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.

 

[Mournblade94]

Where is Gunslinger even located? I'll be honest I didn't know that existed anywhere but Pathfinder. I can't find it in any of my books, But I don't have Eberron. It doesn't appear to be in there either from what i can tell about the Eberron book. Was it just created for D&D Beyond? I have full access to it but I can't figure out what source it is from.

 

[Fenris-77]

Where is Gunslinger even located? I'll be honest I didn't know that existed anywhere but Pathfinder. I can't find it in any of my books, But I don't have Eberron. It doesn't appear to be in there either from what i can tell about the Eberron book. Was it just created for D&D Beyond? I have full access to it but I can't figure out what source it is from.

It's on DDB, so that may be the reason.

Edit - that's the Mercer version.

 

[Weiley31]

Glad to see the Rune Knight is decently up there.
For me it's the Battlemaster, Rune Knight, Gunslinger, and Echo Knight that are my fave Fighter Subclasses.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Where is Gunslinger even located? I'll be honest I didn't know that existed anywhere but Pathfinder. I can't find it in any of my books, But I don't have Eberron. It doesn't appear to be in there either from what i can tell about the Eberron book. Was it just created for D&D Beyond? I have full access to it but I can't figure out what source it is from.

It's one of two slightly-annoying things that basically "came with" D&D Beyond (I don't think there are any others), which are both from Critical Role - The Blood Hunter class (which is a slightly sub-par Witcher rip-off, thanks Vin Diesel!), and the Gunslinger.

Luckily they're extremely easy to turn off - just get players to switch "Critical Role content" off.

The Blood Hunter always gets my goat a bit because it's a third-party class, and not a particularly well-designed or well-balanced one (middle of the pack, it's not a disaster either), but it's the only third-party class on Beyond, and there's no way to add one yourself (only subclasses).

That said Beyond just did a big, and fairly fundamental update to how characters work on the back end, to allow for stuff modifying the main classes in a more fundamental way (including allowing the Class Feature Variants UA to work, but that wasn't actually what started them on it), so maybe there's hope in the future.

 

[Undrave]

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.

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.

Concept shconcept... if I want to play a magical archer I'd be pretty disappointed with mister "three fun shot and then I need a nap". Even as a concept it's disappointing so I don't know what the heck people are seeing in that class.

5e gishes are, on the whole, pretty underwhelming. They're not real merging of Arcane and Martial the way a 4e Swordmage was, they're most of the 'stab with one hand, magic missile with the other' variety. They're like dual wielding a gun and a sword. The Paladin and someone with the SCAG cantrip can feel much closer but the heavy armour flavour feel off.

Considering all the fun stuff you can do AT-WILL with an Eldritch Blast I don't know why the Arcane Archer is limited the way it is.

Maybe I should just homebrew a replacement?

 

[Fenris-77]

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.

 

[Jester David]

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

 

[Undrave]

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.

I'd give them some solid at-will options with fun, but minor, effect and then a handful of limited use effects, mostly stealing arrow spells from the Ranger.

There's no reason a level 3 Arcane Archer can't just make all their arrows inflict fire damage. Not even adding any damage to them, just BOOM! Now its a magical attack instead of a plain one. Nothing fancy, just some elemental damage. Fire Arrow, Lightning Arrow, Frost Arrow, Light Arrow... they're not game breaking but they would sound COOL and be evocative.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'd give them some solid at-will options with fun, but minor, effect and then a handful of limited use effects, mostly stealing arrow spells from the Ranger.

There's no reason a level 3 Arcane Archer can't just make all their arrows inflict fire damage. Not even adding any damage to them, just BOOM! Now its a magical attack instead of a plain one. Nothing fancy, just some elemental damage. Fire Arrow, Lightning Arrow, Frost Arrow, Light Arrow... they're not game breaking but they would sound COOL and be evocative.

Yeah, I agree. Anytime you can put COOL and not game breaking together in the same sentence you're probably on to something.

 

[Undrave]

Yeah, I agree. Anytime you can put COOL and not game breaking together in the same sentence you're probably on to something.

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.