The simple warrior, main character of the thousands of fantasy books. Fighters encompass the basic idea of a d&d character, able to fight off against hordes with a sword and shield in hand. Iconic, ultimately. It is a good reason why people always think of that, or a wizard, for when Dungeons and Dragons is brought up in conversation. For beginners, they are key to learning the core mechanics of D&D, surpassing the complexity of a Paladin and their oath, or the Ki Points of a monk. Simplicity is the key aspect to this class, but the fighter can be so much more. Fighting styles, optional magic, manoeuvres, the limitations of fighters may be seen as daunting and discrediting for those that are more experienced with D&D, but it is ultimately the character that you make that holds the value.
Fighters are a completely martial class. With all options of armour and weaponry, these combatants make for the most versatile in traditional combat, disregarding the balls of fire and eldritch invocations. Meaty, bulky, well-powered, the qualities that’d entail a fighter with the beefy hit dice of a d10, ensuring that high health is a guarantee for these mighty warriors. Furthermore, the proficiency in strength and constitution saving throws provides a player with the idea that the fighter is a class for, well, fighting. The best skills to invest in as a fighter are;
- Athletics
- Perception
Athletics provides the general idea of a fighter being strong and healthy, able to dash over great distances or grappling onto an enemy, whereas perception is the most powerful and common skill to utilise at a high variety. A key feature used by the fighter, starting at first level, is known as Second Wind, capable of letting the fighter get brief moments of respite amidst the heat of combat. This entails you to expend a Bonus Action in order to heal a small portion of your health, equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Especially useful for those not wishing to do anything major with their bonus actions, as well as providing some aid to yourself.
An aspect of importance as to playing a fighter is known as Fighting Styles. Methods to combat that exert a certain theme, ranging from a Blind Swordsman to a lethal archer. With the many options of choosing different, or even multiple styles through multiclassing and the availability of Feats, it lets the boons of your combat prowess be quite varied. The choice is, ultimately, yours, but to recommend one to a starting player, or traditional fighter, the best fighting style option would be Great Weapon Fighting, a style that ensures that big pools of damage will be done to your opponents, able to reroll the low thresholds of damage given by dice. Essentially, it is an inspiration point for when your damage is abysmal. It ensures a steady chain of damage from your character. A perfect choice for these warriors, especially paired with a longsword, greataxe, or maul.
Starting at second level, the fighter may take an action surge, once per short rest, in order to take an additional action at no cost on your turn. This burst of energy can take the form of additional damage, or using the help action on a fallen ally, or any of the other examples of actions. This ability is bolstered at level 17, allowing for two action surges per short rest. What makes this even more powerful is that the choice of when to use it holds no cooldown between the two surges. In theory, you can use them both on the same turn! A single burst of combat prowess, capable of falling the most tyrannical of foes, no wonder Fighter is the most popular class pick in all of D&D. The Fighter gets given an additional boost to their performance in Ability Score Improvements. They get seven levels worth of ASIs, in fact. The best abilities to put these points into will be reflected on the techniques and methods of combat, whether done with a bow or a bastard sword, or dual scimitars. To simplify however, strength, dexterity, and constitution are the best choices for these ability boosts. At some point, though, it’d probably be best to turn to using Feats, especially for a simple class like Fighter.
Extra Attacks ensure that the damage outburst of a fighter is consistently high. Allowing you to attack twice instead of once on an attack action, it does exactly what it says. Gives you an extra attack. Who would’ve seen that one coming? This ability is given two times after that, at 11th and 20th level respectfully. When a complete, level 20 fighter, you can expect up to twelve attacks at most in one turn. Even after that, when dual-wielding with the two-weapon fighting style, you’d add another off hand attack, making that thirteen swings of a sword.
The last unique ability bestowed onto a fighter is Indomitable. To reroll a saving throw that you have failed, forced to take the new result. This is given at 9th level, and returns with additional uses at 13th level, and 17th level. The fighter is a simple class, ultimately. Its uniqueness is in the character itself and needs to be relatively balanced in order to have fun. Uniqueness does die down after 10th level, so I’d recommend multiclassing in order to be more creative, but it is ultimately down to the choice of preference.
The recommended class-race pairing for the fighter is Human. An obvious choice, really. The boost to all six standard abilities is really good to have a well-balanced character, definitely in the eyes of the fighter, a class based on being simple and an all-rounder. As for the abilities, the best order of importance would be;
- Strength
- Constitution
- Dexterity
- Wisdom
- Intelligence
- Charisma
Fighters are fighters, not talkers. But it’s best to make sure that you’re not playing a blank warrior and, instead, a character. Keep that in mind, please.
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