D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #2: "New Fighter"

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"The Fighter is now the weapon master equivalent of the Wizard" (with respect to versatility).

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OVERVIEW

The Fighter seems to have been mostly set in Playtest 7. Most of the features described carry over from there, though Brawler has gone and is replaced by Psi Warrior form Tasha's.

• Ranger and Fighter have the most new features.
• Subclasses provide "different levels of mechanical idiosyncracy".
• Weapon mastery (level1), tactical mind (2), tactical shift (5), studied attacks (13) -- all of these are as in PT7.
• second wind -- increased number of uses (as PT7)
• NEW: Level 9: Tactical master is like mastery of Armaments, but limited to push. sap, and slow. These properties are now always in the fighter's pocket, regardless of the weapon used. These properties add to Battle Master abilities.
• Fighting Styles: new options available: Blindfighting, Interception, Thrown Weapons, and Unarmed fighting (from Tasha's). (YAY for thrown weapons and unarmed fighting!). Protection style "improved".
• NEW: You can change your fighting style when you level up.
• NEW: All classes now get an Epic Boon at level 19, replacing the ASI.

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SUBCLASSES

Battle Master:

• they considered making the maneuvers the core of the fighter, but that would undermine the goal of different playstyles for each subclass.
• ambush, bait and switch, commanding presence, and tactical presence all brought over from Tasha's (as PT7)
• Student of War also gives you a skill proficiency (as PT7)
• Know your enemy has "limited number of uses per day" (PT7 had one, IIRC)

Champion:

• same core identity, focusing on crits.
• Remarkable Athlete: NEW. When you score a crit, you can move without receiving opportunity attacks.
• Remarkable Athlete: advantage on initiative and athletics (as PT7). This works with the new surprise rules, which give you an edge but "defang" the one-sidedness of surprise.
• Additional fighting style at 7, Heroic Warrior at 10, Survivor at 18 (as PT7).

Eldritch Knight:

• for players who played OD&D when Elf was a class...
• with the Psi Warrior are for people who want Fighter and X (mixed).
• no school restrictions (also for Arcane Trickster)
• NEW: you can now use an arcane focus.
• War Magic and Improved War Magic: as in PT7, but at level 18 you can replace two attacks with spells up to level 2 (I think this is new).

Psi Warrior:

• changes from Tasha: changes are primarily in rewording.

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NEW RULES
Epic Boon:

• you may choose a non-epic boon feat. They include an ASI that can go past 20, and include abilities go beyond what feats normally do.
• Example: Boon of Combat Prowess. Once per TURN, you can turn a miss to a hit. Another example: You have Truesight. Another example: when you attack or take the magic action, you also teleport.
• The PHB now has rules to go beyond level 20. Every time you hit some XP threshold, you can choose another Epic Boon (which could take one of your scores to level 30).

Other NEW rules clarifications:

• Heroic Inspiration which lets you re-roll any one die (may be one damage die, but not all damage dice).
• Surprise now gives you disadvantage on your initiative. (Champion, Assassin, and Barbarian are hard to surprise -- they won't have disadvantage on init).
• No school restrictions for Arcane Trickster or Eldrtich Knight.

 

[Kurotowa]

Great video, Fighter legitimately sounds a lot better, and I like the changes to Weapon Mastery at 9th level that just give them three masteries to use at any given time.

As someone who gave low marks to the UA version of the feature, I agree. Having sideboard Mastery Traits you can hot swap in as desired sounds way better than just tinkering with your weapon after a Long Rest to use a different one. Less boring, less abusable, and gives the Fighter some real moment to moment tactical choices with their Mastery application.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Hmmh. I did not read the summary. I did not understand it that way from watching the video.

Im the first video they did talk about rerolling healing dice. It sounded as if you rerolled all of them.

Check out what he says at 25:30 of the Fighter video: "...to reroll any die roll. So the Champion could use this to reroll their d20 roll in hopes of fishing for crits, but they could also use it to reroll a damage die or some other die that they are using on their turn."

 

[overgeeked]

Heroic Inspiration which lets you re-roll any one die (may be one damage die, but not all damage dice).

Yeah, that's lame.

 

[Weiley31]

NEW: Level 9: Tactical master is like mastery of Armaments, but limited to push. sap, and slow. These properties are now always in the fighter's pocket, regardless of the weapon used. These properties add to Battle Master abilities.

So, is that in ADDITION to whatever else Mastery Properties they may have?

 

[Kobold Stew]

So, is that in ADDITION to whatever else Mastery Properties they may have?

We don't know, but I suspect (if it works like Master of Armaments form the playtest) that it will replace the existing ability. So if you are wielding a Trident and have Weapon Mastery, you can use it to topple, push, sap, or slow when you hit.

And we should all be using tridents now.

 

[Kurotowa]

So, is that in ADDITION to whatever else Mastery Properties they may have?

You pick one, from the sound of it. A Fighter of 9th level or higher can choose with every hit to either apply the weapon's own Mastery trait, or one of those three. So if you've got a "once per turn" trait and used it on your first attack, you can switch to something else. If you really need to play defensive or pin an enemy down, you can apply Sap or Slow. If you've got them backed up against a cliff, hit them with a Push.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Check out what he says at 25:30 of the Fighter video: "...to reroll any die roll. So the Champion could use this to reroll their d20 roll in hopes of fishing for crits, but they could also use it to reroll a damage die or some other die that they are using on their turn."

Thanks.

I would not rate that one sentence too high. The champion usually only rolls one dir for damage. So it might just be a die in that situation.

 

[sevenbastard]

Surprise now gives you disadvantage on your initiative. (Champion, Assassin, and Barbarian are hard to surprise -- they won't have disadvantage on init).

5e initiative is already a slog and only matter once then goes to a boring static order that allows meta game choices that take the thrill out of the game.

I'm all for card based initiative everyone goes in random order. Reshuffle each round. Sure you need players that pay attention and can act decisively, but honestly you need those anyway so this helps force the issue.

 

[overgeeked]

So, is that in ADDITION to whatever else Mastery Properties they may have?

According to the video, yes. The fighter can pick a few weapons to unlock their masteries. When using those weapons they can use whatever mastery that weapon has. But, the fighter can always use push. sap, and slow regardless of the weapon actually used. But, only one property per attack. So slow this attack, sap the next attack, etc. Not all four every attack. No idea if the fighter can use those masteries with any and all weapons (i.e. ones they don't have mastery in).

BTW, such a weird and clunky system. It's like the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG warrior's Mighty Deeds only worse. Fighters should just be able to pick one of these things from the complete list each and every attack regardless of weapon used and without having to pick weapons ahead of time.

 

[Vael]

5e initiative is already a slog and only matter once then goes to a boring static order that allows meta game choices that take the thrill out of the game.

I'm all for card based initiative everyone goes in random order. Reshuffle each round. Sure you need players that pay attention and can act decisively, but honestly you need those anyway so this helps force the issue.

I like popcorn initiative: at the end of turn, the player chooses who goes next, like passing around a bowl of popcorn. It allows the party to set up combos and makes the combat more fluid.