D&D 5e Fighter Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
by Prince Phantom
The base Fighter is an extremely weak and boring class, meaning it depends on its subclass to provide all the flavor, power, and identity of the character. This puts a lot of pressure on these subclasses to deliver, and makes it really bad when one fails to do so.
Unlike full casters like Clerics and Druids where a fun and interesting build can be made with even the worst of the subclasses, I cannot say the same for Fighter. The bad subclasses are really bad, and the few good ones could honestly still use some work. That’s just the problem you get when you design a class whose only purpose is to stab things with a pointy stick.
10: Champion
Let it be known that the words I’m about to type cannot properly express my hatred for this subclass and the damage it has done to this game. Everything about the Champion is infuriating. The only thing you get from this subclass that isn’t a ribbon feature until level 18 is the ability to crit on a 19 as well as a 20. The amount of damage this adds is less than 1 per round, even after you get extra attack.
After that, we get jack of all trades for a bunch of skills that we likely already have proficiency in, a second fighting style that will likely just be +1 AC from Defense, and then we can crit on an 18 at level 15. That still isn’t good. The fact that this has one of the best capstones of all these subclasses is a freaking slap in the face.
The reason this is a detriment to the game is that this is the subclass most often recommended to new players. If I had a dollar for every person that listened to that recommendation and then promptly quit the game because they thought it was boring, I would be a very rich man. Never recommend this subclass to anyone, especially newcomers.
9: Purple Dragon Knight/Banneret
Unlike the Champion, Banneret actually adds tangible benefits to your character sheet. The problem is that those benefits are very minor, and build off of base Fighter features instead of introducing new concepts. This leaves this feeling like a very bland subclass, and since it is building off of features that are mostly once per short rest, you’ll frequently feel like you have no subclass at all. Just go back to forgetting that this even exists.
8: Cavalier
Cavalier advertises itself at face as a mounted subclass, and actually attempts to play as a defensive tank, while simultaneously failing on both those fronts. Unwavering Mark has so many strings attached to it that you could mistake it for a puppet, and it’s about as effective in combat as one. The worst part is that taking Sentinel would help alleviate some of these strings, but we get a feature that gives us some of what Sentinel gives at level 10, but that’s just too long to wait in actual play.
This means that the optimal play is to take Sentinel early, and then just feel bad about not getting a subclass feature at level 10. The higher level features are kinda nice, but come on so late that it’s hard to give any credit for them. Also, this subclass basically forces you into melee, and melee is objectively worse than ranged combat in 5e.
7: Arcane Archer
I’m not quite as down on Arcane Archer as most people are, but I can only justify placing it this high on this list. The obvious problem is that we only get two arcane shots, ever, per short rest. That means we have to be very picky about what special shots we choose and when to use them. The clear front runner for which arrow to use is Grasping Arrow. With proper teamwork, you can trigger the 2d6 slashing damage constantly and rack up a ton of damage on a single target. The upper level features don’t excite me nearly as much as Grasping Arrow, so I’d definitely look to multiclass out of this one after I got Extra Attack.
6: Samurai
Samurai is the first subclass that doesn’t have obvious, glaring problems that I can point to as to why it’s bad. It’s really just a situation where the competition is better. Fighting Spirit is nice to have when you want to nova, but three uses per day and it being all you get at 3rd level means that you’ll feel like you don’t have a subclass for most of the game.
This is the main problem, as I do actually quite like some of our upper level features. Proficiency in Wisdom saves is great, I normally have to take Resilient to do that and I think it’s almost always worth it to do so, so that’s basically a free feat. Tireless Spirit is meh, but Rapid Strike is probably an extra attack every turn with how easy it is to get advantage in this game. Shame it doesn’t come online until level 15.
5: Psi Warrior
You can think of the Psi Warrior as a Battle Master whose maneuvers have been chosen for you. That being said, these are some pretty nice maneuvers! We also get more dice to fuel our abilities than a Battle Master does, and the scaling is pretty great. We can bolster defense, add damage, or move willing creatures or objects around the battlefield.
All of these are pretty good options, and you’ll doubtless make the most of your many dice throughout the day. We keep getting either new options or upgrades to our existing options, such as adding a push to our damage option, one turn flight, half cover for our whole team, and eventually the actual Telekinesis spell at very high levels. I like everything that’s here, I just like the remaining subclasses that much more.
4: Battle Master
The most customizable of all the Fighters, you can really build the Battle Master however you want. THIS is the class/subclass I would recommend to new players if they wanted to play a martial character, giving them interesting stuff to do in combat while not overwhelming them with options.
I can’t go over every maneuver here, but there are plenty of great ones like Precision Attack, Menacing Attack, Pushing Attack, and plenty more. The only problem is that any features outside of maneuvers are pretty lame. Thankfully, the maneuvers are enough on their own to earn a high placement.
3: Rune Knight
Rune Knight might be my personal favorite of the options, as there is just a ton to love here. The runes themselves are very powerful and I’ve seen firsthand how a well placed Cloud Rune can flip a combat on its head. Growing to large size has a ton of advantages, with my favorite being the ease and availability of grappling, which I actually used in a build on this site! The higher level features are only okay, but we continue to get new and better runes as we level up. This is great as a straight class and great for multiclassing.
2: Eldritch Knight
Spells are just that strong. I know that the actual features of Eldritch Knight aren’t amazing, and I don’t care. Getting spellcasting, even 1/3 spellcasting, is incredibly strong. Adding spells like Find Familar, Shield, Absorb Elements, Silvery Barbs, Web, Vortex Warp, Misty Step, and anything else from the Wizard list you want is huge. Also, you aren’t truly restricted in what spell school you can use, as you can swap spells out every level and there is no restrictions on that. Just stay away from blast spells, your attacks will always deal more damage than those will.
1: Echo Knight
There is so much amazing stuff here that I don’t know where to start. How about unlimited teleportation, the ability to attack with melee while actually being at range, extra attacks each day, a decoy for your enemies to waste actions killing, and so much more. Played to its logical extreme, this is the only Fighter subclass that can compete with full spellcasters. Echo Knight may even be the best martial subclass in general.
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