Fighter class and skills guide (BG3)

The Fighter is perfect for those who want to be in the thick of the melee press. Here’s our Baldur’s Gate 3 Fighter class and skills guide to help you out.

With three impressive subclasses and a range of exciting abilities to unlock, the Fighter class isn’t one to ignore. Let’s go over the best build for your Fighter.

Fighter class skills and build guide for Baldur’s Gate 3

There’s probably no other way of saying this, but the Fighter class might be the most straightforward one that you can start with in Baldur’s Gate 3. I would even recommend the Fighter class for newcomers. It’s a tad bit risky since you’re always out in the open, but you won’t need to over-complicate things with so many concepts like spells, cantrips, preparation, and more.

In any case, here are the features of Baldur’s Gate 3’s Fighter class:

• Main Ability Score: Strength
• Saving Throw Proficiencies: Strength, Constitution
• Armor Proficiencies: Light, Medium, Heavy
• Equipment Proficiencies: Shields, Simple and Martial Weapons

Skills and Ability Scores

Certain skills here will be active depending on your character’s background. In general, however, you should see the following for the Fighter class (you can pick up to two):

• Acrobatics – Useful for showing off and getting away.
• Animal Handling – Allows you to gain the trust of wild creatures.
• Athletics – Skills in physical movement such as jumping, swimming, and climbing.
• History – Everything you know about Faerûn’s past, allowing you to recognize notable names and unusual items.
• Insight – Read people and certain situations; pierce through lies and deceit.
• Intimidation – Threaten others using speech; force others to do your will.
• Perception – Detect the details of the environment; see things out of the ordinary.
• Survival – The knowledge of tracking, foraging, and hunting; familiarity with natural hazards.

The ones that I’d recommend picking would be Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, or Survival. Athletics is based on your Strength Ability, so picking this Proficiency would give you a huge bonus to this skill.

Ability	Score
Strength	17 (+2)
Dexterity	13
Constitution	16 (+1)
Intelligence	10
Wisdom	10
Charisma	8

For your Ability Scores, you can’t go wrong with Strength and Constitution. The STR stat is useful for your physical attacks, and CON helps add to your overall health.

DEX is the next best optional stat since it improves your Armor Class as well as your Initiative (when you take your turn in combat). I’d ignore most of the other Abilities and dump most of your points into those three.

Related: Best Baldur’s Gate 3 multiclass builds, ranked (BG3)

Fighter Subclasses

You have the chance to choose one of three subclasses once you reach level three. These are the options you’re given:

• Battle Master: Learn Maneuvers and spend Superiority Dice to perform them in combat.
• Eldritch Knight: Specialize in spellcasting based on your INT modifier and ritually bind your main weapon.
• Champion: Gives you a slew of helpful passive abilities.

Overall, Battle Master is the best Fighter subclass. You can learn a ton of amazing Maneuvers that aid you and your allies in combat. Eldritch Knight is also fun if you want to do a bit of spellcasting. Otherwise, I’d avoid Champion, since it only gives you a few helpful passives that don’t compare to the other subclass abilities.

Fighter Features

As you slowly level up your Fighter, you gain features tied to your class and subclass. Here, I’ll be highlighting some of the amazing features you can attain as you grow your Fighter all the way to level 12.

Fighter Level	Feature
1	Second Wind: Once per Short Rest, regain 1d10 + Fighter Level HP. Fighting Style: Choose one Fighting Style: – Archery: +2 bonus to Ranged weapon attacks. – Defense: +1 bonus to AC when wearing Armor. – Duelling: +2 bonus to damage rolls when wielding one melee weapon that’s not Two-Handed or Versatile. – Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a one or two on an attack roll with a Two-Handed melee weapon, die gets rerolled once. – Protection: While using a Shield, inflict Disadvantage on enemy who attacks an ally when you’re within five feet. – Two-Weapon Fighting: When making an offhand attack, add your Ability Modifier to attack damage.
2	Action Surge: Gain an extra Action to use during your turn. Recharges per Short Rest.
5	Extra Attack: You can attack twice per turn.
9	Indomitable: When you fail a Saving Throw, you can reroll the dice and use new result. Recharges per Long Rest.
11	Improved Extra Attack: You can attack three times per turn.

Now that you’ve learned all about the Fighter class, you should check out our Ranger class guide for Baldur’s Gate 3.