DnD 5.5 Fighter Class Guide | 2024 DnD

T.E. "RPGBOT" Kamstra March 14, 2026

2024 DnD 5e Fighter Class Guide

Introduction

The Fighter, DnD 5.5’s most iconic martial character, is a fantastic addition to any party. While their skill options are often limited, Fighters excel in combat. and are deeply customizable. They are durable, dangerous, and deeply customizable to suit a variety of playstyles. Fighters get more Weapon Mastery options, more attacks, and, thanks to Action Surge, they get more Actions than anyone else, making the Fighter a lot of fun to build and play.

Fighters are a great example of “opt-in complexity” in DnD 5e. The core of the class is simple and resilient, but the complexity of the subclasses varies significantly. The Champion adds almost no complexity, but they’re still satisfying to play and nearly unstoppable at high levels. Subclasses like the Battle Master add substantial additional complexity, but can bring fantastic new tactical options. This makes the Fighter a great choice for players of all experience levels and for players with a broad range of preferences, allowing you to build a character that you find mechanically appealing without making it more work than you might like.

Fighters excel as Defenders and Strikers, but can add additional roles depending on your build choices. A bit of work allows the Fighter to also serve as a Face (Purple Dragon Knight) or Librarian (Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior), and even with middling Charisma or Intelligence, you can use Tactical Mind to add 1d10 to your skill checks, easily making up the difference. You can also explore a role as a Scout if you’re built around Dexterity, allowing you to succeed with skills like Stealth and with tools like Thieves’ Tools.

After reading this article, you might also enjoy our other supporting content for the Fighter:

This article is for the 2024 DnD rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Fighter Class Guide.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2024 DnD Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows. Also be sure to check for errata periodically.

Why Play a DnD Fighter?

The Fighter is the master of arms and armor, and with more feats than any other character, they’re also very customizable. Fighters can cover a wide range of martial character concepts, from noble knights to gruff mercenaries to clever spellswords to daring swashbucklers (not the subclass, but the character archetype). In a game where nearly every character has some sort of magical or mystical ability, Fighters stand alongside them based on nothing but skill and determination. Mechanically, they also enjoy a great deal of opt-in complexity, allowing you build fighters that cater to a wide variety of preferences and still have them feel distinct and effective.

Essential DnD Fighter Tactics

While playing any DnD character is difficult to summarize in a few points, these essentials will help you play your character effectively, especially if you’re new to the game.

Master Your Weapon: Fighters get more Weapon Mastery slots than anyone, which means that it’s often useful to change weapons to get different effects. But DnD is a game that rewards specialization, so pick a favorite and build around it. You can still change weapons to benefit from other masteries, of course, but your feats and other build choices should support your favorite weapon.
Life is Not Measured in Hit Points: While AC, hit points, and damage all matter in combat, hit point attrition isn’t your only option. Applying harmful conditions with weapon masteries or grappling enemies can offer a lot of great tactical options which may be more impactful than just poking enemies with pointy sticks.
Be a Team Player: Fighters can be durable and dangerous on their own, but resist the urge to charge into battle alone. DnD is a team game, and you are at your best when cooperating with your party members. Any good party is greater than the sum of their parts.
Be Useful Outside of Combat: Fighters don’t have great skill options, unfortunately, which can lead many players to ignore their capabilities outside of combat. But that can make a huge part of the game boring for you, and leaves non-combat challenges almost entirely to your party members. Look for skills and tools which work well with your ability scores. Dexterity-based builds will do great with skills like Stealth and Sleight of Hand, and a bit of Wisdom can support skills like Insight for social situations and Perception for exploration. Eldritch Knights can do well with Intelligence-based skills like Arcana, and Banerrets do well with Charisma-based skills like Persuasion and Intimidation.

Fighter Class Features

Hit Points: d10 hit points is standard for martial characters, and it’s plenty to keep you going, especially with heavy armor and abilities like Second Wind.

Saves: Strength saves are fairly rare, but Constitution saves are common and typically very problematic.

Proficiencies: All weapons, armor, and shields, but you get no tool proficiencies, and only two skills.

1. Fighting Style: Fantastic. See Fighting Styles under Feats, below, for help picking a Fighting Style.

1. Second Wind: A great way to keep yourself going in combat without begging spellcasters for help in combat. Be sure that you’ve used this at least once before each Short Rest to help conserve your Hit Point Dice.

1. Weapon Mastery: Absolutely fantastic. Most martial classes get just 2 Weapon Mastery slots, but Fighters start with 3 and eventually get 6. Since the rules for weapon attacks allow you to draw or stow a weapon with each attack, you can rapidly switch between weapons to benefit from different Weapon Mastery options in quick succession.

Note that at level 9 you’ll get Tactical Master, which allows you to use Weapon Mastery even more flexibly.

For more on Weapon Mastery, see our Weapon Mastery Guide.

2. Action Surge: A second Action can let you do a lot of things. In most cases, that’s going to be a second Attack action. You eventually get 3 uses per Short Rest, at which point you can comfortably use Action Surge at least once in every encounter.

Unfortunately, two-weapon fighting builds don’t benefit from Action Surge as much as other builds. You don’t get a second Bonus Action, and even if you use a weapon with the Nick mastery, Nick says “You can make this extra attack only once per turn.”

Because Action Surge explicitly prohibits the Magic action, you can’t use Action Surge to cast a spell, activate many magic items, and use many class features from other classes. The Eldritch Knight’s War Magic and Improved War Magic features notably bypass this because you’re not taking the Magic action to cast spells, but it’s not clear if this is intentional.

2. Tactical Mind: The Fighter generally has few good skill options, which makes it difficult for them to contribute outside of combat. This gives you a huge boost to ability checks a few times per day, allowing you to be effective will skills even if your modifier is relatively poor.

3. Subclass: Fighter subclasses are briefly summarised below. See our Fighter Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

Banerret: A martial leader built around sharing the best of the Fighter’s features with the rest of their party.
Battle Master: Use powerful combat maneuvers to apply rider effects to your attacks, and use the same pool of resources to support skill checks outside of combat, allowing you to thrive both on and off the battlefield.
Champion: Do you like critical hits? Cool. Do you want to smash through problems with a ball of weaponized math? No? Just the crit thing? Okay, fine. They do that.
Eldritch Knight: Add a splash of Wizard spellcasting to mesh martial mastery and magical might.
Psi Warrior: Use powerful psionic abilities to manipulate the battlefield.

5. Extra Attack: Fantastic.

5. Tactical Shift: Not always important, but this can get you out of a bad position, or it can stretch your movement to reach a good position without Dashing.

6. Ability Score Improvement: Fighters get an extra Ability Score Increase at level 6, making it much easier to collect feats.

9. Indomitable: With 5e’s bounded math, save DC’s won’t break 20 for a long time, and even then your level increases much faster than save DC’s do. This isn’t quite Legendary Resistance, but, with your level as an added bonus, you’re very likely to succeed on any given saving throw. You eventually get up to 3 uses per Long Rest.

9. Tactical Master: This massively expands what you can do with Weapon Mastery, allowing you to more easily benefit from multiple mastery options in quick succession. Having essentially permanent access to these masteries does mean that weapons with those masteries are less useful, so you may want to change weapons unless you have a magic weapon that you’re enjoying.

11. Two Extra Attacks: More attacks than anyone except the Monk.

13. Studied Attacks: Absolutely fantastic. With as many attacks as the Fighter gets, you’re bound to miss some, but Advantage on your next attack means that you’ll rarely miss two in a row. Combine this with a Vex weapon and you’ll have Advantage on every attack after the first whether you hit or miss.

20. Three Extra Attacks: 4 attacks is a lot.

2024 Fighter Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

Changes to the Fighter were almost purely additive, so there are a lot of buffs here compared to the 2014 Fighter. The only thing lost was the ability to do magic with Action Surge, which almost never helped the Fighter anyway.

1. Persuasion added to list of skill proficiency options
1. Fighting Style. Fighting Styles are now feats, making them more broadly accessible. Fighters get 1 for free, and can change it each time they gain a level. Previously you were locked in permanently, which was frustrating in a game where you might find cool magic items that don’t fit your Fighting Style.
1. Second Wind. Now 2 uses per Long Rest, and you get 1 back on a Short Rest. Uses per long rest improve with level. This allows you to use them sporadically as-needed throughout the day, rather than hoping that they’ll be equally useful between each rest.
1. Weapon Mastery. New.
2. Action Surge. Now prohibits the Magic action, so you can no longer use Action Surge to cast spells.
2. Tactical Mind. New. Spend Second Wind to add 1d10 to a failed ability check; retain the use of Second Wind if you still fail.
5. Tactical Shift. New. Move up to half your speed without Opportunity Attacks when you use Second Wind.
9. Indomitable. The reroll now adds a bonus equal to your Fighter level, generally removing the frustration of rerolling and failing again.
9. Tactical Master. New. Use the Push, Sap, or Slow Weapon Mastery with any weapon. This will make weapons that already have those masteries unappealing from level 9 onward.
11. Two Extra Attacks. Renamed. Thank god, they found a better name than “Extra Attack 2”
13. Studied Attacks. Advantage on your next attack against the same target when you miss. Removes the frustration of making numerous attacks and missing with all of them.
20. Three Extra Attacks. Renamed.

Fighter Backgrounds

Increases to either Strength or Dexterity are absolutely required, and increases to Constitution are helpful. If you’re playing an Eldritch Knight, you probably also want Intelligence. Strength-based builds don’t have many good skill options, but Dexterity-based builds will enjoy Dexterity-based skills like Sleight of Hand and Stealth.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Fighter Feats section, below.

Acolyte ^(PHB): Potentially useful for utility options like Guidance and emergency healing with Healing Word, but your party hopefully has those from spellcasting classes.
Archaeologist ^(EFotA): Great for Dexterity-based builds, especially for the Eldritch Knight. A Dexterity-based Eldritch Knight could use Skilled to replace a Rogue in the party. Dexterity-based builds which don’t want the Intelligence increase should consider other backgrounds.
Artisan ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for an Eldritch Knight, but Persuasion is a hard skill for the Fighter, and Crafter isn’t a great feat.
Carouser ^(ABoH): An easy choice for some Dexterity-based builds, especially Dexterity-based Banerret. You get Charisma-based skills that aren’t on the Fighter’s skill list, and Tireless Reveler is a fantastic feat.
Charlatan ^(PHB) : Dexterity, Constitution, and Skilled is a great combination for Dexterity-based builds, especially if you’re filling in for a Rogue in the party.
Chondathan Freebooter ^(FRHoF): Great if you need to add more skills. A Dexterity-based build could easily use this to cover capabilities normall handled by a Rogue.
Criminal ^(PHB) : A good choice for Dexterity-based builds, especially if there isn’t a Rogue in the party.
Dead Magic Dweller ^(FRHoF): Excellent ability scores, but the skills are bad and Healer is a bad feat.
Dragon Cultist ^(FRHoF): The ability scores are perfect for Dexterity-based builds, but Cult f the Dragon Initiate has a Wisdom-based DC, which makes it hard to use
Emerald Enclave Caretaker ^(FRHoF): Bad all around.
Entertainer ^(PHB): Good ability scores for a Banneret, and the Musician feat works well in any party.
Farmer ^(PHB) : A good option for front-line martials. The ability scores are great, and Tough is an easy go-to feat if you don’t want more complexity, but you won’t get much use out of the skills.
Flaming Fist Mercenary ^(FRHoF): An easy go-to choice. Good ability scores for Strength-based builds, Tough, and workable skills.
Genie Touched ^(FRHoF): For the Eldritch Knight, Sage is usually a better fit. But this can get you a Dexterity increase, which you can’t get from Sage. Unfortunately, the skills are both Charisma-based, which is a hard choice.
Guard ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for any Strength-based Fighter, and Perception is a great skill. Alert isn’t crucial for most martial characters, but remember that you can trade initiatives with a willing ally to help an allied spellcaster act early.
Guide ^(PHB) : A fine choice for Dexterity-based builds, but you may struggle to use the Druid spellcasting for anything except Eldritch Knight, which may struggle without an Intelligence increase. Still, using Shillelagh with Intelligence may work out long term.
Harper ^(FRHoF): The ability scores could work for a Dexterity-based Eldritch Knight or Banerret, but the feat is horrible.
Hermit ^(PHB): No Strength or Dexterity increases, and Healer is a terrible feat.
House Agent ^(FRHoF): A good choice for Strength-based Bannerets.
Ice Fisher ^(FRHoF): Good ability scores and a decent feat, but the skills are bad.
Inquisitive ^(EFotA): This could work for an Intelligence-based Eldritch Knight, but you’ll need to get Shillelagh from your species or take a second Origin Feat to get Magic Initiate (Druid).
Knight of the Gauntlet ^(FRHoF): The ability scores are fine, but Tyro of the Gauntlet is only situationally useful, and the skills are horrible.
Lords’ Alliance Vassal ^(FRHoF): A good choice for Strength-based Bannerets. A Champion will get the most use out of Lords’ Alliance Agent, but the ability scores aren’t great for the Champion.
Lorwyn Expert ^(LFL): The ability scores are good for a typical Fighter, but only the Eldritch Knight will benefit significantly from the ability to cast Faerie Fire, and you can’t get an Intelligence increase.
Merchant ^(PHB): This could work for an Intelligence-based Eldritch Knight, but you’ll need to get Shillelagh from your species or take a second Origin Feat to get Magic Initiate (Druid).
Moonwell Pilgrim ^(FRHoF): You could use this for an all-Charisma Banerret, but the skills aren’t an easy fit. Guide will be a better fit for most builds that want access to Druid spells/
Mulhorandi Tomb Raider ^(FRHoF): Excellent for Dexterity-based builds and for Eldritch Knights. Lucky is an easy feat for anyone, and the Intelligence-based skills are workable.
Mythalkeeper ^(FRHoF): Crafter is an awful feat.
Noble ^(PHB) : This could work for an Eldritch Knight build.
Purple Dragon Squire ^(FRHoF): Decent abilty scores, and Purple Dragon Rook is great. Remember that you also get a skill from Purple Dragon Rook, so you can get workable skills even though you’re saddled with Animal Handling.
Rashemi Wanderer ^(FRHoF): An easy go-to choice. Good ability scores for Strength-based builds, Tough, and workable skills.
Sage ^(PHB) : Intelligence and Constitution seem appealing for the Eldritch Knight, especially with Magic Initiate (Wizard) and Intelligence-based skills, but remember that you’re still a Fighter first, so you need either Strength or Dexterity unless you can get Shillelagh and use it for an Intelligence-only build. Usually you use your Origin Feat to do that, but you might get it from your species, instead.
Sailor ^(PHB) : Decent ability scores for a melee build plus one good skill. Tavern Brawler isn’t a great choice, but the ability to push an enemy 5 feet while also dealing damage with an Unarmed Strike may be useful if you’re not using weapons with the Push mastery.
Scribe ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for a Dexterity-based build, especially an Eldritch Knight. The skills are pretty good, and if you don’t have another Intelligence-based character in the party, you can use Skilled to get knowledge skills like Arcana.
Shadowmasters Exile ^(FRHoF): Savage Attacker isn’t amazing, but this is still a decent choice for Dexterity-based builds.
Shadowmoor Expert ^(LFL): A possible choice for Dexterity-based Eldritch Knights. Shadowmoor Hexer works really well on a class built to survive in melee.
Soldier ^(PHB) : The nominal default for the Fighter. Savage Attacker is a decent feat at low levels when you’re only making a few attacks, but will feel less impactful as you make more and more attacks in a turn. The skills aren’t great, but Intimidation might give you something useful to do in social situations.
Spellfire Initiate ^(FRHoF): Potentially useful for Eldritch Knights, but you’ll want to build around Intelligence, so you’ll need to get Shillelagh from somewhere.
Vampire Devotee ^(ABoH): Surprisingly useful for Stength-based melee builds. The ability scores are great, and Vampire’s Plaything lets you Dash or Disengage as a Bonus Action a few times per day so that you can quickly reposition. Unfortunately, skills may be hard to use unless you’re building a Banneret.
Vampire Survivor ^(ABoH): The feat is bad and the skills aren’t good enough to make up for it. There are other Backgrounds with the same ability score options.
Wayfarer ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for a Dexterity-based build, and between the skills and Thieves’ Tools you could fill in for a Rogue in your party. Lucky is an easy feat on any character.
Zhentarim Mercenary ^(FRHoF): The ability scores aren’t perfect, but Intimidation is the go-to social skill for fighters, and Perception is good on anyone. But you’re here for Zhentarim Ruffian and eventually Zhentarim Tactics. It’s an incredibly easy build for Strength-based melee attacks which all but guarantees that you can attack as a Reaction every round.

Fighter Species

Most Fighters will enjoy additional durability, as well as combat options like the Goliath’s Giant Heritage and the Orc’s Adrenaline Surge. Dexterity-based builds might enjoy additional skills, especially if you’re hoping to substitute for a Rogue in your party. Eldritch Knights will enjoy innate spellcasting, but be cautious about offensive spells since your Intelligence likely won’t be as high as your Strength or Dexterity unless you find a way to get Shillelagh and build completely around Intelligence.

Aasimar ^(PHB): Two damage resistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combat transformation. Celestial Revelation is very useful for the Fighter, offering both a way to handle crowds and flight, neither of which are available for most Fighters.
Changeling ^(EFotA): A great choice for the Banneret, but other subclasses may find little value here. Additional Face skills and perpetual Advantage on Charisma checks means that you can be a reliable Face even with middling Charisma.
Dhampir ^(ABoH): Spider climb is the next best thing to flight, and Vampire Bite can provide a little bit of healing or a helpful boost to skill checks which could make up for the Fighter’s limited skill options.
Dragonborn ^(PHB): A damage resistance, likely to a common damage type like poison or fire, a decent way to handle crowds of small enemies, Darkvision, and flight once per day.
Dwarf ^(PHB): Darkvision, resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points. Tremorsense offers a way to find hidden or invisible enemies which most Fighters can’t replicate. Altogether, a great package for melee builds.
Elf ^(PHB): Darkvision and an extra skill are both great. The innate spellcasting is only consistently useful for the Eldritch Knight, but Blade Ward can be useful for any Fighter even if you don’t use the other spells.
Gnome ^(PHB): Darkvision is both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer some interesting utility options. However, Gnomish Cunning may feel obsolete once you get Indomitable at level 9.
Goliath ^(PHB): Giant Heritage offers numerous excellent options. I like Cloud’s Jaunt, Hill’s Topple, and Stone’s Endurance. Large Form is great for melee builds looking to occupy more space on the battlefield.
Halfling ^(PHB): Brave and Lucky are both nice, but not enough on their own. Halfling Nimbleness is neat, but rarely impactful since you can already move through allies’ spaces and if you need to get past an enemy it should involve hurting them. Naturally Stealthy isn’t helpful for the front-line martial characters. Lucky may be helpful since fighters make so many attacks, but I don’t think that’s enough.
Human ^(PHB): An additional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
Kalashtar ^(EFotA): A lot of overlap with the Gnome, but you trade Advantage on Intelligence saves for resistance to Psychic damage.
Khoravar ^(EFotA): Fantastically versatile, the Khoravar works for nearly any build. Eldritch Knights will enjoy easy access to a huge number of Cantrips (especially Shillelagh and True Strike),
Orc ^(PHB): Adrenaline Rush is great for front-line melee builds, letting you move into melee quickly and padding your hit points for when you inevitably draw a lot of attacks. Relentless Endurance provides some insurance in case things go wrong, and you can heal yourself as a Bonus Action with Second Wind on your next turn to keep from immediately dying.
Shifter ^(EFotA): Shifting is a great use of your Bonus Action, providing a helpful pool of Temporary Hit Points, plus some extra effects Beasthide and Swiftstride are the easy go-to options.
Tiefling ^(PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. Only useful for the Eldritch Knight, but who will find the additional spellcasting will be very welcome.
Warforged ^(EFotA): Durable and versatile. A good fit for literally any class.

Fighter Ability Scores

Fighters can be built in many ways. Strength-based Fighters are the simplest, but Dexterity builds are just as effective, and your subclass might introduce a need for mental ability scores like Intelligence or Charisma.

The PHB recommended ability scores attempt to cater to both Strength-based and Dexterity-based builds, and there is no reason to do this. New players will likely find that their ability scores are unsatisfying. Point them to this section for help, even if they’re not ready for deeper character optimization.

Strength-Based Fighters

Str: Your primary ability score.

Dex: Dump.

Con: Hit points and saves.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Saves and skills.

Cha: Dump.

	Point Buy	Adjusted	Standard Array	Adjusted	PHB Recommended	Adjusted
Str	15	17	15	17	15	17
Dex	8	8	12	12	14	14
Con	15	16	14	15	13	14
Int	8	8	10	10	10	10
Wis	15	15	13	13	12	12
Cha	8	8	8	8	8	8

Dexterity-Based Fighters

Str: Usually you want to dump this. However, if you’re planning to use a Heavy like a Longbow or Musket, consider taking 13 Strength to qualify for Great Weapon Master.

Dex: Your primary ability score.

Con: Hit points and saves.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Saves and skills.

Cha: Dump.

	Point Buy	Adjusted	Standard Array	Adjusted	PHB Recommended	Adjusted
Str	8	8	12	12	15	17
Dex	15	17	15	17	14	14
Con	15	16	14	15	13	14
Int	8	8	10	10	10	10
Wis	15	15	13	13	12	12
Cha	8	8	8	8	8	8

Banerret

Unique among Fighters, the Banerret depends on Charisma for many of their subclass features. Compared to most subclasses, you’ll need to make some cuts to invest in Charisma, but otherwise you’re still doing normal Fighter things with Strength and Dexterity.

Alternatively, you could build entirely around Charisma. Pick up Charisma-based Shillelagh from Magic Initiate or from your species (Khoravar can get a Druid Cantrip) or take a level of Warlock for Pact of the Blade, then take 14 Dexterity to fill out medium armor at minimal point cost.

	Point Buy	Adjusted	Standard Array	Adjusted	PHB Recommended	Adjusted
Str	15 / 8	17 / 8	15 / 8	17 / 8	15	17
Dex	8 / 15	8 / 17	8 / 15	8 / 17	14	16
Con	14	12	14	14	13	14
Int	10	10	8	8	10	10
Wis	12	12	10	10	12	12
Cha	13	14	15	16	8	8

Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors

Eldritch Knights and Psi Warriors introduce a need for Intelligence, but you are still a Fighter first. 14 Intelligence is a safe bet to meet your needs without dumping Wisdom. If you’re building to fight at range, consider dropping Constitution slightly to focus more on Intelligence and Wisdom.

Alternatively, you could build entirely around Intelligence. Pick up Intelligenced-based Shillelagh from Magic Initiate or from your species (Khoravar can get a Druid Cantrip), then take 14 Dexterity to fill out medium armor at minimal point cost.

I do not recommend building an Eldritch Knight or a Psi Warrior using the PHB recommended ability scores. 10 Intelligence is not enough.

	Point Buy	Adjusted	Standard Array	Adjusted
Str	8 or 15	8 or 17	10 or 15	10 or 17
Dex	15 or 8	17 or 8	15 or 10	17 or 10
Con	15	16	14	14
Int	14	14	13	14
Wis	10	10	12	13
Cha	8	8	8	8

Fighter Skills

Acrobatics (Dex): Functionally useless.
Animal Handling (Wis): Functionally useless.
Athletics (Str): The only Strength-based skill, and it’s borderline useless. The one appealing use is binding creatures in chains, which is appealing for Strength-based builds since chains/manacles/rope are so incredibly overpowered in the 2024 rules.
History (Int): History can provide a lot of useful background information. This is especially viable for Eldritch Knights.
Insight (Wis): Arguably your best social skill.
Intimidation (Cha): Fighters almost universally dump Charisma, but if you want some social skills this seems like your best choice.
Perception (Wis): One of the most important skills in the game. At least two people in the party should have it, but more is always better.
Survival (Wis): Too situational.

Fighter Feats

This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices. For more specific advice on individual feats, see our 2024 DnD Feat Guides.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select an Origin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may get more from sources like the Human’s species traits.

Alert ^(PHB): Never a bad choice, but less impactful for martial characters than for full casters.
Child of the Sun ^(LFL): Faerie Fire is really good, but it’s only cnsistently useful for the Eldritch Knight.
Crafter ^(PHB): Neat, but not especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful early in the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anything in the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice, so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
Cult of the Dragon Initiate ^(FRHoF): A great feat, but there aren’t any Wisdom-based Fighter subclasses, so it’s hard to make this work.
Emerald Enclave Fledgling ^(FRHoF): Bad. Take Ritual Caster if you want to talk to animals.
Harper Agent ^(FRHoF): The Help Action isn’t useful enough to justify this unless you’re a Hobgoblin.
Healer ^(PHB): Bad. Not nearly enough impact.
Lords’ Alliance Agent ^(FRHoF): Fighters get more attacks than nearly any other class, especially the Champion Fighter, which makes this a great choice for Fighters. Knock your enemies prone or gain Advantage some other way, and you can throw a whole bunch of d20’s.
Lucky ^(PHB): An easy choice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s a great default if you don’t need anything else.
Magic Initiate ^(PHB): Druid spells to get Shillelagh for Eldritch Knight Fighters or Wizard spells to expand the Eldritch’s Knight’s existing spellcasting can both have a big impact, but there’s no appeal here for other Fighters.
Musician ^(PHB): A great way to contribute to any party.
Purple Dragon Rook ^(FRHoF): A great feat to support your party, but the skills aren’t easy choices for the Fighter.
Savage Attacker ^(PHB): Decent if you’re using weapons with big damage dice, but as you add more attacks per turn this becomes less impactful.
Shadowmoor Hexer ^(LFL): Combining the Fighter’s unusually large number of attacks with Hex can deal consistently good damage output while stretching the value of a single spell slot. The retailiatory damage also works really well, and the Fighter’s proficiency in Constitution saves makes Concentration reasonably safe. Add War Caster, and you can lean into the retaliatory damage.
Skilled ^(PHB): Good for Dexterity-based builds and for Eldritch Knights to pick up skills which capitalize on your ability scores.
Spellfire Spark ^(FRHoF): Fighters don’t use their Bonus Action every turn by default, so Spellfire Spark can be a useful use unused action economy if you have a high mental ability score to use for the save DC.
Tavern Brawler ^(PHB): There is very litle to use this. Grab a weapon with the Push mastery.
Tireless Reveler ^(ABoH): A great choice on literally any character. While it doesn’t set you up for any specific build, Heroic Inspiration is always useful.
Tough ^(PHB): Always helpful for front-line melee builds, but not essential.
Tyro of the Gauntlet ^(FRHoF): Only worthwhile if you Ready actions frequently.
Vampire Hunter ^(ABoH): Too situational, and too ineffective when it does matter.
Vampire’s Plaything ^(ABoH): Timely Retreat is really good.
Zhentarim Ruffian ^(FRHoF): Absolutely fantastic on a melee build. Pick up Sentinel and/or Zhentarim Tactics, and you have a powerful combination that will let you attack as a Reaction nearly every round.

General Feats

Actor ^(PHB): Not a great fit for the Fighter, even for a subclass like the Banerret that relies on Charisma.
Athlete ^(PHB): A decent choice for many martial characters. A climb speed is the next best thing to a fly speed. The ability to stand up quickly makes falling or being knocked prone less of a problem. The ability to jump with less of a running start may let you easily jump over difficult terrain and other obstacles which otherwise might slow your movement in combat.
Bloodlust ^(AboH): Not essential, but this could be a good way to keep yourself going in long fights. You do have Second Wind, of course, so only consider this if that isn’t enough on its own.
Bomber ^(AboH): Terrible.
Charger ^(PHB): The push effect is decent, especially when combined with a Push mastery, but without other stacking sources of push distance you’ll have trouble getting past the 30-foot threshold where most creatures won’t have enough speed to immediately run back into melee. The Battle Master’s Pushing Attack is one such option.
Chef ^(PHB): An excellent source of additional healing and of Temporary Hit Points. Good for any melee build.
Cloying Mists ^(AboH): Grab Fighting Style (Blind Fighting), and suddenly you’re the only one who can see inside your Fog Cloud. Grab a whip and the Slasher fear, and you can impose a -20 ft. speed penalty in one attack. Stacked with the speed penalty from Cloying Mists, that will nearly immobilize most enemies. It’s an incredibly easy build for the Eldritch Knight, and very few enemies can do anything about it. Of course, your allies also won’t be able to see, so it may be impolite to bring this to the table regardless of how effective it is.
Cold Caster ^(FRHoF): Without a built-in way to add cold damage to your attacks, this won’t provide much value. The Eldritch Knight’s War Magic feature may be the only exception for the Fighter.
Crossbow Expert ^(PHB): Crossbow Expert paired with Fighting Style (Archery) is a simple build for consistently good damage at range. At high levels once you’ve hit 20 Dexterity, you can use a heavy crossbow with Heavy Weapon Master for a heftu damage boost.
Crusher ^(PHB): A simple and easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat, especially when combined with the Push mastery.
Defensive Duelist ^(PHB): A consistent and effective way to boost your AC in melee if you’re using Finesse weapons like rapiers or short swords. However, giving up your Reaction prevents you from making an Opportunity Attack, and punishing enemies for moving away from you is an important part of being your party’s front line.
Delicious Pain ^(AboH): Potentially useful on melee builds without a shield to mitigate incoming damage, but once per rest may not be impactful enough to make this feel worthwhile. Take Heavy Armor Master first.
Dual Wielder ^(PHB): Without an additional damage boost on hit, the Bonus Action attack doesn’t meaningfully improve two-weapon fighting for you. Fighting Style (Two-Weapon Fighting) and a Nick weapon are all that you need.
Durable ^(PHB): Not as good as you would hope. The Bonus Action to spend a Hit Point Die notably does not add your Constitution modifier, which makes it an expensive and frustrating way to burn through your Hit Point Dice very quickly with minimal impact. Unless your party has some other deep, inexpensive healing resource, you need those dice for Short Rests to refill your massive pool of hit points. Take Chef instead.
Elemental Adept ^(PHB): Even the Eldritch Knight should not use a single element enough to justify this.
Enclave Magic ^(FRHoF): Terrible.
Fairy Trickster ^(FRHoF): Flustering Strike is really good. Putting this on a Dexterity-based build or on a Banerret with decent Charisma can make it very effective. The improvement to Disengage will rarley matter, Unfortunately.
Fey Touched ^(PHB): Helpful for the Eldritch Knight. More spells and some free castings can do a lot for you.
Genie Magic ^(FRHoF): A ton of utility. If you want to use offensive spells, the Eldritch Knight is most likely to have the stats to support this, but the Wizard’s spell list already contains almost everything on the Sorcerer’s spell list, so this is mostly useful for the ability to cast utility spells.
Grappler ^(PHB): Even if you do nothing else to make yourself good at unarmed strikes, this is a great way to hold enemies in place without heavily cutting into your damage output. You’ll want to use a one-handed weapon (Versatile weapons also work well here) to leave a hand free. If you use a weapon with the Topple mastery or if you make another unarmed strike, you can knock your target prone and keep them there, then drag them away from your allies.
Great Weapon Master ^(PHB): Essential and reliable if you’re using two-handed melee weapons.
The damage bonus notably applies to any weapon with the Heavy property, making it an option for weapons like longbows and heavy crossbows. The Strength increase is hard for Dexterity-based builds, but strongly consider this once you’ve hit 20 Dexterity.
Harper Teamwork ^(FRHoF): The Harper Agent feat is too heavy a text to justify this.
Heavily Armored ^(PHB): Fighters already get proficiency in heavy armor.
Heavy Armor Master ^(PHB): A huge amount of damage reduction.
Inspiring Leader ^(PHB): You might have enough Wisdom to qualify for this. It’s a fantastic addition to any party, but definitely don’t rush to take it until you’ve hit 20 in Strength or Dexterity.
Keen Mind ^(PHB): Too situational, and the ability score increase only makes sense for the Eldritch Knight.
Light Bringer ^(ABoH): Too situational.
Lightly Armored ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
Lordly Resolve ^(FRHoF): Standard Bearer is only situationally useful, but many harmful effects are riders on top of the Charmed and Frightened conditions. Granting three allies immunity to those conditions for a full minute can make encounters against many enemies significantly easier.
Love Bites ^(ABoH): Fighters don’t have a way to capitalize on Charmed enemies.
Mage Slayer ^(PHB): Great insurance against difficult mental saves. This may feel redundant once you get Indomitable, or you might find that you’re using both reliably.
Martial Weapon Training ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
Medium Armor Master ^(PHB): Borderline worthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
Moderately Armored ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
Mounted Combatant ^(PHB): Without a magical mount of some kind, mounted combat simply isn’t viable.
Mythal Touched ^(FRHoF): Unpredictable, dangerous, and self-destructive.
Observant ^(PHB): If you’re proficient in Perception and have decent Wisdom, you may be well qualified to use Perception reliably. But even then, this is only helpful if your DM likes to use stealthy enemies and/or likes to include traps in combat encounters.
Order’s Resilience ^(FRHoF): Strength saves are not common enough to make this feel impactful.
Piercer ^(PHB): Excellent if you prefer piercing weapons. Spectacular if you’re a Champion.
Poisoner ^(PHB): This could work for Dexterity-based builds, but it’s not especially impactful. You’ll get more value out of something like Piercer.
Polearm Master ^(PHB): Fantastic.
Purple Dragon Commandant ^(FRHoF): An easy way to support your allies. Inspiring Leader provides considrably more Temporary Hit Points, so consider that first, but Inspiring Leader can’t be used in combat.
Putrefy ^(ABoH): Poisoned is a great debuff, but this isn’t usable often enough to feel impactful.
Rebuke ^(ABoH): Prone without a save is great, but you get more attacks than most classes and you can use a Topple weapon.
Resilient ^(PHB): More saves never hurt. Resilient (Dexterity) is easy to fit into a Dexterity-based build.
Ritual Caster ^(PHB): Not even on an Eldritch Knight.
Sentinel ^(PHB): Fantastic. This provides the “stickiness” that you need to be your party’s Defender, allowing you to easily fill that role regardless of any of your other build choices.
Shadow-Touched ^(PHB): Helpful for the Eldritch Knight, but Fey Touched offers better spells.
Sharpshooter ^(PHB): Helpful for ranged builds, but not essential unless your DM really enjoys using cover. Thrown weapon builds might enjoy this to offset their poor range relative to weapons like bows and muskets.
Shield Master ^(PHB): Excellent on Strength-based sword-and-board builds. Shield Bash is great action economy. Interpose Shield will help mitigate area damage, especially once you have Indomitable and can turn a failed save into a successful one and fully negate the damage.
Skill Expert ^(PHB): Strength-based Fighters have very few good skill options, but Dexterity-based Fighters and Fighters that need high Intelligence or Charisma all have better options.
Skulker ^(PHB): Without Cunning Action to allow you to Hide as a Bonus Action, you lose much of the benefit.
Slasher ^(PHB): Excellent if you prefer slashing weapons. Consider a weapon with the Slow mastery so that you can stack the speed penalties.
Speedy ^(PHB): You’re durable enough that an occasional Opportunity Attack shouldn’t scare you, but you might want the 10-foot speed boost on a melee build.
Spell Sniper ^(PHB): Even the Eldritch Knight doesn’t rely enough on spell attacks to make this worthwhile.
Spellfire Adept ^(FRHoF):
Street Justice ^(FRHoF): Strength-based fighters can be good grapplers, and Advantage on grappled enemies reduces the need for you to knock them prone to get Advantage. Instead, use Action Surge to bind them in chains/manacles/rope in the same turn that you grapple them.
Telekinetic ^(PHB): Potentially useful for the Eldritch Knight and maybe even the Banerret.
Telepathic ^(PHB): Too situational.
Treacherous Allure ^(ABoH): Play an Eldritch Knight or take Magic Initiate.
Vampire Touched ^(ABoH): Helpful for the Eldritch Knight. More spells and some free castings can do a lot for you.
War Caster ^(PHB): Fantastic on the Eldritch Knight. Grab Booming Blade since True Strike relies on your spellcasting ability modifier, which will almost certainly be worse than your Strength or Dexterity.
Weapon Master ^(PHB): You get 3 at level 1, and it scales to 6 on its own. You really don’t need more.
Zhentarim Tactics ^(FRHoF): An easy choice for melee builds, especially if you’re not building for high AC.

Fighting Styles

Archery ^(PHB): Mathematically spectacular
Blind Fighting ^(PHB): Fantastic, but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like to rely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get more consistent benefit from other options.
If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.
Defense ^(PHB): Consistently useful, and doesn’t discourage you from switching weapons.
Dueling ^(PHB): Easy and consistent damage that puts you roughly on par with two-handed weapons without giving up access to a shield.
Great Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): This raises the minimum damage for the Greatsword to 6, which feels nice but doesn’t improve your average damage roll very much. It has almost no impact on other weapons, which makes the appeal very narrow.
Interception ^(PHB): Conceptually similar to Protection, but there’s some nuance in how the two styles protect your target. Protection imposes Disadvantage, so if there’s a good chance that the attack would miss, it’s the better choice. Interception reduces the damage and always works, but for big attacks it won’t negate the whole attack.
Protection ^(PHB): Tempting for Defender builds, but allies need to remain adjacent to you for this to work. Being adjacent to the front line tank is generally a bad place to be unless you can do so safely without someone defending you. This also appeals to mounted combat builds because you can use it to compensate for your mount’s relative fragility, but if you’re going that route you really need the Mounted Combatant feat which lets you retarget attacks at yourself instead.
Thrown Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): More complex than Archery, but the ability to change weapons mid-turn means that you can use multiple Weapon Mastery options in a single turn. Two-weapon fighting can work, but without an on-hit damage boost, it’s actually less damaging than Archery with a longbow or musket.
Two-Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): Without an on-hit damage boost on all of your attacks, two-weapon fighting can’t keep up with the damage output of two-handed weapons, especially as you add more attacks and Great Weapon Master.
Unarmed Fighting ^(PHB): Take Tavern Brawler.

Epic Boons

Boon of Blazing Dawn ^(ABoH): Immunity to Radiant damage is nice, and the ability to change your attack damage type to Radiant can get around damage resistances to weapon damage.
Boon of Bloodshed ^(FRHoF): Advantage on one attack per turn and a tiny damage boost. Take Boon of Combat Prowess first.
Boon of Bountiful Health ^(FRHoF): Without a built-in way to generate Temporary Hit Points, you may lose much of the Boon’s value. The extra healing when you use Hit Point Dice is nice, but not enough on its own. To maximize the value here, take feats like Bloodlust and Chef.
Boon of Combat Prowess ^(PHB): Helpful, but it only affects one of your 3 or more attacks.
Boon of Communication ^(FRHoF): Fighters are rarely a Face, but this may be useful or a Banerret or a Battle Master who has picked up maneuvers to boost their skills.
Boon of Desperate Resilience ^(FRHoF): Fantastic on melee builds who tend to draw a lot of attention and take a lot of damage.
Boon of Dimensional Travel ^(PHB): The Eldritch Knight can combine this with War Magic to do a bunch of stuff inside of one Acton.
Boon of Energy Resistance ^(PHB): A powerful defense on any character.
Boon of Exquisite Radiance ^(FRHoF): Fighters don’t have source of Radiant damage that will benefit from being maximized, so you lose the most exciting part of the Boon.
Boon of Fate ^(PHB): More useful to support your allies’ save-or-suck spells than for anything that you’re doing.
Boon of Fluid Forms ^(FRHoF): Without a built-in way to shapechange, the value here is very limited.
Boon of Fortitude ^(PHB): Great for melee builds. Remember that the additional healing applies to Second Wind and with things like the Champion’s Heroic Rally feature.
Boon of Fortune’s Favor ^(FRHoF): Excellent on literally anyone.
Boon of Irresistible Offense ^(PHB): You don’t have a built-in way to do anything except bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, so this allows you to bypass troublesome damage resistances. You also have 3 or more attacks, giving you more opportunities than most characters to roll a 20 on an attack roll. If you can get Advantage, such as from knocking an enemy prone or from the Vex mastery, you can roll a big pile of d20’s in hopes of getting a 20 and adding a mountain of bonus damage.
Boon of Looming Shadows ^(ABoH): Great for melee builds, especially if you don’t rely heavily on your Bonus Action.
Boon of Misty Escape ^(ABoH): Great insurance for any character. Compare this to Boon of Recovery.
Boon of Poison Mastery ^(FRHoF): Fighters don’t have a built-in way to deal Poison damage.
Boon of Recovery ^(PHB): The Last Stand feature is great insurance, but definitely not enough to justify your first Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
Boon of Revelry ^(FRHoF): Otto’s Irresistible Dance will guarantee at least one round of dancing, which is useful, but without the ability to recast the spell you’re not getting as much value as a full caster.
Boon of Siberys ^(EFotA): Eldritch Knights only get spells uo to level 4, and nearly every Sorcerer spell is already on the Wizard’s spell list.
Boon of Skill ^(PHB): Potentially useful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
Boon of Speed ^(PHB): A huge boost in mobility for Dexterity-based builds.
Boon of Spell Recall ^(PHB): Potentially useful for the Eldritch Knight, but remember that it only has a 25% chance to work.
Boon of Terror ^(FRHoF): Immunity to fear is nice, but Fighters don’t have and easy way to make enemies Frightened, so you lost most of the value here.
Boon of the Bright Sun ^(FRHoF): Give yourself and your allies 10 Temporary Hit Points each turn. Boon of Bountiful Health is a good complement to this, giving you extra THP whenever you gain any.
Boon of the Furious Storm ^(FRHoF): Resistance/immunity to two damage types, but you can only increase a mental ability score, and there’s only one subclass with spellcasting, so this is really only useful for Eldritch Knights.
Boon of the Night Spirit ^(PHB): Tempting on Dexterity-based builds, but you’re probably your party’s Defender, so remember that there’s value in being a big, shiny target.
Boon of the Soul Drinker ^(FRHoF): Resistance to two damage types. The healing is negligible. Take Boon of Fortitude instead.
Boon of Truesight ^(PHB): Probably your only option for handling invisible enemies, but the ability scores are hard. If you’ve made it this far, your party is covering for you or you’ve found a creative solution.

Fighter Armor

The Fighter is proficient in light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.

Studded Leather: Dexterity-based builds should grab studded leather as soon as they hit 18 Dexterity.
Chain Mail: Starting armor if you didn’t choose gold. Works fine until you can afford Full Plate.
Full Plate: The obvious end goal for heavy armor users.
Shield: +2 AC is huge in this game.

Fighter Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

Barbarian: Two levels for Rage and Reckless Attack is definitely tempting, but remember that you can get Advantage on melee attacks by knocking your target Prone with a Topple weapon or an unarmed strike.
Monk: Unarmed Fighters can absolutely work, and a level of Monk for Martial Arts makes that much easier. One level of Barbarian for their version of Unarmored Defense is usually a good combination due to your likely low Wisdom.
Ranger: Hunter’s Mark, more Weapon Masteries, and a second Fighting Style can be very helpful, especially for two-weapon fighting builds that focus on making numerous attacks.
Rogue: Cunning Action is really good, and Expertise offers a lot of options.
Warlock: One level for Pact of the Blade will allow you to build a Charisma-first Banneret.
Wizard: Useful for the Eldritch Knight to expand your spellcasting.

About The Author

T.E. "RPGBOT" Kamstra

Tyler "RPGBOT" Kamstra has been the author of RPGBOT.net since 2013. Tyler began playing tabletop RPGs with 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons over 20 years ago. Tyler has a long-standing love for building characters and for game mechanics, and brings that enthusiasm to everything he creates.