One D&D Fighter Subclass Tier List
Full Subclass Tier List
The subclass rankings are based solely on other available subclasses within the same base class, not necessarily how they would perform in a game or compared to subclasses from other base classes. For a more holistic view on the power level of each subclass, reference the Full Subclass Tier List above.
*All classes with an asterisk (*) are in the 2024 PHB*
S Tier
Echo Knight Fighter – One of the most mechanically pushed subclasses in D&D, the Echo Knight Fighter simply gets way too many free things to do compared to every other subclass in the game. Hot take, but I do think that this class is probably closer to A tier than S tier despite how much free stuff this gets. Never the less, getting to play at functionally two places at once is obviously incredible and gives you better mobility than even most spellcasters.
A Tier
Rune Knight Fighter – To put it simply, the Runes you get are extremely good. They give you utility and an excellent activated abilities to use in battle that makes you stronger and more versatile than your average Fighter.
Eldritch Knight Fighter* – Casting spells is extremely good, so a Fighter that can do a bit of that is going to be extremely good! The biggest issue with Fighters is their lack of versatility – they are only good at fighting (like the name implies). With spells though, you have so much more you’re capable of doing.
B Tier
Battle Master Fighter* – While I dislike that this Fighter subclass is still all about fighting, you get a lot of versatility in how you approach that fight. Maneuvers are kind of like spells in a roundabout sense, so having more options when you’re fighting rather than just bonking an enemy over and over is definitely nice.
C Tier
Arcane Archer Fighter – The biggest issue with Arcane Archers is their lack of arrow scaling as they are stuck at 2 arcane shots per short rest which is kind of ridiculous, but the shots themselves are very powerful with multiple excellent options. On top of that, Curving Shot is an excellent follow up ability which gives you an “extra attack” some amount of the time. If the Arcane Shots scaled better, this would be higher.
Cavalier Fighter – The gallant knight and loyal steed archetype, this is a somewhat complicated subclass that doesn’t actually require you to fight on horseback (but you lose out on your first ability if you don’t). Most of your abilities range from meh to ok until you get to level 18 and get one of the best abilities in the game which is unfortunate timing as so few characters get that far, but if you’re one of the lucky few, go nuts with 1 trillion attacks.
Psi Warrior Fighter* – I do like a martial class that gains versatility as you generally don’t need that much more help to be effective in combat. Unfortunately, I think the Psi Warrior just doesn’t do anything particularly well, including the utility part. Nothing here is bad, just nothing is great either putting this right in the middle.
D Tier
Champion Fighter* – Getting critical hits is awesome and a subclass dedicated to making it happen more often is cool for those interested in it. However, if you actually run the numbers, you are not getting a critical hit nearly as often as you’d like making it less of a damage boost to the base class compared to the abilities of the other subclasses for the most part. There are builds that can get decent use out of this, but this is not exciting.
F Tier
Samurai Fighter – Now that the optional Flanking rules as well as the -5/+10 ability on Great Weapon Master have been removed, the Samurai has next to nothing going for it. Being more accurate is great, but it’s so few uses for what’s generally not going to be a big payoff. Furthermore, after Fighting Spirit, your next good ability comes at level 15. This is way too inconsistent of a subclass overall and just barely does more than a subclass-less Fighter.
