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5MWD Presents: Maneuvers & Commander
 
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5MWD Presents: Maneuvers & Commander
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5MWD Presents: Maneuvers & Commander
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Itai A. R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/15/2019 07:15:31

I liked the new maneuvers. The Commander class is not bad: improving Action Surge and making it a buff to allies it pretty cool. Combat Leader is impactful without feeling too strong; Tactical Superiority feels too strong, because it's basically a flat +2 to damage across the board. Not sure that's a good class feature. Reliable Tactics is really good, and Evaluate Situation is not useful.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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5MWD Presents: Maneuvers & Commander
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2016 16:03:45

This document runs 6 pages with 2 being cover and credits and the last an advertisement. The maneuvers occupy 1 ½ pages with standard book print and 1 page for the Commander archetype.

The 27 maneuvers are sometimes too specific which makes them less appealing picks early when there are limited slots. However, in the late game when 9 or even 11 maneuvers (with Martial Adept) might be known these are welcome additions to the stock Maneuvers in the PHB.

The standout action economy modifying maneuvers are Backswing Attack (extra attack with bonus action when you miss), Grabbing Attack (no action grab with a free hand), and Knight’s Gambit (grant advantage but get Reaction attack).

The rest of the Maneuvers are situational so they depend on what you want to accomplish on a regular basis. Many assist with checks or saves and fill in some support abilities.

The two maneuvers which seemed weird are Redirect Charge and Superior Initiative. Superior Initiative I’m not sure what it is supposed to do over any of the ‘add damage’ maneuvers. As written it is a situationally ‘add damage’ maneuver but there are many broader maneuvers with better riders.

Redirect Charge forces a creature moving towards you to go an extra 10 or 15 feet (not sure which). I get the idea but don’t buy the loss of control. Seems like you just run them out of movement and leave them with a lost action situationally. More likely players will interpret this as drawing a bunch of Opportunity attacks. I could skip this one.

All these maneuvers serve to set up the Commander archetype, a more ‘Warlordy’ Battle Master.

As a fighter archetype is sit on all the normal Fighter stuff. The subclass adds an alternate usage for Action Surge while building very much on the Battle Master. Essentially I’m going to compare the Battle Master and Commander directly since they are parallel.

Combat Superiority is potentially identical although the Commander forces 2 of the starting Maneuvers and half the next 4 choices into the Command Maneuver list. The Command maneuver list has the 3 main ‘Warlord’ maneuvers (Commanding Strike, Maneuvering Attack, and Rally) plus adds the new ones with a support bent. This leaves 1 at the beginning and 3 more later for non-‘Warlordy’ maneuvers.

Also at 3rd, the Commander gets Share Surge which adds an alternate use for Action Surge. It is probably going to go to more attacks by the Fighter (because of Extra Attack) but in the right situation it is a nice option.

In a comparison between Battle Master and Commander at this point I’d give the nod to Commander since the Share Surge feature beats a tool proficiency.

The rest of the abilities be my judgement would rate as upgrades to their Battle Master equivalents.

Overall, the Commander looks like a better Battle Master and would probably replace the Battle Master in play unless a player really hated having maneuver choices restricted.

Since it riffs so heavily off Battle Master I think it would be fine in play since the Battle Master is fine.

Overall the maneuvers are a nice addition to the Battle Master list and it is a judgement call on whether Battle Master should be replaced with Commander to be like a 4th edition Warlord or 3rd edition Marshal.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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5MWD Presents: Maneuvers & Commander
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Sylvain B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/28/2016 22:18:00

This review has been edited to reflect the rebalancing efforts of the author for the Commander archetype.

I enjoyed the new maneuvers. They add interesting options and look fairly balanced at first glance. I intend to offer them to the Battle Master in my campaign.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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