What are your ways of buffing martials without just adding damage?

[@RobertPatrician]

A fun variant is that a class with no ability to cast spells has resistance to magical damage. A magical fireball has more impact on someone who has magic in their very soul than just a guy.

[@JustSomeGuyWithoutSeasoning]

Fushiguro Toji:

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Many martials and 'expert' classes tend to get some variation of Evasion for this reason, allowing you to treat successful saves as no damage and failed saves as have damage if you're a slippery rogue or a ki-fueled monk.

[@anonymouse2675]

Give all Martials another form of Non AC, Non Resistance based damage mitigation by letting them use a modified version of the Interception Fighting Style from Tasha`s. Just roll it into every single Martial class as a base feature. AC is still important, but now Martials have more options to survive, and handle not only regular attacks, but Crits AND magical damage as well. Sorta the Martial equivalent to the Shield spell, only better. Since both the Shield spell and this use a reaction, then it doesn't matter if a player multiclassed like a Sorcadin for example, they can still only use one OR the other. All I did was remove the first line: You can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target (You!) takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction. Ironically enough, this is a slightly weaker version of the Goliath`s Stone's Endurance trait which is a D12+CON.

[@andyshade1747]

Martial subclass: steve from accounting

[@StonedHunter]

That'd be cool. It's kind of like what Dragon Age did with Dwarves. You hang around the magic rocks for generations and it results in them all having at least slight magic resistance.

[@LocalMaple]

There is an optional rule I think is called Cleave. If a Melee Weapon Attack causes a KO, apply the same to-hit and remaining damage to another enemy within range until the remaining damage is 0. I like to use a homebrew I call Martial Adept. Martial classes get a number of Superiority Dice and Battle Master Maneuvers depending on their class. They are d4 unless the class or subclass has dedicated dice for them to match (like Monk’s die, or going Battle Master Fighter).

[@Eraktab]

Ring of Spell storing when given to a party without greedy players can be the best addition to a group. Having a fighter be able to misty step is just the tip of the awesome iceburh. Magic is shareable in dnd!

[@ArmoredAnathema]

There's this interesting book called Valor from ValorousGames that pretty much solves this issue. Things like "Hitting all enemies around you" or straight up "Ramming someone with your full movement until they slam into the wall" and even "Run through enemies and make an attack against all of them". And these are just a handful of basic stuff you can make right out of the gate at level 1.

[@grannygoodtea5882]

I recently actually just reworked weapons in dnd 5e. I wanted to make them more than just stat sticks. The idea was to give them each a unique identity. So for smaller weapons that can be dual wielded, (light hammers, clubs, handaxes, etc) they get multiattack on their offhand strikes too, and attack with both weapons during opportunity attacks. I also gave some slashing weapons like axes the ability to bleed enemies for 1d6 damage per turn. I also tried giving every weapon some skills. So unique attacks that fit the weapon that are better than regular attacks. Maybe they force targets to make a dc or be pushed, tripped, or their next attack getting baned. A lot of them also got some passive boosts. I also tried to give more weapons additional stuff to do with your reaction or bonus action. Melee weapons having 2/3 skills that add flavor and something mechanically without being just "hit harder" ranged weapons having only 1 skill and maybe 1 passive for the stronger ones, since they have range, but the weaker ones like darts having a few more that give them a niche as a weapon that can be used in range and melee, and some quality of life stuff for people who use poisons to coat them. I like 5e, it makes the game a lot simpler to learn, but over time that simplicity definitely can get boring so for me it was about adding things for martials to do, choices to make outside of "hit people" Now you have to choose, what weapons do you want, what skills or features do you want to have access to. Maybe even carrying multiple types ot be able to switch it up. Do you want to be better against armored foes with a maul or a warhammer, or being able to chip away with axes. there's a lot of historical and logistical ideas behind a lot of weapons so for me it was about trying to inject those back into them without just adding damage. A lot of these abilities don't even deal bonus damage and some forgo damage on that attack to attempt to apply an effect.

[@Thundarr100]

About that "Sidekick" idea. In Pathfinder 1e, there's a feat called "Torchbearer", which is available upon reaching 5th level. It grants the character a Torchbearer who is 3 levels lower than they are. The Torchbearer is essentially a Cohort from the Leadership feat, except that you don't gain any followers, and you don't need to acquire a stronghold or place of business before attracting the Torchbearer. Once the character achieves 9th level, the Torchbearer feat becomes the Leadership feat (no need to spend an additional feat on Leadership), and the Torchbearer is upgraded to Cohort (and is only 2 levels lower than the character). So if you want to give your martials a sidekick, what you can do is at level 5 give them the Torchbearer feat as a bonus feat.

[@Eliot_Ness]

Movement options were the biggest thing that helped me the one time I played D&D 5e. My DM had a custom fighter class that had the ability to 'teleports behind you' with an attack and a limited use shadowstep, meaning I was always able to get the most out of my battle master tactics. Didn't have to do MORE damage as long as that damage was able to be where it needed to be most!

[@ZZ10000]

in my games every weapon has an extra special property which is kinda like a small battle master maneuver. for example you can forego 1 attack with the shovel to attempt to blind a target within 10 feet (must make save) or you can forego all attacks with a great hammer to make a shockwave on the ground and damage all creatures within 15 foot cone (save = half damage) or you can reduce incoming slashing or piercing damage with a rapier by 1d8 with a reaction you can break shields with axes you can disarm someone or knock someone prone with a whip etc the tradeoff or balance for this is that other human enemies can do this too and you trade your multiattack for an aoe or damage of 1 attack for a small status that lasts one round, this are just options so players don't even need to use it but you can make some nasty combos if you do like: knock someone prone with a whip and then use the advantage to attack with a warhammer. This also makes every weapon more unique and every martial more unique

[@TheMemo659]

1. Remove opportunity attacks caused by disengaging. Let melees run around freely in combat. 2. Give items cool effects with long recharges. Example: 10 charges on a "Battle suit Breastplate". 1 charge can either give you +2 to AC for 1 minute (10 rounds) OR add 1d8 force damage to each successful melee attack for 1 minute. Breastplate regains 1 charge per day. By mid to end game melee characters will have multiple items like the above bonded and can manage the resources like a caster would. 3. As said in vid, a long rest between every encounter will always favor casters. Give the party time sensitive goals and/or scenarios where camping for 8 hours and going into every encounter with full resources is just not practical. The performance gap between melee and caster disappears quickly. 4. The fighter subclass battle master has a VERY useful out of combat ability called "know your enemy". The totem barbarian can literally double a party's travel speed. Rogues *should* have underworld connections in the major cities/towns. etc. etc. etc. Martial classes will always fall short of what a caster can accomplish outside of combat, to a point. Know your class, there is ALWAYS an angle and scenario for you to shine.

[@claude-alexandretrudeau1830]

When it comes to martials, just describe a cool maneuvre you wish to make and make it an Athletics check, an Acrobatics check or a Grapple check. There. Buffed.

[@bladeking1231]

This it doesn’t make battle master useless it’s them being able to do these maneuvers while attacking and dealing damage but if a barbarian said I’m going to lock up this guys sword with my weapon and then rip it away is doing the same thing as tue maneuver

[@someone4650]

I think Martials are balanced around relying more on their equipment than casters and so you need to make magic items more accessible to your players. BG3 doesn’t really have as much of a caster/martial gap and part of that is because it hands out magic items like candy, so your martials get good magic items and end up being a lot stronger because of it

[@DBArtsCreators]

Focusing on the Fighter, Monk, Barbarian & Rogue * Battlemaster maneuvers available to the martials * More support & non-combat abilities (especially in the form of tertiary / optional abilities, like Pact Boons & Eldritch Invocations). * Improvements to existing abilities (Fighter example: Action Surge functions like Haste & scales, Indomitable functions as Legendary Resistance, Second Wind functions as a Short Rest except that it can't refresh itself, and Champion is rolled into the base class - except for Survivor, as that goes to late-game Barbarian). * More/stronger enemies during encounters (rather than going for the encounter max, calculate the number of enemies needed for the max and throw them all at the players in 1-3 encounters, with the area of the encounter needing to be navigated or explored at the same time). The more things going on, the more there is for martials to do and the more pressure put on spellcaster resources.

[@anonymouse2675]

I agree. The best part is that these are all simple fixes. I had posted this in reply to a different post, but I will copy/paste here because it fits: Give all Martials another form of Non AC, Non Resistance based damage mitigation by letting them use a modified version of the Interception Fighting Style from Tasha`s. Just roll it into every single Martial class as a base feature. AC is still important, but now Martials have more options to survive, and handle not only regular attacks, but Crits AND magical damage as well. Sorta the Martial equivalent to the Shield spell, only better. Since both the Shield spell and this use a reaction, then it doesn't matter if a player multiclassed like a Sorcadin for example, they can still only use one OR the other. All I did was remove the first line: You can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target (You!) takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction. Ironically enough, this is a slightly weaker version of the Goliath`s Stone's Endurance trait which is a D12+CON.

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@anonymouse2675 * Many thanks! * I'm more a fan of changing armor from granting AC to granting DR (damage reduction). Better to negate damage that hits than risking avoiding it, and it makes every point of health that much more valuable (especially against low-damage attacks, since DR can negate damage entirely). * I would change the wording of your Reaction to the following: "You can use your reaction to reduce the damage you take by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a *melee weapon* to use this reaction.". This would give melee martials a needed advantage over ranged martials.

[@anonymouse2675]

@@DBArtsCreators You`re welcome. It`s not my wording, I literally just copied the wording from Tasha`s Cauldron of Everything, and deleted the first line.

[@ultracrit9531]

A cool idea I have to help melee survivability is a "parry/deflection" system. when you get attacked you can make a check to reduce the damage and even counterattack if the damage is stopped entirely. I'm thinking a good way to balance would be limiting it to prof. times/round to stop an AC build fighter from blitzing down a boss before it's even their turn.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Avoid things that nerf martial classes. Many dungeon masters try making the game more fun with houserules that don't actually accomplish anything but making martial classes worse to play. The most common example is critical fumbles on a natural 1 on an attack roll. Casters, except warlocks, make one attack roll on their turn of avoid them alltogether. But martials need to make attack rolls. And the higher their level goes, the more critical fumbles they produce. Noodlefist the Al Dente is a master of martial arts. He can pluck arrows out of the air, move so fast, he becomes invisible to the naked eye and has stopped visibly ageing. He also hits an ally twice per minute; nobody believes him he is doing it on accident. Allow enough short rests and some utility magic items that are not classlocked and it will be fine.

[@knightmare1267]

This exactly. My DM has a house rule where every time you level up, you can put your INT modifier worth of points into your skills. Our Wizard has about 50 more points across all of their skills than our skill monkey Rogue does.

[@d1nodray]

I'm sorry, NODDLEFIST THE AL DENTE?

[@schwarzerritter5724]

@@d1nodray Yes... I definitely mean Noddlefist. That was on purpose and not a typo.

[@d1nodray]

@@schwarzerritter5724 I'm sorry, that's just a very weird name. I found it quite amusing.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

@@d1nodray And I actually mispelled Noodlefist. EDIT: I also just misspelled "misspelled".

[@i010001]

I think it's a tricky question, and the solution for me is ultimately a rather cerebral one which is... a little detached from some people's perception of game design and "buffs" See, I see a lot of people suggesting mechanical buffs. Give fighters new abilities, give them new powers. The thing is, a part of the martial experience is that you are focusing on the more basic mechanics of the game rather than focusing in on specific 'powers' in the same way casters will. You see cases like the Tome of Battle, a very late 3.5 book, which added a bunch of martial classes with powers akin to spells - and they proved to be very divisive and unpopular. 4e added a lot of fighter powers akin to spells as well - this was a widely disliked edition. People felt it eroded the identity and experience of a martial class. And a lot of buffs to martials really do come down to "Make them play more like casters," which is not ideal. Ultimately, being able to do some cool weapon arts is something very cool to a lot of people - but is also something equally against the grain of why a lot of people play fighters and other martials in the first place. I think the desire to be a guy who just plays around with the basic systems without a lot of frills is an important one. So what's the answer? It ultimately boils down to that idea that fighters like to play with the basic systems of the game. You gotta place emphasis on that, and give the "boring" martials their most dynamic options through those systems. A part of this is going to be in encounter design. Varied terrain, places where strategy can shine, and the like, are places which martials will often appreciate. If you are in an area with a lot of fields, maybe push the Martial to get a cool horse or otherwise introduce mounted combat. On a mountain pass, place opponents into an area where they can force a ranged battle. If the fantasy of a fighter is being the guy good at fighting, let fighting be something which requires some tactical placement and consideration. This is counterintuitive - it actually puts a martial into positions where they can't do whatever their default thing is, and is thus less effective. But through that, you get a sense of reward for your choices and it makes "I attack" into something you have to think about complexities of. A part of this is granting interesting arms and armors and other items. You want something that adds options, rather than adds raw power. A barbarian is already good at fighting - but an adamantine axe lets them chop through doors, a Javelin of Lightning lets them have a line attack, and a flying mount lets them approach everything in other ways. To put another way, the best items for these characters is not a stronger sword, it's a sword that can do something unique. Give them consumables, too, and interesting ones. A Potion of Invisibility is a much bigger deal for a Paladin than a Wizard - though, of course, this is dependent on the party actually using their consumables. This is another way of looking at it all as well - We have a tendency to assume that a high-level wizard tears open reality, and a high-level fighter just hits things faster. But that's not really true - A high level fighter is an Elden Ring boss, or a legendary warrior who's name is known throughout the land, or Hannibal leading an army of elephants through the alps. They might still be less versatile than a caster, but they can certainly do more than just hit things. If you lean into that, and give them options which end up really cool and dynamic, that really starts to option the utility on a martial. The list of equipment I put above was off the top of my head, but look at how they combine: A Barbarian with an invincible axe, riding a flying horse and hurling lightning. That's what a mid-level martial should be, in my mind, and you can see how the things you acquire should innately gives options and make you cool. Another is that you can involve yourself in the world. A fighter cannot cast spells, but Elric of Melnibone can still negotiate with the elementals of Fire and Water to set a city ablaze and have the water refuse to put it out. Give them the tools and space to come up with a plan, let them interact with the world and do things like purchase the service of some mercenaries and siege weapons or earn the favour of the spirits of the forest, and a martial can lead armies and conquer - and effect the situation just as much as any wizard. That will involve you putting factions, and powerful entities into the world which the party would not simply kill, and may involve you needing to "hook" the martial if they are of the mind that what they do is hit stuff. Martials will especially latch on to factions and entities which prize strength and durability - Maybe to gain the respect of the prince of the fire elementals, you must endure their heat for a full minute with only your own strength. Maybe a particular faction will value the honor of a duel more than mere words - You earn respect of a faction Klingon-style. Maybe you have a king or noble willing to reward a warrior who has served his interest in battle, or shows his skills in archery or in a tournament. Hell, if your martial is strong enough? Maybe you will occasionally be feared by a faction or entity, or have people approach you as a student. Your reputation as a warrior may precede you. Your edgy evil fighter could very well end up with some goblins swearing allegiance to him - and have a giant variety of options come with that. Just remember - not every peaceful solution is JUST about talking, and being good at fighting or having a reputation as a warrior can benefit your negotiation as well. The goal would be to get your character's foot in the door for abstract choices and options down the road, when a problem presents itself. In other words? If you win an archery competition and end up with Royalty Free Maid Marian crushing on you, who can get stuff done for you no other party member can and is loyal to your Ranger, that's a contact worth more than almost any single class ability. So, I think that's my answer: You want to break the assumption that a high level fighter is just a guy who hits things, and offer them the options in-world to eventually evolve organically into someone very cool. You are not evolving into Tarkus, High Level Fighter who hits a lot. You are evolving into Tarkus, commander of the Ivory Legion and their elephant cavalry, respected in the lands of five kings and feared in two more, who rides a Storm Elemental and bears a Horn of Valhalla. But that's... You know, a bit of a solution which is very complex. And your players have to actually take the options. And they don't want to feel like you are thrusting a destiny upon them. So it's all ultimately a somewhat complex answer of just like... "Yeah, let the world respect them and give them the space to do cool stuff." Or, like. I guess give them a dragon. Fighters love dragons.

[@that_guy1186]

i really like this answer. At higher levels, your spell-casting classes are demi-gods. a 15th level wizard is accomplishing arcane feats most people in the world have only heard of in legends, a 20th level wizard is tearing up reality and putting it back together as it pleases, an evil 20th level wizard would mean an apocalypse in most worlds. sorcerers at 15th level can bend magic to their will and use magic in ways unheard of by the world, and by 20th level have basically unlimited use of spellcraft with their legendary font of magic, the weave succumbs to their force. a 15th level fighter, the way the books are written, is just a REALLY athletic dude that hits stuff REALLY hard. a 20th level fighter is a blur of motion on the battlefield, a blur that can absolutely be taken out by a 3rd level spell and a bad wisdom save. it’s up to player and DM to make them more than that. give them an apprentice to teach in the ways of combat, give them an army to defeat in a great show of force, make them the pinnacle of martial combat where magic means nothing and your battle prowess is everything. i like the comparison to Elden Ring bosses. a 17th level bear totem barbarian is a truly immovable force, often having as many hit points as an ADULT DRAGON. that’s something people will hear about, an un-killable spirit of rage that wreaks havoc everywhere they go. fledgling adventurers will flock to challenge them as a test of metal. give them challengers, let them show just how immovable and mighty they are. after all, your party isnt the only group of adventurers that exists. a high-level rogue would absolutely be a lord of the shadows, the best assassin in the lands, able to reach any place and obtain anything. give them a guild to lead, give them the opportunity to go on heists and missions that only they could complete, make them THE underworld connection. your group of adventurers doesnt just run around killing deities and preventing apocalypses unnoticed, so make them aware of the interest they garner, whether it’s good or bad. that’s a great way to make martials feel powerful. spell-casters get that inherently in their flavor, being the apex of divinity or arcana is part of the class, but for martials it is earned, and they’ll never know what they’ve earned unless you tell them.

[@synashilp]

A lot of these suggestions are answered by simply playing 3rd Edition D&D / First Edition Pathfinder. Marial Adept as a free feat? You can just do those things, regardless of class. They also have feat trees involving all of those maneuvers. Those two editions have systems for generating enchanted gear, including crafting them yourself. Battlefield Control and AoE? A martial with the right feats can patrol a small area of the battlefield and pretty much lock down any enemies within that area. A basic example is a fighter starting with Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip. Grab a reach weapon, and your threatened range will be good. Better to-hit growth? That's called Base Attack Bonus, and it comes in three flavors. You have slow progression (1/2 class level) for casters like wizards and sorcerers. This, in theory, hinders their ranged spell attacks, but they ignore certain bonuses to AC. There's medium progression (2/3 class level) for several classes like clerics, druids, rogues, and monks. Unfortunately, clerics and druids are just the best classes in the game and they can break it in half, so sorry. Fast progression (full class level) is used for fighters, paladins, barbarians, and rangers, making them lethally accurate with multiple attacks. Casters in armor? Can't help you when it comes to the divine casters because despite also having somatic components, armor doesn't hamper them. However, your arcane casters have to deal with Arcane Spell Chance Failure, which is a percentile roll to see if an armored arcane caster even succeeds at the somatic components of spells. Sure, there are feats to reduce the chance, but casters don't get many feats. And finally, the conclusive fix: accept that casters (especially divine ones) are the gods of the game and that martials being absolute garbage was an intent in the design for 3e and 5e. Go play 1e, 2e, or 4e. Another solution is to play other systems that aren't D&D. Also avoid systems that are under the influence of Monte Cook. A couple examples: Pathfinder Second Edition fixed some of the problems by nerfing casters with a new action economy, but the martial/caster divide is still slightly present. For the sci-fi nerds, play the Star Wars RPGs (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny) by Fantasy Flight Games. The way that character progression works makes Force-users strain at how to build. All three are meant to be different in flavor, but still compatible with each other.

[@gbpakgirl26]

Weapon and Armor Upgrades. This can range from extra AC/damage to stuff like extra speed (not just walking) for armor and some interesting ones such as being able to move when you do an opportunity attack. (Move after attack)

[@zachariaravenheart]

The second one is basically what I do in a way, but I use the proficiency bonus instead and I changed up parry to work like it does for the Knight in it's stat block. Parry in my games adds Proficiency to your AC. On top of that, I expanded weapons and armor. I took the Dungeon Coach's idea of armor reducing damage and added an anti-armor feature to certain weapons that ignore that. Also added new things that certain weapons would give their wielder is they are proficient in a very similar way to BG3. Some weapons let the user do a flourish, or heavy attack. Some a stunning strike. I even took the critical hit features from the Dungeon Coach as well. Good stuff from the Dungeon Coach. I recommend it. I simplified it for my group and my own sake, and it works great! It actually makes melee fighting more enjoyable having more options.

[@Calebgoblin]

This isn't just entertaining, this is downright helpful

[@joshuajewell4243]

Personally I just began a campaign with some buddies from a previous failed campaign where I was a player. I really wanted to make them feel good about their characters and backstories. That being said, our barbarian expressed that “it sucked being the bullet sponge and only hitting a few times, I want flavor.” So him and I sat there for 4 hours the other day and I asked him some questions to see where he was at. Wound up building a custom barbarian subclass for him that mixed in well with his backstory. Making his rage have unique effects based on a wisdom save he makes and by how far he fails/succeeds it. As well as some extra things, such as Arcane Points, which are like a sorcery point but for his specific character. He’s able to deal magical damage and use limited spell-like abilities, but they are only in fire damage. He basically has a rage demon in him and it is giving him this power, but not without drawbacks

[@joshuajewell4243]

This being said, if you’re up for the challenge, being able to make a custom subclass for someone will make you proud when they use it you’ll enjoy seeing them smile when they discover something new or have some sort of flavor added in that they dreamt of

[@kaderp9043]

That is amazing I love that! I did a homebrew for my superhero game for a player that has dmg resistance (kinda like Barb) but he can shield others with it who are near him. Saved a lot of PCs and NPCs with that ability.

[@theinsanegamer1024]

I made a homebrew barbarian subclass that can utilize a small pool of magic while raging. Imagine a Paladin of Conquest Barbarian Viking, gifted powers from Thor, eyes crackling with lightning as they swing their maul, brimming with electricity and leaving a trail of crackling power as it swings through the air. Or a Barbarian who has some draconic heritage getting so angry they let out a screech and breath flame into the air. Yeah it's doable with a dragonborn, but what if you wanted to be a half-orc who was half-orc half dragon? Or giving an icy glare so powerful it *literally* causes ice to form. With one single word, frost forms around you, making the temperature colder. Or grasping a mans face and gripping it harshly as you blast them with a Burning Hands, permanently scarring them.

[@blakeetter280]

I made a few changes based on what honestly makes sense. Three big ones; if you gain a bonus action attack you can make as many attacks as your main action. If take the dual wielding style you can use your offhand weapon perfectly normal, your fighting style is two handed why would you get penalized for using two weapons? And third you can substitute any attack for a basic ‘maneuver’ like grappling or shoving someone. I also add some leeway on certain things. Like one NPC was a dragon shifted into human form. On his attack he made an unarmed attack to grab the barbarians armor and throw him.

[@Kat-j19347]

Luckily that last one is RAW, you can substitute an attack from extra attack to do a grapple or shove etc

[@ZerodragonSP]

I always liked martial classes having a sort of "instinct" allowing them to better react to things coming their way, like getting a small advantage against ranged attacks and spells, allowing them a better chance to avoid the incoming attack or outright counter it if they roll high enough. I also like martial providing small disadvantages to casters if they get close enough, such as having spells having small a chance to fail/backfire due to panic/trying to cast the spell as fast as possible. I also make it so martial attacks don't outright fail, so much as making the attack grazing hit for like 1 damage or having a blocked hit knock the enemy off balance, giving the attacker a better chance to hit on the following round. Critical fails are the enemy landing a small, low damage hit which prevented the attack. It's not huge, with the advantages I mention essentially being "add 1 to your X roll," but my players enjoy it since it makes it feel like they're always doing SOMETHING and combat feels like it flows more smoothly. Also sometimes a fireball backfiring and exploding in the wizards hands because the fighter cut it with a well placed strike before it could be thrown boosts a shy player's confidence quite a bit.

[@AlinNightwing]

I've always been keen on giving really cool magic items. LIke rings of protection so even if they can't dish out damage they can soak it up and be tankier for their party to apply battle control and damage. I also like enchantments on weapons and armor, like (I play 3.5) in the magic item compendium, there's an armor enchantment that allows once per day to activate armor to completely redirect any attack... to ANOTHER LOCATION... i.e. stabbed with longsword nat20, you say nope and redirect the attack so the sword goes through you and appears stabbing somewhere else 30 feet away... anywhere... you can use your opponent's attack to stab their own ally. Another enchantment is an activation on a weapon that you land a hit then activate to teleport up to I think it's 20 or 30 feet away instantly meaning you could attack>move action teleport>attack if you have 2 attacks. I personally like to add a few extra melee enemies to keep the martials good and busy and the casters more need to exercise caution because well... I always give my martials at least a short or longbow that they can switch to forcing the players to have to take cover or lose action... something to keep them on their toes. Boots of speed, weapon of speed, armor of blur... you can get so damn creative without just being like "here's a +5 sword that deals an extra 3d6 fire and 2d6 frost and 5d4 acid" fuck that, have fun and make them get creative with what you give them.

[@Ceaseless_Thoughts]

Let martials counter spells if they are close enough by spending a reaction to attempt to cancel it through either grappling or just slapping it away

[@dragonriderabens9761]

THIS!!!!

[@michaelfahlsing739]

I actually made a custom class for a homebrew game I DM where they get this at the same level a caster would get counter spell and it's usable proficiency bonus times per day. For above lvl 3 spells it does the same check but with dex or str instead of the normal casting stat calculation.

[@MayHugger]

A contested melee counterspell sounds pretty solid.

[@xenoexe4954]

So obviously i just wanna say its only really worth it if the players feel like they are not having fun as a martial. However since I love game design I been work shopping a high fantasy power system for martial called Flow. Basically you would get a point of Flow every time you make an attack and each class has a way to generate extra flow, usually determining on what they do. Fighter just needs to land a attack, rogues need to land sneak attack or use cunning action, monks need to burn a ki point ect. You can spend these in super human feats like swinging your weapon so hard the force of it sends the attack through the air and strikes the opponent from a distance or lets you dive infront of an attack fir another with temp hit points to tank it for the. Btw these can also generate Flow for you. I need to work out what the higher level abilities would be but imagin them higher end one piece level attacks. Im also adding some fundamental combat changes such as overflow damage, basically you deal extra damage to the target between the different of your attack and their ac, and multi targeted attacks, you roll once to attack multiple creatures with one attack. Im also adding stances to allow for more buffs and fun play styles each having passive, active, and reactive benefits, with the 1 limitation being you can only be in 1 stance at a time. If you want to do a lower magic world or more down to earth in scope of power level then I would suggest taking the UA of fighter or battle master and apply it to all martial with specific lists along with stances. Again I would only really bother if you want to entertain the idea or your players have a problem with the system and their character.

[@MayHugger]

Damage is the one thing martials are mostly good on (except Monks lmao). Which apparently some of the replies in the video forgot was part of the question. Btw, to all the replies that mentioning having longer days, that doesn’t buff martials, that’s just playing as the designers originally intended.

[@Unholydragoon]

I add Style Feats and Techniques. The styles often allow them to do something with their basic attacks. Techniques are something that can be learned via time and effort, as well as acquiring a training manual. The tech's are generally 1/short rest.

[@SamuelDancingGallew]

For my spinoff system that I'm working on, the consistency thing really shines even in 1-3 combat adventuring days, as Martials almost always have some kind of resource at their disposal, while Spellcasters and Artificers (no Spellcasting here, aka. PF2e Style) need to ration their abilities between rests. Although, they too get a little shot of consistency to make sure nobody ever feels completely useless, unless it was their goal. Better yet, Martials get abilities that synergize with Spellcasters, even when multiclassing. But most importantly, they can do things like take a hit for an ally, deal lots of extra damage with little attacks, apply debuffs with a lot of their attacks, shrug off certain debuffs, and so on. Yes, some Spellcasters can technically do some of these things as well, but it can often be more costly and difficult, so such benefits are usually reserved for emergencies.

[@BoredTAK5000]

Personally I homebrew magic items and increase the amount of attunement slots. I like to give my magic items spells like steel wind strike or destructive wave to make them feel like they’re more than just a guy with a sword. Give them abilities that seem impossible but they can do it because they are just that quick/strong haste is another good spell to give your martial classes

[@ShadowC14]

Had DM who's solution was to introduce mechanical or magical effects(often reflavored) to gear towards martial classes. But unlike magical equipment that you had to attune to or carry, these were just straight up rewards personalized or given a choice. It was nice to have bonus effects or options in combat, but what this mostly did was give us flexibility or specialization in our utility when our of combat. Ex: barbarian casts Bend, it's like mend, except instead of fixing objects it just breaks them. Doing so however does not dispell it's magic or otherwise traps. Seems unless, until the barbarian uses it to bend a locked door bc the rogue couldn't pass a lockpick check

[@Lorekeeper_GGuy]

The way I’ve tried to do it is by adding a weapon-upgrading mechanic to give martials extra abilities in combat without just being basic +# weapons. For example, a Zelda-inspired spin attack upgrade deals damage in a circle and has a chance to knock enemies backwards some. It deals set damage and uses charges like a magic item, however, so it’s generally only better to use in a situation where you need to reposition yourself or take out a group of mobs that are already all low health than as a go-to damage dealer

[@norandomnumbers]

I buffed martials by switching to pathfinder 2e, worked like a charm!

[@nils-peterwihlney8732]

I normally offer homebrewed non-magic and magic equipment, minor boons, and I also let races with natural weapons or extra body parts like wings or tails use them for unarmed strikes. I've wanted to implement a type of monk addition called a Stance System. Each school/dojo in the world has its own stance and can teach it to a monk. A monk starts with 1 stance for free, based on their school. Based on the pathfinder system but not just copy pasta. Example: Judo (Stance of Throwing) While in this stance a monk gains +1 to AC, -5 to speed, and gains 2 Abilities. 1: Counter Throw. When attacked by a melee attack the monk may decrease the damage by a 1d12+monk level, if the damage is reduced to 0 the monk can knock the foe (if large or less) prone or throw them 5 ft. 2: Throwing When attacking a foe with an unarmed attack or when succeeding with a grapple the monk can either throw the foe 5+Enemy Str Score feet and deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 5ft traveled. Or knock them prone. Only works on foes large or less.

[@theforkedman3030]

Two times a day at lvl 1 you can reduce one modifier on an enemy by 1 on a successful atk. The effect can only last 1round of combat. The atk must be called before the atk lanes like smite and you can only effect one modifier at a time. At lvl 3 you get +1 use. At lvl 5 you get your BAB add to your use count(scales with BAB). At lvl 10effect becomes -2 to modifier.

[@hexbox2182]

Cleaving. Doing damage against multiple enemies if you can get into a position between them. Like 2 of them right next to them. Like doing slightly less but spreading it around.

[@jamestaylor3805]

1. Situational extra attacks. The Hunter's Horde Breaker is an excellent example. 2. Martial weapons with a few spells in them. Give them other options beyond hack n slash. 3. Movement bonuses to make them feel more competent in fights... the ability to apply a dodge effect until next turn by using your reaction against an incoming attack of opportunity et cetera. 4. A ward or pet with minor boons.

[@elfhririn]

I made new martial feats: Duellist, Dual Wielder, Tavern Brawler [like bg3 but only for natural weapon atks, improvised weapons, and unarmed strikes and instead of double-dipping str, it instead adds con], and thrown weapon master to let the sword+board, monk, moon druid, spear throwers, and double-dagger users keep up w/ GWM & SS martials! [ofc w/ different feels & trade-offs, but math checks out too ofc] We also use Mr.Wizardly's Blood Hunter to replace Matt's version. Added 10 homebrew specs of mine own for the table (and for fun). For 1/2-casters we use kibbles tasty's inventor, and i redid ranger myself cuz it was still lacking in flavor and i did small buffs to alot of the ranger-exclusive or ranger-theme'd spells.

[@Somedude07896]

Made homebrew combat rules to really let the martials shine, specifically when they fight larger creatures. They can scale a creature larger than them with an athletics and hit their weak spots. They can be knocked off by the creature but must make a STR saving throw or take fall damage equal to that creatures height. In addition, if enough damage is dealt to the creature it will be staggered and the PCs will have an opening to knock it over and make it prone. While casters can do this the Martials are better fit for the task. These homebrew rules were heavily inspired by the game, Dragons Dogma.

[@Medul759]

Use Laserllama's alternate Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, and Monk. That's it.

[@geoffreyperrin4347]

I run lots of dungeons of decent size and that tends to help spellcasters run low. I also make it so long rest are just short rests unless you are in a safe place like a village, town, or cabin in the woods, so if the party needs to get to a far away place on foot the spellcasters know they won't just get spell slots back after the fight and either save them or use them knowing the destination will be harder

[@dragonriderabens9761]

OH BOY, do I have a list: from Star Wars 5e: -Fighter: -battlemaster is just part of the base class. that's it -Barbarian: -Berserker subclass: -you now get 1 free frenzy before you start getting levels of exhaustion -you recover from 2 levels of exhaustion per long rest instead of 1 from BG3: -monks: -you get 2 ki points at level 1, and 1 extra per level from there. other locations: -monks: -you get to add ki points equal to your wisdom modifier me: -barbarians: -bear totem resistance just becomes part of base rage. (no idea what to replace level 3 bear totem thing with) on top of all this, an entirely new system available to all characters, but especially powerful for martials the favorites system: every fighter has a favorite sword, a barbarian their favorite axe, and a paladin their favorite shield, and a wizard their favorite staff. so...here is how it works after spending enough time attuned to an item that requires it, you can become permanently attuned to via the favorite system. this also frees up an attunment slot full casters get 2 half casters get 4 martials get 6 if a fighter takes the Eldritch Knight or the Rouge takes the Trickster, they get reduced to 5. more than a half-caster, but reduced because they get magic now too. when an item is favorited, you cannot unattune from it, and are always considered attuned to it. it isn't a curse, because you willingly chose to have this happen, so the only way to undo this is with the Wish spell. but generally, you're not gonna want to do this because you're generally never gonna want to unattune from these items anyway because of how much you love them additional benefits are possible, (such as having an extra dimensional storage space specifically for them that you can call on them from, or the ability to swap armors much more quickly when they are a favorite) but just the act of freeing up some attunement slots for items you to use all the time should be a big boost because of how reliant martials are on equipment. maybe make it so that at certain levels, favorited items also get boosted to help them scale a bit better, such as if they start off as a +1, they get bumped up to a +2 at, say level 10 and a +3 at level 17. if they do additional things that are reliant on dice (such as doing 1d6 extra fire damage) this ALSO goes up at certain levels (let's go with cantrip rules. 2d6 at level 5, 3d6 at level 11, and 4d6 at level 17) if you favorite an item after the levels in question, they automatically get upgraded accordingly. for weapons, they cannot be disarmed from you throwing weapons automatically get the Returning enchantment when favorited (if it doesn't already) heavy weapons lose that property (GWM still works on them) armor can be swapped faster the list of possibilities goes on and on 10:50 I'd also have this be true of Dex for finesse weapons

[@knightmare1267]

Add to Monks that their unarmed strikes increase to an additional dice size. Doing 1d4 damage hurts physically.

[@dragonriderabens9761]

@@knightmare1267 even for the most generous version (BG3) it's a 1d4 until you hit level 3. for all others it is until you hit level 5 either way, I don't see an issue with a 1d4 at level 1, because monk is meant to be low damage per hit, but many hits sustained damage it automatically goes up as the monk levels up

[@g33kaholic24]

I was wondering this exact thing!

[@trueblade39]

I like to give my martials access to magic items that fit them thematically while also giving them abilities they wouldn't had had access to otherwise. I have a player running a Ranger/Fighter multiclass who wants to be the D&D equivalent of Princess Mononoke so when the Mistral Mantle came out, it was a perfect fit for her appearance-wise, while also giving her a Misty Step ability and cold resistance. The human Wildheart Barbarian got the Crown of Besilmer, which gave him psychic resistance, and the other Barbarian, a fire genasi, got her hands on a Merregon Halberd that does fire damage and has the ability to set targets ablaze like the Searing Smite spell once per day.

[@001005974]

I add a mechanic called Stamina and I treat it like spell slots and i allow marshals to pick abilities every 3 levels. certain abilities cost more than one stamina but I make it worth it. and not all abilities are combat related. also having stamina in your pool allows for con saves against exhaustion and with the right abilities a don save on certain damage types

[@MrAnothis]

I intend to use Level Up Advanced 5E's combat maneuvers, which are options for martial classes to add some depth and capability for those classes. Haven't tried yet, as I'm waiting for my players to reach level 4 before adding this element.

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

Imagine Cobra Kai as a rpg. Make it so your dojo alignment changes your build (ex. joining Miyagi-Do gives you a defensive arsenal with a lot of counters, joining Cobra Kai comes with 2 free secret techniques, joining Eagle Fang means offensive style with a lot of combos), there’s mechanics to simulate the concept of pressure testing, and the class system can describe fighting styles (ex. Pugilist, Kicker, Traditional, Acrobatic, Unorthodox)

[@davidotoole2853]

I have a rule called "Training Check", that allows any player to attempt to learn a proficiency, spell, or class feature. During long rests, any player can make a single check (DC=25x the level when the class gains that spell or feature) and they gain a single use of that feature per short rest. when they use this short rest variant, they must make an intelligence check if they roll a 10 or higher it adds to the total check, if they roll a 9 or lower it doesn't. If another player character has that ability and declares that they do the training, the character(s) being trained has advantage on all involved checks. Bards, Monks, Fighters, Rogues, and Paladins grant the trainees the ability to roll 2x and add both results to this total when they do the long rest roll.

[@DietBuddah]

Specifically, I have modified the Monk so that they have a number of ki points equal to their level, per turn. The abilities are still moderated by the action economy so we haven't seen any issues so far after playing from level three to level five. Having options is one thing that makes martials more fun.

[@rikospostmodernlife]

I just use these 3.5e translated rules from the "Rules Fron The Grave" document: 1) Disarming an opponent You may replace one of your attacks on your turn with a disarm attempt. When you disarm an opponent you make an athletics check or acrobatics check, contested by an opponent's athletics or acrobatics check. If you win you chose one item the opponent is carrying and throw it 5ft in any direction. If the opponent is holding the object in two hands you have disadvantage on your roll. 2) Fighting defensively A character may choose to fight defensively when they take the attack action, giving themselves a -4 penalty to their attack rolls but granting themselves a +2 to their AC until the start of their next turn. 3) Flanking If a character is standing on one side of a creature, and their ally is standing at the other, the character gains a bonus to their attack rolls against the creature. The character gains a +2 bonus if they are directly opposite of their ally, or +1 if they are opposite but not directly. 4) Opportunity attacks Movement: opportunity attacks are triggered when a creature moves more than 5ft while within your reach. An opportunity attack is also triggered when a creature leaves your reach, unless that creature either used the disengage action or their entire movement on their turn is no more than 5ft. Distracting action: an opportunity attack is also triggered when a creature within your reach begins casting a spell or makes a ranged attack. Since the opportunity attack is triggered when a creature begins casting a spell, if a caster uses misty step to leave range, their opponent is still able to get an attack in before they do.

[@rikospostmodernlife]

Also, about the one answer that talked of armor, there's a solution in the same pdf I mentioned, I just dont use it because I feel my Reactions variant is enough debuff for casters

[@Wrathura]

Battle Master is the Fighter subclass I go for. It has all the style.

[@angelguardianpeace-lf6fl]

I give characters that dodge spell attacks and effects that are martial combatants and choice between a slew of homebrew feats I made. That just allows martial characters more opportunities within combat. My personal favorite I gave to my resident monk player was the ability after a kill to move up to half his speed to reposition. Edit they are free I just decide when I think they've earned it

[@justinthawsetmyo4173]

6:42 As someone scared of creating an imbalance with my own homebrew rules, this idea is actually very helpful. Instead of changing the rules, create scenarios where martials will be more valued

[@justinn8541akaDrPokemon]

Does giving them advantage if the opponent attacks them first be a good idea. It plays into the trope of a martial arts master who disarms an attacker easily. Could work with other classes because a charging enemy has a more telegraph attack compared to those up close.

[@StonedHunter]

Ooh that could be fun and lead to some really awesome badass moments to hype the party up in a fight. Maybe you could have added effects if they roll high enough while attempting it like a stun or something.

[@wagz781]

Grim reality rules to make it easier for me to run full adventuring days. It's a variant that makes short rests 8 hours and long rests a week. Personally I like running in-universe longer games and am more liberal with what constitutes "light activity" to allow for downtime during said long rests. Martials gain maneuvers and slightly weaker superiority dice. Monks add their wismod to ki points, barbs add their conmod to rages. Adjusting monster resistances so they're always immune to one physical damage type, resistant to another, and vulnerable to the third with a similar model for non-physical damage types so wizards can't just fireball everything. Making skills scale based on tier. Tier 1 fighters can scale a wall with athletics. Tier two fighters can walk up it by burying their feet in the bricks. Tier three can just jump up the wall. All casters aside from sorcerers have to find their spells out in the world instead of learning them through level up. There are also rules for spending money and time on researching spells, but this lets you as the GM curate things so spells which you don't want to have to deal with don't appear unless the players have to deal with them first. Also, martials get cleave at level 5.

[@skeepodoop5197]

Make them half casters, and give them spells that help their weapon attacks. "And when everyone's a caster! No one is..."

[@DBArtsCreators]

That's a horrible idea. Your typical Fighter, Barbarian, Monk or Rogue player doesn't want magic, so don't force that on them.

[@skeepodoop5197]

@@DBArtsCreatorsIt may be horrible, but its a fix :)

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@skeepodoop5197 Breaking a broken arm is not a "fix".

[@Mario.1997]

Allowing AC and initiative to be determined by dexterity or strengths.

[@charliejones7512]

In a fight against warlock goblin and it’s minions (mini boss), just before we entered the area, I (Life Cleric) used Beacon of Hope on the party. At one point, the Ranger (my fiancé), had a spell cast on him and was told he needed to do a Wisdom Saving throw, only to find he rolled slightly lower than he hoped. Just before the DM announced he was under control of the warlock, I skimmed through my PHB and quickly realised he had advantage and told the DM about it. DM checked to be sure, and said ‘fair enough, roll with advantage.’ Ranger rolled and managed to fight off the spell being cast on him. All went well and nobody, except the goblins, got hurt.

[@jacobfaro9571]

I’ve yet to mess with dnd martial arts classes, but I am experimenting with a monk build in oblivion that uses touch spells, illusion, and some sneak. Really wish oblivion and Skyrim would allow you to enchant gauntlets to add elemental effects for punches… or shield bash effects for that matter. I had some ideas for a smart barbarian subclass, but I probably should learn the basics before sharing that.

[@williamchandler2937]

Anything players can get the npc have access to. Makes game play interesting

[@roaringlaughter3812]

Their “extra attack” is now an extra action of your choice. Which means fighters can zip around the battle field with 4 moves they absolutely love it. (This means that an attack action will always be a single attack) Since it fixes a massive issue they have which is sticking power. Action surge scales with your extra attack feature . Also i give them 3 combat maneuvers at level 3 and leave that (meaning a battlemaster starts with 7) all classes get to regenerate 1 dice per round the battle master regenerates 2. It makes them feel powerful impactful. Also surge no longer gives you an additional spell and you can’t use these “extra” actions to cast spells.

[@adwadswadsda8458]

kinda pees on rogue and also complicates things a little with melee caster subclasses that would be buffed indirectly.

[@shealupkes]

I gave my bronze dragons a favor towards martials and the techniques they use and will on occasion gift them with weapons or brands that imbue within them the equivalent of a single level dip in one(I also rewrote them so single level dips are on par with casters) or a superiority dice they can do as they please with

[@godzillagamer7512]

In mine, I started all players at lvl 3 and gave them the option of a custom class and a free feat... Needless to say, I think they loved it... I've also made it so that way they can swap out perks in their class, example: swapping out Assassins disguise thing for gloom stalker invisible to darkvision thing... also made shields block a certain amount of damage because, let's be real, they kinda suck. and I let every player parry, they have to roll a dex check higher than the enemies hit roll as a reaction, if they go above it, they remove that attack and deal double damage... if thye fail, they take double damage...

[@cornycornsnake]

Idea: Vambrace of finger strength! Improves grapple checks, improves climbing, improves ability to hold onto weapons, allows unarmed strike damage to grappled opponents without use of a free hand… Maybe don’t let the bard borrow them unless they promise to presentation them clean after.

[@chill_fridge]

Cousin-It style hairstyle that acts like a cloak of evasion

[@sidequest2230]

That one dude who was like "um you guys aren't playing as INTENDED" pisses me tf off like yeah no shit no one is, because it's AWFUL! i've played in it before and it straight up sucks, and my first dm shelved it because even he hated it. Also it doesn't even WORK because his entire argument is that casters shouldn't have anything near the end of the session, when guess what? thats the entire fuckin gameplay loop of a resource based class!! managing the resource!! you are INCENTIVISED to use them smartly, hence why this design idea was horrendous and no one does it or falls for it. imagine only having cantrips for every final boss fight a session? assume it is one session and not 2 or fucking 3! because that's what ends up happening especially with newer players 5 combats a session is a "design in a vaccum" in that despite numerous playtests wotc somehow never caught that no one was gunna actually run it this way. people don't want that much combat EVEN AT COMBAT HEVAY TABLES, LIKE WHAT ME AND MY OWN TABLE DO! the fact of the matter is; martials are too weak, magic is too strong, and the game is plagued by ideas made in a room nearly 10 years ago that even the people who thought of them probably don't use anymore.

[@tylerosborn7596]

I added a charge mechanic. If a PC begins their turn 10 feet from an enemy they can charge at the foe and do extra damage (1d4 at low level, and scaling) and then a long charge (30+ ft) 2dX.

[@tylerlarson1037]

I have an idea to buff the ranger specifically. Rangers could have mundane(wooden) arrows that they never run out of and provide no bonuses. Stronger and less common arrows would be found or bought, and have unique buffs and damage types. In addition, rangers can spend a short rest crafting 1D10 +5 non-magic arrows of a damage type of their choosing, provided they unlocked said type after every other level. This would encourage ranger players to make preparations and stratify like a true hunter. "Should I use a flaming arrow, or a Holy-Water arrow?" I'm open to critiques.

[@mochie9360]

I was gonne say adding martial only skills inspired by fe skills like vantage allowing you at 50% hp or lower to attack before a enemy if you are in attack range maybe being able to avoid damage by well knocking the enemy out before getting hit and adding items like a Silence staves to silence spell casters nigateing their magic abilities

[@HydroKingEntertainment]

I would add more fighting styles for the Martial Classes to use and these fighting styles would give more options in combat and possibly scale as you level up.

[@Nasko_Nikolov]

I've always thought giving them Extra Attack at lvl 3 and having it give a number of attacks equal to the proficiency bonus (half proficiency bonus for half caster classes and subclasses) would be a nice minor buff. And Fighters could have their current additional extra attacks replaced with fighting style improvements.

[@Shimatzu95]

Cantrip like abilities, NO resource cost

[@matthewwilliams2093]

Sorry if this is too "old school", but two words: Monster THAC0. Yes, back in the day we did more math, but the benefit of getting to use the Monster THAC0 table vs the Fighter table is that as monsters increased in Hit Dice, they also were able to hit creatures that required magic weapons (which unarmed PCs could never do).

[@omegadragonRandom]

the Drive and surge system. basically martial spells they get it on every even level unlike spell casters odd level thing. I haven't gotten super Indepth into it but neat Actually I got some fun stuff like Keen weapons you roll advantage with the damage and this custom thing Slamming. Basically a comet drop that mitigates the fall damage up to a point and while anyone can do it its more effective for martials also give them some good AOE damage.

[@ReinaSaurus]

terrain, firing angles, ranged weaponry and coordination. a crew of martials with big ranged weapons can tear through any number and any quality of adversaries if the special attacks or spells cant match their rate of fire or reach. dragon, angel, lich? four longbows or crossbows and dedicated spotters. its not even a competition if the cover is hard enough. of course there needs to be an expendable bait to lure your foes in the preferred direction.

[@PrepWork]

I moved away from 5e but here's what I'd do. First of all, any martial can use combat maneuvers and even come up with things not listed in the books. Battlemasters simply get their superiority dice to boost rolls and more uses to compensate this change. I also encourage players (both martial and not) to use whatever equipment they have in more ways than their intended use, or to think of weapon descriptions when declaring an action, such as: - Using an axe to hook an enemy's ankle and trip them. - Holding a sword by the blade and hitting with the crossguard to cause crushing damage. - Throwing an empty potion flask on the floor so those barefoot enemies get the good ol' glass foot. While anyone can do this, it ends up being used by martials more due to them usually carrying more gear than the other members of the party. In the system I run my campaigns now, I still keep the creative gear use practice, but we don't need to buff Martials: They are just straight up better than any non-martials in combat. Mages and skill-monkeys each have their own bags of tricks, and while they can still be helpful (and even destructive) in a scrap, martials are still the main men and women when it comes to bringing the pain and living to tell the tale.

[@Forever-GM-Dusty]

You know maneuvers, like the battle master has? I run an expanded list of them on every martial class

[@KelbPanthera]

~looks at title~ ~listens to a million and one variations on 'damage with a failure rate (more attacks), damage in a different flavor (magical weapons), and just a touch of actual tactical options~ It's not that there are terribly many just plain bad ideas here but most of them amount to "more damage *but*..." Though I will take issue with the answer at 8:55. 3e is my edition of choice. I'm intimately familiar with it to a degree that's bordering on unhealthy. Warriors are my favored archetype. I could probably recreate Tome of Battle from memory to about 75% accuracy of the printed book. While it does add *some* combat actions that are not just "hit it again but in this particular flavor of 'harder'" it doesn't add many and the lion's share of them are focused on just the one base class therein. It adds virtually nothing to non-combat options, which are the biggest problem for most martials in any edition. Great book, love using it, not actually anything close to as big a buff to martials as it's usually sold as being.

[@Curathol]

Increase the time to cast spells. That's not some DnD-homebrew I invented to bully my players. I mostly play a low fantasy system where it is common that powerfull spells take 2 (a ray of fire) to 5 turns (banishing a demon) to cast. And if you get hit by an attack you can loose concentration and the spell fails. It's a nice incense for better teamwork when the martials need to protect the spellcasters long enough for him to pull off a spell that turns the tide of battle. I like it very much ... Also every character can learn maneuvers like the Battle Master in DnD has. Which is just nice ...

[@unknowndragon3736]

My setting has a simple fix: voidite. This material is actually quite weak on its own, not really something you’d want to protect your chest from someone running a spear the it. However, the moment any magic touches it, it gets stronger and tougher. Enemy gonna throw a fireball at the fighter? How about the fighter’s armor eats it. Trying to charm someone? They have a voidite chain shirt. Things get crazy when you collect a lot of voidite together, as then they begin emitting an antimagic field. There is a problem: voidite does not discriminate on who’s magic goes where, so no magical healing that fighter who fell down a cliff

[@ProtonCannon]

I will focus on Fighters because that is what I know best and try not to include what the video said like more Battlemaster manuevers which I strongly support . (not all of these are needed but some are just plain stupid) So Fighters(without adding damage): 1) GIVE THEM MORE FEATS - Seriously how difficult is this? It's like we have completely forgotten even everything what 3E had. Just keep the extra feat selection out of multiclassing options to avoid the "level1 fighter dip" that plagues 3E.(which is now a level 1 Artificer dip) 2) Make Heavy armor MATTER! - give them something like Heavy Armor Master feat as an option to +3 resist non magical pierce/blugeon/shasling/damage that is what heavy armor is for. Stuff that they can do and multiclassers cannot do without a feat. 3) Make SHIELDS matter - before the 2024 release shields were just a flat +2AC that takes a free hand and nothing else. Give them "Shield master" feat without the shove bonus so their dexterity saves are better, which they should be. 4) Allow them to use Strength roll for Intimidate instead of Charisma or make it 50-50. It is dumb to have the biggest fiercest looking guy in the group be bad at intimidation because they don't have a high Charisma stat because Charisma does nothing to a fighter. 5) Allow them to use Strength/Constitution vs. Fear checks, or add AC vs fearchecks, or add magic item +modfiers vs. fear checks. It is dumb to have a dragon use frightful presence and have the _"Fearless heroic fighter who trained his body to the top of their ability clad in thick magic armor holding the super-duper-dragon-slayer-sword ready to take on the greatest monsters head on face to face."_ be the one that constantly fails fear checks because it is a Wisdom save and Wisdom does NOTHING for a fighter. Fighters should be the bravest class of them all. And RAW they are the most impotent idiots of all classes. 6) Make Protection Style a "Bonus action "instead of an "Intercept" or make it both. Give Fighters more options to protect allies in melee. Or any ways to control the battlefield, you can give them manuevers to trip/disarm/goad etc all teh while but that still barely allow them to stand between enemies and one of their friends and protect them 7) NERF CASTERS! Yeah I know, that is not a "buff to fighters". Indirectly it is. Try to nerf them by removing multiclass options that make them more durable than martials because they have defensive spells like Shield. (Artificer/Peace cleric Dip)

[@danjbundrick]

Every martial has the "sword burst" cantrip, but they just spin their weapon and use their weapon damage.

[@dr4c0r3x5]

I'm going to do all of this

[@ren_suzugamori1427]

4e I hear helped with this issue by giving martials this thing called Powers. Look it up some time it's a fun idea.

[@axell15thewispmaster51]

Not gonna lie, the guy who says "Play the game as intended" has a massive point. We are talking about the iceberg that sunk the Titanic massive. Does anyone listen though?

[@mformewtwo]

I think everyone can agree that Martials need more ways to engage with enemies, beyond just doing more damage. However, I don't see many people talking abaout Martial's lack of AOE. I believe this is a big contributor to the Caster/Martial gap, and would go a long way to closing it, if it were addressed.

[@warrenokuma7264]

block weapon attacks for another. Opportunity attack spells to reduce damage,

[@Arcana_zero_studios]

Honestly? Movement, utility, martial builds are consistent not bombshells so if you make them even more reliable in situations a caster would need to expend resources, you make martials more useful, but the caster get to save slots for when it really matters. A caster should be the trump card so a martial is the general use tool. If martials end up being the trump card than the party blew their all of their trump cards.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Make your weapons more interesting. There's a KZbin channel called AltRoll who's been doing a series about rebalancing and adding spice to the base arsenal of DnD 5e, and one of the more important takaways I can take from both it and a PDF I'm using for my own personal tweaking atop of both (Expanded Weapons and Armor via Ghostfire Games) is allowing weapons to cause status effects via either critical effects or specialized actions that can replace a weapon attack with a chance at disarming or knocking someone prone opens up the combat options of a martial and gives an excuse to carry around different weapons. Unearthed Arcana is even taking this into account with it's Weapon Mastery system, though I am not a fan of it personally and I'll probably stick to what I've been working on if OneDnD drops. 4:30 is essentially what I'm describing here for the record.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

14:24 actually is reminding me of another thing I've integrated into my stuff, which is a system that partially strips down AC and adds in a system called Damage Reduction. Basically, your AC is mostly based off your dex score and any shields you're carrying, but in turn, wearing heavier armor grants you a higher Damage Reduction, a number that reduces incoming damage down to minimum 1 (prior to resist/weakness and with some caveats, like crits going through and it not kicking in on things like spell saves). Higher DR values are tied to armor that results in lower maximum dex bonuses to your AC and stuff like the Cumbersome trait, making stealth having Disadvantage. While you can stack AC via enchanting your armor for +1s (which adds to both your AC and DR) or via specialized materials to make that armor out of like mithril, the general point is AC values are lower, but damage taken by martials in straight up slugfests will theoretically be more glancing hits and nickeled and dimed through encounters- which in turn also encourages short rests to spend your hit dies and heals the chip damage.

[@blakeetter280]

Change crit thresholds perhaps. instead of being a nat 20 to crit, you instead have to beat the armor class by a certain amount. Might be a fixed value might be half their AC, might be something else. Idk. But if a goblin has an AC of 12, you roll a 19 with your +8 modifier or whatever you beat the AC twice over. That should get a reward of some kind

[@hescoming4544]

That’s a critical success from pathfinder

[@blakeetter280]

Anybody can wear armor with no penalty. However if you have proficiency in that armor you can add your entire dex modifier for light/medium or your entire str mod to heavy armor AC.

[@SuperRagingStorm]

What if you added additional effects to melee weapons? Give bludgeoning weapons a chance to lower AC. Give slashings weapons a chance to cripple/hobble an enemy. Give piercing weapons a chance to apply a bleed that deals additional damage over time.

[@thelastninjapanda3571]

i recommend CommanderFayne's Revised Martial Equipment

[@damian6660]

As caster gains spell slots, martials could gain small damage reduction at the same tine.

[@JamescMichel]

I don’t think buffs are needed but just more options for martials to play outside “I bonk” in different flavors. Allow the martials to use their combat class abilities out of combat in certain circumstances, and just adding flavor to how attacks happen can mean a difference in enjoyment and statistic management. If that’s not enough, let the melee aim their attacks to do more damage or unique effects (like blind if you aim an attack at the eyes.)

[@jacobfaro9571]

How about this: smart barbarian nerd rage subclass. Comes with an ability called leverage. Using their knowledge of physics and safe lifting practices, They can add their intelligence modifier to strength checks and reduce risk of injury on critical fails to themselves… and later upgrade the ability to allow a limited use reaction that allows them to help others with their for strength checks in combat. Have a pack rat ability unlocked later to use that knowledge and increase carrying capacity with intelligence modifier adding to the stats which govern encumbrance, thereby aiding other players by helping them pack their gear more efficiently, rather than dumping points into your strength and carrying everything on just yourself. Perhaps at high level, you can help them pack in such away they can more quickly swap equipped gear between one another.

[@StonedHunter]

I wouldn't give them ALL sidekicks but give them options like sidekick, animal companion, or something else (maybe an extra perk/feat or two) because not everyone is gonna want a sidekick for either gameplay or character lore reasons and the people who don't want it are gonna not like being forced to have one.

[@hiroshock]

By giving each martial class some form of magic resistance

[@Zetact_]

It seems utterly ridiculous that you'd need to be so highly specially trained to be a Fighter such that it takes you up to level 3 to learn only a select number of skills, even if they're things that every martial should logically be able to do from first level like "push someone with an attack" or "know footwork." Combat maneuvers being something that every martial class just has for free and honestly having a hard cap makes less sense than caster's versatility. You're honestly going to assert that a Wizard could learn a spell that tears apart the fabric of reality by just devoting a couple of days to copy it in a spellbook but a Fighter at 20th level who has already learned how to do nine unique things in combat shouldn't be able to spend an afternoon learning how to riposte? In addition, rather than fighting styles being "pick one" I think that they should be something that most martials have, of differing amounts, and they can swap between them as a bonus action. Call them "stances" and different classes would be able to get different stances. Think of it like this, you're a Fighter and you're in a melee, so you enter a "Protective Stance" to cover your allies. As the fight gets more simple, and your allies are able to handle covering themselves, you square up with the big strong boss character and enter, "Duelist Stance" to gain benefits from a 1-on-1. As you put the boss on the back foot, and are ready to deal a finishing blow, you enter, "Assault Stance" to increase your damage. Not sure about the balance but I'd say maneuvers should be leveled like spells - if you want to learn how to trip someone with an attack that should take about a day's worth of training, but if you want a maneuver that for instance is "you can break the straps of the opponent's armor, unequipping it from them immediately" then that'd take a lot more training, and something completely over the top like, "You can make a diving attack from a high location, negating the first 30 feet of fall damage and creating a shockwave that damages all targets within a 5-foot radius for every 10 feet you fell of your landing spot" would require a high level. Stances are what they would only get a fixed number of and learn on level-up. In both cases there would be a list of generic ones and ones more specialized to certain classes. It makes sense for flavor, it lets martials do something other than "I attack. I attack again." and it opens up a ton of customization by letting each martial choose specific skills that give them a distinct fighting style. Of course, make a LOT more combat maneuvers to accommodate for this. If a Casting class can have hundreds of spells to choose from, a martial class having only about a dozen possible maneuvers still probably is too lopsided so go all-out and let martials do things just as cool as casters.

[@danjbundrick]

A martial combatant that crits enters bullet time. Do with that what you will.

[@sasukedemon888888888]

Well first off, I plau the game as the way the classes are balanced. Up to 6 encounters a day (not always combat but resource costing) with multiple short rests but only 1 long rest at the end. No stopping mid-day to replenish the wizards spell slots because they spent almost all of them in 1 fight just to win it faster. I give martial advantage in social contexts because someone who can cast suggest or charm person is automatically less trustworthy than someone who can't.

[@F1shyBab1shy]

With a high enough roll, dazing your opponent