D&D 5E D&D's Top 10 Fighter Subclasses Revealed!

In another of D&D Beyond's frequent data shares, here is a look at the most popular fighter subclasses currently in use. The Champion leads the pack, followed by Battlemaster, Eldritch Knight, Gunslinger, and Samurai.

 

[Fenris-77]

When I hear 'Arcane Archer' I'm thinking I'd look like Hank from the old DnD cartoon, or Link and his elemental arrow. I'm not thinking of managing stuff like spell slots or Arcane Shots. At least not normally. A few special attacks? Sure! But I'm not a fan of subclasses where the character concept gets turned off most of the time. If I want to be an Arcane Archer, I want to ALWAYS be an Arcane Archer, not just twice in one fight when I can attack twice in one round.

I think low-key at will mods to shots would be fine. That said, a lot of classes have finite resources when it comes to powering special abilities, so something like that is also probably appropriate. Not for really basic stuff like "you arrows count as magical" or whatever, but when it comes to effects, conditions, or added damage you need a spendable and finite resource to fit the 5e model for classes.

 

[Undrave]

I think low-key at will mods to shots would be fine. That said, a lot of classes have finite resources when it comes to powering special abilities, so something like that is also probably appropriate. Not for really basic stuff like "you arrows count as magical" or whatever, but when it comes to effects, conditions, or added damage you need a spendable and finite resource to fit the 5e model for classes.

Oh yeah, the current Arcane Shots and Curving Shots are nice (though the effects themselves are kinda boring to me but whatever) it just needs one cool and evocative at-will ability on top of the current set-up.

Like, Fire Arrows can set thing on fire and a creature hit by one has to spend a bonus action to get rid of it or take an additional 1d4 fire damage at the end of their turn, ice arrows slow target hit by like 10 feet or even freeze water at a distance (let the player figure out what that can do), and Light arrows continue to produce light for X amount of time so you can illuminate an area by shooting them at walls and stuff. Dunno what a Lightning Arrow could do... maybe a bonus like Shocking Grasp where its better against enemies in metal armour.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

When I hear 'Arcane Archer' I'm thinking I'd look like Hank from the old DnD cartoon, or Link and his elemental arrow. I'm not thinking of managing stuff like spell slots or Arcane Shots. At least not normally. A few special attacks? Sure! But I'm not a fan of subclasses where the character concept gets turned off most of the time. If I want to be an Arcane Archer, I want to ALWAYS be an Arcane Archer, not just twice in one fight when I can attack twice in one round.

That sounds dangerously like 4E talk, citizen!

I think it's just a product of early 5E design - a lot of the subclasses were clearly trying to be "very traditional" and only use sort of well-established D&D mechanics lest they scare off people who didn't like 4E-type design.

It's clear WotC are no longer afraid of this (as you'd hope, six years in!), given for example the Psi subclasses taking an entirely new design tack which doesn't tie in to any existing class, and that several other subclasses use serious magic without managing spell slots or the like (Rune Knight, for example - hell the Echo Knight as well), so I think if the AA had just come out, we'd see a very different design.

 

[jgsugden]

Apparently 6% of players don't know that the Arcane Archer is a bag of Tarrasque droppings. I suspect they are playing it for concept and feel reasons, and not optimization. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not everyone white room's the ever-living crap out of the game.

Interestingly, there are some optimization builds for the Assassin/Ranger/Fighter build that make best use of the Arcane Archer. As the third class added, the benefits of it on the first turn assassination surpass the benefits of the Battlemaster for high level play. Gloomstalker 5, Assassin 4, Arcane Archer 4, Sorcerer (Favored Soul/Shadow Magic) 7 is a deadly assassination build.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

But, clearly, we still need to fix the champion...

Not, you see, it's very clearly not broken and inoffensive.

therefore we have to fix it.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

That sounds dangerously like 4E talk, citizen!

I think it's just a product of early 5E design - a lot of the subclasses were clearly trying to be "very traditional" and only use sort of well-established D&D mechanics lest they scare off people who didn't like 4E-type design.

It's clear WotC are no longer afraid of this (as you'd hope, six years in!), given for example the Psi subclasses taking an entirely new design tack which doesn't tie in to any existing class, and that several other subclasses use serious magic without managing spell slots or the like (Rune Knight, for example - hell the Echo Knight as well), so I think if the AA had just come out, we'd see a very different design.

oh christ don't start the edition warring already, at least wait a few pages.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Gloomstalker 5, Assassin 4, Arcane Archer 4, Sorcerer (Favored Soul/Shadow Magic) 7 is a deadly assassination build.

Pretty much all half-decent level 20 builds are "deadly", so you're not exactly selling those four levels of AA here, given they're clearly just to add a bit of nova damage.

The real question is whether a subclass is fun to play 1-20, and I feel like AA fails that test, for my money (unfortunately Beyond doesn't track actual usage of characters).

oh christ don't start the edition warring already, at least wait a few pages.

Acknowledging differences in design principles isn't edition warring, dude. Neither is "better". But they're clearly different approaches.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Acknowledging differences in design principles isn't edition warring, dude. Neither is "better". But they're clearly different approaches.

they say, knowing full well what happens as a result of doing so.

 

[Coroc]

A lot of people playing Samurai are likely not playing actual "Japanese-style warrior" wearing O-Yoroi, carrying a katana and so on, but rather want to play a cultured Fighter who is still mechanically effective. Samurai works well for all sorts of cultured Fighters, despite the very specific name.

Gunslinger is interesting, because I wouldn't even let that into my game, yet clearly a lot of people would.



You say the EK and AA are "non-traditional", but I think they're actually extremely traditional, and just the result of 5E having a multiclassing system that isn't very compatible with a lot of traditional D&D ideas, like the Fighter/Mage. Since D&D was fairly young, loads of people have wanted to play "gishes" and so on - characters who combine arcane magic and fighting. Some pre-AD&D versions had all Elves be that way, as a class, 1E and 2E had multi-classing (which worked really surprisingly well, looking back I'm shocked at how few balance problems it caused), 3E's MC system meant that it ended up having to develop specific classes and PrCs to allow this (because just stacking levels of Fighter and Wizard was pretty rubbish, mechanically). 4E had multiple specific classes which allowed it, including the totally wonderful Swordmage, perhaps the best incarnation of the "Fighter/Mage" in many ways. 5E saw the problem coming, and presumably after deciding to use a 3E-style MC system (booo! pretty sure there was a better one in one of the playtests), put in EK and AA to cover that issue.

So I think yes, they don't want to play a single-class Fighter, I dunno about your group, but in my many 2E groups, I'd say single-class Fighters were significantly outnumbered by MC Fighters (not that single-class ones were bad - they were good, particularly after Combat & Tactics), so I feel like that's pretty traditional.

The most interesting thing I see, personally, is that the Rune Knight, a UA class which is still playtest content, is about as popular as the Cavalier (a subclass that's been out much longer and is official) and way more popular than the Purple Dragon Knight, which has been out far, far longer and is official.

I wonder what proportion Brute was before they removed it. Higher than PDK I daresay.

gunslinger always reminds me of steven kings masterpiece, the dark tower series

 

[Ruin Explorer]

gunslinger always reminds me of steven kings masterpiece, the dark tower series

Yes, and much as I like the Dark Tower, I feel like it would be a very specific feel if one of the PCs in the party was basically Roland. Especially as in this case he'd be using gunpowder weapons when pretty much no-one else was.

 

[Aaron L]

Eldritch Knight is my jam. It even has a built-in "weapon familiar" that I would often create my own spells for in 1st and 2nd Editions. Where does the Gunslinger come from? I don't think I've ever heard of it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really like the idea of an arcane archer. Just not the reality. I think you'd need to homebrew to get something that matches the concept that I (and I suspect you) are thinking about. I'd probably base it on Eldritch Knight and add something like the Paladin's smite to allow the archer to burn spell slots to gussy up his ranged attacks.

Yeah honestly I'd just add all the ranged weapon spells to the EK spell list, and maybe come up with a simple ranged weapon cantrip to give them as well.
And then maybe give them a feature that lets you burn a slot to make an arrow explode with force damage on impact, hitting everyone within 10ft with 1d6 damage or something, and the ability at later levels to add secondary effects, maybe as a bonus action, in place of the EK ability to attack after casting a spell. So, when you use your Charged Shot ability, you can use a bonus action to make all creatures hit catch fire, or save vs deafened, or something like that.

Seeing the top 3 be the ones that are in the PHB is hardly surprising. The Champion being most popular is possibly in part down to it being the only one in the Basic Rules.

I doubt it. People like playing the Champion.

Apparently 6% of players don't know that the Arcane Archer is a bag of Tarrasque droppings. I suspect they are playing it for concept and feel reasons, and not optimization. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not everyone white room's the ever-living crap out of the game.

It's important to remember that people like us are the minority by a vast margin.

 

[CleverNickName]

I suspect they are playing it for concept and feel reasons, and not optimization. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not everyone white room's the ever-living crap out of the game.

I know that a lot of people enjoy the character creation "mini-game" where they needle and nitpick every tiniest detail in order to get the absolute maximum bonus to Whatever, and that's fine. (I think they are why the Warlock even exists.) But I always preferred the creative builds, deliberately sub-optimal with visible and important flaws. Heroes who are awesome at everything are dull to me.

 

[Remathilis]

It does seem to be a ranking heavily influenced by date of release and how long the archetype is free on DNDBeyond.
That could explain the Gunslinger beating all the XGTE subclasses.

But the EK, Gunslinger,Samurai, AA block may suggest there is a huge block of people who want to play nontradional fighters.

That is probably no small factor in it; I'm sure if the AA, EK, BM, Echo, PDK, samurai and cavalier were also free, the demos might change.

(As an aside, why doesn't Dndbeyond offer more content packs, like buying all the fighter subclasses at a slight discount. It's either buy the book or buy ala carte at a steep markup per item)

 

[Shiroiken]

The title should have included: "and number 4 WILL surprise you!"

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It's telling how sub-par the Purple Dragon Knight is when a class that JUST CAME OUT is already on the verge of overcoming it and probably does past the first decimal.

The whole SCAG feels outdated.

SCAG has about the least thought-out player content of any book with substantial player content. I like Bladesinger, but even that is a hot mess design wise, it's just that it's a fun hot mess, particularly with some Rogue levels. Swashbuckler is cool, but then that's why it was reprinted in a much better book. And I do love my booming blade. Otherwise the only thing I can say for most the subclasses there is that they can't be accused of adding to power creep. Getting past player options, it needed a big fold out map. Having to flip back to a two page spread at the beginning with tiny print and the binding obscuring the middle does not a good setting book make.

But yeah, Purple Dragon Knight. If it even was play-tested it must have only been played by people who had never played any other fighter or were in a group with no healer, as I can't imagine another situation where someone wouldn't find it completely underwhelming.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Apparently 6% of players don't know that the Arcane Archer is a bag of Tarrasque droppings. I suspect they are playing it for concept and feel reasons, and not optimization. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not everyone white room's the ever-living crap out of the game.

It also probably plays awesome with a very short of short rest heavy adventuring day. I played with a drop-in/drop-out gamestore group where every session was basically "go somewhere and have one combat and then long rest" and I bet an AA would have been awesome there. And hey, the Curving Shot is kinda cool.

As far as Terrasque droppings, I suppose those free magic arrows make it a very good subclass for dropping Terrasques.

 

[Davo3]

...a huge number of real-world distributions of things follow a pattern where the second most common thing is about twice as common as the first...

I think you spelled "half" wrong there.

 

[Leatherhead]

Considering the crazy popularity of the Wildemount book, the Rune Night being more popular than the Echo Knight is quite surprising.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Considering the crazy popularity of the Wildemount book, the Rune Night being more popular than the Echo Knight is quite surprising.

Free UA option vs. paid content. And I would say a clearer case of the phenomenon than either the Champion Fighter or the Gunslinger.