Overview

Martial Power 2 is the latest addition to the power source-based class supplements for Dungeons & Dragons. As in all the power source supplements, each of the featured classes—fighter, ranger, rogue and warlord—get a chapter to themselves before the book presents feats and epic destinies designed to work with all the new class options. It also contains new tiered feats that encourage weapon specialization, as well as martial practices, new ritual-like powers reserved exclusively for the martial classes.

As heavy as it is on new powers and class options, the book devotes very little space to setting or background. There is some here, but it's mostly int he form of short sidebars and paragon path descriptions. The hooks are enough to hang decent character histories on, certainly, but they offer little for story-hungry Dungeon Masters. Martial Power 2 is definitely a player-facing book, but DMs looking for new powers to bestow on their elite and solo monsters may still find it useful—they just shouldn't expect much in the way of world-building.

I originally doubted the need for a second supplement like this. “Sure,” I thought, “Wizards is going to present solid rules variations, but will they add anything to my game beyond extra complexity?” Now that I’ve had a chance to sit down with the book, it has put most of my fears to rest. It certainly isn’t for everyone—if you’re happy with the options in the Player’s Handbook or first Martial Power, keep on keeping on. But if you want more variety in your martial character’s arsenal, chances are MP2 has what you’re looking for.




The Fighter

In many ways I found the fighter section the most uninspired bit of Martial Power 2. Everything works out mechanically, and I love the visuals provided by the brawling fighter build, but I can’t help but feel not enough was done to move the fighter out of his usual roles. Most fighter builds rely upon weapon choice as the distinction between them and the options presented here continue this trend. The combat style feats (I talk about those below) contribute to this as well, but the book does break away from it a bit with the brawling fighter build.

The brawling fighter can make use of a wide selection of weapons and their related powers, so long as he keeps one hand free. Stylistically, this free hand is used to grab and shove opponents, keeping them off balance and creating an opening in their defenses. Mechanically, it gives the fighter access to exploits that grab enemies and move them or knock them prone. This gives the fighter, already a master of controlling the squares adjacent to him, an even greater range of battlefield control.

Though I'm a big fan of the idea of a martial controller, utilizing the grab mechanic to pull it off narrows the fighter's focus a bit too much. This build keeps a fighter tied to a single opponent more than the previous ones, as its more powerful exploits require a target to already be grabbed. Though the chained attacks almost all result in a devastating lack of mobility for the target, they can also make it harder for a fighter to break away to aid his allies elsewhere on the battlefield.




The Ranger

The two new builds for the ranger, the hunter and marauder, both work to bridge the gap between the ranged and melee powers available to this class. Previous builds focused on either melee or ranged, but I thought they did little to bring the two approaches together into a whole package. A ranger could always move between the two combat modes, but by the time she arranged the battlefield for the transfer from one to the other and swapped out her weapons, it was hardly an instantaneous transition. Each of these builds circumvent that speed bump in their own way.

The hunter ranger slightly favors range over melee, but allows the character to use ranged attacks in close quarters and swap weapons without the penalties suffered by other characters. The build also features an at-will exploit that allows a character to use a ranged weapon as an opportunity attack and shift afterwords. In contrast, the marauder ranger is built primarily for melee combat, but with thrown weapons that can be hurled at foes. There are a number of marauder exploits that make use of a thrown weapon attack followed up by a charge, allowing the dual attacks the ranger is known for while also serving to get her into the thick of melee.

Just as with the fighter, the roleplaying opportunities for characters using these builds is great, but I think these go much further towards making the class more mechanically interesting to play. Rangers using these builds are freer to move through combat, rather then skirting the edges.




The Rogue

The new build for the rogue, the shadowy rogue, is nothing unexpected from the class, but looking back I’m surprised it wasn’t in the first Martial Power. A new class feature designed for the build allows a rogue to sneak in combat much more effectively, even after revealing himself with an attack. When coupled with another feature that improves his proficiency with crossbows and slings, this allows a rogue to move out of the harrier role, constantly darting behind engaged enemies to score a backstab, and into a sniper role.

This build brings up an interesting trend I’ve noticed in the supplemental material: that new powers or abilities may supplant older ones in specific areas, but they aren’t better all around. For example: the Cunning Sneak Rogue Tactic mentioned above provides a substantially greater benefit to a rogue looking to hide in combat than the Player’s Handbook utility power Fleeting Ghost, but the utility power is still useful for rogue players that want to be able to hide without penalties without building their whole character around it. The folks at Wizards can usually be counted on for solid play balance of new options, but I’m especially impressed with the way they’ve managed to account for the inevitable power creep here and steer it towards providing options rather than replacements.



The Warlord

As happy as I was with the rogue section, the new warlord options elicited a forceful “Amen!” upon my reading them. After both running and playing in a game with a warlord character, I have formed the opinion that the warlord’s mechanics don’t live up to its excellent premise. As presented in the core, a warlord is most effective when the party stays in a tight knot around her, and her offensive powers do little against groups, favoring single opponents. These lackluster mechanics left her overshadowed by other support classes, like the artificer. The warlord was too much a compromise between combat ability and leaderly support, I felt, making her a master of neither.

The two new builds, the insightful warlord and skirmishing warlord, both seek to beef up the class in different ways. The insightful build offers a selection of powers that are more in line with those offered by later, more focused leader classes. Its favored exploits forego the the mobility buffs found in other warlord builds, instead focusing on bonuses to attacks and defense. These strike me as objectively better for a leader in all but a few specific situations. After all, speed increases and free move actions are useful in difficult terrain, but bonuses to hit are never not helpful.

The skirmishing build, on the other hand, allows the warlord to focus on ranged attacks and directing her allies from the rear. The bonuses provided by skirmishing exploits still largely focus on battlefield positioning, but their increased range allows them to be used on many more enemies than previous ones.


Martial Options


In addition to the usual library of feats, paragon paths and epic destinies, Martial Power 2 also offers martial characters exclusive access to two new options: combat style feats and martial practices.

The combat styles are an interesting blend of background color and niche feats, offering martial characters the opportunity to expand the circumstances under which they use certain powers. Divided up by weapon type, each combat style is only available to certain martial classes. Characters learn a style by taking its lesser style feat, a general feat available to all classes that qualify for the style. Lesser style feats grant small skill bonuses, and change the way a single at-will attack power works. Characters wishing to further explore with a style can then take the class-specific greater style feat, which allows the use of certain encounter attack powers during a charge, opportunity attack or other situation.

While not particularly robust, the combat styles offer an interesting characteristic to martial characters, allowing them increased opportunities to use their more powerful attacks. This helps put martial characters on a more even footing, both stylistically and mechanically, with the flashier magic-wielding classes. A fighter utilizing a combat style still won’t be able to wipe out a horde of minions with the same speed as a wizard, but he will be able to unleash his most devastating attacks with greater frequency.

The final section of the book, and perhaps my favorite, debuts martial practices. These work just like rituals or alchemical recipes, requiring a feat to access and money to learn, but they are only available to martial characters. As a result of this restriction, their scope is limited to purely physical activities; however, rather than suffering from the limitation, the martial practices succeed because of it. They cover a range of activities (distance running, forging mundane weapons and armor, repairing machinery) certain to come up in a D&D game and allow martial characters to surpass everyone else in their undertaking.

Rather than standing around dumbly while other characters use rituals, martial characters can now bring their talents to bear outside of combat by securing the party’s campsite or speeding up overland travel. This allows them to show off the extent of their skills and proves that although martial characters may not be magical, they are far from mundane.

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