So...my friends and I did something interesting. Something even WotC is too cowardly to do. We rolled the Battle Master into the main class, so every single Fighter is a Battle Master. It's been amazing. I highly recommend it.
That is fun but really unbalanced for other Marshalls … oh what what did you say Tasha about any one getting a maneuver with a feat and that one or two is not unbalanced at all. Well go figure that. 😂 ((You can as DM use any feat as a gift so that was designers saying you certainly should do that if you can balance it))
@@leodouskyron5671 Balance is a myth in any practical game. And if you're gonna talk about balance, Barbarians get Rage, Rogues get Sneak Attack, Monks essentially get stuff that works like spells (Stunning Strike!?!). Giving Fighters Battle Master permanently is only leveling the field. Fighters don't have much else besides Second Wind and Action Surge. This allows them to play at a stronger and more tactical footing. Fighter is actually the weakest of the martials without it with no real definition of it's own. This makes it better and something unique.
In defense of the Cavalier, you don't need a steed to make it work. Those are mostly ribbon features. This subclass can be one of the best tanks for the party by drawing a line in the sand and letting nothing pass. Its age shows compared to other subclasses, but it does its job well.
Great review of the fighter class. It took a while for me to warm up to the class, but I've come around because of many of the points highlighted in the video. However, the main thing I overlooked is how the flexibility of the class gives it a wide range for roleplay.
Agreed! Tons of roleplay opportunities I found when I finally started exploring the class. It’s now in my top three of classes (I have to admit I still prefer ranger as it was my first class and rogue after that, because archer builds are my main focus). I’m glad you are enjoying fighter too!
@@ConstructedChaosthe Fighter does have one advantage aside from action surge breaking the game. Multi strikes. If you could attack multiple times in a turn what would happen if you got a weapon that naturally multi hit each attack? Further hit multiplication.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing as an echo knight. One moment that sticks out is when I was able to take an arch-wizard out during his monologue. Summoned my echo behind him, passed a stealth check, switched places, action surge, great weapon fighting. Dealt almost 100 damage before the DM called for initiative. We were level 6.
@@tommywilliamson8594Overconfidence is the worst weakness. That Wiz made themselves the freest XP in the world by running their mouth and not paying attention.
My Rogue 3 Thief/ Fighter 5 Battle Master build is a mundane Ranger. Human Variant for that sweet sweet 5e Feat. (I took Mobility) Think Frontier Knight that can stealth scout, disable traps, find food and water, make a map, swing, shoot, ride, and speak a few languages. A warrior guide that is more presentable than the Barbarian and tougher than the Rogue.
I've been loving fighter since the playtest. I remember Bron, my first fighter in the 5e playtest, a sneaky, lightly armored, switching between sword and board, 2 handed long sword and bow. Well rounded shady leader. Man I love that character. Also fighter/samurai takes a pivotal role on one of my favorite builds, the "Samurai Jack Combo" Fighter (Samurai)/ Monk (kensei)/ Cleric (war) combo with a thousand attacks per turn and wearing no armor.
Fighter is definitely in my top 3 classes to play with, but a lot of folks sleep on Eldritch Fighter with wizard multiclass. I’m always caught between an evocation wizard or divination wizard for flavor. Having a warrior that can dodge hits so smoothly without even looking OR a warrior wielding lightning and flame 🔥 off of their blade scraping off the ground. So sick.
Taken to max. level, EK is more like a 20th level Fighter AND a 7th level wizard in a single character, and it is naturally more resilient than a bladesinger. The subclass is underrated.
One feat I really like is "Strike of the Giants" where you can have a Smite like attack added into your Melee/thrown attacks (one per turn.) Almost any Fighter Subclass can make good use of it, especially Champion with his expanded crit range. Almost all of them have a special debuff to apply like a Battlemaster and it relies on your STR or CON. Best of all, you can get it for free from a Background. The tough choice is choosing which one.
@ConstructedChaos Yeah, it's called the Giant Foundling. They also have a Rune Carver background for a spellcaster alternative. The latter gives you the Rune Shaper feat that gives you a few smatterings if lvl 1.
A small thing about the Rune Knight's Runic Shield. You can force a reroll for any creature, which means that IF it works with missed attack rolls, you can protect an enemy from a missed attack.
I've come up with alot of action surge combos in my time. Here's a snippet on one of my best builds on it. clock sorc 2, tempest cleric 6, fighter 2 Pick up the metamagic adept feat for quicken spell. quicken upcasted call lightning (4L) to deal 4d10 (5d10 with a stormy sky). Use restore balance in case enemy has magic resistance. If they fail a save, activate destructive wrath for a solid 40 dmg (50 with stormy skies). If they succeed, move on to using an action to activate another call lightning again. And if they succeed, move on to action surging another call lightning activation. Thats 3 chances to get them to fail the reflex save to activate destructive wrath. best case senario is they fail 2 saves and you get to activate destructive wrath twice on the opening round for a flat 80 dmg (100 with stormy skies) + half of 4d10 (5d10 with stormy skies) for the 1 save they make. And this is just the dmg to 1 target. What if you can hit 2 in the 5 FT radius of call lightning? Dont forget the possible 30 FT forced movement too (10 FT per activation) that you can apply to a large or smaller creature. Most likely that creature is the wasting an action to dash if its still alive on their next turn.
I actually almost shed tears to this video. To this day I played and only once 2 sessions. Best moments of my life. Swing this video made me just burst with joy since to this day I could never play and ever again. Much love to this game. 🎲🤺 Sneak attack
I have been playing a samurai fighter in a recent campaign. I say recent but we know with dnd how relative that is lol (about 13-14 sessions in right now since I joined as a later addition). It’s actually been pretty fun. And I do believe the first point made about fighters is correct, they can be versatile in a lot of ways. And I have had a lot of fun playing one in this roleplay/storytelling heavy campaign with tons of intrigue. When I joined the party already had a monk, a ranger, a wizard, an artificer, and a cleric. Fairly balanced actually though a bit weak on charisma. I also noted the group lacked a wide spread of languages between each other and the adventure intended to go over a lot of things that might require that. Sure, the wizard and artificer could change that eventually, but they weren’t there yet and it would put them in unnecessary danger should the situation be one where the act of casting a spell could be taken as aggressive, even if it was to bridge a language barrier. So those few things I noted. I decided on playing my samurai as a scholar of linguistics in the end. They would be a field agent of their scholar faction due to their area of study, but also be trusted to act alone mostly due to their fighting and talking skills. I also tacked on proficiencies in calligraphy, painting, and forgery tools (though specifically dm and I narrowed that down to paperwork and art stuff, but also let it make it easier to make multiple spell scrolls of the same spell over and over again if assisted by the spellcaster with the spell). I ended up taking the feat for linguist and also can write “reports” for my faction in said code, and also am teaching my party to use it too. This is actually one of the huge reasons the party jokes that my character is a super spy. The courtier feature also helps me be the face of the party and hold up with those all important charisma skill check stuff (I have it set to persuasion). Between all of this I feel I stepped quite well into the role the party needed and fighter was a major reason how that happened. I now play as the tank frontliner while the monk does the damage dealing and dips. I tend to also act as cover for the others too and have the strength needed to make those checks easy (I have had to pick up and carry the wizard out of danger on multiple occasions, more than half our sessions now). One of my favorite moments recently was between the monk and I. Monk plays as an ex-soldier who is disillusioned by his country and wants to understand the people his country are at war with. So he asked my character to teach him the language so he can learn. This moment majorly highlighted the monk’s character growth and we, as both the characters and players, were really proud of that moment…which is why I dropped my character secret to his character and his character alone, that my character once had a fiancé of that country that the monk’s country is at war with. This got the whole table into a tizzy as I had dropped few hints to the deeper backstory though they knew one was there and I had foreshadowed a few things already that they hadn’t pieced together yet. So yeah, monk’s character can now do with that information what he will. Anyway, mostly wanted to share to show that one can be versatile as a fighter. My character isn’t really your typical trope of a fighter and honestly does super well in their intended role, mostly serving as decent backup and bolstering everyone.
Wow!! I love how thoroughly you developed your character’s motivations and use case within the party! Bravo! Well done making a fighter that’s far more than just a combat fiend!
@@ConstructedChaos absolutely! And much appreciated! I’ll be honest, my hobby outside dnd is in anthropology so I have to admit this is where a good deal of that inspiration comes from. I also really wanted to take the sage background. I’m still amazed each time I play on how well I made this character to suit this party in all flaws, strengths, themes, and backstory elements. They are still distinctly themself but they have been great at highlighting and being highlighted by the various group members. One of my favorite quirks I gave my character is that they write poetry as a hobby. I even went the extra step and wrote up a few. Couple sessions ago the party pressured my fighter into actually reading one aloud and I had a great time playing up the embarrassment. Made for a comedic moment we all enjoyed.
@@mentalrebllion1270 The TTRPG hobby is one that often sees us instill small parts of ourselves into heroic characters! I've certainly found it cathartic myself!
@@ConstructedChaos absolutely! I tend to especially add my own compulsive caretaking habit to all my characters to. I gave up on preventing that bleed over given it helps with party cohesion anyway and can be flavored in a variety of mannerisms. But yeah, tend to add bits and bobs from my own passions, habits, and thoughts when building. As the advice goes for writers “write what you know” and that definitely is something that applies often, I find, to dnd characters.
I recently used a level 7 Eldritch knight multiclassed with 6 levels of bladesinger wizard. My AC was 17+1(protection fighting style)+1(cloak of protection)+2(haste)+5(bladesong) plus I had shield spell and absorb elements, counterspell, and silvery barbs for a total of 27 AC with the option to go up to 32 or use other defensive spells. The DM couldn’t touch me the whole one shot plus I had 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 damage taken on AOEs. My attack round was, Cantrip, Attack (bladesinger), attack (haste), attack (bonus action from Eldritch knight). It was an INSANE build.
Yea, I still don't know if I want my next character to be a Monk or a Fighter. If they were to be a monk, I would want to use the new UA Monk; if I were to play a Fighter, I would be asking to add homebrew to the base class so it has more roleplay potentiallly and options. Is it bad that I think Fighters are suppose to be the martial equivalent of Sorcerers?
Fair enough! I don't think that's a bad comparison. Other classes just tend to come with more flavor baked in whereas the fighter is much more open ended. Nothing wrong with that or whatever else you prefer!
My go to class to play in dnd is either a fighter, warlock or paladin So yeah seeing someone actually explaining how epic the fighter brings a smile to my face
We have a Rune Knight Fighter in our current game. Far and away the most versatile Fighter subclass ever. With the right choice of runes, he's a total beast and very fun to watch!
Cavalier has 1 feature tied to mounted combat. The class is made for *defense* otherwise. People focus too much on the "haha ride horse" feature. My first campaign featured a newbie who absolutely wrecked enemies with those dang marks lol
Technically, yeah haha. That’s why I mentioned at the end that it’s actually not that bad of a subclass and suffers from the poor “optics” of being tied to mounted combat!
Hey Alex, have you made a video about the various Battle Master maneuvers that the fighter can use, or has that already happened and I haven't seen it yet?
One of my favorite characters I ever played was a Dragonborn Monk Fighter Multiclass. He was a way of the open hand monk with 4 levels in Battle master fighter, meaning he could utilize martial abilities so well that he could control the battlefield. To give context, at level 9 he could use a maneuver for Riposte (use a reaction to attack if the opponent missed), and in that same attack use a ki point for stunning strike, so if they failed, they’d be stunned for a round, then if it was my turn, I could use another battle maneuver to disarm him, on top of my 2 attacks and a bonus action for unarmed strike as a monk, and if I really wanted to, use action surge to use 2 attacks again and another Ki point from the open hand technique to knock him prone (all of which at this point would be at advantage with him being stunned). So in terms of action economy, I stunned, disarmed, knocked him down, and attacked an opponent 6 times in a single round, all at level 9. This is a fairly unique scenario but it goes to show how much you can do with the right build.
Monk and fighter do tend to mix pretty well IMO. In 5e especially, the fighter can actually get access to more powerful unarmed strikes earlier than the monk can.
@@sirgusdaddyix4729 many would argue that the unarmed fighting style is better than the monk’s unarmed strikes early on-although it does still use strength as the modifier.
@@ConstructedChaos I’d like to see someone make a fighter build that’s basically the monk class and see the comparison between the two. That would be really fascinating. Honestly the idea of recreating classes with other classes in general would make an interesting video series in itself.
Haha yep! Barbarian is the last one! I was going in order of what my community voted on. I have a couple other videos coming first but I expect barbarian to be out in a little over a month!
Yes. The fighter is so broken! My first character was a human fighter, but here's the thing, at level 4, I got 20 strength, I had the dueling fighting style, and a blacksmith upgraded my Warhammer. So it was 1d8 + 9 damage!! A +5 for strength, + 2 from dueling, and +2 from monster fangs. The fighter can be the unstoppable character, even more than the barbarian!!! Thanks for the fightly video!!!!! 👍👍 ⚔️⚔️🛡🛡🗡🗡🏹🏹🔨🔨🪓🪓
I picked fighter because I’ve never played dnd before a lot of classes confuse me …but fighter move here hit whatever end turn I love it I’m level 11 and decimate what’re I’m fighting
Wanting to make a dog soldier fighter, literally. He's an ascended dog race that was created because dogs' loyal and obedient nature would make them excellent troops for battle. I think he's going to be like a giant upright great pyrenees with either a soldier or farmer background. I want to make the most broken fighter build I can, but have him act all kind and dopey and a bit shy with a voice like Goofy. He's just a simple farm boy who got called into war like so many other dogs.
That's a really cool backstory for this species homebrew! Honestly feels like it should be official content by now. Who wouldn't want to play as man's best friend?
I think it depends on how you grade it, really. On the one hand, this is a niche use case that only comes fully online in the late game. On the other, battle master can do a lot of things really well and very early on.
I like my Varient human battle master archer. Take archery fighting style, and sharpshooter feat. Of course i usually dump into my dex and let it trikle from there.
Fighter is not broken, Action Surge is. Further, even Action Surge is not either as far as casters go: RAW you can only cast one levelled spells per turn. Otherwise Quickened Spell + Action Surge would mean 3 Fireballs in one turn. And 4 Attacks in one turn ... that's cute. Wall of Force + Sickening Radiance. Or +Mordekainen's Faithful Hound. Two turns and any enemy which cannot teleport or dispel magic dies. You know what level you need for that? Lv9 Wizard. At level 20, you can do this very combo 9 times without items or features included yet. 4 Attacks - if you would have a Longsword +3 and your stat at 20 - roughly equal (1d8+6(prof)+5(dex/str)+3)*4 = 60-88 damage, if all hits connect. Meteor Swarm, a Lv9 Spell, aimed in such a way that all 4 comets hit, combined with Overchannel (Evocation Wizard), deals about... oh right. 480 damage - on a succeeded save. In an AoE. At level 17. D&D5e gets whack starting at mid-tier (Spells Lv5+) and completely nuts at higher levels (Spells Lv7+).
To be totally fair, terms like "best subclass" are somewhat pointless to say. Flavour, player creativity, setting, magical items, etc., etc. Are all factors. It feels a bit like personal preference bled through, ngl. But, then, that's just the opinion of an old man on the internet, so, y'all do you.
You’re absolutely right. Although, my favorite subclass is probably the echo knight for obvious reasons. Mechanically, it’s just something most people have come to agree on that the battle master is the best. I’ll try to keep a more neutral approach while still conveying my opinions in future guides.
The only thing about the Arcane Archer that kinda sucks is that you're restricted to using the shortbow or the longbow ONLY!! In other words, you can't even use any crossbows or any other ranged weapons at all!!!!! I wouldn't choose that subclass because it makes you such a one trick pony!!
It's definitely not the best subclass by any means haha. I just like the flavor. If your DM is cool, I'm sure they'd at least let you use crossbows. I know I would.
While I agree the Battle master is the best and i do intend to play an echo knight goblin 😂... my first fighter ever...i prefer druids and rangers... I choose the Samurai. She is litterly the red-headed step child. Its in a Spelljamer campaign. Im playing a githyanki, wildspacer background, ex family were pirates, real trouble, human trafficking etc. My character and her younger brother were captured. She was reformed and joined the human clan (Japanese) and became one of them. Shes changed her name and has sworn to kill the leaders of her ex group, her mother and older brother. She's LN however. A bit like Darth Vader, following a doctrine to the letter. She followed the evil doctrine until she was enlightened. She is rather cold, loves poetry. She reads and writes it. It helps that i was a published poet in college...i did actually write a few war and murder poems for her. But when i mentioned poetry, i saw frowns so I dont read it. She is fun to play. Flirting with females because she's a lesbian, being blunt, too Blunt. The group has decided she is not to negotiate, lol. That is cool because i do that in my other game with a high Charisma and caring bard. Problem is when the group wants to be sneaky. My character wont do that. Only if its Lawful. I did dip into cleric, twlight, so that she gas darkvision. I do a Hebrew accent for her, well i try anyway. I did get to ride a shark last game it was fun. Im looking forward to playing a mischievous goblin echo knight next fighter that i play.
Psi Warrior is even scarier, none of its power can be Counterspelled. They aren't Spells they are Powers. Whereas the Eldritch knights abilites are Spells. scary huh?
That's an excellent point! However, there is also the argument that gaining access to spellcasting outright does allow a bit more flexibility into the late game and it helps with multiclassing into spellcasters. So, I'd say it balances out.
eldritch knight fighter vhuman sharpshooter perception acrobatics survival stealth wood carvers tools insight medicine you can pop in and out of darkness on your turn for added protection until you get devil's sight. I just want to use a bow and tried to tailor my spell list to use bonus action you can probably get more dpr from crossbow expert 8 16 16 8 15 8 Lvl 1 sharpshooter archery fighting style Lvl 3 booming blade light shield mage armor expeditious retreat Lvl 4 asi dex absorb elements Lvl 6 fey touched bless misty step Lvl 7 darkness Lvl 8 asi dex retrain expeditious retreat for find familiar invisibility Lvl 10 mage hand Lvl 11 protection from evil and good Lvl 12 eldritch adept devil's sight Lvl 13 counter spell Lvl 14 lucky fly retrain find familiar for haste Lvl 16 tough protection from energy Lvl 19 fire shield Lvl 20 greater invisibility
Fighters are underpowered for one reason. Flavor is free and the subclasses are mostly flavor. They do make up for this with extra feats though. Note I'm not saying completely. They are starting to veer away from it.
I completely disagree but you're certainly entitled to that opinion. In my eyes, fighter subclasses add a ton of functionality and damage output to the base class. And, even if they didn't, they'd still be plenty powerful for the reasons I mentioned in the video.
@@ConstructedChaos some of them do. But look at the battle master fighter. Everything on it should be able to be done without the subclass in the first place. The Calvary as well. In any creative game flavor is free so they add nothing. Your basically subclassless. But like I said they are doing better. Like eldritch knight onwards they are adding actually features instead of something you can just do as roleplay.
Fighter is broken. In a bad way. It's one of the weakest classes both in combat and non-combat situations. Paladin deals far more damage, can tank more damage, have same defense, is a perfect support because of auras and can cast spells. Wizard bladesinger is just literal monster. Only good uses fighter could have is multiclass. You couldn't make good fighter without multiclass or taking some features. And even then that multiclass would be probably 3 fighter/17 wizard. But still let me remind you the fact that you should focus on your character right now, not his "potential". It doesn't matter if your multiclass would be infinitely powerful on 20 level if you would be too weak to survive on 5th level.
The thing is, fighter is a fantastic martial option in early tiers of play and it multiclasses REALLY well--especially with spellcasters. You don't even need many levels in fighter to see the benefit of it. There's more than one way to look at it, ya know?
@@ConstructedChaos that's what I just said. Fighter useful only in multiclasses as additional useful abilities for casters. And yes, fighter not bad on low level, but still not as good as barbarian or paladin.
@@TaliZenAvi Right! I was just repeating it with a different framing the viewed fighter more favorably. Instead of "Multiclass builds only have a few levels in fighter" my out look is "Multiclass builds only NEED a few levels in fighter". I'm just pointing out that two things can be true at the same time.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Rune Knight but I do think the Battle Master is mechanically stronger. That said, I'm always on the side of whatever flavor works best for your character :D
@ConstructedChaos it's all the resting and gaining stats, the "powers", it all made being a melee character kind of less, if that makes sense. The barbarian like additional hp in combat, it just made fighters feel more like a pre-prestiged class. Just my personal opinion.
@@ConstructedChaos I know! It just made me laugh. The arcane archer is far from broken, that’s all. Just a funny happenstance. I liked the video but I was thought it was move advice on how to actually play a fighter and maximize its effectiveness. I appreciate yours because it caused me to change my subclass. I didn’t know the Rune Knight existed and it’s everything I wanted
@@johnnnysaint01 absolutely! I do honestly still love arcane archer but I get what you’re saying about the video too. I’ve since changed my naming convention for future guides to make it less confusing. I won’t be using the “broken” terminology anymore! 😊
Mr White guy you missed the part where wizards of the Coast said people that look like us can't leave the hobby fast enough. Not to mention all the other racist and just flat out BS things as company is done and said. How much of that do they have to do to you before you stop supporting it.
ALL PC's in DnD are broken lmfao...easiest game in the world...wanna know what actual challenge and balance looks like? play Pathfinders 2E...DnD players panic when someone even falls down at 0 hp lmfao come on now...
Welcome to my channel haha. This series is about how any class in 5e can be broken and I have several videos that discuss the benefits of pathfinder over dnd for pretty much the exact reason you mention here! 😜
The "big" part is pointless as in just a few short months 5.5 will be out removing spell casting from action surge. What's that you say? Right now that's "just" playtest? Okay... wanna put money on it? Yeah, didn't think so...
Haha I’m absolutely with you and I think they should remove it! It’s taken me a while to finish my 5e guides but I’m close to going full time on my channel and my guides for 5.5 will come out much more swiftly!
So...my friends and I did something interesting. Something even WotC is too cowardly to do. We rolled the Battle Master into the main class, so every single Fighter is a Battle Master. It's been amazing. I highly recommend it.
YES!! I've been saying this needed to be done--as well as rolling moon druid into regular druid or getting rid of the moon druid entirely.
That is fun but really unbalanced for other Marshalls … oh what what did you say Tasha about any one getting a maneuver with a feat and that one or two is not unbalanced at all. Well go figure that.
😂
((You can as DM use any feat as a gift so that was designers saying you certainly should do that if you can balance it))
@@leodouskyron5671*Martials
@@leodouskyron5671 Balance is a myth in any practical game. And if you're gonna talk about balance, Barbarians get Rage, Rogues get Sneak Attack, Monks essentially get stuff that works like spells (Stunning Strike!?!). Giving Fighters Battle Master permanently is only leveling the field. Fighters don't have much else besides Second Wind and Action Surge. This allows them to play at a stronger and more tactical footing. Fighter is actually the weakest of the martials without it with no real definition of it's own. This makes it better and something unique.
This should be incorporated into a Martial-level like Spellcaster-level.
In defense of the Cavalier, you don't need a steed to make it work. Those are mostly ribbon features. This subclass can be one of the best tanks for the party by drawing a line in the sand and letting nothing pass. Its age shows compared to other subclasses, but it does its job well.
Totally true! Thanks for chiming in. I know I didn’t give it much time but I did make sure to mention that it’s actually better than it looks!
Cavalier suffers from the same thing as the Samurai; the name implies a specific theme or play style when the features are much more flexible.
Great review of the fighter class. It took a while for me to warm up to the class, but I've come around because of many of the points highlighted in the video. However, the main thing I overlooked is how the flexibility of the class gives it a wide range for roleplay.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm happy that I'm not the only one coming around to the fighter!
Agreed! Tons of roleplay opportunities I found when I finally started exploring the class. It’s now in my top three of classes (I have to admit I still prefer ranger as it was my first class and rogue after that, because archer builds are my main focus). I’m glad you are enjoying fighter too!
@@ConstructedChaosthe Fighter does have one advantage aside from action surge breaking the game.
Multi strikes.
If you could attack multiple times in a turn what would happen if you got a weapon that naturally multi hit each attack? Further hit multiplication.
I’ve never played a fighter, but my next character might have to be one. A golaith rune knight or echo knight seems really fun
Hell yeah!! Goliath Rune Knight specifically is right on the money!
If you go rune knight take strike of the giant, rune shaper, Gil of the cloud giant
I’ve had a lot of fun playing as an echo knight. One moment that sticks out is when I was able to take an arch-wizard out during his monologue. Summoned my echo behind him, passed a stealth check, switched places, action surge, great weapon fighting. Dealt almost 100 damage before the DM called for initiative. We were level 6.
@@tommywilliamson8594 how high-level was the wizard?
@@tommywilliamson8594Overconfidence is the worst weakness. That Wiz made themselves the freest XP in the world by running their mouth and not paying attention.
My Rogue 3 Thief/ Fighter 5 Battle Master build is a mundane Ranger.
Human Variant for that sweet sweet 5e Feat. (I took Mobility)
Think Frontier Knight that can stealth scout, disable traps, find food and water, make a map, swing, shoot, ride, and speak a few languages. A warrior guide that is more presentable than the Barbarian and tougher than the Rogue.
Nice! Sounds like you're a great threat on the battlefield and in skill check scenarios!
I've been loving fighter since the playtest. I remember Bron, my first fighter in the 5e playtest, a sneaky, lightly armored, switching between sword and board, 2 handed long sword and bow. Well rounded shady leader. Man I love that character. Also fighter/samurai takes a pivotal role on one of my favorite builds, the "Samurai Jack Combo" Fighter (Samurai)/ Monk (kensei)/ Cleric (war) combo with a thousand attacks per turn and wearing no armor.
Hell yeah! That sounds like a blast to play! Just an unrelenting wave of attacks!
Fighter is definitely in my top 3 classes to play with, but a lot of folks sleep on Eldritch Fighter with wizard multiclass. I’m always caught between an evocation wizard or divination wizard for flavor.
Having a warrior that can dodge hits so smoothly without even looking OR a warrior wielding lightning and flame 🔥 off of their blade scraping off the ground. So sick.
I think EK was the third character I ever made for 5e! I absolutely loved it. I don’t even care if people say bladesinger or hexblade are better!
Taken to max. level, EK is more like a 20th level Fighter AND a 7th level wizard in a single character, and it is naturally more resilient than a bladesinger. The subclass is underrated.
@@ConstructedChaos Now I'm building a lvl 14 genie warlock and a lvl 6 Eldritch fighter for weapon pact shenanigans lol
Same
One feat I really like is "Strike of the Giants" where you can have a Smite like attack added into your Melee/thrown attacks (one per turn.) Almost any Fighter Subclass can make good use of it, especially Champion with his expanded crit range. Almost all of them have a special debuff to apply like a Battlemaster and it relies on your STR or CON. Best of all, you can get it for free from a Background. The tough choice is choosing which one.
What background gives that to you? Must be from Bigby's?
@ConstructedChaos Yeah, it's called the Giant Foundling. They also have a Rune Carver background for a spellcaster alternative. The latter gives you the Rune Shaper feat that gives you a few smatterings if lvl 1.
@@Tomha Nice! I hadn't had a chance to look at those but they sound pretty cool!
A small thing about the Rune Knight's Runic Shield. You can force a reroll for any creature, which means that IF it works with missed attack rolls, you can protect an enemy from a missed attack.
Sure! I don't usually go into the complete specifics for each subclass--just the general idea and a rough overview of the features.
I've come up with alot of action surge combos in my time. Here's a snippet on one of my best builds on it.
clock sorc 2, tempest cleric 6, fighter 2
Pick up the metamagic adept feat for quicken spell.
quicken upcasted call lightning (4L) to deal 4d10 (5d10 with a stormy sky). Use restore balance in case enemy has magic resistance.
If they fail a save, activate destructive wrath for a solid 40 dmg (50 with stormy skies). If they succeed, move on to using an action to activate another call lightning again. And if they succeed, move on to action surging another call lightning activation. Thats 3 chances to get them to fail the reflex save to activate destructive wrath.
best case senario is they fail 2 saves and you get to activate destructive wrath twice on the opening round for a flat 80 dmg (100 with stormy skies) + half of 4d10 (5d10 with stormy skies) for the 1 save they make.
And this is just the dmg to 1 target. What if you can hit 2 in the 5 FT radius of call lightning? Dont forget the possible 30 FT forced movement too (10 FT per activation) that you can apply to a large or smaller creature. Most likely that creature is the wasting an action to dash if its still alive on their next turn.
I actually almost shed tears to this video.
To this day I played and only once 2 sessions.
Best moments of my life.
Swing this video made me just burst with joy since to this day I could never play and ever again.
Much love to this game. 🎲🤺 Sneak attack
Wow!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it so much! I hope you get to go on an adventure again sometime as well!
I have been playing a samurai fighter in a recent campaign. I say recent but we know with dnd how relative that is lol (about 13-14 sessions in right now since I joined as a later addition). It’s actually been pretty fun. And I do believe the first point made about fighters is correct, they can be versatile in a lot of ways. And I have had a lot of fun playing one in this roleplay/storytelling heavy campaign with tons of intrigue.
When I joined the party already had a monk, a ranger, a wizard, an artificer, and a cleric. Fairly balanced actually though a bit weak on charisma. I also noted the group lacked a wide spread of languages between each other and the adventure intended to go over a lot of things that might require that. Sure, the wizard and artificer could change that eventually, but they weren’t there yet and it would put them in unnecessary danger should the situation be one where the act of casting a spell could be taken as aggressive, even if it was to bridge a language barrier. So those few things I noted. I decided on playing my samurai as a scholar of linguistics in the end. They would be a field agent of their scholar faction due to their area of study, but also be trusted to act alone mostly due to their fighting and talking skills. I also tacked on proficiencies in calligraphy, painting, and forgery tools (though specifically dm and I narrowed that down to paperwork and art stuff, but also let it make it easier to make multiple spell scrolls of the same spell over and over again if assisted by the spellcaster with the spell). I ended up taking the feat for linguist and also can write “reports” for my faction in said code, and also am teaching my party to use it too. This is actually one of the huge reasons the party jokes that my character is a super spy. The courtier feature also helps me be the face of the party and hold up with those all important charisma skill check stuff (I have it set to persuasion). Between all of this I feel I stepped quite well into the role the party needed and fighter was a major reason how that happened.
I now play as the tank frontliner while the monk does the damage dealing and dips. I tend to also act as cover for the others too and have the strength needed to make those checks easy (I have had to pick up and carry the wizard out of danger on multiple occasions, more than half our sessions now). One of my favorite moments recently was between the monk and I. Monk plays as an ex-soldier who is disillusioned by his country and wants to understand the people his country are at war with. So he asked my character to teach him the language so he can learn. This moment majorly highlighted the monk’s character growth and we, as both the characters and players, were really proud of that moment…which is why I dropped my character secret to his character and his character alone, that my character once had a fiancé of that country that the monk’s country is at war with. This got the whole table into a tizzy as I had dropped few hints to the deeper backstory though they knew one was there and I had foreshadowed a few things already that they hadn’t pieced together yet. So yeah, monk’s character can now do with that information what he will.
Anyway, mostly wanted to share to show that one can be versatile as a fighter. My character isn’t really your typical trope of a fighter and honestly does super well in their intended role, mostly serving as decent backup and bolstering everyone.
Wow!! I love how thoroughly you developed your character’s motivations and use case within the party! Bravo! Well done making a fighter that’s far more than just a combat fiend!
@@ConstructedChaos absolutely! And much appreciated! I’ll be honest, my hobby outside dnd is in anthropology so I have to admit this is where a good deal of that inspiration comes from. I also really wanted to take the sage background. I’m still amazed each time I play on how well I made this character to suit this party in all flaws, strengths, themes, and backstory elements. They are still distinctly themself but they have been great at highlighting and being highlighted by the various group members.
One of my favorite quirks I gave my character is that they write poetry as a hobby. I even went the extra step and wrote up a few. Couple sessions ago the party pressured my fighter into actually reading one aloud and I had a great time playing up the embarrassment. Made for a comedic moment we all enjoyed.
@@mentalrebllion1270 The TTRPG hobby is one that often sees us instill small parts of ourselves into heroic characters! I've certainly found it cathartic myself!
@@ConstructedChaos absolutely! I tend to especially add my own compulsive caretaking habit to all my characters to. I gave up on preventing that bleed over given it helps with party cohesion anyway and can be flavored in a variety of mannerisms. But yeah, tend to add bits and bobs from my own passions, habits, and thoughts when building. As the advice goes for writers “write what you know” and that definitely is something that applies often, I find, to dnd characters.
I recently used a level 7 Eldritch knight multiclassed with 6 levels of bladesinger wizard. My AC was 17+1(protection fighting style)+1(cloak of protection)+2(haste)+5(bladesong) plus I had shield spell and absorb elements, counterspell, and silvery barbs for a total of 27 AC with the option to go up to 32 or use other defensive spells. The DM couldn’t touch me the whole one shot plus I had 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 damage taken on AOEs. My attack round was, Cantrip, Attack (bladesinger), attack (haste), attack (bonus action from Eldritch knight). It was an INSANE build.
Bladesinger is pretty ridiculous on its own! Looks like a really fun combo with EK too! Nicely done!
Yea, I still don't know if I want my next character to be a Monk or a Fighter. If they were to be a monk, I would want to use the new UA Monk; if I were to play a Fighter, I would be asking to add homebrew to the base class so it has more roleplay potentiallly and options.
Is it bad that I think Fighters are suppose to be the martial equivalent of Sorcerers?
Fair enough! I don't think that's a bad comparison. Other classes just tend to come with more flavor baked in whereas the fighter is much more open ended. Nothing wrong with that or whatever else you prefer!
My go to class to play in dnd is either a fighter, warlock or paladin
So yeah seeing someone actually explaining how epic the fighter brings a smile to my face
Happy to oblige!
We have a Rune Knight Fighter in our current game. Far and away the most versatile Fighter subclass ever. With the right choice of runes, he's a total beast and very fun to watch!
And it lends itself so well to the flavor and lore that it draws from. I haven't had a chance to play one yet but you can bet I will soon!
The video I didn't know I needed , awesome content as always.
Thanks Grym!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Cavalier has 1 feature tied to mounted combat. The class is made for *defense* otherwise. People focus too much on the "haha ride horse" feature. My first campaign featured a newbie who absolutely wrecked enemies with those dang marks lol
Technically, yeah haha. That’s why I mentioned at the end that it’s actually not that bad of a subclass and suffers from the poor “optics” of being tied to mounted combat!
Dwarf fighter that fell in love with the surface and wants to see it all🔥🔥🔥
Love that for them!! I've been toying with a similar idea with a dueregar druid!
Hey Alex, have you made a video about the various Battle Master maneuvers that the fighter can use, or has that already happened and I haven't seen it yet?
I haven’t made one yet but that’s a great idea!! I’ll add it to the list!
My first Class was a dwarf fighter in advance dnd. It was the best!!
With your current character build, I don't find that hard to believe at all!
I have a Drow multiclassing as fighter and monk/kensei. It's a fun build!
Heck yeah!! Going heavy on the samurai flavor?
playing a rune knight in the curse of strahd atm. i love i a whole lot
I still have yet to play one myself but I'll definitely be taking it for a spin soon!
One of my favorite characters I ever played was a Dragonborn Monk Fighter Multiclass. He was a way of the open hand monk with 4 levels in Battle master fighter, meaning he could utilize martial abilities so well that he could control the battlefield. To give context, at level 9 he could use a maneuver for Riposte (use a reaction to attack if the opponent missed), and in that same attack use a ki point for stunning strike, so if they failed, they’d be stunned for a round, then if it was my turn, I could use another battle maneuver to disarm him, on top of my 2 attacks and a bonus action for unarmed strike as a monk, and if I really wanted to, use action surge to use 2 attacks again and another Ki point from the open hand technique to knock him prone (all of which at this point would be at advantage with him being stunned). So in terms of action economy, I stunned, disarmed, knocked him down, and attacked an opponent 6 times in a single round, all at level 9. This is a fairly unique scenario but it goes to show how much you can do with the right build.
Monk and fighter do tend to mix pretty well IMO. In 5e especially, the fighter can actually get access to more powerful unarmed strikes earlier than the monk can.
@@ConstructedChaos they can? In what way? I’m curious
@@sirgusdaddyix4729 many would argue that the unarmed fighting style is better than the monk’s unarmed strikes early on-although it does still use strength as the modifier.
@@ConstructedChaos I’d like to see someone make a fighter build that’s basically the monk class and see the comparison between the two. That would be really fascinating. Honestly the idea of recreating classes with other classes in general would make an interesting video series in itself.
@@sirgusdaddyix4729 that honestly is a pretty cool idea! I might have to do that myself!
arcane archer with a couple of level in artificer to use his INT for attack and damage solve the DC issue and is pretty good and fun to play
Oh that does sound pretty fun! I love artificer and I’m sure the fighter would enjoy some of the magic item infusions that class provides!
Level 3 Battlemaster Fighter/Level 5 Gloomstalker Ranger/Level 12 Assassin Rogue
*chef's kiss*.....
SURPRISE! IT WAS ACTUALLY DEATH'S KISS ALL ALONG!
Is it just me, or have you not done a video about broken barbarians yet?!?! Hopefully, it's on the horizon soon?!?!
Haha yep! Barbarian is the last one! I was going in order of what my community voted on. I have a couple other videos coming first but I expect barbarian to be out in a little over a month!
Cool!! Can't wait for that!! In my mind, Totem Warrior is probably the most broken because of the bear at level 3!! LMAO
very well done
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I love how the joke was a long winded way of saying take a 2lv dip in Fighter.😂
Good effective run down of the Fighter and its subclasses.
Hahaha Gotta hold the good stuff for the very end! Glad you enjoyed it, friend!
Yes. The fighter is so broken! My first character was a human fighter, but here's the thing, at level 4, I got 20 strength, I had the dueling fighting style, and a blacksmith upgraded my Warhammer. So it was 1d8 + 9 damage!! A +5 for strength, + 2 from dueling, and +2 from monster fangs. The fighter can be the unstoppable character, even more than the barbarian!!! Thanks for the fightly video!!!!! 👍👍 ⚔️⚔️🛡🛡🗡🗡🏹🏹🔨🔨🪓🪓
I picked fighter because I’ve never played dnd before a lot of classes confuse me …but fighter move here hit whatever end turn I love it I’m level 11 and decimate what’re I’m fighting
Nice!! I’m happy you’re enjoying it! Happy adventuring!
Wanting to make a dog soldier fighter, literally. He's an ascended dog race that was created because dogs' loyal and obedient nature would make them excellent troops for battle. I think he's going to be like a giant upright great pyrenees with either a soldier or farmer background. I want to make the most broken fighter build I can, but have him act all kind and dopey and a bit shy with a voice like Goofy. He's just a simple farm boy who got called into war like so many other dogs.
That's a really cool backstory for this species homebrew! Honestly feels like it should be official content by now. Who wouldn't want to play as man's best friend?
I’m one less so away from an level 5 archer gloom stalker to level 3 echo knight multi class build. My body is ready
Hahaha that’s gonna hit like a truck!!
Rune Knight > Battle Master. It's hard to beat a Huge Bugbear with a polearm and sentinel.
I think it depends on how you grade it, really. On the one hand, this is a niche use case that only comes fully online in the late game. On the other, battle master can do a lot of things really well and very early on.
I like my Varient human battle master archer. Take archery fighting style, and sharpshooter feat. Of course i usually dump into my dex and let it trikle from there.
Nice! Sharpshooter works really well with that and you're sure to have a maxed out DEX in no time!
Fighter is not broken, Action Surge is.
Further, even Action Surge is not either as far as casters go: RAW you can only cast one levelled spells per turn.
Otherwise Quickened Spell + Action Surge would mean 3 Fireballs in one turn.
And 4 Attacks in one turn ... that's cute. Wall of Force + Sickening Radiance. Or +Mordekainen's Faithful Hound. Two turns and any enemy which cannot teleport or dispel magic dies.
You know what level you need for that? Lv9 Wizard. At level 20, you can do this very combo 9 times without items or features included yet.
4 Attacks - if you would have a Longsword +3 and your stat at 20 - roughly equal (1d8+6(prof)+5(dex/str)+3)*4 = 60-88 damage, if all hits connect.
Meteor Swarm, a Lv9 Spell, aimed in such a way that all 4 comets hit, combined with Overchannel (Evocation Wizard), deals about... oh right. 480 damage - on a succeeded save. In an AoE. At level 17.
D&D5e gets whack starting at mid-tier (Spells Lv5+) and completely nuts at higher levels (Spells Lv7+).
Reread the rule for casting multiple leveled spells in a turn. I assure you, action surge allows for this.
Time for a new tag line.
Go out there and make some chaos not doing it for ya?
Yeah baby. Now we just need the barbarian class
Finally! It's gonna get brutal!
Can you pls do blood hunter next🙏🙏
Barbarian is the last core class and then I may do blood hunter afterwards! It shouldn't be long and I expect Barbarian to be out next week!
To be totally fair, terms like "best subclass" are somewhat pointless to say. Flavour, player creativity, setting, magical items, etc., etc. Are all factors. It feels a bit like personal preference bled through, ngl. But, then, that's just the opinion of an old man on the internet, so, y'all do you.
You’re absolutely right. Although, my favorite subclass is probably the echo knight for obvious reasons. Mechanically, it’s just something most people have come to agree on that the battle master is the best. I’ll try to keep a more neutral approach while still conveying my opinions in future guides.
People play monk in your game? I can't even get someone to play monk after I offer a starting magic item.
Ohhhhh yeah. I had a monk in our first streamed campaign and it certainly felt pretty cracked around tier 2!
Really? I seem to have one in a little over half of the games I’ve ever played in. I guess to each their own. Maybe in time someone will?
Fighter is good. I took 2 levels to get Action Surge so by 10th level I can cast 9 Eldritch Agonizing Blasts with Quicken metamagic + Action Surge. 😊
Hahahaha beautiful stuff there!
The only thing about the Arcane Archer that kinda sucks is that you're restricted to using the shortbow or the longbow ONLY!! In other words, you can't even use any crossbows or any other ranged weapons at all!!!!! I wouldn't choose that subclass because it makes you such a one trick pony!!
It's definitely not the best subclass by any means haha. I just like the flavor. If your DM is cool, I'm sure they'd at least let you use crossbows. I know I would.
While I agree the Battle master is the best and i do intend to play an echo knight goblin 😂... my first fighter ever...i prefer druids and rangers... I choose the Samurai. She is litterly the red-headed step child. Its in a Spelljamer campaign. Im playing a githyanki, wildspacer background, ex family were pirates, real trouble, human trafficking etc. My character and her younger brother were captured. She was reformed and joined the human clan (Japanese) and became one of them. Shes changed her name and has sworn to kill the leaders of her ex group, her mother and older brother. She's LN however. A bit like Darth Vader, following a doctrine to the letter. She followed the evil doctrine until she was enlightened. She is rather cold, loves poetry. She reads and writes it. It helps that i was a published poet in college...i did actually write a few war and murder poems for her. But when i mentioned poetry, i saw frowns so I dont read it. She is fun to play. Flirting with females because she's a lesbian, being blunt, too Blunt. The group has decided she is not to negotiate, lol. That is cool because i do that in my other game with a high Charisma and caring bard.
Problem is when the group wants to be sneaky. My character wont do that. Only if its Lawful. I did dip into cleric, twlight, so that she gas darkvision. I do a Hebrew accent for her, well i try anyway. I did get to ride a shark last game it was fun.
Im looking forward to playing a mischievous goblin echo knight next fighter that i play.
That Twilight Cleric dip with a million attacks as a Samurai is going to be NASTY!
Psi Warrior is even scarier, none of its power can be Counterspelled. They aren't Spells they are Powers. Whereas the Eldritch knights abilites are Spells. scary huh?
That's an excellent point! However, there is also the argument that gaining access to spellcasting outright does allow a bit more flexibility into the late game and it helps with multiclassing into spellcasters. So, I'd say it balances out.
eldritch knight fighter vhuman sharpshooter perception acrobatics survival stealth wood carvers tools insight medicine you can pop in and out of darkness on your turn for added protection until you get devil's sight. I just want to use a bow and tried to tailor my spell list to use bonus action you can probably get more dpr from crossbow expert
8 16 16 8 15 8
Lvl 1 sharpshooter archery fighting style
Lvl 3 booming blade light shield mage armor expeditious retreat
Lvl 4 asi dex absorb elements
Lvl 6 fey touched bless misty step
Lvl 7 darkness
Lvl 8 asi dex retrain expeditious retreat for find familiar invisibility
Lvl 10 mage hand
Lvl 11 protection from evil and good
Lvl 12 eldritch adept devil's sight
Lvl 13 counter spell
Lvl 14 lucky fly retrain find familiar for haste
Lvl 16 tough protection from energy
Lvl 19 fire shield
Lvl 20 greater invisibility
There's really just no beating a martial character with some extra spellcasting flair and utility!
Fighters are underpowered for one reason. Flavor is free and the subclasses are mostly flavor. They do make up for this with extra feats though. Note I'm not saying completely. They are starting to veer away from it.
I completely disagree but you're certainly entitled to that opinion. In my eyes, fighter subclasses add a ton of functionality and damage output to the base class. And, even if they didn't, they'd still be plenty powerful for the reasons I mentioned in the video.
@@ConstructedChaos some of them do. But look at the battle master fighter. Everything on it should be able to be done without the subclass in the first place. The Calvary as well. In any creative game flavor is free so they add nothing. Your basically subclassless. But like I said they are doing better. Like eldritch knight onwards they are adding actually features instead of something you can just do as roleplay.
Fighter is broken. In a bad way. It's one of the weakest classes both in combat and non-combat situations. Paladin deals far more damage, can tank more damage, have same defense, is a perfect support because of auras and can cast spells.
Wizard bladesinger is just literal monster.
Only good uses fighter could have is multiclass. You couldn't make good fighter without multiclass or taking some features. And even then that multiclass would be probably 3 fighter/17 wizard. But still let me remind you the fact that you should focus on your character right now, not his "potential". It doesn't matter if your multiclass would be infinitely powerful on 20 level if you would be too weak to survive on 5th level.
The thing is, fighter is a fantastic martial option in early tiers of play and it multiclasses REALLY well--especially with spellcasters. You don't even need many levels in fighter to see the benefit of it. There's more than one way to look at it, ya know?
@@ConstructedChaos that's what I just said. Fighter useful only in multiclasses as additional useful abilities for casters. And yes, fighter not bad on low level, but still not as good as barbarian or paladin.
@@TaliZenAvi Right! I was just repeating it with a different framing the viewed fighter more favorably. Instead of "Multiclass builds only have a few levels in fighter" my out look is "Multiclass builds only NEED a few levels in fighter". I'm just pointing out that two things can be true at the same time.
Battle Master is the best fighter unless you play a Rune Knight.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Rune Knight but I do think the Battle Master is mechanically stronger. That said, I'm always on the side of whatever flavor works best for your character :D
Fighter has been broken since the move to 4th edition.
I'll have to take your word for it since I'm not nearly as familiar with 4e!
@ConstructedChaos it's all the resting and gaining stats, the "powers", it all made being a melee character kind of less, if that makes sense. The barbarian like additional hp in combat, it just made fighters feel more like a pre-prestiged class. Just my personal opinion.
😂😂😂 picks the worst subclass first 😂
@@johnnnysaint01 I went in order on DNDbeyond haha
@@ConstructedChaos I know! It just made me laugh. The arcane archer is far from broken, that’s all. Just a funny happenstance.
I liked the video but I was thought it was move advice on how to actually play a fighter and maximize its effectiveness. I appreciate yours because it caused me to change my subclass. I didn’t know the Rune Knight existed and it’s everything I wanted
@@johnnnysaint01 absolutely! I do honestly still love arcane archer but I get what you’re saying about the video too. I’ve since changed my naming convention for future guides to make it less confusing. I won’t be using the “broken” terminology anymore! 😊
Mr White guy you missed the part where wizards of the Coast said people that look like us can't leave the hobby fast enough.
Not to mention all the other racist and just flat out BS things as company is done and said. How much of that do they have to do to you before you stop supporting it.
Yikes. Bad take, my guy.
ALL PC's in DnD are broken lmfao...easiest game in the world...wanna know what actual challenge and balance looks like? play Pathfinders 2E...DnD players panic when someone even falls down at 0 hp lmfao come on now...
Welcome to my channel haha. This series is about how any class in 5e can be broken and I have several videos that discuss the benefits of pathfinder over dnd for pretty much the exact reason you mention here! 😜
The "big" part is pointless as in just a few short months 5.5 will be out removing spell casting from action surge. What's that you say? Right now that's "just" playtest? Okay... wanna put money on it? Yeah, didn't think so...
Haha I’m absolutely with you and I think they should remove it! It’s taken me a while to finish my 5e guides but I’m close to going full time on my channel and my guides for 5.5 will come out much more swiftly!