Fighter By The Numbers: Numerical Breakdown and 2014 Comparison

How much Damage, Durability, Control, and Resistance each feature brings.

Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Fighting Styles
9:09 - Second Wind
10:13 - Weapon Masteries
10:42 - Action Surge
11:41 - Tactical Mind
13:11 - Feats
14:27 - Tactical Shift
15:09 - Tactical Masteries
17:02 - Indomitable
18:24 - Studied Attacks
20:04 - Boon of Combat Prowess
21:32 - 2024 vs 2014 Damage
27:01 - 2024 vs 2014 Control
29:06 - 2024 vs 2014 Durability
29:43 - 2024 vs 2014 Resistance
31:14 - Tier List

[samuelkalkman]

It doesnt take away from your point that great weapon fighting is bad, but i got a 1.4 damage diference with my own math (still got 15 without, but 16.4 with). Again not a huge deal but 0.6 felt wrong so i had to check. Great video!

(Edit: spelling)

[vinspad]

Ooooo you added mental resistance? This is the first 5.5e one I've watched. Love the addition!

[SuperSorcerer]

The buffs to the devensive duelist should probably increase the durability of the fighter by a ton.
While rapier and shield is a really powerful tank, the shortsword and scimitar two weapon fighter could have both realy good damage and good durability with both the dual wielder and defensive duelist feats.

[AndreAlbuquerque-ukoi]

I think Interception is better on low lvls, and Protection is mandatory since lvl 9. But now you swap you FS whenever you gain a lvl

[jinxtheunluckypony]

The Fighter’s new Indomitable is my favorite feature in the game. I never want to fail a saving throw again.

[chrisg]

@29:15, you forgot to include 2 uses of Second Wind. That healing would increase durability for sure.

[mattdahm]

Thanks, great content. There’s a lot to sort out in 5.5 and I’m happy to add your channel to my go-to optimization resources

[JutsuJester]

Great video! I disagree with your interpretation of Tactical Master. I am reposting some analysis I made elsewhere. TLDR: Tactical Master does allow you to choose between Graze or Push/Sap/Slow after the attack roll.

The feature says "when", not "before", you "make an attack". It is concurrent with an attack. It also does not specify "when you make an attack roll" (attack roll is defined on page 12 of the new PHB). The section "Making an Attack" (on page 25 of the new PHB) breaks down and attack into three steps. The language states:

MAKING AN ATTACK
When you take the Attack action, you make an attack. Some other actions, Bonus Actions, and Reactions also let you make an attack. Whether you strike with a Melee weapon, fire a Ranged weapon, or make an attack roll as part of a spell, an attack has the following structure:
1: Choose a Target.. . .
2: Determine Modifiers. . .
3: Resolve the Attack. Make the attack roll, as detailed earlier in this chapter. On a hit, you roll damage unless the particular attack has rules that specify otherwise. Some attacks cause special effects in addition to or instead of damage.

They did not say “before” or “when you make an attack roll” or "before you hit or miss" like they do with other features. So, “when you make an attack” includes choosing a target, determining modifiers, and resolving the attack. Thus, you can decide which WM to use at any stage of the attack, including when you are resolving the attack or rolling damage or applying "special effects" (which includes Weapon Mastery effects and by extension, Tactical Master).

I assume they wrote it like this because different WM have different triggers. There are other indications that this was the intent of the designers. For example, Tactical Master allows the Cleave extra attack to Push/Sap/Slow, so allowing it to work with Graze is not unprecedented). I assume they specified that the WM is replaced for the attack so we knew that you had to make the same choice on later attacks. Furthermore, as you pointed out, the feature does not do much if the decision has to be made before the attack roll.

What do you think?

[kallebuchholz]

I really like that you give a numerical value to the control and durability aspects of the character. Too many players put too much value on raw damage output. If you could also find ways to show the mobility capacities in combat, that could give as an even better picture.

But great work!

[alexpage]

I really like your channel, breakdowns, and approach. So rare to find someone who does actual math.

[BLynn]

I have already gotten in the habit of calling the latest revision 5.24 & the revision released in 2014 5.14, but YMMV, so enjoy.

[patrickhobing]

Really appreciate the circle graph at the end to directly compare different classes

[stanislausbohmearteaga]

15:58 depends, a Dex fighter can't use push, Sap or Slow because those masteries are in Str based weapons

[rabidfurify]

I love your approach to analysis; it's hard to try to objectively quantify some of these things, but I think that it's much better to try, than to just ignore it entirely.

[Aikolon]

Great video.
I like the details. Keep it this complex please 😊

[Miranda]

One point for Tactical Mastery; this is really good if you're mounted and using a Lance.

Lances are a big build-around weapon; both GWM and Dueling will be active when you use it properly. The Topple effect is probably the strongest in the game, but you can only knock a target Prone once.

Once you knock them down, hopefully on the first hit, you would then be able to Slow and Push them. That guy ain't moving.

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Important Action Surge Note: It's meaningfully worse when actually doing TWF than when attacking with Heavy Weapons, because it Nick is once per turn, so it doesn't apply on your Action Surge.

[fortunatus]

I may be alone in this but I have a problem with the way Nick interacts with Dual Wielder. The whole point of the Dual Wielder feat is to add additional options to your Two Weapon Fighting. You can do a dex build with Rapier and Short Sword for example for swashbuckling fun; you can also do a Str build with Longsword and Short sword (and live out your Samurai fantasy wielding Katana and Wakizashi). There are many possible combos there. The problem is that Nick is mathematically the best version of TWF if it gains a second extra attack from Nick with the Dual Wielder feat. To paraphrase Treantmonk, if one style of fighting is superior to the others, it becomes the only used style of TWF fighting. As a result, Dual Wielder does not add additional TWF options. It reduces your options to one.
The only people who will choose the other options are (1) those that consciously decide to use an inferior style because of their play narrative or (2) those that are unaware that Nick + Dual Wielder is the mathematically superior playstyle. And if those unaware people are playing alongside someone using Nick, this could potentially ruin their D&D experience. It feels bad to be less good than other players due to ignorance.
Nick is meant to be used to free up the Bonus Action for other things such as casting/moving your Hunter's Mark, or Tactical Mind/Second Wind, or Smite spells, etc. In this way it frees up options and that's the way Nick should be used. With no Dual Wielder extra attack for Nick, Longsword/short sword does more damage but you give up the freedom to cast smite or hunter's mark. So, in my games I am not going to allow this interaction between Dual Wielder and Nick. I view this as bad design.

[Gafizal]

RE mental saves: 1) Paladions can also be mentally durable. 2) Gnome Eldritch knight is my pick for 2024 fighter of the year. ( 3 lvl dip for thief rogue, 1 lvl dip for wizard by lvl 10)
Then you are a 3rd level caster, and can use magic items limited to wizards... you can also bonus action use your say, wand of fireballs, then action attack with a cantrip and a weapon... plus you have good skills, Dex 14... and absorb elements, defensive deulist and warcaster... now your aC is amazing and by lvl 12 you can grab Resilient Wisdom...

[zSavageWolves]

New charger feat deserves a mention too, especially once the fighter gets easy access to Push for level 9 and beyond and can reliably get it every turn. It’s a decent bump, probably 3rd in priority for damage for most melee builds.