Stances--A new "maneuver" mechanism for all Fighters

[PhoenixPhyre]

This is kinda a spitball Proof of Concept for adding new things for Fighters.

Edit: v2: additions in green, deletions struck out

All fighters learn to enter stances at level 2. Entering a stance requires a bonus action that can only be taken if you’re not in a stance; the stance lasts until you end it on your turn (no action) or by using the active ability or are incapacitated. Once you leave a stance, you can’t re-enter itthat same stance until you spend at least one minute re-centering yourself (ie once per combat). Each stance provides a passive benefit and an active ability you can use; using that ability ends the stance immediately.

Stances improve when you reach Nth level (N to be decided later), granting the improved effect, which stacks with the passive.

Stances so far: (Names are largely placeholders)

Thicket of Blades
Passive: You can make an Opportunity Attack even if you’ve already used your reaction this round.
Improved: When you hit with an Opportunity Attack while in this stance, the target is Marked (see DMG) until the end of their next turn.
Active: As an action, make a melee attack roll against all enemies within your reach. Any target hit takes normal damage and is Marked (see DMG) until they successfully hit you.

Shielding Bulwark
Requires a wielded shield
Passive: You provide ¾ cover instead of ½ cover to allies.
Improved: You gain ¾ cover against ranged attacks and effects that require Dexterity saving throws and cause half damage on a success.
Active: When an enemy misses you with a melee attack or begins casting a spell with verbal or somatic components within 5 feet of you, you use your reaction to make a melee attack with your shield as if it were a martial weapon (1d6 bludgeoning) with which you are proficient. If it hits, the target is stunned until the beginning of their next turn. If they were casting a spell, the spell fails.

Punisher
Requires a melee weapon with the heavy property
Passive: When you miss with a melee weapon attack, the target takes damage (of the weapon’s damage type) equal to half your Strength modifier.
Improved: Enemies cannot benefit from abilities and spells that increase their armor class (such as shield or parry) against your attacks.
Active: When you make a melee weapon attack, you can declare it to be a critical hit instead of rolling the attack roll. The damage dealt by this special critical hit is maximized.
Options (I'll pick one)
1. Active: When you miss with a melee weapon attack, you can declare it to have hit instead.
2. Active: When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you can choose to maximize the damage dealt instead of rolling the damage dice.

Sprinter
Passive: While this stance is active, your speed is increased by 15 feet.
Improved: While this stance is active, you can Disengage as a bonus action.
Active: When you are targeted by an attack or an ability that targets an area, you can use your reaction to move up to your speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks. If this movement places you outside the reach or range of the attack or outside the targeted area, you are unaffected by the attack or ability.

Diplomat
Passive: You have proficiency with Charisma (Persuasion) Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Improved: You have expertise with Charisma (Persuasion) Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Active: When you or an ally you can see and hear within 30' of you makes a Charisma check in a social situation and the other party is not already friendly, the creature is considered as being friendly for the purposes of that check.

Dervish (Added v2)
Requires a melee weapon in each hand.
Passive: While in this stance, you can make one attack with the TWF bonus action for every attack you can make with the Attack Action.
Improved: If you hit the same target with an attack from both the Attack Action and the TWF bonus action, the target takes an additional die of the weapon damage from the TWF attack. This extra damage can only be dealt to a single target once per turn.
Active: As an action, make a melee weapon attack with each weapon against all creatures within your reach. These attacks are made at advantage.

Sweeping Strikes (Added v2)
Cannot be entered with more than one weapon in your hands.
Passive: When you make an attack roll and roll greater than 10 on the die, you can cause a different creature within 5’ of the target to take damage of the weapon’s type equal to the modifier used for the attack.
Improved: The passive effect now triggers on every attack, successful or not, unless you roll a natural 1 on the attack roll.
Active: As an action, all creatures within your reach must make a Dexterity saving throw against a DC of 8 + your weapon attack bonus. On a failed save, creatures take NdY damage of the wielded weapon’s type. On a success, the target must use its reaction to step out of your reach if possible, provoking Opportunity Attacks as normal.

Mountainbreak (Added v2)
Passive: You ignore the damage threshold of objects when you attempt to break them.
Improved: You deal maximum damage when you hit objects with a weapon attack.
Active: As an action, choose an object within your reach. Make a melee attack roll against it. On a hit, the object breaks if it is Large or smaller or is a segment of wall no larger than 10x10x5. Larger objects take NdM damage instead.

Seeking Arrow (Added v2)
Passive: You no longer have disadvantage when making ranged weapon attacks at long range.
Improved: You no longer have disadvantage when making ranged weapon attacks against creatures you cannot see.
Active: When you hit with a ranged weapon attack, you can choose to sacrifice any additional attacks you can make this turn. If you do so, the damage dealt by the attack increases by 1d8 + half of your Dexterity modifier for each attack sacrificed.

Still need:
* A stance for 1H weapons
* A stance for ranged weapons
* Stances for Intelligence checks
* Others?
* QC pass
* Better names. Naming things is hard

[mcumoric]

Damn, I love this idea,
Ngl, it's a simple way of making fighters way more fun to play.

(I might ask to use this variant rule next homebrew game I play a fighter in)

[aimlessPolymath]

Interesting. Going by the 'one stance per weapon type, plus a few general stances' pattern I see, it looks like the intent is something along the lines of a more potent/distinct combat style? Switching stances for the purpose of adaptation seems heavily discouraged between the 1 minute cooldown after ending a stance and the bonus action cost to enter a stance.

A bonus action to enter a stance notably messes a bit with Sprinter, which requires a bonus action for its Active effect, as well as with TWF in general. This is particularly nasty for Sprinter, since I think you usually want movement to close with an enemy (but you can't get the bonus action dash during round 1), or to run away (but it takes you a round before you get the first bonus-action dash).

Punisher active is pretty brutal with Paladin smites, and Fighter is already a fairly popular 2-level dip just off action surge- is this intended to replace an existing feature, or add on to what's already there?

A non-combat stance is somewhat surprising- it doesn't seem to gel with the rest of the stance mechanics since other stances don't have noncombat effects (so the one stance limit doesn't apply), and the cooldown on the active ability is a bit messy (when during a conversation do you actually make the skill check?). Does a fighter know all stances by default, or just some?

[JNAProductions]

I'll echo that Punisher is too brutal. Even on a Fighter alone that makes every single attack you make form levels 2-4 a crit with max damage.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I'll echo that Punisher is too brutal. Even on a Fighter alone that makes every single attack you make form levels 2-4 a crit with max damage.

The Punisher attack is one per combat. Using the Active Ability for any stance ends the stance, and you can't re-enter until you take a minute of downtime. I guess I need to make that more clear.

The idea is that you activate the stance and then decide: Do I end the stance for one big thing (and then have to switch to a different stance) or do I keep it up for the passive?


Interesting. Going by the 'one stance per weapon type, plus a few general stances' pattern I see, it looks like the intent is something along the lines of a more potent/distinct combat style? Switching stances for the purpose of adaptation seems heavily discouraged between the 1 minute cooldown after ending a stance and the bonus action cost to enter a stance.

A bonus action to enter a stance notably messes a bit with Sprinter, which requires a bonus action for its Active effect, as well as with TWF in general. This is particularly nasty for Sprinter, since I think you usually want movement to close with an enemy (but you can't get the bonus action dash during round 1), or to run away (but it takes you a round before you get the first bonus-action dash).

Punisher active is pretty brutal with Paladin smites, and Fighter is already a fairly popular 2-level dip just off action surge- is this intended to replace an existing feature, or add on to what's already there?

A non-combat stance is somewhat surprising- it doesn't seem to gel with the rest of the stance mechanics since other stances don't have noncombat effects (so the one stance limit doesn't apply), and the cooldown on the active ability is a bit messy (when during a conversation do you actually make the skill check?). Does a fighter know all stances by default, or just some?

The idea is to have lots of stances. And the cooldown is per stance, not global. So the intent is that you enter a stance on your first turn, then when you decide you want the active ability, you burn that stance and switch to a different one. So, for instance, a SnB fighter might start in Shielding Bulwark stance, burn the stance for the active ability, then switch to Thicket of Blades (or a hypothetical 1H stance). Or a 2H fighter starts in Punisher but burns the 1x/combat guaranteed max crit and switches to a "sweeping" stance (allowing cleaves). Etc. Ideally you'd have a stance up basically all the time unless you get incapacitated (which I need to add--being incapacitated should drop you out of the stance, because, well, fiction).

As for punisher, I'd say (and probably rewrite) the thing to make sure it only maximizes the weapon dice, not things like smites.

As for the non-combat stance, yes, every fighter knows all of them (at this point. That might change to "you know all, but ready N, switch up at LR".) As for me, the goal for those ones (which need tweaking) is that you'd normally sit in the passive until you really need to persuade someone. Then you burn the active, but still have the passive until the check is done. Basically a non-magical charm person, minus the bad effects you can use once per conversation (because it takes a minute of meditation to recharge the stance, which isn't very feasible while talking to someone).

As for activation cost--I may change that to be "it costs a bonus action, but on your first turn you can enter a stance for free." Or change Sprinter itself to have a different action cost. Not sure--this is a proof of concept that needs lots more work.

[aimlessPolymath]

The idea is to have lots of stances. And the cooldown is per stance, not global. So the intent is that you enter a stance on your first turn, then when you decide you want the active ability, you burn that stance and switch to a different one. So, for instance, a SnB fighter might start in Shielding Bulwark stance, burn the stance for the active ability, then switch to Thicket of Blades (or a hypothetical 1H stance). Or a 2H fighter starts in Punisher but burns the 1x/combat guaranteed max crit and switches to a "sweeping" stance (allowing cleaves). Etc. Ideally you'd have a stance up basically all the time unless you get incapacitated (which I need to add--being incapacitated should drop you out of the stance, because, well, fiction).


Gotcha, I think I have a better idea of your vision now- it sounds like fighters shouldn't be worried about 'running out of stances', at least in the final version- that was one of my concerns with only being able to enter a given stance 1/encounter.


As for the non-combat stance, yes, every fighter knows all of them (at this point. That might change to "you know all, but ready N, switch up at LR".) As for me, the goal for those ones (which need tweaking) is that you'd normally sit in the passive until you really need to persuade someone. Then you burn the active, but still have the passive until the check is done. Basically a non-magical charm person, minus the bad effects you can use once per conversation (because it takes a minute of meditation to recharge the stance, which isn't very feasible while talking to someone).

One concern is that because non-combat stances don't compete for your 'active stance' (you have one definitive Charisma Stance, not several to choose between), every noncombat stance they know becomes a near-direct upgrade to the fighter's skills. If there's a Persuasion stance, an Investigation stance, a Stealth stance, etc., that's not far off from a fighter having proficiency in all of those skills.

"Once per conversation" also isn't much of a limitation in casual use- I can't think of a time I made more than one check per conversation. Might be DM-dependent.

(It's totally legitimate to say 'yes, I want fighters to have this level of versatility', especially since clerics are similarly adaptable due to being able to prepare any spell on their list, but I feel obliged to point it out)

[PhoenixPhyre]

Gotcha, I think I have a better idea of your vision now- it sounds like fighters shouldn't be worried about 'running out of stances', at least in the final version- that was one of my concerns with only being able to enter a given stance 1/encounter.

One concern is that because non-combat stances don't compete for your 'active stance' (you have one definitive Charisma Stance, not several to choose between), every noncombat stance they know becomes a near-direct upgrade to the fighter's skills. If there's a Persuasion stance, an Investigation stance, a Stealth stance, etc., that's not far off from a fighter having proficiency in all of those skills.

"Once per conversation" also isn't much of a limitation in casual use- I can't think of a time I made more than one check per conversation. Might be DM-dependent.

(It's totally legitimate to say 'yes, I want fighters to have this level of versatility', especially since clerics are similarly adaptable due to being able to prepare any spell on their list, but I feel obliged to point it out)

I think I'm going to go for a "preparation" style--so yeah, you know all those stances, but you only get N (thinking proficiency/2, round up) prepared per day. So if you want to load up on skills, that cuts into your combat uses.

A few more stances (some with placeholders):

Dervish
Requires a melee weapon in each hand.
Passive: While in this stance, you can make one attack with the TWF bonus action for every attack you can make with the Attack Action.
Improved: If you hit the same target with an attack from both the Attack Action and the TWF bonus action, the target takes an additional die of the weapon damage from the TWF attack. This extra damage can only be dealt to a single target once per turn.
Active: As an action, make a melee weapon attack with each weapon against all creatures within your reach. These attacks are made at advantage.

Sweeping Strikes
Cannot be entered with more than one weapon in your hands.
Passive: When you make an attack roll and roll greater than 10 on the die, you can cause a different creature within 5’ of the target to take damage of the weapon’s type equal to the modifier used for the attack.
Improved: The passive effect now triggers on every attack, successful or not, unless you roll a natural 1 on the attack roll.
Active: As an action, all creatures within your reach must make a Dexterity saving throw against a DC of 8 + your weapon attack bonus. On a failed save, creatures take NdY damage of the wielded weapon’s type. On a success, the target must use its reaction to step out of your reach if possible, provoking Opportunity Attacks as normal.

Mountainbreak
Passive: You ignore the damage threshold of objects when you attempt to break them.
Improved: You deal maximum damage when you hit objects with a weapon attack.
Active: As an action, choose an object within your reach. Make a melee attack roll against it. On a hit, the object breaks if it is Large or smaller or is a segment of wall no larger than 10x10x5. Larger objects take NdM damage instead.

[Saelethil]

What if Sprinter allowed you to move half your speed for free as a part of any action and allowed you to replace any attacks with moving half your speed. This would keep their bonus action free and also scale with each additional attack they gain as they level so you wouldn’t necessarily need to add much to the improved version.

[mcumoric]

Thought of a few more misc stances that could be interesting;

Sniper
Requires a ranged weapon.
Passive: Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.
Improved: The long range of your ranged weapons increases by a number of feet equal to (your level)x5.
Active: You take a knee to increase your accuracy. Your movement speed is reduced to 0, however, once on your turn, you deal an additional 1d6 damage whenever you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack. This extra damage increases by an additional 1d6 at the 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6) and finally at the 20th level (4d6).


Improviser
Requires an improvised weapon.
Passive: You are proficient in improvised weapons. When you hit a creature with an improvised weapon it deals 2d4 damage instead of the normal 1d4, and gains the versatile trait; Versatile(3d4).
Improved: You may add your proficiency bonus to the damage roll of your improvised weapons.
Active: As part of an attack you can bamboozle your foes with dirty tactics. When you hit a creature with an improvised weapon, once per turn, you can attempt to trip, blind or confuse your foe.
If you attempt to trip them; they must make a strength saving throw against your attack roll, which on a fail, they are knocked prone.
If you attempt to blind them, they must make a dexterity saving throw against your attack roll, which on a fail, they are blinded until the start of your next turn.
If you attempt to confuse them, they must make a wisdom saving throw against your attack roll, which on a fail, they take a -2 penalty to any wisdom or intelligence checks, as well as spell damage rolls (if they cast a spell,) for the next minute.

[PhoenixPhyre]

What if Sprinter allowed you to move half your speed for free as a part of any action and allowed you to replace any attacks with moving half your speed. This would keep their bonus action free and also scale with each additional attack they gain as they level so you wouldn’t necessarily need to add much to the improved version.

So basically a 1.5x (minimum) static speed boost? I'm not sure how I feel about a fighter in this stance moving (potentially) up to 6.5x (1 normal + 2.5 from replacing all 4 attacks + 2.5 from doing the same with Action Surge + 0.5 from a bonus action) their speed...

If instead it was
Passive: While in this stance, your speed increases to 1.5x its normal value.
Improved: You can take the Disengage action as a bonus action while in this stance.
Active: unchanged

It's not quite as good as a free no-action Dash, but it doesn't scale ludicrously either and doesn't cost you anything unless you want to Disengage.

[PhoenixPhyre]

(It's my thread, I can double post if I want to)

A thought about Diplomat--

What if the passive/improved were proficiency/expertise in Wisdom (Insight) instead of Charisma (Persuasion) and the trigger for the active was you or an ally within 30' making a Charisma (Persuasion) check? That way you'd use the stance to figure out what they want, then trigger the active to let you (or your ally) have an easier time but not getting proficiency unless you had it already? That way both modes would be useful without worrying about timing.

That same pattern (passive improves some passive "perception" thing and the active gives a boost to doing thing related to it) could be used for trapfinding (passive boosts passive Perception with regards to traps, while active gives information about the trigger mechanism), etc.

[mcumoric]

Hey uh, is it okay if I make some more fan-made stances and post them here?

(Because I have 3 new ones)

(And I'm not sure if that's okay with you lol)

[PhoenixPhyre]

Hey uh, is it okay if I make some more fan-made stances and post them here?

(Because I have 3 new ones)

(And I'm not sure if that's okay with you lol)

Sure. I'm putting together a more formal document and may include them (with tweaks to formalize style and consistency). Glad this idea was interesting to people.

[mcumoric]

Sure. I'm putting together a more formal document and may include them (with tweaks to formalize style and consistency). Glad this idea was interesting to people.

Awesome thanks!

[mcumoric]

Arcane soul
Passive: When you wield a non-magical weapon in hand, it counts as a magical weapon for overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
Advanced: Any non-magical weapon you wield becomes a +1 weapon.
Active: When you activate this stance, your weapon becomes wreathed in elemental energy. Choose between lightning, fire and cold damage.
Each weapon attack you make deals an additional 2 damage of the type chosen.


Bastion
Requires wearing heavy armor.
Passive: Your hit point maximum and current hit points increase by 2, and increase by an additional 2 each time you level up.
Advanced: Your constitution score increases by 2 to a maximum of 22.
Active: When you activate this stance, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, however your movement speed is halved.


Countering stance
Requires a melee weapon wielded in two hands.
Passive: Your armor class increases by 1.
Advanced: Your armor class increases by an additional 1 (2 total).
Active: When an enemy misses you with an attack roll, your next melee weapon attack roll against them has advantage.

[JNAProductions]

Arcane soul
Passive: When you wield a non-magical weapon in hand, it counts as a magical weapon for overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
Advanced: Any non-magical weapon you wield becomes a +1 weapon.
Active: When you activate this stance, your weapon becomes wreathed in elemental energy. Choose between lightning, fire and cold damage.
Each weapon attack you make deals an additional 2 damage of the type chosen.


Bastion
Requires wearing heavy armor.
Passive: Your hit point maximum and current hit points increase by 2, and increase by an additional 2 each time you level up.
Advanced: Your constitution score increases by 2 to a maximum of 22.
Active: When you activate this stance, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, however your movement speed is halved.


Countering stance
Requires a melee weapon wielded in two hands.
Passive: Your armor class increases by 1.
Advanced: Your armor class increases by an additional 1 (2 total).
Active: When an enemy misses you with an attack roll, your next melee weapon attack roll against them has advantage.

That doesn't fit the OP's scheme of minor passive at level 2, major passive at a higher level, and then an ACTIVE ability. You seem to just have three tiers of passives.

[Ralanr]

This reminds me A LOT of the mystic stance system, which was by far my favorite mechanic to never get past UA. So I'm definitely intrigued.

Though Punisher seems way too strong (which sucks because it's my favorite).

[PhoenixPhyre]

What if (to balance the power), each stance also had a drawback? This might be either a "while the stance is active" drawback or a "after you leave this stance" drawback? Kinda like how Reckless Attack gives everyone else Advantage as well?

So Shielding Bulwark might have a "while this stance is active, your movement speed is reduced to half" drawback. And Punisher might have a "after you leave this stance, attacks against you have advantage and you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws until the end of your next turn" drawback (representing the unbalancing effect of a mighty blow), while Sprinter might have "you make all attacks at disadvantage while this stance is active; this cannot be canceled out by advantage" as a drawback.

The goal is to encourage using the passives and actives at the right times, which exemplifies the "skilled man of arms" theme that fighters have.

-------

Additionally, I could see sub-classes riffing off of this: for instance the Champion might get (at a mid level) "when you leave a stance by using the active ability, you retain the passive benefit for <duration>", so they could start in Sweeping Strikes, mow down the chaff with the active, then switch to Punisher to smash the remaining bigger enemies while still smacking any remaining littles a bit longer. Etc.


That doesn't fit the OP's scheme of minor passive at level 2, major passive at a higher level, and then an ACTIVE ability. You seem to just have three tiers of passives.

Agreed. The design is passive, extended passive, then a spender that ends the stance while doing "big thematic thing."

Edit: v2 is now active in the OP, including some new stances and edits based on feedback. Punisher has been updated with two options for the active, which I'll need to pick between.

[Kane0]

What if (to balance the power), each stance also had a drawback? This might be either a "while the stance is active" drawback or a "after you leave this stance" drawback? Kinda like how Reckless Attack gives everyone else Advantage as well?


I would vote against that idea, because it's twice the stuff to remember for each stance (which are supposed to be mostly temporary), players don't like drawbacks and the existing mechanics of 5e generally don't indulge in them (frenzy and font of magic spring to mind).

Edit: I vote for punisher option 2.

[traskomancer]

I'm definitely into this idea, and I have a good deal of thoughts/suggestions:

- Can you use an Active ability the turn you adopt a stance? If so, I would change that because if you don't people will just spam the best Active every turn.

- How many stances can a character know at a given level? This would impact my evaluation of some of them, especially situational ones like Mountainbreak.

- Dervish, Sweeping Strikes, and Thicket of Blades' Active abilities are all too similar to one another.

- Consider having some of the Improved abilities come online earlier than others.

- Will these just be replacing fighting styles 1-to-1, or what? Just curious if you've thought about that.

Feedback on specific stances:

- Shielding Bulwark: I feel like disrupting spells at only a 5 ft range is underwhelming. You may want to rework that.

- Punisher: I think using half your Strength mod is a bit cumbersome, and it wouldn't be gamebreaking to just let them apply all of it. For the Active, I prefer option 2 because it isn't redundant with the Passive.

- Sprinter: 15 ft is a LOT. I'd suggest cutting it back to 10. Also, I don't have it in front of me right now, but this feels pretty similar to the Mobile feat.

- Diplomat: Outside the context of an enchantment spell, it's really unclear what it means to have someone you're rolling a check against be "friendly".

- Dervish: the Passive isn't great at low levels. Also I feel like this stance could just be merged with Thicket of Blades.

- Mountainbreak: this may be too good outside of combat; the Passive is pretty strong already and then you can just spam the Active whenever you have a spare minute, which feels quite (heh) strong to me.

- Seeking Arrow: I'd change the damge for the Active to 1d10 or 1d12 for simplicity's sake.

Like I said, the basis here is cool. I may take a crack at designing a few stances myself.

[traskomancer]

Arcane soul
Passive: When you wield a non-magical weapon in hand, it counts as a magical weapon for overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.
Advanced: Any non-magical weapon you wield becomes a +1 weapon.
Active: When you activate this stance, your weapon becomes wreathed in elemental energy. Choose between lightning, fire and cold damage.
Each weapon attack you make deals an additional 2 damage of the type chosen.


Bastion
Requires wearing heavy armor.
Passive: Your hit point maximum and current hit points increase by 2, and increase by an additional 2 each time you level up.
Advanced: Your constitution score increases by 2 to a maximum of 22.
Active: When you activate this stance, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, however your movement speed is halved.


Countering stance
Requires a melee weapon wielded in two hands.
Passive: Your armor class increases by 1.
Advanced: Your armor class increases by an additional 1 (2 total).
Active: When an enemy misses you with an attack roll, your next melee weapon attack roll against them has advantage.

I mostly like Arcane Soul. I feel like a static +1 to hit and damage for the Advancement is a little bland, though not horrendously imbalanced depending on the level you get it. I'd also change the damage from the Active to be a die roll - maybe 1d6 or 1d8? This is under the assumption that the buff only lasts for the round you activate the ability. If it's meant to be 1 minute, probably just 1d4.

With Bastion, I feel like the fluid nature of the stance mechanic makes the number crunching features too fiddly. For a passive, it could grant immunity to being knocked prone and advantage on Str and/or Con saves maybe? Not sure about the advancement off the top of my head. And with the advancement, again, what is the duration?

Again, for Countering Stance, I'm not wild about static +1s. Maybe the Passive could let you use your reaction to attack when someone misses you by 5 or more, and the Advancement lets you do it whenever someone misses you period. And then the Active could be something else.

[traskomancer]

Alright! Here are some stances I've taken a crack at:


Scholar
Passive: you are proficient with one of the following skills: Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion.
Advancement: you are proficient with another one of the above skills.
Active: as an action, you make a check with a skill you are proficient with because of this stance at advantage. You cannot resume this stance until you complete a short or long rest.

Point-Blank Shooting
Requirement: you are wielding a ranged weapon.
Passive: you have advantage on ranged attack rolls against creatures within 5 feet of you, instead of disadvantage.
Advancement: you have advantage on ranged attack rolls against creatures within 15 feet of you.
Active: as an action, you can make a ranged attack against a creature within 15 feet of you. On a hit, the creature takes an additional 2d6 damage.

Mad Cyclone
Requirement: you are wielding a melee weapon with the finesse property.
Passive: when you take the attack action, you can make an additional melee attack. If you do, all your attacks this turn are made with disadvantage.
Advancement: you can take two extra melee attacks with this stance, instead of one.
Active: as a reaction to missing a melee attack, you can make another two melee attacks against the same target at disadvantage.

Nightmare Aspect
Passive: you have proficiency in Intimidation. If you are already proficient in that skill, you have expertise in it as well.
Advancement: You have advantage on Intimidation checks.
Active: as a bonus action, you can make an Intimidation check opposed by the Wisdom save of a target you can see within 60 feet of you. If you succeed, you have advantage on attacks against that creature this turn, and your attacks deal an additional 1d6 psychic damage to them.

Chosen of the Blade
Requirement: you must be wielding a greatsword, longsword, rapier, scimitar, or shortsword.
Passive: you have +1 to melee attack rolls against creatures in medium or heavy armor.
Advancement: you have +2 to melee attack rolls against creatures in medium or heavy armor.
Active: you take the Attack action and choose either “attack” or “damage”. If you chose “attack”, you get +1 to all melee attack rolls this turn. If you chose “damage”, all your attacks this turn deal an additional 1d6 damage.

Spearfighter’s Grace
Requirement: you must be wielding a spear.
Passive: your reach with a spear increases by 5 feet and spears you wield have a base damage of 1d8. The thrown range of spears is doubled for you.
Advancement: spears you wield have a base damage of 1d10.
Active: as an action, you make one attack with a spear with advantage. On a hit, the target’s speed is halved and you get a +2 bonus to AC. These effects last until the start of your next turn.

Sorcerer Slayer
Passive: creatures you damage have disadvantage on Concentration saving throws.
Advancement: when you hit a creature that is concentrating on a spell with a weapon attack, that attack deals an additional 1d6 damage.
Active: as a bonus action, you make a saving throw against each spell and magical effect on you that allows for saving throws. On a success, that effect ends.

Warlord’s Formation
Passive: friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have +1 to attack rolls.
Advancement: friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have +1 to AC.
Active: as an action, you issue a command to all friendly creatures within 10 feet of you. Those creatures may spend their reactions to make one weapon attack each.



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Off the top of my head, Mad Cyclone definitely might be too pushed. What are your thoughts though?

[PhoenixPhyre]

I'm definitely into this idea, and I have a good deal of thoughts/suggestions:

- Can you use an Active ability the turn you adopt a stance? If so, I would change that because if you don't people will just spam the best Active every turn.

- How many stances can a character know at a given level? This would impact my evaluation of some of them, especially situational ones like Mountainbreak.


The answers to these questions are related. My current thinking is that you know all of them but prepare 2 + 1 per tier (so 3 at level 2, 4 at level 5, 5 at level 11, 6 at level 17). So burning all your stances immediately means you spend most of the rounds of combat without any stance up, at least until very high levels. And there'd likely not be 4+ combat ones that are useful with any particular weapon set. And ideally, the passives and the actives would be balanced enough that you'd actually have to make the decision tactically.



- Dervish, Sweeping Strikes, and Thicket of Blades' Active abilities are all too similar to one another.


They're similar, but differently. Dervish gives 2 attacks per target, at advantage. It's pure damage. Sweeping Strikes is a dex save + possible knockback (which can trigger OAs and burn reactions). Thicket of Blades is a multi-target Mark, so it's much more about the tanking/utility. And you can't use both sweeping strikes and dervish without switching weapons.



- Consider having some of the Improved abilities come online earlier than others.

- Will these just be replacing fighting styles 1-to-1, or what? Just curious if you've thought about that.


Meh, that seems annoying. I'd rather adjust the improveds so they're all of comparable level-worthiness. And these don't interfere with fighting styles at all. You get both.



Feedback on specific stances:

- Shielding Bulwark: I feel like disrupting spells at only a 5 ft range is underwhelming. You may want to rework that.


The goal is that it's a shield bash that coincidently also shuts up casters. It punishes spell-casters for letting you get close.



- Punisher: I think using half your Strength mod is a bit cumbersome, and it wouldn't be gamebreaking to just let them apply all of it. For the Active, I prefer option 2 because it isn't redundant with the Passive.


Still dialing that one in. Option 2 is looking like the better one right now.



- Sprinter: 15 ft is a LOT. I'd suggest cutting it back to 10. Also, I don't have it in front of me right now, but this feels pretty similar to the Mobile feat.


Probably too much movement. But I'm fine with overlapping with feats, because that means you can use your ASIs for other things (including other feats).



- Diplomat: Outside the context of an enchantment spell, it's really unclear what it means to have someone you're rolling a check against be "friendly".


It actually does mean a lot. There's a table in the DMG which lists DCs by attitude. Going from indifferent to friendly means that a DC 10 check gets you "will take some small risks" instead of "The creature does as asked as long as no risks or sacrifices are involved." Basically, for every step up (hostile -> indifferent -> friendly), the DCs for any given outcome decrease by 10 and new options are available. A hostile is a DC 20 check to get "The creature does as asked as long as no risks or sacrifices are involved.", while a friendly DC 20 is "The creature accepts a significant risk or sacrifice to do as asked." That's huge. And is the majority of the benefit from charm person, which does exactly that--sets their disposition to friendly.



- Dervish: the Passive isn't great at low levels. Also I feel like this stance could just be merged with Thicket of Blades.

- Mountainbreak: this may be too good outside of combat; the Passive is pretty strong already and then you can just spam the Active whenever you have a spare minute, which feels quite (heh) strong to me.

- Seeking Arrow: I'd change the damge for the Active to 1d10 or 1d12 for simplicity's sake.


Dervish and Thicket of Blades are both "lots of attacks", but the first is supposed to be a TWF offensive stance, while the latter is a tanking stance (punishing people who walk by, getting them to focus on you). But yes, the Dervish passive (and the Seeking Arrow active) need rework to be useful at lower levels. However, TWF is at its strongest at low levels...hmmm.

Mountainbreak is strong, but situational. How often do you need to break objects?

Seeking Arrow active...yeah. Needs rework. The idea is that you're putting all of your focus into this one attack, basically stacking (a smaller amount of) damage from all the others into this one hit.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Sindeloke]

If you're interested, I've got a maneuver system (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TbazX-NtjhFwWofhSOx0bOOsuukJ4Q07/view?usp=sharing) in a decade-long perpetual beta that uses stances as a cantrip-like always-on thing, some of them with a similar vibe to some of the ones you've got here. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them were cannibalized (some quite recently) from discussion or homebrew on this very forum, others from ToB and 4e, so most of it's not new to anyone, and it's also still got a lot of holes and vagaries and is in no way polished, but it might provide some inspiration.