D&D 5E My tweak to make (Champion) Fighters decent

[S'mon]

Paladins have Nova, Barbarians have durability. In my games, (Champion) Fighter is going to be the reliable one, with a very simple expertise to two chosen weapon types (later a 3rd and 4th). Also, +prof to damage. Don't know if it would work for your game, just my 2CP.

I like the idea of adding +Prof to damage, though it tends to favour 1-handed weapons. Maybe alter the Fighting Style benefits, and greatweapon adds x1.5? I would prefer to replicate Barbarian nova ability (via Rage & Reckless) though, and more attacks seems the Fightery-est way to do it.

 

[Corwin]

What level fighters are they currently? Did you say, and I just missed it?

Also, what kind of fighters are they playing?

 

[ExploderWizard]

I am enjoying playing a battle master fighter currently without needing any power bumps or multi-classing. Fighters are actually pretty badass in 5E just as they are. With good mix of maneuvers that can be used with missile fire or melee weapons my fighter is versatile and has really decent damage output at level 9. I am satisfied with the class as written.

 

[Blue]

Why do you think the Fighter need a power-up? So far it seems the consensus is that the Fighter is (boring but) quite strong.

Fighters get a lot of extra ASIs. In a no-feat game there's a diminishing return on them. So this looks like it adds in some extra options you can spend them on at higher levels (8+). Basically, it's adding a little bit of choice back into a no-feats game just for the class that has the most ASIs.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Our game has a battle master fighter who is one of the few PC to be an original survivor. Actually 2 of 6 to survive so far. Most of the other players have been through 2-4 PC. He loves his Battlemaster and uses Commander's Strike to great effect with the rogue. No complaints.

 

[ThunderDM]

This is designed for my no-Feats game, but might be worth considering even in a Feats game,

I play in a low magic military themed game where a group of soldiers man a remote watchtower. We are all human and we are all fighters with the soldier background. These are new players, several who were in the military, and they think magic is "dumb", so I made a few tweaks to the Champion fighter and made it perfect, though it only needed a small amount of work:

• We use the Variant Human and give one extra ability, Determination: When you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can do so with advantage. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
• Renamed the archetype from Champion to "Weapons Master"
• Your saving throws are: Strength or Dexterity, Constitution
• You get Superior Critical class ability at level 3 (crit on a roll of 18-20)
• You get the Devastating Critical class ability at level 15 (+10 bonus damage on a critical hit)
• You get a Soldier's Pack: A backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, a waterskin, 50 feet of hempen rope
• The feat list is also trimmed down to combat-themed feats

 

[LapBandit]

The problem with fighter is not his abilities but when he gets them.

Extra Attack: same level as half-caster martial classes like Ranger and Paladin, this makes no sense. The guy who doesn't spend half his time learning nature or spells should be attacking more earlier. Give fighters Extra Attack at 4th and 9th instead of 5th and 11th. Not that much of a bump and it makes the fighter FEEL special.

Indomitable: Comes online way way too late. Barbarians get Danger Sense at 2nd, Rogues get Uncanny Dodge at 5th. Fighters should get Indomitable at latest by 5th and it should scale well given it is limited where those other two abilities are unlimited. I'd be looking at extra uses at 8th, 11th.

Action Surge: You get one at 2nd level (which a ton of people dip for) and then not again until 17th? Terrible scaling again, especially for a limited resource. 2nd, 9th, 16th at least gives it some middling progression.

Second Wind: 1d10 + Fighter level is not a good scale at all. Better to make it flat 3xFighter level or increase the number of times it's usable. This feels like a 4E encounter power they had a hard time mapping to 5th ed.

I've already made these changes in my campaign where there is a fighter in play and the other players (barbarian, cleric, rogue) think that they are good changes and actually considered playing fighter. Reasonable scaling and niche are all the class needs.

 

[ThunderDM]

I like the idea of adding +Prof to damage, though it tends to favour 1-handed weapons. Maybe alter the Fighting Style benefits, and greatweapon adds x1.5? I would prefer to replicate Barbarian nova ability (via Rage & Reckless) though, and more attacks seems the Fightery-est way to do it.

Eheh just use this:

Feat: Monkey Grip
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
Your sure grip and stance allow you to wield heavier weapons more easily. You can wield two-handed melee weapons in one hand. While doing so, the damage die for the weapon is decreased by one step: 2d6/1d12, 1d10, 1d8, 1d6, 1d4, to a minimum of 1.

 

[schnee]

(Eh, never mind, thought again and it's not a helpful enough comment.)

 

[Tony Vargas]

The issue is that ASIs are not as good as feats esp once your main stat is maxed, and my Wilderlands game doesn't use feats. In practice this weakens the Fighter class which seems to have been written assuming the Feats optional rule is in use. Other classes don't seem so Feat dependent.

You could replace the two bonus ASIs with non-combat features, perhaps based on the PC's background.

Or, you could add back one or more feats as fighter class features, either that can be substituted for an ASI at the player's option, or that replace the two bonus ASIs. They could be freely chosen, or based on Combat Style.