Dungeons and Dragons is a game meant to fulfill the adventuring fantasies found in a variety of stories. Slaying beasts, casting spells, and forming lifelong bonds are all appeals of this roleplaying game; but unfortunately, some fantasy archetypes are given greater emphasis than others. There is a clear divide between the Martial classes and the Spellcasting classes; a Fighter can spend their whole turn dealing the same damage as a fireball cast by a Wizard, but the Wizard's fireball hits multiple creatures at a time, dealing much more damage than a Fighter could hope to keep up with. At the same time, Martials are less versatile than Spellcasters, having little to no utility outside of combat encounters. To address these issues, this document proposes a collection of optional rules to increase the power and versatility of Martial Classes.These optional rules are composed of both original homebrew and references to effective homebrew from other creators, who are properly creditted when their rules are implemented. This homebrew takes no credit for homebrew created by other creators, and only encourages the usage of their homebrews.
Keep in mind that these rules are currently in an experimental, but usable state. Damage numbers have been calculated to be balanced with spellcasters of equal levels, but future testing may lead to further balance changes in this rule set. Please contact u/ValuableWeb0 on reddit or Scruffs0 on DnD Beyond with any balance concerns found while using these rules - feedback is much appreciated.
Before you implement
Before implementing these rules into your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, several warnings must be headed. Firstly, these rules use the 2024 version of the 5e rules as a foundation for balancing and functionality; several rules provided in this document reference other rules found in the 2024 version of the game, and using the 2014 version of the game will result in a differently balanced set of rules that could be unpredictable in play. Use caution when translating these rules into 2014 play.
Additionally, these rules are designed with a certain spirit of play in mind. If Spellcasters can perform ridiculous feats of magic such as calling meteors and raising the dead, Martials should be given the liberty to perform ridiculous feats of strength, speed, or physical technique. As such, the abilities granted by these rules have a focus on spectacle, and therefore may be less suitable for down-to-earth campaign settings.
What is buffed
This ruleset includes a variety of changes and buffs for DnD 2024 5e. Because all these changes have been made with the other changes in mind, it is highly encouraged that you utilize all of them, rather than include some changes, but not others from this document. The following vocabulary, features, and rules have been added or changed:
Martial Level
Features such as Weapon Mastery and Martial Talents often scale in various ways according to a character’s **Martial Level,** AKA the combined level of all the Martial classes they have. Barbarians, Fighters, Rogues, and Monks are considered Martial classes, and a character’s Martial Level is equal to the sum of all their levels in any of these classes. Paladins and Rangers count as half-martials, and any levels in these classes only contribute half as many levels to a character’s Martial Level.
Revised Conditions
The following conditions have been changed:
Incapacitated
Unconscious
Petrified
Revised Class Features
The following class features have been changed:
Weapon Mastery (Barbarian)
Weapon Mastery (Fighter)
Weapon Mastery (Rogue)
Intimidating Presence (Beserker Barbarian)
Superior Critical (Champion Fighter)
Supreme Sneak (Thief Rogue)
New Rules
The following rules have been added:
Expanded Weapon Property Rules, increasing versatility and making weapons feel distinct from each-other
Martial Talents, increasing the power and utility of Martials with unmatchable feats of strength, speed, or non-magical skill
Link to PDFs
Rather than cram the whole ruleset into this forum thread, I've linked below a PDF of the beta version of the ruleset and a Homebrewery post of the document.
Dungeons and Dragons is a game meant to fulfill the adventuring fantasies found in a variety of stories. Slaying beasts, casting spells, and forming lifelong bonds are all appeals of this roleplaying game; but unfortunately, some fantasy archetypes are given greater emphasis than others. There is a clear divide between the Martial classes and the Spellcasting classes; a Fighter can spend their whole turn dealing the same damage as a fireball cast by a Wizard, but the Wizard's fireball hits multiple creatures at a time, dealing much more damage than a Fighter could hope to keep up with. At the same time, Martials are less versatile than Spellcasters, having little to no utility outside of combat encounters. To address these issues, this document proposes a collection of optional rules to increase the power and versatility of Martial Classes.These optional rules are composed of both original homebrew and references to effective homebrew from other creators, who are properly creditted when their rules are implemented. This homebrew takes no credit for homebrew created by other creators, and only encourages the usage of their homebrews.
Keep in mind that these rules are currently in an experimental, but usable state. Damage numbers have been calculated to be balanced with spellcasters of equal levels, but future testing may lead to further balance changes in this rule set. Please contact u/ValuableWeb0 on reddit or Scruffs0 on DnD Beyond with any balance concerns found while using these rules - feedback is much appreciated.
Before you implement
Before implementing these rules into your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, several warnings must be headed. Firstly, these rules use the 2024 version of the 5e rules as a foundation for balancing and functionality; several rules provided in this document reference other rules found in the 2024 version of the game, and using the 2014 version of the game will result in a differently balanced set of rules that could be unpredictable in play. Use caution when translating these rules into 2014 play.
Additionally, these rules are designed with a certain spirit of play in mind. If Spellcasters can perform ridiculous feats of magic such as calling meteors and raising the dead, Martials should be given the liberty to perform ridiculous feats of strength, speed, or physical technique. As such, the abilities granted by these rules have a focus on spectacle, and therefore may be less suitable for down-to-earth campaign settings.
What is buffed
This ruleset includes a variety of changes and buffs for DnD 2024 5e. Because all these changes have been made with the other changes in mind, it is highly encouraged that you utilize all of them, rather than include some changes, but not others from this document. The following vocabulary, features, and rules have been added or changed:
Martial Level
Features such as Weapon Mastery and Martial Talents often scale in various ways according to a character’s **Martial Level,** AKA the combined level of all the Martial classes they have. Barbarians, Fighters, Rogues, and Monks are considered Martial classes, and a character’s Martial Level is equal to the sum of all their levels in any of these classes. Paladins and Rangers count as half-martials, and any levels in these classes only contribute half as many levels to a character’s Martial Level.
Revised Conditions
The following conditions have been changed:
Revised Class Features
The following class features have been changed:
New Rules
The following rules have been added:
Link to PDFs
Rather than cram the whole ruleset into this forum thread, I've linked below a PDF of the beta version of the ruleset and a Homebrewery post of the document.
Link to new rules PDF