In many cases, this is an element of character creation that mostly affects newer players looking to make their first hero, although it can still have adverse effects on veteran players that don’t want the “boring” class. This comes from the way that Fighters are often seen and described as being “guy/girl with sword” who does essentially the same thing across all of Dungeons & Dragons’ various combat encounters.
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Martial Archetypes Give Fighters a lot of Depth
While it can be easy to point at a Fighter’s lack of active features as they level up, much of the depth that can make one fighter different from another comes from their Martial Archetypes. These Archetypes are the Fighter’s subclasses in D&D 5E, which can range from straightforward Champions to magical Rune Knights. Depending on the Archetype chosen, different players can give themselves a range of options for how to behave during combat and where they fit in a party’s composition.
For players wanting to go with a simple, straightforward build, entirely physical archetypes like the Champion or Banneret, both of which have benefits, are easy to direct. However, not all non-magical subclasses are made entirely equally, as the Battle Master is given combat maneuvers and superiority die that allow them to change the course of battle with more than just hitting the enemy really hard. So, even without getting into the weeds with magical Fighters, there are levels of depth that come with the features of the subclasses that still focus on mastering weapons.
Beyond the more standard Fighters, there are also the subclasses like Rune Knights, Echo Knights, and Eldritch Knights, who have access to certain amounts of magic that can affect combat. Some players might be most drawn to Eldritch Knights when seeing what magical classes like D&D’s Wizards can do. That being said, the ability to summon what is essentially a second fighter with the Echo Knight isn’t something players should turn their nose up to.
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Draw From Martial Archetypes to Make the Base Fighter More Interesting
With everything that the Fighter class already has going for it through these Martial Archetypes, pulling features from some of these subclasses could make this style of D&D character more interesting to new and veteran players. Most notably would likely be the combat maneuvers that come from the Battle Master Archetype, as well as the superiority dice that define their use. Giving a minor amount of combat maneuvers to lower-level Fighters, with the ability to become a Battle Master for access to more, would greatly improve the base class.
Having this be one of the abilities that is front and center on a Fighter, giving them mastery of different types of weaponry and inflicting conditions on enemies, would also improve other Martial Archetypes. For instance, the Echo Knights mentioned before being given access to up to two combat maneuvers, with a separate set of superiority dice, could help Fighters incapacitate enemies and take advantage of those conditions in the same turn. Combining these features with D&D’s best weapons for Fighters could improve both the player’s experience with the class, as well as a DM’s ability to make formidable enemies.
Similar concepts could be pulled from other Archetypes like the Champion or Banarret, though for the sake of balance, Wizards of the Coast may want to be careful about which subclass features migrate into the base class. Even in the case of adding combat maneuvers to a Fighter’s general toolkit, this isn’t about making the class more powerful, but to let first-time Dungeons & Dragons players better understand what to expect without having to read through every Martial Archetype right away. This is because more than anything, what the Fighter needs is to be seen as more than just a character that wears heavy armor and hits enemies really hard a bunch of times.
Dungeons & Dragons 5E is available now.
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