Martial fighting styles

I have always felt that melee combat should be as diverse, interesting, and flavorful as magic, telekinesis or any other form of combat. It's a common complaint, especially for DnD 3.5e players that while the sorcerer/wizard/cleric uses all sorts of interesting abilities that are different from turn to turn, the fighter/barbarian does the same thing every single turn: charge, (power) attack, (power) attack, (power) attack). Sure, combat expertise and supplemental books may have tried to mix it up a bit but at the end of the day melee was still just charge and (power) attack.
Back on topic however, I'm not here to rag on 3.5e. Its a great system  and one that really helped make tabletop role-playing as popular as it is. If you have never played it then i suggest you give it a try.
My initial solution to this problem was to create a lot of different attacks with special abilities the player could unlock by investing experience to improve the attack. While many of these abilities could play off of each other, it still very much led to the same 3.5 charge, attack, attack, attack, style of martial combat. In addition, I had only a single unarmed attack when unarmed combat is one of the most diverse and interesting styles of combat.
So, I have created 5 unique martial fighting styles for unarmed combat and intend to create more as time goes on and my imagination warrants. These unarmed fighting styles are stance based. The stance itself provides a passive bonus and allows the use of abilities within that stance. Your stance may only be changed on your turn at the beginning of your turn before you take any actions. Each stance has about 8 supplemental abilities including a signature strike, an ultimate strike, a good number of passives, and optional attacks as well.

Boulder Stance- While in boulder stance multiply your strength modifiers bonus to unarmed damage by 1 plus 1 per rank in this skill.

While in boulder stance your movement speed is set at 15ft and cannot be raised or lowered by any means.

While in boulder stance effects that would knock you back are reduced by 5ft per rank.

While in boulder stance you gain a +2 bonus to strength checks when resisting a knockdown or knockback effect.

Boulder stance and its abilities are intended to be slow moving and hard hitting. When fully mastered, boulder stance will 2shot even the most defensive of opponents by dealing massive amounts of damage per blow.

Mountain stance- While in mountain stance you gain 1 damage reduction per rank in this skill.

While in mountain stance your movement speed is set to 5ft and cannot be raised or lowered by any other effect.

While in mountain stance, you can only be critically hit on a natural 20 or by an effect that forces a critical strike to occur.

While in mountain stance you cannot be moved, knocked back, or knocked down.

Mountain stance is extremely defensive and immobile. When fully mastered you are nearly indestructible and still maintain the ability to hit like a mack truck.

Water Stance-While in water stance you gain 1 damage reduction and a +1 bonus to unarmed damage per rank in this skill.

While in water stance, if you call an attack or defense while within melee range of an enemy you may move through their square to any of the 5ft squares around them regardless of whether or not the attack or defense was successful.

Water stance is intended to be balanced and flowing. Your defenses buff your offenses and your offenses buff your defenses. When fully mastered your combat prowess on the battlefield is without rival.

Wind Stance-While in wind stance your unarmed strikes deal 1 damage plus 1 damage for each rank in this skill.

While in wind stance you gain an additional speed action for each rank in this skill.

While in wind stance your movement speed is set at 45ft and cannot be lowered by any other effect. In addition, your movement speed is increased by 5ft for each movement you call during a round.

Wind stance is fast. REALLY fast. So fast in fact that I had to modify its abilities to condense attack rolls so that the wind striker wouldn't take an hour each time his turn came around. When fully mastered, the damage and speed of a windstriker is both beautiful and terrible to behold.

Reed Stance-While in reed stance you gain a +1 bonus to defense per rank and an additional defensive action per rank.

While in reed stance you may not call offensive maneuvers.

Reed stance is an interesting twist on something I have intended to do for awhile now: Defensive maneuvers that hurt. Reed stance is a trap for new players who would read it and think "well if i cant call offensive maneuvers, how am I ever going to kill my opponent" and then read no further. Reed stance brutally punishes opponents for attacking you and your allies with a speed that rivals wind stance. when fully mastered the enemy is left with no choice but to walk away.

The challenge here was to create something that was interesting but not overpowered by mixing a little bit of each with their opposites.

"How do I make these two get along?"

Too much balance makes a game extremely bland and boring, nothing really interesting about it. Not enough balance leads to an interesting game for Some players (the overpowered ones) but a boring experience for others. Too much balance and you're on the oatmeal side of things, too little balance and you're playing the book of nine swords. My solution is a kind of smoke-and-mirrors game: to give players abilities that make them feel overpowered and unstoppable when in reality these abilities are extremely limited and can easily be turned around.

In the future, expect to see more balance changes coming to the system as I have managed to get a campaign running (only took 2 years) as well as more role-play bonuses to existing abilities. I am also working on creating a comprehensive map of Nathera and populating it with interesting and useful things.