Cavalier Fighter Build Guide – No Horsing Around – 2024 Update

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.

Any spell, class, feature, or other game item that is linkable on this website is covered by the 5th edition Open Games License and will be in the Player’s Handbook, but not everything in the Player’s Handbook will be linked to. All other materials that aren’t linked to are from other sourcebooks or aren’t allowed to be linked to per the 5th Edition Open Games License, so please refer to the appropriate sourcebooks for that information.

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.

Cavalier Fighters are good for two scenarios.

The first is the obvious, you want to play a Fighter who fights with a mount. While this is perfectly reasonable, this is not always going to be possible depending on the campaign setting or how easily your DM allows you to buy and keep a mount. In a real sense, a normal mount is a pretty large liability in combat for a melee attacker, so there is a lot of inherent risk there. That said, if you have a Paladin in your party who can dedicate their Find Steed to your purposes, then that solves that issue.

The second scenario I can see picking Cavalier is if you’re in a high level campaign as Cavalier’s early game abilities aren’t necessarily the strongest, but their later abilities get really strong. So if you know a campaign is going late or you’re starting at higher levels, then this can be a great choice.

Bonus Proficiency (Level 3) – C- Tier – One skill proficiency out of limited choices or a language is alright, but not great.

Born to Saddle (Level 3) – D+ Tier – Even if you are using a mount, none of these abilities are really that impactful, and considering there is a decent chance someone will pick this class and not plan on using a mount, this ability is pretty bad.

Unwavering Mark (Level 3) – B Tier – The conditions in which this works are a bit specific, but it is a strong ability to incentivize attacks to come to you and to heavily punish an enemy who doesn’t abide.

Warding Maneuver (Level 7) – D Tier – If this gave AC/resistance until the affected allies next turn, this ability would be really good. Unfortunately as is, it’s not that good and conflicts with the Protection Fighting Style that this class would probably want.

Hold the Line (Level 10) – B+ Tier – A really good ability for any martial, especially if you decided to go with a Polearm that can potentially lock down an enemy out of reach to hurt anyone.

Ferocious Charger (Level 15) – C+ Tier – Repeatable CC is nice, but you’re not always going to be able to use this effectively, at least without risking a lot of opportunity attacks.

Vigilant Defender (Level 18) – S Tier – Easily the strongest ability on a Fighter as this just means one million attacks per round of combat. If you know you’re making it this far in the campaign or you’re starting at a high level, I would definitely use a Polearm to maximize the odds of having an enemy in range on every turn.

Not seeing the exact build you want in this guide? Check out this guide instead!

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

Attributes:

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

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

Fighters get three abilities to start off with in Fighting Style, Second Wind, and Weapon Mastery.

You get to pick your Fighting Style, and while I would normally pick Protection for those using a Shield, this build wants Defense instead! Since your level three ability, Unwavering Mark, more or less has the Protection fighting style built in, you don’t need to take multiple instances of it. To that end, Defense is the next best fighting style, but Dueling can be a great choice too for those who want to deal additional damage.

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.

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: Cavalier

Class Features: Bonus Proficiency, Born to Saddle, Unwavering Mark

Level 3 brings your subclass, Cavalier, and three new features to the table – Bonus Proficiency, Born to Saddle, and Unwavering Mark.

Bonus Proficiency can give you a bonus skill proficiency from a predetermined list, and since this build already has most of those proficiencies, you can just pick up Animal Handling as that’s flavorful for the class.

Your second ability is Born to Saddle, and as the name implies, only matters if you end up using a mount in combat. If you do, this ability helps you stay on your mount in combat, not make you prone when you fall off (most of the time), and costs you way less movement to get on your mount. Solid abilities if you are using a mount, useless otherwise.

Your final ability is a really interesting one with Unwavering Mark. There’s a lot going on here, but if you hit an enemy with an attack, you can “mark” them for the turn. Marked enemies have disadvantage on any attack roll that isn’t against you as long as they’re within 5 feet of you, and if they do hit someone else with an attack, you get to use your next Bonus Action to hit them with a big attack at advantage. While this ability seems really strong, it is pretty situational which can make it a bit inconsistent to use it to its full potential. That being said, this will excel in lower levels where enemies only really have the option to attack, so you can utilize this to take the heat off of your allies. As you increase in levels, enemies will simply have more offensive actions so this will get less and less value, but it will still be a solid ability throughout the game.

Level 4

Feat: Shield Master (STR)

Class Features: None

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

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

Feat: Heavy Armor Master (STR)

Class Features: None

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: Warding Maneuver

Level 7 brings your next subclass feature – Warding Maneuver. Whenever you or an ally within 5 feet gets hit with an enemy attack, you can spend your reaction to give that person 1d8 more AC, and if that fails, they only take half damage. Unfortunately, this ability sounds a lot better than it plays. Using your reaction just to stop one potential attack is not going to keep up when more and more enemies are going to be hitting multiple times a turn, and you lose out on the potential of getting an additional attack in (from Polearm Master or eventually Hold the Line). That said, this can obviously still be useful in a pinch so this isn’t terrible, but not something you should use often.

Level 8

Feat: Mage Slayer (STR)

Class Features: None

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

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: Hold the Line

Level 10 brings your next subclass feature – Hold the Line!

This ability is pretty similar to the Sentinel feat where you get an opportunity attack when they move 5 or more feet while within your reach, and if you hit, their speed is reduced to 0. While you do lose some of the effects of Sentinel, this is going to end up being better most of the time because the most common counterplay to Sentinel is to just stay within your reach while moving around rather than entering and exiting your range. A really strong ability especially when you have your trusty Polearm Master.

Level 11

Class Features: Extra Attack (x2)

Level 11 brings yet another Extra Attack, which like at level 5, is incredibly good.

Level 12

Feat: Constitution to 18

Class Feature: None

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

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

Maximizing your Constitution score to get the highest possible health and saving throws is awesome!

Level 15

Class Features: Ferocious Charger

Level 15 brings your penultimate class feature – Ferocious Charger!

If you move 10 feet in a straight line and hit an enemy with an attack, you have a chance to knock them prone if they fail a Strength save! Knocking someone prone for free can be extremely strong as you’ll have advantage on your subsequent attacks, but having an enemy fail a Strength save can be pretty unlikely when most monsters have really high Strength scores. Never the less, this is a solid ability that’s really easy to trigger, with the only real downside being you’ll have to be within 5 feet of them when attacking to get advantage.

Level 16

Feat: Resilient (WIS)

Class Feature: None

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)

More charges for your best base Fighter abilities is obviously excellent.

Level 18

Class Features: Vigilant Defender

Level 18 brings your final feature and it is a real doozy with Vigilant Defender. Now on EVERY SINGLE TURN (except your own), you get a special reaction to opportunity attack. Every turn, ally or enemy. You don’t get your full attack action of course, but that is such a huge increase to your damage potential if enemies are staying within your reach. Furthermore, this works with Hold the Line as reducing enemy speed to 0 only stipulates you hit with an opportunity attack, making it even harder for enemies to get away from you. As long as you have enough enemies within your reach (so you don’t accidentally kill your lone target), this is quite strong, especially in fights with a lot of enemies.

Level 19

Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess

Class Features: None

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)

Level 20 brings your capstone ability – Extra Attack (x3). No frills, no fuss, just a bunch of attacks which is perfect for a Fighter.