The illustrated Art of being Unpleasant

Combat Maneuvers & Rule Miscelanea

Mostly minor adaptations from the core book this time around, for the most part I did little more than dismember some feats or mine the monster manual and incorporate what I found back into the general maneuver list. Fifth edition feats seem to have been made in loose accordance with Cortney Campbell’s definition of the useful feat – already some signs pointing to OSR influence upon the mainstream – it is a design philosophy that I too believe in,  which maintains, among other things, that feats should not be things that allow characters to do basic maneuvers (like charging or parrying), but rather that improve upon the general capabilities already at any character’s disposal.

I ransacked Lamentations of the Flame Princess’s weird pages for inspiration, integrated a few maneuvers from the DMG, tweaked some targetting restrictions, nothing fancy. It should be noted that the PHB does the right thing by keeping maneuvers simple, general and few in number, with a couple of cases from which a referee can extrapolate whatever is needed.

I skipped wholly over prize gems such as “attack”, “ranged attack”, “use object”, “hide” and “search”, as they’re either obvious or I don’t consider them to be combat maneuvers at all.

For the places that I deemed needed more than just some touching-up:

Opportunity Attacks

Basically, it is to be assumed that if you’re focusing on anything other than holding a melee weapon in close quarters, the other guy will try to run you through.

This includes Ranged Attacks and Spellcasting within the enemy’s reach, since both of these are instances in which the caster/shooter is in combat while positively not focusing on wielding a melee weapon. If this won’t prompt an opportunity attack, I don’t know what will.

Threat reach

Characters moving freely within an enemy’s reach is something that rankled right from the first take when seen at the table. I changed this so that characters within enemy reach must tread as though in difficult terrain or trigger an attack. It’s a compromise between 4E’s “single side-step” and 5E’s near-total lack of restrictions. 

Dash

Tightened up the wording and restricted its use to characters who have already spent their entire movement breaking into a run while also requiring that the extra move be made in the same direction as the movement before.

Charge

This was for me the maneuver that launched a thounsand hacks. 

I understand that its relegation to feat status was probably due to it demanding that the character obey a few situational requirements, meaning it wasn’t “new user friendly”. At any rate I reintroduce it, though the requirements are stringent (since dashing becomes harder to trigger), meaning its use is to be but occasional, probably limited to a skirmish’s first contact.

Disengage

Minor but significant change. It just felt too artificial for me to have creatures neatly walk away from near-engulfment by large groups of enemies. I appreciate that this maneuver is better off as staying dicelesss but it’s too irrestricted and means that mobs have little chance of, well, mobbing an opponent.

Parry

Adapted from the (rather irrealistic) feat. This is one I’m not very sure about, but wanted characters to have defensive options while not rejiggering the balance, so the bonus is small and intended mostly for PC use.

Feint

Pretty much all of the book’s mundane at-will sources of Advantage, with “Help” standing out in particular, grate on me profoundly. Since I plan to fiddle with the general rules for teamwork, there was no way I was letting this stay as is. Added some versatility to compensate for the fact that it now requires a roll, meaning no more “Advantage on demand”.

Grapple (and Pinning)

Cleaned up the wording and opened an option for clinching that was locked behind a feat. Also inserted the LotFP clause for restricting attacks to sidearms while in a tussle. Dagger groundfighting here we go.

Shields & Blades shall be sundered

A different take on an old classic. Basically a way to keep equipment attrition happening instead of fading into obscure irrelevance. Although there is no specific “Sunder” maneuver, as I consider that such a thing occurs in combat not so much deliberately as more a result of ill fortune, there are plenty of ways (Fumbles, parrying heavy weaponry, thrown weapons missing their target) to call for breakage checks.

Dual Wielding

Here I took the opposite direction of the PHB and reintroduced the classic DEX minimum to employ this fighting style. I don’t care about democratization in this one instance. Reconfigured the penalty too, taking away the bonus to hitting instead of to damage, improving the stance’s logic and to reward the fact that you have your damage output dependent on two discrete rolls. Switching the restriction around means it’s still flawed but seems better to my eyes than the PHB version.

Spellcasting in Combat

Thanks to LotFP, a clean and neat dampener to casting while in combat: if you took damage earlier in the round, you must succeed in a Concentration save or forfeit casting for that round.

Maneuver Improvisation and Stunts

Cemented a few more guidelines for improvisation at the table. It could be argued that this is strictly Referee-ruling procedure, but I kind of want players to keep the possibilities in mind and make use of them, which is why I’ve placed this on the maneuver list, so that it’ll burrow into their subconscious.

Lastly, a couple of not-so-minor changes, with which I open the door to experimenting with player narrative control:

Critical Hits

Influenced by Zak Smith, I propose two options for critical hits:

1) The doubling of damage (a total also made to interact with equipment breakage), upgraded in lethality with explodable dice, put into place so that low damage weapon users don’t default to the narrative control.

2) Rolling normal damage, the player is then granted narrative control to make what he will of the hit, being free to maim, gouge, cripple or just add a stylish touch.

Here’s where the lid comes off. Other than straight up killing your opponent (which nets him a save), the sky’s the limit. I’m very curious to see what players come up with, given the opportunity.

I also worried for the characters’ integrity at the claws of critting monsters, since statistics are not exactly on the players’ side, thus deciding to place some restrictions on the DM side of things, while still retaining a feeling of tension.

Fumbles

Brought in line with the critical hits, this becomes a provider for a watered down level of narrative control. For the DM, this changes little, since he already was doing the fumbles for everyone including the PCs, so its the players’ input that remains to be seen.

yellow marker

I hope you like