Ranking Every Fighting Style in D&D 5e
by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Fighters, rangers, and paladins all get a unique feature that empowers how they approach combat: a fighting style. These each offer a bump approaching combat in a specific fashion, but all aren’t created equally.
Here, I’ll be ranking every fighting style available to the three classes from 5th Edition based on how much your character sheet is likely to benefit from having that fighting style on it.
F Tier- Adds Nothing to Your Character Sheet
13. Unarmed Fighting
Classes: Fighter
Taking a fighting style should reward you for fighting in a specific fashion. Unarmed Fighting allows you to fight with your fists. It doesn’t reward you for doing so.
A character with Unarmed Fighting is still going to perform better in fights by using a longsword over their fists. That’s ludicrous to me. Getting a single d4 damage for successfully grappling is like getting tipped a nickel- you’re more offended at how little you’re getting than happy you got something.
D Tier- Improves Your Character Infrequently
12. Superior Technique
Classes: Fighter
Superior Technique looks like it has a lot of promise, but is hamstrung in its uses. You only ever are getting a single die per short rest from it- that’s not enough for your entire fighting style. At its best, this offers you a bonus action thrown weapon attack or a precision strike in a critical moment- that isn’t going to line up well against the fighting styles that otherwise would improve every attack you make.
The one exception I’d make for Superior Technique is on Battle Masters- an extra die and extra maneuver are both massive upgrades for the subclass. Each die functionally gets upgraded with each additional known maneuver. On a character with zero other maneuver or maneuver dice, I can’t justify this.
11. Blind Fighting
Classes: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
I want to like Blind Fighting, but its utility is just too narrow for any character to justify taking over most of its competition. Blindsight is only better than regular vision against invisible creatures or while you’re blinded by darkness or other conditions- if you can’t create those circumstances yourself, you’re likely not going to find enough benefit from 10 feet of blindsight.
Darkness is surprisingly hard to get on all three classes- Eldritch Knight fighters have the easiest time getting access to it, but they’re 3rd casters who get it fairly late and have to devote concentration to the effect with action setup.
There will be moments in most campaigns where it’ll come up and be beneficial, but most fighting styles ranked above D tier can function in every encounter, no questions asked.
10. Interception
Classes: Fighter, Paladin
Interception and Protection both fit in the same bucket- they’re defensive reactions that paint your character as a protector. The problem lies that in practice you’re not going to have an ally within 5 feet you can offer your shield to.
Of the two, I also rate interception a bit lower- when you use it it’ll be more likely to do something, but what it does is limited to a d10 + PB.
9. Protection
Classes: Fighter, Paladin
Protection earns a slightly higher spot compared to interception because it can force an attack that would hit for 30+ damage to deal zero instead. Both can reduce damage in the low tiers to zero, but in the mid to upper tiers, protection gets better and better.
The core problems still persist, though. I wouldn’t expect to use either reaction more than once or twice an adventure unless you’re working with highly coordinated parties or are using variant initiative systems.
C Tier: Have Regular Use, but Aren’t That Impressive
8. Blessed Warrior
Classes: Paladin
Blessed and Druidic Warrior give their respective class the option to learn a couple of cantrips from Cleric or Druid in place of getting a boon to their combat stats. It sounds appealing, but you’re giving up a lot for these bonus utility cantrips, namely boons to every attack roll you make.
The opportunity cost is higher for Blessed Warrior because I rate the Cleric cantrip list as a bit worse than the Druid one. Both get access to Guidance, the cantrip I rate highest on either list, but Cleric’s spell list is tiny, and most of the options are damage-based, and you’re a paladin. You’ve got a weapon with Divine Smite at the ready that you’ll eagerly use over Toll the Dead or Word of Radiance.
If I’m taking Blessed Warrior it is because I want a paladin who is performing a role closer to that of a cleric in a group lacking one- I’m taking Guidance and Thaumaturgy for the out-of-combat utility they’ll offer and relying on smites and attacks to be good enough in combat. It helps that Great Weapon Fighting isn’t particularly powerful, so builds leaning on mauls or greatswords won’t feel like they’re missing too much to pick this up instead.
7. Druidic Warrior
Classes: Ranger
The druid spell list is way longer than the cleric one, and even though it has a lot more interesting options on it like Gust, Mold Earth, and Thorn Whip, the cost remains high, specifically because most rangers really want Archery.
If you’re happy enough with Ranger’s core combat outside of fighting styles, and your party is in the market for more world exploration tools, picking up Guidance and a utility cantrip can be a decent route to explore.
6. Great Weapon Fighting
Classes: Fighter, Paladin
Topping off C-Tier is Great Weapon Fighting. It's the only weapon-specific fighting style to land below B tier because its reroll effect ends up being fairly minor compared to all of the other benefits others offer.
This option works better on weapons making more dice rolls, namely greatswords and mauls, as either result being a 1 or 2 offers an opportunity for rerolls. Mathematically, this isn’t upping your average damage that much.
This fighting style makes me feel awesome. Rolling a 1 on a die doesn’t feel great. Upgrading it to a 6 feels incredible, even if that moment is only happening a handful of times per encounter. Having attacks go from 3 damage total to 8+ feels impactful, especially in the lower tiers when those differences are larger percentages of creatures’ health totals.
The overall improvement this adds to the average sheet ends up being fairly minimal compared to its competition in other fighting styles, though, and while I’d recommend playing with it if you’re going for raw power, you’re probably better served with a different fighting style.
B Tier: Solid Improvements to Sheets Using Them
5. Defense
Classes: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
I hate Defense. +1 to a character's AC is offensively boring.
It is universally usable, though. Any character can slap Defense on their character and get tangible benefit out of it, as now 1 in 20 more attacks will miss. Stacked on top of plate armor and a shield aid in compounding high Armor Class into numbers many monsters can’t hit.
4. Thrown Weapon Fighting
Classes: Fighter, Ranger
Before Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, thrown weapons were terrible as a main plan of attack. They were at their best alongside a polearm or axe- you throw one while you’re out of melee range as you’d engage. Having to waste actions drawing multiples made extra attacking with them close to impossible to rely on- Thrown Weapon Fighting fixed that.
After, with this fighting style, you can actually play a character who wants to throw a full cutlery drawer at their foes as their primary method of engagement. +2 damage to each hit puts it close to Dueling in damage, and while their dice sizes are all lower, every single hit is a bit better with a bit of range. This fighting style pulled an archetype that was clunky and challenging to use to a spot where it feels pretty great to play.
3. Two-Weapon Fighting
Classes: Fighter, Ranger
I’m a sucker for the dual-wielder fantasy. Adding Dex or Str to your off-hand attack doubles its average damage output with just a +3, and gets better with your scaling attack modifier. That bump in the low tiers feels amazing- you’re getting two attacks every round in melee range, and each attack is doing great damage.
At 5th level, it gets a bit worse comparatively, and every attack you get after that will make it feel worse and worse. While the Dueling character or Thrown Weapon Fighting character are adding their fighting style to every attack they’re making, you’re only ever adding the bonus to one off-hand attack that requires your bonus action.
This option doesn’t scale outside of modifier improvements while the other on-attack bonus fighting styles scale with each attack you make with the given weapon. That being said, its early impact is massive, and given most games don’t reach that far into the upper tiers, I think you’ll feel just fine regularly adding +3, 4, or 5 to your off-hand attack every turn.
A Tier: Always Fantastic When Used
2. Dueling
Classes: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
I waffled around between A and B tiers for Dueling- I ultimately landed on A-tier because it fits well as the “default” fighting style for a decent chunk of characters. Melee-ranged characters using a shield will default to this or Defense, and I rate +2 damage on every attack way higher than +1 AC.
This is an option that scales incredibly well with multiple attacks- every extra one you make comes with +2 damage so long as you keep swinging that longsword or poking with a rapier. If you want the classic knight look, Dueling is an amazing boon for your sheet that make your hits feel quite a bit better.
1. Archery
Classes: Fighter, Ranger
Archery is the best fighting style in the game. +2 to hit is a massive improvement to overall damage over the course of a game, and compounds with already insanely powerful feats like Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert.
+2 to hit is worth a lot more than +2 to damage- two more results on your d20 are going to hit, and hitting takes you from doing no damage to a lot of damage. The difference between 0 and any damage is often the difference between a creature staying alive or dropping unconscious, the difference between a concentration spell persisting or going down.
There aren’t many reasons to favor melee combat in 5th Edition over ranged combat beyond the fantasy it provides. Archery is one of the many elements ranged combat has going for it, and easily makes the top of this ranking.
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