My players have diverse gaming backgrounds. A portion of them are having trouble enjoying their turn though. When it's there turn in combat, they feel they have little more to do than 'attack' and 'move'. Coming from 4e and mmo's, they would prefer a list of 'abilities/skills' in front of them to choose from at any given moment. 'Attack' becomes something more elaborate with a specific purpose beyond simply attacking. Things like: throw sand to blind, leg sweep to force prone, disarm, feint, etc... that may not be specifically covered in the books or available to all classes.
What I need:
1. suggestions of actions I could add to the list that may substitute the standard attack
2. any rolls, bonuses, special rules, or other notes of importance that accompany that actions (ex: aerial assassinate can only be used from at least 10 feet above target creature)
3. have them all available to all characters regardless of race or class.
Things to keep in mind:
1. The players handbook actions can be relisted if personal modifications have been made to make them more interesting in some way.
2. Dmg actions (like disarming) can be listed since I'm not as familiar with them (meaning my players do not know about them)
3. The players I'm doing this for are standard hack and slash fighters with single weapon preference, so their attacks are the same all the time (in part due to a lack of creativity in my opinion)
Thanks for any help 
Look, IMO they're worried more about the action economy than the situation.
The action economy is important, but it's not for them - it's for you to keep track of what fits in their turn. What they need to do is say what the characters are gonna do - and then it's on you to make it work (or offer an option).
The game's action and excitement don't come from the system - they come from the situations. Essentially, everything is an option. But you need to know what they want to accomplish, and how they want to accomplish it. A list of possible actions is summed up with "anything."
bawylie wrote:
Novama wrote:
bawylie wrote:
That's my belief, yes.
And really it comes from people watching my games and then going "Can I play? How do I play? What if I want to..." and I sort of decided that the only thing I require of a player is their imagination. The rest of this is truly just bookkeeping, and since I'm in the DM's chair, that's on me.
Now, I'll walk people along until they know what the character sheet, HP, and core mechanics work. But if they can't handle even that, it's on me. (In my disability group I've got a player with no arms - at first I was tracking his stuff, but then I got one of the autistics to help him and that works great for both!)
Really though, anybody can play d&d. It's just much much easier when I keep the bookkeeping and system behind the scenes.
Novama wrote:
Do your players have access to a Players Handbook (borrowed if needed)? There are several more actions than just "Fight" and "Move."
For inspiration: As a Paladin, I picked a fight with 4 guards so I could draw them out of position and my Thief (ok, rogue) ally could sneak in and steal the treasure chest they were guarding. It worked - the guards moved over and surrounded me. My high AC means I don't suffer hits very often. We spent two combat rounds trading whiffs. When the thief had grabbed the chest and run away with it, I used the "Disengage" action to get out of being surrounded ... and ran for my life ... the opposite direction from where the thief was going. The guards followed me (instead of guarding the treasure chest).
Mission Accomplished.
Your players can describe what they want to accomplish, and work with the rules to figure out the steps to make it happen.
I found with newer players that dont know the rules of the game it is best to just ask them what they want to accomplish and how they want to accomplish it, and it is your job as the DM to tell them what they might need to roll in order to succeed in that task. This way they are not limiting themselves with the rules but instead the limit is their imaginations. For example, the player wants to attempt a leg sweep as you mentioned, well the player describes the actions they wish to take, and you as the DM who knows the shoving rules asks for the appropraite rolls and narrates the outcome of the action. After doing this for awhile they will get the hang of the rules and can form their own "list."