Introduction
Your choice of subclass will greatly affect the way you function in combat. Any fighter can swing a weapon, but your most interesting options will often come from your subclass. Few subclasses will change the Fighterโs role within the party, but they will make a huge difference in play style.
For legacy subclasses, see our 2014 DnD 5e Fighter Subclasses 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.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : 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 canโt assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also wonโt cover Unearthed Arcana content because itโs not finalized, and we canโt guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 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.
Fighter Subclasses
PHB)
(The Battle Master is more complicated than most fighter subclasses, but can do a lot of cool tricks beyond repeatedly stabbing things until they fall down. Each maneuver, much like a spell, is a tool tailor-made to address a specific situation or problem, allowing the Battle Master to respond dynamically to scenarios which are often more complex than simple hit point attrition and which require more nuanced solutions than swinging your weapon until your enemy falls down. Some maneuvers even allow the Fighter to be effective in social situations.
The Martial Adept feat and the Superior Technique Fighting Style have not been reprinted in the 2024 rules. Since the 2024 rules are backwards-compatible with the 2014 rules, Martial Adept should still be available. It would be reasonable to assume that Superior Technique is available as a Fighting Style feat, but a strict reading of rules would mean that it isnโt since it hasnโt been reprinted under the new version of the Fighting Style feature.
Many maneuvers add your superiority die to the damage roll if you hit. Since the damage die is added to the damage roll, the additional damage is multiplied on a critical hit. This makes it especially appealing to apply a maneuver when you score a critical hit so that you get both a big pile of damage and a cool rider effect.
: You get four
superiority dice, which means you get to use 4 maneuvers between each
short/long rest. You gradually get more dice, allowing for more maneuvers at
higher levels, and you gradually add more known maneuvers. You can replace
known maneuvers as you level, but since there arenโt any maneuvers with
prerequisites or anything, you really only need to replace maneuvers that
you tried and didnโt like.- : An Artisanโs tool and another skill from the Fighterโs skill list. Artisanโs tools provide a few uses as described in the Equipment chapter of the PHB, and another skill may offer some useful options outside of combat.
This does not specify immunity to damage, so it appears to also affect immunity to conditions. However, advantage/disadvantage on saves against specific conditions arenโt considered resistances/vulnerabilities.
: Vulnerabilities are
vanishingly rare in 5e, but knowing an enemyโs resistances and immunities
can make life much easier against some enemies. You wonโt need this in every
fight because most enemies have no resistances or because their resistances
are obvious (fire elementals are immune to fire, etc.).- : These bumps only amount to an increase of 1 each, but they feel very nice. Because youโre using Superiority Dice so frequently the small bonus adds up.
- : This ensures that you always have at least one superiority die, so you can use maneuvers much more freely. The free die is once per turn, so itโs especially useful for Reactions. You can also use it outside of combat with Commanding Presence, giving yourself a perpetual +1d8 to some types of Charisma checks, making you fairly effective as a Face even with awful Charisma.
- : These bumps only amount to an increase of 1 each, but they feel very nice and since youโre using Superiority Dice so frequently the small bonus adds up.
Battle Master Maneuvers
Melee-only maneuvers are marked with (M), while non-attack utility maneuvers are marked with (U).
- PHB) (U): A bonus to Stealth can have a huge impact even though youโre likely not sneaking during combat. How effective this will be depends somewhat on your DM and how they apply the Stealth rules. If your DM asks for repeated Stealth checks in quick succession, this wonโt work out. But, if you can make one check and sneak through a room or disappear into a crowd or explore a small area, this could be very helpful. This can also be used when rolling initiative which is useful if you have something like the Bugbearโs Surprise Attack. (
- PHB) (U): Situational, but very interesting if you have frail allies who tend to get stuck in melee from time to time. Switching places with them can pull them out of melee reach, and, if they can act before your enemies, your ally could withdraw to safety, removing the need for you to boost their AC and thereby allowing you to keep that benefit for yourself without feeling selfish. (
- PHB): (U) If you donโt have a Rogue in your party, this is generally a poor option since you should do enough damage on your own that you should reserve your limited pool of Superiority Dice for other options. If you have a Rogue in the party, this becomes a fantastic option which you should capitalize on any time your Rogue can reliably hit the target. Sneak Attack works once per turn (not once per round), so allowing the Rogue to make an extra attack on your turn means a big pile of extra Sneak Attack damage. (
- PHB): Adding a superiority die is enough to offset a poor Charisma score, allowing the Battle Master Fighter to serve as a Face without further splitting their attention on ability scores. This notably omits Charisma (Deception), so thereโs mechanical incentive to be honest. (
- PHB): Bonus damage and you get to force the target to drop one item if they fail a Strength save. Unfortunately, relatively few enemies use weapons, and the ones that do predominantly rely on Strength and will therefore have high Strength saves. That means that this is unreliable against most melee combatants, but can see some use against foes armed with ranged weapons or enemy casters holding some kind of focus or wand. (
- PHB): Very helpful with a Rogue or some other Striker in the party, especially against enemies with high AC. However, its usefulness diminishes if you donโt have an ally who can follow your attack with a single high-damage attack to capitalize on Advantage. Sneak Attack is an obvious example, but also look for high-damage attack spells like Inflict Wounds and Chromatic Orb. (
- PHB): (U) Disengage as a Bonus Action and get an AC bonus until your next turn. Obviously great if you need to Disengage, but you might even use this just for the AC boost if youโre expecting to draw a lot of attacks. (
- PHB): Advantage on your own attack and bonus damage. You donโt want to use this on every attack, but you can use it in conjunction with a Vex weapon to chain Advantage on your attacks, or you could use it with an Unarmed Strike to more reliably knock your target prone to get Advantage on future attacks. (
- PHB): A good taunt mechanic, but not as effective as Menacing Attack unless your target is resistant or immune to fear. (
- PHB): (M) Dash as a Bonus Action and potentially a damage bonus with a melee attack. A good way to close to melee, but you donโt need to Dash frequently, so this is only situationally useful. (
- PHB): Itโs rare that this will provide a significant advantage unless youโre using the flanking variant rule or something. Movement in 5e is easy, and using something like Menacing Attack to impose Disadvantage on a potential Opportunity Attack is likely sufficient in most cases, or you can use Pushing Attack to push enemies away and get allies out of grapples. (
- PHB): Frightening a target makes them considerably less effective, and, with clever positioning or the Push Weapon Mastery, you can use this to keep the target away from your allies. However, beware of creatures that are immune or resistant to fear effects. (
- PHB): (U) Reducing damage is often much more effective than waiting to heal it later, but it is probably more effective to spend the same Superiority Die to defeat your attacker than it is to spend it reducing a little bit of damage. The damage reduced also doesnโt scale much since your Superiority Dice scale in size so slowly, so this may be a good option at low levels when you have relatively few hit points, but consider retraining at once youโre more confident in your durability. (
- PHB): Great
against enemies with high AC, or if you absolutely need to make one attack
hit, but donโt rely on it too heavily or it will eat through your
Superiority Dice. Sometimes you need to accept that you missed.
This is used after you make the attack roll, but you donโt want to use this every time that you miss. If youโre paying enough attention to know the targetโs AC based on dice rolls, you can estimate when using this makes sense. The closer you are to hitting, the more likely this is to work. At an average bonus of 4.5 (more once your dice advanced to d10/d12) I recommend only using this if youโre within 4 points of hitting.
Itโs easy to compare Precision Attack to Feinting Attack since both make it easier to hit. Feinting Attack provides Advantage and a damage boost, but you need to use it before the attack. Precision Attack is nice because you can use it after your attack roll if you know that your Superiority Die could turn a near-miss into a hit, so youโre not forced to gamble a Superiority Die that you might not need to spend. Feinting Attack provides a damage bonus, which means that even if you didnโt need Advantage you still get something out of spending your die. Precision Attack doesnโt require you to spend your Bonus Action. Taking all of these considerations into account, theyโre roughly equivalent. Which is better depends greatly on your build and your situation. If you use Bonus Actions heavily, definitely go for Precision Attack.
( - PHB): Using an Unarmed Strike to Shove or using a Push weapon is typically sufficient for Strength-based melee builds, but for Dexterity-based builds and for ranged builds, this can be a helpful way to break grapples or knock enemies out of position. Small creatures also arenโt penalized for their size, making this an easy and reliable way to push enemies. Itโs still only situationally useful, but itโs difficult to replicate by any other means short of magic. (
- PHB): This wonโt be a lot of hit points, until youโve gained a few levels, but the temporary hit points donโt have a specified expiration, so they last until they run out or the target takes a Long Rest. You can start each day by rallying your allies, then immediately take a Short Rest to get your Superiority Dice back. (
- PHB): (M) Spend a superiority die for an attack as a Reaction. Seems like a fantastic trade to me, especially if youโre using a big two-handed weapon and do a lot of damage per attack. Also great if you have a once per turn damage boost like Sneak Attack from levels in Rogue. (
- PHB): This is very little damage, and you can get much better utility from your superiority dice. If you want a similar effect, grab a Cleave weapon. (
- PHB): Adding a superiority die is enough to offset a poor Intelligence score, but itโs very unlikely that you took proficiency in History or Investigation. (
- PHB): Knocking a target prone is great, but Strength-based builds can use a Topple weapon or an Unarmed Strike. Dexterity-based builds will struggle with those options, so Tripping Attack has some appeal there. (
PHB)
(The simplest character in the game, but no less effective for its simplicify, the Champion Fighter perfectly complements the Fighterโs core features without adding additional complexity. The Champion is a perfect character for new players.
Champion Fighter Subclass Guide
- : Twice as many crits (before we talk about Advantage). Not much else to say. As a nice bit of quality of life, this now works with Unarmed Strikes which it didnโt in the previous rules set.
- : On the one hand, advantage on Strength (Athletics) will hardly ever matter, especially with the changes to grappling in this rules set. On the other hand, Advantage on Initiative is awesome, and the rider on crits is fun.
- : The worst this will ever be is +1 AC or 10 feet of Blindsight, both of which are pretty decent on any build. Some builds may actually want two fighting styles and choose something else.
- : Free Heroic Advantage once per turn is awesome. It is a little weirdly anti-synergistic with the changes to the Heroic Advantage mechanic itself, though, because you now roll after seeing your first roll and must accept the new roll, so you canโt use it to fish for crits if youโve already hit because you risk turning your hit into a miss. If youโre doing it right, this is mostly present to help you pass saves and do well in non-combat situations.
- : 50% more crits if you donโt have Advantage.
- : Between this and all of the extra sources of Temporary Hit Points in the game, a well-support Champion is nigh-immortal.
PHB)
(The Eldritch Knight is perhaps the simplest โgishโ build, combining the Fighterโs excellent armor and weapon capabilities with a splash of spellcasting from the Wizard. As they gain levels, their spellcasting expands and they gain the ability to cast spells during their Attack action, allowing the Eldritch Knight to deal out huge amounts of damage and to handle crowds in a way that few Fighters can match.
Eldritch Knight Fighter Subclass Guide
Be sure to pick up an offensive cantrip like Booming Blade which you can use alongside weapon attacks with War Magic. True Strike looks appealing on its face, but Intelligence-based attacks are a harder prospect since your Intelligence will lag behind your Strength or Dexterity.
The text explicitly calls of the Eldritch Knightโs spells โWizard Spellsโ, which means that Wizard features and Eldritch Knight features work well together when multiclassing.
: The Eldritch Knight is a 1/3
spellcaster that draws their spells from the Wizardโs spell lists. Youโll
know very few spells and have very few spell slots, so you need to be
absolutely certain that any given spell is worth the space.You can accomplish some odd shenanigans like bonding to oversized weapons or even siege weapons in order to freely teleport a massive object to yourself, but be cautious about how much your DM will tolerate before they have your bonded trebuchet appear in your hand and summarily crush it.
: Very cool, but it rarely
has any mechanical impact unless you plan to throw your weapon(s) or want to
appear unarmed somewhere. Casting spells like Light or Darkness on your
bonded weapon before throwing it means that you can place the spell effect
at greater range and recall the weapon in order to throw it again. But this
combo is both more work and less effective than most methods for abusing
magical darkness.If Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade arenโt available, your next best bet may be True Strike to add an on-hit damage boost to a hit with your weapon. Your Intelligence is probably going to lag behind your Strength/Dexterity, so try to get Advantage before you attack to make up for the relative loss of attack bonus. Using a Vex weapon or knocking your target prone are great options.
Once you pick up Eldritch Strike, you might switch to a cantrip which calls for a saving throw like Toll the Dead. Whether Toll the Dead will deal more damage than a weapon cantrip will depend on your other build choices.
Remember that this works each time that you take the Attack action. If you use Action Surge, you can use War Magic again. Unfortunately, this doesnโt work with Haste because Haste places additional limits on the additional Action which it provides.
: A fantastic way to use weapons
and spells at the same time. Most spells will rely on your Intelligence to
attack, so your best options are Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade because
they rely on weapon attacks.- : Since your Intelligence probably wonโt be as high as that of a real Wizard, save DCs can be a real problem. Imposing disadvantage will make your spells considerably more effective. This can enable some interesting combinations like attacking a bunch of adjacent enemies, then using War Magic to hit them with Acid Splash or Sword Burst, or shooting a bunch of enemies with a bow then hitting them with a fireball on the next turn.
- : This is as much movement as using the Dash action for most characters, so, combined with Action Surge, you get to do almost as much as you could in a complete additional turn (you still donโt get a second Bonus Action).
If youโre making a spell attack, I strongly recommend a Vex weapon to make up for your Intelligence likely not being at 20. If youโre relying on a saving throw, you still want to attack your target(s) first to trigger Eldritch Strike to debuff their saves.
This doesnโt conflict with War Magic, so you could trade three attacks to cast a Cantrip and a level 1 or level 2 spell in one Action. Once you get to level 20 and get your 4th attack, you can make a weapon attack and still cast spells twice in a single Action. Literally no one else gets to do that.
Remember that youโre still limited to casting one spell with a spell slot per turn, so even if you use Action Surge, you wonโt be able to cast another level 1 or level 2 spell with Improved War Magic.
: Level 1 and 2 spells
wonโt be great for damage at this level compared to an entire Action worth
of attacks, but you can easily use this for buffs like Enlarge/Reduce,
debuffs like Ray of Sickness, save-or-suck spells like Tashaโs Hideous
Laughter, and area control options like Web.
PHB)
(The Psi Warrior Fighter is a martial psionics user, making use of a semi-magical mechanism known as โpsionicsโ to produce effects which are borderline but technically not magical. Is it magic? Not quite, but more โyesโ than โnoโ. The Psi Warrior plays similarly to the Battle Master, but with considerably less analysis paralysis since you get a fixed set of abilities.
If your DM adheres to the Adventuring Day rules in the DMG, that means you can recharge just two dice per day. Across a full day of adventuring, thatโs a small pool to work with. You need to be cautious about spending your dice rather than burning through them in the first encounter. The initial options for spending your Psionic Energy Dice are easy ways to quickly burn through your dice for modest amounts of damage or protection.
- : Preventing some or all of the damage from an attack can keep you or an ally fighting, and can help allies maintain Concentration on spells. Save this for when hit points are low or when an allyโs Concentration is crucial, otherwise you risk running through your Psionic Energy dice in a hurry.
I wouldnโt consider this a go-to option until you add Telekinetic Thrust at level 7 because your pool of dice is too small and too precious to spend on something as mundane as a tiny bit of damage. However, you might make an exception in cases where the extra damage could kill the creature or cause it to lose Concentration (since itโs a separate source of damage it forces a second saving throw).
: A modest burst of
damage. The damage is a separate source from your attack (it deals
damage on its own rather than adding damage to the attack), so itโs not
multiplied on a critical hit.- : Situational. You get it once per Short Rest, which is often be enough, but you can use it again for a Psionic Energy Die if you need to. This is forced movement (even though the target is willing), so you can use it to pull allies out of melee (even if theyโre grappled) without provoking Opportunity Attacks.
: Your pool of Psionic Energy
Dice are your defining resource. You get from 4 to 12 dice over your career,
and the size goes from d6 to d12 over the course of your career. That sounds
like a big pool, but they mostly recharge on a Long Rest, and between Long
Rests you can recharge just one die per Short Rest.- : Even though the flight only lasts until the end of your current turn, thatโs enough to get into melee with flying enemies and beat them up (consider using Action Surge to maximize the benefits) or Shove them prone to force them to fall. You can also use this to fly over pits, high walls, and other barriers. You get this once for free, but if you need it again you can recharge it with a Psionic Energy Die.
While this doesnโt consume a Psionic Energy die on its own, this is an optional rider effect that you add to Psionic Strike, which does consume a die.
: Unarmed Strikes
and Topple mastery weapons are typically sufficient for Strength-based
fighters who want to knock enemies prone, but this is a great counter to
flying enemies for Dexterity-based builds. Flying creatures that are
knocked Prone fall, which can both cause a lot of damage and bring them
into melee range.
: Two new options for
using your Psionic Energy Dice.Resistance to psychic damage is nice, but only situationally useful because psychic damage is rare.
: Charm and Fear effects are
common and annoying across the full level range, and can take you out of a
fight. Theyโre especially good counters to martial characters (like you)
because they tend to require Wisdom saving throws which martial characters
are usually bad at. Indomitable does make this somewhat redundant, but in a
long adventuring day you might prefer to dip into your Psionic Energy Dice
rather than spending precious Indomitable uses.- : +2 AC and +2 on Dexterity saves to you and possibly the rest of your party for 1 minute, activated as a Bonus Action. This is a great buff at any level, but remember that it wonโt stack with other sources of cover. You only get to use this once per day, but you can recharge it with a Psionic Energy Die, and I recommend doing so. The +2 AC to your whole party will mitigate a huge amount of damage in a typical fight. +2 on a 20-point scale is 10% of the scale, so a +2 AC bonus will negate roughly 10% of all attack damage to your party in that encounter.
The ability to make a weapon attack as a Bonus Action while concentrating on Telekinesis is very exciting. The obvious intent is that you use your Action to use Telekinesis, and that can be a powerful combination: lift your target into the air and shoot them, or drop them to force them to fall prone before attacking them in melee.
However, youโre under no obligation to actually use Telekinesis while youโre concentrating on it. The spell has a 10-minute duration, so you can easily use it as a buff to add an attack as a Bonus Action. If you enjoy this strategy, I think youโll agree that spending a Psionic Energy Die to recharge this ability is well worth the cost to get an additional attack with little effort.
: By this level itโs
entirely possible that you have raised both your Strength/Dexterity and your
Intelligence to 20, so your Intelligence checks may be very good. That makes
Telekinesis a useful option in combat, especially against foes with poor
Strength like many spellcasters. You can use this to lift foes into the air
and drop them, to move them over pits or into hazards, or just to pull them
into melee range.