[3.P] Letting Everyone Bull Rush, Trip, Disarm, Etc. - How does balance change?

[Endarire]

Intro
Bull Rush. Trip. Disarm. Overrun. Grapple. Sunder.

These combat maneuvers are notoroius for being neglected, save for the super specialists. Newbies often don't realize they can do such things. Veterans are often apathetic toward these complex, "suboptimal" options.

I believe one major reason is that warriors are expected to hit things, not use these 'advanced' maneuvers. I disagree with this notion, and believe more people should benefit from using these maneuvers.

Proposal
-In 3.5, adopt Pathfinder's CMB and CMD system (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering---final/combat---final#TOC-Combat-Maneuvers).

-Nix the AoO. Why spend an action to try to trip someone 'untrained' when I can just do more damage by hitting him normally and with no AoO?

Results
As DM, I may have more enemies using bull rush, disarm, and so on. Players may adopt these options, too.

Balance-wise, I'm unsure how the game will change. What are your experiences and thoughts?

[Temotei]

Trip and bull rush aren't really underused.

Getting rid of attacks of opportunity for these attempts doesn't really affect balance all that much. Fighters will still full attack a lot of the time; they'll just use trips, disarms, and such along with ordinary attacks. Maybe.

[Latronis]

Grapple sees a little use too

[Nero24200]

I personally wouldn't mind this at all. I've always hated how D'n'D punishes melee for using actions other than "I hit it". I would love to see players attempting manouvres like tripping and disarming more often.

[Temotei]

Grapple sees a little use too

That's true, though I often avoid it just because it's far too much work. :smallsigh: