2024 DnD 5e Fighter Class Guide (2024)

Introduction

The Fighter, DnD 5e’s most iconic martial character, is a fantastic addition to any party. While their skill options are often limited, Fighters excel in combat. They are durable, dangerous, and deeply customizable to suit a variety of playstyles. Fighters get more Weapon Mastery options, more attacks, and, thanks to Action Surge, they get more Actions than anyone else, making the Fighter a lot of fun to build and play.

Fighters are a great example of “opt-in complexity” in DnD 5e. The core of the class is simple and resilient, but the complexity of the subclasses varies significantly. The Champion adds almost no complexity, but they’re still satisfying to play and nearly unstoppable at high levels. Subclasses like the Battle Master add substantial additional complexity, but can bring fantastic new tactical options. This makes the Fighter a great choice for players of all experience levels and for players with a broad range of preferences, allowing you to build a character that you find mechanically appealing without making it more work than you might like.

Fighters excel as Defenders and Strikers, but can add additional roles depending on your build choices. A bit of work allows the Fighter to also serve as a Face (Purple Dragon Knight) or Librarian (Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior), and even with middling Charisma or Intelligence, you can use Tactical Mind to add 1d10 to your skill checks, easily making up the difference. You can also explore a role as a Scout if you’re built around Dexterity, allowing you to succeed with skills like Stealth and with tools like Thieves’ Tools.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Fighter Class Features
• 2024 Fighter Changes from 2014 Rules
• Fighter Backgrounds
• Fighter Species
• Fighter Ability Scores
  • Strength-Based Fighters
  • Dexterity-Based Fighters
  • Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors
• Fighter Skills
• Fighter Feats
  • Origin Feats
  • General Feats
  • Fighting Styles
  • Epic Boons
• Fighter Weapons
• Fighter Armor
• Fighter Multiclassing

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Fighter Class Features

Optional Class Features are detailed below under Optional Class Features.

Hit Points: d10 hit points is standard formartial characters, and it’s plenty to keep you going, especially with heavyarmor and abilities like Second Wind.

Saves: Strength saves are fairly rare, butConstitution saves are common and typically very problematic.

Proficiencies: All weapons, armor, andshields, but you get no tool proficiencies, and only two skills.

1. Fighting Style: Fantastic. See Fighting Styles under Feats, below, for help picking a Fighting Style.

1. Second Wind: A great way to keep yourself going in combat without begging spellcasters for help in combat. Be sure that you’ve used this at least once before each Short Rest to help conserve your Hit Point Dice.

1. Weapon Mastery: Absolutely fantastic. Most martial classes get just 2 Weapon Mastery slots, but Fighters start with 3 and eventually get 6. Since the rules for weapon attacks allow you to draw or stow a weapon with each attack, you can rapidly switch between weapons to benefit from different Weapon Mastery options in quick succession.

Note that at level 9 you’ll get Tactical Master, which allows you to use Weapon Mastery even more flexibly.

2. Action Surge: A second Action can let you do a lot of things. In most cases, that’s going to be a second Attack action. You eventually get 3 uses per Short Rest, at which point you can comfortably use Action Surge at least once in every encounter.

Unfortunately, two-weapon fighting builds don’t benefit from Action Surge as much as other builds. You don’t get a second Bonus Action, and even if you use a weapon with the Nick mastery, Nick says “You can make this extra attack only once per turn.”

Because Action Surge explicitly prohibits the Magic action, you can’t use Action Surge to cast a spell, activate many magic items, and use many class features from other classes. The Eldritch Knight’s War Magic and Improved War Magic features notably bypass this because you’re not taking the Magic action to cast spells, but it’s not clear if this is intentional.

2. Tactical Mind: The Fighter generally has few good skill options, which makes it difficult for them to contribute outside of combat. This gives you a huge boost to ability checks a few times per day, allowing you to be effective will skills even if your modifier is relatively poor.

3. Subclass: Fighter subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Fighter Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

• Battle Master: Use powerful combat maneuvers toapply rider effects to your attacks, and use the same pool of resources tosupport skill checks outside of combat, allowing you to thrive both on andoff the battlefield.
• Champion: Do you like critical hits? Cool. Doyou want to smash through problems with a ball of weaponized math? No? Justthe crit thing? Okay, fine. They do that.
• Eldritch Knight: Add a splash of Wizardspellcasting to mesh martial mastery and magical might.
• Psi Warrior: Use powerful psionic abilities tomanipulate the battlefield.

5. Extra Attack: Fantastic.

5. Tactical Shift: Not always important, but this can get you out of a bad position, or it can stretch your movement to reach a good position without Dashing.

6. Ability Score Improvement: Fighters get an extra Ability Score Increase at level 6, making it much easier to collect feats.

9. Indomitable: With 5e’s bounded math, save DC’s won’t break 20 for a long time, and even then your level increases much faster than save DC’s do. This isn’t quite Legendary Resistance, but, with your level as an added bonus, you’re very likely to succeed on any given saving throw. You eventually get up to 3 uses per Long Rest.

9. Tactical Master: This massively expands what you can do with Weapon Mastery, allowing you to more easily benefit from multiple mastery options in quick succession. Having essentially permanent access to these masteries does mean that weapons with those masteries are less useful, so you may want to change weapons unless you have a magic weapon that you’re enjoying.

11. Two Extra Attacks: More attacks than anyone except the Monk.

13. Studied Attacks: Absolutely fantastic. With as many attacks as the Fighter gets, you’re bound to miss some, but Advantage on your next attack means that you’ll rarely miss two in a row. Combine this with a Vex weapon and you’ll have Advantage on every attack after the first whether you hit or miss.

20. Three Extra Attacks: 4 attacks is a lot.

2024 Fighter Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

Changes to the Fighter were almost purely additive, so there are a lot of buffs here compared to the 2014 Fighter. The only thing lost was the ability to do magic with Action Surge, which almost never helped the Fighter anyway.

• 1. Persuasion added to list of skill proficiency options
• 1. Fighting Style. Fighting Styles are now feats, making them more broadly accessible. Fighters get 1 for free, and can change it each time they gain a level. Previously you were locked in permanently, which was frustrating in a game where you might find cool magic items that don’t fit your Fighting Style.
• 1. Second Wind. Now 2 uses per Long Rest, and you get 1 back on a Short Rest. Uses per long rest improve with level. This allows you to use them sporadically as-needed throughout the day, rather than hoping that they’ll be equally useful between each rest.
• 1. Weapon Mastery. New.
• 2. Action Surge. Now prohibits the Magic action, so you can no longer use Action Surge to cast spells.
• 2. Tactical Mind. New. Spend Second Wind to add 1d10 to a failed ability check; retain the use of Second Wind if you still fail.
• 5. Tactical Shift. New. Move up to half your speed without Opportunity Attacks when you use Second Wind.
• 9. Indomitable. The reroll now adds a bonus equal to your Fighter level, generally removing the frustration of rerolling and failing again.
• 9. Tactical Master. New. Use the Push, Sap, or Slow Weapon Mastery with any weapon. This will make weapons that already have those masteries unappealing from level 9 onward.
• 11. Two Extra Attacks. Renamed. Thank god, they found a better name than “Extra Attack 2”
• 13. Studied Attacks. Advantage on your next attack against the same target when you miss. Removes the frustration of making numerous attacks and missing with all of them.
• 20. Three Extra Attacks. Renamed.

Fighter Backgrounds

Increases to either Strength or Dexterity are absolutely required, andincreases to Constitution are helpful. If you’re playing an Eldritch Knight,you probably also want Intelligence. Strength-based builds don’t have manygood skill options, but Dexterity-based builds will enjoy Dexterity-basedskills like Sleight of Hand and Stealth.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted byyour Background, see the Fighter Feats section, below.

• Artisan^(PHB) : Goodability scores for an Eldritch Knight, but Persuasion is a hard skill forthe Fighter, and Crafter isn’t a great feat.
• Charlatan^(PHB) : Dexterity,Constitution, and Skilled is a great combination for Dexterity-based builds,especially if you’re filling in for a Rogue in the party.
• Criminal^(PHB) : A goodchoice for Dexterity-based builds, especially if there isn’t a Rogue in theparty.
• Farmer^(PHB) : A goodoption for front-line martials. The ability scores are great, and Tough isan easy go-to feat if you don’t want more complexity, but you won’t get muchuse out of the skills.
• Guard^(PHB) : Goodability scores for any Strength-based Fighter, and Perception is a greatskill. Alert isn’t crucial for most martial characters, but remember thatyou can trade initiatives with a willing ally to help an allied spellcaster actearly.
• Guide^(PHB) : A finechoice for Dexterity-based builds, but you may struggle to use the Druidspellcasting for anything except Eldritch Knight, which may struggle withoutan Intelligence increase. Still, using Shillelagh with Intelligence may workout long term.
• Noble^(PHB) : This couldwork for an Eldritch Knight build.
• Sage^(PHB) :Intelligence and Constitution seem appealing for the Eldritch Knight,especially with Magic Initiate (Wizard) and Intelligence-based skills, butremember that you’re still a Fighter first, so you need either Strength orDexterity.
• Sailor^(PHB) : Decentability scores for a melee build plus one good skill. Tavern Brawler isn’t agreat choice, but the ability to push an enemy 5 feet while also dealingdamage with an Unarmed Strike may be useful if you’re not using weapons withthe Push mastery.
• Scribe^(PHB) : Goodability scores for a Dexterity-based build, especially an Eldritch Knight.The skills are pretty good, and if you don’t have another Intelligence-basedcharacter in the party, you can use Skilled to get knowledge skills likeArcana.
• Soldier^(PHB) : Thenominal default for the Fighter. Savage Attacker is a decent feat at lowlevels when you’re only making a few attacks, but will feel less impactfulas you make more and more attacks in a turn. The skills aren’t great, butIntimidation might give you something useful to do in social situations.
• Wayfarer^(PHB) : Goodability scores for a Dexterity-based build, and between the skills andThieves’ Tools you could fill in for a Rogue in your party. Lucky is an easyfeat on any character.

Fighter Species

Most Fighters will enjoy additional durability, as well as combat options like the Goliath’s Giant Heritage and the Orc’s Adrenaline Surge. Dexterity-based builds might enjoy additional skills, especially if you’re hoping to substitute for a Rogue in your party. Eldritch Knights will enjoy innate spellcasting, but be cautious about offensive spells since your Intelligence likely won’t be as high as your Strength or Dexterity.

• Aasimar^(PHB): Two damageresistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combattransformation. Celestial Revelation is very useful for the Fighter,offering both a way to handle crowds and flight, neither of which areavailable for most Fighters.
• Dragonborn^(PHB): A damageresistance, likely to a common damage type like poison or fire, a decent wayto handle crowds of small enemies, Darkvision, and flight once per day.
• Dwarf^(PHB): Darkvision,resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points.Tremorsense offers a way to find hidden or invisible enemies which mostFighters can’t replicate. Altogether, a great package for melee builds.
• Elf^(PHB): Darkvisionand an extra skill are both great. The innate spellcasting is onlyconsistently useful for the Eldritch Knight, but Blade Ward can be useful for any Fighter even if you don’t use the other spells.
• Gnome^(PHB): Darkvisionis both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer someinteresting utility options. However, Gnomish Cunning may feel obsolete onceyou get Indomitable at level 9.
• Goliath^(PHB): GiantHeritage offers numerous excellent options. I like Cloud’s Jaunt, Hill’sTopple, and Stone’s Endurance. Large Form is great for melee builds lookingto occupy more space on the battlefield.
• Halfling^(PHB): Brave andLucky are both nice, but not enough on their own. Halfling Nimbleness isneat, but rarely impactful since you can already move through allies’ spacesand if you need to get past an enemy it should involve hurting them.Naturally Stealthy isn’t helpful for the front-line martial characters.Lucky may be helpful since fighters make so many attacks, but I don’t thinkthat’s enough.
• Human^(PHB): Anadditional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
• Orc^(PHB): AdrenalineRush is great for front-line melee builds, letting you move into meleequickly and padding your hit points for when you inevitably draw a lot ofattacks. Relentless Endurance provides some insurance in case things gowrong, and you can heal yourself as a Bonus Action with Second Wind on yournext turn to keep from immediately dying.
• Tiefling^(PHB): Darkvision,a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. Only useful for theEldritch Knight, but who will find the additional spellcasting will be verywelcome.

Fighter Ability Scores

Fighters can be built in many ways. Strength-based Fighters are the simplest,but Dexterity builds are just as effective, and your subclass might introducea need for mental ability scores like Intelligence or Charisma.

The PHB recommended ability scores attempt to cater to both Strength-basedand Dexterity-based builds, and there is no reason to do this. New playerswill likely find that their ability scores are unsatisfying. Point them tothis section for help, even if they’re not ready for deeper characteroptimization.

Strength-Based Fighters

Str: Your primary ability score.

Dex: Dump.

Con: Hit points and saves.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Saves and skills.

Cha: Dump.

Dexterity-Based Fighters

Str: Usually you want to dump this. However, if you’re planning to use a Heavy like a Longbow or Musket, consider taking 13 Strength to qualify for Great Weapon Master.

Dex: Your primary ability score.

Con: Hit points and saves.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Saves and skills.

Cha: Dump.

Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors

Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors introduce a need for Intelligence, but you are still a Fighter first. 14 Intelligence is a safe bet to meet your needs without dumping Wisdom. If you’re building to fight at range, consider dropping Constitution slightly to focus more on Intelligence and Wisdom.

I do not recommend building an Eldritch Knight or a Psi Warrior using the PHBrecommended ability scores. 10 Intelligence is not enough.

Fighter Skills

• Acrobatics (Dex): Functionally useless.
• Animal Handling (Wis): Functionallyuseless.
• Athletics (Str): Functionally useless.
• History (Int): History can provide a lotof useful background information. This is especially viable for EldritchKnights.
• Insight (Wis): Arguably your best socialskill.
• Intimidation (Cha): Fighters almostuniversally dump Charisma, but if you want some social skills this seemslike your best choice.
• Perception (Wis): One of the mostimportant skills in the game. At least two people in the party should haveit, but more is always better.
• Survival (Wis): Too situational.

Fighter Feats

Thissectiondoesnotaddresseverypublishedfeat,asdoingsowouldresultinanever-growinglistofoptionswhichdon’tcatertotheclass.Instead,thissectionwillcoverfeatswhichwethinkworkespeciallywellfortheclassorwhichmightbetemptingbutpoorchoices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select anOrigin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may getmore from sources like the Human’s species traits.

• Alert^(PHB): Never a badchoice, but less impactful for martial characters than for full casters.
• Crafter^(PHB): Neat, butnot especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful earlyin the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anythingin the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice,so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
• Lucky^(PHB): An easychoice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s agreat default if you don’t need anything else.
• Magic Initiate^(PHB): Druidspells to get Shillelagh for Eldritch Knight Fighters or Wizard spells toexpand the Eldritch’s Knight’s existing spellcasting can both have a bigimpact, but there’s no appeal here for other Fighters.
• Musician^(PHB): A great wayto contribute to any party.
• Savage Attacker^(PHB): Decent ifyou’re using weapons with big damage dice, but as you add more attacks perturn this becomes less impactful.
• Skilled^(PHB): Good forDexterity-based builds and for Eldritch Knights to pick up skills whichcapitalize on your ability scores.
• Tavern Brawler^(PHB): There isvery litle to use this. Grab a weapon with the Push mastery.
• Tough^(PHB): Alwayshelpful for front-line melee builds, but not essential.

General Feats

• Athlete^(PHB): A decentchoice for many martial characters. A climb speed is the next best thing toa fly speed. The ability to stand up quickly makes falling or being knockedprone less of a problem. The ability to jump with less of a running start maylet you easily jump over difficult terrain and other obstacles whichotherwise might slow your movement in combat.
• Charger^(PHB): The pusheffect is decent, especially when combined with a Push mastery, but withoutother stacking sources of push distance you’ll have trouble getting past the30-foot threshold where most creatures won’t have enough speed toimmediately run back into melee. The Battle Master’s Pushing Attack is onesuch option.
• Chef^(PHB): Anexcellent source of additional healing and of Temporary Hit Points. Good forany melee build.
• Crossbow Expert^(PHB): CrossbowExpert paired with Fighting Style (Archery) is a simple build forconsistently good damage at range.
• Crusher^(PHB): A simpleand easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat, especially whencombined with the Push mastery.
• Defensive Duelist^(PHB): Aconsistent and effective way to boost your AC in melee if you’re usingFinesse weapons like rapiers or short swords. However, giving up yourReaction prevents you from making an Opportunity Attack, and punishingenemies for moving away from you is an important part of being your party’sfront line.
• Dual Wielder^(PHB): Without anadditional damage boost on hit, the Bonus Action attack doesn’t meaningfullyimprove two-weapon fighting for you. Fighting Style (Two-Weapon Fighting)and a Nick weapon are all that you need.
• Durable^(PHB): Not as goodas you would hope. The Bonus Action to spend a Hit Point Die notably doesnot add your Constitution modifier, which makes it an expensive andfrustrating way to burn through your Hit Point Dice very quickly withminimal impact. Unless your party has some other deep, inexpensive healingresource, you need those dice for Short Rests to refill your massive pool ofhit points. Take Chef instead.
• Elemental Adept^(PHB): Even theEldritch Knight should not use a single element enough to justify this.
• Fey Touched^(PHB): Helpful forthe Eldritch Knight. More spells and some free castings can do a lot foryou.
• Grappler^(PHB): Even if youdo nothing else to make yourself good at unarmed strikes, this is a greatway to hold enemies in place without heavily cutting into your damageoutput. You’ll want to use a one-handed weapon (Versatile weapons also workwell here) to leave a hand free. If you use a weapon with the Topple masteryor if you make another unarmed strike, you can knock your target prone andkeep them there, then drag them away from your allies.
• Great Weapon Master^(PHB): Essentialand reliable if you’re using two-handed melee weapons.

  The damage bonus notably applies to any weapon with the Heavy property, making it anoption for weapons like longbows and muskets. The Strength increase is hard for Dexterity-based builds, but strongly consider this once you’ve hit 20 Dexterity.

• Heavy Armor Master^(PHB): A hugeamount of damage reduction.
• Inspiring Leader^(PHB): You mighthave enough Wisdom to qualify for this. It’s a fantastic addition to anyparty, but definitely don’t rush to take it until you’ve hit 20 in Strengthor Dexterity.
• Mage Slayer^(PHB): Greatinsurance against difficult mental saves. This may feel redundant once youget Indomitable, or you might find that you’re using both reliably.
• Medium Armor Master^(PHB): Borderlineworthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
• Mounted Combatant^(PHB): Without amagical mount of some kind, mounted combat simply isn’t viable.
• Observant^(PHB): If you’reproficient in Perception and have decent Wisdom, you may be well qualifiedto use Perception reliably. But even then, this is only helpful if your DMlikes to use stealthy enemies and/or likes to include traps in combatencounters.
• Piercer^(PHB): Excellentif you prefer piercing weapons. Spectacular if you’re a Champion.
• Poisoner^(PHB): This couldwork for Dexterity-based builds, but it’s not especially impactful. You’llget more value out of something like Piercer.
• Polearm Master^(PHB):Fantastic.
• Resilient^(PHB): More savesnever hurt. Resilient (Dexterity) is easy to fit into a Dexterity-basedbuild.
• Ritual Caster^(PHB): Not even onan Eldritch Knight.
• Sentinel^(PHB): Fantastic.This provides the “stickiness” that you need to be your party’s Defender,allowing you to easily fill that role regardless of any of your other buildchoices.
• Shadow-Touched^(PHB): Helpful forthe Eldritch Knight, but Fey Touched offers better spells.
• Sharpshooter^(PHB): Helpful forranged builds, but not essential unless your DM really enjoys using cover.Thrown weapon builds might enjoy this to offset their poor range relative toweapons like bows and muskets.
• Shield Master^(PHB): Excellenton Strength-based sword-and-board builds. Shield Bash is great actioneconomy. Interpose Shield will help mitigate area damage, especially onceyou have Indomitable and can turn a failed save into a successful one andfully negate the damage.
• Skill Expert^(PHB):Strength-based Fighters have very few good skill options, butDexterity-based Fighters and Fighters that need high Intelligence orCharisma all have better options.
• Slasher^(PHB): Excellentif you prefer slashing weapons. Consider a weapon with the Slow mastery sothat you can stack the speed penalties.
• Speedy^(PHB): You’redurable enough that an occasional Opportunity Attack shouldn’t scare you,but you might want the 10-foot speed boost on a melee build.
• War Caster^(PHB): Fantasticon the Eldritch Knight. Grab Booming Blade since True Strike relies on yourspellcasting ability modifier, which will almost certainly be worse thanyour Strength or Dexterity.
• Weapon Master^(PHB): You get 3at level 1, and it scales to 6 on its own. You really don’t need more.

Fighting Styles

• Archery^(PHB):Mathematically spectacular
• Blind Fighting^(PHB): Fantastic,but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like torely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get moreconsistent benefit from other options.

  If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.

• Defense^(PHB):Consistently useful, and doesn’t discourage you from switching weapons.
• Blind Fighting^(PHB): Fantastic,but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like torely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get moreconsistent benefit from other options.

  If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.

• Thrown Weapon Fighting^(PHB): Morecomplex than Archery, but the ability to change weapons mid-turn means thatyou can use multiple Weapon Mastery options in a single turn. Two-weaponfighting can work, but without an on-hit damage boost, it’s actually lessdamaging than Archery with a longbow or musket.
• Two-Weapon Fighting^(PHB): Without anon-hit damage boost on all of your attacks, two-weapon fighting can’t keepup with the damage output of two-handed weapons, especially as you add moreattacks and Great Weapon Master.
• Unarmed Fighting^(PHB): Take TavernBrawler.

Epic Boons

• Boon of Combat Prowess^(PHB): Helpful,but it only affects on your 3 or more attacks.
• Boon of Dimensional Travel^(PHB): TheEldritch Knight can combine this with War Magic to do a bunch of stuffinside of one Acton.
• Boon of Energy Resistance^(PHB): A powerfuldefense on any character.
• Boon of Fate^(PHB): More usefulto support your allies’ save-or-suck spells than for anything that you’redoing.
• Boon of Fortitude^(PHB): Great formelee builds. Remember that the additional healing applies to Second Windand with things like the Champion’s Heroic Rally feature.
• Boon of Irresistible Offense^(PHB): You don’thave a built-in way to do anything except bludgeoning/piercing/slashingdamage, so this allows you to bypass troublesome damage resistances. Youalso have 3 or more attacks, giving you more opportunities than mostcharacters to roll a 20 on an attack roll. If you can get Advantage, such asfrom knocking an enemy prone or from the Vex mastery, you can roll a bigpile of d20’s in hopes of getting a 20 and adding a mountain of bonusdamage.
• Boon of Recovery^(PHB): The LastStand feature is great insurance, but definitely not enough to justify yourfirst Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
• Boon of Skill^(PHB): Potentiallyuseful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
• Boon of Speed^(PHB): A hugeboost in mobility for Dexterity-based builds.
• Boon of Spell Recall^(PHB): Potentiallyuseful for the Eldritch Knight, but remember that it only has a 25% chanceto work.
• Boon of the Night Spirit^(PHB): Tempting onDexterity-based builds, but you’re probably your party’s Defender, soremember that there’s value in being a big, shiny target.
• Boon of Truesight^(PHB): Probablyyour only option for handling invisible enemies, but the ability scores arehard. If you’ve made it this far, your party is covering for you or you’vefound a creative solution.

Fighter Weapons

The Fighter is proficient in simple and martial weapons. They also get farmore Weapon Mastery slots than other characters, which encourages them torapidly change weapons mid-combat in order to benefit from whatever masterymeets the needs of the moment.

However, the Fighter’s extreme versatility also puts us in a weird spot: there are no bad weapon choices. The issue isn’t “what’s the best weapon?”, it’s “what’s the best weapon for my build and my preferred tactics?” Almost every weapon has a niche. There are (almost) no bad choices; you just need to pick the best weapon for your build.

Your choice of weapon may need to change when you reach level 9 and getTactical Master. The option to use Push, Sap, or Slow with any weapon meansthat weapons which already have those masteries lose much of their appeal.Weapons with Cleave, Graze, Topple, and Vex remain good choices. Unless you’relocked into a weapon due to some combination of weapon properties and damagetype, strongly consider switching weapons at this point.

• Battleaxe: This is just a trident that youcan’t throw.
• Flail: The only one-handed bludgeoningweapon with Sap. Longsword is typically a better choice unless youspecifically want to take Crusher and still use the Sap mastery.
• Glaive: Reach and Graze. A safe option ifyou only care about damage output and you want something mechanicallysimple.
• Greataxe: Cleave and a giant damage die.A big single damage die isn’t an advantage over other weapons, and Cleave ismuch easier to use with Reach.
• Greatsword: Great if you just want simple,reliable damage output with no complications.
• Halberd: Trade some of the greataxe’sdamage for Reach. Reach makes it much easier to make the bonus Cleave attacksince you can reach enemies behind your initial target.
• Lance: Reach and Topple. You can also usethis one-handed while mounted, but Fighters don’t have an easy way to makemounted combat work. Even if you never get onto a mount, Reach and Topple isas good as any other polearm with reach.
• Longsword: An easy go-to option. Sap isfantastic, especially at low levels when enemies have few attacks.
• Maul: Fantastic for aggressive two-handedweapon builds. Use Topple to knock your target prone, then maul them withAdvantage.
• Morningstar: Worse War Pick.
• Pike: Reach and Push. For when youreally, really don’t want anyone to come near you. Be sure to grab PolearmMaster so that you can attack when enemies move into your reach and pushthem away from you.
• Rapier: The go-to option forDexterity-based melee builds. The Vex mastery gives you Advantage, allowingyou to reliably hit your target repeatedly. Once you get Studied Attacks atlevel 13, you’ll have Advantage on nearly every attack you make.
• Scimitar: The go-to secondary weapon fortwo-weapon fighting since it’s the Nick weapon with the largest damage die.With the Light and Nick properties, you can use this for two-weapon fightingwithout eating your Bonus Action. If you’re building around Slasher, pairthis with a handaxe as your primary weapon.
• Shortsword: A go-to choice for yourprimary weapon when using two-weapon fighting. If you’re building aroundpiercer, pair this with a dagger as your secondary weapon.
• Trident: Absolutely essential as a thrownweapon for Strength-based builds. With the Topple mastery you can throwthese to knock flying enemies prone, which causes them to fall.
• Warhammer: The same damage as thelongsword, but with the Push mastery. Combining this with Crusher gives youa lot of power to forcibly reposition your enemies.
• War Pick: Longsword, but piercingdamage.
• Whip: Reach, Slow mastery, and one-handed.Grab the Slasher feat and you can apply a 20-foot speed penalty, then walksafely out of your target’s reach. The Slow mastery does become redundant atlevel 9 when you get Tactical Mastery, but the Whipe is the only one-handedreach weapon, so it retains an interesting niche.
• Blowgun: There isn’t really a niche forthis one in 5e.
• Hand Crossbow: Two-weapon fighting viaCrossbow Expert.
• Heavy Crossbow: Briefly useful at lowlevels because of its large damage die, but obsolete once you get ExtraAttack. Crossbow Expert negates the Loading property, but, if you’re going totake a feat, take Gunner and grab a pistol or a musket.
• Longbow: The go-to weapon for rangedbuilds. The Shortbow’s Vex mastery may give you better total damage, but theSlow mastery’s crowd control can be very impactful.
• Musket: This hasthe Loading property, which will present a problem as soon as you get ExtraAttack, but with the Gunner feat, this is alinear upgrade from the Longbow, at least in terms of damage. Range might bean issue occasionally, but if that worries you, take Sharpshooter.
• Pistol: Good damage for a one-handedweapon, and the Vex mastery. Advantage from Vex will make your DPR with apistol better than DPR with a musket so long as you’re repeatedly attackingthe same target. If you have enough gold, you can bring a whole bunch ofloaded pistols and repeatedly draw and fire them instead of reloading. Oryou could take the Gunner feat.

Fighter Armor

The Fighter is proficient in light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, andshields.

• Studded Leather: Dexterity-based buildsshould grab studded leather as soon as they hit 18 Dexterity.
• Chain Mail: Starting armor if you didn’tchoose gold. Works fine until you can afford Full Plate.
• Full Plate: The obvious end goal for heavyarmor users.
• Shield: +2 AC is huge in this game.

Fighter Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

• Barbarian: Two levels for Rage and Reckless Attack is definitely tempting, but remember that you can get Advantage on melee attacks by knocking your target prone with a Topple weapon or an unarmed strike.
• Monk: Unarmed Fighters can absolutely work, and a level of Monk for Martial Arts makes that much easier. One level of Barbarian for their version of Unarmored Defense is usually a good combination due to your likely low Wisdom.
• Ranger: Hunter’s Mark and a second Fighting Style can be very helpful, especially for two-weapon fighting builds that focus on making numerous attacks.
• Rogue: Cunning Action is really good, and Expertise offers a lot of options.
• Wizard: Useful for the Eldritch Knight to expand your spellcasting.