D&D: The Five Best Fighter Subclasses
From maneuvers to magic spells and runes, Fighter subclasses have a lot to offer. Here are the five best fighter subclasses in 5E.
Fighters have come a long way over the years in D&D. Back in the days when they could swing swords, bend bars, and on occasion, lift gates, Fighters were simpler. But there was also a big disparity where, the higher level you got, the more Fighters were there to keep things away from the Wizard so the Wizard could hurl fireballs and meteor storms and rewrite reality itself.
Wizards overshadow fighters to the point that even a picture of a wizard comes first in an article about fighters
That argument echoes down the Editions. Fighers grow in power lineraly while Wizards grow quadratically. As the song goes, Wizards might suck at level one but they’ll rip at level 9. Fighters have made up the gap a little bit. They’re one of the most popular classes in 5th Edition, and they’re also very fun to play.
Pick the right subclass and you can do all kinds of interesting things. Just make sure you pick a good one, as that’s often the only thing giving you more to do on your turn besides rolling to hit something with your long sword.
What to pick? Well, for our money, these are the five best fighter subclasses in 5th Edition.
Battle Master
Battle Masters really do live up to their name. They’ve got access to martial maneuvers, making them versatile in combat. With the right moves you can knock foes down, push them around, “heal” your allies, even terrify your opponent. You’ll always have a use for them, even if you do eventually run out.
But you’ll never run out for long, because maneuvers come back on a short or long rest. You might hurt for things to do outside of using your Maneuvers, but that’s life as a Fighter in general. Battle Master supports both ranged and melee fighters, and is an all around solid pick.
Psi Warrior
Psi Warrior shares a lot of the same principles as Battle Master. On your turn you should have something interesting to do when you make an attack. And on occasion you should have fun non-attack things to do. Psi Warrior gives you a slightly more limited selection of abilities, but you gain incredible psychic powers that you can use a surprising amount before you have to lay down and take a nap.
With abilities that build on top of one another, you might get a better sense of growing your power as you level up a Psi Warrior. Plus they’re a lot of fun to play. Who doesn’t want to telekinetically hurl themselves at an opponent to strike them down with mind swords?
Eldritch Knight
The Eldritch Knight takes a weakness of the Fighter (no magic) and fixes it by adding magic. Eldritch Knights for that reason alone are one of the five best fighter subclasses in D&D. And that’s even considering that at higher levels, your War Magic feature competes with your natural Extra Attack as a Fighter making it often not worth it for you, a magic-using Fighter to use magic while you fight.
Even so, with a decent spell selection and abilities that make casting combat spells easier, Eldritch Knights go a long way.
Rune Knight
Now we get into the real good stuff. Rune Knight is the other new subclass introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. And it’s great. It gives the Battle Master and Eldritch Knight a run for their money. With magical runes that can empower your weapons and give you effects both passively and actively, you’re never short of options. And they’re all great.
Add to that the ability to make yourself large (and in charge) and it starts to get real wild. This takes the idea of a Fighter and really changes it up. They get a unique identity and abilities that are very strong mechanically.
Echo Knight
But it’s hard to beat the Echo Knight. This D&D Fighter subclass, introduced in Critical Role’s Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, is hands down one of the best subclasses you can pick up. It dramatically changes what you can do as a fighter with its ability to summon an echo. Echo Knights pull a magical echo of themselves from another timeline into reality. Then they go and do things for you where you want them. It opens the door to all sorts of magical shenanigans at 3rd level, and only gets better from there.
What are your picks for best D&D Fighter Subclass? Let us know in the comments!
