This post is more about what power level do you like in your games for martials and what do you do to make the feel the way taht feels good according to that.
In my case my biggest problem is how unidimensional they are, so advanced 5e has done the thing for me. I think that if we play at level 20 i would do some hombrew to push them even further but i like how many options they have.
I of the opinion that low level martials are cool but lacking in options and level 9+ martial characters are underpowered AF. That has to do tht as I subjectively understand dnd everything is made by magic, so the limit of physical feats should be as magic, like lifting tons or demolishing buildings with blows.
So, do you like martials in 5e or would you rather them to fulfill a different fantasy?
There’s an argument to be made for “simple martials, complex wizards” in the case of players who are new to D&D or tabletop games in general, where managing a spell sheet would be a little daunting with like 300+ spells available, but that argument expires the minute your new martial players are comfortable with the standard fighter/barb/monk/etc. and decides “Hey, I want to have more choices and do cool things with resources like spellcasters get to.”
At that point, I think it’s fair to offer players the choice to rebuild their characters with new frameworks, including the Advanced 5e martials. Laserllama’s homebrew classes also tend to be well-balanced while offering good options for play, and the martials are no exception, although ultimately, most homebrew options with a modicum of effort tend to fall within the power range the published options give, considering 4E monk and Twilight Cleric are both considered AP legal.
Hey, Im one of those players I guess. My second character was a warlock and it was such an improvement over my first one. I would like that we had the level of costumization that warlocks offer or at least cool options. Battle master is ok in that sense, it gives you some cool maneuvers, but the there isn’t a scaling like warlock’s invocations.
Eventually I will work on my own progression for martial characters, to make them more flexible on early levels and more powerful at higer levels.
As much as I like A5e, they just solved one of those problems, so I would like to buff martials on levels 15 to 20. But I have some concerns about how should I implement that, not everyone likes the “air cut” patch or ground tremor.
I highly recommend checking out the Laserllama martial reworks, they all offer a choice of exploits that do all of those things.