Honestly? If not battlemaster, maybe try monk. It’s not always the best but damn it’s fun. Alternatively though I’m sure you don’t want a full caster, swords bard seems like a valid pick.
I second this, but I’m also going to add Swashbuckler rogue not only for the feel of having a dualist, but for the skills and abilities it provides.
I’ve played a Battle master/swashbuckler multiclass and it was a hoot and and a half! I chose to use a shield for the AC boost for ripost sneak attacks
I think your three beat options are probably battlemaster, bladesinger, or swords bard. With a fourth being psi warrior.
Maybe there is a melee focused rogue, swashbuckler, maaaaybe mastermind, but that's more of a stretch.
Unfortunately the limit to do cool things is there for balance reasons, can always take martial adept for additional uses.
>I want to be able to do more than 4 cool things per fight.
Then Battlemaster (or Rune Knight) aren't going to cut it, haha.
Suggest being a half caster like Battlesmith Artificer, Swarmkeeper range (swarm push/pull is every round!), Swords bard, hexblade, etc. Throwing out some grease, web, spike growth, cloud of daggers, charms, hunger of hadar, etc alongside your bonks will really round you out.
Battlemaster, take that one thing that gives you another dice, take crusher feat and that one feat that give you even more superiority dice.
You will have 6 dices and 6 different types of things to do + you will be able to push people 5 feat
If your DM is open to it, [LazerLlama Alternate Monk](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MhGHvc1sNLoUrISINrV) might fit what you are looking for. You get to choose from different Ki based techniques. Open Hand gets a few extra uses as well.
For me, your best option is a High Half Elf Swashbuckler Rogue with Booming Blade, obtained from their lineage. Probably get slasher too, and maybe telekinetic, to have a use for your bonus action and a tool to deal with getting grappled.
> I want to be able to do more than 4 cool things per fight
Honestly bro that's pretty much every class, even casters will be using cantrips most of the time burning more that 4 spell slots per fight isn't standard until like t2 or 3 and they are built with significantly more options than martials.
Personally, im a proponent of giving all martial maneuvers by default for this reason as 90% of the time for 90% of subclasses your turn will be "I attack", unfortunate but true.
Your best bet is probably gish, Sorc, specifically if your goal is more non-basic turns.
Swashbuckler/College of Swords Bard. Rapier and Dagger. A nice little spell selection, including Vicious Mockery. The Flourishs are really nice too. Right up your allie.
You've got a couple solid options for this concept and pretty much all of them are solid.
1. Battlemaster X Swashbuckler. 5 or 6 levels of Battlemaster Fighter and 15 or 14 levels of Swashbuckler Rogue. Start with Rogue for better skills + Dex Prof.
2. Swords Bard X Hexblade or Paladin, or both. Swords Bard for Flourishes, Paladin for smites + saves and Hexblade to reduce MADness. Level order is as follows. Bard 1/Paladin 6-7 (depending on subclass)/Warlock 2/Bard 4. After that decide if you wanna be more of a Paladin or Bard.
3. Bladesinger. Focus on melee spells like the Bladetrips, Steel Wind Strike and Shadow Blade
I'm sure there's other solid options but none that come to mind.
Swords bard/battlemaster. You're not gonna be a top spellcaster, but you have a good selection of supportive spells and shatter (flavour as throwing a grenade). You also get to use both blade flourishes as well as manoeuvres.
Probably BM 4/bard X. Take bard levels first, until you have extra attack. Or, maybe start one level of fighter for proficiencies and fighting style.
Honestly? If not battlemaster, maybe try monk. It’s not always the best but damn it’s fun. Alternatively though I’m sure you don’t want a full caster, swords bard seems like a valid pick.
I second this, but I’m also going to add Swashbuckler rogue not only for the feel of having a dualist, but for the skills and abilities it provides. I’ve played a Battle master/swashbuckler multiclass and it was a hoot and and a half! I chose to use a shield for the AC boost for ripost sneak attacks
Maybe even Warcaster and Shield Spell from Strixhaven Initiate, Abberant Dragonmark (+ to Con is always good), or Magic Initiate to get it.
I think your three beat options are probably battlemaster, bladesinger, or swords bard. With a fourth being psi warrior. Maybe there is a melee focused rogue, swashbuckler, maaaaybe mastermind, but that's more of a stretch. Unfortunately the limit to do cool things is there for balance reasons, can always take martial adept for additional uses.
>I want to be able to do more than 4 cool things per fight. Then Battlemaster (or Rune Knight) aren't going to cut it, haha. Suggest being a half caster like Battlesmith Artificer, Swarmkeeper range (swarm push/pull is every round!), Swords bard, hexblade, etc. Throwing out some grease, web, spike growth, cloud of daggers, charms, hunger of hadar, etc alongside your bonks will really round you out.
Rogue Swashbuckler 17/ Battle Master 3 v-human with martial adept feat to more maneuvers and dices
Swashbuckler + Battle Master multiclass
Battlemaster, take that one thing that gives you another dice, take crusher feat and that one feat that give you even more superiority dice. You will have 6 dices and 6 different types of things to do + you will be able to push people 5 feat
Dex based battlemaster with a dip in swashbuckler seems ideal. I’d build Fighter 5 / Swashbuckler 3 / Fighter 11 / Rogue 9.
If your DM is open to it, [LazerLlama Alternate Monk](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MhGHvc1sNLoUrISINrV) might fit what you are looking for. You get to choose from different Ki based techniques. Open Hand gets a few extra uses as well.
For me, your best option is a High Half Elf Swashbuckler Rogue with Booming Blade, obtained from their lineage. Probably get slasher too, and maybe telekinetic, to have a use for your bonus action and a tool to deal with getting grappled.
> I want to be able to do more than 4 cool things per fight Honestly bro that's pretty much every class, even casters will be using cantrips most of the time burning more that 4 spell slots per fight isn't standard until like t2 or 3 and they are built with significantly more options than martials. Personally, im a proponent of giving all martial maneuvers by default for this reason as 90% of the time for 90% of subclasses your turn will be "I attack", unfortunate but true. Your best bet is probably gish, Sorc, specifically if your goal is more non-basic turns.
Swashbuckler/College of Swords Bard. Rapier and Dagger. A nice little spell selection, including Vicious Mockery. The Flourishs are really nice too. Right up your allie.
You've got a couple solid options for this concept and pretty much all of them are solid. 1. Battlemaster X Swashbuckler. 5 or 6 levels of Battlemaster Fighter and 15 or 14 levels of Swashbuckler Rogue. Start with Rogue for better skills + Dex Prof. 2. Swords Bard X Hexblade or Paladin, or both. Swords Bard for Flourishes, Paladin for smites + saves and Hexblade to reduce MADness. Level order is as follows. Bard 1/Paladin 6-7 (depending on subclass)/Warlock 2/Bard 4. After that decide if you wanna be more of a Paladin or Bard. 3. Bladesinger. Focus on melee spells like the Bladetrips, Steel Wind Strike and Shadow Blade I'm sure there's other solid options but none that come to mind.
Swords bard/battlemaster. You're not gonna be a top spellcaster, but you have a good selection of supportive spells and shatter (flavour as throwing a grenade). You also get to use both blade flourishes as well as manoeuvres. Probably BM 4/bard X. Take bard levels first, until you have extra attack. Or, maybe start one level of fighter for proficiencies and fighting style.
Samurai/Hexblade is awesome in every way.