Martial Adept 5e

You have martial training that allows you to perform special combat maneuvers. You gain the following benefits.

• You learn two maneuvers of your choice from among those available to the Battle Master archetype in the fighter class. If a maneuver you use requires your target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver's effects, the saving throw DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).

• You gain one superiority die, which is a d6 (this die is added to any superiority dice you have from another source). This die is used to fuel your maneuvers. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest.

Martial Adept: Maneuver Abilities

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Martial Adept is… troubling. Mechanically you’re getting a once a short rest button that lets you do a nifty combat trick for a feat. Compared to the majority of other combat feats, this is kind of a joke; in the right hands, it can be a decent tool, but I think more often than not you’ll look towards other martial options or even just an ability score bump to strength or dexterity to improve your combat prowess.

There are twenty-three maneuvers in total; sounds like a lot, but compared to the over forty cantrips that exist, which you can use any number of times and get two of when you take Magic Initiate, we’re looking at comparably a lot fewer options. Of those twenty-three, the bulk of them are worse than another feat option. Ambush, as an example, lets you add a d6 to your Initiative roll by spending your superiority die; Alert gives you a flat +5 to your initiative, nearly always better numerically. If instead you wanted Ambush for the stealth bonus, Skulker gives you empowered ways to hide, and helps you maintain a hidden position when attacking from stealth. Evasive footwork gives you a bonus d6 to your AC for a round; Magic Initiate can give you Shield, a +5 AC on a round you know you’ll need it, and gives you two cantrips of your choice from the wizard or sorcerer class. It turns out a lot of these are worse versions of spells; Grappling strike could be facilitated with an Ensnaring Strike. Lunging Attack is going to more often than not be a worse version of Hex or Hunter's Mark, as you primarily care about the damage. Menacing attack is nearly identical to Wrathful Smite. Sure, Wrathful Smite and Ensnaring Strike aren’t obtainable through Magic Initiate, but neither are spells you’d probably spend an entire feat on in the first place. 

The standout options to me are riposte (an option to make an attack as a reaction), trip attack (can knock the target prone, which in turn grants advantage on subsequent attack rolls), quick toss (a bonus action any time to draw and throw a ranged weapon attack with the thrown property, no strings attached), maneuvering attack (offers allies free disengage and move), commander’s strike (offer other classes like rogues and paladins ways to double dip their features in a single round), and disarming attack (as disarming a creature is otherwise kind of difficult, and potentially debilitating). Each of these can shift the tide of an encounter, but I still struggle to pick any of them up. One use per short rest can just feel so infrequent, even at tables with ample short rests. 

Where the maneuver dice tend to shine is at tables with ample short rests and on characters with three or more dice. Battlemasters currently are the only option in the game to get these dice; they tend to be good on them as they can “nova” fight after fight, using maneuvers most turns. It can make a lot of the spell-like maneuvers feel great, as at that point they feel more expendable than even 1st level slots. With just one maneuver die, I really struggle to justify taking this over Polearm Master, Sentinel, Great Weapon Master, or Sharpshooter. As a 1st level feat on a variant human, it’ll feel pretty solid. Past that, unless you’re expanding your Battlemaster tools, I think you’re better off with an Ability Score Improvement or a more consistently usable martial feat. 

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