A Guide to the Fighter (Pathfinder)

Every D&D player has probably, at some point, played a fighter. Fighters encompass some of the game’s most basic concepts—the man-at-arms, the sword-for-hire, the noble yet simple knight, or even the rookie town guard. For most groups, the fighter forms a cornerstone of the party—indeed, for the earliest editions of the game, the fighter was a quarter of the available classes. Many still consider the archetypal party to be one of a fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a wizard.

In Pathfinder, fighters do not, comparatively speaking, have as many tricks as a well-played wizard or other spellcasters, but they are the measure by which every warrior character, whether a barbarian, ranger, or some other class, evaluates himself. In terms of raw weapon damage, fighters are matched most often only by barbarians, and they boast high Armor Class values, since they can wear heavy armor and keep their Dexterity bonus to AC. Other martial characters, like paladins and rangers, can match or exceed the fighter’s capabilities when they’re fighting the right kinds of opponents, but they aren’t as capable in the same wide variety of situations as the fighter.

As the game’s premier users of weaponry, fighters can look very different from one another, all because of the weapons and feats that they use. The following are just a handful of general categories, one of which most fighters will probably fit into.

• Archery: These fighters, generally focusing on bows, dish out some of the highest raw damage in Pathfinder, since they rarely have to move, letting them full attack nearly every round. You can build similar fighters with crossbows (or in some campaigns, firearms), though archery requires far fewer feats.
• Mounted Combat: These fighters will tend to favor lances and focus on charging in combat, dealing triple damage with their lances via Spirited Charge. They’re far more mobile than other fighters and still do solid damage. If they can manage to wrangle a rare flying mount of some kind, they can take their tactics to the skies.
• One-Handed Fighting: These fighters use a single weapon, but eschew an off-hand weapon or a shield. These tend to be agile warriors, with feats like Weapon Finesse, and they’ll often take levels in the duelist prestige class or have other abilities that give them special benefits for this otherwise weaker style.
• Sword and Board: Though they don’t always use swords, these fighters favor a one-handed weapon and a shield. They don’t have the same damage output as other fighters, but they have a more rounded set of defenses. Some sword and board fighters may focus on shield bashing and take the Two-Weapon Fighting feats, giving them greater damage potential.
• Two-Handed Fighting: These fighters wield two-handed weapons, like greatswords or greataxes, and they tend to do large amounts of damage per hit. For damage-dealing, two-handed fighters deliver consistent damage without much feat investment.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: These fighters focus on using a weapon in each hand, trading greater damage per hit for a larger number of attacks. Though they depend more on full attacks to keep their damage flowing, their numerous bonuses (from Weapon Specialization and weapon training) can really add up to a lot over time.

The rest of this guide will break down each of these categories further, examining key ability scores for each type of fighter, the feats they’ll want to take for sure, and some suggestions for further choices, and also take a look at some of the archetypes that might go along with them. Each category will have a sample build (up to level 5) that will give you some idea of what you’ll be looking at for such a fighter.

I always like to note that the advice given within this guide (and others like it) as only that: advice. Clever feat combinations and character concepts can mean that this advice is more or less applicable. But take it as a starting point. Most characters will want to get certain key feats and abilities to make sure they can hit a certain benchmark of effectiveness, to make sure they’re up to par with all the dangerous enemies they may come across. Feel free to tweak, change, or ignore entirely any suggestions I give below, but my hope is that you’ll do so knowingly, with a full understanding of what you’re giving up and why other choices make up for that.

With that having been said, let’s get to the good part!

Ability Scores

Dexterity is your prime ability, as it factors into your attack bonus for your ranged attacks. Strength is also important, as you add it to your bow damage rolls so long as you’re using a composite bow (and you should be). Constitution is slightly less important for you than for other fighters, though you definitely don’t want to make it a dump stat. Wisdom is your fourth stat—you don’t need this to be very high, but whatever you can get is helpful, since Will saves are a weakness for fighters. Intelligence is nice for extra skill points, but you don’t particularly need it. Charisma is, as usual, a dump stat for you.

Key Feats

Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Manyshot.

These feats are the core of any archery build, for a fighter or not. You can easily have all of them by level 6, with a feat to spare (or two if you’re human). Point Blank Shot isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s a prerequisite for most of the others, so you need it. Precise Shot amounts to a +4 bonus to hit since you’ll be firing into melee frequently, and with penalties from Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot, you don’t want any more penalties than you have to have. Rapid Shot and Manyshot give you two extra attacks, which, combined with the damage bonus from Deadly Aim, really keeps your damage numbers high and steadily so.

Other Feats

Improved Precise Shot, Point Blank Master, Snap Shot, Improved Snap Shot, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical.

All of these feats will make you better at what you do in some way or another. Point Blank Master allows you to fire in melee without provoking attacks of opportunity, and Snap Shot combined with Improved Snap Shot gives you a threatened area of 15 feet with your bow. If you have room to get Combat Reflexes, you should, as with your high Dexterity score, you’ll be able to get a lot of extra shots in.

Archetypes

The archer archetype (Advanced Player’s Guide 104) has a lot of benefits for the archery-focused fighter, as you might expect. At 9th level, you no longer provoke attacks of opportunity when making attacks with a bow (which saves you the Point Blank Master feat), and you get number of other tricks to perform with your bow (such as being able to perform combat maneuvers with arrows) and firing off a volley of arrows at all targets within 15 feet. The archetype has a few other bonuses, but these are the main ones. You do give up your armor training abilities and your ability to gain weapon training in multiple weapon groups, so if you were planning on using heavy armor or using multiple weapons, you might want to skip this archetype.

The weapon master archetype (Advanced Player’s Guide 109) does provide some benefits to an extremely dedicated archer, but overall, the benefits from the archer archetype will provide more bang for your buck in the long run.

Sample Build

Here’s a sample build for a standard fighter focused in archery. I don’t use any archetypes here, as the standard array of fighter class features still complements the fighter archer well, but the archer and weapon master archetypes are both viable for such characters.

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Feats
1 Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim
2 Rapid Shot
3 Weapon Focus (longbow)
4 Weapon Specialization (longbow)
5 Point Blank Master

With a build like this, I’d be looking at picking up Manyshot at 6th level and going for the Snap Shot line thereafter, taking Combat Reflexes when possible. You could instead use some of your later feats on things like Iron Will, to round out your defenses. Given the damage an archer fighter can put out, such investments are rarely a bad idea, since you could do a lot of damage to your party if you were ever mind controlled.

Ability Scores

As it is for most fighters, Strength is your primary ability score. It adds to your ability to hit and also to your damage rolls. Constitution is your next most important stat, as it is for most melee characters. You’ll want a moderate Dexterity (to assist in the Ride checks you’ll make on your mount), but you don’t have to invest much in it as long as you keep your ranks maximized. Wisdom is always useful for its bonus to Will saves, and Intelligence keeps your skill points up, but neither of these are incredibly necessary for you. You probably don’t want your Charisma to be too low because you will need to use Handle Animal at least some of the time, but it’s a class skill for you, so you can still make it your least important stat since you won’t use it very often.

Key Feats

Mounted Combat, Ride-By-Attack, Spirited Charge, Power Attack.

These four provide the main attraction to your charge-attack specialty, which will have you doing triple damage with a lance from the back of your mount. With these four, you’ll have yourself a solid foundation, whether you choose to take further feats focusing on your mount or not.

Other Feats

Mounted Archery, Trample, Unseat, Mounted Shield, Trick Riding, Mounted Skirmisher, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical.

Most of these feats give you additional capabilities on your mount and you can take them to your liking. Trick Riding is a prerequisite to Mounted Skirmisher, which most mounted combatants will probably want eventually—the feat allows you to make a full attack while riding as long as your mount doesn’t move any greater than its normal movement speed. This gives you great mobility, so you’ll probably want this, though it’s a high level feat, so it may not be relevant to every campaign. Since you’ll often be making a single charge attack, Furious Focus (which removes the Power Attack penalty for your first attack every round) amounts to a lot of free damage that gets multiplied by your charging lance modifiers. Weapon Focus and the related feats are good feats for just about any fighter.

Archetypes

The roughrider archetype (Advanced Player’s Guide 106) trades the fighter’s generalist abilities (like bravery and additional weaponry training) for more mount-specific abilities. Chief among these are leap from the saddle, which lets the fighter jump from his mount and make a full attack after it takes a single move and relentless steed, which lets the fighter reroll a saving throw for his mount once per day (gaining more uses per day as he gains levels). The archetype has some other benefits, but these two abilities make it worth considering if you’re really dedicated to a mounted combatant.

The dragoon archetype (Ultimate Combat 46) is another take on a mounted combatant that focuses more specifically on training with the lance and shares some similarities with cavaliers (namely in gaining a banner ability). If you’re interested in a more well-rounded mounted fighter, the dragoon may be a good choice. I’ve written about it in more detail here.

Sample Build

This sample build sticks to the basics, as mounted combat has one disadvantage over these other fighting styles: you can’t always fit your mount into narrow dungeon corridors, so it can pay not to specialize too greatly, leaving you capable on foot as well as on your mount.

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 17, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Feats
1 Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge
2 Power Attack
3 Weapon Focus (lance)
4 Weapon Specialization (lance)
5 Furious Focus

You’re not completely dedicated to mounted combat with this build, but you’re also still plenty capable on foot. Furious Focus works well considering how often you’ll be charging, but you can easily swap it out for another mount-related feat or any number of other feats to round out your character’s other stats.

Ability Scores

Because of your strongest feat options (particularly Dervish Dance), Dexterity will be responsible for your attack rolls and damage rolls, as well as all the other nice things you want Dexterity for. It’s your main score. Constitution should come next, with Intelligence following if you’re looking to use feats like Improved Disarm to make yourself something of a fencer. Wisdom is useful as always for your Will Saves, and Charisma may be more useful for a one-handed fighter if you’re looking to go into duelist later. Strength isn’t terribly important for you so long as you take Dervish Dance, but if you don’t, you’ll probably want to make it your prime score over Dexterity (try to get a 13 Str if you can, though, so you can at least take Power Attack).

Key Feats

Weapon Finesse, Dervish Dance (Inner Sea World Guide), Power Attack.

Without these feats, you’re going to struggle to really remain relevant specializing in a single one-handed weapon. Your Armor Class is lower than a sword and board fighter, and your damage output is lower than just about every other fighter, as well. Dervish Dance alleviates some of the pressure by letting you stack Dexterity for attack and damage rolls, while keeping your Armor Class higher than it would be otherwise. Dervish Dance has a special provision allowing the scimitar to qualify for the abilities of the duelist prestige class and similar abilities that rely on one-handed piercing weapons, as well. Though you have to have some Strength to get Power Attack, it’s really crucial for keeping your damage at a respectable level, so it’s highly recommended.

Other Feats

Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Greater Disarm, Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical.

Combat Expertise and the Disarm feats compliment the general style of an agile warrior well, so if you can manage to take them, you’ll likely want to. Dodge and Mobility are prerequisites for the duelist prestige class, which you want to take, if this is your chosen style. Moreso than other fighters, the Weapon Focus line and Improved Critical are important to you because of your lower baseline damage output, so these are almost “key feats,” but not quite.

Archetypes

The free hand fighter (Advanced Player’s Guide 105) has some nice bonuses (such as scaling bonuses to disarm attempts and a dodge bonus to AC), but it gains fewer weapon training bonuses overall, thus hurting your already lower damage potential. I don’t generally recommend this archetype as a result. However, if you’re going into the duelist prestige class, you won’t get additional weapon training anyway until very high levels, so you might consider it for the extra AC and bonus on disarm maneuvers.

Though it isn’t an archetype, the duelist prestige class can provide some probably welcome additional class skills and additional skill points to your one-handed fighter, as well as some unique parrying abilities. You also gain your duelist level to damage, which is a decent increase for you, given your lower damage totals otherwise. You’ll lag behind slightly in attack rolls since you lose a few weapon training bonuses, but given your main focus on Dexterity, you can come out pretty well in the overall picture.

Sample Build

This sample build assumes you’re going into the duelist prestige class later, but attempts to keep your damage respectable while you get there. Make use of your Dodge and Mobility feats to soak up attacks of opportunity for your team mates if you can, as this gives you a somewhat unique function that makes up for your lower damage. Builds like these are difficult to pull off with lower point buys (as you probably don’t want low Intelligence or Charisma if you’re doing into duelist), so if you have more points to play with or you get a good set of rolled scores, go for higher scores here (or not, as suits you).

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 13, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Feats
1 Weapon Finesse, Dervish Dance, Power Attack
2 Weapon Focus (scimitar)
3 Dodge
4 Mobility
5 Weapon Specialization (scimitar)

At higher levels, you’ll probably want to continue the Weapon Focus/Specialization feat chain, and also pick up Improved Critical, Critical Focus, and a critical feat of your choice. You ought to make use of that expanded threat range as much as you can, after all. Duelist also gives you a special critical effect at 10th level, and you can stack that with the critical feat you have.

Ability Scores

As with most fighters, Strength is your go-to score. Though you’re more focused on defense with your shield, you’ll still want to deal meaningful damage, or else you’ll find yourself ignored by intelligent opponents, making your extra defense meaningless. Constitution is likewise as important as usual. You’ll want a moderate Dexterity score if you can manage it (since your armor training lets you take good advantage of it). Wisdom is nice as you can afford, and Intelligence and Charisma are minor concerns for you, as you might expect.

Key Feats

Power Attack, Antagonize.

Power Attack is your only true key feat, as what you do with your shield depends a lot on what you want to focus on: offense or defense. Antagonize is key for you as well, as it allows you to make enemies more likely to attack you than your allies, though the feat is somewhat controversial. If your GM allows you to take it, you should do so. It lets you get more mileage out of your added AC.

Other Feats (Offense)

Improved Shield Bash, Two-Weapon Fighting, Shield Slam, Shield Master, Bashing Finish, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical.

Shield bashing requires some greater investment in your Dexterity score, but it evens out your damage potential somewhat, and so can be worth it. If you’re lucky enough to have a very high Dexterity, you can also take Improved Two-Weapon Fighting and Greater Two-Weapon Fighting to give you more shield bashes in each round. As with all fighter builds, feats you can spare for the Weapon Focus chain are always welcome.

Other Feats (Defense)

Shield Focus, Greater Shield Focus, Missile Shield, Ray Shield, Shield Specialization, Greater Shield Specialization.

Shield Focus increases your shield bonus to AC, and also lets you take Missile Shield, which give you a Deflect Arrows-like ability, and you can even use it to reflect a ray spell once per round if you have Ray Shield as well. Shield Specialization adds your shield’s AC bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense, and Greater Shield Specialization lets you negate a critical once per day, which can be a real life saver.

There are a handful of other feats that let you use your shield to help out your allies. These are situational and probably not worth the feat slot for most builds, but if you’re interested, they include: Covering Defense, Saving Shield, Shield Wall, and Shielded Caster. The last two are teamwork feats, so you’ll want to coordinate with your group if you’re planning to take them.

Archetypes

The phalanx soldier archetype (Advanced Players’ Guide 105) is really only useful if you can guarantee that you’ll be standing next to your allies all of the time, since most of its abilities are centered around remaining relatively stationary and providing bonuses to adjacent allies. Given that standing in a group is rarely a sound strategy, this archetype isn’t generally a good choice.

The shielded fighter archetype (Advanced Player’s Guide 108) gives up most of your weapon training abilities for special shield-related abilities. If you’re highly focused on defense, you might consider this archetype, but if you take a more balanced approach, you’ll likely want to skip it.

One archetype that you might not examine that’s worth a look is the two-weapon warrior (Advanced Player’s Guide 109). While the bonuses are all intended for standard two-weapon fighting, if you’re maximizing your shield bashing, all of the bonuses apply to you as well, if you’re using your shield as an off-hand weapon. If you have the Dexterity to invest in Two-Weapon Fighting, this archetype doesn’t have any significant negatives and gives you some nice bonuses, like damage bonuses for attacking with both weapons instead of weapon training and reducing your Two-Weapon Fighting penalties. This is definitely worth a look, even if it’s somewhat counter-intuitive at first glance.

Like the shielded fighter, the armor master (Ultimate Combat 44) gives up some offense for more defensive capability (most notably, damage reduction). Again, if you’re especially armed for defense, this archetype is worth a look.

Last, but not least is the tower shield specialist (Ultimate Combat 48), which, like the other shield-focused archetypes, gives up some of your offense for making you better at using a tower shield. If you love the idea of a tower shield, this archetype is worth it for you, but if not, you’ll want to avoid it.

Sample Build

Most sword and board fighters will likely end up with a mix of offensive and defensive feats, and this sample build attempts to strike that sort of balance, leaning slightly toward the offensive side of things through Two-Weapon Fighting.

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 16, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 7
Feats
1 Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting
2 Shield Focus
3 Weapon Focus
4 Weapon Specialization
5 Missile Shield

As you gain more feats, aim for the mix of offense and defense that suits you. I recommend picking up Shield Slam, Shield Master and Ray Shield for most builds. Because this build needs to drop Charisma lower than normal to have a higher than average Dexterity, it’s not particularly suited to Antagonize, but your increased offensive capability will help you remain a threat to your enemies.

Ability Scores

Two-handed fighter builds are the simplest of the lot. You want Strength and Constitution to excel. Keep those two as high as you can, with Strength as your main priority. Dexterity is always welcome, but you don’t need anything that impressive. Wisdom is nice when you can get it, and you don’t need to worry much about Intelligence or Charisma, as usual.

Key Feats

Power Attack.

To have a successful two-handed fighter, Power Attack is all you need. Everything beyond that is extra icing on your cake. This one feat propels you to the higher ranks of damage-dealing stardom. You won’t outdo an archer in the long run, but you’ve only spent one feat to remain competitive, and he’s spent several. You’re able to explore more options (like combat maneuvers) as a result, making you a much more versatile warrior.

Other Feats

Cleave, Great Cleave, Furious Focus, Step Up, Following Step, Step Up and Strike, Lunge, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical.

Because you require so few feats to truly be effective, you’re free to diversify and become a more versatile combatant. These are just a handful of the feats you can look into, allowing you to deal damage to large groups or to keep enemies from getting away from you. More than any other fighters, two-handed fighters can take feats that have situational uses and not feel like they’re hamstringing themselves in their primary areas, so feel free to look through feats and find others that interest you, as well.

Other Feats (Battlefield Control)

Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Improved/Greater Drag/Reposition/Trip, Stand Still.

If you’re interested in providing a non-damage related function for your group, think about grabbing a reach weapon (preferably with the trip property) and using your expanded threatened area to keep your enemies off their toes (literally). Battlefield control isn’t the highest damage-dealing build, but it’s one way that you can provide something interesting that isn’t damage, and you’re still going to be respectable at the latter. However, as more enemies gain the ability to fly or become immune to trip maneuvers as you gain levels, these tricks will become less useful.

Archetypes

The primary archetype of interest is the two-handed fighter (Advanced Player’s Guide 108) which gives up your defensive abilities for improved ability to sunder, greater Strength bonuses to damage, and even improved Power Attack bonuses. If your primary aim is to deal a lot of damage with a two-hander, this archetype is definitely one of the best for you.

The weapon master (Advanced Player’s Guide 109) gets an honorable mention as of interest to any fighter that specializes in a single weapon, though its raw power probably doesn’t approach that of the two-handed fighter archetype.

If you’re interested in battlefield control and using a polearm (which are the most common reach weapons), the polearm master (Advanced Player’s Guide 106) will give you some notable advantages (such as dealing greater damage with attacks of opportunity, which will come up a lot for you).

Sample Build

Two-handed fighter builds are going to be quite varied, in general, since they have so many more feats available than other fighters do. This sample build focuses on battlefield control with a guisarme, using a spiked gauntlet to maintain the ability to threaten opponents within five feet of you. Because you need Combat Expertise to get the necessary feats, you’ll want a higher than average Intelligence score, but this isn’t something that most two-handed fighters need.

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 17, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 8
Feats
1 Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Improved Trip
2 Combat Reflexes
3 Cleave
4 Great Cleave
5 Weapon Focus (guisarme)

Greater Trip is definitely a feat you’ll want later on, though I personally wouldn’t invest too much else in combat maneuvers, since they’re limited to foes of Large size or smaller (unless you can get a permanent enlarge person) and flying foes tend to have less trouble with them. As you gain levels, try to increase your Dexterity through magical items to allow you more attacks of opportunity in each round, and look for other abilities that can really take advantage of your expanded reach.

Ability Scores

Because you need a higher Dexterity to keep advancing in Two-Weapon Fighting, you want it to be your primary score, until you can get it to 19 (which covers you for everything up through Greater Two-Weapon Fighting). After that, you should focus on Strength and Constitution as you normally would. Worry about your mental ability scores only after these are taken care of, with some preference for Wisdom since it helps your weak Will saves.

Key Feats

Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, Weapon Focus/Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus/Specialization.

As you might expect, these feats form the core of your build. As a fighter, you’re uniquely equipped to offset the penalties of two-weapon fighting thanks to your free weapon training bonuses, so you should definitely be trying to get as many attacks as you can. The Weapon Focus line is more important for you than it is for other fighters, as to make Two-Weapon Fighting worthwhile compared to other damage builds, you have to maximize the amount of bonus damage you get per attack, and you also have to maximize the number of hits that you land every round. While you can skip them if you want, the strengths of your build really complement them well, so I highly recommend them.

Other Feats

Double Slice, Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Rend.

Unlike other fighters, you don’t end up with a lot of options that are really relevant to your fighting style. If you have a higher Strength (due to lucky rolls or magic items, later in life), you’ll want Double Slice to maximize the damage you can deal. Two-Weapon Rend is also nice assuming you have the Strength to make it worthwhile. Two-Weapon Defense is largely fairly minor, but it can help lower AC if you’re worried about that kind of thing.

Archetypes

Already mentioned above, the two-weapon warrior (Advanced Player’s Guide 109) archetype is great for two-weapon fighters. It does a lot to reduce their dependency on full attacks by letting them attack with both weapons as a standard action and for attacks of opportunities, making them more mobile and less lacking in damage for single-attack situations.

Sample Build

Two-weapon fighting allows less flexibility than other styles, though they do have a few choices that are largely open at lower levels, since most of the required feats have higher-level prerequisites. This sample build focuses on damage and more damage, and the feats reflect that. Kukris are your weapon of choice, since they’re light (giving you the smallest penalties), and your high number of attacks takes advantage of their expanded critical range. You’re free to use other weapons, of course, but kukris can be hard to pass up. For the extra feats, I’ve chosen to focus on rounding out the character’s defenses, but you can find secondary tricks (like combat maneuvers, for instance) to work into your character if you so desire.

Human Fighter 5
Ability Scores (15 Point Buy): Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
1 Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, Double Slice
2 Weapon Focus (kukri)
3 Dodge
4 Weapon Specialization (kukri)
5 Iron Will

The types of fighters I’ve laid out in this guide are no means the be-all and end-all of the fighter. You can combine them together in some instances with the right archetypes and feat choices. Many of these fighters (especially the two-handed fighter) can find room for whole other feat chains (like Whirlwind Attack) or focus on other tricks, like Intimidate and demoralizing opponents, and there are also a number of feat chains dedicated to niche weapons like the crossbow and the whip. If your concept works best with a long feat chain or with a number of interlocking feats, you’re probably going to be hard-pressed to find a better way to get all of those feats than with fighter levels.

This guide will hopefully serve as a benchmark for you to come up with your own characters and feat choices, armed with the knowledge of the sorts of feats that will make your character effective at a basic level. Even if you’re playing a class other than the fighter, if you’re considering using a fighting style like one of the ones discussed in this guide, you’ll probably want to explore similar feats for your character, and depending on your character’s needs, you might even want to multiclass into fighter to get some extra feats.

Happy gaming, everybody!