D&D Fighter 5e Guide
Published on September 4, 2021, Last modified on June 1st, 2023
In this post, we will be examining the fighter’s class features and how you can optimize your fighter through choosing your race, background, ability scores, subclass, and feats.
Fighter 5e Guide Rating Scheme
This guide is meant as a deep dive into the DnD 5e fighter. For a quick overview of other 5e classes, check out our Guide to DnD 5e Classes.
The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good that option will be for your fighter. This color coding isn’t a hard and fast rule; there are plenty of sub-optimized options out there that will be viable to your party and will be fun to play.
- Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
- Orange is an OK option
- Green is a good option
- Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
- Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized
D&D 5e Fighter Overview
Level | Proficiency Bonus | Bonus Features |
---|---|---|
1st | +2 | Fighting Style, Second Wind |
2nd | +2 | Action Surge (one use) |
3rd | +2 | Martial Archetype |
4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement |
5th | +3 | Extra Attack |
6th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement |
7th | +3 | Martial Archetype feature |
8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement |
9th | +4 | Indomitable (one use) |
10th | +4 | Martial Archetype feature |
11th | +4 | Extra Attack (2) |
12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement |
13th | +5 | Indomitable (two uses) |
14th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement |
15th | +5 | Martial Archetype feature |
16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement |
17th | +6 | Action Surge (two uses), Indomitable (three uses) |
18th | +6 | Martial Archetype feature |
19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement |
20th | +6 | Extra Attack (3) |
Playstyle
Fighters are meant to be among the best damage dealers and soakers in 5e. This means that you will be at your most useful whenever Initiative gets rolled. Outside of combat, fighters can definitely still be effective additions to the party but they will feel out of their element in tricky situations where punching isn’t going to help.
Strengths
Funnily enough, fighters are good at fighting. They get access to all weapons and armor, and by 2nd-level they are given skills to heal themselves. These class features plus their extra attacks at the 5th, 11th, and 20th-level ensure that the fighter class is the epitome of a melee damage dealer.
Some people may be put off by this and say that they don’t want to play a character that is a one-dimensional “hack and slasher”, but that’s not the case with fighters. Because of the fighter’s varied subclasses, you can definitely go for the straight-up damage-dealing Champion, but you could also play as an Eldritch Knight who uses magic to supplement his melee capabilities or a Battle Master that allows you to influence the battlefield in a strategic manner. No matter what type of fighter you build, you can be sure that they can put down more pain than just about any class in a combat situation.
Weaknesses
While fighters are amazing at combat, some complain that they lack versatility outside of combat. Because of their need to output and soak damage in combat, they usually have to put all of their eggs into the STR/DEX and CON basket. This means having low CHA for social interactions and low WIS/INT for problem-solving and spellcasting.
Best Races for Fighter
Standard Races
- Chromatic: Great option to make your fighter more tanky while also giving you a solid option for AoE damage. Being able to use the breath weapon in place of one of your extra attacks will offer huge boosts in damage when you have enemies lined up properly.
- Metallic: Great survivability and combat utility from the damage resistance and Breath Weapon. The Metallic Breath Weapon can offer some battlefield control and, if you're able to knock an enemy prone in place of your first attack, you can follow up with a bunch of attacks with advantage.
- Standard: +2 STR is perfect for a STR build, damage resistance further improves tankiness, and an AoE is something many fighters lack.
- Ravenite: +2 STR and +1 CON is perfect for a STR-based fighter. The extra attack is great to dish out additional damage in a pinch and Breath Weapon is useful for an AoE attack.
- Hill: Bonuses to WIS isn’t going to help a ton but may be useful if you need to have high Perception, and the bonus hit points are always welcome.
- Mountain: Most melee fighters will take +2 bonuses to STR and CON all day.
- Aereni Wood: Great choice for a finesse or ranged fighter. The +2 to DEX will help pump their primary ability score and the passive features granted by this subrace are extremely synergistic. The skill expertise will go much farther than the weapon proficiency of the PHB wood elf because fighters already get all the weapon proficiencies they need.
- Mark of Making: Eldritch Knights can get their INT and one ability score of their choosing from the Mark of Making as well as get some interesting spells for a melee spellcaster build.
- Mark of Sentinel: No STR or DEX but does provide +2 CON. A free casting of shield is always welcome, as is the ability to swap with a party member to tank damage.
- Standard: A middle of the road pick because they increase all their ability scores by 1.
- Variant: Variant humans get a bonus to two ability scores of their choice and an extra feat, both of which are wicked for all types of fighters.
- Bloodline of Dispater: Decent option for a DEX-based fighter that wants to do some sneaking around.
- Bloodline of Glasya: Decent option for a DEX-based fighter that wants to do some sneaking around.
- Bloodline of Levistus: No STR or DEX, but will make you very tanky.
- Bloodline of Zariel: Slight STR bonus and some offensive spells to make your weapon attacks hurt more.
- Variant – Feral: Perfect for DEX-based fighters as this variant gets +2 DEX instead of CHA. Eldritch Knights can make use of both DEX and INT.
- Variant – Winged: Having flight is amazing, and combined with +2 DEX from Feral will make for a mean ranged fighter.
Non-Standard Races
- Updated: Tankier builds who wear heavy armor and want to be in melee range won't have any use for the Aarakocra's flight, which is it's best ability by far. Ranged builds who are fine wearing light armor and staying at a distance will love the flight at 1st level and may have some use for the natural weapons and spell the race provides.
- Updated: With a whole load of Extra Attacks, fighters are the perfect candidate to take advantage of the new bugbear Surprise Attack mechanics. Focusing on DEX here makes sense, as you can boost your initiative really high while also making use of the Sneaky trait.
- Updated: With flexible ASIs, the centaur is great for just about any melee fighter build.
- Updated: Free choice of ASIs doesn't really help the fighter much here since they don't have anything to synergize with the changeling's traits.
- Updated: Even with flexible ASIs, the spells that the firbolg gets don't help a fighter do what they do best - fight.
- Earth: The earth genasi provides great ability score increases for a STR fighter, improved movement options, and a reliable way to be stealthy as a fighter, even in heavy armor.
- Githyanki: Most fighters will be just fine as a githyanki, and Eldritch Knights are a perfect fit. Martial Prodigy is a wasted racial trait as fighters have access to all the weapons and armor already.
- Updated: The new goblin is perfect for the fighter, allowing you to choose your ASIs depending on your preferred weapons. Fury of the Small gives boosted damage to any of the attacks you wish, and Nimble Escape makes your fighter much more maneuverable on the battlefield, able to disengage an enemy without provoking attacks of opportunity.
- Updated: Fighters are already great tanks, and Stone's Endurance takes this to the next level. AC won't need to be as much of a concern with a goliath since you have a large pool of hit points and you can reduce damage with Stone's Endurance.
- Updated: Hobgoblins are an excellent choice for fighters as many builds don't have a steady use of their bonus action, freeing it up for Fey Gift. Fortune from the Many is handy to have in your back pocket in any situation.
- Updated: Kobolds are still an optimal choice for melee fighters. All of the Kobold Legacy options can be useful to a fighter depending on your needs, though Draconic Sorcery can get you booming blade or green-flame blade, opening up more combat options in battle.
- Dhampir: Some extra movement is useful for closing with enemies and the Vampiric Bite will be at it's best with your pumped out CON modifier.
- Hexblood: A free bit of utility from disguise self and the Eerie Token effects. The best feature here is definitely hex, which can result in a ton of extra damage because of the fighter's multitude of attacks. The Eldritch Knight subclass definitely would like the ability to cast hex even more because they can cast it multiple times per day.
- Beasthide Shifter: Excellent choice for a tanky frontline fighter.
- Longtooth Shifter: Excellent choice for a damage dealing STR fighter.
- Swiftstride Shifter: Works for a mobile, DEX-based fighter, though the CHA isn't very useful.
Background
For this section, due to the sheer number of backgrounds available, I am simply going to list the most useful fighter Backgrounds.
- Criminal: This will be a great choice for DEX based fighters. Proficiency with Stealth and Deception and thieves’ tools can help your ability to sneak around and lie, increasing your utility for the party.
- Sailor: Proficiency in Athletics and Perception would be good enough to make this a great option. If you are playing in a campaign that involves boats in any way, this turns into an amazing option.
- Soldier: Proficiency with Athletics and Intimidation is certainly a good choice, especially because Intimidation can add to your utility for the party. Proficiency in the gaming set and land vehicles isn’t awesome but could be useful in certain circumstances.
Ability Scores
Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 6th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 19th level.
Fighters get more ASIs than any other class, which allows them to easily max their important stats and grab a bunch of feats to vary their gameplay.
Fighters can be built in many ways. melee fighters are the simplest, but DEX-based fighters and Eldritch Knights all have different needs.
STR: As STR affects your attack rolls, melee damage, and ability to grapple and shove, melee fighters need Strength above anything else. DEX-based fighters can dump this stat.
DEX: DEX will be important for DEX-based fighters as this will contribute to their AC and attack/damage roll. Melee fighters don’t necessarily need DEX, but it is always a worthwhile ability to have.
CON: Every fighter needs hit points.
INT: The only time you should consider stacking INT would be if you are an Eldritch Knight as they cast spells using INT as their spell attack modifier. Even then, an optimized EK build doesn’t necessarily need a high INT modifier for spells.
WIS: WIS is helpful for Perception (the most important skill in the game) but this would be best left up to classes that need WIS for other class features (Rangers, Monks, etc.).
CHA: Again, fighters should typically leave the CHA skill for classes that will make better use of it (Warlocks, Bards, etc.)
Fighter Class Progression
1st Level
Hit Points and Hit Dice: Having a d10 hit dice gives the fighter the second-best hit dice around. The only class that gets a higher one is the Barbarian. Combine this with a high CON score, Second Wind, and heavy armor, this means your fighter will be hard to put down.
Saves: STR saving throws are rare, but you may see them more than other classes because you will be in melee combat. CON saves are a common save for all sorts of nasty abilities.
Proficiencies: All armor, weapons, and shields? Yes, please. You don’t need to worry too much about utility skills like Stealth or Persuasion as the party’s enforcer.
Skills: Athletics (being the only STR-based skill) is a shoo-in for the fighter’s most important skill. The rest of their skills aren’t going to be stellar for most fighters as they are mostly INT, WIS or CHA-based.
- Acrobatics (DEX): Acrobatics won’t have much use for your STR based fighter but a DEX based fighter can make good use of it.
- Animal Handling (WIS): Animal Handling is rarely used and certainly isn’t worth investing in WIS for.
- Athletics (STR): Athletics will remain your domain as an STR based build.
- History (INT): I thought you wanted to punch stuff, not be a historian?
- Insight (WIS): Insight is an important social skill, but let your other party members deal with that kind of stuff.
- Intimidation (CHA): Intimidation rolls can be made with STR using the “Skills with Different Abilities” variant rule. Talk to your DM before you rely on this option.
- Perception (WIS): Perception is an extremely important skill to have, gaining proficiency will help offset any negatives you have taken to your WIS modifier by dumping WIS.
- Survival (WIS): Survival checks will come up every once in a while, but this should be left to the Ranger, Druid, or another WIS-based caster (if you have one).
Fighting Style: One of the fighter’s iconic abilities, and a great reason to multiclass into fighter.
- Archery: The go-to for DEX-based fighters (specifically Ranged). +2 to ranged attacks? Yes, please.
- Defense: +1 to AC isn’t overly exciting but seeing as AC is hard to scale it can make a difference in the early and long game.
- Dueling: Being able to wear a shield while dealing close to two-handed weapon damage is a very, very tempting option.
- Great Weapon Fighting: Not an awesome option, only adds about 1 damage per attack. It would be better to pick up Defense to make up for the fact you aren’t wielding a shield.
- Protection: Only being useful when within 5ft is a major disadvantage for this skill, especially if you’re the tank of your party as most of your party members will be staying back while you are up in the fray.
- Two-Weapon Fighting: While Two-Weapon Fighting can make you hit a lot easier with your offhand weapon, there are some disadvantages to being a dual-wielding fighter. Mainly, the fact that attacking with your offhand takes your bonus action. This doesn’t cause your offhand attacks to scale with your extra attacks. This will cause the damage you output to quickly become overshadowed by something like using a Greatsword or taking the Dueling Martial Archetype.
Optional Class Feature: Fighting Style Options:
This optional class feature adds to the list of available fighting style options:
- Blind Fighting: Blindsight is a powerful ability, there is no doubt about that. If you are a fighter, the reality is that you should be focusing on something that will allow you to hit people harder, or get hit harder without going down.
- Interception: This is a very similar ability to the Protection fighting style. The same limitations apply (have to be within 5ft, uses your reaction), but you are able to use this ability if you are wielding a weapon or shield, not just a shield. The actual effect is kind of a toss-up when compared to Protection. If you are going to be fighting alongside another melee fighter that has a reasonable AC, the disadvantage granted by Protection is better. If you are going to be mainly defending casters with poor AC, Interception is better.
- Superior Technique: Picking up a free Battle Master maneuver and d6 superiority die is a solid choice.
- Thrown Weapon Fighting: This allows fighters who are using thrown weapons to get around rule-stingy DMs who won’t allow you to draw multiple weapons in a turn. The +2 to damage is a significant increase.
- Unarmed Fighting: Being able to unarmed strike opponents for longsword damage is very useful. You’re going to make any monk in your party extremely jealous because they won’t match your unarmed strike until the 11th level. The extra 1d4 damage per turn to a creature you are grappling is okay, but still not enough to make a grapple build worth it.
Second Wind: 1d10 + fighter level as a bonus action is certainly a great feature for someone who is going to be in the middle of most fights.
2nd Level
Action Surge: An extra action allows you to do a lot of really powerful things, including a pile of additional attacks. This is a good reason for nearly any class to multiclass into fighter.
3rd Level
Marital Archetype: The 5e fighter archetypes dictate the way your fighter will play. By its definition, the fighter class is considered easier to play than other classes. The class’s strength is its ability to provide consistent damage throughout combat by being able to attack more than any other class in the game. Some people view fighters as “swingy”, but this doesn’t mean that playing a fighter is boring or wrong, fighters are an extremely fun class to play, and depending on the way you play your fighter, you will be able to find plenty of fun and interesting maneuvers in combat.
Arcane Archer
Check out our Arcane Archer Fighter 5e Guide for build optimization tips.
Battle Master
Check out our Battle Master Fighter 5e Guide for build optimization tips.
Cavalier
The Cavalier is a warrior proficient in mounted combat. Even without a mount, Cavaliers are extremely effective melee fighters that have a wide variety of battlefield control options.
- 3rd level
- Bonus Proficiency: Choose an extra skill proficiency from a list of “meh” skills.
- Born to the Saddle: Nothing groundbreaking here. Makes it easier to get on and stay on your mount.
- Unwavering Mark: A strong ability that provides a bonus action attack, advantage, and extra damage on the attack if someone you hit hits another creature. Its primary purpose is obviously to punish creatures for attacking your mount, but seeing as you don’t get the special attack until your next turn, your mount could easily be put down before then. Either way, this ability grants a ton of benefit and provides an excellent battlefield control option.
- 7th level
- Warding Maneuver: Adding an average of +4 to your AC as a reaction is a stellar ability. Throw in that you can apply this to your mount or other friendlies within 5ft and it gets even better. NOW throw in the fact that, even if the attack hits, the target gains resistance to the attack’s damage, and you have an absolutely amazing ability.
- 10th level
- Hold the Line: This ability is kind of like “Polearm Master lite”. Being able to attack creatures if they move within your reach and reduce their speed to 0 if you hit is very exploitable with a reach weapon.
- 15th level
- Ferocious Charger: Another class feature that mimics a feat. This ability is an improvement over the dismal Charger feat because it can be activated by simply moving 10ft before hitting a creature, rather than having to take the dash action. Being able to use this once per turn will mean a lot more prone enemies, which means a lot more attacks with advantage for you and your party.
- 18th level
- Vigilant Defender: Hold the Line makes using the special reactions granted by this feature more than once per round more likely. If you are able to pick up the Sentinel feat with one of your myriad of ASIs, you will be a force of nature when dropped into a group of enemies.
Champion
Simple and effective, the Champion keeps things very easy by not introducing too many additional mechanics in its class features. Instead, it focuses on improving things that fighters already do, like crit a lot. Unfortunately, increasing your chance to crit doesn't actually net that much damage, despite how good it looks on paper.
- 3rd level
- Improved Critical: Doubling your chance for a critical hit looks good at first glance until you realize that you’ll only be getting extra damage every 20ish attacks.
- 7th level
- Remarkable Athlete: This is great for builds that have a lower DEX stat as it allows you to act outside of combat a little more (sneaking, sleight of hand) and provides a great bonus to initiative rolls.
- 10th level
- Additional Fighting Style: If you didn’t pick up Defense the first time around, now is your time for +1 to AC. Otherwise, the world is your oyster.
- 15th level
- Superior Critical: By this point, you’re attacking at least three times a round. Being able to score a crit on 18, 19, 0r 20 means you’ll crit a bit less than 50% of the time you take your full attack action. Once you get to four attacks, you’ll essentially be critting 50% of the time you attack. This can net some serious damage, especially if you find a way to increase the amount of damage dice you’re rolling, like a magic item.
- 18th level
- Survivor: Automatically healing at the beginning of every round when you’re below half health is extremely good.
Echo Knight
Create an echo of yourself that you can use for attacking, teleport, healing, and much more.
- 3rd level
- Manifest Echo: This is the Echo Knight’s primary ability and all of its class features revolve around the Echo. The echo has tons of potential for shenanigans and its baseline is stellar. Repeatable bonus action teleportation is amazing and doubling your opportunity for opportunity attacks is always useful.
- Unleash Incarnation: Free extra attacks to go with all of your fighters extra attacks? Yes, please.
- 7th level
- Echo Avatar: Your echo becomes the ultimate scouting tool. It is like a familiar because you can see and hear from its position, but is even better since you can summon it as a bonus action instead of having to perform a 1-hour ritual. Seeing as this echo can be moved in any direction and doesn’t need to breathe, it can travel through the air, underwater, etc. Then, you can teleport to its space whenever you see fit.
- 10th level
- Shadow Martyr: Being able to automatically redirect an attack is a great backup plan in case you really need an attack to miss. Only being able to use one per short/long rest is somewhat limiting.
- 15th level
- Reclaim Potential: Excellent way of getting some healing mid-combat. You can also use this outside of combat for some extra hit points if you’re willing to kill your own echo.
- 18th level
- Legion of One: Doubling your echo is a fine capstone ability for the Echo Knight, and always having a use of Unleash Incarnation is certainly useful. That said, having two echos isn’t twice as good as having one echo. Their strengths are somewhat diluted by the fact that you still have the same number of actions, bonus actions, and reactions as before.
Eldritch Knight
Check out our Eldritch Knight Fighter 5e Guide for build optimization tips.
Psi Warrior
The Psi Warrior's Psionic Power gives the fighter a lot of additional utility. Unfortunately, these abilities often rely on your INT modifier. While having a fighter with a high INT is entirely possible, it will come at a tradeoff of becoming MAD (Multi-Ability Dependant) and being able to pick up fewer feats.
- 3rd level
- Psionic Power: Expend uses of your Psionic dice to provide useful abilities in combat. Most of the abilities gained at 3rd-level use your INT modifier, which is a tough sell for Fighters.
- Protective Field: Reduce damage equal to Psionic die + INT as a reaction. To be really effective having a high INT is necessary which, as mentioned before, is a tough sell for Fighters. Because of the somewhat meager damage reduction, you’ll usually want to keep the dice for other uses.
- Psionic Strike: An extra die of force damage is solid, but not overly powerful. Because this ability activates after you hit, it can’t be used for crits, which is a bummer. This ability would be even better if the force damage wasn’t dependant on INT.
- Telekinetic Movement: You can move a size Large or smaller object or willing creature up to 30ft. This is feature will have some solid utility outside of combat but inside of combat its best use will be pulling friendly creatures out of dangerous situations.
- 7th level
- Telekinetic Adept: Two more amazing psionic abilities to help increase your utility in combat:
- Psi-Powered Leap: If you’ve ever wanted to live out your Jedi fantasy and force jump around, now is your time. Gaining flying speed as a bonus action for free once every short/long rest provides excellent mobility options. You can maintain your flying speed for a short time by expending psionic dice if you can’t get to your desired location in one turn. Use this to get to high ground for ranged attacks, or to get out of trouble.
- Telekinetic Thrust: This is simply adding value to your psionics strike because it doesn’t require any further resources. Of course, if you haven’t pumped your INT this could end up failing more often than not, but seeing as it doesn’t cost you anything it is still stellar. Because Psionics Strike doesn’t require an attack from a melee weapon, this is especially useful against flying creatures because it can knock them prone.
- 10th level
- Guarded Mind: Resistance to psychic damage will come up in a typical campaign, but not often. Being able to end Charmed and Frightened conditions at will makes up for the situationalness and renders this ability very useful.
- 15th level
- Bulwark of Force: Give +2 to AC and saving throws to your entire party (depending on your INT modifier) with no way of breaking it short of killing you, for a full minute, as a bonus action. Oh, you can do this up to 11 times between long rests. Damn.
- 18th level
- Telekinetic Master: Telekinesis is an excellent spell that offers a ton of utility. Moving an object up to 1,000 pounds won’t require a high INT modifier, but you will likely need a pumped INT if you are attempting to grapple a high level, strength-focused creature. The second part of the feature allows you to take a bonus action attack while using telekinesis. While this doesn’t quite make up for losing your other three attacks, it can allow you to strike out at foes that get too close while you are busy levitating things with your mind.
Purple Dragon Knight
A noble knight that can extend their core fighter features to other party members.
- 3rd level
- Rallying Cry: Healing up to three party members from 60ft away is nice, but seeing as it’s not a ton of healing it would be best for saving downed teammates. Unfortunately, because you can only heal creatures that can see and hear you, this ability doesn’t work on unconscious teammates.
- 7th level
- Royal Envoy: Grabbing a free expertise in Persuasion is a nice bonus, but fighters will usually dump CHA. This means that, unless you spend your precious ASIs on pumping CHA, you likely won’t feel the full benefits of this bonus. The other skills you can pick up aren’t bad but doesn’t change that this feature is weak compared to other 7th-level subclass features.
- 10th level
- Inspiring Surge: Giving another party member a free attack will vary in effectiveness based on your party’s composition. If you have a paladin or rogue, you are going to get way more mileage out of this feature than if you don’t. Getting an extra use of this feature at 18th level won’t necessarily be twice as effective unless you’ve managed to party up with two of the classes mentioned before.
- 15th level
- Bulwark: Failing a WIS, INT, or CHA save past 15th-level usually comes with very serious consequences. Being able to extend your Indomitable feature to another team member that failed their save can turn around an entire encounter.
Rune Knight
Use runes, the language of giants, to infuse your weapon and armor with special abilities.
Check out our Rune Knight Fighter 5e Guide for build optimization tips.
Samurai
- 3rd level
- Bonus Proficiency: History, Insight, Performance, or Persuasion aren’t going to do a whole lot for your Fighter.
- Fighting Spirit: Three times per long rest, you can give yourself advantage on all attacks and gain temp hit points. This is an amazing ability.
- 7th level
- Elegant Courtier: It’s nice flavor, but adding your WIS modifier to Persuasion checks isn’t going to do much if you dumped the stat. Proficiency in WIS will be useful at higher levels but won’t make a huge impact unless you stack into a typically dumped stat.
- 10th level
- Tireless Spirit: Regaining a use of Fighting Spirit every initiative allows you to use them much more freely.
- 15th level
- Rapid Strike: Being able to forgo one of your Fighting Spirit granted advantages for an extra attack is essentially a free crit against lower AC creatures.
- 18th level
- Strength Before Death: This is an absolutely amazing ability. You immediately take a whole extra turn when you drop to 0 hit points. This means when you drop to 0, you can take a round of three attacks and use either a Fighting Spirit or Second Wind to keep yourself standing.
4th Level
Optional Class Feature: Martial Versatility:
This optional class feature allows Fighters to replace a Fighting Style or Battle Master maneuver whenever they are granted an ASI. This ability isn’t inherently strong or weak because it is difficult to make strategic changes according to what scenarios you will be facing. This optional feature is mainly here to change an aspect of your build that you don’t like without having to argue with a stubborn DM.
5th Level
Extra Attack: Fighters get more attacks than any class except for the Monk. This allows Fighters to be incredibly reliable when dealing damage.
Get a 3rd attack at 11th-leveland a 4th attack at 20th-level.
9th Level
Indomitable: The ability to reroll failed saving throws will be extremely important in the upper tiers of play.
Get a 2nd use at 13th-level and a 3rd at 17th-level.
Best Feats for Fighter
- Actor: Not usually a fighter's cup of tea, but Dexterity-focused fighters might have the resources to stack Charisma to become more well-rounded.
- Agent of Order: A typical fighter's ability scores aren't going to provide a high enough save DC on Stasis Strike's restrain effect. If you're playing a Eldritch Knight or Psi Warrior and have a high Intelligence ability, this feat gets a lot more tempting.
- Alert: Fighters don't have any means of outputting burst or AoE damage, but being able to close with enemies and soak damage for the rest of the party is part of what fighters do.
- Athlete: You get an ASI to Strength and some minor movement buffs, but nothing amazing for a fighter.
- Baleful Scion: Fighters will always appreciate a bit more self-healing, especially when it can be activated in the same action as their attacks.
- Chef: One of the few classes where this really doesn't fit in outside of fleshing out your backstory. Fighters have a lot of uses for their bonus action, making this slight HP boost insignificant.
- Cohort of Chaos: Unfortunately, this is too unpredictable to be a efficient use of a feat.
- Crossbow Expert: Dex-based fighters are pretty powerful, and this feat is one of the reasons why. Paired with feats like Sharpshooter makes them ranged fighters a force to be reckoned with, allowing them to ignore any potential penalties with ranged damage. You’re on par with Polearm Master and Great Weapon Fighting with these feats.
- Crusher: Crusher is a very strong pickup for any build using a bludgeoning weapon. The Champion especially loves this feat because of how much more often they will be landing critical hits. The only downside of this feat would be if your fighter finds a magical weapon that isn't bludgeoning and is strictly better than your current weapon.
- Defensive Duelist: If you’re going for a DEX build, this feat is pretty good. While it only works for one attack per turn, it can save your bacon. However, Eldritch Knights and Battle Masters are better off keeping their reactions for other abilities.
- Divinely Favored: This provides a decent amount of value to baseline fighters, who can grab a solid cleric cantrip and either armor of Agathys or hex. That said, it is absolutely incredible for Eldritch Knights, who can expand their spell repertoire and skip having to take War Caster to be effective spellcasters in combat.
- Dual Wielder: Good option for Two-Weapon Fighting builds, but seeing as that build is suboptimal, the ceiling for this feat is quite low. Most of the fighters that are interested in the Dual Wielder feat will be DEX-based fighters, as they can't enhance their strikes with Great Weapon Master and they aren't tanky enough for Sentinel.
- Durable: A fighter with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).
- Eldritch Adept: Fighters can’t pick up this feat unless they were to multiclass or pick Eldritch Knight as a subclass. Even then, it doesn’t add much to the subclass. War Caster poses as a better feat than this one, but adding a few utility spells isn’t terrible.
- Elemental Adept: This feat doesn't provide any value to fighters. Even Eldritch Knights are better off with Magic Initiate or similar spellcaster feats.
- Elven Accuracy: Dex fighters can be absurd, and this feat makes it even more so. With the number of attacks you get, this can easily get out of hand quickly if you can find some way to gain advantage. Samurai subclasses are probably the best for this, as they can use their Fighting Spirit ability for repeatable advantage three times a day.
- Ember of the Fire Giant: Perfect ASIs, good defensive boost, and a potent offensive ability. This is an awesome choice for fighters.
- Fade Away: This could be beneficial if you've built a Dexterity-based fighter or an Eldritch Knight. Keep in mind that you'll only get advantage on one attack after you've turned invisible.
- Fey Teleportation: Neither of these stats work for most fighters. However, Eldritch Knights get a pass, as they can use the INT. However, they should probably look at Fey Touched for more spells instead. It gives them more spell options, and they can cast misty step with spell slots.
- Fey Touched: Misty step is an amazing spell for a fighter, allowing them to traverse the battlefield with ease. The ASI will likely get wasted, but can go into CHA for extra face skills or WIS for perception. The 1st-level spell will more often than not be hunter's mark because it can be cast while your hands are full and will add a d6 onto every one of your hits. Hunter's mark also doesn't really need any upcasting to increase the benefits, nor does it matter if you have a bad spellcasting modifier.
- Fighting Initiate: Picking up an additional Fighting Style is pretty neat, and most work pretty well with one another. Your choice of Fighting Styles is very build-dependent, depending on if you fight with a bow, two-handed weapons, etc.
- Fury of the Frost Giant: Perfect ASIs, good defensive boost, and a potent reaction ability. This is a solid choice for fighters as long as you'll be avoiding a Polearm Master build.
- Gift of the Chromatic Dragon: Fighters attack a lot, and can use Action Surge to double the amount of attacks they get access to in a turn. That, plus the damage resistances, make this an ideal feat for fighters.
- Gift of the Gem Dragon: Most fighters likely won't have a high enough Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom to make this work. Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors, on the other hand, will love this ability as it boosts Intelligence.
- Gift of the Metallic Dragon: This is awesome for fighters who will be in the fray and taking hits. Plus, the cure wounds can be useful to turn your fighter into a pseudo-paladin if you ever have a party member go down. You could even combine it with Action Surge to heal your ally up then keep attacking.
- Grappler: Grapple builds will usually pick up this feat, the Unarmed Fighting Fighting Style, the Rune Knight fighter subclass, and maybe even the Tavern Brawler feat. This is a lot of investment for a suboptimal build, but it can be a lot of fun. If you're not going for this build, skip this feat and choose something that is better value for your investment, like Shield Master.
- Great Weapon Master: GWM, combined with the fighter's ridiculous number of attacks will result in a lot of extra damage and, therefore, a lot of extra bonus action attacks.
- Guile of the Cloud Giant: This is actually a pretty decent ability for non-Sentinel or Polearm Master fighters. Giving yourself resistance to an attack's damage can help with survivability and the free teleport can help you navigate the battlefield. Plus, you can pump Strength or Constitution.
- Gunner: DEX fighters are great, and this feat is a strong contender for them. Between this and Crossbow Expert, it only comes down to whether or not you want to use hand crossbows for the extra bonus action or the extra DEX from this feat.
- Healer: Fighters might make a decent frontline medic for how tanky they are. That said, there are plenty more combat-oriented feats that will be more potent.
- Heavily Armored: Fighters already have heavy armor proficiency.
- Heavy Armor Master: Damage reduction like this is a massive boost to being able to stay alive through fights, especially good on builds not looking to use a shield.
- Inspiring Leader: Certain fighter subclasses, like the Battle Master and Purple Dragon Knight, tend to stack into Charisma. But likely, it will be a tertiary priority behind Strength and Constitution.
- Keen Mind: Nothing here for a fighter. It is at least of some use to Eldrtich Knights who cast spells with INT, but there are plenty of other feats to take before this one. Namely, Fey Touched or Shadow Touched.
- Keenness of the Stone Giant: While the 1d10 + prone stone throw is a great bonus action for fighters to have, they'll be hard-pressed to hit if they're attacking from within melee range. Ranged Dexterity-based fighters with a decent Constitution can make great use of this to output extra damage and control the battlefield.
- Lightly Armored: Already has access to light armor at the start.
- Linguist: Fighters typically won't get much use out of this feat, unless they're playing a more intellectual or tactical character.
- Lucky: Just a straight-up, damn good feat that's made even better by the fighter's ability to make tons of attacks.
- Mage Slayer: Almost all fighters can benefit from this feat, as long as they are playing in a campaign with plenty of spellcasters. Almost all fighters excel in melee combat, and they have excellent damage output. There isn’t one in particular that stands out, though. Just remember that most fighters have access to a few different reactions to choose from, and you only get one reaction per round.
- Magic Initiate: Utility spells for free? Yes, please! Any fighter will be happy with this feat. Eldritch Knights will almost always want to pick this up and pick the wizard spell list, as they can cast the 1st-level spell as if they already knew it since they use wizard spell slots.
- Martial Adept: This is a fairly good option for Battle Masters that want more dice/maneuvers and for Champions that want to trip a foe and use the advantage to aim for critical hits. It is, however, a bit more clunky than taking something like Lucky.
- Medium Armor Master: Most fighters will just go with heavy armor because it provides the most protection for the least investment. Dexterity-based fighters who don't want to invest in Strength at all can use this feat to boost their AC to heavy armor levels while still maintaining their stealthiness.
- Metamagic Adept: Only Eldritch Knights can pick this feat up, but it works well. Most of their 3rd and 4th level spells would work great with double duration, but even just having a subtle spell to prevent counterspell can be ideal. Picking up blur at 8th-level and being able to cast it as a bonus action while maintaining the ability to attack with your action is an awesome way to start off initiative.
- Mobile: Most fighters can use this if they want that playstyle, but it isn’t a must-have. Eldritch Knights and Cavaliers, however, can get good mileage out of this feat for booming blade and mobility advantage.
- Mounted Combatant: Almost all fighters can benefit from this feat if they want to try mounted combat. Because fighters prefer to be in the thick of the fray, they will most likely have to redirect almost all attacks on their mount to themselves in order to keep it alive. Mounted fighters must be wary of powerful AoE attacks that target DEX saves because even a half damage from a dragon's Breath Weapon can kill most mounts. Obviously, cavaliers can get an incredible amount of utility out of this feat, as the subclass is all about mounted combat.
- Observant: You don’t get much out of this feat, as you don’t usually have high INT or WIS, to begin with. Eldritch Knights might be able to get away with this if they need the extra boost.
- Orcish Fury: Half-Orcs are a very synergistic race for fighters and this feat adds additional utility to martial builds. It's a half-feat so it provides an STR or CON bonus, provides additional damage once per rest, and provides an extra attack when you use your Relentless Endurance feature.
- Outlands Envoy: One free casting of misty step and an ASI isn't enough to make fighters want to take this feat. Eldritch Knights may find slightly more value, but will find that Fey Touched is more impactful.
- Piercer: This is a stellar feat for most fighters, as there are a ton of weapons that you can use. Samurai and Champions are the best fits for this, as they can get crits a little more often than other classes. It's also a solid pickup for DEX fighter builds that will either be using a bow, crossbow, or rapier.
- Planar Wanderer: Even with the tailorable damage resistance, this feat just isn't worth it for a fighter.
- Poisoner: Fighters don't have much use for their bonus action outside of two-weapon fighting. Having access to an extra 2d8 poison damage on your attacks is a great way to stretch your damage and the poisoned condition is an excellent debuff. Unfortunately, the low DC for the save makes this less impactful the higher level you get. Obviously, something like Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master would be much stronger, but this can be fun, especially in the lower levels.
- Polearm Master: Fighters will love this feat, mainly because they get so many opportunities to combine its effects with other feats. Fighters get more ASIs than any other class, so picking up Great Weapon Master and Sentinel on top of Polearm Master is well within your reach. The fighter’s playstyle synergizes exceptionally well with Polearm Master. They get attacks for days, and having the extra reach is terrific. Polearms will work incredibly well with every subclass except for the Arcane Archer.
- Prodigy: Fighters get access to loads of feats and this is a great way to pick up a proficiency and expertise with some of those extra resources. If you're playing as a half-elf, half-orc, or human, this is a great pick up.
- Resilient: This is an alright option for becoming proficient in DEX saves and is especially potent if you're a medium armor, DEX-based fighter as you could gain a pump to your AC.
- Revanent Blade: Awesome option for Dexterity-based fighters as you can use your Fighting Style to pick up Defense, rather than having to take Two-Weapon Fighting.
- Righteous Heritor: Unless you're going for a Polearm Master or Sentinel build, this can offer a huge amount of damage mitigation each long rest, for both you and your allies.
- Ritual Caster: Most fighters won't want this feat, but subclasses that use Intelligence, like Eldritch Knights or Psi Warriors, could make good use of it.
- Rune Shaper: Armor of Agathys is a solid choice if you'll be running into battle. Also, taking an AoE spell like burning hands or thunderwave could end up netting a ton of damage if you're surrounded by minions. Make sure to keep your spellcasting modifier at a respectable level if you're going for spells that require a save DC, though.
- Savage Attacker: Even though this feat is best with heavy weapons, which fits some fighter's playstyle, it's much more worth it to go with Great Weapon Master or one of the Tasha's weapon feats.
- Scion of the Outer Planes: Unless you're going for an Eldritch Knight or Psi Warrior, your spellcasting ability won't be high enough to make an offensive cantrip worth it. Instead, choose a your favorite utility cantrip and damage resistance combo, Lawful Outer Plane for force damage resistance and guidance is a solid place to start.
- Second Chance: A pretty solid way to make your tanky fighter more tanky, especially if you'll be getting into fights often. This is a good opportunity to boost Constitution if you ended up with an odd score after character creation.
- Sentinel: Kings of battlefield manipulation, all fighters love this feat! It pairs well with Polearm Master to lock down enemies in combat, and they get plenty of melee combat action. Almost any fighter can use this, with Echo Knights favoriting it a little more because it works with their echoes.
- Shadow Touched: This could work out either way based on how you prefer to play your fighter. Most fighter subclasses aren’t interested in being stealthy at all, but it’s not wrong to have a few spells up your sleeve in a pinch. Yet, for most fighters, this one can be skipped.
- Sharpshooter: Pretty much the same thing as Great Weapon Master. The negative you take to your attack roll for damage can be offset a bit more by using the Archery Fighting style. This is an insanely good pickup for ranged, DEX-based fighters.
- Shield Master: This is a great option to use your bonus action if you don’t already have a use for it. Knocking a creature prone gives the rest of your party advantage, but keep in mind that this is only available after you have taken an attack action.
- Skill Expert: Fighters probably don’t want this as their first feat as their main role in a party is to kill stuff. It’s excellent in the long run, but there are so many other feats fighters would want first, such as Sharpshooter, Sentinel, or Great Weapon Master depending on your build.
- Skulker: It’s pretty easy to play a DEX-based, ranged sniper fighter, pairing it with the archery fighting style. Battle Master and Samurai both make great starting options for this build, and you can open it up to multiclassing later for better benefits.
- Slasher: Fighters love this feat, and it works with almost any subclass.
- Soul of the Storm Giant: Great defensive boost for Strength-based fighters that want to be in the thick of it. Being able to boost Strength or Constitution is also a nice little bonus.
- Spell Sniper: Fighters can't cast spells unless they are Eldritch Knights, who usually want to avoid spells that require attack rolls or saving throws.
- Squat Nimbleness: Mountain dwarves make awesome fighters because of their +2 to Strength and Constitution. The extra speed is welcome here to get you to the front lines quicker, as is the ASI to Strength and proficiency in Athletics.
- Strike of the Giants: The wide variety of effects you have to choose from can help your fighter specialize into a playstyle. Hill Strike or Fire Strike will likely be your best bet, but Storm and Frost Strike can help with tanking playstyles. Make sure to check out which 4th-level giant feat you'll want to take, because the Strike option you take when you pick this feat will dictate what's available.
- Tavern Brawler: If you wanted to build your entire playstyle around MMA, this feat can help it become a reality. Pick this feat up, along with Grappler so you can restrain creatures once you've grappled them. You'll also want to go for Unarmed Fighting, which allows you to deal 1d6 on unarmed strikes and you automatically deal 1d4 damage at the start of the turn when grappling creatures. When it comes to subclasses, Champions, Battle Masters, and Rune Knights are all decent for this purpose.
- Telekinetic: Fighters have little to no use for this feat because the Shove bonus action will be weak due to a lack of CHA, WIS, or INT. Also, the Shove can't knock enemies prone, only move them 5ft. These caveats make Shield Master a much more worthwhile feat for Fighters to pick up. Eldritch Knights might make decent use of this with their INT focus and it's particularly flavorful (but not powerful) for Psi Warriors.
- Telepathic: Nothing here for a fighter.
- Tough: Fighters already have a d10 hit dice but they have plenty of ASIs to spend on Tough, which will help keep them alive and swinging in combat.
- Vigor of the Hill Giant: This can be fine for fighters who want some extra hit points. Plus, seeing as you're usually in the fray you're more likely to be targeted by effects that try to move you.
- War Caster: Fighters who end up as Eldritch Knights will want this feat. They will always be up-close and personal, and they usually don’t have material components for their spells. Paired with fighter’s proficiency in CON, you’ll be tough to stop.
- Weapon Master: Fighters already have access to all weapon proficiencies.
Best Multiclass Options for Fighters
Barbarian: No one is shocked here. The Barbarian class gets you Rage and a d12 hit die at 1st-level though, unfortunately, your Unarmored Defense will likely go to waste. Depending on how long your campaign intends to run, 2nd-level and 3rd-level Barbarian is also worth a dip to get Danger Sense, Reckless Attack, and a Path feature. As for Paths, Path of the Berserker and Path of the Totem (Bear) will give you the best features for the lowest amount of trade-off.
Rogue: The Rogue class will synergize best with a DEX Fighter build. A one-level dip gets you access to Sneak Attack and Expertise. A two-level dip gets you Cunning Action. Three levels nets you a Roguish Archetype, the Assassin and Swashbuckler are usually best when combined with the Fighter’s strengths.
Ranger: Rangers are where things get a bit further away from ideal. Luckily, you aren’t restricted with either being a DEX or STR fighter when you choose a Ranger multiclass. Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain are nice, but are much more restricted in their usage than either of the Barb’s or Rogue’s 1st-level features. A two-level dip nets an extra Fighting Style and Spellcasting. Make sure to choose spells that don’t need WIS to be effective, Hunter’s Mark is the best choice here. Absorb Element, Good Berry, and Zephyr Strike are all solid picks for your second spell. A three-level Ranger dip nets a Ranger Archetype, the Hunter is definitely the most conducive towards the Fighter’s strengths though any of the other Ranger subclasses will work if you like the flavor more.
Sources Used in This Guide
- BR: Basic Rules
- GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
- SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
- ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
- EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
- EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
- FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
- GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
- MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
- MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
- MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
- PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
- PHB: Player's Handbook
- SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
- SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
- SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
- TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
- TTP: The Tortle Package
- WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
- VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
- VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
- XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the guides, they’re great! I’m curious as to your analysis behind the Champions’ Improved Critical feature. Presumably, this is a major reason why you rank the Champion archetype as Sky Blue vs say the Battlemaster. The 3rd level Improved Critical will net you (on average) 1d8 extra damage for 20 attacks. One of the Battlemasters maneuvers will net up to 4d8 extra damage for 4 attacks. Of course not all of them may hit, but lets say half of them hit for a total of 2d8 extra damage + whatever extra feature they impose. Within a short rest period, one or two combats, you MIGHT make a total of 20 attacks, but probably fewer. It seems like the Improved Critical feature and the Champion Archetype should be rated as Green at best. I agree from a statistical analysis perspective with almost all of your other rankings, so am I missing something with the Champion?
-Craig
Thanks for writing in Craig! I’ve been meaning to adjust the rating on Champion for a while now and your comment was just the prompt I needed. Thanks for providing the solid breakdown. I always appreciate showing your work!