Veteran’s Edge — A martial feature to encourage improv over attack spam

5e’s martials were allegedly designed to appeal to old-school D&D fans who wanted straightforward “attack machines” rather than 4e’s more “power oriented” martials. Having played some OSR, however, I found the experience way off.

Sure, an OSR martial is simple. But because hit chances and damage are less reliable in old games and their revived versions, martials can comfortably decide to pull unexpected moves that might inflict more damage than the average sword swing. 5e martials typically build around achieving high sustainable DPR, so trying something creative means losing out on a lot of damage.

With that in mind, I’ve made the following homebrew feature to try in my next campaign to allow martial characters to both attack and get creative. What do you think?

Veteran’s Edge

4th-level Barbarian or Fighter feature

You’ve learned to surprise your foes with resourceful tactics.

As a bonus action, you can take the Use an Object action or attempt an improvised action of your choice. An improvised action represents a creative attempt to influence the battle using your surroundings. The DM has final say over what an improvised action entails.

You can’t use this feature to take the Attack, Dash, Dodge, Disengage, Help, Hide, Ready, or Cast a Spell actions, and you can’t use it to replicate a class feature.

Once you use the same object with this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Likewise, once you attempt a specific improvised action with this feature, you can’t attempt the same action again until you finish a short or long rest.

Improvised Actions. When you take an improvised action with this feature, you might:

• Kick over a brazier to scatter hot coals and create difficult terrain.
• Cut down a hanging rope to drop a chandelier on nearby enemies.
• Slam a door shut and brace it with your body.
• Throw sand or ale into a foe’s eyes to blind them temporarily.
• Shove over a water barrel to douse flames or wash away caltrops.
• Swing from a tapestry or rope to reposition yourself across the battlefield.

The effects of an improvised action are determined by the DM, and may call for an ability check, saving throw, or attack roll.