Am I missing something? If Tactical Mind doesn't expend your Second Wind unless your D20 check succeeds, what prevents you from using it anytime you fail? Except self-control and maybe needing it later for a more important roll.
Mechanically, Tactical Mind is fine. The fluff isn't fine at all. It's like, I use an effort to "perceive harder"? To suddently know arcane lore without ever having encountered it? It's odd and unlikely. Maybe let you use Second Wind for physical things could be nice, but a second wind for knowing and noticing stuff will be weird.
Battle master was notable for being very front loaded. This does help, but I see two issues:
Relentless is 'once per turn', so if you're using reactions... you can use it twice per round. Particularly helpful if you have reactions that expend superiority dice.
Relentless is usable outside of combat, so it becomes basically free for commanding presence or tactical mind.
Manuevers
Bait and Switch: adding your superiority die to AC, when you aren't even guaranteed to be attacked, isn't very strong, and the 'swap positions with an adjacent ally' part is marginal other than automatically breaking grapples on the target (you can't use it if grappled yourself), which may not be an intended feature anyway.
Commander's Strike: the fact that it costs an ally's reaction (which they might have another use for) as well as one of your own attacks makes this still marginal (it remains somewhat useful if you have an allied rogue).
Disarming Attack: the big problem with this is that the victim can just pick up the weapon on their turn. It should move the weapon by enough that you might be able to deny it.
Evasive Footwork: again, adding your superiority die to AC, when you aren't guaranteed to be attacked, isn't very strong. Maybe add 'dash as bonus action'.
Goading Attack: strictly inferior to menacing attack against any foe that isn't immune to fear. It should either produce a stronger effect or not have a save.
Maneuvering Attack: the fact that it costs an ally's reaction (which they might have a better use for) makes this rarely useful IME.
Parry: spending a reaction and a resource to prevent 7.5 damage at level 3 is... okay. Spending a reaction and a resource to prevent 11.5 (or 9.5 to do it resource-free with relentless) at level 18 is not. This would be a good candidate for actually adding the superiority die to AC.
Rally: spending a bonus action and a resource for 5.5 temp hp (assuming some mental stat at 12) at level 3 is... not great. Spending a bonus action and a resource for 8.5 at level 18 is laughable, though at level 15+ you can just use relentless before combat to buff everyone, which is okay-ish (at level 15, it would be something like 1d8+2, which is barely relevant against level 15 damage).
Sweeping Attack: you're spending a superiority die to do... superiority die damage. It's lousy at every level. Make it a bonus action attack or something.
Silly question on Eldritch Knight, but is there anything that prevents War Magic and Improved War Magic being used on the same attack action? I am not sure I am seeing any restrictions here...
Silly question on Eldritch Knight, but is there anything that prevents War Magic and Improved War Magic being used on the same attack action? I am not sure I am seeing any restrictions here...
I think they don’t care since it’s an 18th level ability and it’s all your attacks if you do it. Also it only level spell and cantrip coming from a subclass that could use action surge to cast 2 leveled spells in 5e.
Silly question on Eldritch Knight, but is there anything that prevents War Magic and Improved War Magic being used on the same attack action? I am not sure I am seeing any restrictions here...
Not obviously. If you action surge, you can do it twice (action surge disallows the magic action, but this is the attack action, not the magic action). I don't think it's a big problem though, given that you're a 1/3 caster so the spells you can actually cast in this way are very limited.
I would note that the text box about changes says "level 1 or 2 spell" while the actual ability description has no restriction.
It is high level so maybe they do not care but still seems a little broken. I can just imagine thunderclap/sword burst > thunderwave > thunderwave > blade ward > bonus action attack. Quite the AoE warrior when action surge. At 20 also get the other 2 attacks on top.
Would like it if tier 3 and 4 weren't broken but oh well.
It is high level so maybe they do not care but still seems a little broken. I can just imagine thunderclap/sword burst > thunderwave > thunderwave > blade ward > bonus action attack. Quite the AoE warrior when action surge. At 20 also get the other 2 attacks on top.
You can actually do thunderclap/fireball/fireball/thunderclap for 24d6. Which is... substantially less damage than meteor swarm. So no, not broken.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Mechanically, Tactical Mind is fine. The fluff isn't fine at all.
It's like, I use an effort to "perceive harder"? To suddently know arcane lore without ever having encountered it?
It's odd and unlikely. Maybe let you use Second Wind for physical things could be nice, but a second wind for knowing and noticing stuff will be weird.
That should be another trait or nothing.
Looking at the new Battle Master, some thoughts:
Relentless
Battle master was notable for being very front loaded. This does help, but I see two issues:
Manuevers
Silly question on Eldritch Knight, but is there anything that prevents War Magic and Improved War Magic being used on the same attack action? I am not sure I am seeing any restrictions here...
I think they don’t care since it’s an 18th level ability and it’s all your attacks if you do it. Also it only level spell and cantrip coming from a subclass that could use action surge to cast 2 leveled spells in 5e.
Not obviously. If you action surge, you can do it twice (action surge disallows the magic action, but this is the attack action, not the magic action). I don't think it's a big problem though, given that you're a 1/3 caster so the spells you can actually cast in this way are very limited.
I would note that the text box about changes says "level 1 or 2 spell" while the actual ability description has no restriction.
It is high level so maybe they do not care but still seems a little broken. I can just imagine thunderclap/sword burst > thunderwave > thunderwave > blade ward > bonus action attack. Quite the AoE warrior when action surge. At 20 also get the other 2 attacks on top.
Would like it if tier 3 and 4 weren't broken but oh well.
You can actually do thunderclap/fireball/fireball/thunderclap for 24d6. Which is... substantially less damage than meteor swarm. So no, not broken.