Please respond to the poll above. In your response, please say what your favorite Fighter fighting style is and why.

My favorite fighting style is Dueling. It allows you to deal more damage when you are not using weapons with two hands. I love sword and shield characters so it is usually my go to fighting style.entry

I also like Dueling, it always works not just when you roll 1/2, or use bonus action to dual wield. It works with AoO, with off hand shields, magic hand signs, torches, swinging from a rope, etc. 

Great weapon fighting is so awesome. In my particular experience, my DM gave me a homebrewed flame tongue greatsword (it was changed to deal 2d6 radiant instead of fire). Bro, 1s and 2s come up so frequently with that particular weapon, it made a very notable difference in that particular case. That thing stuck with me for the whole duration of that campaign. Even when you don't have a flame tongue, just the feeling of seeing a 1 and 2 on your dice rolls, and saying "naw homie, i get to roll again," it's fantastic and fun. 

I like unarmed fighting. I like pairing it with Tavern Brawler feat for grapple/shove take downs. The feat would mean the style could be redundant but 1d4 bonus damage at beginning of turn is okay and option to go no shield for 1D8 makes or 1d6 with shield means I’m not stuck on weapon choices.

Second favourite would be blind fighting despite only limited to 10 ft. It provides a nice mechanical advantage fighters would usually rely on spellcasters for.

I’m becoming more and more meh about static number bonuses. 

Blind Fighting is my favorite because I think it's cool. That being said, it's pretty situational and I wouldn't rate it in the top 5 best mechanically.

Currently trying out Blind Fighting on my level 3 EK.

He's like a master of the environment type character, think of that dude in Baki (anime) that fights in a selfmade sandstorm (character name Gaia).

The idea is that he leverages fog cloud and other obscuring effects to benefit from his blind fighting. This is then at the cost of other fighting styles etc. It's definitely not optimal, but I love how thematic it is, especially as he's a half-orc from a clan of wind magic using orcs, with a wind-based deity. To keep the theme of wind, his favorite weapon and fighting style is akin to a swirling dervish with a polearm.

I took Defense on my paladin and fighter.  It's not sexy, but +1 to AC is always good and always useful.  

I'm an archer at heart, so you can probably guess my choice.

Quote from KanedaSyndrome >>

Currently trying out Blind Fighting on my level 3 EK.

He's like a master of the environment type character, think of that dude in Baki (anime) that fights in a selfmade sandstorm (character name Gaia).

The idea is that he leverages fog cloud and other obscuring effects to benefit from his blind fighting. This is then at the cost of other fighting styles etc. It's definitely not optimal, but I love how thematic it is, especially as he's a half-orc from a clan of wind magic using orcs, with a wind-based deity. To keep the theme of wind, his favorite weapon and fighting style is akin to a swirling dervish with a polearm.

 

 I'm kind of enamored with Blind Fighting, but think some of the other fighting styles will be useful more often.  But...I bet when you are in total darkness or facing that invisible creature, you are very pleased to have Blind Fighting style!  :) 

For style?

Thrown Weapon Fighting.

If nothing else, than to turn that one dude into a pin-cushion with all those daggers you’ve been picking up.

+2 to damage isn’t nothing to sneeze at, either...though, this is a bit better on an Artificer with Returning Weapons, or a Soulknife Rogue.

What I VOTED for is Great Weapon Fighting...there are just moments when you want to to smack a worthy foe with the hardest swing you can muster...and I’ve been fancying a great maul combined with the Crusher feat.

2d6 damage die...the ability to knock them at least 5ft...potentially get advantage on attacks when I crit...re-rolling all those 1’s or 2’s when I DO crit...getting a bonus action attack when I crit with the Great Weapon Master feat...you become a real terror.

Usually multiclass into a fighter. But while against some things, blind fighting is quite invaluable. I like superior technique. Since as a side option, can either run support. Or make use of a wider breadth of maneuvers in a fight. Course a fighting style I can swap on a long rest is a big key, and sadly the martial adept feat is litterally now a fighting style. Wouldn't of minded either one giving a few more dice for the pool. 

Unarmed fighting is my fave, but in extremely close second is Great Weapon fighting. 

Great Weapon fighting is great (pun intended), although it is considerably stronger with a greatsword than any other weapon. With the 2d6 treated independently, it’s an average of a little over +2 to damage on each hit.

Quote from theboozecube9977 >>

Great Weapon fighting is great (pun intended), although it is considerably stronger with a greatsword than any other weapon. With the 2d6 treated independently, it’s an average of a little over +2 to damage on each hit.

 The average overall increase in dpr from GWF is around 1.33 with a greatsword, .83 with a D12 weapon and .8 with a D10 weapon.  You can find the formulas in a number of places for the math on this with a quick Google search.  This is not to say that GWF is a bad fighting style either.  I think rolling a 1 with a heavy hitting 2h weapon just FEELS bad!  Just not having to see a 1 sitting there with a hit from your great axe (unless it rolled a 1 again...then just bad luck) feels a whole lot better.  But the gameplay effect vs the psychology of it are two different things.  Dueling or maybe Two Weapon Fighting, are probably larger overall increases in dpr.  

Depends what you mean by favourite... In terms of design I like the fighting styles that enable a character to do something they couldn't before.. Such as thrown fighting, superior technique ect... I may not find them to be the most powerful, but I think all fighting styles should add interesting features rather than simply increasing numbers.

Quote from MamasToast >>

Depends what you mean by favourite... In terms of design I like the fighting styles that enable a character to do something they couldn't before.. Such as thrown fighting, superior technique ect... I may not find them to be the most powerful, but I think all fighting styles should add interesting features rather than simply increasing numbers.

 A fair argument.  I have chosen Defense, the two times I have had the option though.  Boring, but dependable!  lol :) 

Quote from Torvald99 >>

Quote from KanedaSyndrome >>

Currently trying out Blind Fighting on my level 3 EK.

He's like a master of the environment type character, think of that dude in Baki (anime) that fights in a selfmade sandstorm (character name Gaia).

The idea is that he leverages fog cloud and other obscuring effects to benefit from his blind fighting. This is then at the cost of other fighting styles etc. It's definitely not optimal, but I love how thematic it is, especially as he's a half-orc from a clan of wind magic using orcs, with a wind-based deity. To keep the theme of wind, his favorite weapon and fighting style is akin to a swirling dervish with a polearm.

 

 I'm kind of enamored with Blind Fighting, but think some of the other fighting styles will be useful more often.  But...I bet when you are in total darkness or facing that invisible creature, you are very pleased to have Blind Fighting style!  :) 

 Yeah same. It's really mostly for flavor. I can create that darkness/fog by my own magic, but it often makes life harder for my companions, such is the tradeoff.

Archery is a big favourite of mine; for any character built for range it's a must, as you can have +7 to hit from level 1 (+3 DEX, +2 proficiency, +2 Archery). I also like it because even if you're planning to be in melee a lot of the time, if you've got a ranged weapon then you can still have a solid bonus even with lower Dexterity, so when you're caught out at a distance (or unable to get to an enemy at all) you're still just as effective.

I'm also intrigued by the possibilities of the new Blind Fighting style; not so much on a pure martial, but for an Eldritch Knight or something else that can obscure an area, or if your character is paired with a caster in the party as longtime comrades in arms then the combo of blinding enemies and just wading in and ignoring the penalty is pretty tasty.

Quote from Haravikk >>

Archery is a big favourite of mine; for any character built for range it's a must, as you can have +7 to hit from level 1 (+3 DEX, +2 proficiency, +2 Archery). I also like it because even if you're planning to be in melee a lot of the time, if you've got a ranged weapon then you can still have a solid bonus even with lower Dexterity, so when you're caught out at a distance (or unable to get to an enemy at all) you're still just as effective.

I'm also intrigued by the possibilities of the new Blind Fighting style; not so much on a pure martial, but for an Eldritch Knight or something else that can obscure an area, or if your character is paired with a caster in the party as longtime comrades in arms then the combo of blinding enemies and just wading in and ignoring the penalty is pretty tasty.

Blind fighting is also a great choice for  Shadow Monk!

Protection makes it really hard for anyone to hit your allies.