I like the new actions, but I think some of them need to be rebalanced. I don't mind that some of them are bonus actions -- there's what, two or three of them that are?

5e gave martials a raw deal by removing much of their ability to influence the battlefield in comparison to 3.5 (and relegating them to a Fighter subclass if you still wanted to be a capable warrior), making them less dynamic and less effective at what they do. 5e also made weapons more similar for the sake of simplicity, which while understandable also had the consequence of weapon types losing some personality.

These new weapon abilities aren't perfect, but they do a decent job at returning battlefield agency to martial characters and giving weapon types a bit of definition and profile -- weapon choice now matters beyond the damage die. They also improve collaboration between characters: without them there's no reason to ever have Gale that quarterstaff he's lugging around because of the neglible chance of hitting (of course I do anyway because Gandalf is at his coolest when he's punting fools in the head), but with the trip move there's at least a reason to consider trading the chance of missing for advantage to attacks against the prone enemy with your other characters. Meanwhile, the short rest limit means that using these abilities won't become the standard procedure and that you'll still be saving them for when the best opportunity shows itself rather than using them instead of basic attacks at every turn.

So yeah, some of the abilities need rebalancing. Some of them need reworking. But the general idea is good and they should keep the concept in the game.


Optimistically Apocalyptic