I’ve played the game for 40 hours, yet Bernard still only offers basic combos in the tutorial. I’ve beaten him in battle 20+ times and have progressed fairly decently into the story yet he still won’t open up new training options.
I noticed this as well. I am playing on my 3rd playthrough, and am not seeing this either. I’m curious, did you complete “The Viper’s Nest?” This is the only difference in my 3 playthroughs… I put it off while I messed around elsewhere, and I have a higher sword level (13) than I had at this point in my previos games when I learned Master Strikes… I can’t be sure though. My other playthroughs were before the last patch and now I have all the DLCs (had none before). I put a list of completed quests below, maybe there’s a trigger point… I’m not sure. The only mods I’m using this playthrough are the bow dot reticule (just a console command) and a reshade. I had this and a lockpicking mod on my last two, and it worked fine.
I am using the Lock Picking Mod, and I completed Nest of Vipers a while ago already. I have all the DLC if that matters. I’m 99% sure I should have it by now. This is my first play through so I can’t be positive, but it’s just annoying that I seem to be missing abilities due to a possible glitch.
OK, I have an update. I either did it without noticing, which I doubt, or it’s a glitch, but I have “master strike” training after all. I noticed I was performing them in combat, and seen in the stats somewhere that I had this. Check around in stats somewhere (sorry, I’m not playing now, and can’t remember where it was). Or just try to do one.