Editing Fighter (section)

===5th edition===
[[Image:DragonbornFighter.jpg|thumb|right|[[The Elder Scrolls|Dragonborn Barbarians]] are pretty popular in pop culture these days.]]
{{cleanup}}
In 5th edition, the Fighter returns, quite obviously, as one of the core classes. Ira stereotypical builds are still STR-based: frontliner sword-and-board tanks, or greatweapon/polearm-wielding damage dealers. That doesn't mean you're limited to pure hacking, however: DEX-based builds like dual-wielding, duelists, or archers, are equally viable; giving you better range and stealth options, while losing on the AC and ability to wrestle enemies down with brute strength.

The base Fighter doesn't have a lot of abilities -- but what they do have is very useful: the Fighter is the only class who hangs onto 4e's Healing Surge mechanic (now called Second Wind), usable once per short rest, restoring HP equal to 1d10+Fighter level, and not only gets a fighting style from the off but has unrestricted access. They can do two Actions per turn (once per short rest at first, later they get even more), get rerolls on failed saving throws, and are the only class that can get 3+ basic attacks per turn without feats or dual wielding. All very simple but '''incredibly powerful''' abilities, although the saving throw rerolls could stand to either recharge on a short rest or be automatic successes.<br>
Fighters also have more levels dedicated to stat increases, and since you can use those for either 2 stat points or 1 feat, fighters are likely to have 20s in any stats they want and still have slots left over for feats.<br>
But most of the Fighter's ''real'' flavor and cool tricks come from the subclasses:
:* '''Champion''' gives him more sustain and tankiness with more-frequent crits and better physical ability score checks (including initiative). Notable for being the only fighter subclass with no active abilities, which makes champion-fighter pretty much the gold standard of blandness in 5e. Though it in it's defense it lets you crit twice (later thrice) as often as normal, which is just as fun as it sounds.
:* '''Battle Master''', whose superiority dice allow them to perform [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic|maneuvers]] in combat to control the battlefield, help friends and inconvenience enemies. It's generally considered the most powerful and versatile Fighter subclass, and for a good reason. So much so that standrd Unearthed Arcana procedure for the fighter has been to let other archetypes steal form battlemaster bit by bit, to the point that the ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' splatbook let any fighter take a gimped version of any single maneuver as their fighting style.
:* '''Eldritch Knight''', who casts [[Gish|spells and swings swords]], and eventually can cast and swing at the same time.
:* '''Purple Dragon Knight''' (whose setting-neutral name is given as "Banneret"), whose gimmick is that he can give other party members fighter powers and so he basically serves as an option to play a [[Warlord]]. Infamous for being mechanically weak, as all of it's gimmicks require you to burn one of the base fighter gimmicks to use.
:* '''Arcane Archer''' - an archery-focused archetype that allows to imbue fighter's arrows with magical properties, such as ability to go through cover or to redirect your shot at a different target in case of a miss). Oddly enough though you don't actually need a good casting stat to play one.
:* '''Cavalier''' - a mount-based archetype that specializes in protection and control of the battlefield.
:* '''Samurai''' - an archetype that allows fighters to get both advantage on attacks AND temporary hitpoints as a bonus action three times per long rest and boosts their social abilities. Combine this with assassin rogue and the elven accuracy feat to create a Ronin who cannot miss in either melee or ranged combat (bonus: stick your rogue expertise in persuasion to be even more of a beast at that).
:* '''Monster Hunter''' like the Battle Master makes use of Superiority Dice, but his are more limited in use; add one to an attack roll, add one to a damage roll, add one to an Int, Wis or Cha saving throw, or add one to Wisdom check made either to detect a hidden creature/object or to determine if someone is lying. He gains bonus proficiencies in skills useful for monster hunting, can cast Detect Magic as a ritual and Protection from Evil & Good once per long rest as a spell-like ability, and at 7th level gains the Monster Slayer trait. This A: lets him spend two superiority dice for extra damage instead of one, and B: means that when he does so against an aberration, fae, fiend or undead target, superiority dice deal their maximum bonus damage automatically;
:* '''Echo Knight''' is a curious subclass built around creating 1 HP magical time-clones of yourself and teleport-swapping with them, making attacks through them, eventually making attacks alongside them and healing when they get destroyed.
:* '''Brute''' is exactly what the name suggests: a simple brute force warrior that deals more damage and generally behaves like a cruder version of Champion with a bit of Barbarian charm sprinkled on it. Someone aptly described it as the go-to subclass for playing Gregor Clegane or WHFB Khornate Champion. Never made it past UA, though, since it ammounted to a strictly better version of the Champion.
:* '''Rune Knight''' is a battle smith carving magical runes into his equipment that give him potent passive effects and one-use active effects by invoking those runes. Surprisingly not connected to Dorfs in any way, it actually draws power from Giant heritage, and even lets you roid-rage twice per long rest, during which you grow larger and hit harder. [[Samurai Jack| Scottish accent optional.]]
:* '''Scout''' is for when you want to play a Ranger but you're allergic to classes that suck ass. It also uses superiority dice, but for much weaker effects than Battle Master and Monster Hunter. In return you get a ''ton'' of out of combat utility for scouting, foraging and survival in the wilderness and tools for setting up ambushes, making the most out of them and avoiding getting into one yourself. Was turned into a rogue archetype in the transition out of UA.
:* '''Psi Knight''' is a fantasy Jedi that comes stock  with psychic shields for damage reduction, psychic strikes augmenting one of his attacks per turn, and psychic jumps (that only cost 1 foot of movement) for extra mobility, and later grows to force push/trip for control, resistance to psychic damage and poisons, force barriers for sweet sweet half cover in the open and finally full on telekinesis. It all gets powered by funky psychic dice which get weaker if you roll too good but grow back if you roll too bad, while some of the stronger abilities lower it just for using them or using them more than once, so the more you use your Jedi powers the more they fluctuate with a chance to run out of them till the long rest if you consistently roll too good or overuse powerful abilities.

[[Mike Mearls]] created four new archetypes that exist exclusively on his stream so far, but mechanics can be found on the 5etools website. These include the Slayer (a big monster-killer specialist), the Weapon Master (who gets its own sub-subclasses!) and 5eifications of the [[Warlord]] and the [[Psychic Warrior]].


Other classes might spike higher, but between the largely-short-rest-recharging powers and high natural sustain, fighters can operate at near-peak efficiency even on grueling grinder-days. And when one of the biggest problems with the 3.5 fighter was his bland lack of class features or nice skills, between the reworked skills and backgrounds system and his cannibalization of nice things from 4e, the fighter is certainly his own man this edition, able to contribute outside of combat as well as any other non-spellcaster.

What's pretty great about this set-up is that it makes sense from a fluff perspective and gives the fighter an edge it's been lacking since 2e, namely that it is the best ''in terms of martial skill''. Your extra attacks reflect your expertise, and the special abilities other classes get are meant to compensate for your superior skills; Paladins smite, Rogues sneak attack, Barbarians Rage, Monks use Ki and Rangers get killed so the player can roll up a better class.

====Class Feature Variants====
While the Fighter is a more-than-competent class in 5th edition, a common house-rule among players is to give any Fighter, regardless of subclass, a few maneuvers from the Battle Master subclass. The Battle Master is widely regarded to be one of the best subclasses for the Fighter, and also the most fun of the subclasses, as it allows you to do a whole lot more than swing a sword around, nevermind that barbarian players are content to do exactly that. With the November 2019 UA, this house rule has (sort of) become canon! In addition to the slew of Fighting Style choices the UA delivered, the Fighter gets an exclusive Fighting Style that nets them a free maneuver from the Battle Master. In addition, they added a wide variety of powerful maneuvers that let the Fighter skillmonkey hard, twirl blades around, and lie like a silver-tongued Rogue! Because really, everything is improved with a small dose of [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic|weeaboo fightan magic.]]  Obvious downside, of course, is obvious: they buffed the most brokenly overpowered subclass and made it the "default" option, while offering almost nothing to anyone else.

The ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' splat sees these all effectively canonized, though not fully integrated, in case of GM fiat forbidding this book because "reasons" (Read: Your GM is a whiny bitch who loathes the idea of Fighters being able to do things aside from swinging swords).

{{D&D5-Classes}}