D&D: The Five Best Battle Master Maneuvers In 5E
Battle Masters have a huge bag of tricks to pull from. But when the chips are down, these are the five best battle master maneuvers in 5E.
Playing a Fighter in D&D is usually your best bet for a streamlined experience. After all, typically all you have to do is swing sword at enemy. That’s it. Although depending on your archetype you might be doing a little more. Or in the case of a Battle Master, you’ll be doing a lot more. Battle Masters have access to twenty three different Martial Maneuvers. These are special attacks that use a superiority die, most often a d8.
With so many extra attacks to pick from, which are the best? These are. These are the five best battle master maneuvers in 5E.
Riposte
This is probably the single most fun battle master maneuver. It can be a little tricky, because it relies on a creature missing you with a melee attack. But you’re a fighter. You should be making that happen. When they do, you can use a reaction to attack them on their turn, adding your superiority die to the damage roll of that attack.
Menacing Attack
This is a more reliable maneuver–whenever you hit you get to spend a superiority die and deal extra damage, and if your target fails a Wisdom saving throw, they’re frightened of you until the end of your next turn, making them more likely to miss, among other things.
Trip Attack
Is your target immune to fear? Or do you want to give the whole party a boost while also attacking your target? Trip Attack is another favorite. You not only do extra damage, you also knock them down if the target fails a strength save. This serves them up on a silver platter for your allies.
Even better, Trip Attack works off of a weapon attack, not a melee weapon attack. So you can knock people down with your crossbow, longbow, or other ranged weapon.
Precision Attack
This is one of the D&D Battle Master maneuvers that are less flashy, but very handy in a pinch. Precision Attack lets you roll your superiority die to increase your attack. It can turn a miss into a hit and that can be the difference between life and death. Yeah, you don’t do any extra damage from the die. But you do hit when you wouldn’t have otherwise, and that is a satisfying feeling.
Quick Toss
Don’t have anything to do with a bonus action? Keep a thrown weapon around and you do. You don’t even have to have the weapon in hand, you can just draw and throw and add a superiority die to your attack. If you are playing a Crossbow expert or Polearm master or other fighter that uses a bonus action, consider Rally instead.
What are your picks for best D&D Battle Master Maneuvers?
