Best BG3 Fighter Build – ✅High Damage & High Mobility

Welcome to the best BG3 Fighter Build. For this Baldur’s Gate 3 build we will be using the Battle Master subclass of the Fighter class, focusing on dealing high melee damage and controlling the battlefield with our special Battle Master abilities. The Fighter Build works for both PC and Console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).

The Fighter can choose a Fighting Style and prioritize it, gaining an edge when wielding a certain type of weapon. For this build, we’ll be using the Great Weapons (two-handed melee weapons) fighting style.

Table of Contents:

• Fighter Class Guide
• Character Creation (Level 1)
• Leveling Progress
  • Level 2
  • Level 3 – Subclass Selection
  • Level 4
  • Level 5
  • Level 6
  • Level 7
  • Level 8
  • Level 9
  • Level 10
  • Level 11
  • Level 12
• Equipment
  • Early Game Gear
  • Endgame Gear
• Tips & Tricks
• Overpowered Potion

You can also find more Subclass Fighter Builds on the website here:

• Champion Subclass Fighter Build
• Eldritch Knight Subclass Fighter Build

BG3 Fighter Class Guide

The Fighter class is a very powerful frontline melee fighter and has decent ranged capabilities. The BG3 Fighter can execute multiple attacks per turn, which is a huge plus. You also get special Martial Abilities that allow you to control or debuff enemies. Heavy Armour is the gear of choice for the fighter, this makes your AC higher than most other classes and therefore you are harder to take down while dealing immense damage, several times a turn!

The early game might be a bit rough, starting with level 5 and upwards the Fighter class gets a lot more powerful. Therefore, make sure to be a little patient and don’t immediately reroll at low levels. For our build, we are going to use Great Weapons (anything that is wielded with “Two-Handed” property). For example, a Greatsword, Greataxe, Greatclub, or a Glaive will do. Make sure to select the “Great Weapon Fighting” Fighting Style when you create your Fighter character. This allows us to avoid rolling a 1 or 2 on a damage die, and thus increasing our overall damage.

At level two you already get an action called Action Surge that allows you to gain an extra action for this turn. At level 5 you get a free Extra Attack too. At level 11 you will get another free Extra Attack. Additionally, with the right Potions or equipment you can further increase your Attacks per turn.

Subclass of Choice – Battle Master

For our BG3 Fighter Build we are going to use the Battle Master subclass. You will be able to select the Battle Master subclass at level 3. Battle Masters are paragons of tactical superiority, combining combat manoeuvres and experience in the field to dominate every fight. You will also gain the mechanic “Superiority Dice“, which allows you to activate special actions. When you reach level 3 and select Battle Master, you also have to select 3 Manoeuvres. For our setup we are going with Menacing Attack, Pushing Attack, and Rally.

• Menacing Attack unlocks the Menacing Attack (Melee) and Menacing Attack (Ranged). This can Frighten your target and they will have Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack Rolls and they cannot move.
• Pushing Attack unlocks the Pushing Attack (Melee) and Pushing Attack (Ranged). You can use this to push enemies back 4.5m. This way you can knock enemies off edges into death. We like to use this with a ranged weapon when you can’t reach a target in time, if it falls off it will be instantly dead anyway and damage doesn’t really matter at that point.
• Rally unlock the Rally action. This can be used to give 8 Temporary Health Points for 5 turns to an ally. The best time to activate this is right before you initiate combat, think of it as a pre buff.

Later you will be able to get even more Manoeuvres, more on that further below in the leveling section.

Fighter Build Character Creation (Level 1) for BG3

In this section, we will go over the basic Character Creation options for your BG3 Fighter build, namely Background, Race, Skills and Abilities.

Race

First off it is important to note that you can select whatever race you would like to pick because it won’t have that big of an impact gameplay wise. However, some races do have slightly more useful passives than others for our Fighter Build. Some interesting options are:

• Wood Elf or Wood Half-Elf – High Movement Speed, allowing you to reach targets more quickly and outrun enemies if needed. Very useful for a mostly melee class like the Fighter.
• Githyanki – Gets Proficiency with Longswords and Greatswords
• Gold Dwarf – Gains Proficiency with axes and hammers, and 1 extra HP per level.
• Half Orc – Rolls three Damage dice on Critical Hits, instead of the usual two.

Don’t worry if you don’t want to go with any of these races. As mentioned above, your chosen race is of fairly low importance in Baldur’s Gate 3 post release.

Fighting Style

For this Fighter build we’re going to concentrate on Great Weapons, so we recommend choosing the Fighting Style that matches that. Great Weapon Fighting will automatically reroll a damage die that rolls a 1 or a 2 (once per attack), which helps to ensure we don’t deal terrible damage on any of our weapon attacks.

If you want to deviate from that then you can also go with Two-Weapon Fighting, which adds your Ability Modifier to the damage of offhand attacks. The build will still work fine if you follow everything else.

Background

The best Backgrounds to choose for the Fighter are either Outlander or Soldier, as these, both give Proficiency in Athletics, the only Strength-based skill available through the Background selection.

However the Background isn’t hugely important – it has little direct impact on combat situations, so if you want to choose something else then it won’t ruin the build.

Abilities

It’s important for the efficacy of the Fighter Build that you have Strength and Constitution as high as possible at Level 1.

These are the only two skills that are vital for this build. In many of our other builds we recommend putting a few points in Dexterity for your Armour Class, however this is not needed here since we’re going to be using Heavy Armour.

Distribute your Ability points to look something like this:

• 17 Strength
• 12 Dexterity
• 16 Constitution
• 9 Intelligence
• 10 Wisdom
• 10 Charisma

Skills

For Skills, you should already have Proficiency in Athletics from your recommended Background of either the Soldier or the Outlander. The only other option that’s fairly important is Acrobatics, since this helps you to resist being pushed around in combat. Therefore make sure to select:

• Acrobatics
• Intimidation or Survival (Depending on your background)

Leveling Progress of the BG3 Fighter Build

Now let us take a look at what things you should select while leveling up your Fighter Build for BG3. You can slightly deviate from the build and it will still work, experimenting is always good and you can always reset your class at Withers in the camp for 100 gold.

Level 2

There’s not a huge amount to say for Level 2, you don’t have any choices to make when you reach this level.

However, you will unlock a new class ability called Action Surge. This allows you to gain an extra Action on the same turn, so you can make two attacks in one turn. This is particularly useful for finishing off an enemy before they have a chance to take their turn. Action Surge can only be used once per Short Rest.

Action Surge is a huge deal at this level, because most other enemies won’t be able to activate a second action. While you can only use this once per Short Rest, don’t forget that after each fight you could technically do a short rest and recharge this action. And of course make sure to have this ready to go when a difficult fight is about to happen in Baldur’s Gate 3. This can turn the fight easily towards you when you can destroy a dangerous enemy fast.

Level 3 – Subclass Selection

At Level 3 you will need to choose your subclass for your BG3 Fighter Build. As mentioned earlier, we’ll be going with the Battle Master class for this Fighter build.

After selecting the Battle Master, you’ll also need to choose three Battle Master Maneuvers to unlock. We recommend choosing the following options:

• Pushing Attack – Much more powerful than a normal Push, the Pushing Attack is more likely to succeed and also does some extra damage. This is especially useful for pushing enemies off a high ledge or cliff, dealing extra fall damage or potentially killing them immediately.
• Menacing Attack – This skill deals high damage to an enemy and has a chance to make them Frightened, preventing them from moving and giving them a disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls.
• Rally – Rally is a little different to the other abilities mentioned here. For starters, it counts as a Bonus Action, which means you can use it on the same turn as you attack or perform another Action. This also lets your Fighter do something useful even if they need to spend their turn dashing into battle. Rally lets you give an ally some Temporary Hit Points, which can be very useful in a pinch.

Before we move on to the next section, we should also explain the difference between these abilities and regular ones. When you select the Battle Master subclass, your character receives four Superiority Dice, which can roll from 1-8. Using a Battle Maneuver rolls and temporarily spends one of these dice. When you do a Short or Long Rest, you’ll regain all spent dice. This effectively means you can cast four Battle Master Maneuvers per Short Rest.

These extra abilities can be very powerful, and allow you to exert a certain amount of control over the battlefield.

Level 4

Again there is not a huge amount to talk about at this level – you only have one thing that you need to select.

As with all Classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, we need to choose a Feat when we reach Level 4. Feats are extra passive buffs for our character, which can help to make your build more defined, or to simply push up your Ability Stats.

Here we’ll be going with the Ability Improvement Feat, which gives you 2 extra points to distribute between your Abilities. We recommend splitting the points between Strength and Constitution. This should give you 18 STR and 17 CON.

Level 5 – Another Extra Attack

At Level 5, your Fighter Build will start to become much more powerful. First of all, your Proficiency Bonus will be improved to +3 at this level (meaning rolls in skills you’re proficient at gain a bonus of 3 added onto whatever the result of the die roll is).

But what’s really important here is that we’ll now be able to make two attacks each turn, by default due to the new Extra Attack class feature. This effectively doubles the damage potential of the Fighter Class, turning you into an absolute melee powerhouse.

Even better, when you use the Action Surge ability you’ll be able to make three attacks in the same turn, which is insane for a Level 5 character. Get your Fighter into the thick of the fighting early on in the Battle (while not completely abandoning caution) and you’re now able to put your enemies at an immediate disadvantage, perhaps even knocking out their most dangerous champion before they’ve even had a chance to do anything noteworthy in combat.

Level 6

Unlike other classes, the Fighter is able to choose an extra Feat at Level 6.

We recommend choosing the Great Weapon Master Feat. This lets you make an extra attack as a Bonus Action after landing a Critical Hit or killing an enemy while wielding a great weapon in Baldur’s Gate 3. There’s also an option to add +10 damage to your attacks in exchange for a -5 penalty on your Attack Rolls, which can be toggled off. This is good for quickly dispatching enemies with weak defences, but against tougher enemies, you’ll probably want to turn it off.

• Great Weapon Master: Bonus Attack: When you land a Critical Hit or kill a target with a melee weapon attack, you can make another melee weapon attack as a bonus action that turn.
• Melee Attack Bonus: -5: You take a -5 penalty to Attack Rolls you make with Heavy melee weapons
• Melee Damage Bonus: +10: You have a +10 bonus to damage rolls you make with Heavy melee weapons.

Level 7

At Level 7 you’ll be able to choose two more Battle Master Maneuvers for your Fighter Build.

We recommend picking the following options:

• Trip Attack – Spend a Superiority Die to damage the target and possibly knock them Prone. Since we’re now able to make several attacks per turn, this is a great opener as your attacks will have Advantage against Prone enemies.
• Evasive Footwork – Enemies receive Disadvantage on melee attacks against you. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time in close proximity to enemies, this is a useful feature that makes it harder for them to hit you.

Level 8

At Level 8, you can choose another new Feat for your Fighter build in BG3.

This time, get the Ability Improvement Feat and use it to increase your Strength to 20. This gives you the best possible Attack Rolls, meaning your attacks will generally hit more often.

Level 9

At Level 9 there are no choices to make.

However, you do unlock the Indomitable perk, which allows you to reroll the dice whenever you fail a Saving Throw. You must use the new roll after doing this.

This is another feature that makes you more resilient to damage and debuffs from enemy attacks and spells.

Level 10

At Level 10 you’ll gain a couple of new features for your Fighter Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:

• Improved Superiority Dice – Your Superiority Dice can now roll from 1 to 10, potentially increasing the damage of your Battle Maneuvers.
• Choose 2 more Battle Maneuvers to learn. We recommend choosing:
  • Disarming Attack – Spend a Superiority Die to attack your foe and potentially disarm them. After the enemy drops their weapon, it’s often possible to spend an Action to pick it up, preventing them from grabbing it again.
  • Riposte – When a creature misses you with a melee attack, expend a Superiority Die to retaliate with a powerful strike that deals 1-10 bonus damage.

Level 11

There are again no choices to make at Level 11, however, you do gain one new feature that will make your Fighter much stronger.

Your Extra Attack from Level 5 is now upgraded to Improved Extra Attack, which effectively lets you make two bonus attacks each turn. Attacking three times per turn is obviously a very powerful effect, and gives the Fighter great damage potential in the latter parts of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Level 12

If you reached this point in the guide, then congratulations – you have now finished leveling up your Fighter build for BG3!

At Level 12, you will unlock one final Feat.

We recommend choosing Martial Adept, which will give you an extra Superiority Die and let you choose two more Battle Maneuvers.

For the Battle Maneuvers themselves, there are two options that both help you to hit enemies with high defenses:

• Feinting Attack – Use both your Action and Bonus Action to attack a target with Advantage and 1-10 bonus damage.
• Precision Attack – Your next weapon attack gains an Attack Roll bonus equal to your Superiority Die.

Alternatively, if you’re struggling with staying alive, you can take the Durable Feat, which gives you a +1 bonus to your Constitution and allows you to restore to full HP from Short Rests.

Fighter Build Best Equipment in Baldur’s Gate 3

Below you will find an early game and an end game setup for the BG3 Fighter Build.

Early Game Gear

Early-game equipment is found in either Act I or the earlier parts of Act II in Baldur’s Gate 3. You don’t necessarily need to find all of the pieces below, but the more the better for the Fighter build. The two most important items for your Fighter Build in the early game are the Grymskull Helm and the Adamantine Splint Armour, more on these below.

Grymskull Helm

The Grymskull Helm prevents enemies from landing Critical Hits on you, which is a very useful defensive bonus. You also have a 50% resistance to Fire damage when wearing it. It is looted from the boss Grym in the Adamantine Forge area of Grymforge towards the end of Act 1. This set piece is great for a Fighter who often is the main target of many enemies because you are fighting on the front line.

Cloak of Protection

The Cloak of Protection is one of the earliest cloaks available in the game, and provides a modest defensive buff – you gain a +1 bonus to your Armour Class and Saving Throws when wearing it. It can be purchased from Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn.

Adamantine Splint Armour

The Adamantine Splint Armour is a very powerful armour piece that can be obtained fairly early in the game towards the end of Act 1, and will probably last you until well into Act III. It reduces all incoming damage by 2, and sends your melee attackers Reeling for 2 turns, giving them a -1 penalty to Attack Rolls for every turn of Reeling remaining. This armour must be crafted at the Adamantine Forge, by finding the Splint Mould and some Mithral Ore – both can be found in the vicinity of the Adamantine Forge.

Gloves of the Growling Underdog

The Gloves of the Growling Underdog give you Advantage on your Attack Rolls when you are surrounded by 2 or more foes in combat. Advantage means that you will roll 2 dice for your Attack Roll and use the one that rolled with the highest number, considerably improving your chances of a good roll. You also get a +1 bonus to Strength Saving Throws. These gloves can be looted from Dror Ragzlin’s treasure crates in the Shattered Sanctum.

Boots of Genial Striding

The Boots of Genial Striding prevent difficult terrain (such as spikes, mud and grease) from reducing your Movement Speed. However, beware that these boots will not negate any other harmful effects from a surface, such as damage from spikes or the chance to slip over when walking on ice. They can be purchased from Blurg in the Myconid Colony, in the Underdark (Act I).

Amulet of Misty Step

The Amulet of Misty Step grants you access to the Misty Step spell, which allows you to teleport to a visible location within 18 metres, for a Bonus Action. This is great for quickly closing the gap to an enemy so you can get into melee where this build is at its strongest, or for escaping from a bad situation. The Amulet is located in a chest in the Defiled Temple, near the Ogre called Polma.

Crusher’s Ring

Crusher’s Ring simply increases your Movement Speed by 3 metres per turn. This is another useful item for closing the gap to enemies quickly so that you can spend your turns dealing melee damage instead of running between targets. The ring is looted from Crusher in the Goblin Camp.

Ring of Protection

The Ring of Protection has the same effect as the Cloak of Protection (they stack together) – it improves your Armour Class and Saving Throws by +1. It is awarded to you by Mol for completing the quest to steal the Sacred Idol in the Druid’s Grove.

Blooded Greataxe

We recommend the Blooded Greataxe because it is a highly damaging weapon that can be obtained very early in the game. Greataxes in general are excellent DPS weapons since they come with a 1d12 die, the largest damage die in the game for weapons. The Blooded Greataxe grants your melee weapon attacks an extra 1d4 Slashing Damage whenever you are below 50% Health. In the hands of a strong melee class like the Champion, this weapon will carry you well into Act II even if you’re a complete beginner at the game.

This weapon can be purchased from either Grat the Trader in the Goblin Camp or Roah Moonglow in Shattered Sanctum. If the weapon does not appear in their wares, try Long Resting which will reshuffle the vendor items. You don’t need to spend any camp supplies on a Long Rest for this purpose.

Any Heavy Crossbow

Our ranged weapon isn’t the focus of this build – you should aim to be in melee as much as possible because this is where the Champion excels. Having said that, it still makes sense to have a decent ranged weapon as a backup for those turns when you simply cannot reach an enemy to make melee attacks. You can use any ranged weapon here, but we recommend a Heavy Crossbow since the Fighter class has Proficiency with this weapon, and it’s the best type of ranged weapon in terms of its damage potential.

Endgame Gear

Late Game equipment can be found in the latter parts of Act II, and Act III. This is the most powerful version of the build, with access to the best items in the game.

Helm of Balduran

The strongest helmet for your Fighter Build in BG3, the Helm of Balduran prevents enemies from landing Critical Hits on you, prevents you from being Stunned, heals you for 2 HP per turn, and gives a +1 bonus to Armour Class and Saving Throws. Obtaining this item is a multi-stage process – we wrote a detailed guide on how to find it.

Cloak of Elemental Absorption

Once per Short Rest, the Cloak of Elemental Absorption will absorb elemental damage, and infuse your next attack with 1d6 of that damage type. This is a fairly minor effect, but it can still generate a nice damage boost. It can be looted from an Opulent Chest inside Ketheric Thorm’s Chambers in Moonrise Towers.

Armour of Persistence

Another powerful armour piece, the Armour of Persistence reduces all incoming damage by 2, and passively grants Resistance (1d4 bonus to all Saving Throws) and Blade Ward (50% resistance to bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage). Note that gaining the Resistance and Blade Ward conditions from other sources will have no effect, as these buffs cannot stack with themselves.

The Armour of Persistence is purchased from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate, Act III. The Armour of Persistence costs 16000 Gold.

Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength

The Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength increase your Strength to 23, and give you a +1 bonus to Strength Saving Throws. This will increase your damage and accuracy with Strength-based attacks, most notably your melee weapon. The gloves can be taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.

Boots of Persistence

The Boots of Persistence permanently grant the wearer Freedom of Movement and Longstrider, improving your movement speed and preventing you from being slowed by difficult terrain, entangled, paralysed or magically restrained. This reduces the amount of ways that enemies can try to stun or immobilise your Champion Fighter. These boots can be purchased from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine in the Lower City, Act III.

Amulet of Greater Health

The Amulet of Greater Health sets your Constitution to 23 and gives Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws. A higher Constitution means more HP. Can be taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.

Killer’s Sweetheart

With the Killer’s Sweetheart ring equipped, once per Long Rest, you gain a guaranteed Critical Hit on your next attack after killing an enemy. This item would be better if it could be triggered more frequently, but it’s still a useful effect. It is found inside the Self-Same Trial in the Gauntlet of Shar.

Balduran’s Giantslayer

A Legendary Greatsword, Balduran’s Giantslayer is arguably the strongest melee weapon in the game. It doubles the damage bonus from your Strength Modifier when attacking (if you have the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength, this improves a +6 modifier to +12). It grants you Advantage when attacking large, huge or gargantuan enemies, and once per Short Rest allows you to enlarge yourself, gaining extra damage, Temporary HP and Advantage on Strength checks.

Balduran’s Giantslayer is looted from Ansur in the Dragon’s Sanctum. To find out how to access the Dragon’s Sanctum, follow this guide on How to find the Helm of Balduran – both items are located in the same room.

BG3 Fighter Build Tips & Tricks

This is one of the easiest classes in Baldur’s Gate 3 to setup and play, and it also hits hard. However, there are still some things to stay mindful of.

While this class is very tanky, especially if you get The Absolute’s Talisman, try not to get too overconfident and throw caution to the wind. If you put yourself in a bad position then you can still get put out of action fairly quickly.

Remember that Bonus Actions can be performed on the same turn as normal Actions (such as weapon attacks and Battle Maneuvers). This lets you use Rally without needing to compromise your attack output for the turn, or other Bonus Actions such as pushing or jumping.

Lae’zel is the only origin character with the Fighter Class, so you can use this build for her and even have two Fighters in your party if you want. This will give you really high melee damage output in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Overpowered Potion

The Potion of Speed is arguably the most powerful potion in Baldur’s Gate 3 – it is good on any character, but it is especially valuable on classes like the Fighter who can make multiple attacks per turn even without the potion.

The Potion of Speed doubles your Movement Speed and gives you an extra Action each turn. This means that a high-level Fighter can make 6 attacks from Actions per turn, instead of the usual 3. This is why these potions are so much more valuable on classes like the Fighter – a Cleric would only get 1 extra attack per turn out of the Potion of Speed, while we are getting 3.

One drawback of this potion is that when it expires, your character will be Lethargic for one turn, unable to move or take any Actions. So you should be careful not to have your character stranded in a dangerous position when the potion runs out!

You can craft the Potion of Speed in the alchemy menu by combining Ashes of Hyena Ear with any Salt. Create ashes, salts and other alchemy concentrates by combining three of the same ingredients together – for example, combining three Hyena Ears will create Ashes of Hyena Ear. Hyena Ears can normally be looted from either Hyenas or Gnolls – you can find a lot of them around the Risen Road in Act I, for a good supply of them which should last you a while.

Other Baldur’s Gate 3 Builds

• Druid Build – Circle of the Moon
• Bard Build – College of Lore
• Ranger Build – Hunter
• Monk Build – Way of Shadow
• Monk Build – Way of the Four Elements
• Monk Build – Way of the Open Hand
• Necromancer Build – Necromancy
• Barbarian Build – Berserker
• Warlock Build – Great Old One
• Cleric Build – Light Domain
• Rogue Build – Thief
• Sorcerer Build – Wild Magic
• Wizard Build – Evocation School
• Paladin – Oath of Ancients
• More Baldur’s Gate Guides & Builds

If you want to check out the map of Baldur’s Gate 3, please visit the Baldur’s Gate 3 Interactive Map.