Hi, everyone Hopefully, this thread is still alive)) I have a bunch of homebrew fighting styles, some of which I created by myself, some of which I found while surching the net and just copied them. Some of my fighting styles are just a new version of old fighting styles, that I hope I made better, but not op and there is a fighting style that I just straight up deleted, because in my opinion it is just a bad fighting style (effective, but bad as an Idea), this fs is Defence. You see, as for me, wielding a specific set of weaponry should effect your gameplay and game experience, for example, wielding a great weapon should result in having a low number of attack, but when those attacks hit, they deal a large amount of damage, wielding a s&b should result in you lacking in dpr department, but be good at defence of oneself and others and etc. Fs Defene is just a fighting style, that actually does not affect your style of fighting, it is just a very effective and because of that boring option. Every choice of weapon composition should lead to advantages and disadvantages, and you should not be able to fix the disadvantages as they actually define the gameplay better, then advantages, which, on the contrary, you should be able to improve, so that the distinction between weapons would become even more notable. I also took a new look at two-weapon fighting as a mechanic and created new shield variants (tower and buckler), that are used in fs, so I will attach their stats in the beginning of the post as well as new twf rules Not all of the fs are in their final form, so there is bad and vague wording here and there, but all in all the main idea hopefully will be easy to understand, and either way I will comment on most of my "creations".
New types of shields:
Buckler +1 AC (for melee attacks only); 2lb; 5 gp (a creature gains proficiency with buckler, if it has a proficiency in light armour). Bucklers can be donned and doffed as a bonus action.
Tower shield +3 AC; 15 lbs; -5 ft movement (while donned); Stealth disadvantage (while with you); Strength 15; 70 gp (a creature gains proficiency with tower shield, if it has a proficiency in heavy armour). V1: While the shield is donned, whenever you would normally provide only half cover for other creatures, you now provide 3/4 cover, but only if a creature is medium or smaller. V2: While tower shield is donned, you have advantage on shoving creatures.
Two-Weapon Fighting
All the same, but you make a number of attacks with a bonus action equal to the number of attacks you made during a single Attack action (only the attacks that originated from you count), and if you take this bonus action you have -1 AC until the beginning of your next turn. "You can do a number of attacks as a bonus action equal to the number of attacks you made during your Attack action. Only the attacks, that originated from you count." (5th lvl dual wielding Barbarian will make two attacks with his Attack action and thus can make two attack with his bonus action)
The main idea is, that two-weapon fighting should be the most damaging weapon composition, but because of that it takes both a lot of resaurses during your turn (both action and bonus action) and your ability to effectively defend yourself. My mane concern on this new take of twf mechanic are paladins, as they would have the opportunity to make FOUR divine smites in one turn, which is a lot... But at the same time, because of -1 AC, he would be a more vulnerable and the hostile creature can make a good use of that. Oh, yea! About Dual Wielder feat. It will not have a +1 AC bonus, as it is against the main twf idea.
Fighting styles (finally):
Fighting styles are divided into two groups: specialised - fs, that require specific weapon/shield and general - fs, that do not have any requirements on weapons/shileds or the requirments are not strict enough Specialised: • GWF • Protection • Dueling Light Var • Dueling Brawler • TWF (stays the same) • Tower Shield Specialist • Buckler Specialist • Volley Archery • Precision Archery • Thrown Weapon Fighting (stays the same) • Shield Fighting
General: • Unarmed Fighting • Blind fighting (stays the same) • Interception • Superior Technique (stays the same)
GWF When you roll damage for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll one of the dice and use either total. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit. (you always roll an additional die only once, even when you score a critical hit)
Unarmed Fighting Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier on a hit. V1: When you take an Attack action with an unarmed strike on your turn, you can make a single unarmed strike with your secondary arm with a bonus action. V2: As a bonus action you can make a single unarmed strike for every unarmed strike you did during your Attack action on this turn. (basically, v1 is for an old version of twf and v2 is for a new one) At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you.
Next two fs are Dueling fs replacement, as I find dueling imbalancing. I tried to use the idea, that when you are wielding a single weapon and nothing more, you would have your other hand free, soooo you would be able to punish, grab and do all other nasty things (I took inspiration from Tiandi and Centurion from a game called For Honor), and at the same time that fact you have either nothing or something very light in your secondary hand would make your movement easier and faster and maybe you would be able to utilise some attack and backup tacktick, so in short turms be on the agile side of fighting (took inspiration from Asuna form Sword Art Online anime and from Pangolier form a game called DOTA 2).
Dueling Light Varas the fs not even close to its final form, I do not have a good name for it Prerequisits: Wielding a melee weapon without two-handed property and no round or tower shield V1:Whenever you use an Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action and move up to 10 feet without provoking apportunity attacks. V2:If you take an Attack action on your turn, you can use your bonus action to make a Dexterity(Acrobatics) check against a target's attack roll. On a success, you gain advantage on the first attack against the target until the end of your next turn. V3: When a creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against a creature, and if your attack hits it deals one additional die worth of damage and the creature's attack misses.
Dueling Brawlermeh, but kind of maeds a point I guess Prerequisits: Wielding a melee weapon without two-handed property and have a free hand If you take an Attack action on your turn, you can use your bonus action to attempt to grapple or shove a creature, or make a single unarmed strike against it.
Protection Prerequisite: Wielding a round or a tower shield round shiled is a basic +2 AC shiled, I just needed some name to descern the name of the armour group and the item itself When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that you can see, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed (this move does not provoke opportunity attacks) and must finish this move within 5 feet of the target. Until the beginning of your next turn, while the target is within 5 feet of you, all attack rolls against the target are made at disadvantage. This one is just a changed version of vanilla Protection fs, but with mush more wide range of use. This version encourages good positioning as the range on this fs is not really long, and yoy should be all together for this fs to work, so the creatures should be aware of there allies and where they are and make their moves accordingly. I am not sure about "does not provoke opportunity attacks" part, as you should not be able to run freely around the battlefield with your reaction, but at the same time this is kind of the main idea, so I could not decide on this topic yet.
Buckler Specialist Whenever you make an Attack action of your turn, you can use your bonus action to make a single melee weapon attack with a buckler against a creature within 5 feet of you, and you can use your reaction, when a creature within 5 feet of you misses you with a melee attack to make a single melee weapon attack with a buckler against the creature. In both cases the attack deals (1d4+1+ half your Strength modifier (rounded down)/ 1d4+your Strength modifier / 1d4 ) bludgeoning damage. You cannot use Paladin Divine Smite feature on buckler attacks (or may be you can do only a reaction attack and paladin can use Divine Smite feature). I tried to utilise the idea, that buckler is a smaller shield, that is more suitable for punching, but I have a problem with a paladin, who can do a lot more smites, than he should. I guess this fs simply should not be given to paladins. In other situations a buckler punch with various bonuses for damage makes it into one hell of a funny moment, in my opinion.
Important notice: the following two Archery fighting styles were created with an idea, that ranged weapons do not deal modifier damage. As for fs themselves, the only consurn I have by far is the range on those fs. I think 40-45 is a good range, as it makes a ranged combatant move and position itself better, so that it always have his fighting style active and at the same time its opponents always have the opportunity to screw the ranged attacker up, whether they get too close and a precision archer will not have his bonus to attack rolls, or opponents always have the opportunity to catch up with volley archer. Precision Archery When a target of your ranged weapon attack is more than 45 feet away from you, you gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls against the target.
Volley Archery When you take an Attack action on your turn and attack with a ranged weapon only targets within 45 feet of you, you can make an additional ranged weapon attack against a creature within 45 feet of you as part of the same action.
Tower Shield Specialist V1: When doffing a tower shield, you can choose to create a semi stationary wall in the point where you stand by fixating a tower shield on a flat horizontal surface. You choose, which direction the shield faces. A shield set in this way provides 3/4 cover, whenever it would normally provide only half cover and can be donned as an action by any creature. V2: While the tower shield is donned, whenever you would normally provide only half cover, you provide 3/4 cover instead. So for all these variants, it should be like that: if in the end I decide, that Tower shield with both v1's is too powerful, as it seams to me now by far, I will use the both v2 variants, so that the tower shield will be good at shoving creatures and will always provide 3/4 cover, whenever it provides any cover at all.
Shield Fighting Prerequisite: Wielding a single separate buckler in each hand You treat the bucklers you are wielding as light melee weapons with a damage of 1d4+your Strength modifier. You can add your Strength modifier to the damage of the attacks you make with a bonus action. Just twf but with shields. Duel Wielder feat will boost the damage up to 1d6 + Str mod per hit. Shield fighting does less damage, than usual twf, but it is still on par with gwf. It does have +1 AC from both bucklers, but only from melee attacks and a shield fighter will still have a -1 AC for using bonus action, so it will end up in +1 AC in melee and still -1 AC on ranged attacks with lesser damage, than twf.
Interception Prerequisite: Wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon. When a creature you can see hits a target other than you that you can see, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed (this move does not provoke opportunity attacks) and must finish this move within 5 feet of the target. You reduce the damage the target takes from the attack by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). Basically protection, but only on one attack, because you can take it on any character and be an occasional damage reducer, so basically this fs works the same, as it did, but a bit better.
I did have an idea for players who like versatile weapons but they don't have too many benefits mechanically.
Flexible Fighting. While wielding a versatile weapon in one hand and neither a weapon nor shield in the other hand, you gain a +2 to damage rolls with that weapon. While wielding a versatile weapon with both hands for the entirety of your turn, you gain a +1 to your armor class until the start of your next turn.
This way you can choose between two fighting styles that already exist, but you can't benefit from both at the same time. And I believe it's balanced because of the fact that versatile weapons are often weaker than many others.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
You can take opportunities to strike hard when dual wielding two melee weapons.
When wielding two weapons you can do a Double Strike. You strike with both weapons at the same time in a single attack. You take a -5 to attack and add the damage from your off hand weapon to your primary weapon.
If you have the Two Weapon Fighting ability you may add your ability modifier for both weapons.
When you successfully hit a creature with an unarmed attack or special attack(grapple or shove) you gain bonus to AC equal to a number of attacks that you did against that creature's attacks until the start of your next turn.
The concept is to reward an unarmed character that has lower damage output compared to that with weapon equipped. And since the bonus is only applied to creatures that they hit, it's not really that strong all of the time. The character could still also miss their attacks. it merely boosts their efficiency as melee build that wants to get up close and personal to grapple and such.
Merciless: Once per turn when attacking a Bloodied enemy [Bloodied = Anyone at/below 50% HP] with a Melee weapon/Unarmed Strike, you can deal +__Damage (Fighter Lv. /2, round down) on hit. The extra damage from Merciless matches your Weapon's damage type.
Similar to a "reverse Blood Frenzy" ability that the Sahuagin have, the Merciless fighting style lets you overwhelm anyone that's at/below half health with just that bit more damage. Perfect for Champion/Samurai build. So once you get Extra Attack and you Bloody someone with your 1st hit, you're looking to hook that millionth dollar on the back-swing. And brother, there's a 4-4 string ostinato in D♯ being played.
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Hi, everyone
Hopefully, this thread is still alive))
I have a bunch of homebrew fighting styles, some of which I created by myself, some of which I found while surching the net and just copied them. Some of my fighting styles are just a new version of old fighting styles, that I hope I made better, but not op and there is a fighting style that I just straight up deleted, because in my opinion it is just a bad fighting style (effective, but bad as an Idea), this fs is Defence.
You see, as for me, wielding a specific set of weaponry should effect your gameplay and game experience, for example, wielding a great weapon should result in having a low number of attack, but when those attacks hit, they deal a large amount of damage, wielding a s&b should result in you lacking in dpr department, but be good at defence of oneself and others and etc. Fs Defene is just a fighting style, that actually does not affect your style of fighting, it is just a very effective and because of that boring option.
Every choice of weapon composition should lead to advantages and disadvantages, and you should not be able to fix the disadvantages as they actually define the gameplay better, then advantages, which, on the contrary, you should be able to improve, so that the distinction between weapons would become even more notable.
I also took a new look at two-weapon fighting as a mechanic and created new shield variants (tower and buckler), that are used in fs, so I will attach their stats in the beginning of the post as well as new twf rules
Not all of the fs are in their final form, so there is bad and vague wording here and there, but all in all the main idea hopefully will be easy to understand, and either way I will comment on most of my "creations".
New types of shields:
Two-Weapon Fighting
All the same, but you make a number of attacks with a bonus action equal to the number of attacks you made during a single Attack action (only the attacks that originated from you count), and if you take this bonus action you have -1 AC until the beginning of your next turn.
"You can do a number of attacks as a bonus action equal to the number of attacks you made during your Attack action. Only the attacks, that originated from you count." (5th lvl dual wielding Barbarian will make two attacks with his Attack action and thus can make two attack with his bonus action)
The main idea is, that two-weapon fighting should be the most damaging weapon composition, but because of that it takes both a lot of resaurses during your turn (both action and bonus action) and your ability to effectively defend yourself.
My mane concern on this new take of twf mechanic are paladins, as they would have the opportunity to make FOUR divine smites in one turn, which is a lot... But at the same time, because of -1 AC, he would be a more vulnerable and the hostile creature can make a good use of that. Oh, yea! About Dual Wielder feat. It will not have a +1 AC bonus, as it is against the main twf idea.
Fighting styles (finally):
Fighting styles are divided into two groups: specialised - fs, that require specific weapon/shield and general - fs, that do not have any requirements on weapons/shileds or the requirments are not strict enough
Specialised:
• GWF
• Protection
• Dueling Light Var
• Dueling Brawler
• TWF (stays the same)
• Tower Shield Specialist
• Buckler Specialist
• Volley Archery
• Precision Archery
• Thrown Weapon Fighting (stays the same)
• Shield Fighting
General:
• Unarmed Fighting
• Blind fighting (stays the same)
• Interception
• Superior Technique (stays the same)
GWF
When you roll damage for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll one of the dice and use either total. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
(you always roll an additional die only once, even when you score a critical hit)
Unarmed Fighting
Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier on a hit.
V1: When you take an Attack action with an unarmed strike on your turn, you can make a single unarmed strike with your secondary arm with a bonus action.
V2: As a bonus action you can make a single unarmed strike for every unarmed strike you did during your Attack action on this turn. (basically, v1 is for an old version of twf and v2 is for a new one)
At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you.
Next two fs are Dueling fs replacement, as I find dueling imbalancing. I tried to use the idea, that when you are wielding a single weapon and nothing more, you would have your other hand free, soooo you would be able to punish, grab and do all other nasty things (I took inspiration from Tiandi and Centurion from a game called For Honor), and at the same time that fact you have either nothing or something very light in your secondary hand would make your movement easier and faster and maybe you would be able to utilise some attack and backup tacktick, so in short turms be on the agile side of fighting (took inspiration from Asuna form Sword Art Online anime and from Pangolier form a game called DOTA 2).
Dueling Light Var as the fs not even close to its final form, I do not have a good name for it
Prerequisits: Wielding a melee weapon without two-handed property and no round or tower shield
V1:Whenever you use an Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action and move up to 10 feet without provoking apportunity attacks.
V2:If you take an Attack action on your turn, you can use your bonus action to make a Dexterity(Acrobatics) check against a target's attack roll. On a success, you gain advantage on the first attack against the target until the end of your next turn.
V3: When a creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against a creature, and if your attack hits it deals one additional die worth of damage and the creature's attack misses.
Dueling Brawler meh, but kind of maeds a point I guess
Prerequisits: Wielding a melee weapon without two-handed property and have a free hand
If you take an Attack action on your turn, you can use your bonus action to attempt to grapple or shove a creature, or make a single unarmed strike against it.
Protection
Prerequisite: Wielding a round or a tower shield round shiled is a basic +2 AC shiled, I just needed some name to descern the name of the armour group and the item itself
When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that you can see, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed (this move does not provoke opportunity attacks) and must finish this move within 5 feet of the target. Until the beginning of your next turn, while the target is within 5 feet of you, all attack rolls against the target are made at disadvantage.
This one is just a changed version of vanilla Protection fs, but with mush more wide range of use. This version encourages good positioning as the range on this fs is not really long, and yoy should be all together for this fs to work, so the creatures should be aware of there allies and where they are and make their moves accordingly. I am not sure about "does not provoke opportunity attacks" part, as you should not be able to run freely around the battlefield with your reaction, but at the same time this is kind of the main idea, so I could not decide on this topic yet.
Buckler Specialist
Whenever you make an Attack action of your turn, you can use your bonus action to make a single melee weapon attack with a buckler against a creature within 5 feet of you, and you can use your reaction, when a creature within 5 feet of you misses you with a melee attack to make a single melee weapon attack with a buckler against the creature. In both cases the attack deals (1d4+1+ half your Strength modifier (rounded down)/ 1d4+your Strength modifier / 1d4 ) bludgeoning damage.
You cannot use Paladin Divine Smite feature on buckler attacks (or may be you can do only a reaction attack and paladin can use Divine Smite feature).
I tried to utilise the idea, that buckler is a smaller shield, that is more suitable for punching, but I have a problem with a paladin, who can do a lot more smites, than he should. I guess this fs simply should not be given to paladins. In other situations a buckler punch with various bonuses for damage makes it into one hell of a funny moment, in my opinion.
Important notice: the following two Archery fighting styles were created with an idea, that ranged weapons do not deal modifier damage. As for fs themselves, the only consurn I have by far is the range on those fs. I think 40-45 is a good range, as it makes a ranged combatant move and position itself better, so that it always have his fighting style active and at the same time its opponents always have the opportunity to screw the ranged attacker up, whether they get too close and a precision archer will not have his bonus to attack rolls, or opponents always have the opportunity to catch up with volley archer.
Precision Archery
When a target of your ranged weapon attack is more than 45 feet away from you, you gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls against the target.
Volley Archery
When you take an Attack action on your turn and attack with a ranged weapon only targets within 45 feet of you, you can make an additional ranged weapon attack against a creature within 45 feet of you as part of the same action.
Tower Shield Specialist
V1: When doffing a tower shield, you can choose to create a semi stationary wall in the point where you stand by fixating a tower shield on a flat horizontal surface. You choose, which direction the shield faces. A shield set in this way provides 3/4 cover, whenever it would normally provide only half cover and can be donned as an action by any creature.
V2: While the tower shield is donned, whenever you would normally provide only half cover, you provide 3/4 cover instead.
So for all these variants, it should be like that: if in the end I decide, that Tower shield with both v1's is too powerful, as it seams to me now by far, I will use the both v2 variants, so that the tower shield will be good at shoving creatures and will always provide 3/4 cover, whenever it provides any cover at all.
Shield Fighting
Prerequisite: Wielding a single separate buckler in each hand
You treat the bucklers you are wielding as light melee weapons with a damage of 1d4+your Strength modifier. You can add your Strength modifier to the damage of the attacks you make with a bonus action.
Just twf but with shields. Duel Wielder feat will boost the damage up to 1d6 + Str mod per hit. Shield fighting does less damage, than usual twf, but it is still on par with gwf. It does have +1 AC from both bucklers, but only from melee attacks and a shield fighter will still have a -1 AC for using bonus action, so it will end up in +1 AC in melee and still -1 AC on ranged attacks with lesser damage, than twf.
Interception
Prerequisite: Wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon.
When a creature you can see hits a target other than you that you can see, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed (this move does not provoke opportunity attacks) and must finish this move within 5 feet of the target. You reduce the damage the target takes from the attack by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage).
Basically protection, but only on one attack, because you can take it on any character and be an occasional damage reducer, so basically this fs works the same, as it did, but a bit better.
I did have an idea for players who like versatile weapons but they don't have too many benefits mechanically.
Flexible Fighting. While wielding a versatile weapon in one hand and neither a weapon nor shield in the other hand, you gain a +2 to damage rolls with that weapon. While wielding a versatile weapon with both hands for the entirety of your turn, you gain a +1 to your armor class until the start of your next turn.
This way you can choose between two fighting styles that already exist, but you can't benefit from both at the same time. And I believe it's balanced because of the fact that versatile weapons are often weaker than many others.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Counters here(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
It is kind of an interesting idea, as it should gently push the player to be more "versatile" and use this as an advantage
Hi All,
Here is one my DM put together to be used.
Here's my idea
Gunfighter (Fighter, Ranger, Paladin)
When wielding a firearm, you gain +2 to the damage roll.
I based it off of dueling.
Kinda late, but imo this is more of a feat. It's a great idea for a feat to help twf compete with sharpsooter and gwm though.
Idea for unarmed focus fighting style.
Toe to Toe
When you successfully hit a creature with an unarmed attack or special attack(grapple or shove) you gain bonus to AC equal to a number of attacks that you did against that creature's attacks until the start of your next turn.
The concept is to reward an unarmed character that has lower damage output compared to that with weapon equipped. And since the bonus is only applied to creatures that they hit, it's not really that strong all of the time. The character could still also miss their attacks. it merely boosts their efficiency as melee build that wants to get up close and personal to grapple and such.
Merciless: Once per turn when attacking a Bloodied enemy [Bloodied = Anyone at/below 50% HP] with a Melee weapon/Unarmed Strike, you can deal +__ Damage (Fighter Lv. /2, round down) on hit. The extra damage from Merciless matches your Weapon's damage type.
Similar to a "reverse Blood Frenzy" ability that the Sahuagin have, the Merciless fighting style lets you overwhelm anyone that's at/below half health with just that bit more damage. Perfect for Champion/Samurai build. So once you get Extra Attack and you Bloody someone with your 1st hit, you're looking to hook that millionth dollar on the back-swing. And brother, there's a 4-4 string ostinato in D♯ being played.