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First, we define a set of fighting styles:

Brawling
Martial Arts
Single Weapon (Subdivide by long or short weapon?)
Two-handed weapon
Two weapon
Weapon and Shield
Weapon and Spell

Ranged:
Thrown
Bow
Crossbow
Firearm
Spell

Everyone gets the basics of Brawling, Single Weapon, and Thrown. From there, your class determines which additional ones you get, and how many advances you get in them. In general, Martial classes get more styles and more advances they can allocate to styles, caster classes get fewer.
Ex: In addition to Brawling, Single Weapon, and Thrown, a Barbarian gets Two-handed weapon and Two-weapon fighting styles. A Paladin gets Weapon and Shield and Two-handed Weapon. A rogue would get two-weapon, Bow, and Crossbow. A Cleric Weapon and shield, weapon and spell, and Ranged Spell. And so on

Most classes get to improve one or two combat styles, and take one to legendary. Fighters can take multiple styles to legendary, and take a hell of a lot of special abilities along the way.

Regardless of class, players can take a general feat to add a fighting style, plus there is a level-gated general feat to improve proficiency with a single fighting style by a step.
Ex: Donna really wants a paladin with a crossbow. She can use a general feat to buy her paladin the Crossbow ranged weapon style. At a later level, she can spend another feat to improve her paladin’s crossbow style to “expert”, and so on.

Each advance in expertise opens up new maneuvers you can do with that style as well as feats you can take to improve your abilities or open up new ones. For instance, just being proficient in two-weapon style might open up a double-attack maneuver, but if you advance your two-weapon fighting skill to Expert, you can take the “Blades Like Lightning” feat, which makes that double-attack take only one action (or something like that. The point is you can take a cool thing because you’re good at the style).

All these maneuvers and special abilities can be put together in a handy, easy-to-read “Combat Maneuvers” section. This will not only make referencing them easier, but also shorten the class descriptions while cutting down book-bloating ability duplication.

This systems does everything everyone wants. By giving some set fighting styles and controlling how classes advance in them it provides flavor to the classes. But by allowing players to spend feats to expand their range of abilities, it allows for extensive player customization beyond those normal boundaries. The system is easily extensible by creating new combat maneuvers and new style feats. And because these maneuvers are interesting to multiple classes, they can all be get used together and balanced together so fights aren’t an endless series of boring basic attacks.