Fighters used to get a bad rap in tabletop RPGs, as they were seen as a class with little imagination in their design or scope for their concept. The Fighter just fights, which means there can’t be more to them, right? It turns out that the Fighter is the most liquid class, as the concept of “someone really good at fighting” can be applied to many different characters. The more basic ruleset also means they’re surprisingly good for dedicated roleplayers, as they don’t have to keep track of as many powers. In Pathfinder 2e, the , as they are easy to pick up, can be durable, and are often in the thick of the action. Here are the best builds for the Fighter in Pathfinder 2e. The different Fighter builds in Pathfinder 2e Broadly speaking, there are a handful of archetypes that players will find themselves in when playing a Fighter. These all have individual strengths and weaknesses. – You use a one-handed weapon with a shield, giving you better defensive options, but lowering your damage output. What you lack in defense, you make up for with special debuff attacks in combat. You use a two-handed weapon with the intent of dealing as much weapon damage as possible. You use two weapons to perform flurries of attacks, with abilities that reduce or ignore the multiple attack penalty in Pathfinder 2e’s rules. Best used in a party with a separate melee warrior who can tank, these fighters strike foes from afar with volleys of ranged attacks. Best Ability Boosts for the Fighter The two main builds you want to go for Fighter are Strength-based or Dexterity-based. Strength-based characters can deal a lot of damage while hiding behind strong armor, while Dexterity-based Fighters are better at dishing out multiple attacks and using ranged weapons. Ideally, you’d want both scores to be decent. Related: Depending on your build, or In either scenario, . After that, Wisdom should be fourth, as it’s tied to the Will saving throw, which protects you from being mind-controlled in battle, as well as the Perception score, which is used for determining Initiative in combat. After that, Intelligence and Charisma can be distributed however the player likes, depending on their character concept, as they’re mostly tied to skills. Best Ancestries for the Fighter For the Fighter, it helps to have an Ancestry that provides at least one Strength Boost and a few extra powers to aid you early on in the campaign, though Consitution is also really useful. Having some extra abilities from your Ancestry also helps. These are the best Ancestries and low-level Feats: , they make up for in durability. The best heritages are the Elemental Heart Dwarf (grants an elemental attack that can strike all adjacent foes), Forge Dwarf (offers useful
fire resistance that scales with level), and Strong-Blooded Dwarf (extremely resilient to poison.) These are the most useful low-level Dwarf Feats: The serpent people of Golarion make for great warriors with a Strength Boost, a bite attack, and naturally high hit points. The best Heritages are Venomshield (poison resistance that scales with level) and Titan Nagaji (you always have a suit of armor on, which works well for short-term campaigns.) Like , the Orc is a great choice for the Fighter, helped by their natural Strength boost and Darkvision. The best heritages are Grave Orc (more resistance to necromancy) and Hold-Scarred Orc (more hit points and you die on dying 5 instead of 4.) These are the most useful low-level Orc Feats: Best Backgrounds for the Fighter In Pathfinder 2e, Backgrounds give you Ability Boosts, skills, and Feats. When it comes to the Fighter, there are a few Backgrounds that stand out as ideal choices. Best Skills for the Fighter While the Fighter is not a skill-focused class, it still helps to pick a few skills and focus on them, for the moments when you need to do things other than fight. Best Fighter class Feats Most Fighters are based on a few different concepts, including weapon & shield users, single weapon users, heavy weapon users, dual-wielders, and archers. These are the best Feats that go with these styles of play. Best General Feats for the Fighter You won’t just be unleashing Fighter Feats on your enemy in Pathfinder 2e, as you can also benefit from General & Skill Feats as you level up. If you’re able to acquire a General Feat at level 1, these are the best options: Fighters gain a General Feat at Level 3, with all of the Level 1 Feats still being good options, as well as the following: Best weapons, critical specializations & armor for the Fighter Depending on , some weapon & armor configurations are better than others. Your armor choice depends on whether you’re a Dexterity or Strength-based character, as the type of armor you can cap the maximum bonus your Dexterity can add to your Armor Class. As such, leather and chain shirts are usually the best for Archers, Dual Wielder, and Single Weapon. For Strength characters, you should balance the armor with your current Dex bonus while upgrading to better/more expensive sets whenever possible. Steel shield (upgrade to tower shield when possible) alongside a bastard sword, battleaxe, or flail. Get a katana if your DM will allow it. Chances are, you’ll be using the Aldori dueling sword, longsword, or rapier. Go for the war flail for its various traits and for its eventual critical specialization bonus at level 5. There are a few decent combinations based on whether you’re going for Dexterity or Strength. For Dexterity, use rapier with a shortsword or Aldori dueling sword with a shortsword. If you’re Strength-based, use a bastard sword with a shortsword or battleaxe with a hatchet. Use a Longbow if you’re going to be fighting enemies in wide open areas, or a shortbow if you’re in a dungeon. Get composite versions if you have a Strength bonus. Keep some finesse weapons (like a dagger) and a shield aside in case you’re forced into melee. . These are extra effects that activate when they perform a critical hit with the chosen type of weapon. A few standouts among these may influence your choice of weapon.