What do Superiority Dice represent in-universe?

Question

Fighters have a lot of abilities that are "believable" -- that is, they can represent something that could be a real-world equivalent that is mundane and non-magical.

For example, "Second Wind" is a term that happens when marathon runners (and athletes of other sports), at the final leg of their race, suddenly find the strength to go on at top performance despite their exhaustion. In terms of the game, it makes sense to translate this to mundane healing for a fighter.

I don't know what the equivalent of "Superiority Die" could be, though. Specifically, I'm asking about the "lore" of SD. What are these dice that a person can only use a few times between rests?

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Contrast with the magical equivalent: How does D&D 5E Wizard's magic work, in Lore terms?

Answer 1

In character, they represent skill/training, opportunity, alertness and fatigue:

• Skill/training determines the amount of dice available, the size of dice - it measures how much additional impact the character potentially could make in a combat due to their talents.

• Opportunity is the natural limit of when certain things can be done. An NPC combatant doesn't open themselves up to be tripped by a clever move every turn. But D&D doesn't track combat moves in detail - there are no explicit rules for clever feint-step-swipe-back-upswing combinations. It makes sense that a character that is "the best fighter in the area" should show off with clever moves in the plot when the story would allow it - see any combat-based action movie. But when? It is simple to give the character's player control of that. In this sense, it does not represent a static resource that a PC would be aware of ("I feel I will have only one remaining opportunity today" is a bit weird in character). However, it is still an in-character thing that happens.

• Alertness and fatigue. To take advantage of an opportunity, a character must spot and/or make those opportunities, then react to them correctly when this happens. This is mentally taxing, since it requires split-second judgement. It is likely also physically taxing as the fighter must out-manoeuvre his opponent and in doing so make some combination of strikes that is unexpected, highly difficult and possibly even dangerous to the fighter's own body.

It may be helpful to note that many of the outcomes from use of superiority dice are possible in other ways, allowing for extra time/actions or luck. A fighter can already do more damage (even if it is next round with another attack), they can push other characters back or knock them prone. Opportunity attacks against them or an ally can miss. Ultimately, they can kill or defeat another character in combat and pretty much any outcome is fair in the narrative for that. The superiority dice generally allow them to do so faster or more efficiently, or simply with style.

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In addition to the in-character view, there is in my opinion something gamist about use limits. The limits are there mainly as a balancing concern for the game, and are rationalised after the fact. That is also true for spell slots, ki points and the like, but stands out for fighter class for historical reasons that the class has not had many limited resources in the past. The rationales applied to all the point systems in D&D are all really quite shallow justifications in order to make a workable game. If you can be flexible in the interpretation of them whilst playing, it may help you more than making a hard rule about what those resources represent in character.

Answer 2

I believe they signify purely skilled maneuvers which reflect a specific complicated ability that requires mastery, precision and/or sheer strength.

This actually works to explain the increase in die power as well. Consider the increased potential as the mastery you've acquired after practicing these maneuvers for extended periods of time as you level.

As for other characters taking the feat that grants you superiority die, this would accurately reflect the basic proficiency in a dedicated fighter trait that your character would possess after having spent some time training it as a feat rather than a class ability.

That's just my take on it though. To me, they're akin to meta-magic on a Sorcerer. Just an extra burst they can do a couple of times before they're too tired to do it anymore.

You can also consider that since fights are very quick, energy intensive affairs, that a fighter using their superiority dice would be tired (hence the requirement for a short rest to recover them.) It's not that they "forget" how to do the maneuver, it's that they simply don't have the energy to do so again without resting first. There's a reason boxers spend a lot of time hugging, and it's because combat is physically exhausting.

Answer 3

Within the game universe, they are just techniques, qualities or skills of the individual. A PC might refer to them in character by their name ("I took a second wind", or "I avoided his attack with some evasive footwork"), but the same PC would not use the name of the mechanic ("I expended a Superiority Die").

In this sense, the die is only a mechanic to track the character's ability. It is virtually identical to the Bardic Inspiration die. A bard might say, "I inspired Sir John to try harder", but not "I gave Sir John an Inspiration Die".

A similar case may be made for Luck Dice, the term "Armor Class", and "Level". In lore or in character, a PC might be described as "lucky", "well-armored", or "powerful", but in any but the most meta of play styles, the mechanics would not be used by characters, only players.

tl;dr: There is no lore that refers to the mechanic, only a mechanic that indicates the personal reserves of skill that a character may expend before exhausting them.