Melee characters are boring because DnD is notoriously neutering them.
That comes from some strange philosophy that any action that is not covered by the "base" rules is a "spell".
Thats why people, in 4E said that a Warlord encouraging an ally and giving him temporary hitpoints equals "shouting the wounds closed".
This strange and nonsensical idea that the game mechanics are equivalent to the in universe physics are one of the reasons that martial characters in DnD just cannot do anyhting apart from hitting opponents in the face.
In video games where grappling so far hasnt been implemented a single time AFAIK, this is doubly annoying as the other thing martials are good at and can do in combat just gets removed.
