Advanced Combat Maneuvers

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Advanced Combat Maneuvers

Using concepts and ideas from the Lingering Injury table and free clip art from the

web: Dungeon & Dragons and the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide

are owned and Copyrighted by Hasbro and Wizards of the Cost. This document is

being published under the Dungeon Masters Guild : By David Vershaw II



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Index:

Introduction…………………………………………P age: 2

Tier I and Tier 11 Maneuvers..………………… Pages: 3to6

Rules Clarifications and Optional Rules……… Pages: 7to10



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Introduction:

The Advanced Combat Maneuvers rules provides two extra Tiers of Maneuvers

that can be added to the game. This allows for there to be a progression of maneu-vers beyond just the maneuver die increasing. Some of the concepts and ideas

mentioned in the rules are referenced briefly below.

The advanced maneuvers presented below are used with the Battle Master Archi-

type/Subclass found in the Players Handbook page 73. The idea behind Maneu-

vers is discussed along with how to determine the maneuver save difficulty which

is the number that the target would need to make the save; this is on page 73 also.

The idea of the Maneuver Die and Maneuvers in general are discussed in the

Players Handbook on page 73-74. The Martial Adept Feat is discussed on page168 of the Players Handbook. Feats in general are discussed on page 165 of the

Players Handbook. Feats are an optional rule that the players and Dungeon Master

would need to decide to use. The assumption for the Advanced Maneuvers rules is

that Feats are being used. The maneuvers can be used without feats however.

Another rule found in the Players Handbook is Advantage and Disadvantage.

When you have Advantage you roll d20 twice and take the highest roll. When you

have Disadvantage you roll d20 twice and take the lowest roll. This rule can be

found in several places in the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide.

Yet another Concept that is mentioned is Critical Hits which can be found on page

196 of the Players Handbook.

The Lingering Injuries Table which was a concept that was used in developing

the maneuvers can be found in the Dungeon Masters Guide page 272.



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Advanced Combat Maneuvers Tier I and Tier I I :

There are two tiers to the Advanced Maneuvers Rule Tier I and Tier II.

The first tier of maneuvers can be taken at 7th level. This can be for the Battle Master at

7th level or someone who has taken the Martial Adept Feat at 7 th level or higher.

The next tier of maneuvers (tier II) can be gained at 10th level by the Battle Master or

someone who has taken the Martial Adept Feat at 10th level or higher. The Maneuvers

for these two tiers are described below.

Tier 1 Maneuvers:

Internal Injury. Whenever you attempt an action in combat, you must make a

constitution save versus the maneuver save DC. On a failed save, you lose your

action and cannot take reactions unti l the start of your next tur n. The in jury



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heals if you receive magical healing or you spend 10 days doing nothing but r est-

ing. Add the maneuver die to damage on a hi t r egardless if the save is made and

it is expended.

Festering Wound. Your hi t point total maximum is reduced by 1 every 24hour s the wound persist. I f your hi t point maximum drops to 0 you die. The

wound heals if you receive magical heali ng. Alternati vely someone can tend to

the wound and make a wisdom roll (medical check) with a DC equal to the ma-

neuver save DC. I f mul tiple wounds occur the effects stack. So if there are 3

wounds then the hit point total i s reduced by 3 every 24 hour s. Each wound

would need to be treated separately. Add the maneuver die to damage on hit and

it is expended.

* An option for the fester ing wound is have the fester ing wound also do 1 point ofvital ity/consti tuti on damage every 24 hours li ke hit points. So if there was a fes-

ter ing wound the hi t point total and vitali ty pool/constitu tion score would be re-

duced by 1 every 24 hours.

* Vitality Variant in Unearthed Arcana article. A summary is as follows. Charac-

ters have a vitality pool which is the characters constitution score. This is in addi-

tion to their hit points. When vitality pool reaches 0 if the hit point total is not zero

it is reduced to zero. The character would begin to make death saves once the vi-

tality pool/constitution is zero. If the hit point total is reduced to 0 then damage is

subtracted from the vitality pool/constitution until it reaches 0; then the character

would make death saves.

For every 10 points of damage done 1 point of vitality/constitution damage is done.

On a critical hit 2 points of vitality/constitution damage is done for every 10 points

of damage. Adjust the hit point total accordingly based on the vitality

pool/constitution score being reduced.



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Tier I I Maneuvers:

Lose an Eye. You must make a consti tut ion save versus the maneuver DC on

fai led save you l ose the eye. You have disadvantage on wisdom (perception)

checks that rely on sight and on ranged attack roll s. Magic such as the regener-

ation spell can restore the lost eye. I f you have no eyes lef t af ter sustaining the

in jury you are bli nded. Add the maneuver die to damage on a hit regardless if

the save is made and i t i s expended.

Lose an Arm or Hand. You must make a constitution save versus the maneu-

ver DC or lose the arm or hand.

You can no longer hold anything with two

hands, and can onl y hold a single object at a time. Magic such as the regenera-

tion spel l can restore the lost appendage. I f both arms or hands are removed you

are not able to make melee attacks, ranged attacks, or cast spel ls that requi re



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semantics. Any attack against you has advantage. I f both arms or hands are

gone and a leg or foot is also removed, you are prone and helpless. Add the ma-

neuver die to damage on h it regardless if the save is made and it is expended.

Lose a Foot or Leg.You must make a constitution save versus the maneuver

DC on fail ed save you lose the leg or foot. Your speed is halved, and you must

use a cane or crutch to move unless you have a peg leg or other prosthesis. You

fall prone after using the dash action. You have disadvantage on dexteri ty

checks made to balance. Magic such as the regeneration spell can restore the

lost appendage. I f both legs or feet are missing you are prone, and your move-

ment is severely limi ted, and up to the DM. Melee attacks against you have ad-

vantage based on being prone and severely l imited movement. I f both legs or feet

are gone any attack you make is at disadvantage related to the severely limi ted

movement. I f both legs or feet are gone and an arm or hand is also removed, you

are prone and helpless. Add the maneuver die to damage on hit regardless if the

save is made and it is expended.

Optional Maneuver Decapitation Tier I I Maneuver :

Decapitation. You must make a constitution save versus the maneuver DC

on fail ed save the target is decapitated. The maneuver die is expended. I f the tar -

get onl y has one head it is dead. I f the target has multi ple heads and one of theheads is decapitated roll the damage and include the maneuver die. The target

also makes all attacks at disadvantage due to pain and equi li brium problems.

Once the target does not have any heads it is dead. I f the maneuver is done by

ranged weapons consider the head destroyed rather than decapitated. I f the save

is made add the maneuver die to damage and it is expended. I f the target does

not have a head or i t is not disenable by the attacker the maneuver cannot be

used.



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Rules Clari f ications and Optional Rules:

Rules clarification examines some issues that can come up when they damage type

may not fit the description of the maneuver, or the creatures have multiple limbs, or no

limbs. These are some ideas on how to address this. The optional rules section looks at

Critical Hits and the Martial Adept Feat.

Rules Clar if ications:

Size or damage type does not match appendage being removed.

If the damage type does not match the limb being removed (crush or bludgeon damage

ect) simply say a vital spot on the limb was damaged so it is not able to function.



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Also if the size does not match with the limb being removed as above simply say that

the limb was damaged and not functional. An example might be a small creature such

as Halfling damages the arm of a giant.

Multiple L imbs:

If creatures have more than two arms/hands and legs/feet the DM will need to decide

when creature is prone. If it had four legs it may be prone when three of the four

legs/feet are removed. For more than two arms/hands all would need to be

gone/removed for the creature not to be able to make melee attacks, ranged attacks, or

cast spells with semantics. Also attacks against the creature would not have advantage

unless all the arms/hands were gone/removed. The creature has to have at least two

arms/hands to use two handed weapons. The DM would also have to make the deter-

mination when creature is helpless related to limb removal when they have more thantwo arms/hands and legs/feet.

No Limbs:

Finally the creature has to have those limbs for the maneuver to be used. If creature

does not have arms/hands or legs/feet those maneuvers cannot be used.

Thoughts on the Decapitation M aneuver :

I would use this Decapitation Maneuver with caution. It is a maneuver that could be over

used and a character could die on bad save roll. A major seen for the DM could also be

ruined by a bad save.

Some things to help balance this are luck points to reroll failed saves. Let the characters

and Major NPC use inspiration to counter the effect of the maneuver and just apply the

damage.

Also conditions could be placed on when the maneuver is used such as the target has

to be at half of its maximum hit points before the Decapitation Maneuver could be useddue to the targets defenses being reduced.

This maneuver was included for completeness, but I would have to think long and hard

about using it and make sure the players agree.



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Optional Rules:

Criti cal H its (196 of the Players Handbook)

There are two options when a critical hit is scored. Option one is using critical hits with-

out the lingering wounds table. Option two presents options when using the lingering

wounds table.

Option One. The lingering wounds table is not being used.

If a critical hit is scored roll the critical damage including maneuver dice as normal then

procedure with the maneuver as normal.

Option Two. The lingering wounds table is being used.



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If you are also using the lingering injury table you can give the player the choice of hav-

ing the critical hit occur where the maneuver was going to be done. Proceed with the

lingering injury table description not the maneuver description. So if you were doing a

maneuver to remove the arm/hand and a critical hit was rolled use the critical hit de-

scription on the lingering injury table for removing the arm/hand. However, the maneu-

ver die is not expended and not counted toward critical damage. Roll critical damage as

normal minus the maneuver die and follow the description for lose arm/hand.

Or the player can have the maneuver die expended as above and roll critical damage

with the maneuver die included. Doing this uses the description of the maneuver not the

lingering injuries table which may result in a save opportunity that the lingering injuries

table does not give, but the maneuver die is counted in the critical damage.

Optional rule for Martial Adept Feat (168 of the Players Handbook):

The Martial Adept Feat can be taken multiple times. You gain the benefits of the feateach time it is taken as described in the feat. There is no restriction to how many times

the feat can be taken. This will provide more maneuver options for other classes and

subclasses as well as Battle Masters.

Advanced Combat Maneuvers

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