Best Feats for Fighter 5e
by Prince Phantom
With more ability score improvements than any other class by a country mile, the Fighter is quite privileged when it comes to feats. Fighters also normally only need to invest into Strength/Dexterity and Constitution, so they can definitely afford to take feats with these extra selections.
The downside to this, however, is that the design of Fighters demands that they take good feats to make up for the fact that they get all of like 3 class features. This makes early feat selection very crucial, but allows for more personal choice in selection at higher levels. The best feats for us will be the typical martial feats and things that give us something to do out of combat, which is something that the Fighter (and martials in general) struggle with mightily.
Best Feats for Fighter 5e
Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter/Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master (ASAP): If you want to deal good damage in 5e with a weapon, you take the appropriate selection of these feats. Two are for ranged and the other two are for melee Fighters. Both options provide very similar levels of damage, with ranged slightly winning thanks to the Archery Fighting Style. Ranged builds also keep you away from danger, so going ranged is generally the more optimal option. Fighters benefit from these feats especially once they gain a 3rd attack.
Magic Initiate (Lv 6): Find Familiar and a couple of utility cantrips makes up for a ton of the class’ shortcomings in the exploration and general out of combat phases of the game. I recommend cantrips like Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, and maybe even Booming Blade depending on your build.
Sentinel (Lv 6): If you want to invest even further into combat, fight exclusively in melee, and don’t mind being the tank even though you get no actual tanking features, this isn’t a bad option for that. Polearm Master + Sentinel is a famous combo that isn’t nearly as busted as everyone says it is, but it’s still nice to have for the times it will come up.
Heavy Armor Master (Lv 6): If you fancy a more defensive option and happen to be walking around in a tin can, this is a pretty unique option that is best at early levels but is still nice to have later on. You might even consider taking this at 1st level if you don’t care as much about your damage output and would rather just be a bastion for your party to stand behind. Heck, might as well take a level or two in Barbarian at this point. Go wild, live a little.
Fey Touched/Shadow Touched (Lv 6): Fey is obviously the most optimal choice here, as Misty Step is a generally more useful spell than Invisibility and the choices for Fey’s first level spell are much better. Silvery Barbs, Bless, Gift of Alacrity and many other spells are wonderful additions that any Fighter would love to have. Shadow Touched does have its place on some Dexterity-based builds that seek to have a high stealth score or just want to play a more sneaky character in general. Fey will probably be best for your build though, just based on probability.
Resilient (Lv 8): We really want this for Wisdom saves. I’d actually recommend that most Fighters make Wisdom their tertiary ability score, after their attacking stat and Constitution. This is because Wisdoms saves are both common and horribly debilitating. Hopefully you can manage at least a 13 in Wisdom at character creation, so this rounds you up to 14 and makes your saves go from a +1 to a +5, growing even higher as you progress in levels. This is a pretty big mathematical increase, and is flat out necessary to actually have a chance of saving against effects in the higher tiers of play.
Ritual Caster (Lv 10): If you did what I recommended and put a little effort into your Wisdom (or are playing a Psi Warrior or Eldritch Knight) you should have no problem qualifying for this and gaining access to almost every ritual spell in the game immediately. This feat is like buying the biggest tool set at the store; you can just do so much more stuff now. Ride a Phantom Steed and kite the whole battlefield while firing off shots at range. Set up your whole party with a Telepathic Bond and finally justify all that metagaming table talk. Summon Unseen Servants and Familiars and create your own little squadron of doom. So many possibilities that all go towards making your Fighter a more interesting and relevant character. You might even just take this over Magic Initiate if you feel like you don’t need the cantrips.
Lucky (Lv 10): It doesn’t matter how high that plate armor makes your AC when the dragon lands a crit. Lucky helps us with this, as behind that high AC we really don’t have a ton to make us more durable. This also combines with Indomitable to let us reroll saves basically as much as we want, which really helps as saving throws are generally a big weakness for us.
Skill Expert (Lv 10): If you would like to put a little focus on grappling and are a Strength-based build, taking this for expertise in Athletics really helps us succeed our grapple checks at these higher levels where monsters might actually be stronger than our 20 Strength. This of course also helps with shoving, which is an option that I feel players need to remember more. Shoving won’t be optimal for every encounter, but occasionally the environment will provide a great opportunity for murder. More likely, our spellcaster friends will set up an area of effect that we can shove or even grapple and drag our foes into. People need to grapple and drag more often too. Just use teamwork more often in general.
Alert (Lv 12): Denying a dangerous enemy their life before they even get to take a turn is a very special feeling of euphoria that I highly recommend and is much easier to do with this feat. Pick something to die, throw all your attacks plus an Action Surge and that threat probably doesn’t exist anymore. The other benefits are cool too I guess.
Telepathic (Lv 16): They’ll never expect the guy decked head to toe in armor to read their mind. I love this strictly because I love Detect Thoughts and I love the concept of giving a character abilities they definitely don’t look like they should have. Ritual Caster also falls under this love, but that feat is actually useful in a bunch of scenarios.
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