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D&D Fighting Styles

Combining 5E D&D Fighting Styles with 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Feats

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Join us for a discussion of D&D fighting styles and 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons feats and how to combine them. We dissect each of the six fighting styles and suggest the different 5e D&D feats that pair nicely with each fighting style. Below you will find the video and it’s transcription.

Combining 5E D&D Fighting Styles with 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Feats Video

Combining 5E D&D Fighting Styles with 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Feats Video Transcription

Dave: “Ted, what are you doing wearing a suit and tie?”

Ted: “You said, we’re talking about style.”

Dave: “Ted, we’re talking about fighting styles and Dungeons and Dragons.”

Ted: “ Ah, well I would kind of look silly fighting in this.”

Dave: “Right Your no James Bond.”

Ted: “So today we’re gonna talk about combining fighting styles with feats in dungeon and dragons 5th edition.

Dave: “ Welcome to Nerdarchy for nerds by nerds. I’m Nerdarchist Dave and today I’m hanging out with this nerd.”

Ted: “Nerdarchist Ted.”

Dave: “Hey, maybe this is your first time hanging out in Ted’s basement with us. It’s a place where we like to talk about news, views, and home brews for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes we even talk about other role playing games.”

Ted: “So if you don’t want to miss a single video, don’t forget to crit hit that subscribe button and attune to that notification bell.”

Dave: “So today we’re talking about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons fighting styles and what they are. So Ted, I think the first thing we should do is go over what that is.”

Ted: “All right So whether you’re a fighter, a ranger, or a paladin you’re going to get access to one of six fighting styles, what choices you have is gonna be dependent upon what, what class or classes you’ve wound up selecting.”

Dave: “ So, all right, so those fighting styles are archery, dueling,”

Ted: “You have protection, you have defense,”

Dave: “You also have great weapon fighting as well as two weapon fighting.”

Ted: “So lot of different ways for you to wind up fighting. And when you’re in combat, you can describe what those particular styles look like. But depending upon what you’re doing, there are a number of feats that are going to compliment those things quite well.”

Dave: “I can tell you one thing though, no matter what type of weapon you decided to go with or fighting style, it’s always going to come down to one thing that’s rolling dice.”

Ted: “Hmm.”


Dave: “With that, let us tell you about our sponsor Easy Roller Dice. Whether it’s your first set of dice or your 1 millionth set of dice, Easy Roller Dice for all your dice rolling needs. Down in the description you can find a one time coupon code for a whopping 20% off, Easy Roller Dice.Go check out some Easy Roller Dice.”

Ted: “All right, so we’re not looking at making a feat tree that might have existed in earlier editions. We’re looking at just giving you some helpful tips, some, some interesting tactics for designing your character and what feats are going to help out based on the fighting style you’ve chosen.”

Dave: “Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of overlap. You’ll notice, and we’re not even saying that if you use fighting style x, you should take all of these feats. You can mix and match them however you want. But these are just some suggestions that we think would complement those particular fighting styles.”

Ted: “Now we do say, you know, here on the channel that you know, taking the, uh, the stat bump is usually going to be the better mechanical choice, but feats offer a lot of awesome options that you might not have had that or if you’ve already maxed out your prime stat and looking for some feats, these are the ones that we say are the Go tos.”

Dave: “So first up we have archery, uh, for archery, sharpshooter skulker.”

Ted: “You know, these are, these are great options if you happen to be using a crossbow as opposed to a longbow, you definitely want to take a crossbow expert and let’s not forget a martial Adept.”

Dave: “And then finally there’s lucky. Now let’s break these down a little bit. Sharp shooter that is going to let you fire at longer ranges. Ignore a cover to a certain degree and give you the ability to get a bonus to damage.”

Ted: “So skulker if you’re, if you’re hiding and you shoot and miss, it’s not going to automatically reveal your, your position. So really useful for a firing from cover.”

Dave: ”And if you’re a sniper type archer for sure. Uh, then we have crossbow expert. Crossbow expert gives you a bunch of benefits, especially if you happen to be using a crossbow with the hand crossbow, you can use your bonus action to basically get another attack. You can also remove the load property. Super useful if you’re using a crossbow. But finally, this last ability actually helps you, no matter what kind of archer you are, when you’re using a ranged weapon, if you’re in melee, you get disadvantaged to fire. This removes that disadvantage.”

Ted: “So if somebody has right there in front of you and you pull out your long bow, you can, you can shoot at him. I don’t know why, you know, it’s, it’s that whole disadvantage thing. Maybe cause somebody swinging a sword in your direction, but you know, take crossbow expert, you don’t have to worry about that martial adept. This is a great feat for, you know, just about any fighting style. Uh, but to be able to have some options for the ability to do extra damage cause things to get disarmed, pinned, what have you, it’s a great feat to, to get those extra, you know, maneuver points.”

Dave: “Pretty much. I decided this one should be on the list just so you can do trick shots. So you can only, you only get one superiority dice every a rest. But you know, every rest you can definitely guarantee a trick shot if you want it.”

Ted: “ And last but not least lucky. I don’t think this one really requires and anything extra, but if you’re an archer, you know you’re going to be making a lot, lots of attacks, and to get to get free rerolls, it’s a piece of cake.”

Dave: “Well, I would go a step further and say if you did not take that crossbow expert feat and you’re getting disadvantaged because you’re firing into people’s faces, you can get super advantage by using lucky. You’re going to roll three dice and choose the best of the three. That’s why Lucky’s on the list.”

Ted: “Alright That works for me. So what’s our next fighting style?”


Dave: “ Next up we have defensive.”

Ted: “So defensive is all about armor class. So this one we’re going to really be looking at taking additional armor type things. Whether you’re looking at heavy armor, master medium armor master.”

Dave: “Or you could even look at the defensive duelist.”

Ted: “Heavy armor master is going to give you some extra resistance to damage when you’re wearing the heavy armor. Useful from no matter what type of fighter you are, because you just never have enough hit points of, he asked me.”

Dave: “Yeah. Having your damage reduced by three by uh, anytime you get hit by a non magical attack. Awesome. Then we have medium armor master love. This one. It’s going to add a bonus of plus one to your armor class from your dex bonus is usually you Max out at two. So now you max out a three. It is also going to negate that disadvantage on stealth checks when you’re wearing medium armor that would do such.”

Ted: “Super helpful. And last but not least is defensive duelist.”

Dave: “Defensive Duelist, if you need something to do with your reaction, you can blow it on. Defensive dualist if an attack would have hit you, use your reaction to then give them a negative based off of your proficiency modifier. So you’re looking at a two to a six. You can basically add to your armor class.”

Ted: “So that’s pretty handy for just a sacrifice in your reaction.”

Dave: “Absolutely. So next we’re going to move on to great weapon fighting.”

Ted: “Alright now this is, this is a great one at a popular one amongst many, uh, many, many people playing it out there.”

Dave: “So a great weapon fighting when you use this, when you make an attack and you hit, you can reroll those damaged rolls. There’s damaged dice and anytime you roll a one or two”

Ted: “for an attack, a single die when as a one or a two, as long as the weapon is being wielded in two hands and as a either a to handle a weapon or a versatile.”

Dave: “That’s correct. So we picked quite a few feats for this one. This one actually has six.”

Ted: “All right, well first off, obviously great weapon master, it’s going to fit right with great weapon fighting.”

Dave: “Obviously you know basically allows you to make another attack with your bonus action If you, if you kill an opponent or you crit.”

Ted: “Charger is going to work really well with great weapon master, great weapon masters, you can take a minus five to hit to know an extra plus 10 to damage so that that’s pretty nice. Charger. If you move at least 10 10 feet in a direct line towards an adversary, you’ve got the able to do an additional five. So combining the two together allows you to take a minus five to hit move 10 feet and get 15 extra points to damage.”

Dave: “Yeah, anytime that you’re, you’re not going to be able to get there anyway without dash and this is a great option. So next up I would want to mention savage attacker.”


Ted: “ This is, this is a great one and allows you to roll two separate pools of damage, dice and choose the better of the two. So you’re, you’re damage medium, your average is going to wind up going up when you take this feat.”

Dave: “Now this is an ability you can only use once a turn, but still it’s going to come in handy.”

Ted: “Absolutely. We’ve already mentioned how useful martial adept is at those trick shots, those trick maneuvers and and it’s just, it’s a no brainer here. You’re, you’re trying to do extra damage. That’s what great weapon fighting is all about. And stacking on that, that superiority die in your attack. Super helpful.”

Dave: “But not only that, it’s super thematic. When you choose your maneuvers, you choose the ones that kind of go with the fighting style that you’re using to really epitomize what it means to use that kind of a weapon.”

Ted: “Absolutely. A sentinel is another great one, so sentinel, when they’re trying to get away from you, you can wind up using your reaction to make an attack and stop them and now they can’t get away.”

Dave: “Not only that, with sentinel if they attack one of your buddies within five feet of you, you can use your reaction to attack them as well. Also with sentinel sentinel though it does stop them from being able to disengage. They still draw an attack of opportunity. Now, sentinel pairs really nice with great weapon fighting style because polearm master essentially says you’re using a great weapon anyway and polearm master is a great feat. That’s the one where if they come within your, your reach, you get an attack of opportunity, so 10 foot stops him right there. Sentinel kicks in. It’s great. You can use the butt of the weapon to make a bonus attack with as well. It doesn’t do as much damage, but it’s still, it’s another attack. Another way to use your bonus action, uh, pairs nicely with sentinel and great weapon fighting style.”

Ted: “All right, so that, that’s a whopping six feats for great weapon fighting. Next we’re going to look at dueling.”

Dave: “Ah Yes. So if you’re, you’re the classic dueler or you know with your one hand in the air and your rapier , but you don’t actually have to do it. The only real requirement is that you don’t have anything, any weapon in your off hand and you’re just using the one. And what is going to do is give you a plus two to damage. Super Sweet.”

Ted: “You know, super, super helpful. And to get that extra extra points, that damage. And we have four feats that we think pair nicely with dueling.”

Dave: “So defensive duelist and martial adept. Again, we’ve talked about these two. We talked about how great they are. They’ll work perfectly for this fighting style.”

Ted: “So we mentioned that this is going to be using a shield. So why not add in shield master to the mix So shield master is really great. You can use your bonus action to make a shove attack with with your shield. Really helpful. You get to add your shields bonus to your dexterity, saves when you’re making saves there. And if you’re making a dex save to take half damage. You can use your reaction if you pass to get a no damage instead as you basically kind of duck behind your shield and kind of move out of the harm’s way.”

Dave: “No damage is definitely better than half damage.”

Ted: “Oh gladly throw my reaction out the window to a, you know, take no damage on those things because sometimes those things suck.”

Dave: “And then obviously we’ve talked about sentinel so that’s going to work. They will kind of works for any style that’s really aggressive or defensive.”

Ted: “So next we’re going to go up with protection and we have a couple options.”

Dave: “Okay, so protection, we’re going two have to feat options. One of them being shield master and the other one being mobile.”

Ted: “Now, you know, protection fighting style allows you to use your reaction when an ally was in within five feet, gets an attack for you to basically put your shield out there and give the opponent disadvantage on the attack roll.”

Dave: “Yeah, super sweet ability. Now the reason why we went with shield master and mobile shield master, it’s kind of obvious or already using your shield. We talked about how awesome that is, but mobile actually lets you move around the battlefield, it allows you to avoid attacks of opportunity by, you know, attacking someone that’s in your face. It also when you dash and let you ignore difficult terrain. And if your primary fighting style is based off of being able to be next to your allies, it’s going to be helpful if you can get there.”

Ted: “So you’re making it make an attack on the person that you’re fighting. And then you know, you’re, you’re basically get a free disengage that you can then go and get back next to your ally.”

Dave: “So finally, that brings us to our last fighting style and that is two weapon fighting.”

Ted: “Uh, some of which we’ve already gone into. But you know, you can’t mention two weapon fighting without going into dual wielder.”

Dave: “Two weapon fighting. What’s great about two weapon fighting anytime you fight with two weapons you’re off and you don’t get your bonus to damage from a stat but two had been fighting gives you that ability. So uh, with that, let’s go into the four choices that we have.”

Ted: “All right, so you can’t go into two weapon fighting without mentioning dual wielder there because there’s only so many classes that give you the option to get the two weapon fighting, fighting style. But everybody can take dual wielder. They kind of pair nicely together.”

Dave: “The reasons why they paired nicely together is dual weapon wielder or allows you to draw two weapons as one action. You know, part of the using your, you’re interacting with an action otherwise you’d have to draw one draw the other or had them both out, which can be annoying. The other thing it does, it lets you use two weapons that aren’t light weapons. So you could fight with two battle axes, two longsword, or battleaxe and a longsword. You can mix and match however you like. And finally it’s going to give you a plus one armor bonus as well.”D&D fighting styles

Ted: “So normally you know, if you’ve got that shield that blocks a whole lot more about fighting with two weapons, you’ve got the ability to, to get off more attacks and the plus one to your armor class. Totally sweet.”

Dave: “Okay. And now also, you know, we’ve got some other options and we’ve talked about all of these already defensive duelist if you want to get a better armor class with your reaction, you can use it here. Martial adept to kind of fill out a feel for your fighting style is going to work really well as well as sentinel.”

Ted: “Sentinel, you know, it just, it goes nicely with what’s there and if you are that much more aggressive, that much more engaged in battle by having two weapons, you really have a greater threat area. You know, even though mechanically you don’t, it just a perception should be there that you should be able to just, you know, lock people down by it. You know, forcing them to not be able to leave.”

Dave: “So those are our choices for pairing 5E D&D feats with the 5e D&D fighting styles. The question is how would you do it? Would you do it differently? Did we get anything wrong? We got a place where we can talk about and discuss that. And that is down in the comments below. While you’re at it, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.”

Ted: “While you’re on your way down there. Don’t forget to stop by that description and check out our sponsor Easy Roller Dice and don’t forget to use that one time Promo code.”

Dave: “Until next time.”

Both: “Stay Nerdy”

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david friant

My name is Dave Friant I've been gaming off and on for over 27 years. But here is the thing it's always been a part of my life I've kept secret and hidden away. I've always been ashamed of the stigma that gaming and my other nerdy and geeky pursuits summon forth. Recently I decided screw it! This is who I am the world be damned. From now on I'm gonna be a geek, nerd, or however folks want to judge me and just enjoy life. Currently one of my greatest joys is introducing my 13 yr old son to table top RPG's.

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