Better Fighting Styles
Fighting Style Options
Brawler
You are proficient with unarmed strikes and improvised weapons, and your unarmed strikes deal bludgeoning damage. When you hit with an unarmed strike, your strike's damage is a number of d4's equal to half your Strength modifier. If you strike with two free hands, the d4 becomes a d6. Your unarmed strikes are also treated as weapon attacks for the purposes of features that would normally apply to weapon attacks.
Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons or shields, if you attack a humanoid creature with the melee weapon, the target must make a Charisma check contested by your Charisma check. If it fails the check, you compel the target to focus its attention on you. Until the start of your next turn, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you, and it must repeat the contest each time it attempts to move to a space that is more than 30 feet away from you; if it succeeds on this check, this effect doesn’t restrict the target’s movement for that turn.
This effect ends if you attack any other creature, if you cast a spell that targets a hostile creature other than the target, if a creature friendly to you damages the target or casts a harmful spell on it, or if you end your turn more than 30 feet away from the target.
Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Sniper
You have advantage on attack rolls while making a ranged attack against a creature in the long range of a weapon.
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Phalanx
You can wield a two-handed weapon with a shield, but you must use an action to brace the weapon against the shield in order to attack with it. The weapon stays braced in this way as long as you move no more than 10 feet during your turn, during which time you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
Protection
When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield. Also, you gain an additional +1 to your armor class while holding a shield.
Who Gets What
Barbarian
If using the Better Barbarian class, the barbarian has access to the Brawler, Great Weapon Fighting, and Two-Weapon Fighting fighting styles. Otherwise, the barbarian doesn't get a fighting style.
Bard: College of Swords
A Bard following the College of Swords has access to the Dueling, Two-Weapon Fighting, Phalanx, and Protection fighting styles.
Fighter
The Fighter has access to all seven of the above fighting styles.
Paladin
The Paladin has access to the Great Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Fighting, Phalanx, and Protection fighting styles.
Ranger
The Ranger has access to the Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Sniper, and Two-Weapon Fighting fighting styles.
The Design
The default Fifth-Edition fighting styles have always annoyed me, because many of them rely on straight numerical increases, particularly Archery, Defense, and Dueling. In addition, the existing fighting styles often reference specific weapons, such as Archery, making the smooth integration of non-standard weapons, such as firearms, into most scenarios difficult. Hence, the goal of this revision was to make each fighting style feel unique, to give it character. Each fighting style should do something special that no other fighting style can
Brawler was based on the Tavern Brawler feat, because while Monks are the primary users of hand-to-hand combat, Barbarians at the very least should be able to hold their own with their bare fists. Keep in mind that the 1d4 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage means that Better Barbarian Brawlers are slightly better than Monks to start out with, but they are quickly outpaced as the Monk's damage die increases while the Brawler's does not.
Great Weapon Fighting has barely been changed at all. While the end result is still a roughly numerical increase, there is something more interesting about rerolling 1's and 2's than jsut adding +2 damage. The only change made here was to open up the language to include all versatile and two-handed weapons wielded with two hands, allowing for non-standard weapons to also fit in here. This was primarily in lieu of creating additional fighting styles specifically for shotgun users in modernesque seddings; as most shotguns must be wielded with two hands, Great Weapon Fighting serves to make them better as well.
Sniper is designed to replace the Archery feat in the fighting style roster, as well as to increase the use of long-ranged combat. By negating long-range disadvantage, the user is more likely to experiment with their surroundings, no longer confined to the sometimes absurdly small radius offered by most ranged weapons.
It is worth noting that the bonuses conferred by Sniper apply to all ranged weapon attacks, including thrown improvised weapons, alchemist's fire, hand grenades, and thrown handaxes.
Two-Weapon Fighting hasn't been changed at all. Its perfect as it is, if a little too powerful.
Phalanx is a rather interesting fighting style that was inspired by the homebrew content of someone else; I can't remember who. The primary mechanic of Phalanx is to increase damage output and defense simultaneously while decreasing mobility and agiliy. This functionally creates a tank out of the character; they benefit both from the 2d6 slashing damage of a greatsword and the +2 AC of a shield, while being considerably out-manuvered by even the slowest dwarf at the risk of losing their bonuses. Additionally, the action to set up the defensive position leaves the phalanx user open to a round of attack before they are fully combat-ready, allowing more opportunity for stealth and speed to be their Achilles's Heel.
Protection has absorbed the Defense fighting style, and has the only straight numerical bonus that made it into the final draft. The similar themes of Defense and Protection always struck me as strange, so they have been combined into their current state, providing benefits to both the user and their party, but only if they wield a shield. Note that this can be combine with the Phalanx fighting style if the user multiclasses into another class that chooses a fighting style, potentially making a tank character able to defend themselves better as well as providing a stalwart wall for their allies to hide behind.