Battle Master Fighter Build Guide – The Master of Combat – 2024 Update
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For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) as well as Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (mostly for Silvery Barbs) as those tend to be the most commonly used books at tables. Always be sure that if you’re following a guide that you’re adhering to your tables rules about what sourcebooks you are allowed to follow.
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For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you would not be multiclassing. While multiclassing can be excellent for many of these, this is for those who want to play the build all the way through in the same class. Guides that use multiclassing will be separate from these.
For spellcasters, you may notice substantial overlap between the spell lists of builds with the same base class. This is due to each guide utilizing a generically good spell list and not considering extenuating factors that will influence how you particularly sculpt your spell list. When creating your own spell list, you should take into account the campaign setting, what spells any other party members are capable of casting, potential overlap (ritual spells tend to overlap so it’s rare you need multiple people capable of casting them), or potential shortcomings in the parties total spell list. While this guide can definitely help point you in the right direction for crafting a spell list, you should use your judgement and preferences to figure out what spells make the most sense for your character.
To that end, please refer to the Spell List and Spell Tier list for any substitutions you’d want to make to the build.
Why Battle Master Fighter?
If you want to play Battle Master, you want to use maneuvers plain and simple. Maneuvers give you extra combat abilities which can shake things up versus just moving, attacking, and passing your turn. While not a spellcaster in any capacity, they function similarly as you can get bonus effects by spending from a resource pool, so if you want to spellcast without spellcasting, this is how you do it.
Battle Master Abilities Ranked
Combat Superiority (Level 3) – A Tier – Most maneuvers are quite strong, you start with a d8 for your Superiority dice, and you get enough of them to make this feel constantly impactful.
Student of War (Level 3) – C Tier – A tool and skill proficiency are cool, but nothing special.
Know Your Enemy (Level 7) – C Tier – I’m a big fan of this ability as being able to discern any vulnerabilities or resistances/immunities can be really helpful information, but being limited to once per day (without using Superiority dice anyway) is confusing both from a balance perspective and a game play perspective. None the less, this is good, but you are really limited in how often you can use this.
Additional Maneuvers (Level 7) – B Tier – More maneuvers and you still have a bunch of good options left!
Improved Combat Superiority (Level 10) – B Tier – Improving your average roll by 1 is always solid.
Additional Maneuvers (Level 10) – B Tier – More maneuvers and you still have a bunch of good options left!
Relentless (Level 15) – A+ Tier – Maneuvers are the strongest part of your kit, now you get infinite of them. This is extremely strong and nearly S Tier.
Additional Maneuvers (Level 15) – B- Tier – While you already picked up the best maneuvers, it’s not like you have to pick up bad ones now.
Ultimate Combat Superiority (Level 18) – B Tier – Improving your average roll by 1 is always solid.
Quick Level Up Guide
| Level | Class Features/Feat | Notes |
| 1 | Fighting Style (Protection), Second Wind, Weapon Mastery | Second Wind Charges: 2 Weapon Masteries: 3 |
| 2 | Action Surge (x1) | Second Wind Charges: 2 Weapon Masteries: 3 |
| 3 | Battle Master Combat Superiority (Menacing Attack, Precision Attack, Trip Attack) Student of War | Second Wind Charges: 2 Weapon Masteries: 3 |
| 4 | Feat: Shield Master (STR) | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 5 | Extra Attack, Tactical Shift | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 6 | Feat: Heavy Armor Master (STR) | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 7 | Know Your Enemy Additional Maneuvers (Goading Attack, Riposte) | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 8 | Feat: Mage Slayer (STR) | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 9 | Indomitable (x1), Tactical Master | Second Wind Charges: 3 Weapon Masteries: 4 |
| 10 | Improved Combat Superiority Additional Maneuvers (Ambush, Maneuvering Attack) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 11 | Extra Attack (x2) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 12 | Feat: Constitution to 18 | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 13 | Indomitable (x2), Studied Attacks | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 14 | Feat: Constitution to 20 | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 15 | Relentless Additional Maneuvers (Distracting Strike, Evasive Footwork) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 5 |
| 16 | Feat: Resilient (WIS) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 6 |
| 17 | Action Surge (x2), Indomitable (x3) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 6 |
| 18 | Ultimate Combat Superiority | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 6 |
| 19 | Feat: Boon of Combat Prowess | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 6 |
| 20 | Extra Attack (x3) | Second Wind Charges: 4 Weapon Masteries: 6 |
Level One Build
Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)
Attributes:
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 10 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 14 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
Class: Fighter
Class Features: Fighting Style, Second Wind, Weapon Mastery
Skill Proficiencies: Insight and Perception
Background: Farmer (Tough)
Starting Equipment: Warhammer, 10 Javelins, Chain Mail, Shield, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 38 gp + 50 gp from background
Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)
For any martial character, it’s hard to justify not going for Goliath as the Hill Giant topple is so incredibly good to get advantage on attacks. There are other solid options for species as well like Human for an additional origin feat or Aasimar as they are just generally strong, but Goliath is generally going to be my choice.
Attributes
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 10 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 14 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
This is the standard stat distribution for Strength based Fighters as you have maxed out Strength and Constitution, good Wisdom for saving throws, and 10 Dexterity for no AC penalties.
Proficiencies: Insight and Perception
Just excellent skill proficiencies for any character.
Background: Farmer
The best attributes with the best feat for martial characters that care about Strength.
Starting Equipment – Warhammer, 10 Javelins, Chain Mail, Shield, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 38 gp + 50 gp from background
For the classic “sword and board” fighter, I would take the starting gold and buy this. Any of the one handed d8 weapons would work. but Warhammer has the Push property which is pretty potent and opens up the possibility to take the Crusher feat for even more pushing.
Class – Fighter
Rangers get three abilities to start off with in Fighting Style, Second Wind, and Weapon Mastery.
Your Fighting Style is an easy choice for a “sword and board” Fighter – Protection. Being able to give disadvantage to an attack roll (and future attack rolls) against an ally that’s next to you is really powerful if you plan on having a lot of front line characters. If you aren’t going to have many party members up with you in combat, you can take the Defense or Dueling fighting styles instead.
Second Wind is a cool feature where, for a bonus action, you can heal yourself a bit. This is obviously great for tough fights when you are running low on health and this not only scales with level, but also gets additional features later on.
Weapon Mastery gives you the Mastery property of three weapons, and I would recommend the Warhammer, Javelin, and any weapon of your choice. While you will get more and more weapon masteries as you level up, you will realistically only ever need a few to make your build work.
The Build Level 2 Onward
Level 2-5
Level 2
Class Features: Action Surge, Tactical Mind
Level 2 brings two new features with Action Surge and Tactical Mind.
The Fighter is one of the most popular multiclass options in D&D, and Action Surge is a huge reason why. While you can only use this once every short or long rest (twice at 17), getting an additional action almost always means a whole new slew of attacks. Even at level 2, this is a powerful ability, but once you get multiple Extra Attacks, this becomes an extremely powerful feature that can dole out an obscene amount of damage. In a pinch, this can be used for other actions such as Dash as well which adds to the power and utility of this ability.
Tactical Mind is a neat new feature that allows you to use a Second Wind charge to reroll a failed ability check with a bit of a bonus. While this won’t come up too often, this is a nice feature to have for particularly important ability checks.
Level 3
Class: Battlemaster
Class Features: Combat Superiority (Menacing Attack, Precision Attack, Trip Attack), Student of War
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Trip Attack |
Level 3 brings your subclass, and for this guide, it’s Battlemaster. Battlemaster brings two abilities to the table immediately with Combat Superiority and Student of War!
Combat Superiority gives you the famous combat maneuvers and you have plenty of solid ones to choose from, and we’re starting with arguably the three strongest – Menacing Attack, Precision Attack, and Trip Attack.
Menacing Attack can potentially make the target frightened of you which means disadvantage on all attacks and ability checks for a full turn which can be really strong (especially as the build progresses).
Precision Attack lets you exchange a die to boost your attack roll which can turn known misses into potential hits!
Finally, you get Trip Attack, which as it implies, can trip an enemy! Making an enemy prone can be really strong as it gives all melee fighters advantage against that target, making it really easy to hit them.
You get another ability this level with Student of War which gives you proficiency with one set of artisan’s tools and a skill. If you like crafting, you can go with the tools of your choice, but if you can’t pick, go for Smith’s Tools as those are pretty good. For your skill, any of the available options are fine, but I’d probably pick Athletics.
Level 4
Feat: Shield Master (STR)
Class Features: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Trip Attack |
You get your first feat, and if you are using a shield, you get to grab the excellent Shield Master! This feat is phenomenal as you can potentially knock an enemy down with your attack which is great, especially the more martial allies you have. This whole build loves knocking enemies down as, if you can restrain them with your Channel Divinity before hand, they won’t be able to get up!
Level 5
Class Features: Extra Attack, Tactical Shift
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Trip Attack |
Easily the most exciting feature for martial characters, level 5 brings your Extra Attack! Being able to double your damage output is obviously really strong, but since you’re a Fighter, you’ll eventually get even more attacks on top of this!
Level 5 also brings a new feature with Tactical Shift. Now when you use Second Wind, you can move up to half your speed without provoking an opportunity attack. A heal, disengage, and extra movement? Sign me up!
Level 6-10
Level 6
Feat: Heavy Armor Master (STR)
Class Features: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Trip Attack |
Level 6 brings another feat and this is a good opportunity to pick up Heavy Armor Master. Reducing damage is always nice, and considering how many hits you’re likely to take, the health gain from this is going to stack up a lot over time!
Level 7
Class Features: Know Your Enemy, Additional Combat Maneuvers (Goading Attack, Riposte)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Goading Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
You get two more abilities this level with Know Your Enemy and Additional Combat Maneuvers.
Know Your Enemy is an extremely interesting utility ability that lets you trade your Bonus Action to see if an enemy has any damage vulnerabilities, resistances, and immunities once a day or by spending a Superiority die. While this won’t always come into play, I would always use this on a “boss” type monster as they can very commonly have damage resistances, even non-obvious ones.
For your maneuvers, you can pick up Goading Attack and Riposte.
Goading Attack deals a bit of extra damage and also incentives an enemy to hit you if they fail the Wisdom save against this attack. Definitely solid considering you are playing with a more tanky play style.
Riposte is yet another way to get more damage per round as, whenever an enemy misses an attack against you, you can use your reaction to attack them back and get a bit of extra damage out of the deal.
Level 8
Feat: Mage Slayer (STR)
Class Features: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Goading Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
You get yet another feat this level, and you can finally get 20 STR with Mage Slayer. Being able to really mess with casters is nice as a martial character, and getting a functional charge of Legendary Resistance? Incredible! A really strong feat that I have most of my martial characters taking.
Level 9
Class Features: Indomitable (x1), Tactical Master
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Goading Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 9 brings a base Fighter feature – Indomitable! You can reroll a saving throw that you fail and add your Fighter level on top of it which is extremely powerful. As you climb in levels, this will almost be like a player’s version of Legendary Resistance which is super cool.
Tactical Master is a new ability lets you replace a weapon mastery property when you attack with Push, Sap, or Slow. This is yet another great feature as you may not always want the mastery property on the weapon you happen to be using, so having options is always welcome.
Level 10
Class Features: Improved Combat Superiority, Additional Combat Maneuvers (Ambush, Maneuvering Attack)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 10 gives you Improved Combat Superiority and Additional Combat Maneuvers.
Improved Combat Superiority is simply an increase to your Superiority Dice from d8 to d10, so you’re going to get an average of one more point on your rolls.
For your Additional Combat Maneuvers, you can pick up Ambush and Maneuvering Attack.
Ambush is good when you really need to pass a Stealth roll (good luck) or you want a boost to your Initiative which is the substantially more common use of this!
Maneuvering Attack is a really unique ability that gives you a bit of extra damage and allows your ally to reposition a bit without provoking opportunity attacks if they use their reaction!
Level 11-15
Level 11
Class Features: Extra Attack (x2)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 11 brings yet another Extra Attack, which like at level 5, is incredibly good.
Level 12
Feat: Constitution to 18
Class Feature: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
You get another feat and it’s time to start buffing your Constitution! More health and better saving throws is a really good investment for your feat.
Level 13
Class Features: Indomitable (x2), Studied Attack
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 13 brings another charge of Indomitable and a powerful new feature, Studied Attack!
Studied Attack is a super cool feature that, if you miss with one of your attacks against one enemy, you have advantage on your next attack against that same target! Anything that helps you connect with your enemy is always exciting!
Level 14
Class Features: Constitution to 20
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Maximizing your Constitution score to get the highest possible health and saving throws is awesome!
Level 15
Class Features: Relentless, Additional Combat Maneuvers (Distracting Strike, Evasive Footwork)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 15 means your final Combat Maneuvers, but more importantly, the Relentless ability!
Relentless is an extremely powerful feature that lets you roll a 1d8 in lieu of using a Superiority die for your maneuvers. This is an extremely powerful feature and lets you add on a maneuver to every attack you make which is obviously extremely powerful. If you know you are going to reach this level or you’re starting at a much higher level in your campaign, this ability is good reason to consider Two Weapon Fighting instead of the classic Strength “sword and board” strategy. Even if you aren’t reaching this level, the DEX playstyle is perfectly viable regardless, so it’s really up to you in which you’d prefer. If you want to go for the Dual Wielding play style, check out the Champion Fighter guide as that will outline what your starting build and feat progression should look like to make that happen.
Level 15 brings more Combat Maneuvers and you still have decent options at this point with Distracting Strike and Evasive Footwork.
Distracting Strike opens up the possibility for an ally to get advantage on their next attack, and per usual, you get a little extra damage as well!
For your final maneuver, Evasive Footwork lets you Disengage as a bonus action and get an AC boost until your turn. This isn’t something you’ll need often, but sometimes you need to reposition to go bonk someone else!
Level 16-20
Level 16
Feat: Resilient (WIS)
Class Feature: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
For your final feat, you may as well grab Resilient ()WIS to make your saving throws that much better and make it less likely that you need to use your Indomitable or Mage Slayer charges.
Level 17
Class Features: Action Surge (x2), Indomitable (x3)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
More charges for your best base Fighter abilities is obviously excellent.
Level 18
Class Features: Improved Combat Superiority
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Once again you get an increase to your Superiority dice with your d10s turning into d12s. Obviously, even increasing your dice by an average of 1 is quite strong.
Level 19
Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess
Class Features: None
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Your Epic Boon choice, as I will pick for every martial character, is the Boon of Combat Prowess. Converting a miss into a hit is functionally getting an Extra Attack, but better, and I will take an additional attack every day of the week.
Level 20
Class Feature: Extra Attack (x3)
| BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS |
| Ambush |
| Distracting Strike |
| Evasive Footwork |
| Goading Attack |
| Maneuvering Attack |
| Menacing Attack |
| Precision Attack |
| Riposte |
| Trip Attack |
Level 20 brings your capstone ability – Extra Attack (x3). No frills, no fuss, just a bunch of attacks which is perfect for a Fighter.
