Prose's Guide to Xanathar's Guide to Everything

[ProseBeforeHos]

Fighter Martial Archetypes

Alas, the various fighter subclasses have all been heavily nerfed (or changed in such a way that feel like a nerf) since their UA releases. At least they get the full three options.


Arcane Archer
Nerfed since it's UA debut the arcane archer is still one of the best fighter archetypes out there, and perhaps even the best ranged archetype (though battlemaster remains a competitive option for a ranged fighter) due to it's strong control options.

Edit: Alright, it's still not as good as the Battlemaster, even as a dedicated archer. My original take was a tad too optimistic. I'm still keep the blue rating on this though, as it's fine archetype in it's own right.

Arcane Archer Lore: Better than your average ribbon. Arcana is a nice skill option, and a free cantrip gives some utility.

Arcane Shot:

• Banishing Arrow: Charisma saves are often low, especially on unintelligent monsters, and the control here is great. A+
• Beguiling Arrow: Wisdom saves are good to target, and the extra damage is nice. But charm is an unreliable form of cc. There are better options.
• Bursting Arrow: The aoe damage option! But the damage is pathetic. Leave this to the casters.
• Enfeebling Arrow: Suffers from the same weakness as the spell it's based on. The targets you'd want to have their weapon damanged nerfed tend to have good con saves.
• Grasping Arrow: Poison is a terrible damage type, but this arrows ability to do damage round after round make it powerful. If they choose to use an action to get rid of it, that's fine with us! As long as our enemies aren't casting spells or attacking us we're happy.
• Piercing Arrow: Could potentially do massive damage. In reality you'll struggle to line targets up, and then they get a save... pass.
• Seeking Arrow: Good for pinpointing invisible enemies. Getting around cover is nice, but chances are you'll take the sharpshooter feat at some point anyway. Pretty situational.
• Shadow Arrow: Here we go! Great for neutering both archers and spellcasters. A great pick!

Between the ability to do magical weapon damage from level 3, and the control options this ability provides, overall Arcane Shot is the highlight of this archetype and it's strongest selling point.

Magic Arrow: Comes in a little late at level 7. Most characters will have some sort of magic weapon by this point. If you don't, great! If you do this is essentially redundant.

Curving Shot: A great ability. When combined with the sharpshooter feat it gets even better.

Ever-Ready Shot: Since you get arcane shot back on a short rest this isn't that strong. But it's not weak either.


Cavalier
I'm very disappointed with the changes to this subclass. The ability to ride around the battlefield marking targets was a large draw of the UA "knight" that this class is based on. Despite the changes this class is still decent, though it feels much more static and boring than it was.

Born in the Saddle/Bonus Proficiency: Ribbons. Though an extra skill is always nice.

Unwavering Mark: Weaker than it used to be, but still good overall. Protect your allies and gain bonus attacks, all gravy (note the 5ft. limitation makes polearm Cavalier's a non-starter).

Warding Maneuver: Very strong. Can be used on both you and your allies, and even if you fail to block the attack entirely it still cuts the damage in half.

Hold the Line: Simultaneously better and worse than the sentinel feat. Better because you can stop people trying to "shift" around you, worse because it doesn't stop disengages. More control is good though.

Ferocious Charger: You'll be lucky to get more than one use of this off in a fight (maybe not even that if you're ambushed). Still, it's not bad when you can activate it.

Vigilant Defender: Ironically one of the Cavalier's major drawbacks is that too many separate abilities compete for it's reaction in a turn. This ability solves that problem quite nicely. Pick up the sentinel feat at level 16 and when you get this ability you will become the ultimate roadblock for enemies.


Samurai
I'm sick of all this "masterwork Cavalier" bull**** going on in 5e system right now. Samurai deserve better than that. Much, much better than that. *Cough* excuse me. Samurai takes a huge knock in power compared to it's UA incarnation. It can still be powerful at higher levels, but it lacks at lower levels due to it's limited resources. Despair, and curse the roundness of your eyes weeaboos!

Bonus Proficiency: More ribbons. Woohoo.

Fighting Spirit: A shadow of it's UA precursor, this version of fighting spirit suffers from two drawbacks A) the temp HP is rather small and doesn't scale very well B) unlike most fighter abilities it's limited to long rests rather than short ones. This is a real killer, and means usage of this ability has to be carefully managed at lower levels. This ability gets better when combined with Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter feats for big damage.

Elegant Courtier: You'll never beat the bard at being the party face. Thankfully with wisdom saving throw proficiency added to it, this is no mere ribbon.

Tireless Spirit: Slowly the Samurai improves. Getting a free use of fighting spirit at the start of combat means you have to be less reserved with your uses. Good stuff.

Rapid Strike: Now fighting spirit essentially gives you an extra attack when you use it. If your party can set you up with advantage some other way you're making 4 attacks a round at level 15. Finally the samurai shows his steel! Shame it takes 15 levels to get there...

Strength Before Death: Although this is nothing like as good as some of the barbarian options, it's still pretty solid. An extra turn once per long rest is nothing to sneeze at. Remember to keep a fighting spirit or second wind at hand so you can take yourself off of 0hp. Seriously, why do all the great Samurai abilities come so late?