D&D: A Deeper Dive On The New Fighter – Simple Isn’t Always Best
Fighters get a rework in the latest One D&D Playtest Packet, with new weapon options and more. But is it actually better?
Magic vs. Martials is an ongoing debate in the D&D community. It has been going all the way back to the beginning of D&D, when Wizards died if you looked at them hard enough. But if they managed to survive until the later levels, they could outstrip the Fighter.
Now, Wizards just outstrip the Fighter. And Fighters don’t even get to build a Castle at level 9 to attract men-at-arms to make up for it. Instead, Fighters are pretty much what they always have been: a tough, weapon-focused class that is good at using them.
Better than anyone else is the goal, but are Fighters really better at swinging swords or axes than, say, Barbarians? That’s a question that the new One D&D Fighter tries to answer. I don’t know that it succeeds.
One D&D’s New Fighter – Masters Of Weapons, But Not Dealing Damage With Them
In order to understand the One D&D Fighter, we should first look at where Fighters have gone in vanilla 5E. Fighters, in general, tended to be about using weapons differently; there was the Champion, Battle Master, and the Eldritch Knight (which was about using magic). Then we had Samurai and Arcane Archer, and pretty much ever since then, the best Fighters layer in magic powers, be it from Psionic Warriors or the space-bending powers of the Echo Knight.
But even so, 5E Fighters were at their best when making attacks. Now, the new One D&D Fighter hopes to find a niche. The D&D outlines the Fighter’s goal pretty clearly:
Fighters “share an unparalleled prowess with weapons and armor.” And the latest attempt at making that bit of fluff be actually true comes down to the new Weapon Mastery system. Fighters get access to Weapon Mastery at 1st level.
And right away, the feature evokes the glory days of 3.5E, when Fighters were the best with weapons because they got unique feats that let them do more damage. They also got more feats in general, and feats were, by and large, how Fighters distinguished themselves. Not so in 5E and in 2024’s version of 5E. Here instead, Weapon Mastery refers to being able to use specific weapon properties. And before you go thinking, “oh cool, it’s neat that Fighters can pick up any weapon and use its special property”, Fighters can use the Mastery property of up to three weapons. At certain levels, they can learn more, gaining up to five total weapons that they can use the properties of.
Add-On Weapon Mastery
Curious about Weapon Mastery? They’re little add-on abilities that make your basic attacks do more. You could potentially knock someone over, make two-weapon fighting actually viable maybe, or do damage even on a miss, for instance.
It’s a very neat idea. But I don’t know that Weapon Mastery is enough to give the Fighter a “distinct identity” as a weapon user of “unparalleled prowess.” Because you’re always going to be limited, but that’s fine because you’re probably just going to use one or two weapons at a time over the course of your character.
Fighters also get access to Persuasion on their list of class skills, so that they can actually interact with the world outside of the occasional Athletics check. Second Wind can be used twice per Long Rest, and eventually, you can use it up to four times per Long Rest, at 10th level.
At 7th level we see the Weapon Mastery progress. Fighters gain Weapon Expert, which lets you replace a weapon’s Mastery ability with another one. As long as it can. Can’t have you putting Great Axe powers on a Dagger, allowing you to make a Cleave attack with a Dagger that would be overpowered in a game where a character at the same level can Banish an enemy to another plane of existence. I mean, could you imagine?
Still, it’s an interesting idea. But it feels weird to delay it to 7th level, especially since Weapon Mastery abilities don’t really add much in the way of extra damage. This feels like something that could come earlier and would be better used more often.
Likewise, the 13th-level feature, Weapon Adept, lets you give a weapon two properties instead of one. Which sounds cool, but you can only use one property at a time. Can’t have you tripping someone and making a cleave attack in a game where your other party members are disintegrating enemies. That would be broken.
And ultimately, that sentiment echoes across the Fighter. There are a lot of exciting ideas to play around with, and then you start reading how Fighters are very limited in how they can actually play with the system. There are too many guide rails in place.
And other features like Indomitable, which lets you reroll a save, and is better now because you get a bonus on that save, are cool. But for 9th or 17th level class features, they just seem lackluster. It’s cool that you can heal yourself as a bonus action for 1d10 + Fighter level hit points more often now. But you get that, day one. Fighters aren’t as “front-loaded” anymore, but all the good stuff is still within easy reach.
But what they don’t get, is a way of doing more damage. Or keeping their damage competitive with other classes. Which, admittedly, isn’t WotC’s priority; they’ve said they don’t care about class balance.
But they do care about removing the optimal abilities so that people feel they can play the way they want to. Gone are the feats that let you take -5 to hit to gain +10 damage. Fighters don’t have the damage boosts they got in earlier editions, and without access to something similar, their role as “unparalleled” masters of weapons just rings a bit hollow.
Fighter Subclass – The Champion Is Actually Fun Now
The included subclass is the Champion. Which is the Fighter that focuses on having to do the least actual extra stuff, so you don’t have to pay too much attention to your roll. We give it a hard time, but this is actually a version of the Champion that feels kind of cool.
At 6th level, you can give yourself Advantage once per combat; at 10th level you crit on an 18-20 instead of the 19-20, which is way earlier than before. You get subclass features actually worth having.
If the whole Fighter felt like it had been painted with the same brush that shuffled the Champion’s class features around and made the levels actually worth paying attention to, then it might be in a much better place.
Fortunately, this is still a Playtest. And there’s plenty of opportunity to provide feedback.
But that’s just our opinion. What do you think of the new Fighter?
