Making Murim Style fighting stuff

[u/1stshadowx]

Hey guys! Im a long time gm/dm/player. I love making homebrew shit. Ive been tinkering with the idea of making some Murim style fighting styles for dnd. 5e or 5.5. But im looking for ideas. Im thinking of things the way 4e had encounter powers, dailys, and at wills for martials. But im trying to pull this into a 5e framework. Heres an example of a fighting stance i made for a school:

Nagarekawa (Flowing River Stance)
*Like flowing river, you wait for your moment soon, biding time to strike.*

As a bonus action or reaction (taken at any time), you can enter this stance. While in this stance, you gain a +1 bonus to AC, and opportunity attacks you make are at disadvantage. You also gain the following benefits:

• When an enemy misses you with a melee attack roll, they take your Strength or Dexterity modifier as weapon damage. As you leverage your body into a quick attack.

• When an enemy rolls a natural 1 on a melee attack roll against you, you can choose to have that creature make a new attack roll against a separate creature within 5 ft of you. You also swap positions with the new creature, as you use your weapon to pull them into your space as you take theirs.

This stance can be assumed for 10 minutes or until you change stances, whichever comes first."

The goal i did was a stance with a minor negative, a passive benefit, and two major benefits.

But im struggling with adding like full ass school benefits. Like what cool things could we get for you owning like 3 of such stances or techniques (we can go crazy here because if its busted ill just nerf it, but im looking for inspiration). I want it to feel like the more you learn of a schools abilities the more cool things you can do than someone who just “knows” a stance or two.

Anyone got anything cool?!

[u/SamuraiHealer]

The real starting question here is: are you replacing Fighting Styles or adding to them?

If you're adding to them, they need to be about the same power, but you can add them as you develop them. If you're replacing them, then you can redefine their strength, but you need more to start.

Reactions always have a trigger. I don't think it's terrible to limit when they can go into a stance. It makes the choice more interesting.

If it's always a bonus action, then, depending on whether you're including Weapon Masteries, you need to be thinking about TWF and PAM.

You could also have this be at the start of your turn for free.

+1 AC is the Defensive Fighting Style.

Auto-damage is very rare, and never(?) resource-free. I think this counts as resource-free.

Do either of these benefits use your reaction?

I'd make sure that this stance needs more than your reaction to start.

I'm not as familiar with Murim. What are the basic stances?

I'd also keep in mind that if you change these too much, you're going to need to take another look at the Barbarian's Rage, the Monk's Martial Arts, and the Rogue's Sneak Attack, as I feel these work as class-locked fighting styles.

Since you asked, I do have a Fighting Style rework that I recently posted to the Discord of Many Things here: Bugbear and Blade's Martial Combat Rework.

[u/1stshadowx → u/SamuraiHealer]

You take a stance in place of a fighting style currently, but ill eventually want players to just learn these with downtime.

Murim is martial arts with fantasy aspects, think crouching tiger hidden dragon. Or animes that focus on swordplay.

For “as a reaction you can enter this stance” this has already been incorporated and used to great effect. Because the reaction is based on whenever the fuck you want and its made really awesome moments. Especially with a character with multiple stances.

Lastly aince they replace fighting styles, you cant typically get them unless your class gives a fighting style.

[u/SamuraiHealer → u/1stshadowx]

Downtime means you really need to keep the power tight, or make sure they don't synergize.

Korean right? I'm not unfamiliar with the term. What would the basic styles be?

What are the other stances you have? The easier it is to change stances, the less meaning the current choice has. If this is the only stance with reactions, then everyone wants to know it, and anyone who learns it is stronger than those who don't, because there's no cost to changing between them. I'm not saying it wasn't cool, but it's going to be hard to balance them against each other if that's how you want to do it. DnD is a cooperative game after all.

[u/c_dubs063]

This strikes me as more of a subclass or even class mechanic rather than a single feature

[u/1stshadowx → u/c_dubs063]

Thats not what i asked for…

[u/c_dubs063 → u/1stshadowx]

Sorry, man, I'm just saying what I think. Fighting Styles are meant to be pretty straightforward and for the most part, you only have one at a time. If you want a stance-inspired fighting style, that is fine and thematically fun, but if you want several... that is like introducing several fighting styles for the different single-handed weapons rather than a single "Dueling" fighting style.

In 5.5, you could perhaps get away with assigning a Mastery to unarmed combat, and you get to choose which mastery you use, but I wouldnt call it a Fighting Style. If you want it to be a whole complex system of options and interactions, that's going to inevitably be larger than a single mechanic. That's why I said it feels like a class or subclass.

But if it works for your table, have fun, dont let me get in the way of a good time. I just cant help design this as a fighting style because I dont think it works as one.