Become a peerless warrior with this fighter revision for the world’s greatest roleplaying game!
Fighters are among the most ubiquitous classes in D&D. With their incredible thematic versatility, they are easy to adapt for any setting, and no two fighters are entirely alike. They are also incredibly reliable, regaining all of their core abilities on a short rest. Even on their third fight of the day, a fighter will be able to use their Action Surge to lay down the hurt and their Second Wind to boost their survivability. At tables running a proper adventuring day, a fighter is easily one of the most valuable members of the team.
Of course, the class isn’t perfect. While its abilities offer a blank canvas for players to roleplay their character’s combat style and other flavour, the fighter’s overall design can be seen as bland. And while it has many strong features, the class is often criticized for being too narrowly focused on combat.
We’ve taken these complaints and done a meaningful rework of the class from the ground up, overhauling both the core mechanics and the subclasses.
What is a Fighter?
Fighters are expert warriors. While few able-bodied people living in a D&D world are strangers to combat, fighters are specialists in the art of war, individuals who have devoted their lives to mastering their enemies on the battlefield.
Like barbarians and rogues, fighters are focused on martial prowess. While barbarians channel primal magic to empower their bodies and rogues often rely on subtle or even underhanded techniques, fighters master the different aspects of combat to a level unparallelled by any other. As they grow stronger, they learn or even develop advanced combat techniques and train their bodies to achieve incredible feats.
What is this Document?
This document is a playtest. It is not a final version of the class. The rules are written in pencil, not ink. As playtest feedback comes in, the class design will be refined and improved. A survey will be opened shortly for initial feedback, and will remain open until fall 2022 so people can continue to provide their thoughts as their characters gain levels in this class.
D&D 5.5e
The fighter class is a candidate to be included in the forthcoming release of D&D 5.5e, a substantial revision to D&D’s fifth edition by Dungeon Master’s Workshop to resolve longstanding complaints about the game while respecting its 50-year legacy. Through the world of Taldaras, the primary plane of the Lost Realm campaign setting, players can experience stories that embrace the tropes that have made D&D the world’s greatest roleplaying game.
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Feature Image Credit: Randy Vargas
Is this official? It looks great, but I feel a bit misled by the branding as 5.5e playtest material. Would this actually be used or are you testing it out?
Hi XVII,
This is Dungeon Master’s Workshop’s 5.5e. We designed it. It’s in playtest now, and it’s our intention to include it in our own supplement. Can’t really have D&D without fighters, after all.
We’d love to hear your feedback on it. A survey will be released soon, but in the mean time feel free to comment here!
Best,
the Archmage