To give fighters martial ”spells”

[Gnarri]

We got some ideas for house rules the other night, this in one:

The idea would be to give fighters something extra they can do a few times per day, not too powerful but something to have as an extra thing to do instead of just ”attacking again”. It would work as M-U spells (same amount of daily uses), but be something the fighter can do instead of attacking. Just like spells they must be prepared and once used they cannot be used again until the fighter has rested för 6-8 hours. However, one would just have to memorize them once, until one would want to change which ones are memorized (memorizing being practising kata-like maneuvers during 1 hour).

They are mostly inspired from feats, 3,5 and 4th edition.

Technique-lvl 1
-Precise attack: A focused attack, +2 to hit, normal damage
-Powerattack: A mighty blow, +0 to hit, double STR-bonus or +1 to dmg.
-Shieldwall: -1 AC as long as one does not attack (in one encounter)
-Two weapon attack: if one uses 2 weapons, two attacks with +0
-Quickdraw: draw weapons/change weapons as a free action
-Shieldbash: attacks with shield, if hit dmg 1D4 and Str vs Str get enemy prone (loses next round)
-Charge: if running into enemy and attacking +2 attack, +2 dmg

Technique-lvl 2
-Mighty swing: swinging weapon overhead using weaponweight, +0 to hit, double weapon-dmg but no str-bonus
-Cleave: can be used when killing a foe, free new attack against next foe
-Sunder shield: bashes enemies shield, +0 to hit, Str vs Str, if succeeds shield is broken
-Double attack: two normal attacks
-Two-weapon slash: 1 attack against all enemies in front of the fighter (in reach)

Technique-lvl 3
-Powerswing: as Mighty Swing but double both weapon dmg and str-bonus
-Mighty cleave: can be used for a continued cleave into more enemies
-Whirlwind attack: can move 10 feet and attack up to three enemies on the way

etc

I think it could be fun for fighters to try to collect these techniques during adventures, by finding trainers, asking high-level fighters to teach them and perhaps finding weird scriptures in the walls of ancient ruins (depicting figures of people doing the strangest maneuvers with weapons... maybe if I lifted my sword like this....)

Has anyone used something similar? Any obvious drawbacks or awesomeness in the idea?

[bighara]

I have not used this, but if it would add fun to your game, then give it a shot. I like the idea of them getting training or finding a lost technique. Personally, I would hold off giving them anything like this until mid-level. That's when fighter-types start to slip a little on the power rungs vs. spellcasters.

If you are using AEC, then I would limit it strictly to fighters. Rangers and Paladins have other abilities.

[Vile]

And you could call those spells "battle magic"!

[by_the_sword]

I like the idea of giving fighters...and anybody else who wields a weapon and risks his or her neck in a fight, options.

[YHWH]

Finding and using secret techniques on weird scriptures, that'd be something I'd like better for monks. (Or maybe a custom class based on monks.) Then they can get all dragonball / street fighter-y. "Your hundred hand slap is no match for my rising Buddha palm", and shit like that.

But even then I wouldn't use the spell system of preparing them every day then using them once. That's way too much like the wizard for me. I'd give the attacks a cost and give the monk of pool of points to spend that refreshes daily.

That's when fighter-types start to slip a little on the power rungs vs. spellcasters.

Maybe I'm just naive because I don't have enough high level play experience, but I was kinda thinking/hoping that was a 3e issue only.

[YHWH]

There's a perception that fighters don't have options in classic D&D. But fighters can do anything (that makes sense) and DMs just have to deal with it and come up with a ruling for it on the fly using logic. Stuff like:
-groin kicks
-throwing sand in someone's eyes
-targeted attacks

It's tricky, you've got to make them balanced or you get silly things like fighters trying to trip every round. And there's no reason you can't come up with stuff in advance, just be prepared when someone tries something you weren't expecting.

The problem with making something like "charging" a feat or special power is you're telling players that don't have that power that they can't charge! (Or maybe they can but it doesn't count as a "charge", and that's silly.)

One thing I've struggled to make up a good ruling for: when a fighter leaps off of a ledge and uses the fall to give an attack extra momentum on a creature below. That's pretty bad ass and I want to support that.

[Agrippa]

Finding and using secret techniques on weird scriptures, that'd be something I'd like better for monks. (Or maybe a custom class based on monks.)

The ARMA would like to have a few words with you.

[Gnarri]

There's a perception that fighters don't have options in classic D&D. But fighters can do anything (that makes sense) and DMs just have to deal with it and come up with a ruling for it on the fly using logic. Stuff like:
-groin kicks
-throwing sand in someone's eyes
-targeted attacks

It's tricky, you've got to make them balanced or you get silly things like fighters trying to trip every round. And there's no reason you can't come up with stuff in advance, just be prepared when someone tries something you weren't expecting.

The problem with making something like "charging" a feat or special power is you're telling players that don't have that power that they can't charge! (Or maybe they can but it doesn't count as a "charge", and that's silly.)

One thing I've struggled to make up a good ruling for: when a fighter leaps off of a ledge and uses the fall to give an attack extra momentum on a creature below. That's pretty bad ass and I want to support that.

Yep, I agree about the risk for limiting instead of expanding the choices, but I don't think it would be a problem with general rulings in combination with some sort of formalized techniques. For example, if there was a Charge technique that gives "+2 to attack roll, +2 to dmg", it would be easy to rule that someone could charge with +1 without that technique but with a good description. An awesome description would give the whole bonus or more.

A problem with rulings only can be a lot of discussion that takes time and also that it might give too much power to obnoxious players.
("Ok, three orcs and I'm a lvl one fighter. I charge the first, while throwing sand in the other two's eyes and then do a long cut with my sword over all three so the guts fly everywhere!"
"Ok, erhmmm.... I rule that it's completely insane, but roll -8 for all three attacks and half dmg")
"Sweet! But whattabout the sand?"
"It's included"
"Naaa, they should lose their round or something"
and so on)

Also, it's a bit tricky with targeted attacks, groin kicks etc. If you have a lvl 1 fighter vs an orc and no-one has any advantages and the player describes a groin kick and gets a bonus, wouldn't the orc get the same bonus with his targeted attack against the characters eyes? Often, I like to not give bonuses in those situations, but only if you have an advantage (like the jump from height you described) or spend a round to get an advantage or similar. Maybe fighting techniques could come in handy in those more duel-like situations?

Generally I think that time stealers and extra die rolls should be avoided (and techniques and feats and so on are time stealers), but I also like when characters have choices and when they can evolve and find other kind of treasures than gold and xp. Like asking a high level mentor to teach a few techniques after following him on some adventure or something like that.

[Agrippa]

All this talk of giving fighter types martial "spells" brings Dreamscarred Press's Path of War to mind. For me anyway that is.