Know Your Enemy: A Fighter's Handbook





This handbook has been put on indefinite hold. If anyone wants to make a new one, go ahead. I'm sorry.





Picture is not mine. If it was, it'd probably be horribly deformed or something.



If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.



-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Selling Points: Why be a fighter?

Color Coding:

Light Blue

Blue

Purple

Red

Fighter Basics:

1d10 HD

All Armor and Weapon proficiencies

light blue

Saving Throws:

Fighting Roles

Spoiler: STR vs. DEX Show The first question is: are you going to use strength or dexterity? Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so think carefully.



Strength:

-You can use more weapons. So far there are 31 weapons strength-based characters can use, versus 13 that a dexterity-based fighter would use.

-You deal more damage. All of the heavy-hitting weapons, such as mauls and greatswords, can't be used with dexterity.

-You aren't slowed down by heavy armor. In a game where charging doesn't exist, speed is more important than it may seem.

-Athletics can be used for climbing and swimming, both checks that are likely to come up.



Dexterity:

-Initiative. Going first means extra attacks. Extra attacks mean easier fight.

-Ranged weapons. Unless you want to hurl javelins, you're going to need dexterity for ranged combat.

-Dexterity has three skills keying off of it, as opposed to one.

-Saving throws. Dexterity is a far more common saving throw than strength, especially when you fight at range.

-If you are fighting at range, speed isn't that important anyway.

Spoiler: Fighting Role Show In combat, you may want to be the 'I can use all weapons, and so I do!' guy, but most of you will probably want to stick to a single style. A few of the most interesting are noted here.



Sword and Board: I'd say this is the best way to play a fighter. Not only can you choose between dexterity and strength as your primary stat, you also gain great fighting styles, acceptable damage, and about the best AC in the game.



Two- weapon fighting : *gasp* Multiple ratings! TWF starts out as the most damaging fighting style in the book, but drops in usefulness later on. At low/mid-level, it becomes a slightly less damaging and more defensive greatweaponer, which I feel is a bad tradeoff, and at high level even the humble Sword-and-boarder will surpass it in both damage and defense.

Ability Scores:

Strength:

Constitution:

Intelligence:

Eldritch Knight

Charisma:

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution:

Intelligence:

Eldritch Knights

Charisma:

Spoiler: Suggested Ability Score arrays Show

Spoiler: Strength Show Non-Eldritch Knight:



STR: 15 (9 points)

DEX: 12 (4 points)

CON: 15 (9 points)

INT: 8 (0 points)

WIS: 13 (5 points)

CHA: 8 (0 points)



Eldritch Knight:



STR: 15 (9 points)

DEX: 10 (2 points)

CON: 14 (7 points)

INT: 14 (7 points)

WIS: 10 (2 points)

CHA: 8 (0 points)



Spoiler: Dexterity Show Non-Eldritch Knight:

STR: 8 (0 points)

DEX: 15 (9 points)

CON: 15 (9 points)

INT: 8 (0 points)

WIS: 15 (9 points)

CHA: 8 (0 points)



Eldritch Knights:



STR: 8 (0 points)

DEX: 15 (9 points)

CON: 13 (5 points)

INT: 15 (9 points)

WIS: 12 (4 points)

CHA: 8 (0 points)

Races:

Spoiler: PHB Show Dwarf . Cliched, I know. However, it is actually pretty good when you consider the features. Then again, I'm a sucker for anything that adds utility to a combat-focused character...

- Hill Dwarf . HP boost and more wisdom. Nice.

- Mountain Dwarf . Useless armor and very helpful strength. The strongest of the two dwarves.



Elf . Dexterity bonus? Free perception? Trance? I like it. Ratings are for dexterity-fighters, as you probably expected.

- High Elf . A free cantrip? Yes please. Intelligence is next to useless though. Overall, this race adds a lot to an already good base, assuming you go for a dexterity-fighter.

- Wood Elf . Wisdom boost, higher speed and sneakiness. I can work with this, thank you very much.

-Dark Elf. Charisma (ugh) better darkvision (nice) and spells (not bad). Oh, and Sunlight Sensitivity (Why, oh WOTC?). This feature is a large part of the rating here, so if it won't come into play a lot, I guess the race improves to blue .



Halfling . Small, so no big weapons for you. Brave and Lucky can both be really useful and if you are going dexterity, there isn't a lot you won't like about those little guys. The ratings here assume you do.

- Lightfoot Halfling . Charisma boost, and you can hide easier. I bet those abilities will come in handy on my fighter! Except not, so be a Strongheart instead.

- Strongheart Halfling . You gain a constitution boost. Resist poison will be useful against a pretty large number of monsters (and failing that, it'll at least mean you can drink like a dwarf).



Human . Very bland. That's all I have to say here.

- Standard human . Too unfocused. Half your ability boosts will probably be useless, not to mention that the whole race gets a bit boring eventually.

- Variant human The free feat seems weak, but is actually a great thing to have. Maybe pick Sentinel for extra tankyness? Polearm Master for extra damage? Resilient for proficiency in wisdom saves? How about Tavern Brawler to gain half-orc-level ability scores? This race has so much potential, and it'd be a waste to not try it at least once.



Dragonborn . From what I've heard, the breath weapon is useful more often than it may seem. Still, I doubt it'll beat the cool stuff you can do with your action at higher levels, and the charisma bonus sucks.



Gnome . Another small race, but those are smart instead of agile. I like Gnome Cunning, and darkvision is always useful, but I wouldn't use those if I wasn't playing an eldritch knight.

-Forest Gnome. Speaking with animals and a free cantrip? Sure, why not. Blue if you're going down the dexterity route instead.

-Rock Gnome. Tinker is a very fun feature, and constitution is always useful. Still, feels a bit lacking.



Half-Elf . Free skills, a solid ability and bonuses to the stats you like make those a surprisingly good pick.



Half-Orc . All the features are meant for damage-dealing melee classes... which is both the greatest strength and greatest weakness of this race. If you won't be fighting a lot, drop the rating to Blue . Dexterity-users need not apply.



Tiefling . Of course you want to play a tiefling fighter! After all their ability scores... I mean, their great racial synergy... er... their amazing roleplay potential? Seriously though, this race wasn't meant to be fighters, and almost everything done by it can be done by another race.

Skills:

Spoiler: Class Skills Show Acrobatics - Not so great as it is mostly redundant with Athletics. When you want this, ask yourself: What do I get from this I don't get from athletics? However, if you are dexterity-primary, then it is great and likely the first skill you'll pick.



Animal Handling - Riding and taming animals. More a ranger's thing, although I can see it being useful.



Athletics - Primary stat, and it's used for a lot of things, from grappling to swimming. Take it and love it. Obviously, it becomes less great when you are dexterity-based and can just take acrobatics.



History - Not your job. If you are an Eldritch Knight, you can consider it, but leave it to the wizard if that's not the case.



Insight - Telling if people are lying can be useful; but then again, you hopefully have someone wiser than you. A good pick in a social campaign.



Intimidation - Together with insight your social skill set. Neat, but you won't likely have a lot of Charisma. This skill can have a lot of potential though, depending on what your DM allows it to do.



Perception - I don't care that your wisdom isn't great: this is the best skill in the game (is there any D&D edition where it isn't useful?) and it comes up a lot. Invisible opponents? PERCEPTION. Impeding ambush? PERCEPTION. Need to search a room? PERCEPTION. Stealthy enemies? PERCEPTION.



Survival - Again something I expect the party's ranger to do, but it actually has a lot of uses. Tracking, foraging, navigating... A pity you don't have a lot of wisdom.

Spoiler: Non-Class Skills Show Arcana - An intelligence-based skill, but actually a pretty good one. About everything that isn't 'natural' can be identified with this. For Eldritch Knights , this one is pretty much mandatory.



Deception - If I said this was something you should take, I'd be lying. (Do you get it? Do you get it?)



Investigation - Seeing through illusions already make this interesting, the wide range of uses for it only increase the rating. For normal fighters it is still kind of meh, but an Eldritch Knights should seriously think about picking it up.



Medicine - NO. Buying a healer's kit and/or having a cleric with you already makes this skill near useless. Probably the least useful skill in the game so far.



Nature - Little reason to take it. Even the Eldritch Knights should pass this one up. Beasts and Plants have few special abilities, so even if you face them often this won't tell you a lot.



Performance - Allows you to live wealthily between adventures, but has little use beyond that.



Persuasion - This skill is actually not that bad, even when considering your terrible charisma.



Religion - Same as Nature: Terrible for everyone but EK's, and even they don't want it very badly.



Sleight of Hand - Meh. Not that likely to come up in actual play and it'll only fetch you a few gold at best. Even if you are dexterity-based I'd avoid this.



Stealth - I used to rate this worse, but recent comments have made me realize that it might as well become a very, very often used skill. If you are dexterity-based, assume it is rated blue .

Backgrounds

Spoiler Show Acolyte - Two skills that range from utterly worthless to moderately useful and two free languages. The feature may be very useful but I myself don't see a lot of situations where it'd be something I'd choose over some of the other backgrounds.



Charlatan - I like the feature, but its focus on stats that are tertiary for you at most mean I can't really rate it higher than this.



Criminal - The feature is not that great, and the skills and proficiencies don't really help getting this to a level where I'd recommend it. Black at most, Blue for dexterity-users.



Entertainer - Another background not really made for you, although the feature is nice. The Gladiator variant deserves honorable mention. Of course, if you are going Dexterity, it becomes better



Folk Hero - Solid skills, a flexible tool proficiency (even better for dwarves) and vehicle proficiency make up for the boring feature. All considered one of the better backgrounds to have.



Guild Artistian - Good enough skills, proficiencies that are about equal to the Folk Hero's, and a great feature. Uncommon but surprisingly good.



Hermit - The skills are bad and the feature is DM dependent, but the Herbalism Kit may be reason enough to think about this.



Noble - The skills are not that great, and the proficiencies aren't golden either. Your feature may come in handy a lot though, and the alternative servant option is interesting too.



Outlander - You are going to pick athletics any way, so that is basically a free skill. The proficiencies are less great, but the feature will prevent the group from starving if someone rolls poorly for survival. Dexterity-users have less to like here.



Sage - Okaaaaaay... Two skills, one of which is worthless, languages, and a feature that is worthless at the worst and a plot-hook generator at best.



Sailor - Now we're talking. Great skills, nice proficiencies, and an useful feature. Bad Reputation should be a lot of fun (no, they actually aren't going to sue me for stealing that ale), although it may get books thrown at you. The best fighter background that's out there... if you are strength-primary. (If not, this is instead Blue )



Soldier - Classic. Good all around, but it lacks that bit of 'oomph' Sailor has. Dexterity-users have less to love here.



Urchin - The feature is pretty bad, and I could only see it being useful in chases. The proficiencies and skills are kind of hit-and-miss, but this background fails to impress me in the end. For dexterity-users, it is better .

Class Features

Fighting Style

Spoiler: Styles Show Archery - Obviously only ranged fighters should take this. If they do, it's a solid enough feature.

Defense - Small bonus, but it'll be the first place people look when they get a second feature.

Dueling - Brings your damage output to that of a two-handed weapon. Not bad.

Great Weapon Fighting - The math on this is a little complex, but it basically means 2d6 weapons will deal about 1.5 more damage and 1d12 weapons 0.8 more damage. I think that's a little to low, but your opinion may differ.

Protection - There isn't a lot of stuff you will be using your reaction for, except for a couple of EK spells and Battlemaster maneuvers. But this feature? It rocks. Everyone with a shield should take it.

Two-weapon fighting - This feature is awesome when you are low level. At higher levels, the Dueling and Great Weapon Fighting bonuses will start to give a bigger bonus, so don't pick this in a high-level campaign, or don't TWF at all.

Action Surge

Martial Archetype

Extra Attack

Indomitable

Subclasses

Spoiler: Champion Show I don't like this subclass. Why? It only adds passive bonuses, doesn't give you interesting powers, and although the abilities are neat, I don't like a class that does the same every turn. If you don't think you'll get bored by it, go ahead and pick it.

Spoiler: Battlemaster Show The Battlemaster has no higher-level abilities whosoever, so when you get your final maneuver at 15th level, it is from the same list you chose from at 3rd, and thus likely your 9th favorite pick. However, if you dip fighter for only three levels, I'd say this is your best choice for a subclass.

Spoiler: Eldritch Knight Show Very, very slow casting, but you do gain more options in (and out of) combat. My favorite of the three sub-fighters, although I'm not sure about its power level compared to the others. However, this will likely be one of the few subclasses to grow in power with the release of each splatbook, simply because wizards'll probably get new spells with each of them.

Feats