What should a one-handed style feat look like?

[Mr Adventurer]

Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, Polearm Mastery, Dual Wielder...

These are all a kind of fighting style feat that any character can take.

Shield Mastery is great for shields, but what if you one-hand and don't use a shield, or don't want Shield Mastery for some reason?

What should a feat to go into this space look like?

Options:

A -5 to hit, +10 damage option
A bonus action attack somehow
AC bonus

But what else, or what else unique?

Extra things to do with your free hand. Use an object for free, or as a bonus action, after a successful attack?

Start a grapple as a bonus action after an attack (like Tavern Brawler)?

Quick draw - drawing or sheathing a one handed weapon is free for you?

What would you like to see?

[LibraryOgre]

I'd lean towards an initiative bonus; you don't have to get everything arranged, can attack quicker.

[Nidgit]

I'd suggest that the Defensive Duelist and Martial Adept feats be combined, replace the finesse requirement with "wielding a weapon in only one hand", but severely limit the number of Maneuvers you could learn. So the idea would be something like you could optionally add to your AC as a reaction whenever you want, or once per short rest attempt to Party or Riposte the attack.

[redwizard007]

*snip*
A -5 to hit, +10 damage option
A bonus action attack somehow
AC bonus

But what else, or what else unique?

Extra things to do with your free hand. Use an object for free, or as a bonus action, after a successful attack?

Start a grapple as a bonus action after an attack (like Tavern Brawler)?

Quick draw - drawing or sheathing a one handed weapon is free for you?

What would you like to see?

-5/+10 - HELL NO
Bonus attack - NO WAY
AC bonus - REALLY?

Why? Because they are already done by other feats with better reasoning behind them. What possible justification do we have for "I hit really, really hard with my light weapon," "I'm magically fast because I only use one hand," and "my hand is a shield."

The other thoughts are solid places to start, but we really need some fresh ideas.

I can see some things like:

Hold This: in the course of combat you always seem to have handy objects within reach. As long as you have a free hand in combat you can reach something to use as an improvised thrown weapon. Picking this item up counts as your item interaction for the turn.

Wardrobe Malfunction: As long as you have a free hand in combat, once per round you can use one of your attacks to grab a humanoid foe's clothing or armor and pull it into an awkward position. The next attack against this target has advantage. (Or his attack could have disadvantage.) This ability has no effect if the opponent isn't clothed or armored.

Backhand: as a reaction you may make a single unarmed strike on any enemy that casts a spell from within 5' of you. If this forces a Concentration check, it is made at DC13 as long as you have a free hand in combat.

I'll take that: any time an opponent is disarmed within 5' of you and you have an empty hand, you may make a Dex save, DC 13, to catch the weapon.

Heads up: once per round, as long as you have a free hand in combat, if an adjacent ally is attacked you may use your reaction to pull him out of harm's way. This ability causes an adjacent ally to move 5' in any direction and provides disadvantage on the attacking creatures attacks against him for that turn.

I'm not suggesting all (or any) of these, but you should probably focus on things that utilize the free hand rather than trying to mimic other feats.

[MrStabby]

Riposte: Whenever you are subjected to an attack of opportunity you may use your reaction to make a singe attack against that target.
Well placed strikes: Whenever you make an attack you may chose to subtract 3 from the damage roll, if you do add 3 to your attack roll.
Agile footwork: You have advantage on all athletics and acrobatics checks to avoid being pushed or shoved prone.

[Kane0]

Defensive Duelist is definitely a place to start, you could probably change that around to be a more general purpose free-hand fighting feat than purely for an AC boosting reaction with a finesse weapon.

Some ideas:
- Ignoring damage resistance (with some limitation like once per turn or must not have disadvantage)
- Critical hits stop the target from healing or force a save vs exhaustion or some other status condition
- When you take B/P/S damage from an attack you can use your reaction to grant yourself resistance to that damage type until the start/end of your next turn
- When you use your bonus to do something that isn't a shove or attack your next weapon attack adds your prof bonus as extra damage
- extra object interactions per turn

[NOMster]

How about one that gives bonuses for versatile weapons?

Versatile Weapon Master


When you take the attack action and attack using only a weapon with the versatile property, the damage dice for the weapon increases by 1 size.
When you attack using only a weapon with the versatile property, you can make an attack with your back swing as a bonus action. This attack uses the same ability modifier and damage type as the primary attack. The damage die for this attack is a d4.
When wielding a versatile weapon with 2 hands and wearing no armor, your AC increases by 1.

[Elric VIII]

So, fencers use a one-handed weapon and use their "guard arm" to balance, allowing them to recover from attacks faster than swinging a big weapon around. So I'd say something that plays to that theme would be good. But, to be perfectly honest, in order to limit complexity and keep it somewhat balanced, you can probably take parts of the other style feats and combine them.

I'd opt for GWM and PAM together:

En Garde
Your skill with a lone weapon allows you to strike, recover, and riposte with amazing swiftness

On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
While you are wielding a one-handed or versatile weapon, and no shield or off-hand weapon, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach. You gain advantage on this attack.


This represents quick recovery and fast attacking ability. Like the other feats, it adds damage onto your abilities. The buff to the second ability, relative to PAM, is a compensation for the loss of damage from not having a reliable additional attack or raw damage boost. It also synergies nicely with rogues, for whom I expect this fighting style is geared. The wording of it allows the feat to work with both a single-handed dueling weapon and a hand-and-a-half style with a versatile weapon.

You could probably also add on a part about opportunity attacks against you having disadvantage, but that might encroach upon mobility's benefits.

[TwrLrd]

After reading the thread I quite like this idea and have been inspired for a version of this too. I have made a paladin for an upcoming campaign, strength based, sword and board, oath of devotion, picking up a feat like shield master would help him play defensively and improve his resilience to dexterity saves, but we're a small party (3) so something offensively minded would appeal. If he was a dexterity sword and board the feat wouldn't hold any value for me at all.

I think bonus action attacks can be justifiable, they should simply be conditional or limited somehow. The importance of this is that only two weapon fighting should have a reliable efficient bonus action attack, PAM does break this, but it does at least have a reduced damage die for it, I would change it in my own games (not that I know what I'd do), but I prefer to keep to RAW as much possible and not nerf stuff (at least assuming feats are allowed anyway).

The riposte idea I quite like and it is exceptionally flavourful for the main style this ought to cater to primarily, being the duellist with one weapon in one hand. For my draft feat I opened it up for use regularly as it means there is always a use for this feat once you're up in melee with someone.

For the finisher I put on the +10 damage feature with my own twist on it, making it risky to do so. It maybe a bit over the top, but I very much liked the aggressive risk taking flavour these made for the feat.

Duelling Master
You've learned to push the limits of a single weapon in your hand, embracing risk and bravado your opponent is always off-guard when you turn aggressive.


When you take the Attack action using weapons that do not have the two-handed property that you are proficient with, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with a weapon you used again. Using this bonus action against the opponent means their next melee attack against you has advantage while you've over extended.
Before you make a melee attack with a weapon not featuring the heavy property, but that you are proficient with, you can choose to provoke attacks of opportunity from everyone whose reach you are in. Before they resolve, if you hit with your attack you add +10 to the attack's damage as you pull in closer to your enemy for a moment. After resolving the attack of opportunity, if you were hit, your turn ends.
When you are melee attacked by an opponent, outside of your turn, after it has resolved you quickly recover and may use your reaction to melee attack them before they recover as if they had provoked an attack of opportunity.


If I get my GM to allow this feat I'll resist saying Leroy Jenkins till I get an epic moment to charge in.