Martial Maneuvers - What Do You Like to See?

[Hytheter]

In the 5e forum right now there is a large, ongoing thread about the Battle Master Fighter; whether the maneuvers are varied or numerous enough, and how the class could/should be changed. In fact, it comes up in a few threads. Comparisons are often drawn to the Tome of Battle classes from 3.5, especially the Warblade, who had a large number of semi-at will abilities to choose from.

But all that discussion got me thinking; what kind of techniques should a Martial character be able to learn? If we were to draft up a list of maneuvers, what kind of stuff should be on it? For the purposes of this discussion, I'd like to limit it to the "mundane"; by which I mean, not necessarily realstic yet not so fantastic that they are "obviously magical". Think Warblade vs Swordsage.

This is a list of ideas I can think of, mostly off the top of my head. I'll add suggestions to the list. Many of these will be techniques already usable in some game; I'm going for a thorough list here.

Grabbing/Grappling

• Grabbing an opponent with your hand/s
• Grabbing an opponent with a weapon eg a Whip or Sickle
• Tackling an opponent
• Pinning to restrain an opponent
• Sleeper hold
• Dragging an opponent
• SUPLEX
• Throwing an opponent
• Throwing an opponent at another opponent
• Not even throwing, just straight up using a dude as a weapon against another dude
• Grabbing two guys and banging their heads together
• Grabbing an aerial opponent to pull them down to earth
• Grabbing and holding on to a much larger opponent to hitch a ride or be that itch they just can't scratch
• Using a grappled opponent as a human shield
• Drawing weapons/taking items from a grappled opponent
• Headbutting a grappled opponent

Offensive Techniques

• Disarming the opponent
• Disarming the opponent and then using their weapon against them
• Sundering a Weapon/Item
• Tripping an opponent or knocking them over
• Pushing or shoving an opponent back, including into another opponent or obstacle
• Feinting
• Lunging for extra reach
• Shoving a piercing weapon all the way through an opponent and into another
• Letting go of said weapon and leaving those opponents stuck together
• Stunning an opponent with a blow to the head or sensitive area
• "Whirlwind Attack" or Spinning Around to attack everyone around you
• "Cleave" or cutting all the way through one opponents and into another
• Trade-off attacks; sacrificing speed, power, accuracy and/or defense to gain a boost to one of the others eg Power Attack
• going for pressure points, with potentially cool effects depending on how "mystical kung fu" you want
• Called shots; targeting specific body parts for certain effects eg eyes (blinding) ears (deafening) legs (reduce movement) arms (to drop weapon or weaken attacks) wings (to prevent flight)
• Ability drain
• Dirty tricks like sand in the eyes, pulling down their pants etc
• Shoulder barge/body slam
• Leaving yourself open to lure in opponents for a counter attack
• charging to add momentum to an attack (especially when mounted)
• Jumping/falling to add momentum to an attack
• Coup de grace/Execution
• sneak attacks
• Silent takedowns
• Bleed (ongoing damage) effects
• Using arrows or piercing weapons to pin an opponent to the wall/ground
• Iaijutsu/Lighting Draw - drawing a weapon and attacking in a single motion
• Shield Bashing
• "en passant" attack enemies as you run past them
• Pursuing an opponent or preventing them from running
• Attacking in such a way that leaves the opponent open to a follow up
• nasty wounds that hinder regeneration
• Attacking with two weapons simultaneously
• Trampling smaller creatures (or having a mount do that)
• Encouraging a mount to go faster
• second chance attacks eg swinging a sword back after a miss, using the opening to hit with the other hand

Ranged Techniques

• Suppressing fire - shooting not to injure but to discourage movement (probably would have aoe)
• An AOE volley attack
• Carefully firing to bypass obstacles like range, cover, and weather
• Riochet shots to hit people around corners
• Ranged AOO attacks
• Firing two arrows at once to boost damage at the cost of accuracy
• Throw weapons that aren't built for that
• Boomerang or rebound thrown weapons to come back
• Bouncing thrown weapons to hit multiple enemies.
• "Sword Beam"

Defensive Techniques

• Deflecting an attack ie parrying
• Redirecting an attack to another opponent
• Redirecting an attack back at the attacker
• Locking your weapon/shiled and their weapon/shield together to prevent either from being used
• waving or pointing your weapon to dissuade an approach
• Spinning a weapon, especially a staff or polearm, to create a shield against arrows and small projectiles
• Countering after a failed attack
• Using your weapon to keep opponents back as you step away
• Disruping spellcasting
• Actively positioning yourself to maximise the effect of armour

Movement/Utility

• Swapping spaces with an enemy
• running or perhaps even standing on improbable surfaces eg walls, liquids
• huge jumps or leaps
• Diving out of the way of an attack or behind cover
• Putting yourself in the way of an attack to protect an ally
• Stealthy movement
• "sudden disappearance" via misdirection, smoke bombs or other
• Object Busting
• Busting/Cutting holes in walls to escape through
• Using arrows as hand/footholds to climb

General Badassery

• Striking a fearsome pose or making a menacing attack to scare opponents
• Taunting to draw foes towards you (and away from allies)
• killing an opponent so brutally that it scares their allies
• Fight on while on 0 HP
• Gain buffs from the confidence of hurting/killing (bloodlust)

Group Tactics

• Motivate an ally to move or giving them an opening
• Pushing an ally out of harm's way or warning them of an attack
• Using a shield to protect an ally
• Shield formations - mutual shield protection between allies
• Motivate an ally to attack
• Object Busting - breaking or cutting objects beyond what should be possible
• flanking or distracting an opponent to grant an advantage to allies
• Changing the initiative order
• swapping places with an ally or having two allies swap places
• harrassing and following an enemy to prevent him from attacking allies
• Inspiring allies to do more damage, gain temp hp or other buffs

[Mastikator]

Grappling opponents that then lets you Coup de grâce them.

Sword techniques like half-blading (extra accuracy when aiming at weak spots) or using the guard to disarm an opponent.

Disabling/Crippling attacks, ie attacks that disables use of specific body parts, such as crushing kneecaps and hands.

Attacks that specifically targets spellcasters, dispelling ongoing effects, preventing spellcasting or interrupting a spell being cast. (ie attacks that require knowledge of how spell casting works).

[Dienekes]

Hey I notice a few from my post in the maneuver thread. Cool making it it's own thing.

Always love "aiming" style attacks

Hamstring: Slows target
Arms: Weakens target
Bleeding attack: gets bleeding quality
Deep Wounds: prevents regeneration
Repositioning: switch squares completely with an enemy
Two-Weapon Rend: two-weapon needs love. adding both weapon damages together before dealing with DR is a start.
Sundering
Accurate Attacks: sacrifice something for accuracy (you already had power)
Armor Blocking: Can use your armor more efficiently
Lightning Draw: Additional damage if you draw a weapon and attack in one swift move. once/encounter
Marked: Opponent takes Disadvantage to attack an ally
Threatening Attack: Intimidate when they attack
Taunts can be fun

I also personally like underhanded fighters, so a (preferably much weaker version) of Sneak Attack could be cool. I mean a fighter should know how to take advantage of an enemies weakness.

Pinning Shot: Shoot an enemies foot so he has to pull it out to move
Wing-Piercing Shot: Shoot a flying enemy, they can no longer fly

Some cool commander abilities
grant movement to ally
grant attacks to ally
mess around with the initiative order

If I think up more I'll post them.

[NotScaryBats]

How about a category like:

Movement
- Running across a liquid
- Running on walls
- Standing on liquid
- Jumping really far
- Hanging from the ceiling
- Moving silently / sneaking
- Disappearing suddenly

Utility
- Cutting through something that should not be able to be cut through
- Making a door
- Firing arrows to make a bridge / stairs

[Vitruviansquid]

1. An execution to automatically kill an enemy below a certain percentage of health or under some other condition that makes sense.
2. A maneuver where you dash some distance, attacking every enemy you pass by.
3. An attack that sets the opponent up to be more vulnerable to further attacks.
4. An attack that causes damage over time.
5. A stance that allows you to attack everyone who attempts to attack you for a turn.
6. An attack that debilitates an enemy with pain, rather than physically targeting a body part.
7. A maneuver to force an enemy to stay within your reach by keeping him from moving or by moving yourself.

[Hytheter]

Added a bunch of your suggestions to the OP, as well as a few I thought of

Spoiler: Additions

Show

Grappling

• Grabbing two guys and banging their heads together

Offensive Techniques

• Sundering a Weapon/Item
• Sacrificing power or speed for accuracy
• Sacrificing power or accuracy for speed
• Called shots; targeting specific body parts for certain effects eg eyes (blinding) ears (deafening) legs (reduce movement) arms (to drop weapon or weaken attacks) wings (to prevent flight)
• Coup de grace/Execution
• sneak attacks
• Silent takedowns
• Bleed (ongoing damage) effects
• Using arrows or piercing weapons to pin an opponent to the wall/ground
• Suppressing fire - shooting not to injure but to discourage movement (probably would have aoe)
• Iaijutsu/Lighting Draw - drawing a weapon and attacking in a single motion
• Object Busting
• Shield Bashing
• "en passant" attack enemies as you run past them
• Pursuing an opponent or preventing them from running
• Attacking in such a way that leaves the opponent open to a follow up
• nasty wounds that hinder regeneration
• Attacking with two weapons simultaneously

Defensive Techniques

• Disruping spellcasting

Movement

• Swapping spaces with an enemy
• running or perhaps even standing on improbable surfaces eg walls, liquids
• huge jumps or leaps
• Diving out of the way of an attack or behind cover
• Putting yourself in the way of an attack to protect an ally

General Badassery

• Taunting to draw foes towards you (and away from allies)

Group Tactics

• Motivate an ally to move or giving them an opening
• Pushing an ally out of harm's way or warning them of an attack
• Using a shield to protect an ally
• Shield formations - mutual shield protection between allies
• Motivate an ally to attack
• Object Busting - breaking or cutting objects beyond what should be possible
• flanking or distracting an opponent to grant an advantage to allies
• Changing the initiative order
• swapping places with an ally or having two allies swap places

Sword techniques like half-blading (extra accuracy when aiming at weak spots) or using the guard to disarm an opponent.

I feel these are already covered by the disarming and weak spot targeting techniques in general, but these particular methods could be part of teh flavour text for such abilities

Hey I notice a few from my post in the maneuver thread. Cool making it it's own thing.
Armor Blocking: Can use your armor more efficiently
Marked: Opponent takes Disadvantage to attack an ally
Threatening Attack: Intimidate when they attack

1. Yep, I haven't forgotten; there are techniques that you mentioned which I think neither the Battle Master nor ToB replicate, but should
2. What do you mean by this exactly? How would that be distinct from just wearing armor?
3. I understand what you mean mechanically, but what does that actually entail? I think it might be covered by taunting
4. Already included under "General Badassery" as an alternative to "Striking a pose" ;)

- Making a door
- Firing arrows to make a bridge / stairs

I'm kind of confused about these. Just... making a door? A bridge of arrows? I'm not sure I follow

I think I got everything else that was mentioned. Got some good stuff so far.

I should mention that I intend to use this list in some way, I may end up home brewing a 5e class/subclass or something else entirely.

[Knaight]

A few I've seen elsewhere:
Butchering an opponent in a particularly gruesome way, to try and terrify others into leaving.
A sudden burst of activity to force an opponent back/make openings for allies.
Striking while parrying.
Using an opponent as a human shield (which generally involves hauling them in the way of an incoming arrow).
Drawing an opponents weapon from a grapple.
Immobilizing a weapon with a shield.

With that said, what warrants manuever status depends highly on the level of the abstraction. If active defenses are standard, there are a lot of options to enhance them that otherwise are really clunky. If the basis of the combat system is simultaneous actions which interact based on a table, you've got way more options for tweaking than the attack-AC system in D&D. So on and so forth.

[Hytheter]

A few I've seen elsewhere:
Butchering an opponent in a particularly gruesome way, to try and terrify others into leaving.
A sudden burst of activity to force an opponent back/make openings for allies.
Striking while parrying.
Using an opponent as a human shield (which generally involves hauling them in the way of an incoming arrow).
Drawing an opponents weapon from a grapple.
Immobilizing a weapon with a shield.

1. Yes Please
2. I think these are already covered by "Pushing or shoving an opponent back" and "flanking or distracting an opponent to grant an advantage to allies" respectively
3. That's really just a combination of Parrying and Countering, isn't it? Or do you mean something else?
4. Oh I knew I was forgetting an awesome grappling thing
5. Ooh that sounds interesting, I should also maybe add pickpocketing in general?
6. I already have weapon locking, but I suppose it bears mentioning that shields could also be used for it

With that said, what warrants manuever status depends highly on the level of the abstraction. If active defenses are standard, there are a lot of options to enhance them that otherwise are really clunky. If the basis of the combat system is simultaneous actions which interact based on a table, you've got way more options for tweaking than the attack-AC system in D&D. So on and so forth.

Yeah I'm kind of just getting as many cool ideas as I can before working out which ones can and can't work in a game. Even if I don't use all or even most of them, having the list for future reference could be handy too.

[Dienekes]

1. Yep, I haven't forgotten; there are techniques that you mentioned which I think neither the Battle Master nor ToB replicate, but should
2. What do you mean by this exactly? How would that be distinct from just wearing armor?
3. I understand what you mean mechanically, but what does that actually entail? I think it might be covered by taunting
4. Already included under "General Badassery" as an alternative to "Striking a pose" ;)

2) I was thinking more active vs passive. You are always wearing armor, if someone tries to hit you in the chest while you're wearing plate it's going to hit the plate.
But I good warrior whose been trained to knows how to maximize the efficiency of their armor. Move so the thickest part of the armor is what's taking the brunt of the attack and moving the weaker joints out of the way. Mechanically, this is probably closest modeled by what 5e strangely decided to call the Parry maneuver. Though 5e could use a real Parry that negates an attack.
3) Honestly, that would be a representation of just a fighter trying to get in the way. Trying to attack someone while someone else is trying to attack you is difficult. This is different from a taunt in a few ways. Taunts are trying to provoke your opponent to attack you, while this is you trying to get in the way of him attacking others.
4) Ahh missed that. Sorry. Though I was thinking of an old ability I made. The obviously named Frightening Attack. Make an attack, if it deals damage you can intimidate the target for free. If you killed the target, you get a free intimidate on everyone within 30 feet.

I'm kind of confused about these. Just... making a door? A bridge of arrows? I'm not sure I follow

It's a bit too, I don't even know what to call it, magical, I guess. But NotScaryBats seems to just like playing at a really high power were the maneuvers can be just as reality bending as a spell. Not really how I personally like to play, but nothing really wrong with it.

[NotScaryBats]

lol you might be right about that. The idea was cutting a hole in the wall to make a door in it where there was only wall a moment ago.

The other idea is shooting arrows into the wall, then balancing on them as a sort of ladder or bridge. Like, if there is a twenty foot cliff you want to get on top of, you shoot arrows up the wall, like every few feet. People can then use these as footholds to easily climb the wall. Maybe its a dorky idea, but I seem to remember seeing it somewhere and thinking 'that's really cool'

[Hytheter]

lol you might be right about that. The idea was cutting a hole in the wall to make a door in it where there was only wall a moment ago.

The other idea is shooting arrows into the wall, then balancing on them as a sort of ladder or bridge. Like, if there is a twenty foot cliff you want to get on top of, you shoot arrows up the wall, like every few feet. People can then use these as footholds to easily climb the wall. Maybe its a dorky idea, but I seem to remember seeing it somewhere and thinking 'that's really cool'

Ooooh that's what you mean. I was completely not understanding the door thing. I was picturing an actual door. Like, a board with hinges kinda deal. And I was totally not getting how making one was a martial maneuver.

[Fra Antonio]

Ooooh that's what you mean. I was completely not understanding the door thing. I was picturing an actual door. Like, a board with hinges kinda deal. And I was totally not getting how making one was a martial maneuver.

There are actually several Stone Dragon maneuvers in ToB that allow you to ignore DR and hardness. One of my friends used them for this purpose in my campaign :).

[Sandwich Party]

How about a hit to the nuts that stuns the enemy for a turn?
Or how about a headbutt move that does a crapload of damage (especially if you are wearing a helmet) but can only be done while grappling?
I've always been a fan of "reversals" basically an enemy attacks you, regardless if they hit or miss, and you spend a special point or whatever and turn the attack around on the enemy. That's some classic ninja kung fu stuff right there.
Perhaps impose a system where fighting "dishonorably" gives you a certain reputation, so doing some of these below teh belt moves can lead to some complications in the future?

[Morty]

It's really hard to talk about this kind of thing in a vacuum. Generally, though, what a good model of martial actions and maneuvers needs is round-by-round choice. You should have the option to try different things in order to get past different defences and fit into different situations.

[Hytheter]

Added a few more suggestions and amended a couple in the list

It's quite a big list so far which is good :D

[Dienekes]

Let's give ranged/archery some love.

Volley: Make a small AOE attack.
Aim: Ignores Cover bonuses
Windbreaker Shot: Ignores the effects of weather
Sniper: Ignores Disadvantage due to distance
Ricochet Shot: Ranged attack can change direction once during it's flight. This can be used to hit opponents out of line of sight
Close Shot: Pick one opponent, if that opponent moves in any direction while within 30 feet of you, you may attack him as a free action.
Shield Breaker: When using a thrown weapon you can choose to, instead of damaging the opponent, make their shield unusable.
Multishot: You can fire two or three shots at Disadvantage against 1 target.
Perceptive Archer: You may add your Wisdom modifier to your ranged attack roll.

And because I like knights
Couched Lance: When charging on a mount your melee attacks do a lot of damage.
Ride Like the Wind: Increase mounts speed
Mounted Dodge: Replace AC of you or your mount with a Ride check
Challenge You to a Duel: You deal additional damage against one opponent, but suffer penalties when attacking others.
Trample: Your mount can move through a smaller enemies square and deals damage as though making unarmed attack.

Other
I Miss the Warlord: Grants all allies that can see or hear you temporary hit points that last until depleted or until the end of combat
A Lot: Grants one ally temporary hit points, probably more than the above ability
You Have No Idea: Allies who attack a specific opponent you've attacked increase their critical threat range by +1
Heroic Last Stand: If you would be reduced to 0 hit points, you can continue acting for an additional round. During that round you have Advantage on all attacks.
Swing and a Miss: If you would miss with your melee attack with a weapon, you may instead reroll the attack to deal unarmed damage instead of your weapon damage.
Bloodlust: You gain temporary hit points equal to the amount of damage you deal

[TechnoWarforged]

Manevuver that allows a melee weapon to do a medium ranged attack (Hadoken!)
Maneuver that does a cone aoe damage
Maneuver that allows player to move one round without provoking attack of opportunity at the cost of an attack
Maneuver that does fire/cold/electric/sonic/negative energy damage
Maneuver that drains opponent's strenght/con/dex
Maneuver that blinds opponent for one round
Maneuver that allows the player to do flurry of blows
Maneuver that distrupts spellcasting/counter spells.

Add: Maneuver that counters an opponent's Maneuver

[NotScaryBats]

Do we have anything about throwing stuff on here?
These are pretty much all inspired by Xena...

- Throw something that is not made to be thrown
- richocet a thrown weapon to return it to your hand
- as above, but it attacks the enemy again on the way back to your hand
- bounce a thrown weapon between two or more enemies

[Psyren]

*jerks thumb towards Path of War*

In a high-magic, D&D-based setting, I would expect martials to eventually develop techniques like that.

[Hytheter]

I added a new category specifically for ranged/thrown attacks as well as several other things

*jerks thumb towards Path of War*

In a high-magic, D&D-based setting, I would expect martials to eventually develop techniques like that.

Any specific ones I should look at? I had a cursory glance but there are a butt-ton of them and many seem to just be "attack and inflict status" or "attack and roll extra dice".