Banneret Fighter: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Inspiring fighter subclass that enhances allies to heroic moments.

You may have heard of the purple dragon knights, the specialised warriors of Cormyr. Banneret is the more generalised term for these types of fighters. They are inspiring warriors that are highly trained and can easily take command of even the most hapless peasants, transforming them into a functional militia. They are inspiring tacticians as well as warriors in their own right. They often travel around the realms, taking the fight to the enemies of their nation.

By calling them bannerets, it gives more flexibility to have your banneret as a fighter from outside of Cormyr, and even from beyond Faerun. However, if you do want to specifically play a purple dragon knights, there’s nothing stopping you from playing a banneret and having them be one of the purple dragon knights. Some players though, are frustrated that a true purple dragon knight never quite made it out of playtesting.

Bannerets kind of fulfill a niche not really filled by fighter subclasses so far. They’re mostly a buff specialist. They heal a bit, grant advantage and can help protect from failed saving throws too. They are almost an entirely selfless subclass. Everything about them is about making allies better, not yourself. If you’re the kind of player that wants to make their allies shine, then the banneret could be what you’re looking for. If you’re a bit of a glory-hog though, you might want to try a champion or some other subclass instead.

With a charisma focus and face skill proficiency, bannerets can make a reasonable enough party face. They’re certainly not on the same level as a bard, and probably also weaker in this regard than a paladin or warlock, but they’re good enough to fulfill this role if you need them to, especially if you build into this a bit.

The banneret is a refreshed subclass for D&D 5e (originally part of the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide for D&D 2014) and has been released as part of the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun supplement for D&D 2024. Below I’ve analysed and given advice on how you can optimise your own banneret fighter.

At a glance

Highly skilled martial warriors
Provide support and buffs to allies
Make a decent backup to a party face.

3/5 – Bannerets have some great features for teamwork and buffing allies, but they’re a once per encounter affair at most. This means you get one very good turn per encounter, and the rest of the time, you’re just an average fighter. The surge turn can be really potent, but a lack of more consistently usable features drags them down as a whole.

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

The original UA was for a purple dragon knight more specifically, which was quite a big change that allowed players to actually train up a purple dragon companion.

It didn’t work out as planned and the subclass was scrapped, reverting back to adapting the original purple dragon knights as more of a generic banneret which we saw in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. It has the following changes:

Knightly envoy: Was royal envoy. This moves from level 7 to level 3. You no longer get the equivalent of expertise in this skill, but you do get comprehend languages and a changeable language known.
Rallying cry now called group recovery: the healing has increased slightly (by D4) but the emanation has shrunk to 30ft. This does expand at level 18, but I’d say this is weaker than it was overall.
Team tactics improves group recovery: This is a new feature at level 7 that enhances group recovery, granting advantage on d20 tests for a round.
Rallying surge works on more allies than inspiring surge: The emanation has less range, but you can affect multiple allies. Allies can also choose to move instead of attack.
Shared resilience is more flexible: But it also only affects your ally and not yourself anymore. This is the new name for bulwark.
Inspiring commander is a new level 18 feature: It extends your emanations to 60ft rather than allowing them to affect another ally (as they can already do this). You also get immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions.

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Banneret features

Knightly envoy (Lv3) – 2/5

Mostly just a ribbon feature. Cast comprehend languages, learn a new language that can be changed each day and a face skills proficiency are all fine.

The idea is that the purple dragon knights should be able to fulfill the role of party face, at least partially. You’ll need a decent charisma for this and I’d prioritise investing in persuasion. I’d probably try and invest in more face skills if your banneret really will be the party face, perhaps through your background or the skilled feat.

Group recovery (Lv3) – 3/5

Second wind is already pretty decent. You now get group healing on a bonus action which is good. 1d4 + fighter level scales reasonably well too.

This will recover unconscious allies that have been reduced to 0HP and keep your other allies in the fight for longer. You’ll only get one use per encounter at most though. I’d just make sure you buff your charisma where you can so you can heal enough allies with this. You may only be healing your frontline so 14-16 may maximise its potential anyway, but that depends on the size of your party, and its composition.

To put this into perspective, it’s most like mass healing word (a level 3 spell). Mass healing word affects 6 creatures within 60ft and requires a bonus action. At level 5, this will average about 9HP healed per character. Group recovery will heal about 7.5 on average. But you’ll get more uses per adventuring day (so long as you get short rests). It also increases beyond this healing at higher levels. It scales slightly slower than mass healing word by spell level as they kick in for a cleric (2 Vs 2.5) but casting at higher levels increases the spell slot cost for a cleric. Because of its more repeatable nature and the fact it quickly outperforms an equivalent level 3 spell (with less range), I’d say it’s a slightly better option.

Team tactics (Lv7) – 4/5

This is quite a lot of advantage! This is for all d20 tests for a round so it’s every attack, saving throw and ability check. Those with multiple attacks will get a fair bit out of this, including spellcasters casting things like eldritch blast or scorching ray with multiple beams.

It’s worth noting that it’s only the allies affected by your group recovery that benefit here, not you, so it’s a very unselfish feature. The more allies you can affect with this, the better too. More charisma and more allies in range is the way to go here and you may want to coordinate with allies to be within range when this activated.

Rallying surge (Lv10) – 3/5

When you use action surge, allies can now use a reaction to either make an attack or move half their movement without invoking opportunity attacks. Both are good options and being able manoeuvre away from enemies or get a free pot shot in there is great! Rogues can benefit from this a lot as it can give the chance for another sneak attack as this occurs outside of their turn (sneak attack is a once per turn feature, not once per round).

Until level 17, you only have one use of action surge, and this recovers on a short rest, so at best, you have one of these per encounter to use.

Shared resilience (Lv15) – 2/5

You basically let someone else use indomitable. This is almost like legendary resistance (especially by this level with +15 or more to the saving throw). Sadly, there’s no extra benefit beyond being able to share this in the moments where it’s most needed which is decent, but if characters are targeted equally by saving throws, of no extra value, you simply pass a benefit you already had, on to someone else

Inspiring commander (Lv18) – 4/5

The emanations for group recovery and rallying surge is twice the size now and should mean it’s easy to encompass your whole party. You may want to up your charisma a little more in time for this kicking in if the modifier won’t already be enough for your whole party.

Charmed and frightened are 2 of the most common conditions. This makes immunity to both quite handy.

How good is the banneret subclass?

As a teamworking fighter subclass, it’s pretty decent. It’s very kind on your action economy, mostly merging extra effects into features you’ll already use as a fighter like action surge and second wind.

As a general rule, the range on features has been reduced, but the number of affected allies has increased. There’s also more and better effects occurring than for the old banneret. It’s a bit more streamlined, a bit more useful, and will work best in larger parties, especially if you go for a high charisma build. Bannerets are the kinds of fighters allies will want in their party.

However, the big thing to be aware of is that bannerets are a surge subclass. They’ll likely have one very impactful round per encounter and then fade into a standard fighter for the rest of the encounter (and that’s a assuming you had a short rest between encounters). These are reasonably big impacts, but one great turn, then multiple mediocre turns really brings down their effectiveness and I maybe wish there was a bit more about their features that was consistently useful.

A lot of chatter has been around people’s disappointment that they didn’t get a true purple dragon knight. I can understand the disappointment. At the same time, the banneret does fulfill a teamworking niche that other fighters don’t occupy. If that’s what you want, and you’re happy to be a bit of a surge subclass, then the banneret is OK, even if it’s not a remarkable subclass.

3/5

Building a banneret

Bannerets remain fighters and primarily, frontline warriors (though ranged builds are certainly viable). But, they also rely on charisma, both for their features, and as an option for face skills.

Below, I’ve gone through how you can build a well-optimised banneret.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Strength: To make the most of your melee attacks, strength is your best option, though a dexterity build is viable, especially if you want to play a ranged warrior. However, a ranged fighter is a luxury for most parties and bannerets will work best enhancing those in the thick of combat, so I’d lean towards a melee build.
Constitution: You’ll need the resilience from this as a frontline warrior.
Dexterity: With the need to invest in charisma, I’d focus purely on strength or dexterity, but not both. Dexterity will give you finesse and ranged weapon capabilities, but strength attacks will hit harder, so I’d recommend strength over dexterity, but a Dex build can work.
Charisma: The higher this is, the more allies you can enhance and the better you’ll be at face skills. Dealing damage is most important, but this comes just behind that alongside the resilience of constitution.

Options to avoid

Intelligence: You can dump this.
Wisdom: Only useful for skills and saving throws, but you don’t have the space for this.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	15	15
Dexterity	10	10
Constitution	14	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	15	14

Skills

Recommended options

Athletics/acrobatics: If you’ve invested in strength, go with athletics, if you’ve gone for a dexterity build, go for acrobatics.
Insight: A decent enough skill for social situations that could compensate for a relatively low intelligence.
Intimidation: You have the charisma to make this work, and the muscle to justify it.
Persuasion: The best face skill available to you.

Species/race

There are a couple of things to consider when choosing a species for a banneret:

Resilience: Fighters often take a beating so any resilience traits are going to help you out.
Innate spellcasting: You can’t repeat cast spells but should have a decent charisma. Still, it likely isn’t your forte so probably not a strong choice for a banneret.
Damage dealing: You’re primarily there to deal a lot of damage to your targets making it handy to find more ways to deal damage.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. For celestial revelation, necrotic shroud can work well with your higher charisma. But inner radiance and temporary flight are both useful. A bit of healing is a decent emergency option too.
Dragonborn (2024): Dragon’s breath gives you some AoE damage not normally available to fighters and only replaces a single attack instead of using your whole action making it a very strong option. Temporary flight lets you get to hard to reach enemies. Plus there’s a resistance for better durability.
Dwarf (2024): An extra hit point per level is great for a frontline warrior. And for even more resilience, you have resistance against poison and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
Goliath (2024): Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a banneret, the durability of the stone giants, knocking enemies prone with hill giant and extra damage from fire giants are all great options.
Orc (2024): A couple of great endurance features here with temporary hit points and relentless endurance to save you when knocked to 0HP. Great for a frontline melee warrior.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a banneret, you’ll want a background that increases strength/dexterity with constitution or charisma as secondary options. Some face skills or even the skilled origin feat can help you beef out your face skills.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One kind of musical instrument
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Flaming fist mercenary (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Smith’s tools
Lord’s alliance vassal (HoF)	Strength, intelligence, charisma	Lord’s alliance agent	Insight, persuasion	Calligrapher’s supplies
Noble	Strength, intelligence, charisma	Skilled	History, persuasion	One kind of gaming set
Purple dragon squire (HoF)	Strength, wisdom, charisma	Purple dragon rook	Animal handling, insight	Navigator’s tools
Rashemi wanderer (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Cartographer’s tools
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set
Zhentarim mercenary (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Zhentarim ruffian	Intimidation, perception	Forgery kit

Lord’s alliance vassal has a great combination of traits for a banneret, including some great face skills. Noble is a similarly good option and has skilled allowing you to really lean heavily into face skills. There are lots of good options for a banneret when it comes to your background though.

Feats

I’d suggest the following feats for a banneret:

Origin feats

Alert – You can either ensure you’re almost always one of the first to take a turn, or pass on the benefits in truly selfless banneret style.
Lord’s alliance agent (HoF) – Work as a team with other melee warriors to gain advantage and grant heroic inspiration.
Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial.
Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration.
Purple dragon rook (HoF) – Give heroic inspiration to your party on one encounter per day, plus a very banneret skill proficiency for you. It’s also very thematically appropriate.
Tough – You’ll likely be on the front lines so some extra resilience is very useful!
Zhentarim ruffian (HoF) – Advantage on initiative rolls is pretty good. Make sure someone in the group has musician or a similar feat to make sure you have a regular supply of heroic inspiration. Your opportunity attacks hurt a little more too. Thematically, it’s awkward though.

General feats

Durable – Better death saving throws plus bonus action heals are great for a subclass that won’t always have something to do with their bonus action and will need regular healing.
Grappler – A great option if you intend to do a lot of grappling.
Great weapon master – Extra damage each attack and an extra attack when you land a critical, which fighters should be better at because of their high numbers of attacks.
Heavy armor master – Decent extra durability if you’re going to be wearing heavy armor. Also depends on what you expect to be facing, but the damage types are common enough to be consistently useful.
Mage slayer – Best against mages, but having what is practically legendary resistance is also great.
Polearm master – Great for getting in extra attacks with polearms.
Purple dragon commandant (HoF) – Bonus action temporary hit points is pretty good, especially as your bonus action won’t be used a lot. Advantage on attack rolls is really good too, even if it is just while bloodied.
Resilient – Makes you a bit tougher which is handy.
Sentinel – Great for landing opportunity attacks more often and doing more with those attacks.
Shield master – Great for enhancing shield-wielding fighters.

Weapons

The weapons you choose will depend largely on how you want to fight and what weapon mastery properties you want to be using:

Pure damage: Go for two-handed weapons like a greatsword, greataxe, glaive, halberd or maul. These weapons will do the most damage per hit.
Sword and shield: If you want to go heavier on defense with a shield, you’ll need a one handed weapon like a longsword, battleaxe, morningstar or warhammer.
Two weapon fighting: If you want to fight with two weapons for the extra offhand attack, you’ll need to use light weapons. Handaxes and scimitars are best for this. This will occupy your bonus action a decent bit, especially if you go for the dual wielder feat combined with the nick weapon mastery property, but fighters don’t make heavy use of their bonus action anyway. Nick means you’ll still get one extra attack even when you do need your bonus action for something else.
Ranged: Tridents and javelins can be thrown allowing you to make ranged attacks with your strength. If you’re a dexterity build, a longbow is your best option (because it doesn’t have the reload property). However, each of these options is inferior to what you can accomplish with melee attacks so I’d stick to ranged attacks when you can’t get into melee.

A big part of your decision-making around weapons should come down to the weapon mastery properties you want to use. This mainly depends on the tactics you want to employ, but you can check out my weapon mastery guide to work out how best to utilise these properties.

Armor

This will depend on how much you can invest in dexterity. If playing a dexterity build, then light armor will work well, with studded leather your best option. I’d generally recommend playing a melee build for a banneret making a strength build a better option.

If you’re a strength build, take heavy armor (plate mail is best if you can afford it) unless you decide to invest 14 in dexterity, in which case, you can go for medium armor (half plate being your best option). I think investing in both strength and dexterity enough is going to be a challenge for a banneret though, so I think a medium armor build is unlikely to be optimal.

If you want some extra protection, a shield is a good choice but it will diminish your damage output. Surviving longer is often a great tactic for doing more damage in the long run, but if you want to strike harder and take down enemies quicker, you may want to forego the shield.