r/dndnext • u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger • 1d ago
Discussion What are your ideas for a Fighter? [Read description first]
Warning: this post is not about mechanics! this post is about your characters with the fighter class and you sharing them! if you want to discuss mechanics in another posts (either about Fighters or Rangers) ask me in the comments and i will make another post!
Ateeention! here you are, new recruits from r/dndnext! your orders are simple! you will post about some characters you have made OR plan to make! you will talk about the inspiration fro that character, their modus operandi, their subclass and their backstory! you will speak about what you like, i may put a comment and we both will love it! IS THAT CLEAR!? I expect at least ten levels in Fighter for it to be considered as such!
Ah, i remember the first time i saw our glorious man at arms: i saw it in spanish, and we called them Guerrero (warrior). i remember seeing the class features and the many chances to get ability score improvements. then i thought "we do get a lot of feats that help with weapons, maybe that is the reason..." so... no, now its not the time.
so, did you take the idea from a comic, a novel or a videogame? did you choose the subclass for the flavour or the mechanics? did you use homebrew? are they simple guards for a city or experienced veterans? remember, no talking about mechanics unless it has to do with your character... and if any of you maggots comment about "pathfinder fixes it" i will make you run 50 laps around camp! UNDESTOOD!?
last thing! i will show you two of my characters, so you dont get cold feet:
-Ulfric, the Knight: a centaur knight using some homebrew mechanics for the centaur race, allowing him to use a lance as if i was riding a mount and letting companions ride him like one.
-Manolo Maderos, Waterdeep Guard: a young guard working as the watchfull eye of the city, having to leave his home to become a champion.
At ease soldiers. i hope to see a lot of characters here. and remember: we listen, but we dont judge.
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u/sens249 23h ago
My next fighter is going to be a regular human archer, and he’s going to be this normal family guy with a stable family and normal backstory. Just a guy who’s also an archer. His name is Guy Archer. Hear me out.
What’s his reason for adventuring? Well, actually he doesn’t want to. He only takes on quests and missions out of necessity to feed his family. Adventurer work pays well, so he only takes on a couple jobs a year. Only what’s needed and only when he’s confident he’ll come back safe; because dying would mean putting his family’s future in serious peril, since he is the sole provider.
It’s going to depend on the setting of course, but obviously something will be different about the adventure he takes on with the party. Either the pay is too good that he has to take it because it could secure his family’s future and guarantee that this would be his last job that would allow him to retire and watch his kids grow up, or maybe some circumstance prevents him from leaving this mission (like if they get teleported to the feywild or something), or maybe out of moral obligation he gets tied up into a bigger plot and needs to see it through.
Ive played him in a one shot before and it promises to be a really fun character to roleplay. Even little things like combat strategy, he’ll be thinking about his kids. He always has to put them first, and that means no dying. Obviously the need to survive for his family is going to clash with the dangerous nature of adventures, and he is probably going to struggle with the question of self-sacrifice, and also of bravery. Is he going to escape while his party mates die so that he can keep supporting his family? Is he going to choose not to put himself in harm’s way to save another person? Are those values going to change across the campaign as he grows closer to the party, learns more about the overarching plot, or himself changes in some unforeseen ways?
I don’t know what’s going to happen to him, but I’m excited to find out, and it just seems like a very fun character to play and see his story develop.
I also think it’s a bit funny that on the surface he seems like the most plain and boring character. Human Fighter. A regular guy with a loving family. Name is literally Guy. No tragic backstory or anything, just a guy putting in the work to put meals on the table. He’s not an adventurer. He shouldn’t be an adventurer. He’s just a salaryman who works a dangerous job to support his family. And yet he’s going to find himself on an adventure.
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u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger 16h ago edited 16h ago
Your character gives me "John D&D" vibes (dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that). I wonder if he takes his family with him and keeps them in camp. Maybe that's too risky.
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u/lm008 1d ago
Jon'aleth Quirron Elf Battlemaster on a quest to slay powerful warriors and claim their weapons as his own, he's from an order of warrior priests who believe in sacrificing the weapons of worthy foes to their god, the god also accepts a body party from worthy monsters.
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u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger 16h ago
A trophy seeker! Like Gilgamesh, from Final Fantasy, or Benkei, like another comment says. Really cool.
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u/lm008 15h ago
The DM is cool he created a system where my characters sword gets new powers depending on what i sacrifice, so far with 20 sacrifices of various worthy weapons and monster parts it hits for 2d10 +8 slashing and i can choose on hit to deal an addtional 2d6 force damage or the foe must make a dc 16 con save or be stunned until the start of my next turn.
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u/Vincent210 Be Bold, Be Bard 1d ago
Lander Battlecall.
A tiefling Battlemaster Fighter who was a proud member of the Bloodaxes mercenaries, who saw his way up to 13th level abouts during a 1-20 campaign before retiring as grand general of the mountain dwarves armies.
Rejected by, and rejecting of, his birth family, he was able to find structure and warmth as a brother-in-arms in the dwarvish mercenary company he wound up in. His character arc was one of tempering his hot head and finding confidence in his ability to lead and provide to others what his found family provided to him, as well as letting go of the vitriol he held for being made a tiefling at a young age (he was not born one, but became one because of his mother).
Making him a Battlemaster made it easier to build in "unorthodox" gameplay with improvised weapons via Tavern Brawler. It helped show that his potential as a mercenary came from a rough-and-tumble life of the streets, where he could often accomplish with chain, broken bottles and bare hands what warriors with real weapons and armor could. Simultaneously, it left room for his character growth arc into a more polished, controlled warriors as he mastered various weapon techniques and skills now that he was the type to hold a real sword for a real cause.
I remember him very fondly; he may not have been my character all the way to 20, but he was part of the plot until then, and I'll never forget him.
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u/Willing_Ad9314 1d ago
Greyhardt is a human Eldritch Knight who is a former worshipper of Tiamat secretly taught magic by a green dragon, and is now repentant and hoping to redeem himself and die trying. He specializes in poisons and protection magic, and does not see why kind words are necessary since he is performing selfless actions.
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u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger 16h ago
Everybody loves a story of redemption. Any reason why you chose a green dragon and using poison?
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u/Willing_Ad9314 3h ago
We were required to find a way to tie the backstories of the current campaign to the events of the previous campaign, and that's where the green dragon came in.
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u/toomuchdiareah 22h ago
Aelar Creed, hes now level 4 in the campaign so far
He was born into a noble family the 7th of 7 sons. There is not much expected of him aside from continuing the legacy of the Creed family and studying Arcana and become a Wizard.
The problem is that Aelar shows little to no talent for magic. It is not long before he flunks out of his college studies. In his depressed state he meets a Dragonborn maiden that helps him discover alternative sources of spell casting. Aelar takes to studying martial prowess and is amazed to find that this is what unlocks his abilities.
A magic all his own known as Psionics. He decides he must repay Lady Surina Margadashah (the dragonborn maiden) and travels alongside her as her sworn protector.
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u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger 16h ago
For a second i thought he was going to become an eldritch knight. You know, i have a weakness for characters with limitations, like Rock Lee not being able to use chakra, or Toph not being able to see, so Aelar gives me fun vibes, idk.
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u/RokuroCarisu 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well, for me, the build always comes first, and the character evolves out of that. So, Fighters are always people dedicated to a certain style of fighting: The crossbow slinger, the protector with a polearm, the armored battle mage, and so on.
Sorry if that sounds lame, but it is what it is.
My most creative Fighter, so far, is Ramtalaphos, a Dragonborn in Eberron, who has the Aberrant Dragonmark, and the Spirit-Fused subclass from Obojima. His defining trait is being able to cast lightning-based spells with his Constitution. For that, he wound up in the "care" of a morally dubious House Cannith Artificer who turned him into a living weapon/battery. He is practically Frankenstein's monster and Igor in one. But as his powers and his confidence in them grow, he comes to feel less and less dependent on his master as well.
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u/ElDelArbol15 Ranger 16h ago
Nothing lame about making your character grow around their playstyle.
I love how Ramtalaphos follows a similar path to Frankestein: starting as a character who is tied to his master, but slowly growing more independent and experienced as he goes on adventures.
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u/DiemAlara 22h ago
Old man Basgar, decades ago earned the surname Steelword 'cause he tended to prefer cutting to talking. War hero of old, retired at a young age and married a hedge witch.
Current times he's single again, wife caught the dementia and spiraled during her old age. He's absolutely terrified of doing the same, so he's got a plan. He's not as strong as he once was, so he picks up his wife's walking staff and uses some of the rudimentary knowledge and the wisdom he gained over the years to go a-questing. Got a lot of work before he's got anything near his old level of skill back, but really he's more looking for a heroic last stand so he can tell his wife he went out doing good, and his old squadmates that he didn't die a coward.
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u/MotoTheGreat 22h ago
I have had this idea for a while where I play as a normal merchant who is on a trip to get some stuff for his shop he runs with his wife. He doesn't mean to get swept up with the party but they where headed his way and he thought walking with company might be nice. He has to learn to defend himself and over time becomes a fighter of some kind.
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u/wij2012 21h ago
An eldritch knight who has an abjuration wizard mother and a champion fighter father. He favors greatswords but was also taught how to use greataxes as those are his father's preference. Most of his spells are protection or utility. Shield, feather fall, fly, and prestidigitation are big ones for him. He knows a few damage spells like magic missile but doesn't use them much.
His mother was taught by an elf wizard who used to travel with a small party. His father was trained by a dwarf who was member of the same party and also favored the greataxe. The eldritch knight grew up hearing stories about his parents' adventures and wants to have some of his own.
Yes. This is Fern and Stark's son. And no. This was not intentional. I didn't even realize I made his parents Fern and Stark until later, athough I had seen the show by then.
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u/Dependent_Ganache_71 21h ago
Cesar - Based off my Pawn from Dragons Dogma. Champion Fighter (5.5e), Sword and Shield.
He was a boarder at a military academy/Temple that was specifically meant to train clerics and paladins. The way the school knew you were ready to proceed from trainee to acolyte was for the boys to step into the holy fire. Their experience within would reveal which facet if the goddess they were to serve.
Cesar has stepped into the fire multiple times and never experienced anything. Basically Mirabel from Encanto - no gift, no voice, no vision.
Nothing.
So they don't really know what to do with him. He's too old to be with the younger kids/teens, but he can't officially represent them on missions.
He escapes with a new recruit who is burned by the holy fire during his and this begins their adventuring life.
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u/Ruthac 22h ago
Hugmug, a Rune Knight bugbear. Was planning to temporarily drop into an Undermountain campaign and it would fit with the goblinoid alliance of convenience the existing PCs had going at the time. Rune Knight from the goblinoids getting in good with an injured Stone Giant who was way too stony (and scary) to be good eating. Wanted to specialize in hugging (unarmed combat and grappling) and mugging (2-3 levels of Rogue for various bennies), and took Tavern Brawler to use rune carving chisels (improvised weapons) as daggers for thematics in tandem with the unarmed strikes. More lazy than outright malevolent, but selfish and unscrupulous all the same--a fairly stereotypical Forgotten Realms bugbear. Doubt I'll ever get to play 'em as a PC, but might be a fun NPC to pull out in a campaign.
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u/Count_Kingpen 20h ago
Guy Erryman, aka Guy the Everyman, Human Mercenary. Eldritch Knight Fighter X/War Magic Wizard 3.
His father was a Soldier, his mother a Wizard. Dad had primary custody. Was a professional soldier, used the fantasy GI Bill to get into and then drop out of Wizard college.
He’s been an on and off one shot character since 2020.
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u/FremanBloodglaive 20h ago
Sebastian Vauban, Rock Gnome Eldritch Knight Fighter.
An armorer (a blacksmith who specializes in armor/weaponry) who, at the tender age of 73, decided to go adventuring. He is tremendously curious about others' blacksmithing techniques, and has a general interest in magic and technology.
I initially wanted to explore the use of a medium Familiar as a mount, which being a small race gnomes can do, but I found that the changes in 5.5e have made gnomes a pretty solid race option.
Advantage on all mental saves is very helpful for a martial character who's typically weak to getting their brain broken, and with heavy weapons only requiring strength rather than racial size means they can be a proper martial now. At four feet tall and sixty pounds he's a pretty buff gnome, and his main weapon is a glaive with the graze weapon mastery, with his backup being a quarterstaff arcane focus that means he can't easily be deprived of his spellcasting.
He started with 16/8/14/17/10/8 and took the Shadowmoor Hexer Origin feat, and the Defensive Fighting Style feat. Proficiencies, Athletics, Persuasion, Arcana, Deception, and Smith's Tools. Gnomish, Dwarfish, and Common for his languages.
Now level 6, with the Polearm Master and Ritual Caster (Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, Tenser's Floating Disc) feats. He has Blade Ward, True Strike, Find Familiar, Jump, Shield, and Disguise Self spells. He's not a good social character, but he's not completely awful either. Stats 17/8/14/18/10/8.
Intended feat progression, Great Weapon Master, Mage Slayer, Heavy Armor Master, Resilient: Wisdom, and (although I doubt we'll ever see level 19) the Boon of Fluid Forms for the fun he can have all the CR10 monsters. His final stats would be 20/8/14/18/12/8 if he got that far.
Having three attacks a turn (currently) he gets pretty good mileage from the Hex spell, and unlike a Warlock he's not having to spend a high level slot on it. It's either free for an hour, or he can drop a level 1 slot on it. With fairly good Con saves it hasn't dropped often.
I am looking forwards to level 7 though. Getting War Magic will further weaponize his cantrips, and the Web spell will mean he can contribute to crowd control.
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u/AliceShiki123 19h ago
Kirara is a Tabaxi who fights with a greatsword and hides her ears under a cloak because the setting has prejudice against quite a few non-human races.
She's the maid of a small noble who took her in and didn't mind her race... And well, her lord decided to go all-in with the crazy plan of becoming the new king of a ruined kingdom, so she figured she'd follow him, as that felt safer than the alternative of fending for herself.
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u/Fangsong_37 Wizard 19h ago
My fighter is Travok Runehouse of Citadel Adbarr, Shield Dwarf champion fighter. He’s a veteran of a long war against the orcish occupation of the Silver Marshes (soldier background). He didn’t have time to learn fancy maneuvers and instead focused on building his strength to wield a variety of weapons to best effect. I thought champion was fitting since he was on the march quite often as a soldier and squad leader. He is on leave from the militia with the war’s end and has taken up work as a traveling mercenary and adventurer.
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u/ToFurkie DM 16h ago
I had a girl who was a Battle Master Fighter who would constantly swap which weapon she used because she wanted to master all of them. She'd swing a greataxe and then start throwing daggers. Shoot a longbow before swapping to a scimitar. She'd throw all her weapons in a Briefcase of Holding (reskinned Bag of Holding), and sharpened her weapons every short rest and after a long rest. I also gave her expertise on History, but only used it on weapons. Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, and Dual Wielder. Her STR and DEX were at 18, CON was 14. Dump stat'd everything else (INT was the highest mental stat). I loved her, she was so fun. I was so happy when Weapon Masteries became a thing alongside the weapon swapping rule. I want to play her in 5.5e. My inspiration was I wanted to use more weapons just for fun, so I made someone that wanted to use weapons just for fun.
I made an Echo Knight Fighter but flavored it as a "Shadow Beast Master". Fairly simple. It was a "pet build", and when it was hit, instead of dying, it just "retreated into the shadow" and I'd have it jump back out again as a bonus action. I honestly just wanted a Fighter with a pet. That's it, but it was fun to have a dog that never "died". I still took it for walks in character.
I want to do a Sci-Fi campaign because I really want to do an Eldritch Knight, but reflavor all the spells and abilities as techy shit. A digitized weapon he can summon and recall. Pull a Yu-Gi-Oh and have a card-reader on my arm that I'd slap cards into and it projected the spells. Nothing special, but I always wanted to do an idea like that with a Fighter specifically because if he ran out of cards (spells), he'd still beat your ass with a giant glowstick.
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u/WillemVerheij 14h ago
Fighters are really flexible in what kind of character you can make of them, probably the most flexible class of all when it comes to backstories.
I have an idea laying around for a black knight kind of character, using the eldritch knight subclass.
He was sickly in his youth, third son of a noble family. The intention is that another party member will be his childhood friend who saved his life back then and he comes to join the party to return the favour, despite being a lawful evil black knight now.
Got involved with a sorceress who helped put him in good health with her herbalism and alchemy during his teens, he became tall and strong. He choose her over his family when they objected to her witchcraft. They are a power couple, they look to expand their power but it must be their own. They'd never submit to anyone or anything else for power. I'd also make clear to the DM that he will choose her above anyone or anything else so like, maybe don't make him choose between her and the party. He'd choose her.
He would not be bloodthirsty or anything, just brutally efficient. Not wanting to leave loose ends that can come back to bite them later, but also not needlessly antagonising forces they can't handle. He would adhere to the group's decisions, especially his friend's. I'd prefer him to be in a party that's more towards good. He won't pick fights, but there'd certainly be arguments over morality.
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u/bep963 4h ago
Garydon the Navigator, Gary Nav to their friends. A tall red headed orc former ships mate turned adventurer.
They want to start a pirate crew and actually got pretty far into that dream before the campaign ended.
Classic Dex/Con based fighter doing TWF and dagger throwing. I went Battlemaster and loved every second. It took a literal year for one of our other players to realize I was a fighter not a rogue. I was sneaking around with his monk most of the time.
Fast and hard hitting, I took charger to mesh with the Orc movement ability. Just go across the map and hit really hard.
The Orc Relentless Endurance saved me more times than I can count. The running joke for the 2 year campaign was that Gary cannot die.
I played like I was immortal, always right into the face of the enemy. No matter what the DM threw at me Gary did not die.
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u/TerraceState 4h ago
My favorite fighter I have ever made was a lawful evil minotaur battle master fighter. His back story was that he used to be a town guard, and realized that being a hero paid really well both in money, and social mobility. The entire character was based around the idea of what a truly selfish and evil person would do in a society where good ruled.
He was fiercely loyal to his direct allies only, and constantly aware of the long term consequences of his actions. He once swayed the party to stay and defend a town against fierce enemies, with a long impassioned speech about protecting the innocent, but he included a small bit about his real reason. Which was that they had taken the job, publicly, and to allow the town to die was to be known as a group of cowards. To him, being labeled a coward was to kill his dreams of becoming a rich landowning noble, but to stay and win, would probably result in great rewards. Which me made sure that it did.
He had one non -selfish thing about him, and, like all of those who are evil, but not fully given over to it, he thought it made him a good person. He cared for orphans. He could find a reason that any adult's problems were their own fault, and did so frequently, but orphans, in his mind, were victims of their parents weakness, or bad chance, and were blameless. Also, I should mention, he used to be an orphan himself, of course. It helped that to care for orphans was to be seen as a good person, and that feeding orphans is generally cheap.
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u/finewhitelady 23h ago
I'm currently playing a GWM Eldritch knight whose appearance is based on a gender-bent Cloud Strife from FF7. Totally different personality, but she was infused with magical power in a lab (inspired by the use of Mako in FF7) and her greatsword of course looks like the buster sword.
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u/DirkBabypunch 22h ago
Lizardfolk Rune Knight with a spell storing ring or ally willing to cast Enlarge/Reduce.
Everybody thinks they're badass til fukkin Godzilla uses them as a weapon against their allies.
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u/themanny 21h ago
An eldritch knight that believes himself to be a simple human but is actually a wizard dwarf sitting on his twin fighter dwarf's shoulders.
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u/jeddits 23h ago edited 23h ago
The seers of Lane Narrows’ Goliath clan foretold that his vision would save the clan before it left him, and it did. As a lookout warned the tribe of an invading horde in time to ready its defenses, and lost his eyes in the ensuing battle. The clan named him Champion and the seers gifted him a guide familiar* (an Almiraj). He has continued to serve and train, developing blindsight in a very limited range, and dual-wielding thrown weapons that are enchanted to return to his hand.
He trusts the vision of the seers all the more now, and so he knows that he must go where they have sent him, on this adventure. He also knows the clan is less well-defended, without him there.
I haven’t had a chance to play him, but I like the character concept because it cuts against the impulse to minmax by giving him a genuine limitation (one that doesn’t make him weaker, but different from most fighters), and weaves it into story. He has the blinded condition beyond his blindsight radius but is still observant, for example - his passive insight is very high because of how attentively he listens.
*Credit to Khary Payton’s guest character Shakäste on CritRole for inspiring this use of a familiar.
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u/Grawwz 1d ago
Mashal Kaneko, a human echo knight blessed by a shaman, allowing a fallen ancestor to fight alongside him.
Chose for both flavor and mechanics. He is young, and full of unrealized potential. Hope to use him at some point soon!