What are some monsters that are weak vs fighters?

[No brains]

Are there any monsters that can be described as 'weak vs fighter'?

I guess to start, it has to be susceptible to non-magical damage. Aside from that, it forcing strength and constitution saves seems obvious.

Another good trait could be that it has high AC, but it has a crappy athletics modifier. That way, the fighter can make a difference by shoving the creature over.

It would probably help if it attacked vs AC. Maybe with lots of attacks at a low modifier vs few at a high one. That way, heavy armor can make itself useful. Maybe this being a ranged attack can make the fighter feel better about getting in its face.

Maybe a quadrone would be good if it couldn't fly. Other than that, maybe something like a scorpion that grabs and has poison? Maybe a dryad could work, if she used up all her charms for the day.

Any ideas?

[LudicSavant]

Are there any monsters that can be described as 'weak vs fighter'?

I guess to start, it has to be susceptible to non-magical damage. Aside from that, it forcing strength and constitution saves seems obvious.

Another good trait could be that it has high AC, but it has a crappy athletics modifier. That way, the fighter can make a difference by shoving the creature over.

It would probably help if it attacked vs AC. Maybe with lots of attacks at a low modifier vs few at a high one. That way, heavy armor can make itself useful. Maybe this being a ranged attack can make the fighter feel better about getting in its face.

Maybe a quadrone would be good if it couldn't fly. Other than that, maybe something like a scorpion that grabs and has poison? Maybe a dryad could work, if she used up all her charms for the day.

Any ideas?

Really depends on what kind of Fighter we're talking about. For example, Large or smaller creatures that rely on wings for flight are generally weak to Battlemaster Sharpshooters with Trip Attack, since they shoot them right out of the sky.

[No brains]

Really depends on what kind of Fighter we're talking about. For example, Large or smaller creatures that rely on wings for flight are generally weak to Battlemaster Sharpshooters with Trip Attack, since they shoot them right out of the sky.

Let's go with a basic sword and board champion, possibly with shield master.

I know GWM guys are good for fighting ogres and other low ac bad guys.

[LibraryOgre]

I'd have to check the stats for 5e, but in earlier editions, a golem was weak v. fighters, assuming everyone had magic weapons.

They had near-sovereign magic immunity to almost everything (most having only one or two spells that would really hurt them, and some standard spells would help them), so could only be taken down by people who had high-bonus magic weapons.

[TripleD]

I’d argue Shambling Mounds.

They have a ton of HP but a relatively middling armor class. They are immune or resistant to all elemental damage. What’s more, their signature move is to grapple and engulf a creature. The grapple is based off of STR and athletics, sand if you do have the bad luck to fail that, the save to avoid damage is based on CON.

[Talyn]

What is a fighter's strength? Multiple attacks, lots of hit points, good armor class, wide selection of magical weapons to choose from (multiple damage types, etc.). CON and STR saves. What is their weakness? No spells, WIS and CHA saves.

So things that are weak to fighters are things with either high AC and low hit points (so multiple relatively weak attacks are better than one or two HUGE ones), things that exclusively target AC and deal HP damage, and things with special abilities that target STR and CON saves.

Off the top of my head, most 'mundane' humanoids are weak to fighters, including basically all non-drow elves. (Drow have that 'create magical darkness' that is a pain.) Anything that attacks in hordes and tries to overwhelm with numbers let Fighters shine.

For magical creatures, Dragons are surprisingly vulnerable to Fighters, if the fighters can get to grips with them - less so if they can use their fly speeds to hit-and-run.

[DrKerosene]

I think you’ll have to custom build a creature to fulfill all your preferences, otherwise I can only think of a few Venn-diagram overlap ideas.

Skeletons are weak to Bludgeoning. Give your Fighter a Greatsword that deals Bludgeoning damage and they should 1-hit-kill most basic skeletons. If you need to slap the Skeleton Racial Stats on a Humanoid NPC (like the Bandit Captain) to prevent a Cleric from Insta-Killing it, then Great Weapon Master should make the Fighter still a slaughter-machine (though that’d be better with low AC tanky Skeletons).

You can make Skeleton Casters, they just need spells with no Verbal Components, or the Subtle Metamagic ability.

Ice-Mephits are also weak to Bludgeoning. If your Fighter has the Shield Master feat, the death-explosion ability shouldn’t be too bad. Or change it to be an ability that forces a Con Save vs the damage, or a Strength Save to not be moved/proned by the force.

Most creatures with a low Strength have a decent Dexterity, so I’m not too sure what would be best for opposed grappling.

An unusual option might be a Red Cap (or a few) with one or more levels of Exhaustion, causing disadvantage on ability checks.

Otherwise, giving the Fighter the only Silvered (or magic) weapon when first fighting a fiend, fey, or were-creature with the relevant damage resistance and that Magic Resistance trait.

[Nhorianscum]

I'm pretty sure that the monster manual in it's entirety is weak to eldritch knights.

[Chronos]

It's easy to make a creature that's weak vs. everything. Start with that as a base, and then add abilities to make it strong vs. a caster, like spell resistance, resistance or immunity to most magical damage types, and immunity to the more common conditions like Charm and Fear.

Like the Shambling Mound that TripleD mentioned.

[Demonslayer666]

If you want a fighter to shine, give the creature lots of HP, a low AC, low to hit mod, immunity to magic, and a low damage area attack combined with several physical attacks. Unless you have a high AC and lots of HP, you won't want to be anywhere near it.

The fighter will hit it easily, and get missed a lot by the physical attacks, and they will be able to take the hits from the magic attack.

[Spiritchaser]

Spectators can make a mess of low level casters with their spell reflections. About half of their eye beams are wis saves which can be tough on a fighter who doesn’t take resilient in wisdom (they probably should, but probably didn’t) but the other half are con saves which should be better.

Edit: you could easily switch those wis saves out if you wanted

[Contrast]

...a Greatsword that deals Bludgeoning damage...

That's a weird way to spell maul :smallwink:


Anything that relies on HP as a defence is relatively weak to fighters as they tend to be one of the better classes at just straight dishing out damage.

[Man_Over_Game]

That's a weird way to spell maul :smallwink:


Anything that relies on HP as a defence is relatively weak to fighters as they tend to be one of the better classes at just straight dishing out damage.

Well said.

Magic: Takes out small targets quickly.
Archer: Takes out hard-to-reach, tough targets.
Warrior: Takes out easy-to-reach, tough targets.

[FabulousFizban]

everything is weak to sword

[Blood of Gaea]

What kind of Fighter? An anti-caster EK, tanky Cavalier, and an archer Battlemaster all play good bit differently.

[Corran]

Low AC, lots of hit points. GWM + extra attack(s) (+action surge) will do a good work.

Low-medium hp dangerous enemy. Action surge.

[ImproperJustice]

I want to be that guy who says:

“Every living (and non-living) thing is weak against a good fighter.

[Imbalance]

I’d argue Shambling Mounds.

They have a ton of HP but a relatively middling armor class. They are immune or resistant to all elemental damage. What’s more, their signature move is to grapple and engulf a creature. The grapple is based off of STR and athletics, sand if you do have the bad luck to fail that, the save to avoid damage is based on CON.

Funny story: The one shambling mound we've encountered this campaign engulfed my fighter before I got a decent hit off and then proceeded to beat all but my last con save, allowing me to emerge just as the casters were finishing it off. I concur with your assessment, but the dice often facilitate irony.

[Fable Wright]

Rakshasa.

Invisibility is only so much help when you're grappled, and immunity to level 6 and below spells does very little to the man with a sword.

[No brains]

What kind of Fighter? An anti-caster EK, tanky Cavalier, and an archer Battlemaster all play good bit differently.


Let's go with a basic sword and board champion, possibly with shield master.





everything is weak to sword


Rakshasa.

Invisibility is only so much help when you're grappled, and immunity to level 6 and below spells does very little to the man with a sword.

If the fighter can get a magic sword, I'd agree, but supposedly the rules are fine with the possibility of fighters never getting magic weapons. [This is especially frustrating since Crawford suggests that spells of less than 7th level that make weapons magic are ""affecting"" the rakshasha.] It's irksome to me that while the Rakshasha is technically weak vs. fighters, it can also completely no-sale their attacks.

Seriously though, I'm grateful for the suggestions.

[Man_Over_Game]

If the fighter can get a magic sword, I'd agree, but supposedly the rules are fine with the possibility of fighters never getting magic weapons. [This is especially frustrating since Crawford suggests that spells of less than 7th level that make weapons magic are ""affecting"" the rakshasha.] It's irksome to me that while the Rakshasha is technically weak vs. fighters, it can also completely no-sale their attacks.

Seriously though, I'm grateful for the suggestions.

There ARE other means of dealing magic damage, though, with options like Magic Weapon, Elemental Weapon, Magic Stone and Shillelagh. A silvered weapon is enough to get you by until those kinds of spells are more affordable for the team. Worst case scenario, 3 levels into Warlock will get you there, along with a bunch of other goodies.