gain 2 stances, instead of 1, for each instance of extra attack. This gives most martials 1 upgraded, 1 basic, and 1 maneuver (4 total) and fighters multiple advanced stances at higher levels. Champion only gets one bonus stance at level 10, but gains two at level 11 now so it largely balances out.
• Bulwark is now a choice made at the start of your turn, allowing the advantage to be used on grapples and shoves, but the effect only lasts as long as you have THP. Damage threshold is rare enough that I removed the "adds 10" effect from Bastion.
• Savagery updated; instead of getting advantage on each die, you reroll all dice and take the higher result. Since this is considerably weaker, added scaling based on proficiency bonus. However, this CAN affect saving throw techniques like Cleave or Shattering Clobber.
• Pugilism can also shove as a BA.
• Swarming clarifies that magical bonuses from your second weapon are added to the damage roll.
• Wind Sickle, upgrade to Thrown-Weapon Fighting, added.
• Superiority dice from the feat/alternate feature increase in size when you take Superior Technique multiple times, but only gain one additional die instead of two.
• Ki-Fueled Superiority no longer references Superior Technique.
• Roguish, Ki-Fueled, and Raging Technique changed to Superiority, to reduce confusion with the earlier section of Weapon Techniques
• Raging Superiority now replaces Brutal Critical.
• Feinting Attack is now a bait-into-reprisal maneuver, rather than another way to gain advantage.
• Steel Wind Strike & Sweeping Attack add damage at 15th level. AOE/multi-enemy hits should scale due to the HP bloat at higher levels.
• Wind Slash now adds ability modifier to damage
• Dirty Trick no longer requires Combat Superiority, triggers on a hit and uses a bonus action.
• Crippling Strike's speed reduction increased to 5x die roll, giving it a halfway decent chance of knocking a dragon out of the sky with two hits.
• Salamander Charge now scales at level 15.
• Mighty Throw's distance reworked, damage increased.
• Disrupting Strike language updated to "begins to cast a spell"

Changelog 2.3:

• Introduction revised
• War Whip added finesse
• Shortsword, Swordbreaker added reserve
• Backswing property changed to Brutal, adding 1d4 to criticals.
• Reserve property also negates restrained
• Disarm, Sunder use two attacks (or an action) rather than one.
• Flee action added.
• Flexible Flurry reverted to +1 AC.
• Thrash technique added for whip, war whip, and flail.
• War whip no longer has Bracing.
• Savagery can be used with ranged weapons, and only affects weapon dice, not damage dice.
• Adamant Earthquake now a 1-turn knockdown, w/legendary resist burn
• Interception can be used on attacks that hit you, at 10th level.
• Added natural weapons to Unarmed Fighting and Pugilism.
• Roguish Technique now provides access to a subsection of techniques at level 5, trading sneak attack damage for applying conditions. Changes to maneuvers take this into account.
• Absolute Territory now adds the superiority die instead of replacing the weapon die
• Punishing Strike: removed level req
• Chilling Spellstrike now deals damage only to target, with AOE slow effect (-10 speed)
• Wind Slash: small guaranteed damage rather than a saving throw.
• Cunning Strike: removed, too similar to Punishing Strike
• Mugging adds damage rather than bonus to steal/plant roll.
• Added: Piercing Shot as a ranged version of Sweeping Attack