Grab a Longsword and Shield, heft a Greataxe, or notch an arrow in your Longbow—then step onto the battlefield as a paragon of martial prowess. As a Champion Fighter, you'll become a master of arms, wielding steel and strategy to Topple, Push, or Slow enemies with the brand-new Weapon Mastery feature!

Below, we'll walk you through bringing a Champion Fighter to life and teach you the basics of what's new to character creation and the class in the Player's Handbook!

• Your Story Begins: A Hero's Origin
• Level 1: Adventure Calls
• Level 2: Surging Forward
• Level 3: Championing a Cause

Your Story Begins: A Hero's Origin

Artist: KENNY VO

As a Fighter, you'll rule the battlefield with your arsenal of weapon techniques that will let you dole out the pain and control the flow of battle. But being the hero of your tale takes more than being a menace on the battlefield. You need an origin story!

Your Background, or Where You Came From

Every great hero gets their start somewhere. When you first make a character, you'll choose a background, which is a reflection of who you were before you picked up a sword and became an adventurer.

The new Farmer background oozes with story potential. How did you go from tending fields and raising cattle to dicing up monsters? That's for you to decide. But the Farmer reflects how the hardships you faced in the fields have molded you as an adventurer.

Your background comes with bonuses to ability scores, which reflect your distinct characteristics, like how strong or charismatic you are. You can choose to improve your Strength, Constitution, and/or Wisdom when you choose the Farmer background.

In the new Player's Handbook, every background now grants an Origin feat that further reflects how your past has shaped you as an adventurer. For the farmer who has toiled away in the fields from sunrise to sunset, you get the Tough feat. It increases your Hit Point maximum, which will serve you well when you need to fight your way out of a crowd of enemies or withstand a dragon's breath attack.

Choosing a Species

Your character's species is an integral part of who they are. Perhaps you're an aasimar who is a direct descendant of an angelic being or a goliath who bears striking resemblance to a Fire Giant. Or perhaps you're an orc who has long heard of your ancestors' heroic deeds and have thus always dreamt of living up to your family name.

Like the aasimar and goliath, the orc is new to the Player's Handbook. They are resilient and determined, often living lives as travellers and wanderers. Sounds perfect for a Fighter on the road. Their Adrenaline Rush trait lets you rush into the heat of battle, with some added resilience to boot. They can also withstand a blow that would fell most creatures and stay standing thanks to their Relentless Endurance trait.

How You Measure Up With Ability Scores

Our farmer Fighter draws on their physical strength and resilience to hold them steadfast in the face of their enemies, but they also know the value of patience and waiting for the right moment to strike.

To best reflect this, we'll pick a +1 to Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom from their background. Assigning the ability scores using the Standard Array, we'll focus on those three abilities first, then Dexterity, Intelligence, and finally Charisma, because our poor Fighter hasn't quite figured out his table manners.

Level 1: Adventure Calls

Artist: MIKE PAPE

Now that we know where our orc farmer comes from, it's time for them to take up arms as a level 1 Fighter! You'll find the class has some new and improved options in the Player's Handbook.

Core Fighter Traits

You gain traits that form the backbone of your Fighter from the Core Fighter Traits table. You also choose two skill proficiencies from the provided list that best reflect your character. As a hardy worker of the land, your Fighter may have proficiency in Athletics and Survival.

Fighting Style

How do you like to fight? Do you pick off enemies from afar, specialise in combat while clad in armor, or fight with a Longsword in one hand and a Shield in the other? The Fighting Style feature allows you to choose a special Fighting Style feat that reflects how your character performs in battle. Our orcish farmer-turned-warrior is a selfless defender of their allies, so we're going to pick up the Protection Fighting Style feat.

Second Wind

When others would falter, your Fighter battles on. With a breath drawn through grit and blood, you can restore Hit Points and Push beyond your limits.

Weapon Mastery (New!)

As a Fighter, you wield weapons with greater prowess than most other adventurers. Weapon Mastery, a new feature introduced in the Player's Handbook, reflects this by allowing you to unlock the full potential of your weapons.

You get to pick three weapons that you can use the mastery properties of. For our farmer Fighter, let's try out the Battleaxe (Topple), Longsword (Sap), and Warhammer (Push). While anyone can slash with a sword, our character knows how to Sap an enemy to gain a tactical Advantage in combat or Topple a foe with a well-placed blow.

Equipment

Before setting off on an epic adventure, you need to outfit your Fighter. Both your class and background give you some options to choose from, including the option to take gold and discuss with your Dungeon Master about what equipment you can buy before your first adventure.

Perhaps your Fighter had a great harvest before setting off on the road, so you choose to take the gold and buy what you need. The Fighter class gives you 155 GP to start with, and the Farmer background gives you 50 GP, for a total of 205 GP.

With that gold, you can buy all your equipment, including Chain Mail, a Longsword, a Battleaxe, a Warhammer, and a Shield. That comes to a total of 125 GP, leaving you with 80 GP in your pocket for other expenses such as food and board at a tavern.

And with that last little detail, we have a level 1 Fighter! A humble farmer who has taken up a sword and Shield to fight evil and right wrongs.

Level 2: Surging Forward

You've knocked around some Goblins, brought some bandits to justice, and got some other adventuring experience under your belt. Your Dungeon Master says you hit level 2, and your Fighter unlocks new tools to take on more difficult—and better-paying—quests!

This level introduces a brand-new use for your Second Wind resource, Tactical Mind, which allows you to push yourself towards success even when you're not locked in a battle to the death.

Action Surge

Draw from your reserves of power and rally yourself with Action Surge! When you use this class feature, you gain an additional action, allowing you to hurl yourself back into the fray. You can use this action for any number of things, such as launching another salvo of blows on an enemy that they knocked Prone with Topple or you can Dash across the battlefield to protect a wounded ally.

Tactical Mind (New!)

A good tactician can snatch victory from the jaws of potential defeat, and Tactical Mind lets you do just that. By expending a use of Second Wind, our Fighter can add a bonus 1d10 to a failed ability check, potentially reversing their fortunes through quick thinking and battlefield awareness.

The best part is, this resource isn't expended if they still fail the check, ensuring they can use Second Wind in combat, even if their attempt to persuade the bandits to back down wasn't necessarily a success.

Level 3: Championing a Cause

At level 3, your Fighter begins to realise their destiny as a master of martial combat and sets themselves on a path of battlefield supremacy.

Many roads lay ahead of a level 3 Fighter, from the tactical ingenuity of the Battle Master to the psionic power of the Psi Warrior. For your Fighter's destiny, let's assume you want to take the path of the defender, the protector, the Champion. This archetype is the embodiment of raw physical excellence, of instinct sharpened into perfection, and of an unyielding will to protect and prevail.

As a Champion, your Fighter gains the following traits:

Improved Critical

You've mastered the art of striking at just the right moment to deal devastating damage. With this deadly perception, your attacks now score Critical Hits on rolls of 19 or 20.

Remarkable Athlete

You are a blur on the battlefield, reacting and moving with lightning speed, diving headfirst into the fray with every fibre in your body. Your sharpened mind and body grant you Advantage on Initiative rolls and Strength (Athletics) checks, while your quick reactions let you move half your Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks after scoring a Critical Hit.

Onward to Adventure

With the Player's Handbook, you can put together flavorful fantasy Fighters to tell whatever story you can dream of. From orc farmers turned Champions, to elven soldiers that become Eldritch Knights, the multiverse is at your fingertips.

Pick from Weapon Masteries to unlock tactical options and Fighting Style feats to specialise in the perfect form of combat. All of this is possible and more with the Fighter class in the new Player's Handbook.

Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.