What martial archetypes would you like to see supported?

[mer.c]

One of my goals with my martial balance overhaul has been to bring unsupported or under supported fighting styles up to snuff. I've got a number of them plugged in and pretty well-balanced, but I also wanted to see what people here would like to see added!

From RAW, we have:

2-handed weapon (rebalanced)
Dual-wielding (major rework)
Sword-and-board (slight tweak)
Polearm fighter (major rework)
Bow (tweaks)
Crossbow (very minor tweak)
And then class-based things like Rogue, Monk, and various flavors of Gish

So far, I've also added support for:

Open-handed duelist (minor feat support)
Versatile-weapon duelist (major feat and minor style support)
Throwing-weapon specialist (major feat and feature support)
Non-monk staff fighter (major feat support)

So, what sorts of things are we still missing? And what's on your laundry list of features you'd like to see supporting them?

[Misterwhisper]

A non-monk unarmed combatant.

A sniper specialist rogue

Possibly a rogue with some non-finesse options

Also no real need for a non-monk staff fighter, plenty of people use a quarterstaff pam.

[PastorofMuppets]

I’d like to see more capture focused fighting styles. I’m thinking maybe a ranger based bounty hunter class. Proficiency in nets or fighting chains, bolos or lassos or for the really mean harpoons or a weaponized grappling hook. I’m not sure the grappling rules are sufficient to work off of for such a thing but there don’t seem like an abundance of “bring them in alive” options for the non magical folks.

[Man_Over_Game]

A few thing that come to mind:


More options for brute force combat, meaning options for Barbarians/Fighters than just dealing damage every turn. Maybe they shove enemies as they fight, maybe they break weapons, knock enemies into one another, etc.
Some sort of counterstrike option. Enemy misses, you strike a lethal blow. Maybe somehow tied into the Dodge action and grants advantage for a reactionary attack (good for melee rogues).
Punishment for players to be swapping weapons in the thick of combat, to force more importance on the tactics when changing from ranged combat to melee. As of the normal state of the game, ranged combat is king, and there's no reason to stop shooting until someone is literally in your face. For me, this translates to non-light weapons granting attacks of opportunity when drawn, to draw more beneficial qualities to light weapons as a sidearm. Maybe you can come up with your own solution.
More combat support for jumping.

[KorvinStarmast]

I want a fighter version of the swashbuckler who fights unarmored, dex and proficiency bonus (or
half proficiency bonus) added to armor class, two weapon fighting (rapier and dagger/long sword and dagger) is a class feature ... no higher base armor than a chain shirt but it unlocks at a later level? ... something like the broad sword and dagger fighting style. Current rules are bit too clunky for that.

[Max_Killjoy]

Things I haven't found yet, but not sure if that's me or it's actually missing:

More explicit support for the "smart" fighter.
More options and explanation for improvised weapons.

[GlenSmash!]

Versatile Weapon combatant(s)

Long and Short Dual wielder.

Feats or fighting styles would work more for me than archetypes.

[Willie the Duck]

Possibly a rogue with some non-finesse options

A Strogue being able to use a non-finesse weapon would be rather nice (longsword and grapple being an obvious choice).

Also:

While Tavern brawler does a good job of capturing the guy who wants to fight with frying pans and beer steins, the guy with martial weapon proficiency but wants to fight with simple weapons (the 'mace and/or spear' professional soldier) is only represented by deliberately not picking a better option. Something that gives you some perk for it would not be amiss, since those are in fact weapons of soldiers.
Likewise, the club is almost unused (other than as Shillelagh target if you don't have PAM), since simple-weapon-users have little incentive to do a Str-based twf build. A club specialist would be an interesting concept.
While nets and tridents are genuinely not weapons of war (and their use in gladiatorial arenas probably because they get low-lethality, drawn-out fights), the imagery is still rather nice and it would be nice if they were competitive choices. Instead of trying to fix the weapons, an archetype or fighting style fix would be a plausible solution.
The whole 'refluff anything not on the weapons chart' concept works well for calling nunchuku=> club. For all those neat chain and rope-based okinowan (and other) weapons, the matchup with whips or other things is a little more tenuous. These also could get a write-up and maybe a specialist who capitalizes on them well.

[Damon_Tor]

One of my goals with my martial balance overhaul has been to bring unsupported or under supported fighting styles up to snuff. I've got a number of them plugged in and pretty well-balanced, but I also wanted to see what people here would like to see added!

From RAW, we have:

2-handed weapon (rebalanced)
Dual-wielding (major rework)
Sword-and-board (slight tweak)
Polearm fighter (major rework)
Bow (tweaks)
Crossbow (very minor tweak)
And then class-based things like Rogue, Monk, and various flavors of Gish

So far, I've also added support for:

Open-handed duelist (minor feat support)
Versatile-weapon duelist (major feat and minor style support)
Throwing-weapon specialist (major feat and feature support)
Non-monk staff fighter (major feat support)

So, what sorts of things are we still missing? And what's on your laundry list of features you'd like to see supporting them?

I'll second the throwing weapon specialist. I made a homebrew feat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?574776-Homebrew-quot-Throwing-Mastery-quot-Feat-Thoughts&p=23531275#post23531275) for a player in one of my games. She's been making great use of it for two levels now.

As for what's missing from your list, I'd say features that interact with grappling in a significant way are needed: right now monks need it the worst simply because a grappling monk is an archetype that should absolutely be viable but really isn't.

[diplomancer]

throwing expert

[Millstone85]

A stance fighter. Something like:

When you roll initiative, choose one of the following stances. You stay in this stance for 1 minute.

Blurry Mosquito
You can give advantage to your weapon attack. You must then subtract the lesser d20 from the damage it deals.

Cornered Rat
When a creature hits you with a melee attack, you can make a melee weapon attack against it as a reaction.

Spitting Cobra
When a creature moves within 10 feet of you, you can make a ranged weapon attack against it as a reaction.

[Max_Killjoy]

A stance fighter. Something like:

When you roll initiative, choose one of the following stances. You stay in this stance for 1 minute.

Blurry Mosquito
You can give advantage to your weapon attack. You must then subtract the lesser d20 from the damage it deals.

Cornered Rat
When a creature hits you with a melee attack, you can make a melee weapon attack against it as a reaction.

Spitting Cobra
When a creature moves within 10 feet of you, you can make a ranged weapon attack against it as a reaction.

Why not "until your next initiative roll"?

[iTreeby]

A gladiator that gives bonuses to using a net and spear. Maybe bonus action taunt ability, maybe a bonus ac equal to the number of attacks made against it since its turn. Maybe letting you build some less used weapons weapon styles.

[Millstone85]

Why not "until your next initiative roll"?Flavor. Would the fighter still be in their combat stance a whole hour after the fight?

[djreynolds]

Something combining dex and strength.

Someone with 20 in dexterity and strength, should be terrifying with a greatsword or longbow.

Since both are attack stats, maxing out both is difficult.

[GlenSmash!]

Flavor. Would the fighter still be in their combat stance a whole hour after the fight?

1 minute also puts it right in line with things like Rage and Guardian of Nature.