One D&D Playtest Review: Weapon Mastery 

YES!!! DIFFERENT SHIELDS, PLEASE. We don't exactly need shield/armor maneuvers, but different shields with different AC bonuses, STR requirements and limitations would be awesome. Example: buckler, +1 to AC, can still perform somatic components of spells, low weight heater, +2 to AC, same as current regular shield, medium weight kite or tower, +3 to AC, requires STR 13 (or slows 10ft), heavy weight pavise, +5 to AC, requires STR 15 and 2 hands to hold up, very heavy

Regarding Graze, I think one upside of that is that it's actually kinda good against spellcasters. Because even if they use shield to armor themselves up and avoid your attack, you're still dealing damage to them, and still forcing them to make concentration checks if they're concentrating on something. Graze is a good way to consistently force those pesky mages to keep from dropping their concentrations on Banishment, for example.

One idea on my mind to improve Flex is giving the choice of Slashing/Bludgeoning/Piercing damage for each attack. It’d make sense for a master fighter to be able to use a long sword in each of these manners. Even if the core dice increase is small, you still get versatility from these… Versatile weapons

I love the different visuals of different martials wielding different weapons and/or shield combinations actually have good difference now

One dnd just made the heavy crossbow into a 50 caliber rifle

Since we already saw the direction they were leaning toward for the Rogue in a previous UA, I would imagine Weapon Mastery would end up in one of their combat focused subclasses, like Assassin or Swashbuckler. I could see the same for the War Domain Cleric and Hexblade Warlock.

Great video guys, really loved it! I'm playing a playtest barbarian and it's going to be the first time I've actually played flail and shield and it looks like the math is all solid and I'm super excited. Vex is really good but you might be overvaluing it. I've had conversations with mathematians on this one and because you don't get advantage on the first attack, and that attack has a higher chance to miss and not set up vex for the next attack, it really isn't quite as powerful as it initially appears. Flex definitely needs a boost. Finally, pie is superior to cake, sorry.

8:19 Interesting to see that Warwick has been given the Flex mastery. He does deserve the extra point of damage, but I've always thought that he would be difficult to wield one-handed.

I'm a big fan of cake and I'm really glad we can finally bring this issue up. I feel like we have totally been ignoring this as a community and we really need to put more focus on cake as an essential element. Thanks Dungeon Dudes for raising awareness! Your bold stance here is really appreciated and I feel like I can finally openly say I like cake 🎂

Great video! Very concise and held my attention. Also I agree with the sentiment that for sure the biggest enemy of martials in current 5e is needing fun alternatives to "i run up and swing" every single turn.

I hope monks get to add these new weapons properties to their fists! It would be cool if they could topple or push with their punches.

Vex + Nick means I'll be playing a rapier-and-dagger fencing-master rogue/fighter multiclass at some point. Optimal? Possibly not. An excuse to put an enormous feather in a big hat, grow a curly moustache, and go full Musketeer? Definitely.

I like the additions they made to make weapons more interesting, but it definitely feels like it could go through a few more iterations to find a balanced and satisfying final product. I like the idea of adding maneuvers to martial characters with the exception of ranger and paladin. I feel that since those classes already get access to half casting that they could have access to spells that can fill the niche that maneuvers offer rather than offering them both spellcasting and maneuvers.

Just off the top of my head for Shield Masteries... Small Shield (Buckler) +1 AC +5ft Speed *Gain Shield Strike* (Riposte-ish) When a creature makes a melee attack against you, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the creature. Medium Shield (Kite/Round) +2 AC *Gain Shield Bash* (Shield Master-ish) If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove/prone a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield. Heavy Shield (Tower) +3 AC -5ft speed *Gain Shield Charge* (Charger-ish) When you use your action to Dash, you can make one melee weapon attack or shove a creature. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line as part of taking the dash action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed). Thoughts?

I'd also love if they made the choice between bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage matter somehow.

I have to say. This document did include some new rulings on drawing and stowing weapons. Which makes it much easier and not clunky. And the fantasy of a character swapping out weapons because of their different pros and cons is pretty intriguing. To me at least. Great video!

That reaction attack from Sentinel when a nearby ally is targeted would be a very good platform to sneak an off-turn Sap in to protect your ally, or a topple/push if the enemy was charging them and used up most of their movement already. Sounds like a fun time for martials who want to protect the party

It is important to not see Vex as permanent advantage as there are several situations where the advantage isn’t there (your first attack, after you miss, once an opponent is dead). I also think great weapon master and sharpshooter have trained us to overvalue advantage, because we associate it with getting that extra 10 points of damage. I still think vex is good and may need a nerf, I just think we have to be aware that the we all have some inherent biases here conditioned into us by our time playing the current edition.

Maybe we need martial invocations? With stat requirements? Id think that be neat

You know what needs to happen? They need to take their tail out of between their legs and give martials back the at-will skills they had in 4e. Then you can make a "spell list" for martials so when they release "Pippy pop's sticky notes of some stuff" they can give new stuff to the Arcane, Divine, Nature, AND MARTIAL spellbooks

So in our game all martials get the full battle master subclass added to their character and half-casters gain half the number of maneuver dice. You’d be amazed at how not overpowered it is while adding a lot of needed versatility to those classes

Gotta say - you brought up a lot of ideas that hadn't crossed my mind. Maintaining the "weapon of choice" fantasy and not having/wanting to switch weapons in combat really does support the concept of maneuvers for martials. Great points.

I've been saying for a while now that the Battle Master should just be part of the base Fighter class and then any other class or subclass that gets fighting styles or an extra attack (and also the Rogue) should get access to a couple maneuvers that they can pick (ie not just Monks, Paladins, etc. but also giving one or two to like Battle Smiths, Bladsingers, etc.) Either give them some Superiority dice or make the maneuvers act more like cantrips so that more people can use them. Also add a bunch more and then you can make certain requirements for some, like Eldritch Invocations. Like have a "ranged weapons only" or "heavy weapons only" or "simple weapons only" etc. Giving weapons cool things is kind of fun, but martials in general need a bigger buff and giving them more battlefield control or just increased options for things they can do on their turns that have more impact than just "I attack three times". But like they said, that's a whole overhaul for all martials and a bunch of other subclasses and so that's probably not going to happen. But it would be nice to see the martials get more power to try and keep up with the casters that are only getting more powerful.

The idea of someone carrying a large bag of weapons actually sounds awesome to me only because Terry Brooks has a character in one of his books named Jax who is a weapons master. That's literally what he does, is carry a bag full of different weapons and he fights people around the world using any weapon or multiple weapons, looking for someone that can actually defeat him.

Maneuvers, hm? Perhaps Wizards should re-examine the Tome of Battle. One of my favorite D&D books ever!👍👍👍

The fantasy of throwing like 10 weapons into the field in front of you, or picking up the weapons of enemies and using a vast assortment of properties sounds pretty freaking cool. might be a cool way to get to use multiple properties.

I have always been frustrated by the fact that almost all of the weapons feel the same as every other weapon with the same basic properties. I'm loving the direction that these are moving. They may need some refinement but I love this potential 😊

The cake part earned an instant like. :p I really liked this video. Enjoyed the commentary and the banter!

I love the idea of different shields. It would make defensive options much more diverse

I feel like flex is misunderstood. I think it's meant to increase the damage for shield users, rather than meant to compete with 2h weapons or duel-wielding. BUT I do think if this is going to stick around, flex weapons need buffed

Thank you, Dungeon Dudes, for bringing up shields and masteries. I don’t think it would be too difficult to include masteries for shields, at least not in the aspect where it would have to be a whole different edition. It’s really not that big of a change, but it is one that is certainly needed and I would love to see!

What's really weird with the new two-weapon fighting is that you can use the extra attack from the light property while wielding a shield. You just need to use two different weapons that you switch between during your turn.

Favorite cake, simple chocolate cake. And honestly, martial maneuvers was one of the things that made me really like 4th edition, that's basically what you had with martial classes with the powers system. Instead of just repeated "I attack", you were picking between your at wills, if this was the time for one of your encounter or dailies, etc. Every turn you had SOME choice to make that was going to end up impacting things.

32:10 That is absolutely the Fantasy I want for my DnD. Makes the "Weapon Master" actually make sense. A Master of Many or All weapons. Using them for the advantage they provide. More choice is better.

i love black forest cake. well rounded, different flavors and textures, just very good. thank you for coming to my ted talk

Treantmonk has done the math on Vex. It’s good for sure, but not nearly as problematic as you would think intuitively.

Fighter: "I get to push someone 10 ft.?! Wow that's so cool!" Wizard: "I get to turn you into a frog with polymorph and not have to concentrate."

The SW5E by Delta Force, famously used in Starstruck Odyssey, is a huge inspiration for me in this regard. So many different kinds of weapons, each with their own properties that make them feel so distinct. The fighter and scholar each have maneuvers baked in to the core class, not just as a subclass. AND all classes have customization options along the lines of warlock invocations to really give them dynamic combat with out of combat utility. Truly my favorite version of 5E

Also on the idea changing mastery of different types of weapons, this really brings up a great way to power up your martial characters in 5E is as a GM make magic weapons with properties that your player could use or would help them with their builds

I think it would be cool if every level you could pick one weapon per attack you have each round and gain a level of expertise in that weapon. That way you could decide to have a broad level of expertise with a lot of weapons, or superior expertise in one weapon. So someone who has spent their career mastering a whip can use it to devastating effect.

It would be interesting if we got leveled maneuvers, allowing us to unlock powerful moves at high levels like in Dragon’s Dogma.

My favorite rogue has always been the swashbuckler because it's so easy to get advantage when using a rapier... Now just taking the feat and choosing a different subclass that I normally wouldn't use sounds so much fun!

i am hopeful for a revised text of the rules, presented as cake recipes. ideally ,a revision will include better balance of the ingredients and clarifications about how the ingredients work together with the weapons mastery options, light weapons property, two-weapon fighting, push attack, etc

I love to see Halberds have an ability to allow you to choose which damage type you're doing since it is a combination of an Axe (slashing), Spear (piercing) and a Hammer (bludgeoning).

I Like the Idea of the Martial combatant having martial power like mage have spells

The banter… it made my day!

JC: Let them eat ice cream. Dungeon Dudes: Revolution it is.

I feel like weapon proficiency should let you use the current mastery mechanics and weapon mastery should let you swap them for other available abilities. Then fighter should gain two abilities on a weapon at once at level 7 instead of 13. 13th level is way too late for that feature. I also saw someone say instead of battlemaster being rolled into fighter like some people want, champion features should be rolled into the base fighter. I feel like that is a good idea honestly to make them a true weapon master and more heroic. I think rolling berserker into the base barbarian would be a good change too. All barbarians should be scary and be able to deal big damage attacks and that would help.

U guys forgot u need the feat that unlocks at level 4 so rangers and rogues could use nick. The feat needs to be a level 1 feat that gives u proficiency in 1 weapon and unlock its mastery.

Well said! I am really hoping to live out my flail vision - especially if I can wield it with a longsword like the Witch King of Angmar. I feel we are going in the right direction, but not quite there yet

It'll also be interesting seeing enemies and bosses with masteries as well.

Graze sounds like a fun way to grief the mage. Wouldn't it give you guarantied ongoing concentration checks, bypassing Shield?

Flex should be changed to +1 AC

The idea is great to make us think about the weapon we want. My paladin has warhammer and shield, but I could switch to mace or flail just to get the sap, if it remains weapon locked. I would also love that shields get mastery.

Okay hear me out. In my games, I made half feats experts for similar weapons (swords, maces, pole arms, etc) the let you use stances or fighting styles in that group, you pick a style when you roll initiative, and can switch using a bonus action on you turn, including between attacks. The stances are largely inspired by these masteries using the Mastery Prerequisites. So an expert Axeman with a great axe could take on two guys at once and enter “Flame Stance” to use a cleave, then use her/his bonus action to change to “Auroch style” to push the more troublesome of the opponents. It opens the styles to player choice. Has solid logic for including a bunch of options as you are trained in pole arms which are similar and you take advantages of their unique properties. If doesn’t grant proficiency; thus also maintains consistency a fighter’s expertise with swords includes great swords but bard’s does not.

I am really looking forward towards the revised version of the monk class. It's thematically among my favourites and the fact that they're so weak mechanically really sucks right now! Hopefully they give them some heavy buffs to compete with at least other martials 😅

Homebrew idea: in your dnd world, there are various npcs which, if you befriend through quests or whatnot, will offer you special training for gold and time. This training can give your characters maneuvers, or extra proficiency.

My favorite cake was one I had recently from a restaurant. Chocolate cake, layered with cherries and creme in the middle, and covered in a poured dark chocolate ganache outer layer. More cherries on top with an Irish whipped creme. I also look forward to dual wielding sickles.

I actually just started working on a list of homebrewed shields for my Forge Cleric to be able to craft: Tower shield (+3 instead of +2), Aspis Shield (reaction to add PB to the AC of an ally within 5 ft), Targe Shield (bonus action shove that deals piercing damage), Buckler (+1 instead of +2 but usable by rogues, with reaction to add PB to AC for all attacks by a single enemy for the round), Bracer (+1 instead of +2 but usable with a two-handed weapon). Making that an actual part of the rules would be amazing.

They basically need to bring back the 'Tome of Battle' from 3.5, tune it for 5e !

I also feel like standardizing damage on like for like weapons would be beneficial...like you said, why pick up any other light/finesse weapon when you could just pick up Rapier and get the higher damage? Personally, I wish they would just do generalized weapon that can be flavored how you wish like "Light bladed weapon = 1d6".

Also - when they are talking about maneuvers for martial - it’s like the devs have amnesia. They did do that in past editions - combat maneuvers were a thing that martial characters could do and choose from - originally published in a dragon magazine if anyone remembers those. Not sure why they feel like they can’t take from correct things they did in the past.

Great discussion & it is much appreciated! So I finished this video, and my kid pops in... "Soooo... Cake?? Cake? Chocolate cake?" And then we made brownies. Thanks for the idea, Monty "Nick" Martin! :)

Laserllama's alternate martials all have their own class-specific maneuvers/exploits/techniques. I'd check them out as they add so much variety.

First to feed the algorithm!

my game plays with the rule of all characters with extra attack getting battle master maneuvers (scaling by that class if multiclassed), and while it should probably be added to rogue too.. it really helps the game so much.

Push + Vortex Warp is now a fun combo! Quickened Spell on Vortex Warp so it's only a Bonus Action, send the creature onto the window ledge or a tree branch or something (the spell only says onto a surface that can support them) then Heavy Crossbow to not only hit them for damage but also knock them out the window to the ground for more damage, and to place them a long way away from the fight.

I like this idea very much. Makes weapon choice meaningful and flavorful. And, yes, this is moving more to 6e vs 5.5e.

You guys echoed my thoughts exactly. It feels so one trick for my battleaxe to trip and if I wanna do something different I have to use a lance. No bud my fantasy begins and ends with this axe I don't wanna have to depart from it to get the most out of my class. The answer is right there in front of them. They just need to pull the trigger

I think that vex and topple and Nick are insane. And the push one is going to be fun too. My favorite cake is a rich chocolate cake with a peanut butter ganache between the layers and a fudgy frosting. And peanuts on top. It is delicious

I never played DnD as a TT. I have been watching a ton of videos since my interest is raising (Probably because of BG3). So thanks for the videos DDs. About the way the classes are being discussed and the roleplaying element of TT i had a mental image that i would like to share. Dont know how good it would play but i think it would solve the limiting aspects of choice while keeping the roleplaying aspect alive aswell as improving the core flavour that each class has. This would be a huge paradigm shift and doubtfully backwards compatible in any way. So this is mostly a mental exercise. I would break the core properties of the classes into 4 aspects (Power, Expertise, Skillcaster, Spellcaster). Power = Raw stats + core resources (Initiative, multi action, bonus actions) Expertise = Skills/Expertises + "Extra Normals" (Ex.: Extra attack, extra movement etc) + tools and weapons proficiencies Skillcaster = Feats + specializations (think context + circunstance when x do z like rangers prefered enemy, terrain or the hunter's horde slayer, the assassins suprise advatage or the swashbucklers isolation advantage, throwing knifes etc) + masteries Spellcaster = Spellslots and magical sources (Spellslots, divinity charges, sorcery points etc.) Ability scores remain as they are but would be mostly static for those that do not invest in Power. This would have to apply to monsters and NPCs to keep balance and is the main reason why i dont think there can be backwards compatability. These rules would be on the book but from the player's perspective they would only see the "normal" class progression in the players manual. All the work of converting/listing these would be on the designer side. These aspects would be the "keepers" of everything a player can do in game (from a mechanical perspective not a RP one). So the same way there are spell lists there would be a power list, a expertise list and a skills list. I am calling the items in the lists as "Boons". The access to the options and boons in the lists would be given by class, subclass and race. Each class at its core would give the player 4 points distributed in these aspects. Each subclass would do the same. The race/subrace would do the same. In total each levelup would give the player 12 levels/points in these aspects. Hypothetical Ex.: A fighter would have 2 points in expertise and 2 points in power. The battle master would have 2 points in Expertise and 2 in skillcaster while the champion would have 1 in expertise and 2 in power and 1 in skillcaster. A human could give 2 in expertise, 1 in skillcaster and 1 in power as well. In this sample at lv3 both would have 36 points in total, both human, both fighters one battlemaster and one champion so the aspect would be Aspects Power, Expertise, SkillCaster, SpellCaster Human, Fighter, BM 3,6,3,0 per level 9,18,9,0 at lv3 Human, Fighter, CH 5,5,2,0 per level 15,15,6,0 at lv 3 I would give access to choices to players in the aspects at every 10 points + something bigger at every 25 points. This way when you receive your options and powerups would be entirely on the players choice and character. I would keep the minor boons available for 3 tiers and the major boons for 2, so the options you have at the 10 points mark would remain an option at 20 points and 30 points, but would no longer be available at 40 points mark. The 25 points major boon options would be available at 50 points but not at 75. In the example above the BM would receive nothing at level 1, a Expertise boon at lv 2 nothing at lv 3 then 3 boons at level 4 (1 power, 1 expertise and 1 skillcaster) while the CH would receive nothing at level 1, 2 boons at lv 2, nothing at 3 and 2 boons at lv 4. The distiction between the minor and major boons would allow for discrepancies in power to be regulated by type (major,minor) and tier. So feats like sharpshooter and greatweapon master could remain as long as they were in a higher tier or only as a major boon. Doing it like this would keep all the pressure off the classes and subclasses to just focus on whatever they want that make them special without having to focus too much on power progression. It would also allow classes to have a stronger core identity. (From a designer perspective. From the players view it would still be with character X at lv Y choose between a,b,c so on so forth) In my mind under this system sorcerers would be spellcasters + power, while bards would be Expertise + spellcaster, warlock would be spellcaster + skillcaster and wizards would be pure spellcasters. For a mental somewhat accurate image: pure power = barbarians pure expertise = rogues pure skillcaster = fighters pure spellcaster = wizards Doing it like this would be a front heavy workload for designers/developers but once the base is made it would be extremely easy to add new monsters, races and classes without powercreeping. (Unless intentional of course). It would probably need a oficial site to generate a character sheet with the options and all but nowadays i dont think it would be much of a problem. There is a lot more that can be said but for now i think it is enough. If you got here thanks for reading and have a nice day.

By far my favorite cake aside from a rich chocolate is my mom's homemade Williamsburg orange cake. She doesn't do the traditional raisins or nuts but she does do orange zest, orange extract, and orange juice in the batter and in the frosting. She only makes it a few times a year usually for various birthdays but oh boy when she does it's an event. You would think with all the different sources of orange flavor the orange itself would be overpowering but somehow it doesn't end up being that way. Oh yeah, and the weapon Mastery video was cool guys LOL.

I love the bit about shields. Actual bucklers (which do not have buckles), the small strapped arm shields that DnD used to call bucklers, assorted midsize shields, and assorted tower shields all have widely varying properties and use cases that could easily be translated to impactful and fun game mechanics and character design decisions. A rogue could choose a buckler that can be donned as a free action and mostly helps by parrying to grant advantage or disadvantage in the fight, a barbarian might want to stick with a medium shield with the effects we know and love, or a clanky fighter might want a huge tower shield that boosts the AC of adjacent allies but comes with significant downsides like speed or something to represent how they can block the wielder's sight.

A weapon arsenal for a martial character is the equivalent of the spell arsenal for a spell caster. I welcome this new addition to D&D!

for the shields I think a cool way to do it would be a buckler is +1 AC, and leaves your hand free. then there's the regular traditional +2 AC standard shield. and a tower shield is +3 AC and it adds the +3 to your dex saves as well, but it reduces your speed by 10 feet while you are using it.

I love the Idea of changing weapons on thr fight, plus the choosing of weapon masteries being just for fighters

always enjoy to watch your videos

Well, now I’m craving cake. Great video, guys!

I dm every Sunday and gave my martials superiority die that scale with the martial level starting at 2nd level and basically follows PB number of dice (never upgrades from a d6). Felt very strong early, now at level 10 it just helps bridge the gap between them and the sorcerer/wizard. Plus it is ultra thematic having the barbarian just knock enemies around with pushing attack.

I really like Monty’s idea about a Cleric domain giving the Sap weapon property - maybe the War or Tempest Domain? Making subclasses to give the Cleric more debuff options with weapons rather than just spells would give them even more versatility

I recreated Kukri from 4e for my party's rogue to give him d6 slashing with a brutal 1 property. However, because the way DnDBeyond has the custom item build set up, I had to use a scimitar as the base weapon for the d6 Slashing aspect. But rogues are proficient with scimitars, so then I also had to add a bonus proficiency with scimitars for him. More options are always better for roleplaying, so I'm happy for these changes, but I hope they also make homebrewing on DnDBeyond easier and better.

I completely agree with the need for maneuvers for all martials. As a sword and board I wish there was something to do with my shield to tank more and actually do some battlefield control. It's crazy there's basically only one shield type.

I like these masteries. One way to solve your issues could be to subdivide the masteries into passive and active, stuff like graze, nick, vex etc. as passive which can be balanced and distributed to applicable weapons while active masteries like slow, etc. Can be applied to any weapon with specific weapoms offering advantage on throws for the specific manoeuvres

So, between fighter, mastery, and the rule in this packet that lets you either draw or sheath a weapon as part of every attack you take, this is possible for a fighter with 3 extra attacks. Fighter starts by drawing a glaive because he has polearm master. He attacks with it, and attacks with it again with his bonus action using the butt. As part of that bonus attack he sheaths the polearm. As part of his first extra attack, he draws a scimitar and attacks using vex to get advantage on his next attack if he hits. Since he attacked with a light weapon, he can now make an attack with a different light weapon, and if that weapon has nick it doesn't use a bonus action, so he draws another scimitar with that attack (fighter can assign both nick and vex to scimitars at the same time). With his second extra attack he attacks with a scimitar again and sheaths the off-hand scimitar. With his 3rd extra attack he attacks again with the scimitar and draws a shield. 6 attacks on one turn and end up with a shield. Next round, first attack with scimitar, sheath shield. Draw another scimitar and nick with it. First extra attack with scimitar and sheath off-hand scimitar. Second extra attack with scimitar and sheath it. 3rd extra attack draw glaive. Bonus attack with butt of polearm. 6 more attacks. Repeat ad nauseum. That is 6 attacks a round every round, 2 with graze, 3 with vex, 1 with nick. Every other round also get the benefit of a shield. Also note that nick is part of attack, so it also gets to be used with action surge. So an action surge round would be the whole chain minus the last bonus action attack... so that is 11 attacks on an action surge. Since fighters eventually get 2 action surges per rest, that is 22 attacks on the first 2 rounds of combat. You can double dip the extra attack with nick and polearm master as soon as you get an extra attack. Start with polearm, bonus with polearm (sheath polearm), draw shortsword and attack, draw scimitar and nick; next round attack with shortsword and sheath, nick with scimitar and sheath, draw polearm and attack, bonus with polearm. 4 attacks at 5th level for fighters, rangers, paladins, barbarians, and any other class that gets an extra attack and can use heavy weapons.

awesome video. I have to say that I can't think of maneuvers which would fit different armors, but as for shields- you are so right, I really want to see a shield maneuver which would allow me to bash, push, stun or distract, I would also like to see different shields- a light shield with a sharp rim which one can use to slash your foes and a heavy shield which has spikes that pierce armor. when it comes to other maneuvers available for characters due to masteries: rather unrelated to this video but I must say it as a person who has been practicing martial arts for the last 13 years- the monk MUST get a different set of masteries- martial art masteries: I want to see my monk using their mastery in different martial arts so the monk can be what I want them to be- a unique martial class which uses their bare hands or occasionally a quarter staff to kick ass. I want my monk to use their mastery in Muay Thai to high kick someone and stun them , a mastery in Judo to knock enemies prone with advantage and or apply bludgeoning damage or a mastery in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to not suffer any penalties from being prone (or suffer less penalties). As a person who has been practicing different martial arts for the last 13 years, one of my first characters was a monk, I remember wanting to go for a double leg take down against a cultist and knock them hard on their back, and not being able to do so- I was so bummed and perplexed since I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I know that one can do it in real life- I want to be a ufc fighter against trolls.

I’d actually be really interested in seeing a DungeonDudes HomeBrew ruleset of Maneuvers for Martial Classes. Maybe some new maneuvers on top of the ones Battle Master has, and which classes would get access to which maneuvers… and how many each would get at certain levels. For those of us sticking with 5E would be a great way to breath some new life into the existing system.

Glad you guys realized that asking for more, would perhaps be too much . I mean we already I get so much more flexibility than we have. I understand your point on getting balanced options buy making it all equally strong, but right now I am happy

Crossbow with push is the Wookie Bowcaster from Star Wars! "I like this thing!" Han Solo

I like the image of lance and towershield going full monster hunter tanky boy xD

The idea I had that made me so excited was that Versatile weapons could just have two Mastery properties each-one for one-handed use, and one for two-handed. You've made me realise that I was mostly just excited to have a weapon that could do two things. MANOEUVRES FOR MARTIALS!!

Defensive armaments: Tower shield: +3 AC min. Str: 13 Shield: +2 AC Buckler: +1 AC SHIELD MASTERY (5th level): basically, the Shield Master feat, but extend it to ANY dex save, not just ones that only target you Parrying Dagger: +0 AC light/nick Cloak: +0 AC, min. Dex 13. Feint Feint: once on your turn, when you take the attack action, you may make a charisma (deception) check against the target's passive insight. On a success, you gain advantage on the next weapon attack you make against the target. PARRYING DAGGER/CLOAK MASTERY (5th level): parry: while wielding either a parrying dagger or cloak, you gain the benefit of the Defensive Duelist feat ARMOR MASTERIES (3rd level) Light Armor: PBxLR, if you fail a Dexterity saving throw, you may choose to succeed instead Medium Armor: your dex cap for medium armors increases from +2 to +3. Additionally, you have advantage on Dexterity (stealth) checks while wearing medium armor. If the armor normally imposes disadvantage on such checks, the advantage and disadvantage cancel out as normal Heavy Armor: you reduce incoming damage from B/P/S by half your level, rounded down Notes/ ramblings: honestly, I wasn't sure what to do as a Mastery for light armor. That's the best I could come up with, but it feels significantly weaker than the others. I thought about potentially negating damage if you roll under your AC (kind of like a Cleric's Divine Intervention) but that seemed too strong and would slow down gameplay, unless I made it limited number of times, which then felt too weak if based on chance and too strong if on demand. A suggestion for long sword 2 handed: give it feint. Not sure how to buff 1 handed though. But I've seen some tricky plays with longsword with some surprise false edge cuts (usually some form of zwerkhau) Originally, I was going to make the tower Shield be the only one that provided a cover-like bonus to dex saves, but i couldn't think of anything to give the other 2 shields, so I settled on giving them all a buffed version of the current Shield Master. I'd give rogues and bards Buckler and Cloak proficiency (in addition to those who already get Shield proficiency), and I'd probably give them Parrying Dagger proficiency too, but I also kinda want it to be a martial weapon. The Buckler would be cheaper and lighter than a standard Shield, and the tower heavier and more expensive. These are other ways to influence character choice on equipment. Rapier and Cloak was a thing. You could use the Cloak to obfuscate your attacks or to try and trap your opponents blade. It was especially prominent as we transitioned much more heavily into thrusting swords than cutting swords. This version of HAM would allow users to not have to worry about swarms of weaker creatures. As early as level 10, they could fight hordes of goblins without worry as the standard CR 1/4 goblin only deals 5 damage, which would be reduced to 0. In light of the power of HAM, I decided to boost MAM to provide advantage on stealth, like the Armorer Artificer. If you wanted, you could provide disadvantage on the bonus action shove of tower shields and Bucklers, the former being too large and unwieldy, and the latter being too small and light, as ways to further differentiate the shields. I think its an unnecessary complication though. I think providing half the number of dice and choices of maneuvers to all martials would be a cool idea. And don't let the dice scale; keep the dice at d6s. The exception would be the battlemaster subclass. The dice would get added to their pool. Keep the battlemaster subclass as is. They would then have 3x maneuvers and dice compared to others and would be quite versatile. I agree, Vex is too strong. Maybe change it to the Feint I presented? A 1/turn kind of thing?

I personally I'm in love with the idea that different weapons can do different things. And I don't want every character to hav access to all the options regardless of their weapon choice. In fact the change that I want to happen is for weapons to specialize further and give you more options that few other weapons have access to I'm imagining where each has three special proprietys that you can unlock and they can in the options they have access it's just different where in the three levels they're gonna get it

Always appreciate your videos!

I like mostly all cakes and I like the idea of a barbarian who hits with so much force that he pushes enemies away or prone. So topple and push i really like

Flex allows sword and board/dualist play, so you potentially get the extra 2 damage from the fighting style as well as the additional 2 to your ac from a shield, which you sacrifice for the bigger damage die otherwise.

To me what is most excioting about this, even as a player not a dm, is the enemy "minion"-like swarm encounters where they have these different weapons and properties - feels like it will make the encounters so much more dynamic even when enemy does not have spell casters.

I love that these options make even the clubs a weapon that has potential to be used. There are many weapons in that list that I would never have chosen to play, even though in various books, characters have used those weapons to great effect and had some really cool fights described. the idea of a chain mace and shield is not a new one to me, but has never crossed my mind because the weapon doesn't really stand out as far as the rules go. Giving these masteries out really livens things up in a cool way. And honestly, you could even make Flex a combo mastery in and of itself. A Longsword can and is used to push, slow, topple and pin enemies down to great effect, it is the most versatile of weapons. So giving the longsword a mastery that allows you to choose which form of control you have over your opponent I feel is quite thematic. And as an aside, Monty, did someone take your cake away when you were little? It feels like there's history there... :-P

all of those masteries makes me think about some type of Gladiator class/theme, with feature that let them draw/doff weapons as a free action, who has all of those versital types of weaponary to use, when it suits given combat situation the most.

I'd like to see Sap give the target disadvantage on their next attack roll, ability check or saving throw. That way you could set up a combo with your Barbarian who has the Topple mastery or your Wizard with Fireball

I think the battle master maneuvers for all martials is an awesome idea, and I would even take. The spellcasting property from ranger and paladins. And if you want a little magic with your maneuvers make it a subclass option. I.e. eldricht knight and arcane trickster.