D&D 5E How does one "Champion"?

So, when I first tried 5e D&D, I went straight for the Champion Archetype. I didn't know what I was doing at the time but I told myself that "I value my character" and I told myself to "go for it" as everyone else was "squishy" and I did. My character was knocked out so many times . . .

Sadly, the group I was playing with dispanded and soon ended up as the only Caster/Wizard in another group.

Since then, I have wanted to revist the Champion Archetype despite how much people tell me "the battlemaster is better" or "just play a Barbarian" but I'm not exactly sure as to what I should build for a Champion in regards to having it be more than a walking suit of armour that sometimes hurts things a bit more.

So I'd very much like to know as to what the different styles offer, like is being a mounted combatant good? Do you use two 1 handers or a two hander like a greatsword or a battle axe? Do you focus on leveling raw stats or do you have more feat focused builds? Do you make your champions dex based or strength based? etc.

So yeah, if you would be kind enough to share your thoughts. Thank You.

Multiclass Barbarian. Go Half-Orc, get the Orcish Fury feat. The question is whether you take more levels in Fighter or Barb. Fighter for 3rd attack at 11 and more crit range at 15, or Barb for Brutal Critical. Both are viable. Personally, I'd prefer Fighter 3/Barb X.

Go strength based, use greataxe.

Fighters have three things that really work for them: heavy armor, a fighting style, and a shield. With those three together, you should have the best AC in the game. Remember, the amount of damage you lose by choosing a battle axe over a greatsword is negligible.

As a champion, you can choose a second fighting style. This lets you take both Defense and Protection (if you want to be an awesome tank who keeps the cleric alive), or Defense and Duelist (if you want unparalleled longevity over the course of the day).

I highly suggest the fighter guide from the 'guides' thread on this very forum:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...-of-War-A-Fighter-Guide&p=6705448#post6705448

Pay special attention to it's section titled "On optimization". In a nutshell: don't fret it. As long as you make a few obvious good choices (high attack stat, decent con, the best armor you can use, not-crap weapon), you can afford to take things that are fun.

Also note that some of it's advice on backgrounds is slightly odd, since some of the backgrounds that give skills already covered by being a fighter are marked as the best. In reality... it basically doesn't matter what background you take.

Finally I feel like it's rating for 'ritual caster' is based on a pretty hostile campaign. That feat is great, and you should consider the potential of the cleric and druid ritual lists when you look into it.

In terms of damage, the 'best' fighters are:
1. The polearm guy. Have high strength, wear heavy armor, use a polearm, take great weapon master and pole arm master. You now have as many attacks as the dual wielder, add your ability bonus to all of them, most of them have a bigger damage die, plus you can trade accuracy for tons of extra damage.
2. The crossbow guy. Have high dex, use a hand crossbow, take crossbow expert and sharpshooter. You now have as many attacks as the dual wielder, have +2 to hit on all of them, can attack with them at range and can trade accuracy for tons of extra damage.

But like I said above: they're not THAT much better than just playing whatever you feel like, especially if you're dead set on champion.

A few comments:

1 it really depends on wether or not feats are available. If they are, two handed weapons really provide more damage because of the greater weapon mastery.

2: Champions are decent tanks, but they are *not* the best in the game - that's barbarians and eldrich knights.

3: You could create a dex build - an archer, or perhaps a vigorous fencer who relies more on instinct and speed than fancy techniques. With criminal or street urchin background, pretty good at stealth too.

4: My alternate take on the champion http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...EK-or-an-option-for-low-magic-game&highlight=

Don't listen to what other people think you should play. I've done "simple" fighters before and they can be a blast.

I find that sometimes if I play a simple character I have more ... room? ... to have fun with the character. If for example you take shield master you can knock opponents prone to get advantage, shove them off cliffs and out of the way for other people to get through and so on. It's a personal preference thing of course but I find myself being more engaged simply because I don't have to over think what I need to do next or worry how many superiority dice I have left, etc. Besides, it's fun to crit and you do it more often with a champion.

Well that and I code for a living and some times I just want to roll dice and relax.

As far as build, great weapon fighter may do a bit more damage once they get great weapon master, but also suffers from slightly lower AC. Two weapon fighting is fun and can be a bit more flexible if you need the extra attack, but doesn't necessarily keep up with damage at higher levels. Unless your DM does something dumb and gives them dual flame blades like I did for one of my players. Duelist with Shield Master gets a bonus from their shield and no damage if they make their dexterity saves which can really adds to survivability (and +1 shields are uncommon, not rare like +1 armor).

I'd probably take a feat at 4th (unless variant human) to get the appropriate feat for your style, and then bump stats.

But seriously. Play what you will have fun with. Don't listen to my rambling or anyone else. Make the character your own and play what you want. This version of 5E is pretty forgiving and I've found that you don't have to worry too much about optimization to be effective..

Take half orc.

17 start str.

defense style,

4th level, heavy armor master. 18 strength. 21 AC with fullplate and shield. 10% chance for crit for 3d8+4 damage.

I'm going to recommend following [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION]'s advice. I've played the Champ 3 / Barb X character and found that it felt a lot like a barbarian that crits more. This might be because the first five levels were Barb. To get into what Mearl's was thinking of regarding the champion, think of a movie character that might fit the class design. Based on the video's for XGtE it seems like he looks at movies for inspiration and attempts to create a class that somewhat fits a character in that movie. I would suspect a champion would be in a action movie. Would a champion be like a character played by Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, or Sylvester Stallone?

Instead of looking specifically at the martial classes if you are going to multiclass, consider a caster class. The tempest cleric has a mean reaction power that comes in handy. A couple levels of druid opens up some nice tricks as well. There are other options as well.

The most important part is to have fun with the build.

I am currently playing a 13th level sword-and-board human champion without feats, and I am unexpectedly having a ton of fun with him. The simplicity of the play-style is really allowing me to focus more on what my character is doing, rather than what statistics I'm employing at the moment. Other, more organized, players might not have this problem, but I'm much more able to spout out one-liners or add descriptive flair during combat when I'm not flipping through a book looking up a class feature. Also, I actually enjoy having the fastest turn in my group; everyone else is a multiclassed spellcaster with feats, and sometimes their turns can take a few minutes.

EDIT: I should add that my Champ is also an effective tank and damage dealer. I got a 20 Str and a +2 sword so I pretty much never miss, 21 AC & 20 Con make me quite beefy, and with +7 in Insight and Perception never feel left out in social/exploration situations...although I'm not really one to let a low modifier prevent me from participating anyways.

The big way to avoid getting knocked down too often is to make sure you can be at least somewhat effective at range.

To achieve this, you can just make sure you don't dump Dex, but I suggest giving yourself a decent Int or Cha and then pick up a cantrip in some way, either by playing a Variant Human with Magic Initiate feat, or a high elf (or wait till level 4 to gain the feat, take a level of wizard, sorcerer or whatever, or whatever else you find that works for you)

And then just mix it up between melee and range as the situation warrants.

And of course, what really matters is that you play a personality while fighting instead of focusing on tactics.