Utility Caster Fighter

[Griswold]

Many of the 5E feats, especially the most popular feats are combat focused. But many aren't, instead making you a more interesting, versatile character, and can even make you a caster. And the fighter class has the potential to get a ton of feats---7 over 20 levels (8 if you're a variant human). It also has the coveted Action Surge ability, which can let us cast two spells in one round, if desired.

So I'm wondering, can we build a Fighter who is an effective utility, out-of-combat caster? And can we do it while maintaining at least competence in combat, which the general fighter chassis provides?

Here are my thoughts:

Races

Some races get built-in spellcasting. That's pretty great!


Drow is at the top of my list. Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness are all solid spells to be able to cast. It also gives us access to the Drow High Magic feat.
Firbolg has Detect Magic, Disguise Self, and Invisibility, although the last one is pretty limited.
Wood Elf gets access to Wood Elf Magic, which gives a number of good spells.
Variant human seems obvious, for the feat.
Other than those, githyanki has Misty Step, githzerai has Detect Thoughts, and Earth Genasi has Pass Without Trace, which are all kind of eh.


Stats

With Drow as a race and point buy, we can get:

Str - 8
Dex - 16
Con - 12
Int - 10
Wis - 13 (necessary for Ritual Caster)
Cha - 16


Which gives us more than enough Dex and Con to be relevant in combat, and enough Wis and Cha to be interesting at non-combat things.

For skills, we've got Perception from Drow. Then History and Intimidation from Fighter. We'll make a custom background to get proficiency in Stealth, Deception, and Thieves' Tools.

Fighter Subclass

Eldritch Knight seems pretty obvious to me, for its ability to cast spells. We can maintain a high AC and decent damage with

As far as utility, the following spells are good:

Cantrips: Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, i.e. the usual. I'm tempted to go with Booming Blade just to be good in combat.

Level 1: Shield? Everyone takes shield. I Guess Protection from Evil and Good is decent.

What spell which isn't from Evocation and Abjuration should we get? It's usually Find Familiar, but we're obviously going to take the Ritual Caster feat, so that's out. Fog Cloud and Disguise Self are serious contenders, I think.

Level 2: Arcane Lock, Darkness, and Warding Wind are the interesting spells here.

For non-Evocation and Abjuration there's too many good ones to pick from. Detect Thoughts, Invisibility, and Misty step are all excellent.

And at Level 3, things get really good, with Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Nondetection, and Sending all being Evocation or Abjuration.

Feats



There are 3 important ones, as far as gaining spells.

Ritual Caster - Take Wizard, since it has the most options. We'll have access to such options as Comprehend Languages,Skywrite, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Phantom Steed, and Contact Other Plane at almost the same level as a wizard! And we will get Find Familiar, of course. Which is often the biggest.
Magic Initiate - Take Druid for Guidance and one of the control element cantrips, and either Healing Word or Goodberry, depending on whether your DM will let familiars feed goodberries to downed allies.
Drow High Magic - Detect Magic AT WILL, along with Levitate and Dispel Magic. Looks great.
Wood Elf Magic - Any Druid Cantrip (Guidance!), Longstrider, and Pass Without Trace. Solid.


All Together
So, if we look at our hypothetical Drow Fighter at 8th level, and take Ritual Caster, Magic Initiate, and Drow High Magic, then we'll be able to cast the following:

At-will: 3 Wizard Cantrips (Booming Blade, Minor Illusion, Dancing Lights), 2 Druid Cantrips (Guidance, Control Flames), Detect Magic
At-will Rituals: Find Familiar, Skywrite, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Phantom Steed, some others if we invest.
1/long rest: Darkness, Dispel Magic, Faerie Fire, Levitate, Healing Word or Goodberry
4 1st level spell slots (Shield, Protection from Evil and Good, Fog Cloud)
2 2nd level spells slots (Arcane Lock, Invisibility)


In combat, we're probably looking at Breastplate + Shield + 16 Dex = 18 AC (or 23 with shield). Solid.

Our attack routine with a rapier is:

+6 to hit for 1d8+5 damage (x2 attacks).
+6 to hit for 2d8(or 4d8)+1d8+5 (Booming Blade), and then War Magic gives us another +6 to hit 1d8+5. Respectable!
Ranged attack with bow for +6 to hit for 1d8+3 (x2 attacks). Pretty lame.


As far as skills, we have +6 in Stealth, Deception, and Intimidation, and +4 in Perception. And +6 in Dexterity (Thieves' Tools). Plenty of role-playing possibilities there.

Thoughts from the playground?

Edit: I am a fool who forgot that the entire point of taking Fighter is that I get another ASI at 6th level.

Edit 2: Filled in more details based on feedback.

[Aaron Underhand]

Don't forget spell sniper...

[Rixitichil]

For Magic Initiate, Druid with Goodberry is too good to pass up. Food source and minor healing is a pretty good addition. Getting access to Guidance and your choice of the elemental utility cantrips sounds good as well.

[Griswold]

Don't forget spell sniper...

Spell Sniper does get you a cantrip, but it has to be one that uses an attack roll. Are there any cantrips that you think would give significant utility that require an attack roll (and also are good for someone not maxing out their casting stat?


For Magic Initiate, Druid with Goodberry is too good to pass up. Food source and minor healing is a pretty good addition. Getting access to Guidance and your choice of the elemental utility cantrips sounds good as well.

I forgot about Guidance (and the elemental utility cantrips are great too)! Yeah, that one's a must. As for Goodberry, the amount of healing is pretty minor at 8th level. Would you take it at 4th? Perhaps Healing Word would be better, since it's a bonus action? Or I guess Entangle.

[LudicSavant]

I've made some utility Fighter builds in the past. The fact that Fighters are SAD, can be Dex-based, and don't need that many feats to be decent at things (particularly for Dex Fighters), on top of their extra ASIs, really frees us up to take stuff like Ritual Caster, Prodigy, Wood Elf Magic, or any tertiary stats we want while still holding down a combat role well.

Wood Elf Magic is a good one because it gives you access to Guidance (which is a pretty significant boost to skills/ability checks) as well as stuff like Pass Without Trace (which, on top of your 20 Dex, is enough to make you excellent at stealth).

[thereaper]

Magic Initiate: Healing Word, Guidance, and Thaumaturgy

You can pick up the healer if they drop, you are now a skillmonkey (or can help other people to be one), you have +1d4 initiatve, you have various social benefits, and you can open trapped doors at a safe distance.

This also works as a Barbarian (though you might switch out Healing Word for some other out-of-combat spell). In fact, I'd even go so far as to say they need something like this more than anyone else, since they're the least versatile class in the game.

Another way to go about it is Find Familiar (scouting or advantage in combat), Minor Illusion (too many uses to name), and some other utility cantrip that the rest of the party is likely to be missing (such as Mending or Message).

For a more Druidic bent, there's Goodberry, Guidance, and some other cantrip (Druidcraft, maybe?).

[CTurbo]

I like it. I already love Ritual Caster for Fighters anyway and Magic Initiate is always good too.

You could gain so much from a single level full caster dip. Wizard, Cleric, or Bard gets you a second Ritual Caster class

[Derpldorf]

If your willing to do a one level dip a lvl 1 vHuman Arcane Cleric with the Magic Initiate:Druid can gain access to three Cleric cantrips, two Wizard cantrips and two Druid cantrips. What does this mean to your build?

Thaumaturgy, Guidance, Mending
Prestidigitation, Mold Earth
Druidcraft, Shape Water

All of these are supremely useful in and of themselves and together grant you the ability to literally always have something useful to do. Also they work perfectly right out of the box, no Wis needed.

[Aaron Underhand]

Spell Sniper does get you a cantrip, but it has to be one that uses an attack roll. Are there any cantrips that you think would give significant utility that require an attack roll (and also are good for someone not maxing out their casting stat?



I forgot about Guidance (and the elemental utility cantrips are great too)! Yeah, that one's a must. As for Goodberry, the amount of healing is pretty minor at 8th level. Would you take it at 4th? Perhaps Healing Word would be better, since it's a bonus action? Or I guess Entangle.

Eldritch blast, for the force damage. Your Cha with half elf is 14, which is great in a pinch. Also multiple Ray's mean you can use it to snap friends out of hypnotic pattern, or give them an extra save with a little damage...

Goodberry is great if your Dm allows you to administer one to a downed friend. Hand them out so everyone can wake a fallen colleague..

I also like bless once/ day. What else has your concentration?

[opaopajr]

I'm partial to Longstrider, especially if it is just a once per Long Rest spell. That hour long duration without concentration is sweet, especially with a Fighter. :smallcool:

[Chronos]

Wait, Skywrite is great? I mean, it's cool and all, but I've never been able to figure out any way to actually use it.

For Magic Initiate, don't forget that if you have spell slots, you can also cast the spell you get that way. And Goodberry is a great way to use up your leftover slots before taking a long rest.

[Aaron Underhand]

Wait, Skywrite is great? I mean, it's cool and all, but I've never been able to figure out any way to actually use it.

For Magic Initiate, don't forget that if you have spell slots, you can also cast the spell you get that way. And Goodberry is a great way to use up your leftover slots before taking a long rest.

Only if the spell is on you class list already....

[Griswold]

Wait, Skywrite is great? I mean, it's cool and all, but I've never been able to figure out any way to actually use it.

I just mean, yeah, it's cool, and if you're focusing on out-of-combat utility and you're going for a giant pile of ritual spells, then why not? For reference, I think that Comprehend Languages, Tenser's Floating Disk, and Unseen Servant are great for this purpose. (Has anyone ever said that they think Illusory Script is worthwhile?)

Most of what I was going for I figured would be more useful for roleplaying than combat. But I could be wrong and it might not even be useful for that.

[Rixitichil]

I forgot about Guidance (and the elemental utility cantrips are great too)! Yeah, that one's a must. As for Goodberry, the amount of healing is pretty minor at 8th level. Would you take it at 4th? Perhaps Healing Word would be better, since it's a bonus action? Or I guess Entangle.

I personally prefer Goodberry because at our table because you can get minions, (familiar's, Tiny Servants, Unseen Servants, summoned monsters, hirelings etc.) to deliver and feed them to bleeding out party members. The healing is low, but 10 stabilising type effects spread about your party is better than just 1 on you.

[Rixitichil]

Skywrite's main use is to deliver a message to as many people as you can, with no secrecy about what you are saying.
If cast as a spell I can see it used to summon the city watch to the scene of a crime, or alert the guards of a castle to some hidden attack. As a ritual, you'll need more time, but it could still be used to summon a dispersed party back together once someone has found the thing they were looking for, or besieged tower to call for aid/warn others.

[Griswold]

So, I was just thinking that after level 8, there are 4 levels before another Feat. So for more utility we could dip rogue for proficiency in Persuasion, then Expertise in thieves' tools and Persuasion and...

...oh no.

I've just built a 1E Bard.

[Chronos]

Quoth Aaron Underhand:

Only if the spell is on you class list already....
It doesn't need to be. You know the spell, and you can use spell slots to cast spells you know, no matter what source the spell slots and the spell knowledge come from.

[AHF]

It doesn't need to be. You know the spell, and you can use spell slots to cast spells you know, no matter what source the spell slots and the spell knowledge come from.

I know I’ve seen authority to the contrary saying you are limited to once per long rest per the feat unless it is on your class list. Like taking Healing Word with MI with a wizard only gets you one use per long rest but if you take it with a Divine Soul sorcerer you can use your slots to cast it more often.

[AHF]

Here it is:

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats

If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1st-level spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat? Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare.

In short, you must follow your character’s normal spellcasting rules, which determine whether you can expend spell slots on the 1st-level spell you learn from Magic Initiate.