Just wanted to point out that Indomitable says "failed saving throw", not "failed ability saving throw". Meaning it works on death saves. A little to remember when it becomes relevant at your table, my friends
These are awesome! I agree with most of what is said. I do think goading attack (of the battle master) is pretty good if used on a ranged fighter that is out of range of the monster.
Depends how you do it. EK gives a fighter-archer insane survivability - Shield + Absorb Element + Protection from Good & Evil. Plus if you use the extra spell at 3rd level to get a Familiar so you can give yourself a much better chance of landing a sharpshooter shot. EK doesn't get shadowblade until way late and the damage only just keeps par with GWM heavy-weapons fighters, and generally the SCAG cantrips fall behind Battlemaster maneuvers or dual-wiedling in terms of extra damage. Originally (before SCAG) I think the EK was meant to be the maneuverable fighter - using Shocking Grasp to do hit-and-run attacks. Or as an arcane archer - use firebolt / chilltouch then follow up with an arrow attack.
I made an ek crossbow user for a high-level one shot. Focused on the crossbow side. Low int, but with spells that were only for defense and utility. So no saves or attacks needed. What I had was a quite capable mage, who on a turn with action surge, could throw up to 7 shots from my hand crossbow, and with sharpshooter, was hitting at +9. The damage if they all hit were at I think +17, so it was ridiculous. Didn't actually play him though, a straight sorcerer fit the party better. And that was ok, because it taught me how much damage a well placed cone of cold could do.
@@lesliebraun8438 I can respectfully admit that when it comes to know the ins and outside of classes/subclasses and effectiveness and possibilities of spells, I fall short in the knowledge department. Only thing smart I've ever done in a session was set a tar pit full of undead that were partially slowed by the tar but if I or any of my party members were to be pulled in, we would be fucked, (now this was third edition, like a year before 4th edition came out, so no cantrips). There were about a dozen undead and there were only three of us and I was the only spell caster, a sorcerer, used burning hands on the tar and set it all on fire effectively killing all the undead.
Everyone laughs at the Champion until that player starts multiclassing Barbarian: Reckless Attack+Expanded crit range basically allows you to crank up your crit chance to 19% per attack as long as you reckless attack. Add Great Weapon Master and watch your character crit several times per combat. Paladin: Divine Smite dice are doubled on a critical hit, making a greatsword crit in a level one divine smite deal 4d6+4d8+Str mod damage. This all gets even better if you're an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, which can use Vow of Enmity to get that sweet, sweet 19% crit chance on advantage. This combo is a boss killer. Ranger: If you're using UA Ranger, you get advantage on initiative rolls as well as creatures who haven't moved yet while you're taking your first turn. Pairing this ability with Expanded Crit Range and Horde Breaker allows you to wipe out half an encounter before they even get a chance to respond. Rogue: Sneak Attack Dice are doubled on a critical hit. Should speak for itself. Sure, Champion isn't the most game breaking thing out there, but a 3 level dip into Champion or a Champion who is dipping 2-4 levels into another class is hard to beat.
@Pelinal Whitestrake He's often seen as a stand up hero, stalwart defender of justice by those who know him. His enemies see him as a thug and a brute. His reputation precedes him for having gone toe to toe with foes out of his league and won. He's really just a quick thinker, and resourceful, pragmatic fighter that would prefer to slit a few throats or sneak his way through danger. He's just strong enough to hold his own in direct combat for a time.
Just got to the Battlemaster section, and it reminded me of something. During the 5e playtest, Fighters all had the Battlemaster's maneuvers. It wasn't until the official version that these were sawed off and made into a subclass in the name of simplicity. Learning about this pissed me off something fierce, since it's when I realized why Fighter just felt really "off" to me. Fighters are basically given a choice between having a subclass and having all their class features.
I like how the fighter is almost like a create a class template, with the increased feat capacity, loose weapon proficiency and so many archetypes, it’s as if you’re home brewing a class
@@witchBoi_Connor If your DM is not allowing the optional Feat rule, I honestly question their capacity to compromise and give you any agency over your character. Even then, you still receive 4 additional ability points to round yourself out.
@@torunsmok5890 I would not call it that severe of a divide, atop of the fact most classes have arguably weak capstone features. Fighter also works well for secondary class investment as a physical ability multi-tool and general front line beef
I can stand behind the eldritch knight. Having shield and blur on a guy in plate, wielding a greatsword, feels awesome. Not to mention haste. I'm a bit iffy on using spell slots for attacks, but fireball and firewall are options.
I feel like your GM might have let you get away with a few favors because Eldritch Knights can't learn Blur and Haste. The written rules specify that their starting spells must be Evocation and Abjuration only, and every spell they learn thereafter must also be Evocation or Abjuration, which fits neither Blur (Illusion) nor Haste (transmutation).
@@abadidea5984 No, you can learn a couple spells of other schools at certain levels. It's restrictive, but a few spells can be non abjuration and evocation. You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the abjuration and evocation spells on the wizard spell list. The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic. So at level 3, 8, 14, and 20 you can learn spells from any school.
@@abadidea5984 dude esper even noted in the video, like the arcane trickster being mostly locked into illusion and enchantment but getting free choice at a couple points, E knights get the same freedom at certain levels.
You can learn a scant amount of spells outside of evocation and abjuration. Tbh, I think its a stupid rule that limits the creativity of players. Just give the players the choice to choose the two schools which they are restricted to and include the option to learn spells outside of your two choices every other level similar to the original EK.
@@johnisaacfelipe6357 I would like this. I'm not sure why the spellcasting needs to be this restrictive. Just let it be like a paladin, except on the arcane side. Or would that be too OP?
I love how the opening of the vid points out that people claim you have a bias towards casters that you try to dissuade... then rate the Eldrich Knight super-high compared to the others. If I knew it wasn't intentional, I'd ask to roll a deception check. Ah, but I jest... and I totally understand. Still, my first D&D character was a Battle Master and I have a fondness for them. I plan on returning to the class one day. Can't wait to see how the other Fighters fare ^-^d
1. He rated rally higher than parry when they do the same thing. Preventing you from taking about a level 1 healing spell in damage. There is clearly some 4e byass happening here. 2. He really oversold Warmagic. The fighter is balanced around being the guy with the most attacks for their action and you are giving that up for a cantrip. It should have been the other way around where you could cast the cantrip as a bonus action alongside all your attacks. 3. He rated goading attack badly but imagine using goading attack with a bow so that your opponent can't reach you or have to get past other tanks to hit you. Awesome support for your group.
The icing on the cake that is the Eldritch knight is the fact that some spells (such as Shadow Blade and Fire Shield) are much more effective for the fighter than the wizard due to far greater attack count and durability, and I'm really looking forward to playing a dex-based Feral Tiefling eldritch knight thanks to hellish rebuke and the Flames of Phlegethos feat, which are wonderful ways to trade the damage you take for the damage the attackers that would focus you down anyway receive.
Dude, pick up green flame blade, then you Will be able to trigger the flame aura from flames of pheletegros every turn while making two attacks per turn at 7th level, one of whom Will deal extra damage
I think Fire Shield is just too expensive for an Eldritch Knight. That is your _only_ fourth level slot you're using on that. As cool as it is, I just couldn't justify taking it on my Eldritch Knight build.
really feel you rated the dueling fighting style too low, or at least should have discussed how it allows for a shield to be used alongside the one-handed weapon. It's actually fairly good for a more tanky build.
Yea, i totally agree with this. The dmg increase is actl higher than gwf on a greatsword on average as well. So it should be on par with/ better than it.
I almost gave it A Tier, but in the end, it just stays at +2 damage for your entire adventuring career. Two Weapon Fighter at least scales up as your Str/Dex increases.
@@esperthebard But dueling does scale, just in a different way. Martial classes (except rogue) all get at least 1 extra attack which means dueling applies at least twice for a +4 a turn. For fighters, its even more powerful. On the other hand, i find the scaling of twf abit weak as only your bonus action attack is buffed, in a way it caps at 5 dmg turn and as the game goes into later levels, you can usually get more things to do as a bonus action (e.g polearm master 1d4 atk, great weapon master bonus action atk on a crit or kill, second wind, activate flame tongue, cast shadow blade) even though some are just a once per combat event, considering that most combat don't last for more than 5 rounds, the power of twf decreases.
Two weapon fighter mathematically sucks in comparison to dueling (it also taks up your bonus action). Any analysis i have seen always looks bad. By comparison dueling has always come out favourably. Great Weapon fighting all sucks, i believe it averages a +1 increase on a greatsword, with less on a greataxe So the reasons Great weapon fighting were said to be good, whilst it makes you "feel" good to reroll, realistically it is inferior to dueling. id knock it down at least 2 tiers, not 1 Both the other fighting styles are bad enough that its probably just best to go for the +1 ac. again, people can pick their flavour, but the damage increase just isnt high and i dont think they deserve the high spots. WIth dueling being just great
@@YMDIJ I would also say twf isn't as strong at higher levels especially if you're gonna be attacking up to three to four times or more with action surge in a turn, which was exactly what Esper the Bard said was Fighter's Strongest advantage. In addition, GwF I think should've been higher ranked as per its effective damage bonus as disscussed in the first answer here: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/47172/how-much-damage-does-great-weapon-fighting-add-on-average#:~:text=Great%20Weapon%20Fighting%20will%20increase,never%20be%20larger%20than%201.&text=Then%20the%20increase%20in%20the,%5B1%E2%88%92YX%5D.
As you mentioned, Battlemaster's do get additional manuevers, superiority dice; and those die upsize at 10th and 18th level, so they do get decent enough upgrades over time. The manuevers are very weirdly imbalanced though, yeah.
I let my players base the number of uses per short rest off their intelligence modifier, minimum of 1 use. Its a way for them to get more of a beneift out of intelligence other then just a slight DC buff to their arrow effects
Fighter! I have strong feelings about the fighter. I believe that fighter as a class is the single most dependent on its subclass and feats to be even slightly interesting to play. Fighter was the first class I played, all the way up to level 7, and my kit was SPARCE thanks to my poor decision making, a bad subclass, no feats, and no multiclassing. And my issue lies that no other class is so damning to play as fighter if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve heard rumors that the pre-5e playtest of fighter had built-in battlemaster maneuvers and man do I wish fighter had that because battlemaster actually feels like playing a fighter. What I wouldn’t give to have maneuvers, even if they were slightly weakened, especially if it replaced a shite features like indomitable and even second wind. Or buff second wind to have more uses but less healed. (I just want something to use my bonus action on gods dammit).
Jett Lucas Hayes those are UA and Homebrew, AND two of them are magical. I am talking about, and this video is talking about content available in wizard’s of the coast approved and AL legal content.
Jett Lucas Hayes I know it’s a month late, but I also need to add, the Gunslinger by Matt Mercer is based on the pathfinder class of the same name. Yknow, pathfinder, an infinitely more complex and customizable system?
Last game I played, I went from Blacksmith Rune Lord subclass (from 5eSRD), and dual classed into a Fighter Runeblade Martial Archetype that made for a great story line and a pretty powerful fighter. A young blacksmith that went out adventuring with his friend, coming across a broken and rusted old sword with a pristine jewel. After piecing the sword together and making an image of the runes, he forged a new sword, carved the runes in and set the stone in it, causing the spirit in the stone to come to life and possess the blade. At the start, only a handful of the etched runes came to life bestowing power, and the more he mastered the sword, the more runes unlocked and became active.
I disagree on the Champion's improved crit range, it sinergizes super well with the base fighter's multiattack and when you take into account things like advantage it makes the fighter the premier magic weapon user.
You have a good point about Great Weapon Fighting being fun, but Dueling should be equivalent or higher ranked. Dueling always gives +2 damage, which is a larger damage boost than GWF gives all 2 handed weapons. On average, GWF gives Greataxes +0.833 damage, Greatswords/Mauls +1.33 damage, and Doublebladed Scimitars +1 damage. So in all cases, Dueling gives a better bonus than GWF. That's assuming we aren't biased on Sword & Board vs Two-handed Weapons.
@@xaviervega468 The damage from GWF is pretty negligible with GWM, it's mediocre on Polearm Master, the extra damage from Orcish Fury is once per short rest for a maximum of 0.833 damage, and Savage Attacker is almost never worth the feat anyway. I'd argue that Dueling (or even Defense) is much better with Polearm Master than GWF is. The best argument to make for GWF is if your DM allows Divine Smites or Battlemaster maneuver damage to be rerolled, which is a contested ruling.
@@xaviervega468 The Quarterstaff works with Dueling as well. Either way, you probably won't be using GWF on the Spear or Quarterstaff. Then it comes back down to Glaive/Halberd + GWF vs Quarterstaff/Spear (and shield) + Dueling. Reach and 0.8 damage/attack or +2 AC.
Nice analysis! Personally, I have found at my table that the battlemaster far outpaces the Eldritch Knight for damage, while the Knight can tank like you wouldn't believe. Precision Attack is the key feature for the battlemaster. Ideally paired with sharpshooter or great weapons master, it will turn lots of near misses into hits on the most damaging attacks. Riposte also puts melee enemies in a world of pain. Not quite as durable as an Eldritch Knight with the Shield spell, but how often do fighters go down anyway? In any event, both subclasses are excellent and I really don't find the fighter to be falling behind the casters in my group.
As an Eldritch Knight main this makes me happy to get around the one hand needs to be free to cast somatic spells i would go sword and board and then drop my weapon as a free action cast the spell and use my bonus action to resummon my bonded weapon
Just wanted to interject about the Ynow Your Enemy ability from Battlemaster is that one it's explicitly out of combat and the longer you interact with the creature the more information you find out so centrally with enough time you could literally know everything about your opponent.
There is just something beautiful about the simplicity of the Fighter. Most other classes you have to make choices about spells and feats and whatnot while you're just a guy/gal that swings a sword real good. I play as a Battlemaster homebrewed to be entirely defence focussed and just stand 25ft in front of the rest of my spellcaster-party holding off waves of enemies whilst they fling spells from a safe distance. We have a fun dynamic
In earlier levels the ranger is better, the hunter's mark+colosus slayer is just too OP for low cr creatures. The fighter gets better once he gets his third attack, but that's a lot investment
Cause dumbing things down in a system means that the things that were strong in the more complicated version gets buffed in the more simpler version. Back in 3.5 casters had their spells and could barely wear armor along with shit hp (a d4), meaning tanks and martials were all good. In 5e, Wizards can wear armor and cast.
It's because 5e isn't balanced, and hear me out: that's not a bad thing. It just means that classes have differences in the scopes of what they will achieve. The Fighter, well, he *fights* , and he's the best at it. The highest tier of Fighter will achieve legendary feats like slaying titans or facing down whole armies as an unstoppable one-man bastion. But he will *never* reach the heights of the Wizard, who brings entire civilizations to their knees in a moment's passing, who unravels the designs of the gods and reshapes reality to their whim. They're not meant to have the same *level* of power, but they are meant to embody different aspects of heroic fantasy. You can be Doctor Strange, opening portals across all of space and time to assemble all the worlds' heroes and armies in a manner of minutes, or you can be Captain America who rises from the brink of death with little else but a broken shield, ready to face Thanos's entire army, and both are equally as heroic.
A 20th level fighter still gets 4 attacks per turn unconditionally, potentially 8 with Action Surge. That is way more damage than any caster can dish out without having to use limited resources (unless they have an at least 2-level dip into Warlock, and Agonizing Blast being so OP without having to invest many levels is not a problem with casters, just with the warlock in particular). Plus the whole 1d6 hit die thing.
Honestly, The only caster that is OP in such a way that invalidates martials is the sorcerer with 2 levels dip into warlock. the problem lies in the warlock kit tbh, its honestly stupid. But in terms of single target DPS, fighters do way way more than any caster could do without multiclassing. its just that outside of fighting, a player with a fighter character will have to rely on their wits and personal charisma to carry the day rather than on spells
I hope there is a segment about feats. Because fighters are NOT the same without comboing and abusing feats. They have frigging 7 asi especially for that. Plus, things like great weapon master + polearm master means an extra attack which can get the -5/+10 , you can do the same with crossbow expert and sharpshooter; you can combo sentinel with polearm master to get the 10ft attack of opportunity that roots and there are other combos too.
My DM combined the Battlemaster and Eldritch Knight archetypes. It is really great and it doesn't feel overpowered. I only wish, the fighter would have had the Battle Master features as standard.
Honestly, the more I think about the Champion, the more I'm actually inspired to play as one. I've played many classes who grow to have mythic levels of powers, magic, and techniques who just become pseudo-gods by as early as lvl 11, and I find it difficult to make interesting decisions at mid-to-late game D&D when every problem can be solved with aggressive application of supernatural power. So I think there's a sort of appeal in being just the every-man hero, the hero who *isn't* gifted with magic or abilities, who *isn't* a master of skills or techniques, but just a mortal who is determined to risk their life on the edge of a blade because they *can* . In fact, removing complexity from the class and keeping its mechanics basic means I can stop thinking about problem solving in terms of a catalogue of powers, and start thinking *outside* the sheet. I think it's liberating, and I'd love to give it a try.
This is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of class. Either you think it's impossibly dull with no options, or you sort of lean to your thoughts on it where it's -cool- to play a guy with no powers and that it connects you to the game world by stripping away options. I'm really into that playstyle though. I haven't tried in in 5e, but in Pathfinder I've played a few characters that have a similar lack pf abilities (Choosing only passive options, for example.) It's really remarkably fun. Not having class features doesn't make you better at strategy by the rules, but it sort of puts you in the right mindset to really capitalize on all your options. It sort of radically changes the game from one where you are concerned about your class options to one where you are thinking more in the game world. I was usually the one buying single-use potions to counter specific enemies, varying my equipment to handle the environment better, commissioning specific equipment, and using niche items like spyglasses. I do recommend trying it, as such.
I've been playing a battle master and he is fun to play, as for the know your enemy I've used it to nice effect, the spell caster is talking and I'm getting info on whoever we are dealing with using myself as a baseline. Anyone on par with my fighter physically or with class levels immediately gets my attention, its helped to gauge how tough some one might be too since I can know their Armor Class and current hit points.
Yeah, but that assumes you have that specific magic item, which you probably shouldn't count on to make a class "work", where as fighter specifically is in a situation where it can just take extra feats to do just that.
@@kedolan4992 Here's the thing. Once you get Ruby of the War Mage and put it on your weapon, it can't be taken from you because of your bonded weapon ;) That and it's a common level magic item. What DM is going to tell their Mage Knight no to that.
New Battle Master Maneuvers from Tasha's: Ambush: When you roll a Dexterity (Stealth) or initiative roll, you can expend on superiority die and add the roll, provided you are not incapacitated. There are times where the are too many foes to fight and the sneaky way is the better option. Adding that die to the stealth roll could help immensely, especially with heavy armor. Plus, nobody can say no to being higher in the initiative order. Bait and Switch: When you’re within 5 feet of a creature on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and switch places with that creature, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement and the creature is willing and isn’t incapacitated. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. Roll the superiority die. Until the start of your next turn, you or the other creature (your choice) gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled. More Warlord capability, seems good for grid combat. Brace: When a creature you can see moves into the reach you have with the melee weapon you’re wielding, you can use your reaction to expend one superiority die and make one attack against the creature, using that weapon. If the attack hits, add the superiority die to the weapon’s damage roll. Kind of a poor man's Sentinel feat, IMO. Commanding Presence: When you make a Charisma (Intimidation), a Charisma (Performance), or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the superiority die to the ability check. Pretty interesting, using a superiority die outside of combat. Grappling Strike: Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and then try to grapple the target as a bonus action (see the Player’s Handbook for rules on grappling). Add the superiority die to your Strength (Athletics) check. Not a lot of options for bonus attacks, and this certainly opens one up to keep an enemy occupied. Quick Toss: As a bonus action, you can expend one superiority die and make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. If you hit, add the superiority die to the weapon’s damage roll. Hmm... One extra attack with a thrown weapon without burning an action to draw it, and on top two attack actions (action surge is not a bonus action), sounds fun. Tactical Assessment: When you make an Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), or a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the superiority die to the ability check. More non-combat options for superiority dice. Again, interesting.
25:36 I'd say blue spells in mtg are more similar to the abjuration school than white spells; most walls are blue, most 'you deal less damage' spells are blue and counterspell is blue
White is about damage reduction and primarily "Protection from" Blue would be closer to spells such as counterspell, dispel magic, and anti-magic field
@@velphidrow Counterspell, dispel magic, and anti-magic field are abjuration school spells though. White has a lot of focus on healing as well and would better fit Cleric/Paladin spells.
Another thing to point out about the Eldritch Knight, is that they are somewhat limited in the spells they get, its mostly evocation and abjuration spells, with some exceptions at certain levels. The reason Eldritch Strike is so good, is if you pair it with hold person a spell you can get around 8th level. If you hit your opponent the previous turn they get disadvantage on the save, then the next turn you cast hold person, and if they fail the save, you can action surge and potentially get 3 critical hits on the opponent. Which is a pretty effective combo and one I will be using when I get to play the Eldritch Knight myself
Here's a fun rule for you DM's: I personally do something different for critical hits: Instead of the player rolling their damage dice twice, simply have them deal the maximum amount of damage (For example, a fighter with a +4 strength and a 1d10 warhammer as an example, on a crit deals 14 damage + whatever they roll and any other dice/modifiers.) No matter what, even if he rolls a 1 for his damage roll, he still deals a lot of damage. Crits hurt, yo! I also however, have enemies use this critical system. My players dread being hit with a big bad enemy's critical hit when I open roll it.
Merriam-Webster defines eldritch as: Strange or unnatural especially in a way that inspires fear; WEIRD, EERIE. This is the meaning that everyone understands. The eldritch knight has nothing in its class features, lore, or aesthetic that fits this definition. A better name for this subclass would have been spellsword, mage knight, or arcane knight.
@@esperthebard in classical literature/defination, it's used to mean supernatural or unearthly it comes from middle english _el-ritch_ -"El" means "alien, other, else" or possibly "elf" -"Ritch" means "realm, kingdom, power", compare it to German "Reich" This is also why it's called "eldritch blast", since it comes from the other-worldy patron
I can say that i have fallen in love with the cavalier subclass since its release from Xanathar's. I enjoy the protector role in games and the subclass enchances that dramatically. Add some polearm master shenanigans in the mix, and it makes things more interesting. Honestly,fun,underrated and versatile both the fighter and its subclasses teach you a lot about the game.
Cavalier is extremely fun, Cavalier, Samurai, and Battlemaster are the three fighter subclasses which you can go all the way to level 20 without feeling outpaced by other classes.
The really unfair thing about the fighter subclasses is that the champion and battlemaster only get updated or attention when they release fighting style and maneuver class update arcana. The Eldritch Knight potentially gets buffs every time they make new wizard spells. SCAG spells buffed it , XANATHARS buffed it(shadow blade is ridiculous), and now even Wildemount potentially buffs them.
Honestly, champion 7th level fix is just giving them the peerless athlete ability from oath of heroism Paladin in place of the long jump bit of the feature. Both of those subclass speak of honing your body to deadly perfection, it can definitely fit in there.
Someone probably brought it up in the past year+, but Know Your Enemy isn't the *only* thing Battle Masters get at 7th. It is just the only *new* thing. As you bring up in the video, they also get a new combat maneuver *and* an additional combat maneuver die. Between these, and the new ones in Tasha's, there are a variety of good choices, making Know Your Enemy a ribbon feature. I am looking forward to your further reviews, adding in the subclasses you haven't covered yet.
Remarkable athlete is +2 to the affected rolls when you receive the feature at level 7. The feature states that you round up, and proficiency at that level is 3. Also(assuming a str score of 20) the strength mod increase to your running long jump, because of the way jump distances are calculated, give you the ability to jump over medium creatures high enough to not provoke attacks of opportunity. The 2nd fighting style can be really good. Defense style and dueling style with polar master can be pretty good with a spear or quarterstaff. The bonus action attack receives the dueling damage bonus, and you get to wear a shield while emulating someone like two weapon fighting for less investment. The survivor feature at level 18 doesn’t turn off unless you’re at 0 hitpoints. It’s on regardless though f if your in combat. Saves a lot of Hit die and other healing resources from the rest of the party. It is directly affected by your maximum hitpoints too, so the AID and hero’s feast raise its effectiveness. Every spell slot or potion not used to heal you in battle is an action taken by other players to destroy your enemies.
Lunging Attack pairs well with the Sentinel feat, as you could attack at 10'-15' (or 20' if your playing a bugbear) and then attack again when the enemy enters your normal 5'-10' range.
quick note about the Champion's Remarkable Athlete ability. It applies to any Str, Dex, or con check that doesn't already use your prof bonus. Which means any check that is a straight roll with not skill attached counts. Particularly with STR as Athletics certainly does NOT apply to all strength based actions you want to use it for. like breaking stuff or lifting beyond your capacity. These don't actually work with Athletics RAW, though I know many groups make this mistake (myself included). Also, con checks to hold your liquor. That is all.
Goading attack is better than menacing attack due to fear effects being commonly resisted or negated by other features/spells of classes and races, sure it doesnt impose skill disadvantages or movement impediment but skills are rarely used in combat, and if tou attack at distance against an enemy in melee with an ally while you are at least 40 ft away from it he will attack with disadvantage your allies, and he wont be able to easily approach you since you are far away from it, different from menacing which requires you to be in melee to use it, another bonus is that there is absolutely no other way of dealing with "Taunt" like fear does via Brave for example from halflings and other races with similar stuff, or the heroism spell, or the stillness of mind from the monks or other classes that makes them immune to be frightened
Something that I'm going to start commenting on (possibly even go back and do it to the others) is the Average Ranking, Assigning S as 6 Points and F as 1 Point, Adding them up and dividing by the number of features. Fighter General - A (Fighting Styles; A) Champion- C Battlemaster- C (Maneuvers- B) Eldritch Knight- B
Here's a couple of ways I would sort out Fighters supposed power imbalance: Make their attacks do bonus damage as they level up Give them flat bonuses to their AC at certain level points to ensure they are able to survive on the front-lines effectively Give them Expertise in attack rolls when using a weapon they are proficient in Strong, durable and accurate (that might work well)
Hey mate, loving the analysis and you have really taken a lot into consideration (especially manuevers, has helped me figure out that mine field) but have to say though, I think Eldritch knights bonded weapon feature should have been a little higher (maybe one more up). Although it does say weapon, altering a shield with a spike or bladed edge usually works so casting it aside if needing to cast then Bonus action to reequip at the end. And most prominent is bonding with a thrown weapon like the hand axe, spears, daggers, have even seen a net used creatively thus somewhat turning the weapon to having the returning feature. True it is an “ok” feature but if used right can give the weapon your using a bit more of an...edge. But overall solid work (thumbs up)
Battle Master maneuvers: You've wildly underestimated the value of parry and somewhat underestimated the value of pushing attack. In both cases you can use them as you need them and THE DIE IS NEVER WASTED. Parry is more useful at lower levels, but at 3rd through 5th level a 1st level cure wounds spell that you can use AS A REACTION four times per short rest is amazing. If you take parry and trip attack or pushing attack, you will never waste a maneuver die. If you're hit, spend a die and cancel most of the damage. If you get a hit, spend a die, do extra damage and maybe get a nice extra effect. Compare that to riposte: You have to be attacked. The attack has to miss. Then you use your reaction and if you miss the die was completely wasted... It's not useless, but (S) tier? Not unless you literally never miss.
One of the favorite characters I've run was a Kenku dual weapon fighter who went champion. I loved using the fact that he could perfectly replicate things he's heard and with his backstory and background I was allowed to do things like roaring like a dragon and recreating the sounds of a fight with swords clashing and spells bieng casted. And the easier criticals really helped with his dual wielding allowing massive damage and yes he went down easy thanks to his low AC from wearing only light armors but still. I also seduced a ship of pirates after being shot out of a cannon and that made me like him much more
I remember having to resort to that Commander's Strike in a fight once. The party ended up in a fight with a Banshee and her wail ended up fearing my fighter before I could get him into melee range. So instead of being completely useless because I could no longer fight myself, I ended up helping out our rogue by basically giving him more attacks to use on the banshee. It was definitely helpful in that fight for sure.
My current best character (by group concensus) is a champion fighter. The added crits and lots of attacks were the primary goal hehe.... but I think it was his personality and quirks that made him so popular.
Know Your Enemy isn't really bad if you're in a party that likes stealth and ambushes. Heck, get a Scout rogue alongside you and you can identify some key stats on your primary target. Are they ideal for grappling? Is their AC worse than yours? Can you use AOE spells without them safely dodging everything? Information gathering isn't a negative, and it also doubles as a tool for a Fighter to use outside of actual combat. It's much more valuable than the variant that the mastermind gets.
I mainly play casters, but I LOVE fighters. While they typically can’t incinerate foes with an unwieldy orb of flame, there’s something epic about a warrior slashing down far stronger opponents with his honed skills.
Battle Master rule on a battle map, not theatre of the mind groups. It also shines in a power gamer group, where everyone is optimized. Giving commanders strike to a half-orc assassin to get a sneak attack is great, and manuevering strike to get casters in and out of the best positons for their spells (line of sight) is great. If no ones keeping track of positons, Battle Master is just another fighter.
the fighter was my first character is 1AD&D and I love it still. To those who think a fighter is boring, may yourself on a pit roast before the mighty Kord
@@esperthebard Yes, and perhaps in the future I can support you in some additional way as well. // Comment: As a careful analyst and lover of etymology and diction etc., I really appreciate your nuanced and patiently explained observations and evaluations. There's always a caveat and context for everything and I'm glad you consistently provide a framework for understanding various phenomena in the D&D world. Many thanks for your art and artistry as well. The storytelling additions really bring it to life.
As for Eldritch knight, They become one of the hardest to hit fighters in the game, having access to shield and mage armor. If you're playing the Mines of Phandelver, and get the rod of Defense, laugh at how crazy hard you are to hit.
since you didnt cover the unearthed arcana fighting styles, might i say the unarmed combat is my current favorite of the batch because it allows me to be more of a boxing archatype than a martial artist like a monk.
I remember back in pathfinder when you could just get an 18-20 crit modifier by choosing the right weapon, and could turn it to 15-20 with a weapon enhancement.
Remarkable Athlete is so much better than some people give it credit for. The 'Using Each Ability' section in the player's handbook lists several possible Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks that are not tied to any skill. Specifically they are (Strength:) forcing open a door, breaking free of bonds, pushing through a too narrow tunnel, hanging on to a moving wagon, tipping over a statue, keeping a boulder from rolling, (Dexterity:) controling a heavy laden cart on a steep descent, steering a chariot around a tight turn, picking a lock, disabling a trap, securely tying up a prisoner, wriggling free of bonds, playing a stringed instrument, crafting a small object, (Constitution:) holding your breath, marching or laboring for hours without rest, going without sleep, surviving without food or water, quaffing an entire stein of ale in one go. And Champions get to add +1/+2/+3 to all of those kinds of tests.
My first character was a half orc champion who in the course of the campaign defeated a lich (at lv5, that improved crit saved my hide), ate one of cthulu's severed tentacle's, killed a pirate storm giant with his own ship's cannon and won a wrestling match with a kracken.
I feel like pushing attack should have been given a little more love here..at least a B. While it may be situational the moments where those situations come up it is extremely potent every time.
To be fair, as someone who played 1st edition in its heyday with a by the book DM, getting a character to 5th level was rare, BUT… you would be amazed how attached one could get to a 2nd level character and how much you paid attention to every little bonus you had, regardless of how niche.
I just read the "Warrior" class in Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle Earth Player's Guide. This is for D&D 5th Edition. The Knight and the Weaponmaster are both FAR SUPERIOR to ANY of the WotC classes! I can't believe how good they are! And they seem pretty balanced with the other classes in the game, based only on my reading of the material. I haven't played the setting yet, but based on your comments in this video (which I find insightful and helpful), they are hands-down better!!
Know Your Enemy is definitely not the only thing Battle Masters get at 7th level, they also an additional superiority die and two new maneuvers. That's a pretty sweet haul on it's own, and Know Your Enemy is just the little side ability.
Hi Esper! After completing all classes/sub-classes can you make a comparison between them. I want to see which class shines amongst others. I know there are many classes and their sub-classes but even a summarized video would do. That will be the grand-finale of your comparison videos.
Remarkable Athlete also lets you jump farther. It's not phenomenal, but it's not that bad. And Know Your Enemy is pretty good, there's no save, no check, and its basically the only way you can get that benefit RAW. It's not as flashy as a Dimension Door, or a Geas (though Geas kinda sucks in 5e imo), but it's nit garbage. Looking forward to your take on the Xan-Xan's great stuff.
Rogues never get the sneak attack damage bonus more than once per turn. (Although they may >attempt> to sneak attack multiple times if they have more than one attack). You cannot cast more than one levelled spell per turn. If a fighter activates his action surge he can cast a levelled spell with one of his actions and a cantrip with the other, but he can't cast magic missile twice (for example). Those rules are pretty fundamental to the system's action economy. You can't ignore them without seriously undermining game balance.
Just want to point out, the eldritch knight does not get the arcane focus feature in it's spellcasting (nor ritual casting). And that the material component is the somatic component so to speak should you get both, like pointing the gem in the case of chromatic orb. And also EK works good with a duelist style, rapier and a free hand. Or also archer :P
im not sure i agree with weapon bond being a D class, i know its somewhat minor but its one of the skills i find myself using the most when playing eldritch knight. i think i would put it as a C or B but thats just my personal opinion
I really like the Eldritch Knight, but it is also one of the classes that I feel that it may be better to Multiclass out of after 7th level. My preference is to Multiclass into Wizard and pick up the War Magic Subclass for the initiative bonus and the extra spells.
@@harperthegoblin I mean, I wasn't suggesting to multiclass, but if you're going for wizard after 7th level, and if it's available, Bladesinger is better than War Mage
One of my players felt the same way, turned into Divination wizard. getting to choose two rolls makes him near invincible. Plate+shield+changing two rolls that do beat that into misses comes in clutch extremely often. He has so many spells, but every round is basically "Firebolt+attack+attack, does it hit back? If yes and it's less than 24 I cast shield. If it's more than 24, I use my 5 portent and it's not."
The spirit of Gary Gygax - compels you..... to remember how and why Gary created this. Games morph and change. Yet if you knew or read about Gary Gygax, he always said, dice rolls are just the fillers, don't sweat them and just have fun. I get that numbers crunchers just got to have an edge but what happened to imagination and just having fun, not just winning. Games have changed since Gary's time, but WHY do YOU play games? If it is just to win, then you miss the point of playing a ROLE PLAYING GAME. RIP Gary. There are still a few "relics" carrying on in the spirit of your creation. Who's the BEST Fighter? The one that actually ROLE PLAYS.
..... Yes, I AM as old as my Avatar suggests. I knew Gary and played in some of his games in my early days, in Geneva. So, i do have an "old" perspective.
I made a fighter Bard multi class. I choose the close quarters combat, am a human variant so I picked gunner as my perk. He is a gunslinger with only one shot per pistol. At lvl 4 bard I choose sharp shooter. I have two Pistols His's & Her's. His has sharpshooter active hers does not. When you are rolling 1 Die 10 doing +14 a round it's awesome. I'm just trying to figure out my multi class.
Love this video! Yes, agree about 5E's lack of love for the fighter class. There is nothing more boring than continually using the full attack each and every single round. After round. After round. After round.. At least with 4E, a fighter had options.
Well I homebrewed that because fighters deserve the manuvers as much as warlocks incocations. That's why on our table manuvers are class feater and battlemasters gets something much more suitable for " Master " title like for example: 1. Cuting off the limb or head. 2. Marking enemy caster and peventing him from casting spells for a few turns. And so on, I know there might be rally powerfull or OP options but if casters can have OP spells than I don't see any reason why fighter cannot have something as good.
Personally, I'd of preferred if the combat manoeuvres were a normal part of the Fighters Features and instead of the Battlemaster being the only way you could use them (unless you get a feat), the Battlemaster improves upon them either by giving you more, making some stronger, or letting you use them more often. That'd be quite helpful in making the Fighter feel distinct by giving them a cool set of special techniques. Also little thing that isn't Specific to Fighters, but applies to the Champion more then others, I think letting you Score Critical Hits should be worded and ruled a little differently. Namely by a little Homebrew Rule I included. I include Critical Hit range. It basically describes how far of a range you have for a Critical Hit. It starts as 1 for everyone and you only get a crit on 20. For any feature that let's you Score a crit on a 19, it increases the Critical Hit Range by 1. This is a simple change, except that multiple sources can stack. I mostly did this cause I didn't want some features that did the same thing to be squandered so I made them work together. It's also not common to get a Critical Hit or something that increases the odds so unless they go out of their way to increase it, it'll be very hard to increase it. I also do give a little bonus to anyone who rolls a Nat 20 on Saves and Skill Checks but don't succeed already. They just roll an additional dice that I flavor as appropriate and they still need. I just think if you roll a Nat 20, you should still get a shot. You can't reroll the added die though.
I agree that Champion needs work. I get that it's supposed to be as simple as possible, but that shouldn't mean boring. My suggestions: 1) Make Remarkable Athlete truly remarkable by giving a larger boost or event just straight advantage to all Athletics and/or Acrobatics rolls. 2) Improve Improved Critical every 3 or 4 levels. So, it starts at a natural 19 or 20 at level 3, then becomes a natural 18-20 at 7th level, then 17-20 at 10th level. Keep going until level 18, and a natural 15 or above triggers a Crit. That's still rare enough to make rolling a Crit feel special rather routine, but you'd be doing it a lot more often than anyone else in the party.
I think you missed out on the main purpose of weapon bond. It's so that you can have a sword and shield and still cast spells without the warcaster feat. You drop your sword as a free action, cast your spell as an action, then bonus action return sword to hand.
Honestly i think figthers should gain theyr 4th atack at 17 level ( the same level firebolt and eldritch blast gain theyr 4 dice ) and at 20 level gain something more flashy and epic. Like being able to once per short rest rise up when you fall unconscious and spend some hit dies to regain healt. Just imagine the scene, the party is fighting a ancient red dragon, the body of the paladi lies beneath its claws, the ranger and mage are against the wall when sudently a javelin hits the eye of the beast, everyone looks to the side where the fighter bathed on its own blood slowly rise up and says: "Thats all you got little lizard ?"
My main issue with the Fighter in various issues of D&D has always been that while it nominally represents 'all' fighters the mechanics very much push any melee fighter towards walking around in the heaviest armour you can afford and carrying a shield. If I want to play a more lightly armoured warrior without a shield - Zorro or d'Artagnan or Tarzan or Hercules or basically any pirate or samurai I pretty much have to play a Rogue or else play a Fighter and deliberately make myself mechanically weaker.
You can be a DEX Fighter just as well. With Studded Leather and max Dex your AC would only be 1 lower than Full Plate(you can take Defense Fighting Style to offset that difference). DEX also helps with a lot of stuff like initiative and stealth, things heavy armor Fighters would not be good at. So, no, the mechanics don't push you that way.
@@toshomni9478 Which still mechanically punishes you for not taking a shield and the heaviest armour you can afford. A samurai who is going shieldless, wearing some form of medium armour and only wielding a longsword (ie. a katana) is very cool from a flavour point of view but is simply subpar in mechanics from the same 'samurai' stomping around in full plate with a shield.
@@Awoken0 Even a DEX based Fighter pretty much has to lumber around with a shield or they are deliberately leaving themselves subpar. No matter how much it might run against the flavour you might want.
I would note that, with great weapon fighting, the greatsword is pretty much the only viable weapon due to its use of 2 dice, which means GWF is more likely to come into play. The average greatsword damage with no modifiers increases from 7 to 9 and the minimum is 6. Greataxe only raises its average from 6.5 to 7.5 and the minimum damage becomes 3. In order to fix this, I recommend doubling the reroll range to 1-4 on single damage dice weapons like the greataxe, so the minimum base damage is 5, the average becomes 8.5 for the greataxe. This change would keep it viable. Maybe even increase the range to 1-5 to make the greataxe even better than the greatsword.
I know I’m probably not gonna change your point of view on this, but I’m gonna make an argument for champion fighter. The expanded crit range, while simple, is still on the best possible class it could be associated with since you’re making the largest number of attacks each turn, you have a very high chance to crit, a bonus to initiative is always appreciated, and jumping can often be ignored if combat maps are 2D or don’t have any terrain you’re incentivized to avoid, but I try to keep it relevant to keep Str based classes prepared. It gives fighters a better chance of being able to contribute in different aspects of the game with half prof in stealth & sleight of hand. Depending on your weapon of choice at first level you can either stack something onto that (+1 AC, or protection if you have a sword and board and chose dueling), or gain another viable weapon option. Also, survivor not only gives you extra durability during a battle, it grants you very good out of combat healing, and potentially, after you’re done healing if you still have uses of it, you can go well beyond half health with second wind. It also makes it so that the “healer” doesn’t have to waste their spell slots on you. In the cases where you go from above half hp to 0 (pretty rare), the race/class combo you mentioned earlier for critical hit damage also negates this scenario since relentless endurance is also beneficial to the class as a whole.
I kinda wish the rogue could get that crit bonus since it would affect sneak attacks. Same for the initiative boost. The jump bonus is long jump only and a max 5 feet, so a single square... You make a point that survivor isn't bad but it doesn't really feel right to have your level 18 ability be a mostly out of combat one.
All you need to know for Fighters is this: A Variant Human Fighter--using Standard Array--with 16 Dexterity, the Dueling fighting style and Defensive Duelist feat does 1d8+5 with a Rapier. *At first level*
To be fair to Champions, I’m pretty sure the proficiency bonus would also be added to straight ability checks, which normally don’t get any bonuses and have lower DCs.
Just wanted to point out that Indomitable says "failed saving throw", not "failed ability saving throw". Meaning it works on death saves. A little to remember when it becomes relevant at your table, my friends
Holy shit your right
Yoooooooo!
The same is true for when you're making death saves and a Paladin is standing close to you. Or when you're a high-level monk
@@sambro6657 his right?
That's what he said in the video. But it's still nothing amazing.
I absolutely love this series.
I agree
Very excited for when we hit paladin, because all of them are great. Arguably 5e's best martial class.
These are awesome! I agree with most of what is said. I do think goading attack (of the battle master) is pretty good if used on a ranged fighter that is out of range of the monster.
I'd like to mention that the Eldritch Knight also makes a great archer, using either a longbow or a hand crossbow.
and even heavy crossbow, if you manage to get your hand on both shaprshooter and crossbow expert (which you likely will)
EK is made for cantrip slinging especially with the SCAG cantrips or alongside shadowblade, a ranged EK will definitely fall behind
Depends how you do it. EK gives a fighter-archer insane survivability - Shield + Absorb Element + Protection from Good & Evil. Plus if you use the extra spell at 3rd level to get a Familiar so you can give yourself a much better chance of landing a sharpshooter shot. EK doesn't get shadowblade until way late and the damage only just keeps par with GWM heavy-weapons fighters, and generally the SCAG cantrips fall behind Battlemaster maneuvers or dual-wiedling in terms of extra damage.
Originally (before SCAG) I think the EK was meant to be the maneuverable fighter - using Shocking Grasp to do hit-and-run attacks. Or as an arcane archer - use firebolt / chilltouch then follow up with an arrow attack.
I made an ek crossbow user for a high-level one shot. Focused on the crossbow side. Low int, but with spells that were only for defense and utility. So no saves or attacks needed. What I had was a quite capable mage, who on a turn with action surge, could throw up to 7 shots from my hand crossbow, and with sharpshooter, was hitting at +9. The damage if they all hit were at I think +17, so it was ridiculous. Didn't actually play him though, a straight sorcerer fit the party better. And that was ok, because it taught me how much damage a well placed cone of cold could do.
@@lesliebraun8438 I can respectfully admit that when it comes to know the ins and outside of classes/subclasses and effectiveness and possibilities of spells, I fall short in the knowledge department. Only thing smart I've ever done in a session was set a tar pit full of undead that were partially slowed by the tar but if I or any of my party members were to be pulled in, we would be fucked, (now this was third edition, like a year before 4th edition came out, so no cantrips). There were about a dozen undead and there were only three of us and I was the only spell caster, a sorcerer, used burning hands on the tar and set it all on fire effectively killing all the undead.
Everyone laughs at the Champion until that player starts multiclassing
Barbarian: Reckless Attack+Expanded crit range basically allows you to crank up your crit chance to 19% per attack as long as you reckless attack. Add Great Weapon Master and watch your character crit several times per combat.
Paladin: Divine Smite dice are doubled on a critical hit, making a greatsword crit in a level one divine smite deal 4d6+4d8+Str mod damage. This all gets even better if you're an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, which can use Vow of Enmity to get that sweet, sweet 19% crit chance on advantage. This combo is a boss killer.
Ranger: If you're using UA Ranger, you get advantage on initiative rolls as well as creatures who haven't moved yet while you're taking your first turn. Pairing this ability with Expanded Crit Range and Horde Breaker allows you to wipe out half an encounter before they even get a chance to respond.
Rogue: Sneak Attack Dice are doubled on a critical hit. Should speak for itself.
Sure, Champion isn't the most game breaking thing out there, but a 3 level dip into Champion or a Champion who is dipping 2-4 levels into another class is hard to beat.
@Pelinal Whitestrake He's often seen as a stand up hero, stalwart defender of justice by those who know him. His enemies see him as a thug and a brute. His reputation precedes him for having gone toe to toe with foes out of his league and won. He's really just a quick thinker, and resourceful, pragmatic fighter that would prefer to slit a few throats or sneak his way through danger. He's just strong enough to hold his own in direct combat for a time.
Just got to the Battlemaster section, and it reminded me of something.
During the 5e playtest, Fighters all had the Battlemaster's maneuvers. It wasn't until the official version that these were sawed off and made into a subclass in the name of simplicity. Learning about this pissed me off something fierce, since it's when I realized why Fighter just felt really "off" to me. Fighters are basically given a choice between having a subclass and having all their class features.
you can still pick up the feat though
Ok that’s just terrible
Just talk with your DM to have it as part of the base class features and then pick the subclass you want.
Wow that's sad, they could've just made the general fighter have d6 superior die and battlemaster stronger ones and specialized maneuvers
that would make martial classes so much better and more interesting. :/
I like how the fighter is almost like a create a class template, with the increased feat capacity, loose weapon proficiency and so many archetypes, it’s as if you’re home brewing a class
Still better off multiclassing than going straight fighter 9 times out of 10
Feats are an optional rule, imo this makes “fighters are balanced around taking feats” an invalid argument.
@@witchBoi_Connor If your DM is not allowing the optional Feat rule, I honestly question their capacity to compromise and give you any agency over your character. Even then, you still receive 4 additional ability points to round yourself out.
@@torunsmok5890 I would not call it that severe of a divide, atop of the fact most classes have arguably weak capstone features. Fighter also works well for secondary class investment as a physical ability multi-tool and general front line beef
@@witchBoi_Connor Ah, it's you again. I do need to know who that cute...witch? in your avatar is...
I can stand behind the eldritch knight. Having shield and blur on a guy in plate, wielding a greatsword, feels awesome. Not to mention haste. I'm a bit iffy on using spell slots for attacks, but fireball and firewall are options.
I feel like your GM might have let you get away with a few favors because Eldritch Knights can't learn Blur and Haste. The written rules specify that their starting spells must be Evocation and Abjuration only, and every spell they learn thereafter must also be Evocation or Abjuration, which fits neither Blur (Illusion) nor Haste (transmutation).
@@abadidea5984 No, you can learn a couple spells of other schools at certain levels. It's restrictive, but a few spells can be non abjuration and evocation.
You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the abjuration and evocation spells on the wizard spell list. The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic.
So at level 3, 8, 14, and 20 you can learn spells from any school.
@@abadidea5984 dude esper even noted in the video, like the arcane trickster being mostly locked into illusion and enchantment but getting free choice at a couple points, E knights get the same freedom at certain levels.
You can learn a scant amount of spells outside of evocation and abjuration.
Tbh, I think its a stupid rule that limits the creativity of players. Just give the players the choice to choose the two schools which they are restricted to and include the option to learn spells outside of your two choices every other level similar to the original EK.
@@johnisaacfelipe6357 I would like this. I'm not sure why the spellcasting needs to be this restrictive. Just let it be like a paladin, except on the arcane side. Or would that be too OP?
I love how the opening of the vid points out that people claim you have a bias towards casters that you try to dissuade... then rate the Eldrich Knight super-high compared to the others. If I knew it wasn't intentional, I'd ask to roll a deception check.
Ah, but I jest... and I totally understand. Still, my first D&D character was a Battle Master and I have a fondness for them. I plan on returning to the class one day. Can't wait to see how the other Fighters fare ^-^d
1. He rated rally higher than parry when they do the same thing. Preventing you from taking about a level 1 healing spell in damage. There is clearly some 4e byass happening here.
2. He really oversold Warmagic. The fighter is balanced around being the guy with the most attacks for their action and you are giving that up for a cantrip. It should have been the other way around where you could cast the cantrip as a bonus action alongside all your attacks.
3. He rated goading attack badly but imagine using goading attack with a bow so that your opponent can't reach you or have to get past other tanks to hit you. Awesome support for your group.
In my experience, and according to every other webdm, the BM PWNs the EK. A BM with three lvls of Bear Totem Barbarian multied in is insanely strong.
The icing on the cake that is the Eldritch knight is the fact that some spells (such as Shadow Blade and Fire Shield) are much more effective for the fighter than the wizard due to far greater attack count and durability, and I'm really looking forward to playing a dex-based Feral Tiefling eldritch knight thanks to hellish rebuke and the Flames of Phlegethos feat, which are wonderful ways to trade the damage you take for the damage the attackers that would focus you down anyway receive.
Dude, pick up green flame blade, then you Will be able to trigger the flame aura from flames of pheletegros every turn while making two attacks per turn at 7th level, one of whom Will deal extra damage
@@defensivekobra3873 That's precisely my plan, my dude! :D
I think Fire Shield is just too expensive for an Eldritch Knight. That is your _only_ fourth level slot you're using on that. As cool as it is, I just couldn't justify taking it on my Eldritch Knight build.
@@theuncalledfor you forget Spell Scroll, access to Wizard spell mean you can use Wish scroll, you just need to roll for it
@@justnoob8141
Scroll are consumables, you can't have them in your build, you buy or find them during "runtime".
really feel you rated the dueling fighting style too low, or at least should have discussed how it allows for a shield to be used alongside the one-handed weapon. It's actually fairly good for a more tanky build.
Yea, i totally agree with this. The dmg increase is actl higher than gwf on a greatsword on average as well. So it should be on par with/ better than it.
I almost gave it A Tier, but in the end, it just stays at +2 damage for your entire adventuring career. Two Weapon Fighter at least scales up as your Str/Dex increases.
@@esperthebard But dueling does scale, just in a different way. Martial classes (except rogue) all get at least 1 extra attack which means dueling applies at least twice for a +4 a turn. For fighters, its even more powerful. On the other hand, i find the scaling of twf abit weak as only your bonus action attack is buffed, in a way it caps at 5 dmg turn and as the game goes into later levels, you can usually get more things to do as a bonus action (e.g polearm master 1d4 atk, great weapon master bonus action atk on a crit or kill, second wind, activate flame tongue, cast shadow blade) even though some are just a once per combat event, considering that most combat don't last for more than 5 rounds, the power of twf decreases.
Two weapon fighter mathematically sucks in comparison to dueling (it also taks up your bonus action). Any analysis i have seen always looks bad. By comparison dueling has always come out favourably. Great Weapon fighting all sucks, i believe it averages a +1 increase on a greatsword, with less on a greataxe
So the reasons Great weapon fighting were said to be good, whilst it makes you "feel" good to reroll, realistically it is inferior to dueling. id knock it down at least 2 tiers, not 1
Both the other fighting styles are bad enough that its probably just best to go for the +1 ac. again, people can pick their flavour, but the damage increase just isnt high and i dont think they deserve the high spots. WIth dueling being just great
@@YMDIJ I would also say twf isn't as strong at higher levels especially if you're gonna be attacking up to three to four times or more with action surge in a turn, which was exactly what Esper the Bard said was Fighter's Strongest advantage. In addition, GwF I think should've been higher ranked as per its effective damage bonus as disscussed in the first answer here: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/47172/how-much-damage-does-great-weapon-fighting-add-on-average#:~:text=Great%20Weapon%20Fighting%20will%20increase,never%20be%20larger%20than%201.&text=Then%20the%20increase%20in%20the,%5B1%E2%88%92YX%5D.
".. it's like red and white if this was MtG."
As an old Magic player, I finally have a broad concept of evocation
As you mentioned, Battlemaster's do get additional manuevers, superiority dice; and those die upsize at 10th and 18th level, so they do get decent enough upgrades over time. The manuevers are very weirdly imbalanced though, yeah.
Me: I have to do school work
Also me: oh, a new Esper video! Nevermind about that work
epic xD
Arcane archer should have more than 2 special shot uses. There i said it
I let my players base the number of uses per short rest off their intelligence modifier, minimum of 1 use. Its a way for them to get more of a beneift out of intelligence other then just a slight DC buff to their arrow effects
@@christopherfloody5555 so basically treating the arcane shots like a gunslingers grit points.
@@christopherfloody5555 I do the same thing.
Fighter! I have strong feelings about the fighter. I believe that fighter as a class is the single most dependent on its subclass and feats to be even slightly interesting to play. Fighter was the first class I played, all the way up to level 7, and my kit was SPARCE thanks to my poor decision making, a bad subclass, no feats, and no multiclassing. And my issue lies that no other class is so damning to play as fighter if you don’t know what you’re doing.
I’ve heard rumors that the pre-5e playtest of fighter had built-in battlemaster maneuvers and man do I wish fighter had that because battlemaster actually feels like playing a fighter. What I wouldn’t give to have maneuvers, even if they were slightly weakened, especially if it replaced a shite features like indomitable and even second wind. Or buff second wind to have more uses but less healed. (I just want something to use my bonus action on gods dammit).
Also on the “why battlemaster is best non-magic fighter” train, you get unique utility abilities for use outside combat and/or for flavor!
Jett Lucas Hayes those are UA and Homebrew, AND two of them are magical. I am talking about, and this video is talking about content available in wizard’s of the coast approved and AL legal content.
Saying fighter is the simplest class really is a lie.
Jett Lucas Hayes I know it’s a month late, but I also need to add, the Gunslinger by Matt Mercer is based on the pathfinder class of the same name. Yknow, pathfinder, an infinitely more complex and customizable system?
Last game I played, I went from Blacksmith Rune Lord subclass (from 5eSRD), and dual classed into a Fighter Runeblade Martial Archetype that made for a great story line and a pretty powerful fighter. A young blacksmith that went out adventuring with his friend, coming across a broken and rusted old sword with a pristine jewel. After piecing the sword together and making an image of the runes, he forged a new sword, carved the runes in and set the stone in it, causing the spirit in the stone to come to life and possess the blade. At the start, only a handful of the etched runes came to life bestowing power, and the more he mastered the sword, the more runes unlocked and became active.
Dueling fighting style should get a higher ranking considering you can still use a shield and still receive the +2 damage bonus.
That’s insane.
I disagree on the Champion's improved crit range, it sinergizes super well with the base fighter's multiattack and when you take into account things like advantage it makes the fighter the premier magic weapon user.
You have a good point about Great Weapon Fighting being fun, but Dueling should be equivalent or higher ranked. Dueling always gives +2 damage, which is a larger damage boost than GWF gives all 2 handed weapons. On average, GWF gives Greataxes +0.833 damage, Greatswords/Mauls +1.33 damage, and Doublebladed Scimitars +1 damage.
So in all cases, Dueling gives a better bonus than GWF. That's assuming we aren't biased on Sword & Board vs Two-handed Weapons.
GWF combines well with more feats than Dueling does.
@@xaviervega468 The damage from GWF is pretty negligible with GWM, it's mediocre on Polearm Master, the extra damage from Orcish Fury is once per short rest for a maximum of 0.833 damage, and Savage Attacker is almost never worth the feat anyway.
I'd argue that Dueling (or even Defense) is much better with Polearm Master than GWF is.
The best argument to make for GWF is if your DM allows Divine Smites or Battlemaster maneuver damage to be rerolled, which is a contested ruling.
@@andrewcoonradt9513 Dueling/Polearm Master only works with the spear. GWF works with any polearm.
@@xaviervega468 The Quarterstaff works with Dueling as well. Either way, you probably won't be using GWF on the Spear or Quarterstaff.
Then it comes back down to Glaive/Halberd + GWF vs Quarterstaff/Spear (and shield) + Dueling.
Reach and 0.8 damage/attack or +2 AC.
Nice analysis! Personally, I have found at my table that the battlemaster far outpaces the Eldritch Knight for damage, while the Knight can tank like you wouldn't believe. Precision Attack is the key feature for the battlemaster. Ideally paired with sharpshooter or great weapons master, it will turn lots of near misses into hits on the most damaging attacks. Riposte also puts melee enemies in a world of pain. Not quite as durable as an Eldritch Knight with the Shield spell, but how often do fighters go down anyway?
In any event, both subclasses are excellent and I really don't find the fighter to be falling behind the casters in my group.
Goading strike has saved my party of casters and rouges so many times over.
As an Eldritch Knight main this makes me happy to get around the one hand needs to be free to cast somatic spells i would go sword and board and then drop my weapon as a free action cast the spell and use my bonus action to resummon my bonded weapon
Just wanted to interject about the Ynow Your Enemy ability from Battlemaster is that one it's explicitly out of combat and the longer you interact with the creature the more information you find out so centrally with enough time you could literally know everything about your opponent.
There is just something beautiful about the simplicity of the Fighter. Most other classes you have to make choices about spells and feats and whatnot while you're just a guy/gal that swings a sword real good.
I play as a Battlemaster homebrewed to be entirely defence focussed and just stand 25ft in front of the rest of my spellcaster-party holding off waves of enemies whilst they fling spells from a safe distance. We have a fun dynamic
It's fascinating that a ranged fighter is a better physical dps than a ranger. Love the fighter
In earlier levels the ranger is better, the hunter's mark+colosus slayer is just too OP for low cr creatures. The fighter gets better once he gets his third attack, but that's a lot investment
How do casters in 5e get as many features as fighters, and get spells and think things are balanced?
Cause dumbing things down in a system means that the things that were strong in the more complicated version gets buffed in the more simpler version. Back in 3.5 casters had their spells and could barely wear armor along with shit hp (a d4), meaning tanks and martials were all good. In 5e, Wizards can wear armor and cast.
5e balance is whack. Fortunately, you can easily buff things with homebrew
It's because 5e isn't balanced, and hear me out: that's not a bad thing. It just means that classes have differences in the scopes of what they will achieve. The Fighter, well, he *fights* , and he's the best at it. The highest tier of Fighter will achieve legendary feats like slaying titans or facing down whole armies as an unstoppable one-man bastion. But he will *never* reach the heights of the Wizard, who brings entire civilizations to their knees in a moment's passing, who unravels the designs of the gods and reshapes reality to their whim. They're not meant to have the same *level* of power, but they are meant to embody different aspects of heroic fantasy. You can be Doctor Strange, opening portals across all of space and time to assemble all the worlds' heroes and armies in a manner of minutes, or you can be Captain America who rises from the brink of death with little else but a broken shield, ready to face Thanos's entire army, and both are equally as heroic.
A 20th level fighter still gets 4 attacks per turn unconditionally, potentially 8 with Action Surge. That is way more damage than any caster can dish out without having to use limited resources (unless they have an at least 2-level dip into Warlock, and Agonizing Blast being so OP without having to invest many levels is not a problem with casters, just with the warlock in particular). Plus the whole 1d6 hit die thing.
Honestly, The only caster that is OP in such a way that invalidates martials is the sorcerer with 2 levels dip into warlock.
the problem lies in the warlock kit tbh, its honestly stupid.
But in terms of single target DPS, fighters do way way more than any caster could do without multiclassing.
its just that outside of fighting, a player with a fighter character will have to rely on their wits and personal charisma to carry the day rather than on spells
I hope there is a segment about feats. Because fighters are NOT the same without comboing and abusing feats. They have frigging 7 asi especially for that. Plus, things like great weapon master + polearm master means an extra attack which can get the -5/+10 , you can do the same with crossbow expert and sharpshooter; you can combo sentinel with polearm master to get the 10ft attack of opportunity that roots and there are other combos too.
To be honest I hate being pigeon holed into using polearms.
My DM combined the Battlemaster and Eldritch Knight archetypes. It is really great and it doesn't feel overpowered. I only wish, the fighter would have had the Battle Master features as standard.
Can you explain how he did? It doesn't seem too complicated but I'm curious how others do it.
I would also be inturested in how he did this
Combining battle master and the eldritch knight reminds me of a spell sword for some reason.
Edit: spell sword being from elder scrolls oblivion.
Honestly, the more I think about the Champion, the more I'm actually inspired to play as one. I've played many classes who grow to have mythic levels of powers, magic, and techniques who just become pseudo-gods by as early as lvl 11, and I find it difficult to make interesting decisions at mid-to-late game D&D when every problem can be solved with aggressive application of supernatural power. So I think there's a sort of appeal in being just the every-man hero, the hero who *isn't* gifted with magic or abilities, who *isn't* a master of skills or techniques, but just a mortal who is determined to risk their life on the edge of a blade because they *can* . In fact, removing complexity from the class and keeping its mechanics basic means I can stop thinking about problem solving in terms of a catalogue of powers, and start thinking *outside* the sheet. I think it's liberating, and I'd love to give it a try.
This is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of class. Either you think it's impossibly dull with no options, or you sort of lean to your thoughts on it where it's -cool- to play a guy with no powers and that it connects you to the game world by stripping away options.
I'm really into that playstyle though. I haven't tried in in 5e, but in Pathfinder I've played a few characters that have a similar lack pf abilities (Choosing only passive options, for example.) It's really remarkably fun. Not having class features doesn't make you better at strategy by the rules, but it sort of puts you in the right mindset to really capitalize on all your options.
It sort of radically changes the game from one where you are concerned about your class options to one where you are thinking more in the game world. I was usually the one buying single-use potions to counter specific enemies, varying my equipment to handle the environment better, commissioning specific equipment, and using niche items like spyglasses. I do recommend trying it, as such.
Finally!! Been waiting for this one for awhile. Thank you, Esper!
I've been playing a battle master and he is fun to play, as for the know your enemy I've used it to nice effect, the spell caster is talking and I'm getting info on whoever we are dealing with using myself as a baseline. Anyone on par with my fighter physically or with class levels immediately gets my attention, its helped to gauge how tough some one might be too since I can know their Armor Class and current hit points.
"...unless you have the war caster feat"
*Laughs in Ruby of the War Mage*
Yeah, but that assumes you have that specific magic item, which you probably shouldn't count on to make a class "work", where as fighter specifically is in a situation where it can just take extra feats to do just that.
@@kedolan4992 Here's the thing. Once you get Ruby of the War Mage and put it on your weapon, it can't be taken from you because of your bonded weapon ;) That and it's a common level magic item. What DM is going to tell their Mage Knight no to that.
Ruby of the War Mage doesn't help you though, since EKs can't use a focus to begin with, it doesn't matter if their weapon is a focus
New Battle Master Maneuvers from Tasha's:
Ambush: When you roll a Dexterity (Stealth) or initiative roll, you can expend on superiority die and add the roll, provided you are not incapacitated.
There are times where the are too many foes to fight and the sneaky way is the better option. Adding that die to the stealth roll could help immensely, especially with heavy armor. Plus, nobody can say no to being higher in the initiative order.
Bait and Switch: When you’re within 5 feet of a creature on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and switch places with that creature, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement and the creature is willing and isn’t incapacitated. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
Roll the superiority die. Until the start of your next turn, you or the other creature (your choice) gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled.
More Warlord capability, seems good for grid combat.
Brace: When a creature you can see moves into the reach you have with the melee weapon you’re wielding, you can use your reaction to expend one superiority die and make one attack against the creature, using that weapon. If the attack hits, add the superiority die to the weapon’s damage roll.
Kind of a poor man's Sentinel feat, IMO.
Commanding Presence: When you make a Charisma (Intimidation), a Charisma (Performance), or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the superiority die to the ability check.
Pretty interesting, using a superiority die outside of combat.
Grappling Strike: Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and then try to grapple the target as a bonus action (see the Player’s Handbook for rules on grappling). Add the superiority die to your Strength (Athletics) check.
Not a lot of options for bonus attacks, and this certainly opens one up to keep an enemy occupied.
Quick Toss: As a bonus action, you can expend one superiority die and make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. If you hit, add the superiority die to the weapon’s damage roll.
Hmm... One extra attack with a thrown weapon without burning an action to draw it, and on top two attack actions (action surge is not a bonus action), sounds fun.
Tactical Assessment: When you make an Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), or a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the superiority die to the ability check.
More non-combat options for superiority dice. Again, interesting.
25:36 I'd say blue spells in mtg are more similar to the abjuration school than white spells; most walls are blue, most 'you deal less damage' spells are blue and counterspell is blue
White is about damage reduction and primarily "Protection from"
Blue would be closer to spells such as counterspell, dispel magic, and anti-magic field
@@velphidrow Counterspell, dispel magic, and anti-magic field are abjuration school spells though. White has a lot of focus on healing as well and would better fit Cleric/Paladin spells.
Another thing to point out about the Eldritch Knight, is that they are somewhat limited in the spells they get, its mostly evocation and abjuration spells, with some exceptions at certain levels.
The reason Eldritch Strike is so good, is if you pair it with hold person a spell you can get around 8th level. If you hit your opponent the previous turn they get disadvantage on the save, then the next turn you cast hold person, and if they fail the save, you can action surge and potentially get 3 critical hits on the opponent. Which is a pretty effective combo and one I will be using when I get to play the Eldritch Knight myself
Here's a fun rule for you DM's:
I personally do something different for critical hits: Instead of the player rolling their damage dice twice, simply have them deal the maximum amount of damage (For example, a fighter with a +4 strength and a 1d10 warhammer as an example, on a crit deals 14 damage + whatever they roll and any other dice/modifiers.) No matter what, even if he rolls a 1 for his damage roll, he still deals a lot of damage. Crits hurt, yo!
I also however, have enemies use this critical system. My players dread being hit with a big bad enemy's critical hit when I open roll it.
That's actually the rule Feast of Legends, the Wendys Trpg uses.
@@joelsasmad Oh, is it? Well that is certainly nifty!
24:50 "eldritch" just means "other-worldy" it doesn't necessarily have to do with cosmic horror
Merriam-Webster defines eldritch as: Strange or unnatural especially in a way that inspires fear; WEIRD, EERIE. This is the meaning that everyone understands. The eldritch knight has nothing in its class features, lore, or aesthetic that fits this definition. A better name for this subclass would have been spellsword, mage knight, or arcane knight.
@@esperthebard in classical literature/defination, it's used to mean supernatural or unearthly
it comes from middle english _el-ritch_
-"El" means "alien, other, else" or possibly "elf"
-"Ritch" means "realm, kingdom, power", compare it to German "Reich"
This is also why it's called "eldritch blast", since it comes from the other-worldy patron
I can say that i have fallen in love with the cavalier subclass since its release from Xanathar's. I enjoy the protector role in games and the subclass enchances that dramatically. Add some polearm master shenanigans in the mix, and it makes things more interesting. Honestly,fun,underrated and versatile both the fighter and its subclasses teach you a lot about the game.
Cavalier is extremely fun, Cavalier, Samurai, and Battlemaster are the three fighter subclasses which you can go all the way to level 20 without feeling outpaced by other classes.
Personally cavalier is my favorite archetype, I love opportunity attacks
The really unfair thing about the fighter subclasses is that the champion and battlemaster only get updated or attention when they release fighting style and maneuver class update arcana.
The Eldritch Knight potentially gets buffs every time they make new wizard spells. SCAG spells buffed it , XANATHARS buffed it(shadow blade is ridiculous), and now even Wildemount potentially buffs them.
Honestly, champion 7th level fix is just giving them the peerless athlete ability from oath of heroism Paladin in place of the long jump bit of the feature. Both of those subclass speak of honing your body to deadly perfection, it can definitely fit in there.
Goading attack is actually pretty op in the hands of a ranged fighter
Wait a minute.........
Someone probably brought it up in the past year+, but Know Your Enemy isn't the *only* thing Battle Masters get at 7th. It is just the only *new* thing. As you bring up in the video, they also get a new combat maneuver *and* an additional combat maneuver die. Between these, and the new ones in Tasha's, there are a variety of good choices, making Know Your Enemy a ribbon feature.
I am looking forward to your further reviews, adding in the subclasses you haven't covered yet.
Remarkable athlete is +2 to the affected rolls when you receive the feature at level 7.
The feature states that you round up, and proficiency at that level is 3.
Also(assuming a str score of 20) the strength mod increase to your running long jump, because of the way jump distances are calculated, give you the ability to jump over medium creatures high enough to not provoke attacks of opportunity.
The 2nd fighting style can be really good. Defense style and dueling style with polar master can be pretty good with a spear or quarterstaff. The bonus action attack receives the dueling damage bonus, and you get to wear a shield while emulating someone like two weapon fighting for less investment.
The survivor feature at level 18 doesn’t turn off unless you’re at 0 hitpoints. It’s on regardless though f if your in combat. Saves a lot of Hit die and other healing resources from the rest of the party. It is directly affected by your maximum hitpoints too, so the AID and hero’s feast raise its effectiveness. Every spell slot or potion not used to heal you in battle is an action taken by other players to destroy your enemies.
This channel is so under rated. You deserve more subscribers. Great content as usual
Lunging Attack pairs well with the Sentinel feat, as you could attack at 10'-15' (or 20' if your playing a bugbear) and then attack again when the enemy enters your normal 5'-10' range.
quick note about the Champion's Remarkable Athlete ability. It applies to any Str, Dex, or con check that doesn't already use your prof bonus. Which means any check that is a straight roll with not skill attached counts. Particularly with STR as Athletics certainly does NOT apply to all strength based actions you want to use it for. like breaking stuff or lifting beyond your capacity. These don't actually work with Athletics RAW, though I know many groups make this mistake (myself included). Also, con checks to hold your liquor. That is all.
Goading attack is better than menacing attack due to fear effects being commonly resisted or negated by other features/spells of classes and races, sure it doesnt impose skill disadvantages or movement impediment but skills are rarely used in combat, and if tou attack at distance against an enemy in melee with an ally while you are at least 40 ft away from it he will attack with disadvantage your allies, and he wont be able to easily approach you since you are far away from it, different from menacing which requires you to be in melee to use it, another bonus is that there is absolutely no other way of dealing with "Taunt" like fear does via Brave for example from halflings and other races with similar stuff, or the heroism spell, or the stillness of mind from the monks or other classes that makes them immune to be frightened
Something that I'm going to start commenting on (possibly even go back and do it to the others) is the Average Ranking, Assigning S as 6 Points and F as 1 Point, Adding them up and dividing by the number of features.
Fighter General - A (Fighting Styles; A)
Champion- C
Battlemaster- C (Maneuvers- B)
Eldritch Knight- B
Here's a couple of ways I would sort out Fighters supposed power imbalance:
Make their attacks do bonus damage as they level up
Give them flat bonuses to their AC at certain level points to ensure they are able to survive on the front-lines effectively
Give them Expertise in attack rolls when using a weapon they are proficient in
Strong, durable and accurate (that might work well)
Hey mate, loving the analysis and you have really taken a lot into consideration (especially manuevers, has helped me figure out that mine field) but have to say though, I think Eldritch knights bonded weapon feature should have been a little higher (maybe one more up).
Although it does say weapon, altering a shield with a spike or bladed edge usually works so casting it aside if needing to cast then Bonus action to reequip at the end. And most prominent is bonding with a thrown weapon like the hand axe, spears, daggers, have even seen a net used creatively thus somewhat turning the weapon to having the returning feature.
True it is an “ok” feature but if used right can give the weapon your using a bit more of an...edge.
But overall solid work (thumbs up)
Battle Master maneuvers: You've wildly underestimated the value of parry and somewhat underestimated the value of pushing attack. In both cases you can use them as you need them and THE DIE IS NEVER WASTED.
Parry is more useful at lower levels, but at 3rd through 5th level a 1st level cure wounds spell that you can use AS A REACTION four times per short rest is amazing.
If you take parry and trip attack or pushing attack, you will never waste a maneuver die. If you're hit, spend a die and cancel most of the damage. If you get a hit, spend a die, do extra damage and maybe get a nice extra effect. Compare that to riposte: You have to be attacked. The attack has to miss. Then you use your reaction and if you miss the die was completely wasted... It's not useless, but (S) tier? Not unless you literally never miss.
One of the favorite characters I've run was a Kenku dual weapon fighter who went champion. I loved using the fact that he could perfectly replicate things he's heard and with his backstory and background I was allowed to do things like roaring like a dragon and recreating the sounds of a fight with swords clashing and spells bieng casted. And the easier criticals really helped with his dual wielding allowing massive damage and yes he went down easy thanks to his low AC from wearing only light armors but still. I also seduced a ship of pirates after being shot out of a cannon and that made me like him much more
Fun play, Do Stunning fist as a monk/fighter, and if they get stunned, Many Battle master maneuvers auto succeed.
Can’t wait to find out what you think of the Cavalier. Cav is my absolute favorite Fighter subclass.
I remember having to resort to that Commander's Strike in a fight once. The party ended up in a fight with a Banshee and her wail ended up fearing my fighter before I could get him into melee range. So instead of being completely useless because I could no longer fight myself, I ended up helping out our rogue by basically giving him more attacks to use on the banshee. It was definitely helpful in that fight for sure.
I've been waiting for the Cleric since day 0...
My current best character (by group concensus) is a champion fighter. The added crits and lots of attacks were the primary goal hehe.... but I think it was his personality and quirks that made him so popular.
Know Your Enemy isn't really bad if you're in a party that likes stealth and ambushes. Heck, get a Scout rogue alongside you and you can identify some key stats on your primary target. Are they ideal for grappling? Is their AC worse than yours? Can you use AOE spells without them safely dodging everything? Information gathering isn't a negative, and it also doubles as a tool for a Fighter to use outside of actual combat. It's much more valuable than the variant that the mastermind gets.
I mainly play casters, but I LOVE fighters. While they typically can’t incinerate foes with an unwieldy orb of flame, there’s something epic about a warrior slashing down far stronger opponents with his honed skills.
Battle Master rule on a battle map, not theatre of the mind groups. It also shines in a power gamer group, where everyone is optimized. Giving commanders strike to a half-orc assassin to get a sneak attack is great, and manuevering strike to get casters in and out of the best positons for their spells (line of sight) is great. If no ones keeping track of positons, Battle Master is just another fighter.
the fighter was my first character is 1AD&D and I love it still. To those who think a fighter is boring, may yourself on a pit roast before the mighty Kord
"A lot of fighters are not archers" -Crossbow Expert would like to know your location
I have been subscribed for awhile now and hit "Like" on all your videos. Keep up the great work. I hope you continue to love making the videos, also!
Thanks for the support Mussante!
@@esperthebard Yes, and perhaps in the future I can support you in some additional way as well. // Comment: As a careful analyst and lover of etymology and diction etc., I really appreciate your nuanced and patiently explained observations and evaluations. There's always a caveat and context for everything and I'm glad you consistently provide a framework for understanding various phenomena in the D&D world. Many thanks for your art and artistry as well. The storytelling additions really bring it to life.
Great job if the second part is as informative and entertaining I look forward to the video. Keep up the great work
As for Eldritch knight, They become one of the hardest to hit fighters in the game, having access to shield and mage armor. If you're playing the Mines of Phandelver, and get the rod of Defense, laugh at how crazy hard you are to hit.
since you didnt cover the unearthed arcana fighting styles, might i say the unarmed combat is my current favorite of the batch because it allows me to be more of a boxing archatype than a martial artist like a monk.
I remember back in pathfinder when you could just get an 18-20 crit modifier by choosing the right weapon, and could turn it to 15-20 with a weapon enhancement.
Remarkable Athlete is so much better than some people give it credit for. The 'Using Each Ability' section in the player's handbook lists several possible Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks that are not tied to any skill. Specifically they are (Strength:) forcing open a door, breaking free of bonds, pushing through a too narrow tunnel, hanging on to a moving wagon, tipping over a statue, keeping a boulder from rolling, (Dexterity:) controling a heavy laden cart on a steep descent, steering a chariot around a tight turn, picking a lock, disabling a trap, securely tying up a prisoner, wriggling free of bonds, playing a stringed instrument, crafting a small object, (Constitution:) holding your breath, marching or laboring for hours without rest, going without sleep, surviving without food or water, quaffing an entire stein of ale in one go. And Champions get to add +1/+2/+3 to all of those kinds of tests.
My first character was a half orc champion who in the course of the campaign defeated a lich (at lv5, that improved crit saved my hide), ate one of cthulu's severed tentacle's, killed a pirate storm giant with his own ship's cannon and won a wrestling match with a kracken.
Command Ally maneuver really shines with Rogue allies. It allows them to Sneak Attack a 2nd time before their next turn.
I feel like pushing attack should have been given a little more love here..at least a B. While it may be situational the moments where those situations come up it is extremely potent every time.
To be fair, as someone who played 1st edition in its heyday with a by the book DM, getting a character to 5th level was rare, BUT… you would be amazed how attached one could get to a 2nd level character and how much you paid attention to every little bonus you had, regardless of how niche.
I just read the "Warrior" class in Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle Earth Player's Guide. This is for D&D 5th Edition. The Knight and the Weaponmaster are both FAR SUPERIOR to ANY of the WotC classes! I can't believe how good they are! And they seem pretty balanced with the other classes in the game, based only on my reading of the material. I haven't played the setting yet, but based on your comments in this video (which I find insightful and helpful), they are hands-down better!!
Know Your Enemy is definitely not the only thing Battle Masters get at 7th level, they also an additional superiority die and two new maneuvers. That's a pretty sweet haul on it's own, and Know Your Enemy is just the little side ability.
Hi Esper! After completing all classes/sub-classes can you make a comparison between them. I want to see which class shines amongst others. I know there are many classes and their sub-classes but even a summarized video would do. That will be the grand-finale of your comparison videos.
Swords Bard is my favorite Mage/Warrior subclass. A very close second is pact of the blade warlock
Remarkable Athlete also lets you jump farther. It's not phenomenal, but it's not that bad. And Know Your Enemy is pretty good, there's no save, no check, and its basically the only way you can get that benefit RAW. It's not as flashy as a Dimension Door, or a Geas (though Geas kinda sucks in 5e imo), but it's nit garbage. Looking forward to your take on the Xan-Xan's great stuff.
Rogues never get the sneak attack damage bonus more than once per turn. (Although they may >attempt> to sneak attack multiple times if they have more than one attack).
You cannot cast more than one levelled spell per turn. If a fighter activates his action surge he can cast a levelled spell with one of his actions and a cantrip with the other, but he can't cast magic missile twice (for example).
Those rules are pretty fundamental to the system's action economy. You can't ignore them without seriously undermining game balance.
Oh, no Echo Knight :( was looking forward to it
he'll get to it on part 2, for all the other books' archetypes
I can't wait for the breakdown of the Echo Knight. I personally think its great, though maybe I just like teleporting and a duplicate too much
Just want to point out, the eldritch knight does not get the arcane focus feature in it's spellcasting (nor ritual casting).
And that the material component is the somatic component so to speak should you get both, like pointing the gem in the case of chromatic orb.
And also EK works good with a duelist style, rapier and a free hand. Or also archer :P
im not sure i agree with weapon bond being a D class, i know its somewhat minor but its one of the skills i find myself using the most when playing eldritch knight. i think i would put it as a C or B but thats just my personal opinion
I really like the Eldritch Knight, but it is also one of the classes that I feel that it may be better to Multiclass out of after 7th level. My preference is to Multiclass into Wizard and pick up the War Magic Subclass for the initiative bonus and the extra spells.
if you're an elf and you went for a melee EK, it might be better to go into Bladesinger
@@rangerecho You loose most straight fighter benefits though
@@harperthegoblin I mean, I wasn't suggesting to multiclass, but if you're going for wizard after 7th level, and if it's available, Bladesinger is better than War Mage
One of my players felt the same way, turned into Divination wizard. getting to choose two rolls makes him near invincible. Plate+shield+changing two rolls that do beat that into misses comes in clutch extremely often. He has so many spells, but every round is basically "Firebolt+attack+attack, does it hit back? If yes and it's less than 24 I cast shield. If it's more than 24, I use my 5 portent and it's not."
Warmage is definitely the superior choice for EK multiclass.
The spirit of Gary Gygax - compels you..... to remember how and why Gary created this. Games morph and change. Yet if you knew or read about Gary Gygax, he always said, dice rolls are just the fillers, don't sweat them and just have fun. I get that numbers crunchers just got to have an edge but what happened to imagination and just having fun, not just winning. Games have changed since Gary's time, but WHY do YOU play games? If it is just to win, then you miss the point of playing a ROLE PLAYING GAME. RIP Gary. There are still a few "relics" carrying on in the spirit of your creation. Who's the BEST Fighter? The one that actually ROLE PLAYS.
..... Yes, I AM as old as my Avatar suggests. I knew Gary and played in some of his games in my early days, in Geneva. So, i do have an "old" perspective.
I made a fighter Bard multi class. I choose the close quarters combat, am a human variant so I picked gunner as my perk. He is a gunslinger with only one shot per pistol. At lvl 4 bard I choose sharp shooter. I have two Pistols His's & Her's. His has sharpshooter active hers does not. When you are rolling 1 Die 10 doing +14 a round it's awesome. I'm just trying to figure out my multi class.
Love this video! Yes, agree about 5E's lack of love for the fighter class. There is nothing more boring than continually using the full attack each and every single round. After round. After round. After round.. At least with 4E, a fighter had options.
Apparently all fighters were originally supposed to have the battle master maneuvers as options in the early play tests.
Well I homebrewed that because fighters deserve the manuvers as much as warlocks incocations. That's why on our table manuvers are class feater and battlemasters gets something much more suitable for " Master " title like for example: 1. Cuting off the limb or head. 2. Marking enemy caster and peventing him from casting spells for a few turns.
And so on, I know there might be rally powerfull or OP options but if casters can have OP spells than I don't see any reason why fighter cannot have something as good.
23:30 Actually at 7th level you also get another superiority die, it’s not a lot but it definitely isn’t nothing
Personally, I'd of preferred if the combat manoeuvres were a normal part of the Fighters Features and instead of the Battlemaster being the only way you could use them (unless you get a feat), the Battlemaster improves upon them either by giving you more, making some stronger, or letting you use them more often. That'd be quite helpful in making the Fighter feel distinct by giving them a cool set of special techniques.
Also little thing that isn't Specific to Fighters, but applies to the Champion more then others, I think letting you Score Critical Hits should be worded and ruled a little differently. Namely by a little Homebrew Rule I included. I include Critical Hit range. It basically describes how far of a range you have for a Critical Hit. It starts as 1 for everyone and you only get a crit on 20. For any feature that let's you Score a crit on a 19, it increases the Critical Hit Range by 1. This is a simple change, except that multiple sources can stack. I mostly did this cause I didn't want some features that did the same thing to be squandered so I made them work together. It's also not common to get a Critical Hit or something that increases the odds so unless they go out of their way to increase it, it'll be very hard to increase it.
I also do give a little bonus to anyone who rolls a Nat 20 on Saves and Skill Checks but don't succeed already. They just roll an additional dice that I flavor as appropriate and they still need. I just think if you roll a Nat 20, you should still get a shot. You can't reroll the added die though.
I agree that Champion needs work. I get that it's supposed to be as simple as possible, but that shouldn't mean boring. My suggestions:
1) Make Remarkable Athlete truly remarkable by giving a larger boost or event just straight advantage to all Athletics and/or Acrobatics rolls.
2) Improve Improved Critical every 3 or 4 levels. So, it starts at a natural 19 or 20 at level 3, then becomes a natural 18-20 at 7th level, then 17-20 at 10th level. Keep going until level 18, and a natural 15 or above triggers a Crit. That's still rare enough to make rolling a Crit feel special rather routine, but you'd be doing it a lot more often than anyone else in the party.
I figured we were getting all of the subclasses... until my guy started in on those battle maneuvers. Next time, then!
I think you missed out on the main purpose of weapon bond. It's so that you can have a sword and shield and still cast spells without the warcaster feat. You drop your sword as a free action, cast your spell as an action, then bonus action return sword to hand.
Honestly i think figthers should gain theyr 4th atack at 17 level ( the same level firebolt and eldritch blast gain theyr 4 dice ) and at 20 level gain something more flashy and epic. Like being able to once per short rest rise up when you fall unconscious and spend some hit dies to regain healt.
Just imagine the scene, the party is fighting a ancient red dragon, the body of the paladi lies beneath its claws, the ranger and mage are against the wall when sudently a javelin hits the eye of the beast, everyone looks to the side where the fighter bathed on its own blood slowly rise up and says: "Thats all you got little lizard ?"
My main issue with the Fighter in various issues of D&D has always been that while it nominally represents 'all' fighters the mechanics very much push any melee fighter towards walking around in the heaviest armour you can afford and carrying a shield. If I want to play a more lightly armoured warrior without a shield - Zorro or d'Artagnan or Tarzan or Hercules or basically any pirate or samurai I pretty much have to play a Rogue or else play a Fighter and deliberately make myself mechanically weaker.
Tarzan is definitely a ranger and Hercules would have to be a barbarian. They do have a samurai class for fighter.
You can be a DEX Fighter just as well. With Studded Leather and max Dex your AC would only be 1 lower than Full Plate(you can take Defense Fighting Style to offset that difference). DEX also helps with a lot of stuff like initiative and stealth, things heavy armor Fighters would not be good at. So, no, the mechanics don't push you that way.
@@toshomni9478 Which still mechanically punishes you for not taking a shield and the heaviest armour you can afford. A samurai who is going shieldless, wearing some form of medium armour and only wielding a longsword (ie. a katana) is very cool from a flavour point of view but is simply subpar in mechanics from the same 'samurai' stomping around in full plate with a shield.
@@Awoken0 Even a DEX based Fighter pretty much has to lumber around with a shield or they are deliberately leaving themselves subpar. No matter how much it might run against the flavour you might want.
I would note that, with great weapon fighting, the greatsword is pretty much the only viable weapon due to its use of 2 dice, which means GWF is more likely to come into play. The average greatsword damage with no modifiers increases from 7 to 9 and the minimum is 6. Greataxe only raises its average from 6.5 to 7.5 and the minimum damage becomes 3.
In order to fix this, I recommend doubling the reroll range to 1-4 on single damage dice weapons like the greataxe, so the minimum base damage is 5, the average becomes 8.5 for the greataxe. This change would keep it viable. Maybe even increase the range to 1-5 to make the greataxe even better than the greatsword.
I know I’m probably not gonna change your point of view on this, but I’m gonna make an argument for champion fighter. The expanded crit range, while simple, is still on the best possible class it could be associated with since you’re making the largest number of attacks each turn, you have a very high chance to crit, a bonus to initiative is always appreciated, and jumping can often be ignored if combat maps are 2D or don’t have any terrain you’re incentivized to avoid, but I try to keep it relevant to keep Str based classes prepared. It gives fighters a better chance of being able to contribute in different aspects of the game with half prof in stealth & sleight of hand. Depending on your weapon of choice at first level you can either stack something onto that (+1 AC, or protection if you have a sword and board and chose dueling), or gain another viable weapon option. Also, survivor not only gives you extra durability during a battle, it grants you very good out of combat healing, and potentially, after you’re done healing if you still have uses of it, you can go well beyond half health with second wind. It also makes it so that the “healer” doesn’t have to waste their spell slots on you. In the cases where you go from above half hp to 0 (pretty rare), the race/class combo you mentioned earlier for critical hit damage also negates this scenario since relentless endurance is also beneficial to the class as a whole.
I kinda wish the rogue could get that crit bonus since it would affect sneak attacks. Same for the initiative boost. The jump bonus is long jump only and a max 5 feet, so a single square...
You make a point that survivor isn't bad but it doesn't really feel right to have your level 18 ability be a mostly out of combat one.
I've been playing a samurai from Xge, it's very fun being able to make all your action surge attacks at advantage
All you need to know for Fighters is this:
A Variant Human Fighter--using Standard Array--with 16 Dexterity, the Dueling fighting style and Defensive Duelist feat does 1d8+5 with a Rapier. *At first level*
Can't wait for the cleric and wizard tier list
Wizard tier list is already released
To be fair to Champions, I’m pretty sure the proficiency bonus would also be added to straight ability checks, which normally don’t get any bonuses and have lower DCs.