Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Maybe this is a silly question, but my friends say that a fighter is weak without a tactic. Is that true and when it is have you examples for tactics? (Level 2 Fighter)
Ummm. Run up next to the bad guy and hit it with your hitting stick of choice?🤷♂️
Unless you’re ranged. Then stay back from the bad guy and shoot it with your shooting tool of choice.
Fighters are not exactly subtle.
Maybe if you’re a battle master, you should consider your maneuvers, but 9/10 times it’s still going to come down to hitting the bad guys.
Don't forget position to block the baddies from reaching the more squishy members of the party. The only thing hard about playing a fighter, is staying alive given how much damage anyone entering melee ends up taking.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
What is the original poster's definition of a tactic?
To minimize your frontage but maximize the enemy frontage is a tactic. Always keep your shield pointed toward the weapon hand of the opponent is a tactic. Keep your feet mobile to shift position or the opposite keep feet planted to prevent from any going around you.
Thanks for your replies. I will choose the battlemaster and will try to be a Tank for the group. Also because we don't have a barbarian.
Fighters being tactical ????
I never saw a fighter acting like this....
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
The tactics they provide is a big meat shield for the back line casters. That’s the only tactic I have seen employed.
Since you asked..... There are many "tactics" that a fighter can use to great effectiveness. In 5.5 (officially called that now), fighters get weapon masteries. This is a special add-on when you use that weapon. Picking a weapon with the Topple weapon mastery can give you a chance to knock your opponent prone when you hit them. Vex gives you advantage on the next attack against that opponent, Sap gives your opponent disadvantage on their next attack, Slow can slow their speed by 10ft, Push can move them back 10ft, etc. You can any of these by 1st level. Another tactic is positioning. If you are the toughest character, you will have to stand in between the enemy and your squishier allies. You are the front line. As long as you keep the enemy from getting within melee range of your wizard, rogue, etc, you can determine where that line is. This could include using terrain, like walls, buildings, trees, to hinder the enemy. Doorways are a great choke point for fighters and other front-liners. Some feats that give you other tactics are Pole-arm master, Sentinel, etc.
Bonk.
But if that's too basic for you you could wait until you level up to lv 3 and subclass into Eldritch Knight.
That way you can bonk with Green Flame Blade.
JDub
Some basic (non-Fighter-specific) "tactics":
Bottle neck the bad guys in a door way. Use the Dodge action instead of attacking. It causes all attacks (ALL ATTACKS) against you to have disadvantage until your next turn. Ranged attacks from your allies can pass through your position (though giving the enemy half cover (+2 AC) in most cases) and if you need heals, your healer can come up and heal you without risking opportunity attacks, especially at level 2.
Use positioning to be the only target if possible, and use your dodge until the rest of your team has thinned out their ranks.
Right tactic, wrong execution. You don't stand in the doorway, make them stand in the doorway. Have the fighter block them from leaving the doorway. Now only one of their melee folk can enter the fight, while anywhere from 1-3 of yours can by attacking the fool that just stepped into the 'fatal funnel' otherwise known as a doorway (depending on the size of the room or hall on your side of the doorway, and whether the door is in a square or intersection of two squares if using a grid map).
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
If you have a doorway that looks like this
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Party X Monsters
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and you let the monsters take position X, you have given up the advantage of the doorway. Allies can move through the monster as if they were rough terrain. If, on the other hand, your fighter was in position X, dodging. No monsters could work through him and they all have disadvantage on attack rolls. Only when you are working in a dungeon where the doorway is 5 foot thick, does the funnel work.
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Y X
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In this case, yes, position at Y. In a normal doorway situation, position at X to protect the rest of the party.
Wow, that's just not even close to being accurate... Enemies can move thru their ally, but not your fighter nor the wall. Which means if the enemy is standing in the doorway, and your fighter is in melee (5 ft) with them, they can't move into the room/hallway/cave/whatever, and only one enemy gets within 5' of your fighter (the one in the doorway).
Assuming the walls are drawn on grid lines, it would look something like this (keep in mind typing doesn't line up the same):
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Z | |
Y X
Z | |
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Again, keep in mine that text doesn't like up quite right. Y is your fighter, Z are any other melee party members though they are not needed to keep X trapped from entering the room. Y can attack unhindered, Z can attack with X getting +2 to their AC from cover. That's 3 defenders able to attack X who can't get thru the door until Y moves, is moved, or X teleports past.
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Y X
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The second drawying is what happend if your fighter goes into the doorway. Now the X's have the better fighting position as 3 of them can hit Y, and Y is now stuck.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
The basic notion of maximizing the number of allies who can attack a single target while minimizing the number of enemies who can strike back is a tactic going all the way back to the phalanx.
However, it does come with a significant caveat: whether time is an ally.
In most situations, time is on the side of your opponents rather than the party. You're the one raiding the deepest darkest dungeon or pulling of a heist. They're the ones with an insurmountable force advantage that you're attempting to negate with speed and stealth.
This makes most purely defensive tactics of limited value in a D&D game. Long before we worry about the best configuration for killing enemies who funnel into your trap, we have to ask whether they'd bother in the first place. If I'm the goblin in the next room, I'm not charging to engage the party but taking up a defensive position of my own while beating the gong that summons the rest of the goblin horde to deal with the party.