SOURCE: Player’s Handbook

Rating the Benefits of Martial Adept

Benefit #1 – 

Learn two maneuvers from the Battle Master Fighter subclass.  

23 options, not entirely limited to combat prowess. There’s a lot of potential here, with options that almost every build can use. 

Benefit #2 – 

Gain one Superiority dice, which is used to use your maneuvers. Superiority dice come back on short and long rests, and the dice granted by this feat stack with any others the character already has.  

One dice isn’t a lot, but it does come back on a short rest, so you might see multiple uses of your ability per day. 

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How Martial Adept Functions

Choosing maneuvers

The Battle Master list of maneuvers contains 23 options. Most revolve around combat, augmenting attacks, or offering party benefits. A small list of maneuvers instead boosts skills. There’s a lot of variability, so here’s our breakdown, including what each maneuver does, and how that might be useful. 

Maneuver List

Ambush – Add your superiority dice to a Stealth check or Initiative roll

Surprisingly useful, especially for characters that want to drop big, powerful effects or a pile of damage in the first round of combat. Also has interesting out-of-combat implications, especially for sneaky characters like Rogues. 

Bait and Switch – Switch places with a friendly creature within 5ft, and then one of you gains the Superiority dice as a bonus to AC until your next turn. 

This requires the party to play along and needs everyone to stay together, so it’s incredibly niche, but hilarious fun when it works out. Better on the Battle Master subclass. 

 Brace – When a creature moves within weapon range, spend your reaction and a superiority dice to make an attack against that creature, adding the superiority dice as bonus damage. 

A budget polearm master, but available for every weapon style. Surprisingly effective on DPS builds, especially those with big effects like Sneak Attack or Smite. This is strong. 

Commander’s Strike – When attacking, lose an attack and your bonus action to let an ally attack as a reaction, instead. 

Mostly terrible, unless the party has a Rogue or Paladin positioned and ready to strike. Forgoing one attack roll to let the Rogue Sneak Attack again is incredibly powerful. 

Commanding Presence – When making a skill check for any of the Charisma skills (Persuasion, Intimidate, Deception) you can spend a superiority dice and add it to the roll. 

Decent out-of-combat utility, but not worth spending an entire feat on. Excellent on Bard/Fighter/Rogue multiclasses, or Battle Masters. 

Disarming Attack – After hitting with an attack, spend a superiority dice to gain it as bonus damage and force the target to make a Strength save or drop an item it’s holding. 

Too niche to be really useful. Many enemies won’t use weapons, and the ones that rely on them tend to be pretty good at Strength saves. 

Distracting Strike – After hitting a creature, spend a superiority dice to gain bonus damage, and the next person to attack that creature, other than you, gets advantage on their attack roll 

This is decent, especially for parties with heavy hitters in their ranks. The best part of the maneuver is absolutely that there’s no check involved. The next attack simply has advantage. Work with your team for maximum effect. 

Evasive Footwork – Spend a superiority dice to add the roll to AC, but only when you’re moving, and only on your turn. 

Why not just use the Disengage action? This maneuver is only useful in the scant few times a character needs to push through a group of enemies to get somewhere, and in that case, an average of +3.5 to AC isn’t going to save you. 

Feinting Attack – Spend a superiority dice and a bonus action to feint against a creature within 5ft. Your next attack against that creature has advantage and gains a damage bonus equal to your roll. 

Decent, especially for damage builds that pack Great Weapon Master or steroids like Smite, who need to make sure attacks hit. 

Goading Attack – After landing an attack, spend a superiority dice as a bonus to damage, and the target has to take a Wisdom save. Failing the save means it has disadvantage against any target that isn’t you until your next turn. 

This maneuver can utterly shut down low Wis attacker creatures; targets like Ogres have a -2 to their Wis save and rely almost entirely on hitting things to deal damage. Failing the save forces them to fight you, so make sure you’re ready to take the hits. 

Grappling Strike – After hitting with an attack, spend a superiority dice to make a grapple attempt as a bonus action, and add the dice to the Athletics check. 

Great on Battle Masters, but for anyone else just take the Tavern Brawler feat. It’s this, but better.  

Lunging Attack – When making an attack, spend a dice to increase your reach for that attack by 5ft. On a hit, add the dice result to the damage roll. 

This is decent on characters that have other effects on their attacks. A Rogue delivering Sneak Attack from 10 feet away is awesome. So is a Monk using Stunning Strike from that same distance. For standard, get in there and hit them types though, no, this isn’t good. 

Maneuvering Attack – After hitting with an attack, spend a dice, gaining a bonus to damage equal to the result, and allowing one ally who can see or hear you to spend their reaction and move half their speed, ignoring opportunity attacks. 

This is great. A damage boost, while also letting an ally either get into or out of trouble. This maneuver can and will save squishy party members from trouble, and also allows brawlers to push through the enemy front line without taking unnecessary hits. 

Menacing Attack – After hitting with an attack, gain a damage bonus equal to the roll and force the target to take a Wisdom save or be Frightened of you until your next turn. 

Incredible on ranged attackers, because Frightened doesn’t allow a target to get closer to the source of its fear. Still good on other builds, as Frightened forces disadvantage on almost everything a creature rolls. 

Parry – When a creature deals damage with a melee attack, spend a superiority dice to reduce the damage by the roll + your Dex modifier. 

The Parry maneuver is incredibly strong early, able to reduce attacks down to 0 damage until around level 3-4, but falls off hard very quickly. 

Precision Attack – Spend a superiority dice to add the result to an attack to hit roll, added before or after the roll is made. 

Do you need to guarantee that an attack goes off, making sure Smite lands, a Sentinel opportunity attack hits, or to offset the penalty for Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master, the Precision Attack maneuver is perfect. 

This is also a good general purpose maneuver, useful in almost any situation. 

Pushing Attack – After hitting with an attack, spend a superiority dice to deal bonus damage, and force a Strength save on targets that are Large or smaller, pushing the target back by up to 15ft. 

This isn’t good. Damage is nice, but the effect requires a save, has a size limit, and doesn’t prevent the target from wandering closer again on their turn. 

Quick Toss – Spend a superiority dice to take a bonus action, drawing and throwing a weapon with the thrown quality, dealing bonus damage on a hit. 

For throwing builds, this allows an extra, bonus attack, but isn’t worth spending a feat on. The real use for this is to spike a knife into an enemy’s throat if your party didn’t quite have the damage to kill it, and you’re otherwise out of range. It’s … fine. 

Rally – Spend a superiority dice and a bonus action to give an ally temporary HP, equal to your Charisma modifier and the dice roll. 

Cute for actual Fighters, but otherwise not worth the feat. Inspiring Leader does what this does better. Much better. 

Riposte – After an enemy misses you with a melee attack, spend a dice and a reaction to attack them back, dealing bonus damage if it hits. 

Out-of-sequence attacks are a reliable way for characters to increase their overall damage. Best on tanks, but still great on characters with high-damage single swings, this is a great use of Martial Adept. 

Sweeping Attack – After hitting a creature with an attack, spend a superiority dice to also deal damage to another enemy within 5ft of the first. The damage equals the dice roll. 

Absolute, hilarious garbage. First, it’s situational, as both enemies have to be right next to each other and within your reach. Then you spend your single dice to deal anywhere from 1-6 damage, with no other effects. This maneuver is so bad. 

Tactical Assessment – Add a superiority dice to a History, Insight, or Investigation check. 

Flexible out-of-combat skill boosts are a fun use of this feat. You’re better off taking Magic Initiate and grabbing Guidance, plus other spells, though. 

Trip Attack – After hitting with an attack, spend a superiority dice to deal bonus damage, and force a Strength save on targets that are Large or smaller, knocking the target prone on a fail. 

This maneuver is a trap. It’s actually worse than shoving an enemy prone in most cases because it targets a Strength save instead of an Athletics check. For Dex characters who want to trip enemies (especially at range, shoot arrows at your enemy’s feet!) this is pretty fun. 

Superiority dice

The Martial Adept feat gives a character a single Superiority Dice, which is a d6. While we approve of the fancy name, this is entirely just a pool of dice that a character can spend to take combat maneuvers. 

Individual maneuvers say how and when they can be used, but all cost a single superiority dice, which is rolled as part of the maneuver. 

All superiority dice refresh on both short and long rests. This is important because a character able to take one or two short rests per day can suddenly pull their combat maneuvers much more often. 

One other thing that’s nice to know is this: If you’re already a Battle Master, your class gives you 4 superiority dice at level 3. This one is added to that pool, and as you level and your standard dice scale up in size, so do the dice from this feat. This has been confirmed as an intentional design choice by Sage Advice. 

Key Stats

The Martial Adept feat doesn’t boost a character’s stats or offer an ASI in any way.  

Ideal Characters for Martial Adept

Top Classes

Battle Master Fighter – The Battle Master is the single best user of the Martial Adept feat, increasing number of superiority dice from 4 to 5, a 25% increase, and maneuvers known before level 7 from 3 to 4, another massive jump. 

The class learns more maneuvers as it levels, but the meat of most campaigns is played in the levels where this feat is most effective. Fighters also come with more feat slots than any other class, so can probably find a way to jam this into a build without compromising stat growth.   

Hexblade Warlock – A powerful melee class that wants to take multiple daily short rests to get class resources back. Yeah, the Hexblade can use this feat. 

A maneuver can add a touch of flexibility to a Hexblade’s combat prowess, allowing them to throw out extra attacks or a disabling condition as part of their full attack sequence. The only issue is save DCs, as the class is heavily Charisma-focused, and the saves are Strength or Dexterity based, so might be 1-2 points lower at most stages of the game. 

Monk – Another class that appreciates short rests to regain class resources (in this case, Ki points.) Monks are comfortable in short to mid-range skirmishes, and love stacking disabling effects onto targets for themselves and their party to take advantage of. 

With that in mind, options like Menacing and Trip Attack are incredible, allowing a Monk to continue to deal damage while locking enemies in place. 

Rogue – Several maneuvers in the list benefit Rogues, mainly focused on two things: skill usage, and getting more attacks. 

We’d lean towards more attacks. Rogues are already exceptional at the whole skills thing but tend to suffer if their one attack per round misses. Finding ways to attack out of sequence (for example, with the Riposte maneuver) allows a Rogue to potentially Sneak Attack more than once per round. That’s a huge boost to effective DPS. 

Multiclassing Considerations

Possibly the single best use of the Martial Adept feat is to pick up another maneuver plus superiority dice for Battle Master subclasses. 

The Battle Master’s maneuvers are level-locked, so a multiclass build might never gain more than its initial 4 choices. If there’s one more maneuver that the build wants, this feat is easier than picking up several more levels. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Bugbear – Increase your weapon attack reach by 5ft on your turn, a massive and entirely unique bonus for a weapon-wielding character. Plus a huge boost to damage if you’re going stealthy. 

Dragonborn – Weapon users tend to suffer against groups of smaller enemies. Substitute one attack for a blast of elemental energy, then mop up the stragglers with your maneuvers. 

Variant Human – VHuman gets you a feat at level 1, and Martial Adept at level 1 is when your fancy sword waggling is going to be most effective against big, scary targets. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Strike of the Giants – Another feat that offers the choice of multiple “maneuvers” that can be used several times per day. Strike of the Giants is a decent feat, especially if you can pick it up as part of your background. 

Crusher/Slasher/Piercer – Weapon feats add conditions and a little extra damage to a particular combat style. 

Spells that Synergize

Smite Spells – Make your attacks extra special by stacking a spell like Branding Smite on top of a maneuver, adding even more damage and effects to your attack rolls

Haste – More attacks, more movement speed, and more AC turns a character into a dervish. Just don’t lose concentration. 

Strategies for Maximizing Martial Adept Effectiveness

Know when to take it

The Martial Adept feat is incredibly niche, and generally only suitable in two specific circumstances:

• Battle Master Fighters who want an extra maneuver and superiority dice. 
• Rogues and Paladins are looking for an extra way to slam their huge pile of dice into an enemy’s face, usually by grabbing a reactionary attack trigger. 

Always have options

Nothing prevents a Battle Master from using their maneuvers at range. Any character with this feat (or the subclass) should never be left without a way to engage enemies at a distance. 

Even a handful of knives shoved into a belt can make the difference. If needs be, a character can freely drop the weapon in their hand, draw a dagger as a free action, and then throw it at a target to trigger their maneuvers, potentially disarming or frightening their foe. 

Maneuvers and unarmed strikes

The rule interactions around this feat and unarmed strikes might be confusing at first glance. 

In 5e, unarmed strikes are “weapon attacks,” but they are not “attacks with a weapon.” 

This means unarmed strikes qualify for almost all of the maneuvers on offer. The only one that doesn’t qualify, RAW, is Brace, because that asks a character to be specifically wielding a weapon. However, most permissive GMs should have no problems with allowing a character to take a swing at their enemies. 

Is it better than a Battle Master multiclass?

One of the single biggest considerations for many characters looking to grab combat maneuvers is this: 

Why am I not taking a handful of levels in Fighter instead?

3 levels in Fighter is a strong multiclass option for many martially inclined builds. Once your core class build is in place (generally hitting level 5 for Extra Attack) then picking up 3 levels of Battle Master can add a serious power spike. You gain:

• Proficiencies in every weapon and armor except Heavy
• A short rest, bonus action heal
• Action Surge, one of the most powerful single abilities in 5e
• 3 combat maneuvers, with 4 superiority dice to fuel them

That’s a heady package for just 3 levels, which slots cleanly into any character that’s looking to spend most of their time swinging a weapon. Potentially, a character with these abilities can take the attack action twice in one turn, attacking 4 times, or more, with a combat maneuver glued on to every single attack, plus whatever it is their base class can do. 

Better still, every ability above is short-term renewable, so can be used multiple times per day. 

Final Thoughts on Martial Adept

Most characters won’t ever consider the Martial Adept feat, and that’s absolutely fine. It’s not for them. 

In fact, in most cases, we don’t recommend taking Martial Adept. There are many more essential feats out there for most builds, which will have a far greater impact on character power. 

But for those edge cases and builds that are looking for a specific fix, which is adding Battle Master maneuvers to a build one or more times per day, this feat delivers exactly what it says it does.