Chapter 0 - Introduction Index Chapter 2 - Spellcasting

Chapter 1 - Combat

This chapter focuses on the fundamental changes to the combat rules. Most other fundamentals remain unchanged.

Firstly, the core change, AC-less Defence, is introduced, featuring Hit DC, Damage Reduction and Cover. Then, Aimed Strikes, Surge Dice and changes to Action Economy are added to supplement AC-less Defence, and Contests are reintroduced. Finally, Vision & Focus are changed, Grappling & Shoving are turned back into contests, and Aspects of Stealth are introduced.

AC-less Defence

AC-less: Creatures do not have an Armor Class anymore. A combination of Hit DC and Damage Reduction takes its place.

Hit DC

Missing attacks: An attack automatically misses its target if the attack roll isn’t at least as high as the Hit DC.

Base Hit DC: The base Hit DC of a target depends on its size, as shown in the table below. To determine the size of something that has no given size, you can use the Hit Area and height or length measures as guidelines.

Size Hit DC Hit Area Height or Length
Minuscule 20 <25cm² <8cm
Fine 18 <100cm² <15cm
Diminutive 16 <400cm² <30cm
Tiny 14 <0.15m² <60cm
Small 12 <0.6m² <120cm
Medium 10 <2.5m² <240cm
Large 8 <10m² <5m
Huge 6 <40m² <10m
Gargantuan 4 >40m² >10m

The Hit Area refers to the area of a target that is facing the attacker. For example, a piece of paper is easier to hit from the front than from the side, because the papers thinness leads to a smaller Hit Area when looking at it sideways.

For the purposes of very small targets, a new set of sizes has been introduced. These will, for example, be used for Aimed Strikes.

Even smaller sizes: If a target is significantly smaller than the sizes listed above, you can either find an extended table in the tables chapter, or extrapolate the Hit DC from the measures in the table. Start with the measures and Hit DC for minuscule targets. Then add 2 to the Hit DC, quarter the Hit Area and halve the height or length. Repeat this until the measures fit the target you have in mind to get the appropriate Hit DC.

Cover

Cover: Instead of increasing the Armor Class of the target that is behind cover, the Hit DC for attacks against the target increases in correlation with the now reduced Hit Area. Thus, Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover can now be disregarded for attack rolls.

For example, if the Hit Area of an otherwise Medium size target matches the Tiny size due to Cover, the targets Hit DC is that of a Tiny target for attacks that are affected by that Cover.

Cover size: Sometimes, the creatures or objects that are used for Cover have an associated size category. If the Cover is of a larger size category than the target, it gives Total Cover. If it has the same category, it only leaves a few openings at best, which usually manifests as an increase in Hit DC of +4. If it is one category smaller, it leaves a decent area open to attack, giving no more than a +2 to the Hit DC. Even smaller Cover is too small to effectively reduce the Hit Area. It can, however, still be used to give Cover to specific body parts and other smaller targets.

Cover Cone: In some cases, it is not clear against which attacks a target benefits from Cover. The Dungeon Masters Guide describes a method to determine Cover through occupied and blocked spaces on a battle map, but some cover is not represented by this because it is too small and thus too finicky to place and manage on a battle map. For example, this is usually the case with Shields.

In such cases where the cover is sufficiently small and close to the target, attacks originating from within a type of Cone, the Cover Cone, are affected by that cover. The Cover Cone originates from the target and is directed towards the cover, has no range limit and can't be interrupted.

To continue the Shield example, if you are holding a Shield directly towards an enemy, that enemy is within the Cover Cone originating from you and directed through the Shield, as they are directly on the opposite side of the Shield. Therefor, you benefit from the Cover your Shield provides you with, increasing your Hit DC against attacks by that enemy, usually by 2 or 4.

Crouching behind cover: Creatures may crouch, perch, sit down, or fall prone behind cover at will to increase the degree of cover they can obtain. When doing so, the following effects apply to the crouched creature:

For example, a Medium Humanoid receives a +4 to their Hit DC from a Tower Shield when crouching behind it instead of the usual +2, while a Small Humanoid can receive full cover from a Tower Shield when crouching behind it.

Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction: Targets now have a Damage Reduction value. When the target takes damage through an attack, that value is subtracted from this damage.

Resistances & Vulnerabilities: Damage Reduction happens before resistances and vulnerabilities modify the damage.

Multiple Damage Types: When one attack deals damage of multiple different damage types, the Damage Reduction still only applies once to the attack, not to every type of damage it deals.

Damage of different types is reduced in order, with leftover reduction being carried to the next type. Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage are reduced first, Force damage and Psychic damage are reduced last, and all other damage types are reduced in-between. Within each category, the order of reduction is chosen by the target for each attack, so you may choose to reduce Bludgeoning damage before Slashing damage and vice versa whenever relevant.

For example, if an attack deals 2 Piercing damage, 2 Cold damage and 2 Force damage against a Damage Reduction of 3, the Piercing damage is reduced to 0, the Cold damage to 1 and the Force damage stays at 2, reducing the total damage dealt by 3. If it dealt Fire damage instead of Force damage, the target could have chosen to reduce the Fire damage by 1 instead of the Cold damage.

Damage Reduction for Specific Damage Types: Some features may give Damage Reduction against a specific damage type only. This Damage Reduction only reduces the Damage of its specified type, and its reduction takes place before general Damage Reduction is applied as described above.

Converting Armor Class to Damage Reduction: Every bonus to Armor Class that is not the Dexterity bonus can be converted 1:1 into a bonus for Damage Reduction, unless otherwise noted. An armour that sets the Armor Class of the wearer to 13 + Dexterity modifier will, for example, be converted to 3 Damage Reduction, because it is an Armor Class bonus of +3 compared to the base Armor Class of 10, while the Dexterity modifier is discarded. The conversion for armours can also be seen in their chapter.

Stacking Damage Reduction: Damage Reduction from multiple sources stacks. However, the prerequisites for each source must still be met. For example, the Damage Reduction now gained from the Barbarians Unarmoured Defence and a heavy armour will not stack, because the heavy armour still disables the Barbarians Unarmoured Defence.

Other changes

Reactive Defence: There are now options to reactively defend against incoming attacks and other effects. These include Dodging, Blocking and Parrying, as detailed within the Rules Glossary. For spellcasters, some of the new and reworked spells provide options for reactive defence.

Defence and Dodge Action: The Defence Action has been introduced and the Dodge Action has been changed to fit the new reaction rules.

Misses? Any rule or feature that requires a missed attack to work also works if the attack does not deal damage because of Damage Reduction, Blocking, or Parrying. Those attacks count as both a hit and a miss in that regard. Note that Dodging explicitly causes dodged attacks to miss.

Action Economy

Reserving Actions: At the end of your turn, you gain 1 additional Reaction per Action you did not use. If you were unable to use these Actions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Ready Action: When using the Ready Action, you also gain 1 additional Reaction.

Reserving Bonus Actions: At the end of your turn, you gain 1 additional Reaction per Bonus Action you did not use. If you were unable to use these Bonus Actions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Free Reactions: In addition to a Reaction, every creature also has a Free Reaction they can use.

The free object interaction each character has once per turn may be used as a Free Reaction instead, if there is a trigger that plausibly allows for such a reaction, at the DMs mercy. For example, you can use your Free Reaction to shut a door as soon as someone has walked through it on their turn.

When you have the Incapacitated condition, you can no longer use your Free Reaction.

Every feature that uses a Free Reaction can also use a Reaction instead.

Reserving Reactions: At the start of your turn, you gain 1 Surge Die per Reaction you did not use. If you were unable to use these Reactions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Reactive Defence: There are now options to reactively defend against incoming attacks and other effects. These include Dodging, Blocking and Parrying, as detailed below. The Dodge Action has been adjusted accordingly, and a more general Defence Action has been introduced to focus on reactive defence. For spellcasters, some of the new and reworked spells provide options for reactive defence.

Contests

The 2024 rules saw the removal of contested rolls and moved towards the use of saving throws instead. That is the exact opposite direction that these rules want to go. To establish more interactivity, contests are thus reintroduced here. The actions that use those are described throughout the book, for example with the Grapple and Shove attacks described in Grappling & Shoving.

Sometimes one character’s or monster’s efforts are directly opposed to another’s. This can occur when both of them are trying to do the same thing and only one can succeed, such as attempting to snatch up a magic ring that has fallen on the floor. This situation also applies when one of them is trying to prevent the other one from accomplishing a goal, for example, when a monster tries to force open a door that an adventurer is holding closed. In situations like these, the outcome is determined by a special form of D20-Test, called a contest.

Contest: Both participants in a contest make D20-Tests appropriate to their efforts. They apply all appropriate bonuses and penalties, but instead of comparing the total to a DC, they compare the totals of their two checks. The participant with the higher check total wins the contest. That character or monster either succeeds at the action or prevents the other one from succeeding.

If the contest results in a tie, the situation remains the same as it was before the contest. Thus, one contestant might win the contest by default. If two characters tie in a contest to snatch a ring off the floor, neither character grabs it. In a contest between a monster trying to open a door and an adventurer trying to keep the door closed, a tie means that the door remains shut.

Dodging

Dodging isn’t really a thing, let’s change that.

To be more elaborate, in the base game, in many cases, Armor Class includes the Dexterity Bonus of a creature. This reasonably reflects some sort of ability to dodge - what else would the Dexterity Bonus be good for when it comes to avoiding damage? This is completely lost on many tables, as AC is often perceived to be nothing more than a coherent mass of all of this misses or all of this doesn’t affect me. To add to that, defending against attacks is easily perceived as something passive due to the nature of AC, while dodging should imply activity on the defendant’s side.

Implementing some sort of mechanic that allows for reactive dodging would be quite nice for multiple reasons. It (a) makes defending against attacks part of the action economy, giving more weight to proper defensive strategies, it (b) presents the swiftness of some characters in combat, giving more flavour to their character and differentiating it mechanically from other characters, and it (c) gives the player the ability to actively avoid especially dangerous attacks while permitting weaker ones. This, in turn, allows for more aggressive encounter design.

Also, adding an option to dodge & roll would be nice, especially because swiftly jumping away from the point of impact of an attack is something that feels like it should be possible.

Dodging check: A Dodging check is a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check that is modified by the armour you're wearing as follows:

Dodge: You can use your Reaction to try to dodge an attack that you can see and that targets you.

Make a Dodging check contesting the attack roll. If the result is at least as high as the attack roll, you successfully dodge the attack. It misses.

When trying to dodge a critical hit, you roll with Disadvantage.

Dodge & Roll: You can use your Reaction to try to dodge an attack that you can see and that targets you. Make a Dodging check and move to an unoccupied spot within 10 feet of you.

If you're trying to dodge an attack and the result is at least as high as the attack roll, you dodge successfully and the attack misses.

If the Dodging check succeeds, your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

If the Dodging check fails, you fall prone at your target location.

If all spots within 10 feet are occupied, you fall prone in place, even if the Dodging check succeeded.

When trying to dodge & roll in response to a critical hit, you roll with Disadvantage.

Blocking

Shields are made to block attacks, and while the base rules only implement this passively, a reactive implementation is highly intuitive. This implementation is provided here.

Blocking: Blocking is a new skill that uses Strength or Dexterity, shield wielders choice, modified by the Blocking Modifier of the wielded Shield.

Blocking Modifier: A usual shield has a Blocking Modifier of +4, with other variants being described in the chapter on Shields. To use the Blocking Modifier of a Shield, you have to have training with Shields.

Prerequisites: To use the features below, you need to be trained with Shields and wield a Shield.

Block: You can use a Reaction to try to block an attack that you can see and that targets you.

Make a Blocking check contesting the attack roll. If the result is at least as high as the attack roll, you successfully block the attack. It deals no damage.

When trying to block a critical hit, you roll with Disadvantage.

Parrying

Parrying has long played a relevant role in combat fiction, and these rules explicate how it can be done in this game.

Parrying: Parrying is a new skill that uses the ability that you use your weapon with.

Prerequisites: To use the features below, you need to wield a melee weapon that you are trained with.

Parry: You can use your Reaction to try to parry a melee attack that you can see and that targets you. Make a Parrying check contesting the attack roll. If the result is at least as high as the attack roll, you successfully parry, reducing the attacks damage by your weapons Parrying Power.

When trying to parry a critical hit, you roll with Disadvantage.

When rolling a natural 20 on your Parrying Check, the Parrying Power is doubled.

Parrying Power: A weapons Parrying Power is equal to the maximum damage it can deal on a normal hit. This includes all temporary damage bonuses as well.

For example, a normal rapier deals damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier, so its Parrying Power is equal to 8 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier. If it is also transmuted by the spell Elemental Weapon, which increases its damage by 1d4, its Parrying Power is further increased by 4.

Surge Dice

A Surge Die is 1d6 that can be used for various effects that are described below. You can use one or more Surge Dice as part of any of your Actions, Bonus Actions, Free Actions, Reactions, or Free Reactions. You can use more than one Surge Die at once for the same effect. All unspent Surge Dice expire at the start of your next turn and at the end of combat.

When Surge Dice are to be used in a contest, each participating party must announce the number of Surge Dice they use before knowing the roll of another party.

Obtaining Surge Dice: You can obtain Surge Dice through reserving Reactions as described in the Reaction rules. Some classes may also give features that relate to Surge Dice.

Surge Reaction: Instead of using Surge Dice as part of other actions, you can also use them by themselves. When you notice something happening, you can take a Free Reaction to use any number of your Surge Dice.

Surge Die Effects

You can use Surge Dice for the following effects:

Power: Add the roll to an attack roll, an ability check, or the damage you deal to one creature. If the Surge Die is added to the damage of a critical hit, it is not doubled.

Force: Subtract the roll from one saving throw you require one creature to make. This can be part of an effect that requires multiple creatures to roll a saving throw, but it only applies to the one creature you choose.

Speed: You gain 10ft. of movement that you can immediately use.

Tenacity: You gain temporary hit points equal to the roll until the start of your next turn.

Actions

Defence Action

You can use your Action to take the Defence Action. Doing so gives you a number of Reactions equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You may only use these additional Reactions for defensive Reactions, including Dodging, Blocking, Parrying, or another Reaction that fulfills the following conditions:

When gaining Surge Dice at the start of your next turn, no more than three of your unspent Reactions are converted into Surge Dice.

Dodge Action

If you take the Dodge action, you gain a number of Reactions equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You may only use these additional Reactions for Dodging. You also gain the following benefits until the start of your next turn:

When gaining Surge Dice at the start of your next turn, no more than three of your unspent Reactions are converted into Surge Dice.

You lose these benefits if you have the Incapacitated condition or if your Speed is 0.

Grappling & Shoving

Unarmed Strikes: The Grapple and Shove options of the Unarmed Strike are changed to use Contests again, as described below.

Grapple: Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check, a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (their choice). If you succeed, you subject the target to the Grappled condition. You can release the target whenever you like (no action required). The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.

Escaping a Grapple: A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics) check. The grapple also ends if the you have the Incapacitated condition or if the distance between you and the Grappled target exceeds your reach.

Shove: You make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (their choice). If you win the contest, you either knock the target Prone or push it 5 feet away from you, your choice. The target of your shove must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.

Vision & Focus

Vision

Vision: Many features in these rules rely on seeing something happen. In combat, track and attend to the direction you look. Using miniatures on battlemaps works well for this, but any small thing that discernibly points any direction will do.

Field of View: There are four different fields of view that apply to creatures and objects that have vision:

Out of View: When you are outside of another creatures or objects field of view, it treats you as if you had the Invisible condition.

Focus

Focus: You usually have something within your perception that you primarily attend to - this is what you focus on. You automatically switch focus to a creature or object when targeting them with a single-target spell, attack, or other effect. You can only focus on one target at a time.

As long as you are focused on a target, you can rotate with the target's movement, if needed, to keep that target within your sight. This way, for example, a Humanoid can save their back from another creature’s attacks, allowing them to react to their attacks.

Switch Focus: At the end of your turn, you can switch Focus to any creature that you perceive. Otherwise, you can use a Free Reaction or Reaction to Focus a creature that you notice moving towards you or doing something near you.

Losing Focus: You lose Focus if you receive the Incapacitated condition or when you lose the ability to perceive the target of your Focus.

A creature that you Focus may also make you lose Focus by applying the charmed or frightened condition to you, by successfully hiding behind total cover, or by spontaneously becoming unperceived by you (for example through invisibility or teleportation).

Escape Focus: To escape a creature's Focus, you can take a Bonus Action, making a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by the creature's passive perception, and use your movement to leave their vision. On a success, the creature loses Focus, on a failure, they can turn to keep their Focus and you in their vision.

This can, for example, be used to be able to attack the back of a Humanoid that previously focused their vision on you, making sure they can't react to your attack.

Draw Focus: You can force other creatures to Switch Focus by drawing their attention to yourself, another creature or something else. This may occur as a side-effect of anything you do that is sufficiently noticeable, at the mercy of the player controlling the respective creature whose Focus is to be drawn.

If a creature does take notice and the controlling player decides it would be plausible that their creatures Focus could be drawn, the creature may make a Concentration check to resist having to Switch Focus. The Difficulty Class of this check is determined by the controlling player and the drawing player in a way that should be plausible for whatever was done to attempt drawing attention.

Example Scenarios

A Halfling cutthroat is looking to take out a Human guard they lead into an alley. They are currently looking at another, and the guard charges forward to strike. To escape the guards focus, the nimble cutthroat swiftly maneuvers around the guard, using their Bonus Action to make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against 13, the guard’s passive perception. They succeed and stand behind the disoriented guard’s back, able to attack the guard without them being able to react.

A Bard attempts to draw the attention of a bloodthirsty Gnoll that prioritizes the weak. They attempt to do so by faking a scream of pain and acting hurt & vulnerable. The DM controlling the Gnoll may decide that the attempt is automatically successful and make the Gnoll Switch Focus to the Bard - they might also decide that the Gnoll might try to resist (for a reason) and roll a Concentration check contested by a Charisma (Performance) check by the Bard, only switching the Gnolls Focus if they lose the contest - they might also decide that the attempt automatically fails (for a reason).

Aimed Strikes

During play, it became apparent that attack rolls lost a good deal of their charm. This was mainly because an uncontested attack roll was too likely to succeed, given that the Hit DC is significantly lower than Armor Class is in the base game. This also made having a good attack bonus or rolling with Advantage or Disadvantage less significant on attacks, especially against larger targets that have an even smaller Hit DC. In short, making an attack roll felt redundant as soon as it was uncontested.

Aimed Strikes are the response to this problem. They allow the attacker to trade their hit chance against other benefits, damage among them, increasing the risk of the attack roll. This also deepens strategic thinking, as some circumstances may still incentivize going for the easy hit. This active choice should make the reliability feel better than before, where the reliability was imposed.

Aimed Strike: When attacking a target, you can choose to target a specific part of them instead of them in general. This changes the base Hit DC of the attack to the base Hit DC of the targeted part, depending on its size as noted in the chapter on AC-less Defence. Parts can benefit from cover and usually have the same Damage Reduction as the creature or object they belong to. When an Aimed Strike hits a creature, they must make a Wound Save as described below.

The DM may decide to also tie other effects to specific parts, such as a Damage Reduction modifier, particular damage vulnerabilities, other conditions to save against and the like.

Wound Save: When you are struck by an Aimed Strike you must make a Constitution saving throw against half the attacks damage or 10, whichever is higher. If you succeed, nothing happens. Otherwise, the attack leaves the targeted body part Wounded.

If the damage is higher than twice your Constitution score or half your maximum Hit Points, whichever is lower, the targeted body part is Wounded on a successful save and Disabled on a failed save.

Weakspots: Some creatures may have regions on their body that are especially vulnerable to attacks. Targeting these regions should be more difficult, but also yield more devastating results for the target.

As a DM, you can make use of this when designing an encounter to make a fight more interesting. Maybe the Kobold tinkerer has a bomb in their pocket that just waits to be hit by Fire damage to explode in their face, or maybe the dragon loses their breath weapon with a well placed strike through their lungs.

Some weakspots may not be apparent at first glance. In this case, a Study action may give the players just the information they need.

Covering Body Parts: Similar to how a creature can receive cover, body parts can also become harder to hit when covered, as described in the chapter about AC-less Defence.

For example, when a Tiny shield is held accordingly, it can give total cover to a Diminutive body part, turn a Tiny body part into a Fine target, and a Small body part into a Diminutive target.

Body part sizes for Medium Humanoids: The table below shows the rough sizes of the body parts of a Medium Humanoid. This table is not definitive, as the size of a body part can vary from person to person and effectively also depends on the angle it is viewed at. A buff humans arms may be easier to hit than those of a lanky one, and a torso viewed from the side is effectively smaller than one viewed from the front.

Body Part Size Hit DC
Head Diminutive 16
Eye Minus 1 22
Neck Diminutive 16
Arm Tiny 14
Hand Diminutive 16
Torso Small 12
Crotch Fine 18
Leg Tiny 14
Foot Diminutive 16

Targeting Organs: Organs such as the heart, lungs, or the brain are considered to have total cover inside the body. This total must either be pierced or disabled through Aimed Strikes targeting it before the organs can be affected by an attack or targeted. When the damage of an Aimed Strike in an organs direction is high enough, the DM may decide that the organ has been struck regardless of its cover.

When an organ is hit, the damage should be increased by a significant amount, and disabling a vital organ should impose potent drawbacks. For the lungs, you might refer to the rules on Suffocation, for the brain, the target may have the Stunned condition, and for the heart, the target may repeatedly take damage and stacks of Exhaustion.

Example Scenario

The champion knows that a blinded cyclops is a harmless cyclops. Therefor, she decides to aim her shot at his eye. This increases the Hit DC for the attack from 6 to 18, given that the eye is a Fine target. The DM decides on the fly that the eye is vulnerable to piercing damage. She rolls her attack as usual and hits, dealing 38 piercing damage, so the cyclops must make a DC19 Wound Save. He fails this save, so his eye is now wounded, giving him Disadvantage on everything that relies on his sight. This is not enough for the champion though, so she fires a second arrow towards his eye, dealing 46 piercing damage. The cyclops fails his DC23 Wound Save and his eye is now disabled, leaving him Blinded.

Martial Training

Martial Training is a new system that encompasses weapon Proficiency, weapon mastery, Fighting Styles, Armour Training, and some Feats that interface with weapons and armour. Proficiency and Expertise in Parrying and Blocking are also part of this system, as are other features relating to AC-less Defence generally.

This rework is motivated by three reasons. Firstly, with the Hit DC being largely unchanging with level and being quite low especially with larger creatures, there's not as large of a benefit in adding the Proficiency Bonus to ones attack rolls. This opens up the possibility of allowing players to decide against adding this Proficiency Bonus in favor of other benefits for offence or defence. One of these benefits aptly allows players to bypass parts of an enemies Damage Reduction, scaling with the Proficiency Bonus, so that there are now options to ease hitting enemies and to ease damaging them through armour, mirroring the separation of Armor Class into Hit DC and Damage Reduction.

Secondly, the new defensive reactions introduced in this ruleset should be something a character can specialize in. In previous versions of this ruleset, this was enabled through changes to general feats and through connections with Expertise class features. Both of those are limited in their accessibility, and especially fighters should be able to access special defensive features more than other classes, while not themselves having access to Expertise. Thus, by introducing these features here, martial classes actually have prioritized access to the new martial features.

Thirdly, the 2024 rules saw the introduction of weapon mastery properties. These were introduced as weapon-specific features that can be chosen by martials to increase their battlefield prowess, which can be assumed to be intended to lessen the infamous martial caster divide. Structurally, these mastery properties do not separate themselves from benefits that are obtainable through feats, while introducing a whole new feature list a martial can choose from. Next to Fighting Style feats and general feats, this is now the third feature list for martials. Through the rearrangement of those lists into one singular list, the flexibility and potential power of martials is further accentuated. Additionally, adding new features to this list is a new straightforward way to give feature options to martials specifically without having to restrict the features to Fighting Style feats, general feats or weapon mastery properties that martial classes tend to have quite limited access to.

Core Changes

Martial Training: When you receive Martial Training, choose one of the features listed in the following sections that you qualify for.

Fighting Styles: Fighting Style feats are now Martial Training features. Whenever you would gain a Fighting Style feat, you receive Martial Training instead.

Weapon Masteries: Weapon Masteries are now Martial Training features. Whenever you would gain access to a mastery property, you receive Martial Training instead.

Feats: The benefits of a selection of general feats are now Martial Training features. There's now a new general feat that allows the player to receive Martial Training twice.

Opportunity Attacks: You now need the Opportunist feature to be able to make Opportunity Attacks.

Weapon Training

Instead of working primarily through Proficiency, weapons now also utilize Training, similar to how it is established for Armour. When using a weapon that you lack training with, you have Disadvantage on any D20 Test that relies on that weapon. The following features can give you training with weapons:

Starting Proficiency Conversion: You no longer start with Proficiency in weapon attacks with the weapons listed in your class descriptions. Instead, you are trained with the weapons that you would otherwise have Proficiency in.

When you receive Martial Training, you can choose the Accuracy feature described in the section on weapon features to add your Proficiency Bonus to certain attack rolls again.

Simple Melee Weapon Training: You gain training with Simple Melee weapons.

Simple Ranged Weapon Training: You gain training with Simple Ranged weapons.

Martial Melee Weapon Training: Requires training with Simple Melee weapons. You gain training with Martial Melee weapons.

Martial Ranged Weapon Training: Requires training with Simple Ranged weapons. You gain training with Martial Ranged weapons.

Weapon Features

Accuracy: Choose a weapon property. You add your Proficiency Bonus to attack rolls with weapons with that property. You can pick this feature multiple times, but only for different weapon properties, and it does not stack with itself on weapons with multiple properties that you have this feature for.

Archery: You gain a bonus to attack rolls with Ranged weapons equal to your Wisdom modifier (at least 1).

C-C-Combo: Your weapon attacks deal additional damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus for every time you've hit with a weapon attack since the start of your turn.

Cleave: Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a melee attack using a weapon that has the Heavy property and deals Slashing damage, you can make a melee attack roll with the weapon against a second creature within 5 feet of the first that is also within your reach. On a hit, the second creature takes the weapons damage, but you don't add your ability modifier to that damage unless that modifier is negative.

Dueling: When you are holding a Melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a bonus to damage rolls with that weapon equal to your Dexterity modifier (at least 1).

Enhanced Critical - Bludgeoning: Choose either Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage. When you score a Critical Hit that deals damage of that damage type, you ignore the targets Damage Reduction and gain the benefit associated with that damage type:

You can pick this feature multiple times, but only for different damage types.

Enhanced Dual Wielding: When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a weapon that has the Light property, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn with a different weapon, which must be a Melee weapon that lacks the Two-Handed property. You don't add your ability modifier to the extra attack's damage unless that modifier is negative.

Firing in Melee: Being within 5 feet of an enemy doesn't impose Disadvantage on your attack rolls with Ranged weapons.

Graze: When you miss a creature with a melee attack using a weapon that has the Two-Handed property and deals Slashing damage, you can deal Slashing damage to that creature equal to the ability modifier you used to make the attack roll.

Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3. The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile property to gain this benefit.

Guardian: Requires Opportunist - Melee. Immediately after a creature within 5 feet of you takes the Disengage action or hits a target other than you with an attack, you can make a melee Opportunity Attack against that creature.

Halt: Requires Opportunist. When you hit a creature with an Opportunity Attack, the creature's Speed becomes 0 for the rest of the current turn.

Hamstring: Once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack using a Melee weapon that deals Slashing damage or using a Ranged weapon, you can reduce the Speed of that creature by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

Heavy Weapon Master: When you hit a target with a weapon that has the Heavy property as part of the Attack action on your turn, you deal additional damage equal to your Strength modifier (at least 1).

Hew: Immediately after you score a Critical Hit with a Melee weapon with the Heavy property or reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with one, you can make one attack with the same weapon as a Bonus Action.

Ignore Loading: You ignore the Loading property and can load a piece of ammunition into weapons with that property even without a free hand.

Long Shots: Attacking at long range doesn't impose Disadvantage on your attack rolls with Ranged weapons.

Nick: When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn.

Opportunist: Pick one option:

You can pick this feature again to pick the other option.

Overpower: When you hit a target with a weapon that deals Bludgeoning damage, you deal 1 extra damage for every size category the target is smaller than you.

Penetration: Choose a damage type. Your damage with weapons that deal that type of damage ignores an amount of Damage Reduction equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You can pick this feature multiple times, but only for different damage types.

Pole Strike: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The attack deals Bludgeoning damage, and the damage die for this attack is a d4.

Push: When you hit a target with an attack using a weapon without the Light property that deals Bludgeoning damage, you can push the target up to 10 feet straight away from you to an unoccupied space if it is no more than one size larger than you.

Prey on the Vulnerable: If a creature that you can see and that is within your Melee range receives the Incapacitated condition, you can take a Reaction to make a Melee weapon attack against that creature.

Puncture: Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a weapon attack that deals Piercing damage, you can reroll one of the attacks damage dice, and you must use the new roll.

Quick Draw: You can draw or stow two weapons that lack the Two-Handed property when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Reactive Strike: While you're holding a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can take a Reaction to make one attack with that weapon against a creature that enters the reach you have with it.

Sap: When you hit a creature with a melee attack using a weapon without the Heavy property that deals Bludgeoning or Piercing damage, that creature has Disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn.

Thrown Weapon Fighting: When you hit with a ranged attack using a weapon that has the Thrown property, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

Topple: When you hit a creature with a melee attack using a weapon with the Versatile or Two-Handed property, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus the ability modifier used to make the attack roll and your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.

Two Weapon Fighting: When you make an extra attack as a result of using a weapon that has the Light property, you add your ability modifier to the damage of that attack.

Vex: When you hit a creature with a Ranged weapon or a weapon that has the Light property, you have Advantage on your next attack roll against that creature before the end of your next turn.

Armour Features

Light Armour Training: You gain training with Light Armour.

Happy Feet: While wearing Light Armour or no Armour, your armour-based Dodging modifier is +5 instead of +2.

Medium Armour Training: Requires training with Light Armour. You gain training with Medium Armour.

Medium Armour Master: Requires training with Medium Armour. While wearing Medium Armour, your armour-based Dodging modifier is +2 instead of +0.

Heavy Armour Training: Requires training with Medium Armour. You gain training with Heavy Armour.

Heavy Armour Master: Requires training with Heavy Armour. You can use your Reaction to block an attack you can see and that targets you with one of your Heavy Armour pieces, using a Blocking Modifier of +6. When blocking this way successfully, the damage of the attack is not negated completely, but the Damage Reduction of the used armour piece is doubled against it.

If you have Proficiency in Blocking, you also add your Proficiency Bonus to your Damage Reduction against this attack. If you have Expertise in Blocking, you add it twice instead.

Defence: You gain an additional +1 bonus to Damage Reduction on all body parts covered in armour you are trained with.

Dodging Features

Areal Awareness: You can now also use Dodge & Roll against areas of effect that target you, potentially moving you out of their area and avoiding a required saving throw. If your Dodging check is at least as high as the DC of the effect, it succeeds. If your movement makes you leave the area of the area effect, you are not affected. If you remain inside the area effect and it required a Dexterity saving throw, you automatically succeed on the saving throw. If you remain inside it and it required another saving throw, make the other saving throw as usual.

Dodging Adept: You gain Proficiency in Acrobatics.

Dodging Expert: Requires Proficiency in Acrobatics. You gain Expertise in Acrobatics.

Nimble Attack: Whenever you successfully dodge an attack with a Dodge & Roll, you can take a Free Reaction or Reaction mid-roll to make a ranged attack with one of your weapons with the Finesse and Thrown properties against a creature of your choice within range that you can see.

Prediction: Once per round, when you use a Reaction to Dodge an attack and roll the Dodging check with Advantage, you can Dodge another attack you can see before the start of your turn without using a Reaction. You have to use the lower die of the previous roll as the roll for the Dodging check.

Untraceable: Whenever you successfully dodge an attack, the next attack against you before the start of your next turn is rolled with Disadvantage.

Shield & Blocking Features

Blocking Adept: You gain Proficiency in Blocking.

Blocking Expert: Requires Proficiency in Blocking. You gain Expertise in Blocking.

Free Hand Enhancement: You ignore the Disadvantage imposed on D20 Tests by the Free Hand shield property.

Interpose Shield: Requires training with Shields and you to wield a Shield. If you’re subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can take a Reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw.

Protection: Requires Proficiency in Blocking. When a creature you can see attacks another creature within 5 feet of you, you can take a Reaction to block that attack, potentially reducing the damage the target creature takes and giving them the cover your shield provides instead of yourself.

Shield Bash: Requires training with Shields and you to wield a Shield. If you hit a creature within 5 feet of you as part of the Attack action, you can immediately bash the target with your Shield, making a shove attack. You can use this benefit only once on each of your turns.

Shield Training: You gain training with Shields.

Parrying Features

Arrow Splitting: Requires Expertise in Parrying and Proficiency in Perception. You can parry Ranged weapon attacks that you can see and that target you. If you have the Interception feature, you can also parry Ranged weapon attacks targeting other creatures within 5 feet of you.

Cross-parry: Requires Proficiency in Parrying. If you are wielding more than one melee weapon, you can parry using multiple of those weapons at once. If the parry is successful, reduce the attacks damage by the sum of the Parrying Powers of all used weapons instead.

Elegant Parry: Requires Proficiency in Parrying. When you are using at least one Finesse weapon with which you are trained to parry, make the Parry Check with Advantage.

Elegant Parry: You gain a bonus to your Parrying checks equal to your Wisdom modifier (at least 1).

Interception: When a creature you can see attacks another creature within 5 feet of you with a Melee weapon, you can take a Reaction to parry that attack, potentially reducing the damage the target creature takes. You must be holding a Melee weapon to use this Reaction.

Parrying Adept: You gain Proficiency in Parrying.

Parrying Expert: Requires Proficiency in Parrying. You gain Expertise in Parrying.

Potent Parry: Requires Proficiency in Parrying. You add your Proficiency Bonus to the Parrying Power of your Finesse weapons. If you have Expertise in Parrying, you add it twice instead.

Vengeful Parry: Whenever you successfully parry an attack, you can take a Free Reaction or Reaction to make an attack against the attacker with one weapon you are wielding that was not part of your parry.

Weapon Locking: Requires Proficiency in Parrying. If you reduce a parried melee weapon attacks damage to 0, your parry weapon locks with the attackers weapon, giving the attacker Disadvantage on their attack rolls until either of you make an attack with their locked weapon or either of you moves out of the others range.

Other Features

Blind Fighting: You have Blindsight with a range of 10 feet.

Immaculate Aim: When making an Aimed Strike, add either half of the Hit DC increase or your Proficiency Bonus to the attack roll, whichever is lower.

Knowing the Spot: When you hit a target with an Aimed Strike, you deal extra damage equal to your Intelligence modifier (at least 1).

My Body is a Weapon: Your Unarmed Strikes now also count as Melee weapon attacks. While you are not holding anything in your hand, it counts as a Light Melee weapon.

Pattern Recognition: Requires Proficiency in Perception. When you successfully block, dodge or parry the attack of a creature, you gain Advantage on your next Blocking, Dodging or Parrying check against that same creature this combat.

Reliable Aim: When making an Aimed Strike with Advantage and missing the target part, you can still hit the larger target with a normal attack, if using the lower die roll for the attack roll instead of the higher one results in a hit against the larger target. This hit does not count as an Aimed Strike and thus will not trigger a Wound save.

Unarmed Fighting: You gain the following benefits:

Wounding Critical: When you score a Critical Hit on an attack that is not an Aimed Strike, you may choose a body part to wound regardless, forcing the target to roll a Wound save as if the attack had been an Aimed Strike.

Chapter 0 - Introduction Index Chapter 2 - Spellcasting