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#1 Zardnaar Aug 31, 2014 16:38:45

In 5E the fighter is a versatile class and in this thread I would like to offer up my thoughts so far on the various builds of the fighter after using several of them in 3 different games. This is not a thread devoted to the char op and specific builds of the various sub classes but more of  a focus on the combat styles you can use and then marry up to one of the 3 subclasses. At it most basic the fighter has 6 styles to choose from- archery, defence, duelling, great weapon fighting, protection and two weapon fighting. If you are not using the players hand book I think most of these options are fine and offer a decent choice between offense and defence, damage and accuracy. The starter set fighter builds are not very good as such for various reasons but in Basic D&D you can tweak the characters a bit more and make some basic and effective fighters.    In basic D&D I think you are better off most of the time going for a high dexterity fighter with the exception using a two handed weapon. The dex fighter really only gives up one or two points of AC and even then only at certain levels and that depends on what equipment and wealth the DM puts in the game and if fighters can get access to plate armour by level 3 or 4.  Using the PHB the advantages of the dex based fighter over the strength based fighters becomes a lot less clear cut mostly due to 3 feats that favour strength based fighters over dexterity based fighters and their feat options. Those feats are Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master and Heavy Armour Mastery. Polearm and Great Weapon Master feats offer extra attacks which to me are worth giving up a +1 to hit and damage.  Since the extra attacks by those two feats are bonus actions I suspect picking one or the other in conjunction with heavy armor master at level 1 for humans is the way to go for a strength based fighter.   The issue is further clouded by the variant human which is a very good race to pick and your only choice if you want a feat at level 1 and you can still have 16 strength and 16 con if you chose the Heavy Armor Mastery Feat and gain damage reduction 3 vs physical attacks. A dexterity based fighter most likely is locked into stat buffs at level 4 and 6 and his feat selection is not as good compared with the strength based fighter.    Another strength based fighter build is the Knight build and this means the mounted combatant feat. The reason you may want this feat is the Knight is one of the classic fighter builds throughout the editions and may even be the stereotypical fighter from myth, legend and history. In older editions these fighters got double damage off lance attacks which could be abused in both AD&D and 3rd ed. The main appeal to take them in 5E is you can use a 1d12 weapon in one hand that has reach (can’t attack foes within 5’ though) and you have advantage on any foe that is smaller than your mount. RAW lances also stack with the duelist weapon style so you have a 1d12+2 weapon which out damage even two handed weapons and on foot you will not suck that much in a dungeon either.    Probably not a great feat to pick as a level 1 fighter due to the best heavy armour and horse being expensive but you could have the heavy armour feat+ mounted combatant by level 4 as a human with the stereotypical knight equipment. If you come across a dungeon that is not 5’ wide you can say giddyup horsie and ride into it. In 2nd ed we had a Paladin take a warhorse into the underdark which can be an unpleasant surprise for Drow and Umber Hulks. Said Paladin died horribly but at least you can do it. They have fixed the exploit you could do in 3.5 with mounted halflings on war dogs and similar mounts as there is no double damage with a lance anymore and a mounted Halfling on a war dog or great cat only has advantage vs small foes like Goblins and Kobolds.    The dexterity based fighter builds are a bit more limited as you need to boost dex at every chance you can in order to get your defences out of the gutter as AC 15 is not that good compared to AC 18-20 and damage reduction 3. This means your stat boosts are more or less taken until level 6 minimum although a human could take a feat at level 1. There is no dexterity based feat that grants extra attack or in essence halves your damage at the level that in theory is the most lethal one in the game. The dual wielding fighter style however lets the dex based fighter deal more damage than the other options at low levels with two attacks for 1d6+3 each and 1d6+5 base damage once your dexterity hits 20 potentially at level 6 and you can get that up to 1d8+5 and +1 AC at level 8 or by level 6 as a human via the Dual Wielder feat.    My PCs have not hit the higher levels yet but it seems the dual wielder is competitive up to level 11 or so and doesn’t suck after that either due to the other advantages dexterity has- saves, skills, initiatives and being able to split multiple attacks is often useful as well. Magic weapons and other static damage boosts will also tilt things slightly in the dual wielders favour and magic short swords and daggers are quite common in most D&D adventures which is another thing to consider since you can no longer buy the magic items you want. My dual wield Halfling fighter I get to play with is now level 4 and he is a nice basic build where you do not have to think too much.     Another fighter build as such is the archer build and this means the archery weapon style.  This offers a clear advantage of +2 to hit over the extra damage and attacks of the other styles. In D&D basic I did get to use an archer and being honest it was a little underwhelming. The +2 accuracy does not seem to negate the extra damage dual wielding, two handed weapons styles and the dualist style offer which is almost double the damage in some cases. This option does not get much better with the PHB feats with the sharp shooter feat or with even in concept like do we even need an archer which seems to be a 5th man option in a party and even then a warlock or light cleric seems to offer much the same thing but with more utility and probably more damage as well. My gut feeling is lacking the extra attacks of the AD&D archer and the rapid shot feat from 3.5/Pathfinder the archer concept is weak. A Rapid shot ability from Star Wars Saga may be able to save it (extra 1W damage vs extra attack) but the archer has not impressed me or my players who are avoiding it as they share a similar opinion.    This more or less leaves the sword and board fighter option. Here you have a clear choice of +1 AC or defending an adjacent ally or +2 damage which makes a d8 weapon deal similar damage to a two handed weapon and you get +2 AC. You can go strength or dex based with this build and at level 11 you will pick whatever other option you considered at level 1. I suspect most players will chose the +2 damage at level 1 in order to stay competitive with the dual wielding and two handed weapon options. Combined with the heavy armour feat you have a decent tank fighter where you are not conceding a massive damage bonus over a two handed weapon compared to 3.5 and Pathfinder where you are kind of an idiot if you do not chose a two handed weapon such as a composite long bow, great sword or falchion. I like that as a sword and board fighter is a classic build that can be used to represent a hoplite, legionnaire right through to a knight or heavy infantry man.    In conclusion I think the 5E fighter is the best fighter the game had since 2E as you are not punished as such for picking certain options unlike 3.5 or rail roaded like 4th ed where you had 2 options really in the PHB. I think two handed weapon, sword and board, archer, and dual wielder are your basic 4 options to pick from that you can tweak into a polearm use, knight or what have you. With dexterity and strength options you probably have close to 12 or so viable builds you can layer onto the 3 fighter subclasses. This is very close to the 2nd ed fighter which had great utility when you used some of the optional rules or the fighters hand book for example with kits.    Most races also make great fighters as long as they can have a boost to strength or dexterity. This is also ignoring the back grounds as well which means you can have a charismatic noble fighter for example and not get punished for it although you dexterity and intelligence may have to be dump stats in that situation. Even the +1 to all stats fighter doesn’t make an awful fighter if you want a skill monkey build as you can have 12,12,12,14,14,16 using point buy as ability scores. You give up a feat of course but no dump stats and +1 minimum on all skills and saves my appeal to some people or suit some campaigns as feats may not even be allowed or the variant human may not be allowed.