Which fighter subclasses are best and what are they good at?
Combat specialists, fighters train in advanced techniques with weaponry, making them a highly capable, martial class. But each fighter specialises in different arts and capabilities for their combat. This specialism is exemplified by their subclass.
Some of the fighter subclasses have been refreshed specifically for D&D 2024. These subclasses are:
- Battle master – Students in the art of combat, battle masters enhance their attacks with special techniques.
- Champion – Relentless in the pursuit of victory and capable of incredible feats of strength.
- Eldritch knight – Warriors that combine spellcasting with martial prowess.
- Psi warrior – Imbued with telekinetic powers, these fighters combine weapon attacks with psionics.
But which of these subclasses is the best for your character? And which is the most powerful? My article is here to analyse all the fighter subclasses for D&D 2024 and answer these questions.
Battle master
What are they?
Fighters trained in the art and techniques of combat. They use maneuvers to enhance their attacks with special effects.
Key abilities
- Combat superiority (lv3) – Learn maneuvers that you can use to enhance your attacks. The power of these increases as you gain levels.
- Student of war (lv3) – Gain proficiency with a tool and a skill.
- Know your enemy (lv7) – Use a bonus action to know strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities of an enemy.
- Relentless (Lv15) – Once per turn roll a d8 for a maneuver instead of expending a superiority dice.
What are they good at?
Being tactical in combat and dealing extra damage.
How effective are they?
Battle masters possess a wide range of maneuvers giving you a maneuver for most situations. Not only do they enhance your damage output, but the effects can help tip the balance of combat. And it’s not all about extra damage either, there are plenty of defensive options as well as enemy debuffs.
Because superiority dice are replenished on a short or long rest, you should be able to use maneuvers on most of your attacks, if you’re able to make regular short rests.
So with a fairly regular supply of enhanced attacks, I think the battle master is a pretty good and flexible option for a fighter.
Score: 4/5
Champion
What are they?
Warriors that attain physical prowess beyond that even of other fighters. They seek victory at all costs, capable of absolutely devastating strikes and the will to endure ordinarily fatal blows.
Key abilities
- Improved critical (lv3) – Land a critical hit on a 19-20.
- Remarkable athlete (lv3) – You have advantage on initiative rolls and athletics checks. You also gain extra movement after scoring a critical hit.
- Additional fighting style (lv7) – Gain an additional fighting style.
- Heroic warrior (lv10) – Gain heroic inspiration at the start of your turn if you didn’t already have it.
- Superior critical (Lv15) – Land a critical hit on an 18-20.
- Survivor (Lv18) – You have advantage on death saving throws and treat an 18-20 as a 20 for death saving throws. You also regain a few hit points each turn when bloodied but have more than 1HP.
What are they good at?
Dealing high damage attacks more regularly, being more accurate, being quick to react and surviving longer than others.
How effective are they?
There are no complex maneuvers or spells to learn for a champion. They’re much more straight forward. Instead your benefits are much more around existing options like regular criticals or increased heroic inspiration. This makes them a great option for beginners.
But in terms of raw power, they’re pretty good too. The shift in criticals to 19-20 may seem small, but that’s the difference between landing criticals 5% of the time to 10% of the time; which is significant. This increases further at higher levels (15%) and when you add the rerolls from heroic inspiration into the mix, which you’ll likely often use on attack rolls, these chances increase even more.
Changing fighting styles likely isn’t that common, but in long ranged combat, you may find yourself switching to/from a ranged approach so this is the likely benefit allowing you to grab something like archery. But I guess it does also give you the flexibility to shift between more aggressive to more defensive combat styles if needed for instance.
Straightforward and effective, the champion is a really solid subclass for the fighter.
Score: 4/5
Eldritch knight
What are they?
The eldritch knight supplements spellcasting with martial prowess for a true, sword and sorcery approach.
Key abilities
- Spellcasting (lv3) – You gain the ability to cast spells, with a ceiling of level 4 spells making you a 1/3 caster.
- War bond (lv3) – You can bond with up to two weapons allowing you to summon them into your hand and preventing you being disarmed of them.
- War magic (lv7) – You can replace an attack with the casting of a cantrip.
- Eldritch strike (lv10) – Your attacks cause disadvantage on saving throws against your spells for a turn.
- Arcane charge (Lv15) – Using your action surge also lets you teleport 30ft.
- Improved war magic (Lv18) – You can replace 2 of your attacks with the casting of a level 1 or 2 spell.
What are they good at?
Using spells and attacks. This not only enables them to deal increasing levels of damage, but also means they’re more versatile than most fighters.
How effective are they?
Eldritch knights are really effective. The versatility to cast spells or make a large number of attacks is excellent and gives them utility outside of combat (which fighters often lack). On top of this, is the fact that a single cantrip becomes more powerful than most single weapon attacks at mid and high levels. This means that being able to use extra attacks alongside cantrips makes your standard attacks even more powerful.
Eldritch strike can be a little hard to coordinate, but you could utilise saving throw cantrips like toll the dead to make them more likely to land or simply cast hold person or another save or suck spell on your next turn.
Despite a need to invest in intelligence (diluting your capabilities somewhat in other areas) I personally consider the eldritch knight to be a top tier subclass and one of the best in the game!
Score: 5/5
Psi warrior
What are they?
Granted psionic powers, psi warriors enhance their attacks and combat capabilities with telekinetic energy and mental force.
Key abilities
- Psionic power (lv3) – Use psionic abilities using a pool of psionic energy dice. This can include reducing damage, dealing more damage or teleporting things.
- Telekinetic adept (lv7) – You have new psionic powers that can grant a turn of flight (with increased speed) and push or knock prone with attacks.
- Guarded mind (lv10) – Resistance to psychic damage and can expend a psionic energy dice to end charmed and frightened conditions on yourself.
- Bulwark of force (lv15) – Grant half cover to nearby allies.
- Telekinetic master (lv18) – You have the telekinesis spell prepared and when using it, can make attacks with your bonus action.
What are they good at?
They’re probably the most defensive-minded fighter subclass, but also have a decent amount of utility in their features as well as some enhanced damage.
How effective are they?
The extra utility and defensive nature of the psi warrior is pretty strong, and the fact that they can help defend allies too makes them a good team player. Add to this things like teleportation and temporary flight and they’re quite versatile.
The one minor challenge is having to invest somewhat in intelligence to make the most of some of your features. Your focus remains on martial abilities like strength, dexterity and constitution making intelligence difficult to be truly proficient in. But it is possible, especially with a dexterity or heavy armor build (avoiding the need to invest in both strength and dexterity).
This makes the psi warrior a pretty good subclass, even if it doesn’t achieve the very highest echelon of ratings.
Score: 4/5
Which fighter subclass is best?
The fighter is fortunate enough to have 4 pretty strong subclasses. Much of your decision should come down to the style you want to play. All these subclasses will deal plenty of weapon damage, but if you want lots of variability and utility in your play, a battle master or psi warrior is a good option. If you just want something straightforward with lots of critical hits, then go with a champion. If you want some sword and sorcery, then go with the eldritch knight.
If it comes down to which subclass is technically the best, then I’d have to go with the eldritch knight. Spellcasting gives them even more versatility than the battle master or the psi warrior, and the ability to merge this with weapon attacks quite fluidly is quite a strong option and does a lot for your damage scaling too.
Do you think the eldritch knight is the best fighter subclass or do you disagree? Let me know in the comments below.
Spotlight on D&D 2024
All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.
