D&D 5E How Do I Make A Melee DEX Fighter Like THIS Guy (video link included)?!

[Tony Vargas]

D&D combat is abstract, so it's more about your imagination than anything else. You can imagine your DEX-based fighter moving around and whacking whatever's in front of him until it dies, like a sprite in Gauntlet. You can imagine your DEX-based fighter doing the kinds of things in your video as part of moving-attacking-moving-Extra-Attacking every round, and Action Surging once in a while to do it twice as fast. You'll likely be about as effective (possibly even doing the exact same things, mechanically) in each case.

You can go with BM to get a few extra tricks with maneuvers that might help.
Swashbuckler rogue is a good suggestion, too.

The right ratio between them is debatable, but keep in mind the range of levels you hope to actually play it, and the amount of time you'll spend at each. A build that's covered the basic concept by 3rd or 4th is fine, you'll get there pretty quickly, but you'll spend a long time going from 5th to 11th, so you'd better have what you want then, late-blooming doesn't cut it. Not only do many campaigns end in the early double-digits and APs typically go 'only' to 15, but exp progression speeds up for the last 10 levels, so even if you play through 'em all, they go quick. The meat of the game is mid-to-high single digits, optimze your build for fun at those levels.

 

[Oofta]

Battle Master is easily better than Champion with the Fighter MC. Get Riposte and get extra Sneak Attacks off-turn. Add the Sentinel feat and you become even more likely to get that extra off-turn Sneak Attack.

It depends on what type of character you like to play. The math is a little fuzzy and depends on many things but I did an analysis of damage and two weapon fighter champion does as well as battlemaster, and does better at lower levels.

But there are so many variables. What's your average target AC, how many fights do you have between rests, how many times are you going to get an off-turn sneak attack and so on.

IMHO it comes down to personal preference. Battlemaster has some nice tricks, but you're limited to how often you get those tricks, particularly at lower levels.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Battle Master is easily better than Champion with the Fighter MC. Get Riposte and get extra Sneak Attacks off-turn. Add the Sentinel feat and you become even more likely to get that extra off-turn Sneak Attack.

With crit fishing, champion is a thing... prof bonus on initiative if you even go up to 7 may also help as does the second fighting style a bit later.
I would probably start with fighter 1 or 2 and then go full swashbuckler. Making use of fighting style and second wind lets you keep up on damage easily without extra attack. After raising swasbuckler to at least 5th level you may think about raising fighter to 3,5 or 6 so that at level 11 you are having 3 attacks with sneak attack 3d6 and fabulous mobility. You can decide to be a battlemaster or champion later. Then you know how frequent short rests in your campaihn are to make an informed decision.
Remember that 4 battlemaster dice are expanded rapidly and giving up 2 levels of rogue and 1d6 sneak attack all the time for 4d8 battle master dice may not be the best choice. And raising fighter from 1 to 5 just for extra attack that in the dual wielder's case is only another 1d6+4 (about the same as 2d6 sneak attack) may also be not worth it.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Remember that 4 battlemaster dice are expanded rapidly and giving up 2 levels of rogue and 1d6 sneak attack all the time for 4d8 battle master dice may not be the best choice. And raising fighter from 1 to 5 just for extra attack that in the dual wielder's case is only another 1d6+4 (about the same as 2d6 sneak attack) may also be not worth it.

That 4d8 Battle Master dice becomes 4d8 + an additional attack (potentially with Sneak Attack damage) if you use it all on Ripostes.

Going for Champion instead of Battle Master is going to only give you one extra crit out of 20 attacks, on average. And since you suggested not to go for Extra Attack, you're only making two attacks (main + off-hand) per round. Assuming 4-round combats (about the average in 5e I've gathered):

8 attacks per combat * 8 combats per day = 64 attacks per day.

Then 64/20 = 3.2 ... so that's most likely 3 extra crits over your entire adventuring day. And you can't control when they'll happen, either. They could happen Round 1 when it matters, or they could happen Round 4 when it doesn't. Moreover, since you're likely only going to add Sneak Attack damage when you first hit in the round, instead of saving it for a small chance at a crit on the second attack (which wouldn't be wise), you can't even ensure that you get Sneak Attack crits doubled.

Meanwhile the Battle Master and his "only" 4 dice are able to get the Riposte + Sneak Attack more times than the Champion build is expected to get an extra crit if there's no short rest at all. One short rest, and the BM really blows the Champion away. And, most importantly, the BM has complete control over WHEN he wants to do this.

There's just no contest here, in my eyes.

 

[hejtmane]

He is single sword and if you want to stay that route

Fighter/ranger build would work great studded leather + dex + ac for 18 AC if you want. The other fighting feature take duelist to go with scimitar or short sword then add colossal slayer or hoard breaker from hunter. Fighter EK or BM work.

Could also go Ranger or Fighter with Monk natural AC, duelist with short sword 1d6+2 two two attacks and still have a unarmed strike if they do not use their bonus action, Monk of the long death or shadow monk probably fit

If you want a decent DPS dex build with some options go Fighter (EK) and Ranger (hunter) Multi Class then you have Shield and Absorb elements as a reaction go to 7th or 8th levels EK then use Green Flame Blade and Booming and then you get to follow up with a melee attack as a bonus action (Do not need a high int for this build) then add in ranger hunter add Colossal slayer for an extra 1d8 damage once per turn and around 14-15 level (If you went ranger more) you get multi attack defense.

Those are the main ones I see that would fit the single sword dex concept

 

[Warmaster Horus]

BTW, how do you know he's a DEX fighter?

 

[Caliban]

BTW, how do you know he's a DEX fighter?

The quiver on his back is a good indication. Strength fighters tend to use thrown weapons for range.

Of course, given that that is a cinematic for a computer game based on a completely different RPG (Warhammer), who knows for sure.

 

[Gladius Legis]

This Fighter defies the typical D&D point buy limitations and has 20s in STR and DEX. He rolled really well, obviously.

 

[hejtmane]

This Fighter defies the typical D&D point buy limitations and has 20s in STR and DEX. He rolled really well, obviously.

I use roles myself plus point buy is an optional rule, along with standard array.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That 4d8 Battle Master dice becomes 4d8 + an additional attack (potentially with Sneak Attack damage) if you use it all on Ripostes.

Going for Champion instead of Battle Master is going to only give you one extra crit out of 20 attacks, on average. And since you suggested not to go for Extra Attack, you're only making two attacks (main + off-hand) per round. Assuming 4-round combats (about the average in 5e I've gathered):

8 attacks per combat * 8 combats per day = 64 attacks per day.

Then 64/20 = 3.2 ... so that's most likely 3 extra crits over your entire adventuring day. And you can't control when they'll happen, either. They could happen Round 1 when it matters, or they could happen Round 4 when it doesn't. Moreover, since you're likely only going to add Sneak Attack damage when you first hit in the round, instead of saving it for a small chance at a crit on the second attack (which wouldn't be wise), you can't even ensure that you get Sneak Attack crits doubled.

Meanwhile the Battle Master and his "only" 4 dice are able to get the Riposte + Sneak Attack more times than the Champion build is expected to get an extra crit if there's no short rest at all. One short rest, and the BM really blows the Champion away. And, most importantly, the BM has complete control over WHEN he wants to do this.

There's just no contest here, in my eyes.

You forgot advantage and you forgot to calculate miss chances of riposte and you also assumed 4 rounds of combat which may not be true for all groups. You also forgot to mention that spending dice or saving them is always a decision and you may also have spent all your dice in a not so crucial combat and don't get to rest before the important battle which may also happen frequently in some groups. So this is why I said you should wait with fighter levels, because then you know more how your DM handles rests.
You also forgot that I advised to directly go from level 1 fighter to level 5 which makes the time of 2 attacks per round only last for 2 levels. And you forgot to mention action surge which gives an extra attack. You also forgot to mention that to use riposte the enemy needs to miss you first or even has to attack you, which as swashbuckler you iften try to avoid altogether. You also didn't mention that you have to spend your reaction which you could have used for different things.
Yeah. All that said I personally would still go for battlemaster, but most probably leave fighter at level 1 for a long time.