Sell me the Fighter.

[Tekrow]

So, as the title says, sell me the fighter. I've always felt like the fighter is mostly limited to combat(although they are pretty great at it), and doesn't have much in the way RP and social interactions, which is my favorite part.

[Foxhound438]

this is a pretty easy one for me: RP isn't a stat. I've played a lot of characters that have little to nothing in terms of RP centric abilities, and always have a blast with roleplaying. Fighter is excellent for the fact that you're not tied to any RP tropes - paladin kind of has to be religious or righteous or something like that, rangers kind of have to be nature warriors, barbarians have to get mad at everything, wizards have to be smart, but fighters can be pretty much whatever you want when the armor's off. Sure, you can subvert those other classes, but I feel that people trying to subvert their archetype tropes becomes a trope in itself (ie, "the dumb wizard" or "the calm barbarian").

[x3n0n]

So, as the title says, sell me the fighter. I've always felt like the fighter is mostly limited to combat(although they are pretty great at it), and doesn't have much in the way RP and social interactions, which is my favorite part.

If you like feats and play in tier 2, there's no better class for getting them.

Cavalier, Samurai, and post-Tasha's Battle Masters offer boosts to social skills.

They're blank canvases for your RP.

[Rfkannen]

What appeals to me about the rp side of fighters is actually the in combat side of fighters. Super eyepatch wolf had a video where he said dragonball was not a series about fighting, it was a series about people who fight. and I enjoy playing into that in dnd. I think there is a lot of interesting rp to be had about a fighter's drive to fight, their thoughts on violence, their training, their philosophy of combat. In a world where magic is available, where you can learn all sorts of different supernatural methods to aid yourself, what keeps you with a simple weapon and your own brawn, what drives you to fight.


Old school dnd has the fighter as the only class (other than halfling) which could rule a part of the world from level one, and I do enjoy playing into that. The fighter is a master of the mundane arts, including leadership. This works particularly well with a battlemaster focused on buffing maneuvers.


In a low magic setting it can also be very fun to play the straight man to your parties antics, the person who grounds the party to the magic level of the world.

[Tekrow]

What would you say are the most mechanically interesting fighters?

[Kane0]

The subclasses

[Bilbron]

So, as the title says, sell me the fighter. I've always felt like the fighter is mostly limited to combat(although they are pretty great at it), and doesn't have much in the way RP and social interactions, which is my favorite part.

I don't know jack about fighters, but I do know that anything halfway decent at producing damage is going to mess up a ton of enemies including casters by having Fighting Style: Blindsight, Alert, and an Eversmoking Bottle.

[Ir0ns0ul]

Take a look at this thread made by master LudicSavant and find the build known as Wood Elf Magic Commando.

It’s a super flavorful Fighter Battlemaster with tons of utility and an amazing concept. I believe by the time this build was made Tasha’s didn’t exist, so you can even leverage new skill maneuvers and some new feats as well.

[Anonymouswizard]

The Fighter is good because it's a broad archetype with little in the way of fluff. It's bad because it's a broad archetype with little in the way of fluff.

The Fighter is a blank canvas, and if you leave it as a blank canvas it's not very interesting. But once you start adding some colour you get interesting things emerging.

The Fighter is the soldier or knight. But they're also the dwarven brewer searching for the perfect breed of hops, the women courtier riding the land to find new insults,, the gnomish warlord who's decided to turn over a new leaf and run for mayor of a small town, the lizardfolk artist who's searching for stone really shiny stones to finish their latest piece 'Dedication to the Wedding of the White Stag and the Deep Water'. Anything can fit into the Fighter.

Yes some of them could have been done with another class just as easily, but the advantage of the Fighter is that you don't have to build around any assumptions.

Also Slu'urk the Artist is totally a Samurai.

[Tanarii]

So, as the title says, sell me the fighter. I've always felt like the fighter is mostly limited to combat(although they are pretty great at it), and doesn't have much in the way RP and social interactions, which is my favorite part.

Combat involves roleplaying. Often far more than social interaction. There are typically far more meaningful decisions to make.

If you want to be good at roleplaying in social interactions, put a 14 in Charisma, choose an appropriate skill for the kind of social interactions you want to be good at, choose a background with a feature that matches / enhances it, and then go to town with the making decisions for your character (aka roleplaying) during social interactions.

Any class can do this, but Fighters can typically spare the 14 score more than a lot of others.

[bendking]

The Fighter is all about single-target damage. This is a role that needs to be filled by someone, and it just so happens the Fighter is the best martial for the job.
Indeed, he doesn't have a lot of out-of-combat utility. However, his roleplay isn't limited in any way.

Interesting Fighters are not the same as mechanically strong. I find the Samurai and Battlemaster to not be highly interesting, but highly effective.
Psion Warrior, Rune Knight, and Echo Knight are all quite interesting, and while they are effective, are probably not as powerful as the above.
Eldritch Knight is both (somewhat) interesting and highly effective, so that might be your best shot.

Oh, and don't even try Arcane Archer, Champion, and Purple Dragon Knight.

[Segev]

I don’t know how well it fits “fighter,” but the echo Knight looks like it could be a lot of fun. More or less at will short range teleporting, an extra “you,” and extra attacks are all very nice.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

My Echo Knight is tons of fun to roleplay. After years as a slave in the Underdark his tortured and broken mind manifested an imaginary friend materially who helped him escape. His Echo has his own name and personality, often having a different opinion "Well I say we charge in, but Barry thinks we should try to lure some of them out here and use these crates for cover."

Also there isn't an explicit skill for logistics. So it's easy for the fighter to add that as an out of combat role especially with a stereotypical background with Soldier.

[Throne12]

Outside spells what rp abilities does other classes have that make them Superior. One feat and the fighter can have expertise. If they want more skills or tools they can train to get them or again a feat. They get the most asi.

Samurai: gets 1.Bonus Proficiency, 2.Elegant Courtier.

Arcane Archer: 1.Arcane Archer Lore.

Banneret: Royal Envoy

Battlemaster: 1.Student of War, 2.Maneuvers, 3.Know Your Enemy

Cavalier: 1.Bonus Proficiency

Champion: 1.Remarkable Athlete

Eldritch Knight: 1.you get spells.

Rune Knight: 1.each runes first ability.

So what else do you want.

Also when your RP your using your skill more often then a ability. Or are you looking for abilities like favorite terrain, Divine sense, countercharm,


People have a hard time RPing with fighters because of the same reason people have a hard time with sandbox games. There isn't anything telling them what to do. You as a player need to come up with things to do.

The party is looking for someone in a town. The wizard might cast a spell. The Druid might ask the animals to look or if they seen them. The fighter gos around and talk to people or used the skills or tools she is trained in.

[Ashrym]

So, as the title says, sell me the fighter.

$20 PM me how you would like to pay. :-P

5e fighters are my favorite of any edition. Straight forward, easy to apply a concept or style, and the 5e "megafeat" concept can give the bonus ASI's good value.

Out of combat abilities cone from races, backgrounds, (bonus) feats, and subclasses. Class is a big part of the character but it's not the whole picture.

As much as the champion gets panned crit fishing works in some builds, with some equipment, and in parties who buff the fighter instead of themselves in average damage calcs. More hoops / less reliability, however. Remarkable athlete can have perks but generally is minor, a second fighting style can be nice, and survivor is a great ability. Survivor is also far away. ;-)

If skill benefits are what you are looking for then Tasha's improved that with battle master maneuvers and rune knight. DEX battle master archers were already fun so this is gravy.

[Hael]

I would say the strongest fighter mechanically at the moment is probably the Echo knight. Its also the one that has the most flavor and utility. However you don't build it at all like any of the other fighters. It's not going to do Samurai or Battlemaster lvl dpr. It has much more battlefield control possibilities and getting the most out of it requires some tactical experience.

The Battlemaster, the Samurai and (I think) the Psi Fighter are going to be well rounded standard fare that can put up a lot of damage and be a solid melee combatants. The Eldritch Knight is more about pure tanking, and will be the best at that particular role.

The Rune Knight and the Cavalier fill slightly different niches but are still perfectly acceptable.

Don't play the arcane archer, champion or the Purple Knight. They're terrible.

[Xervous]

If you have a sufficiently accommodating GM and don’t care where your involvement in RP stems from fighter is as good as anything for RP. If you’re looking for mechanics and levers to pull, keep looking.

[Trafalgar]

One of my favorite characters in 5e is my Half Orc Eldritch Knight. He was raised by a Forest Gnome Illusionist and, as a fluff rule, I made him take a illusion spell whenever he was able. He was good in combat and had just enough utility spells to be fun outside combat.

Now, would I ever play a Champion? Probably not.

[Sception]

Fighters have relatively limited stat requirements built in. They want a good constitution, though ranged fighters can settle for merely above-average here. They want a good primary weapon stat - either strength or dexterity. Beyond that, they can do whatever, which means in point buy games you're free to put at least a decent score anywhere else you like. In terms of skill proficiencies, you definitely want either athletics or acrobatics depending on your weapon stat of choice, and you probably want perception because everybody wants perception, so that's your class skills gone, but any other skills - eg from race or background - can be chosen purely based on narrative and role playing interests rather than needing to meet particular expected utilities. You can be smart, or wise, or charismatic - though rarely multiple of those things on the same fighter - which lets you be actually good at whatever skills happen to come with your background, which allows for a lot of customization there, even if fighter itself doesn't add a lot beyond that.

Fighter lets you make nearly any kind of martial character concept you like, has a wide range of mechanically interesting subclasses (chief among them imo being echo knight & battle master, though I also like cavalier, eldritch knight, rune knight, and despite my disappointment with the 5e handling of psionics in general, the psionic warrior), and multiclasses well with just about any other class to add even more customized flavor as desired, whether you're dipping a little bit of something else into fighter or a little bit of fighter into something else.

Admittedly, fighter doesn't have the strong singular narrative archetype that you see in most other classes. 'My character is a fighter' doesn't say as much about what your character does, or how, or why, as 'my character is a paladin' or 'my character is a wizard' does. But that's by design. Fighter is much more of a 'build your own' class in terms of story and narrative but also in terms of mechanics and gameplay, since your stats are much more open, your subclass options have some dramatic variety in terms of flavor and abilities, and even in base class features one of your defining traits is extra ASIs which you can use for feats that offer a wild variety of different abilities, from specialized focus on particular weapon types to minor magical abilities to additional skill proficiencies or enhanced racial features.

Basically, fighter is a class for players who want to build their own character and define that character's place in the world themselves at a fine detail level, rather than have all of those choices bundled together into a singular class choice. Players who want to order their character a la carte, instead of just grabbing a package deal.

[Witty Username]

The fighter is probably the simplest class in the game, fighter is great if you want to tune out for combat allowing you more energy for RP and character, also it has the least narrative ties if you want to highlight background, race or have a backstory that doesn't mesh with the themes of other classes. If you want something more specific Eldritch Knight and Battle master are great for adding options without too much complexity. Also, even if you aren't the fighter, a reliable meat shield is helpful for party composition.

[Amechra]

Hilariously, Tasha's lets you make a skill-monkey Battlemaster who (initially) doesn't have any special subclass powers in combat. Just take Ambush, Commanding Presence, and Tactical Assessment as your starting maneuvers. Now you can add +1d8 to initiative checks, as well as to History, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Performance, Persuasion, and Stealth checks, up to four times per short rest. Grab Superior Technique if you want to actually have a maneuver that you can use in a fight, and enjoy being pretty great at being the party Rogue :p.

[Pex]

Have your Background help. Soldier is probably the easiest. Work with your DM to have your rank matter in the game world and roleplay being part of the military, going on missions and gaining Rank, Prestige, and Honor.

[loki_ragnarock]

The Fighter is actually a pretty versatile class, largely because of the number of ASI they gain and when they gain them.


Sure, you can take Great Weapon Master or PAM, but do you really need to be much better at fighting when the rest of the class supports it so well? Heck, even if you do, no worries! You've got enough ASIs to take one of those *and* Prodigy! Zounds!

Because of the number of ASIs available you aren't sitting there making Sophie's Choice every time one comes around. Every other class is faced with a decision of increasing their core competency (DC, to hit, key skill bonuses, etc) or something interesting that gives them something extra beyond their class (Alertness, Mobile, Skulker, Observant, etc).

And because their core class focuses so well on that core competency, it's almost unnecessary to grab those feats that make you better at combat. This leaves them almost uniquely capable of grabbing those feats that other people have to struggle with justifying.


When people say "The Fighter is only good in combat" it really does them a disservice. The *can* be only good at combat, but if so the player has made that choice. A fighter can be all sorts of other things, with greater freedom than other classes, because of the additional feats. An expandability that only increases as more feats are published.

You can play a fighter that's fastidious and has an animal companion. (Feat: Magic Initiate (Wizard),Prestidigitation, Find Familiar.)
You can play a fighter with expertise. (Feat: Prodigy, That-New-One-in-Tasha's-That's-a-Straight-Upgrade-to-Prodigy)
You can play a fighter with a wide away of skills. (The above, Skilled)
You can play a fighter with great exploration utility. (Observant, Dungeon Delver, Ritual Caster)
You can play a fighter who is a first class sneak. (Skulker, Wood Elf Magic)

You can also play a fighter that disregards all those potentials to double down on being a fighter. But that's a choice.

In a real sense, the Fighter can be these things where other classes would struggle to. Can a Paladin grab Skulker and Wood Elf Magic? Of course! Later. And more importantly, at the great cost of not increasing their core competency. Where a paladin grabs one at 4 and one at 8 and ignores their Charisma, Constitution, and Dex scores, the Fighter grabs them earlier (4 and 6th level) giving them more play time with their preferred stealthy style *and* boost their dex come level 8. Where the Paladin is effectively punished for straying from their core competency, the Fighter is enabled.
For a wizard, it's much the same; they could grab observant and dungeon delver... but at the cost of not increasing their DCs or spells prepared. Spell Slots with prepared spells is going to be more flexible, ultimately. Even spells known is going to be more flexible; that's just a byproduct of their being hundreds of published spells vs dozens of published feats and more slots than ASIs.

But it's entirely possible to make a Fighter that's good outside of combat. You just have to choose to do that. A choice you can make with confidence that others lack.

[KorvinStarmast]

Played a half orc Champion through 14, nearly made 15 before DM had to stop Dming due RL.

Fighting sword and board, dueling style, shield master at 4, 18 Str at 6. I later boosted dex and got medium armor master. Second fighting style Defensive since we'd gotten me + 1 half plate and +1 shield.

Worked out great, had a barrel of fun.

I don't need stats to RP.

My second favorite fighter was an orc Battle Master.
Pole arm master/spear/shield.
This was a more thinking man's build, but I enjoyed it immensely.
Sadly, campaign ended.

[Morty]

Hilariously, Tasha's lets you make a skill-monkey Battlemaster who (initially) doesn't have any special subclass powers in combat. Just take Ambush, Commanding Presence, and Tactical Assessment as your starting maneuvers. Now you can add +1d8 to initiative checks, as well as to History, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Performance, Persuasion, and Stealth checks, up to four times per short rest. Grab Superior Technique if you want to actually have a maneuver that you can use in a fight, and enjoy being pretty great at being the party Rogue :p.

It's feeling increasingly like the majority of "do something interesting without casting a spell" design space is being shoved into a single subclass of a single class. Since not even non-combat abilities beyond proficiency and expertise wound up there.

[TheMango55]

Rune Knight not only gives some powerful combat abilities but also some abilities to make you a crafty and deceptive character out of combat.

[Vogie]

One of the best parts of the fighter class is incredibly subtle - they get 2 extra ASIs than most other classes. Before we get into anything else, that's super important. What that means is you can build a character concept around Feats and Backgrounds rather than subclasses, if you want to. The fact that you're a fighter... could be your character's background, in essence, rather than their 'thing'.

You can do things like:

• grab the Chef feat to go with your Entertainer background to be a pissed off Gordon Ramsey
• Grab the poisoner feat alongside the Criminal background to be a mob enforcer, or alongside the Noble background to be the King's Poisoner.
• Grab the Defensive Duelist feat to be a scrappy fencing master.
• Use the Actor feat to enhance your Charlatan Background to be a con man or other swindler.

If you look at the above, any of those concepts could go with any of the fighter subclasses - sure, some fit better than others, but the character isn't defined by what the subclass chosen actually is. A fencing master could be a champion, a battlemaster, a samurai, or even a cavalier. If you want to act like the Witcher, for example, and you don't want to be a Eldritch Knight, you can just as easily use a spare ASI

You can mix and match concepts that other classes can't do because their ASIs are a precious commodity.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, 7 ASIs (8 with Vuman or Custom Lineage) is great. Pick the two stats you care about the most, boosting them to 20 will only take you four or five of them leaving you with three to play around with. I'm fairly certain this is the intent behind their additional ASIs instead of 'moar combat power'.

Or, because Fighters only need Strength/Dexterity and good Constitution, you could try a half-feat only Fighter. Only pick half-feats to soak up flavour abilities while still getting an increase to a stat every other ASI. Could be a decent optimisation challenge, and will either land you with a decent concept or put you down as a Jack of Trades, Master of One.

[+5 Vorpal Bunny]

Here we have a nice Level 3 Fighter for 1,000 gold, guaranteed to protect you, kill your enemies, and carry all your random stuff without complaint, or your money back! Going once... going twice...

Ooooh, you meant sell you on playing a fighter! Carry on than :P

[blackjack50]

Well it SOUNDS to me like what you want is a high charisma fighter so that you can contribute to skill based roles in social interactions. But honestly? Unless you are making a lot of rolls that are extremely important? Then it doesn’t matter. Or do you want high wisdom so you can read people?

Idk. Don’t get locked in to the “numbers.”