I like fighters but most subclasses have no flavour or flavour you can get from another class. Are fighters worth it? Paladins can be just as tanky and have as much dps as fighters and more flavour. War clerics might not be as good but the flavour is beautiful. I personally dont like clerics or paladins because i don't like holy magic(no offense to fans of that) but i dont know if the fighter class is worth it.
Depends what you mean by flavour and what you want to do with your character?
Spells and martial? Eldritch Knight is a possibility, but is foremost a fighter and not super magical. I personally play an Eldritch Knight currently, but I do feel impotent from time to time, but other times I pull off something great. Personally I think that RP adds more flavour to a character rather than the character class and combat dynamics. I like the concept so much that I still prefer to play the EK with some spells and the 2 extra feats you get compared to other classes.
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: It depends on what you want.
The plain old ordinary Fighter has very nearly matchless flexibility in combat. Other classes may be able to come close, but they will need higher scores, feats, or magic items to do it. The subclasses each add their own flavor to the mix. A Battle Master has wonderful maneuvers they can use to spice things up. Precision Attack is my favorite. It can give a huge bonus to hit, and that is something difficult to acquire. How else can you give yourself a +8 to hit without spells or any other kind of magic? At first level?
I think of all the subclass abilities as magical to some degree. Even a Battle Master's maneuvers are not something just any critter off the street can do. They are a limited resource, a small pool of magical powers that you can use for a whole bunch of different effects. They study just as hard as any Wizard to get their talents. An Eldritch Knight is a straight up spell caster. If you have a mind to add some flavor, a Psi Warrior has some spicy tricks. If you fancy a dignified and graceful warrior, poised, and refined, take a Samurai. A Cavalier makes a great tank and can ride around the battlefield helping their allies without much fear of being knocked out of the saddle.
My own Fighter is a Champion. I wanted to keep things very simple since it was my first time in 5th Edition playing one. Human. Soldier background. I grabbed a Feat at first level. It has yet to come up in play, but it is part of a goal I am working towards. Someday my Fighter is going to be able to drop her shield, pull out her spare Longsword, and start slicing her way around like a whirlwind of edged metal. Two longswords, strength bonus to damage on both of them, three attacks per round without using her Reaction, and she only loses one point of armor class while doing it.
Personally, I love playing Fighters. The base class is light on lore/flavor, sure. But that means you have a lot of freedom when creating a backstory for them. And while the base Fighter abilities might not be flashy, they're all very useful. Between the d10 Hit Die, a bit of free healing every Short Rest, and a chance to re-roll that crucial saving throw once in a while, they're a pretty sturdy class. You can also build them to fight in multiple ways. Sword & Board, Two-Handed, Archer, Dual-Wielder, it's up to you. Some of the subclasses are light on flavor too, but again that just gives you more flexibility to adapt it to your character's story. I've played Champion, Battlemaster, Cavalier, and Rune Knight, and I've enjoyed them all(next Fighter, I'm thinking Psi Warrior).
There are absolutely other classes I enjoy playing too, don't get me wrong. But you can make a Fighter to suit just about any setting/party/campaign, and they always come in handy.
One of the best things in Tasha's is a section on battlemasters. It shows how just by changing fighting style, feats and maneuvers, the flavor possibilities of a fighter is near endless. And thats just battlemasters.
1. Is the fighter worth it from a mechanical perspective?
2. Is the fighter worth it from a roleplaying potential perspective?
To the first question I say absolutely. There are certainly some stinker subclasses (like real stinkers), but by and large the fighter toolkit is a very good one. Extra Attack (and extra, extra attack), Action Surge and a Fighting Style is a very solid base for anyone looking to build a martial character. A couple extra ASI's lets you customize your toolkit and have an easier time picking up powerful build-defining feats.
To the second question my answer is a resounding yes. But to me that is true of every class and subclass in the game because the limiting factor is only imagination. With fighters, I highly appreciate the "blank slate" nature many subclasses manage to maintain. I don't think it's a detriment at all, rather it leads to a lot of creative freedom. I create a lot of characters in my free time. More than I could ever play. Fighter is one of my favorites to play around with. Off the top of my head here are 5 very different fighter characters I've sketched out:
1. Sea Elf Samurai who is a Pirate and wields heavy and hand crossbows with deadly precision. Elegant Courtier is his rakish charm and Fighting Spirit is his (insane)love to jump into the fray no matter the odds.
2. Tiefling Samurai that wields a Kanabo (maul) and can cause utter panic on the battlefield with Tiefling Darkness + Blind Fighting while smashing people under the weight of his massive weapon. A "heavy" samurai with an Oni-themed motif . Leans into the temporary HP of Fighting Spirit to portray his relentless endurance in battle. He is a slave forced to become a soldier of destruction for an evil lord.
3. Variant Human Battle Master that is an old war hero general turned politician and ambassador who is a brilliant tactician. Skill Expert for expertise in Persuasion. Superior Technique and Martial Adept mean maximum superiority die with a focus on the non-attacking tactical and social maneuvers.
4. Variant Human Echo Knight that is an assassin. She managed to sever a part of her soul horcrux style and infuse her shadow with it. The living shadow is the genesis of her Echo abilities.
5. Variant Human Rune Knight that is a Loki themed trickster making heavy use of the Cloud Rune both for causing mischief in combat and excelling at deception and sleight of hand checks. I'm also currently working on another Rune Knight character where the Rune Magic is reskinned to be like the magic of Tattooed Monks and fights with his fists thanks to unarmed fighting style.
TLDR; Fighter is awesome and worth exploring from both a mechanical and conceptual standpoint. I highly recommend it.
One thing that I enjoy about fighters is how efficient they are in "coming online." This holds true no matter the race you pick, too.
Let's compare to paladin, for example. If you wanted to pick a non v human, the earliest you could have both GWM and STR at 20 is lvl 12. A fighter, thanks to their extra feat, can achieve the same at lvl 8. Or, if you don't mind an 18 in your main stat, instead, grab PAM for better sustain. Most campaigns do not even see lvl 12. Though, 11 is a common stopping point.
What this means is that fighters can live out their intended build reliably, and not only that, but have a decent chance at getting that special extra, extra attack. Fighters are just undisputed DPR kings at that point, with 45-56 damage a round just from modifiers alone with my respective examples, not counting dice or +x magic weapons bonus and without any resource expenditure.
Mechanically, they are worth it. Flavor wise, they're a blank canvas to put whatever your imagination allows you. Heck, what I mentioned can be done with all subclasses as I'm just using the bare chassis for reference.
Fighters are fun and good at what they do. Due to the sheer number of feats they get they are also incredibly versatile. This allows you to flavour your fighter pretty much any way you want.
And remember, you can always add flavour from other classes if you want to. A religious warrior can just as easily be a Samurai as a War Cleric.
I like fighters but most subclasses have no flavour or flavour you can get from another class. Are fighters worth it? Paladins can be just as tanky and have as much dps as fighters and more flavour. War clerics might not be as good but the flavour is beautiful. I personally dont like clerics or paladins because i don't like holy magic(no offense to fans of that) but i dont know if the fighter class is worth it.
If you feel you need spellcasting for flavor, one of the things you can do with your extra Fighter feats is burn one on Ritual Caster (you can use Wis 13+ to select Wizard and raid spellbooks for ritual spells, and most ritual spells don't care about your casting stat - or you can pick Cleric and hope you find scrolls). Fighters can afford it more easily than anyone else, and any party with no Wizard or Tomelock in it is immediately better with someone with the feat in it.
One of my favourite characters I've played is a Fighter. Mechanically, she's a Battlemaster with the Shield Expert feat. I originally wanted to use a spear with her, but ended up using a sword as Fighters don't get a simple weapon for starting equipment (Why though? That makes no sense). Quite plain, perhaps, but her abilities always felt powerful. Landing a critical hit with a Riposte manoeuvre for >30 damage (I think. If it was less, it still felt like a lot at the time.) when she had ~3 HP and taking that enemy down was amazing. When looking at Action Surge, I don't think I used it for attacking more than once, perhaps twice the entire campaign. I could, and maybe I should have, but there are so many things you can do with it. The extra healing from Second Wind really helped back her 12 Con. Also, every ability recharging on just a short rest makes Fighters really strong if you have multiple combat encounters per day. RP-wise, she's closer to a Paladin, and not by mistake. Originally, I planned to MC into a Paladin, though that's not going to happen anymore, as I found the Fighter class much better. A warrior who is devout to the god of battle in the campaign's settings. Despite that, being a Fighter rather than a Paladin makes sense in some ways. I can't really describe why RPing her is so much fun to me, as many things help to construct this feeling, but that's how it is.
If you're not excited about Fighters, though, then perhaps it is not the class for you. Or, perhaps, you'll try it another time in the future and find it great fun.
One other little mechanical detail that hasn't been given much attention is that Fighters are the most reliable martial class. They don't get any flashy nova features as part of their core package (although they do get some fun novas from their archetypes), but what they get is to attack... and attack... and attack... and attack some more. This looks kinda boring at first glance, but is remarkably powerful and flexible because it means they're more likely to actually land a hit than anyone else. Being able to smite for infinite damage or kill the universe with a sneak attack does nothing if you miss, after all. ;3
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I like fighters but most subclasses have no flavour or flavour you can get from another class. Are fighters worth it? Paladins can be just as tanky and have as much dps as fighters and more flavour. War clerics might not be as good but the flavour is beautiful. I personally dont like clerics or paladins because i don't like holy magic(no offense to fans of that) but i dont know if the fighter class is worth it.
Depends what you mean by flavour and what you want to do with your character?
Spells and martial? Eldritch Knight is a possibility, but is foremost a fighter and not super magical. I personally play an Eldritch Knight currently, but I do feel impotent from time to time, but other times I pull off something great. Personally I think that RP adds more flavour to a character rather than the character class and combat dynamics. I like the concept so much that I still prefer to play the EK with some spells and the 2 extra feats you get compared to other classes.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
I guess its pretty hard to explain what i mean but thanks for your opinion.
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: It depends on what you want.
The plain old ordinary Fighter has very nearly matchless flexibility in combat. Other classes may be able to come close, but they will need higher scores, feats, or magic items to do it. The subclasses each add their own flavor to the mix. A Battle Master has wonderful maneuvers they can use to spice things up. Precision Attack is my favorite. It can give a huge bonus to hit, and that is something difficult to acquire. How else can you give yourself a +8 to hit without spells or any other kind of magic? At first level?
I think of all the subclass abilities as magical to some degree. Even a Battle Master's maneuvers are not something just any critter off the street can do. They are a limited resource, a small pool of magical powers that you can use for a whole bunch of different effects. They study just as hard as any Wizard to get their talents. An Eldritch Knight is a straight up spell caster. If you have a mind to add some flavor, a Psi Warrior has some spicy tricks. If you fancy a dignified and graceful warrior, poised, and refined, take a Samurai. A Cavalier makes a great tank and can ride around the battlefield helping their allies without much fear of being knocked out of the saddle.
My own Fighter is a Champion. I wanted to keep things very simple since it was my first time in 5th Edition playing one. Human. Soldier background. I grabbed a Feat at first level. It has yet to come up in play, but it is part of a goal I am working towards. Someday my Fighter is going to be able to drop her shield, pull out her spare Longsword, and start slicing her way around like a whirlwind of edged metal. Two longswords, strength bonus to damage on both of them, three attacks per round without using her Reaction, and she only loses one point of armor class while doing it.
I think Fighters are worth it.
<Insert clever signature here>
Personally, I love playing Fighters. The base class is light on lore/flavor, sure. But that means you have a lot of freedom when creating a backstory for them. And while the base Fighter abilities might not be flashy, they're all very useful. Between the d10 Hit Die, a bit of free healing every Short Rest, and a chance to re-roll that crucial saving throw once in a while, they're a pretty sturdy class. You can also build them to fight in multiple ways. Sword & Board, Two-Handed, Archer, Dual-Wielder, it's up to you. Some of the subclasses are light on flavor too, but again that just gives you more flexibility to adapt it to your character's story. I've played Champion, Battlemaster, Cavalier, and Rune Knight, and I've enjoyed them all(next Fighter, I'm thinking Psi Warrior).
There are absolutely other classes I enjoy playing too, don't get me wrong. But you can make a Fighter to suit just about any setting/party/campaign, and they always come in handy.
One of the best things in Tasha's is a section on battlemasters. It shows how just by changing fighting style, feats and maneuvers, the flavor possibilities of a fighter is near endless. And thats just battlemasters.
This seems to be two questions:
1. Is the fighter worth it from a mechanical perspective?
2. Is the fighter worth it from a roleplaying potential perspective?
To the first question I say absolutely. There are certainly some stinker subclasses (like real stinkers), but by and large the fighter toolkit is a very good one. Extra Attack (and extra, extra attack), Action Surge and a Fighting Style is a very solid base for anyone looking to build a martial character. A couple extra ASI's lets you customize your toolkit and have an easier time picking up powerful build-defining feats.
To the second question my answer is a resounding yes. But to me that is true of every class and subclass in the game because the limiting factor is only imagination. With fighters, I highly appreciate the "blank slate" nature many subclasses manage to maintain. I don't think it's a detriment at all, rather it leads to a lot of creative freedom. I create a lot of characters in my free time. More than I could ever play. Fighter is one of my favorites to play around with. Off the top of my head here are 5 very different fighter characters I've sketched out:
1. Sea Elf Samurai who is a Pirate and wields heavy and hand crossbows with deadly precision. Elegant Courtier is his rakish charm and Fighting Spirit is his (insane)love to jump into the fray no matter the odds.
2. Tiefling Samurai that wields a Kanabo (maul) and can cause utter panic on the battlefield with Tiefling Darkness + Blind Fighting while smashing people under the weight of his massive weapon. A "heavy" samurai with an Oni-themed motif . Leans into the temporary HP of Fighting Spirit to portray his relentless endurance in battle. He is a slave forced to become a soldier of destruction for an evil lord.
3. Variant Human Battle Master that is an old war hero general turned politician and ambassador who is a brilliant tactician. Skill Expert for expertise in Persuasion. Superior Technique and Martial Adept mean maximum superiority die with a focus on the non-attacking tactical and social maneuvers.
4. Variant Human Echo Knight that is an assassin. She managed to sever a part of her soul horcrux style and infuse her shadow with it. The living shadow is the genesis of her Echo abilities.
5. Variant Human Rune Knight that is a Loki themed trickster making heavy use of the Cloud Rune both for causing mischief in combat and excelling at deception and sleight of hand checks. I'm also currently working on another Rune Knight character where the Rune Magic is reskinned to be like the magic of Tattooed Monks and fights with his fists thanks to unarmed fighting style.
TLDR; Fighter is awesome and worth exploring from both a mechanical and conceptual standpoint. I highly recommend it.
One thing that I enjoy about fighters is how efficient they are in "coming online." This holds true no matter the race you pick, too.
Let's compare to paladin, for example. If you wanted to pick a non v human, the earliest you could have both GWM and STR at 20 is lvl 12. A fighter, thanks to their extra feat, can achieve the same at lvl 8. Or, if you don't mind an 18 in your main stat, instead, grab PAM for better sustain. Most campaigns do not even see lvl 12. Though, 11 is a common stopping point.
What this means is that fighters can live out their intended build reliably, and not only that, but have a decent chance at getting that special extra, extra attack. Fighters are just undisputed DPR kings at that point, with 45-56 damage a round just from modifiers alone with my respective examples, not counting dice or +x magic weapons bonus and without any resource expenditure.
Mechanically, they are worth it. Flavor wise, they're a blank canvas to put whatever your imagination allows you. Heck, what I mentioned can be done with all subclasses as I'm just using the bare chassis for reference.
Fighters are fun and good at what they do. Due to the sheer number of feats they get they are also incredibly versatile. This allows you to flavour your fighter pretty much any way you want.
And remember, you can always add flavour from other classes if you want to. A religious warrior can just as easily be a Samurai as a War Cleric.
If you feel you need spellcasting for flavor, one of the things you can do with your extra Fighter feats is burn one on Ritual Caster (you can use Wis 13+ to select Wizard and raid spellbooks for ritual spells, and most ritual spells don't care about your casting stat - or you can pick Cleric and hope you find scrolls). Fighters can afford it more easily than anyone else, and any party with no Wizard or Tomelock in it is immediately better with someone with the feat in it.
One of my favourite characters I've played is a Fighter.
Mechanically, she's a Battlemaster with the Shield Expert feat. I originally wanted to use a spear with her, but ended up using a sword as Fighters don't get a simple weapon for starting equipment (Why though? That makes no sense). Quite plain, perhaps, but her abilities always felt powerful. Landing a critical hit with a Riposte manoeuvre for >30 damage (I think. If it was less, it still felt like a lot at the time.) when she had ~3 HP and taking that enemy down was amazing. When looking at Action Surge, I don't think I used it for attacking more than once, perhaps twice the entire campaign. I could, and maybe I should have, but there are so many things you can do with it. The extra healing from Second Wind really helped back her 12 Con. Also, every ability recharging on just a short rest makes Fighters really strong if you have multiple combat encounters per day.
RP-wise, she's closer to a Paladin, and not by mistake. Originally, I planned to MC into a Paladin, though that's not going to happen anymore, as I found the Fighter class much better. A warrior who is devout to the god of battle in the campaign's settings. Despite that, being a Fighter rather than a Paladin makes sense in some ways. I can't really describe why RPing her is so much fun to me, as many things help to construct this feeling, but that's how it is.
If you're not excited about Fighters, though, then perhaps it is not the class for you. Or, perhaps, you'll try it another time in the future and find it great fun.
Varielky
One other little mechanical detail that hasn't been given much attention is that Fighters are the most reliable martial class. They don't get any flashy nova features as part of their core package (although they do get some fun novas from their archetypes), but what they get is to attack... and attack... and attack... and attack some more. This looks kinda boring at first glance, but is remarkably powerful and flexible because it means they're more likely to actually land a hit than anyone else. Being able to smite for infinite damage or kill the universe with a sneak attack does nothing if you miss, after all. ;3