Over on the Warlord thread, the subject of the viability of the Fighter class in 5E came up. I feel this deserves a thread all to its own, so I'll say it here, loud and clear:
Fifth Edition Fighters are amazing!
Sometimes I feel that they are really underrated. Let's break down some key points of the class:
Indeed, let's.
You have great baseline features. Proficiency in all armor and shields means you'll never have a bad AC, all martial weapons means top-tier damage dealing, Constitution saves . You have access to as many skills as most classes do, and your options include the stellar Athletics (one of the all-time best exploration skills and great for grappling) and the all-star Perception. Constitution is also probably the best "common" save proficiency, and all the casters in the group will be very jealous.
In short your skills are
mediocre. They are simply average other than that you have access to Perception (Athletics is not by any means one of the all-time best exploration skills when common spells make it near-irrelevant because you can levitate or fly). Your AC is
a couple of points higher than most people - and with Bounded Accuracy that doesn't shut monsters out.
And, for the record, the most important save isn't Con but Will.
Unlike Rangers and Paladins (never mind the poor Barbarian who doesn't get them at all), you have access to every Fighting Style, and you have it at first level.
This only applies to Schrodinger's Fighter. There is no actual fighter anywhere who has access to every fighting style. If you have TWF you don't have armour mastery.
Second Wind doesn't look like much, but it recharges on a Short Rest, of which you can expect 2 per day plus a long rest.
Second Wind has precisely one problem. It doesn't scale. It's great at level 1 (better than Action Surge) - but it's little improved by level 20. At level 1 it heals around half your hit points. By level 3 it's around a third.
Action Surge is just insane, and every other class is jealous (and often they'll dip into Fighter just to get this).
Indeed. Action Surge is another
front loaded ability. It's a great ability. And you have it at level 1.
You get more Ability Score Increases than any other class. What does that mean?
In practice it means you are front loaded
again. By level 8 you have two stat increases and a combat feat from memory. At level 8, Strength 20 and Great Weapon Fighting rocks. But your next stat increase? Is something that
wasn't good enough to take at levels 4, 6, or 8. (The Battlemaster suffers the same way when they get extra maneuvers. The only extra maneuvers they can take are ones that weren't good enough for them at level 3).
If you start with a 16 in your key stat, you can bring that to 20 and pick up one of those fancy-schmancy combat feats (it's not like anyone's ever heard of Great Weapon Master, right?), all by eighth level. Or you can go for a totally devastating build like Polearm Master + Sentinel early on and still buff your stats up really easily.
Indeed. And once you've done that you spend the second ten levels choosing things that weren't good enough for you to take in the first ten.
Sure, every other martial class save for Rogue gets Extra Attack at level 5. What they don't get is ANOTHER Extra Attack at level 11.
This is, however, diminishing returns. Your first extra attack doubles your (non-TWF) damage output. Your second only adds 50%. And from memory everyone gets something neat at level 11.
Adding to the Fighter's general badassery is their ability to mimic the much-behated Legendary Resistance starting at level 9. Fail a save? I guess I'll give it another shot. Maybe the Paladin's immune to Charm, but Petrification? Not a chance. You are, though - or at least you've got a good crack at it when it counts.
Limited uses
per day. The fighter's ability here is like having an extremely limited use extra inspiration point.
There's nothing a good class needs so much as stellar subclasses. Let's have a look:
Indeed, let's.
First there's the Champion, which takes a lot of flack for being "boring" and "underpowered." But c'mon! First of all, it is important to have something you can hand to a new player and have them understand easily, and the Fighter's as good a place for it as any.
Which does approximately jack to deal with the underpowered complaints. The newbie class if anything should be overpowered to make up for their lack of skill.
Second of all, the Champion isn't actually bad. You double your crits
In short something you don't control, can't rely on, and that barely shifts your DPR. W00t!
The Battle Master is actually awesome! You can do so much.
It might even be the single strongest sub-class
at level 3. Might. Unfortunately level 3 is when you get to pick all your best abilities. When they get extra maneuvers you simply get to choose ones that weren't good enough for you at level 3. This is a problem. And Know Your Enemy takes a minute to use, meaning that you can find out the combat stats of people you interact with socially.
The Eldritch Knight looks limited, but in fact adds a whole host of abilities onto the strong-as-is Fighter chassis.
Yup. They want to be a bard.
Aside from their great features and subclasses, the Fighter also has tons and tons of possible interesting, viable builds. A 4E-style Defender is totally doable,
A 4e-style Defender is doable if and only if you want a bargain basement version. The 1 reaction/round rather cripples it.
Now, some naysayers will have you believe that the Fighter has some crucial weaknesses. Nay, I say to them!
In my opinion, the Linear Fighter/Quadratic Wizard dynamic in 5E, save for a few clearly overpowered spells like Simulacrum and Conjure Fey (seriously? eight Pixies?), is thoroughly smashed.
Yup. It's more like linear wizard
logarithmic fighter. And there are quite a lot of spells (Animate Dead, True Polymorph) that shatter the game.
While high-level casters still have access to enormously powerful spells with a wide variety of applications, those spells must be carefully rationed due to their limited use, while a Fighter can easily afford to use his or her most powerful abilities (Action Surge, Extra Attack), very often or even at-will.
You seem to think a Short Rest takes five minutes rather than an hour. And be working on the basis of three short rests per day rather than a single lunch break.
"Fighters don't have out-of-combat utility!" Not so, I assert. The baseline Fighter can contribute strong skills like Athletics and Perception all day long,
In short they have all the out of combat utility of a 3.X fighter. Athletics is not a strong skill. (Perception is, of course).
and thanks to the magic of bounded accuracy and Backgrounds stands a good chance of helping out in a social encounter as well.
The fighter is, of course, about as good at social skills as the wizard is at athletics. You are undermining your own points here.
And a Dexterity-based Fighter with the Criminal or Urchin background? You'll be a passable Thief, with Stealth and lockpicking skills to match.
Assuming that there's no actual rogues in the party. I've done better with a 4e high dex fighter pretending to be a rogue (six trained skills at first level).
I hope reading this wall of text has inspired you, too to explore the possibilities available in D&D 5E's coolest class.
The Warlock?
to take an attack roll at the Fighter's awesome armor class of amazingness? (I think you'll miss, but I'm always interested to hear a dissenting opinion.) Have at it!
As you suggest.
Basically the fighter doesn't scale. Low level Second Wind, Action Surge, and Combat Superiority are all
awesome abilities (especially Combat Superiority: Riposte). From first to sixth level or so the fighter is probably the biggest badass in the game. They remain pretty good to level 11 - but really suffer in the back 10. Second Wind is less and less useful. Action Surge is no more useful. You already have your best combat maneuvers as a Battlemaster. Your feats are strongly in the realm of diminishing returns after level 8. And other than the Champion's regeneration there's nothing actually new you can do in the back half of the game.
If they'd capped the fighter at level 10 or given it a Paragon Path system in which they chose "Charles Atlas Superpowers", "Leader of Men", or "Supernatural Warrior" I'd consider it a pretty good class. As a three level dip (Battlemaster) it's great - and levels 4-6 are also good (two ability score increases and a second attack). But after that the fighter almost stops.
