The best Baldur's Gate 3 Fighter build is often hard to pick out, as the Fighter class is effectively a blank check for weapon-based combat. You could go any direction - finesse weapons, dual-wielding, bows, crossbows, two-handed, tanky armor - and with Lae'zel in your Baldur's Gate 3 party, you'll still have a Fighter to play with, making it worth knowing what you should be doing. However, I've played through and refined the options down to just one: here's the best Fighter build in BG3, and everything you need to pick from it starting off.
Best Barbarian build and choices in Baldur's Gate 3
The best fighters in Baldur's Gate 3 usually focus their efforts on achieving the following:
- Tanky, frontline endurance and heavy armor
- Two-handed heavy weapon power
- Combat crowd control abilities
Playing a fighter isn't very far from playing as a Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian and there's a lot of similarities in how you play, functioning as a melee warrior on the front line of combat, a brawny, bashing tank who can draw the enemy's focus and cut them down when they get too close. However, as a fighter you're a bit more diverse than the barbarian, with a greater pool of abilities, especially depending on the subclass you pick. Ultimately though, you're still a combat machine, with little to contribute outside of combat, while simultaneously thriving the moment swords are drawn.
- Race: Half-Orc
- Highest attributes: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity (in that order)
- Subclass: Battle Master
- Background: Soldier
- Class Skills: Acrobatics, Perception
- Equipment: Two-handed heavy weapons, heavy armor, thrown weapons, longbow
- Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting
I've focused here on building a tough, melee-focused fighter. While it's still entirely possible to make a powerful dexterity fighter, if that's something that interests you, you should probably be making a rogue instead to really lean into that. With that in mind, start by picking a half-orc (their Relentless Endurance and Savage Attacks make them perfect melee fighters), and focus on Strength first, with Constitution and Dexterity as secondary priorities (and maybe a little in Wisdom if there's anything else left in the tank). It's also viable to pick a Zariel Tiefling, as their later Smite powers make them good melee warriors.
After that, pick a Soldier - not only is their Athletics skill helpful to have, but all their inspiration comes from combat prowess and great victories, which obviously you're going to be good at. Then pick the skills mentioned above, and grab the biggest, heaviest weapons and armor you can find (I recommend a Greataxe to make the most of Savage Attacks), with the Great Weapon Fighting style to really add some oomph to your strikes.
When it comes to Subclasses at level 3, take the Battle Master. The others are good but ultimately it's the manoeuvres that'll make you incredibly helpful on the battlefield, controlling enemies and making the most out of what you have. Take Trip Attack, Pushing Attack, Menacing Attack and Riposte for a good selection - the fact that you can land these through ranged attacks means that a longbow can be incredibly potent here.
Later level Fighter builds: Levelling up, you definitely want to take the Great Weapon Master Feat at some point, adding massive damage to your strikes, but I don't recommend multiclassing unless you have something you really want - your stats simply don't support most other classes, so you'll just end up diluting yourself. Instead, keep boosting your Battle Mastery, picking a wider array of abilities, and seek out magic items that will continuously expand your pool of talents, effectively making you a better control and utility Fighter.
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