Fighter is one of the 12 classes you can choose from in 2024’s revised rules for Dungeons & Dragons. Fighters are primarily melee-focused characters, and their primary Ability is Strength.
Before we get started, a quick disclaimer: There’s no “best” anything in D&D. Classes tend to be well-balanced when it comes to damage output. More importantly, though, D&D is a roleplaying game as well as a combat game, so there’s more to it than stabbing monsters. And that diversity of situations — from picking locks to punting kobolds to seducing dragons — means “best” is entirely subjective.
Our Player’s Handbook (2024) D&D Fighter guide will walk you through the class and talk about some of the changes from D&D 5e.
Is Fighter the best class for you in D&D?
It’s admittedly a little reductive to say, “Well, do you like punching?” but Fighters are, well, fighters. Playing a fighter means you’re going to be focused on combat first. You’ll probably also be the party’s tank, since you’ll have the highest HP.
This doesn’t mean you’ll be relegated to just a meathead role, though. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) let your martial prowess define your character.
Inspiration for your Fighter
Fighters aren’t mindless meat-towers — leave that to the smelly Barbarians. They are (or can be) tacticians and nuanced damage-dealers. For inspiration, look to characters like:
- Stalwart leaders and brave defenders like the non-Hobbit members of The Fellowship. Yes, we know Aragorn is a “ranger,” but Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and poor Boromir (minus Gandalf, obviously) can be recreated as Fighters pretty reliably.
- Team captains like Cyclops from the X-Men. Sure, you’re not going to get laser eyes, but Fighters make good leaders who can also deal out damage on their own.
- Tactical tough guys like Jack Reacher. Speaking of meat-towers, why not everyone’s dad’s favorite gigantic-yet-still-huggable man? Sure, he’s huge, but he’s also a tactician. But mostly he’s huge.
- “The Muscle” characters like Chewbacca. In a series full of lovable space rogues and laser sword-wielding wizards, Chewy is the bog-standard fighter and is still the heart of the series.
What’s new for Fighters in One D&D?
No matter what Class you end up picking, One D&D changes the way characters are created. Specifically, the Background you choose now comes with an Ability Score improvement (one point each in three Abilities, or two points in one Ability and one point in another). In addition, every character gets an Origin Feat. We’ll deal with both of those changes below.
One D&D’s Fighters get the Weapon Mastery class feature that adds an extra ability to your weapon attacks. Fighters get to choose three weapons and use that weapon’s Mastery Property. Weapon Mastery adds extra features to your attacks — like Cleave (that gives you a second attack on a nearby creature) or Slow (that, well, slows a creature).
Also, Fighting Style has moved to Feats — specifically the Fighting Style subset of Feats. We’ll break those down below, too.
Fighter class features overview
- Primary Abilities: Strength or Dexterity (and, we’d argue, Constitution)
- Hit Point Die: d10 per level
- Saving Throw Proficiencies: Strength and Constitution
- Skill Proficiencies: 2 of: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Persuasion, Perception, Survival
- Weapon Proficiencies: Simple, Martial
- Armor Training: Light, Medium, Heavy, Shields
Before you decide on your skill proficiencies, make sure you select your Background first. Backgrounds give you proficiency in two skills (and only two), so you want to make sure you don’t double up your selections. Farmer, for example, gives you proficiency in Animal Handling and Nature, effectively taking Animal Handling out of your list of Class-granted skill proficiencies to choose from.
Fighting Style
Choosing your Fighting Style (feat), like the name suggests, modifies your character’s style of fighting. This is how you’ll make your Fighter a little better at their particular brand of violence.
| Feat | Description |
|---|---|
| Archery | You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with Ranged weapons. |
| Blind Fighting | You have Blindsight with a range of 10 feet. |
| Defense | While you’re wearing Light, Medium, or Heavy armor, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class. |
| Dueling | When you’re holding a Melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. |
| Great Weapon Fighting | When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3. The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile property to gain this benefit. |
| Interception | When a creature you can see hits another creature within 5 feet of you with an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to reduce the damage dealt to the target by 1d10 plus your Proficiency Bonus. You must be holding a Shield or a Simple or Martial weapon to use this Reaction. |
| Protection | When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can take a Reaction to interpose your Shield if you’re holding one. You impose Disadvantage on the triggering attack roll and all other attack rolls against the target until the start of your next turn if you remain within 5 feet of the target. |
| Thrown Weapon Fighting | When you hit with a ranged attack roll using a weapon that has the Thrown property, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. |
| Two-Weapon Fighting | When you make an extra attack as a result of using a weapon that has the Light property, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of that attack if you aren’t already adding it to the damage. |
| Unarmed Fighting | When you hit with your Unarmed Strike and deal damage, you can deal Bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 plus your Strength modifier instead of the normal damage of an Unarmed Strike. If you aren’t holding any weapons or a Shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 Bludgeoning damage to one creature Grappled by you. |
Second Wind
Fighters get two uses of the Second Wind feature that lets them regain 1d10 + their level HP. You regain one use with a Short Rest and both uses with a Long Rest.
Weapon Mastery
All weapons in One D&D now have a Mastery Property. These are listed in equipment tables and weapon descriptions. If your Class gives you the Weapon Mastery feature (more on this below) and you have proficiency with the weapon you’re using, you’ll get to use the Mastery Property of that weapon with each attack (once per turn). Fighters get to choose three weapons to use this feature with.
We have a guide to Weapon Mastery here.
How to build an effective Fighter
When assigning your stats, make your Fighter’s Strength the highest — for all the talking about not pidgeonholing yourself as the party’s muscle we’ve done, you’re still there to punch. After that, Dexterity is good for Initiative and your AC, but Constitution also is a solid choice for that HP bump.
Best Fighter Backgrounds and Origin Feats
Backgrounds in One D&D are a way to codify your character’s personal history into their stats. Backgrounds give you a bump to your stats, a couple of skills, tool proficiencies, and an Origin Feat.
For Fighters, let’s start with anything that lets you bump Strength — Artisan, Entertainer, Farmer, Guard, Noble, Sailor, or Soldier. Of those, Farmer and Sailor also give you the option to bump Constitution, which makes you marginally more tank-y.
The Farmer and Sailor Backgrounds get you the Tough and Tavern Brawler Origin Feats, respectively. Both of those are good for any Fighter.
Fighter subclasses
You don’t pick a Fighter subclass until Level 3, but you’ll want to think about where you’re heading pretty early on — especially in terms of Background and Origin Feat (above).
Battle Master
Battle Master Fighters are tacticians. This is a good role for the team leader-type Fighters or for the more tactically minded parties. Or, you know, for bossy players. You gain a pool of four Superiority Dice that you can use to perform Maneuvers that do things like command allies to attack on your turn, move allies around the battlefield, add a d8 to Charisma rolls, or give you and your allies Advantage on attacks.
Champion
Champion Fighters are kind of a Fighter+ subclass, which makes it a perfect supplement to spell-heavy groups, groups with more than one bard (we see you, D&D-themed alternative rock bands), or under-strength groups – meaning groups with four or fewer players at the table Your Critical Hit goes from just 20 to 19 and 20, effectively doubling your ability to land massive damage from 5% to 10% of the times you roll the dice. You gain Advantage on Initiative and Athletics rolls, meaning you’ll be the first to fight more often than not and you’ll make it across that 10-foot gap when your friends don’t. Plus you get a little extra movement when you land a crit, which should let you leap in front of the cleric while he’s healing the sorcerer… again.
Eldrich Knight
Eldrich Knight Fighters blend melee and casting. You get two Cantrips and two Level 1 spell slots for spells. You can also form a magical bond with your weapon that makes you impossible to disarm and lets you summon your weapon to your hand with a Bonus Action. These will get you closer to an Aragorn-style Fighter.
Psi Warrior
Psi Warrior Fighters are a lot like Eldrich Knights except their powers are psionic. You get a pool of four Psi Warrior Energy Dice that you can use to add Force damage to your attacks, cast a shield around yourself that reduces damage, or do some telekinesis. Think Jedi minus the space cop baggage (ACAB includes the Jedi and we’ll die on this hill).