Off-Brand Uses of Battlemaster Maneuvers

[Sparky McDibben]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but has anyone tried letting their players use battlemaster maneuvers for things other than combat?

A few examples:

Menacing Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Intimidation) check, or half your Superiority Die result if attempting to intimidate a crowd.
Evasive Footwork - Add your Superiority Die result to one Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check
Feinting Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Deception) check


There's probably a ton more of these (Riposte opens up some interesting opportunities), but has anyone already done the work on this?

[LudicSavant]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but has anyone tried letting their players use battlemaster maneuvers for things other than combat?

A few examples:

Menacing Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Intimidation) check, or half your Superiority Die result if attempting to intimidate a crowd.
Evasive Footwork - Add your Superiority Die result to one Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check
Feinting Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Deception) check


There's probably a ton more of these (Riposte opens up some interesting opportunities), but has anyone already done the work on this?

Sounds like an interesting idea. Fighters could really use more non-combat stuff.

[MrStabby]

Cool idea.

My only sadness is that it really only helps one type of fighter.

[cutlery]

Cool idea.

My only sadness is that it really only helps one type of fighter.

Yep; you could easily give each fighter archetype a free skill and they'd still lag behind.

Battlemaster: Insight
Champion: Intimidation
Eldritch Knight: Arcana
Samurai: Already gets a bonus, but give them Persuasion on top
Cavalier: Like samurai; give them performance on top.
Arcane Archer: Delete me
Banneret: Gets Persuasion, give them history or performance on top

[Sparky McDibben]

Wow, I really thought this had been done already. Alright, I'll get to work.

Samurai already have a bit of their social aspect built in (afb, but don't they have Persuasion proficiency?)

I'll think about expanding this idea for other fighter subclasses, too.

[x3n0n]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but has anyone tried letting their players use battlemaster maneuvers for things other than combat?

A few examples:

Menacing Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Intimidation) check, or half your Superiority Die result if attempting to intimidate a crowd.
Evasive Footwork - Add your Superiority Die result to one Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check
Feinting Attack - Add your Superiority Die result to one Charisma (Deception) check


There's probably a ton more of these (Riposte opens up some interesting opportunities), but has anyone already done the work on this?

It's not exactly the same thing, but the Class Feature Variants UA has a few new proposed maneuvers that are specifically for non-attack uses.

One lets you add a superiority die to Dex/Stealth or initiative,
another ("Studious Eye"?) lets you add one to Wis/Insight or Int/Investigation, and
one ("Silver Tongue"?) for Cha/Deception or Persuasion.

Potentially coming in Tasha's.

[Monster Manuel]

It's not exactly the same thing, but the Class Feature Variants UA has a few new proposed maneuvers that are specifically for non-attack uses.


The thing I like about OP's idea is that it's adding the possibility of non-attack uses for existing maneuvers, whereas with the UA maneuvers coming in Tasha's, you have to spend a maneuver "slot" for a purely (or, at least mostly) noncombat ability.

If one of the complaints against martials is that they are weak outside of the combat pillar, tacking some more versatility of use to the kit they already have does a better job of fixing that.

On the other hand, if you allow menacing strike to be used to intimidate outside of combat, that does make the silver tongue maneuver in Tasha's a little redundant....

Mechanically, the trick is that you have to re-word the maneuvers so they can trigger off of something other than an attack. Here's where the noncombat maneuvers from Tasha's will be helpful: we just use similar wording to what they come up with there, for consistency.

[Chronos]

Yeah, I like this: The fighter is still primarily a combatant, and the reason you're taking those maneuvers is still primarily for their use in combat, but it expands your options a bit outside of combat.

Now we just need to find ways to do something similar for the other fighter subclasses.

[Rara1212]

Yeah, I like this: The fighter is still primarily a combatant, and the reason you're taking those maneuvers is still primarily for their use in combat, but it expands your options a bit outside of combat.

Now we just need to find ways to do something similar for the other fighter subclasses.

Could move Battlemaster to the base Fighter chassis, perhaps remove one or 2 of their extra ASI's to compensate.

[Sparky McDibben]

Could move Battlemaster to the base Fighter chassis, perhaps remove one or 2 of their extra ASI's to compensate.

That sounds like redesigning the entire fighter class, which was a bit more effort for any DM to use that content. I'm looking to give DMs more options to allow their players to interact with the game world.