Fighter Handbook: Pathfinder 2e Remastered Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Masters of martial combat, the Fighter thrives in battle using a variety ofweapons and tactics. Fighters get weapon proficiencies one step better thanother characters, making their attacks accurate and their critical hitsfrequent. They also get proficiency with Advanced weapons, allowing fightersto use such weapons without a racial familiarity feat.

The Fighter is at their best in combat, where their capabilities truly shine. The typical Fighter has fewer skills than most classes and terribly few utility options, but in a fight the Fighter is versatile, capable, and often surprising. The Fighter primarily serves their party as a Defender and a Striker, but despite the narrow scope of their capabilities they still have a ton of room for customization and diversity in how they play and what tactics they choose to employ in combat.

There are a lot of interesting mechanical things about the fighter. Unlike other classes, the Fighter has no subclasses. Instead, you can totally determine how the Fighter works by your choice of class feats. Even in the limited options of the Core Rulebook there are feats to cater to a dizzying variety of weapon and armor arrangements. Want to use shields? There are options for it. Two-handed weapons? You’ve got it. Two weapons at the same time? Definitely. Want to have a free hand for high-fives and such? Surprisingly, they found a way to make that viable. Even archery is a viable option, though it takes a few levels to get off the ground.

Because the Fighter is defined almost entirely by their feats and their choice of weapon, Pathfinder 2e’s retraining rules are absolutely crucial for the Fighter. Expect that any time your party’s membership changes, or whenever you find a cool magic item, you may need to make some changes to your feats to make yourself as effective as possible. However, your Attributes are difficult to change, so you’ll be locked into some sets of options depending on whether you choose Strength or Dexterity as your key Attribute.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Fighter Class Features
• Fighter Attributes
  • Strength-based Fighter
  • Dexterity-based Fighter
• Fighter Ancestries and Heritages
• Fighter Backgrounds
• Fighter Skills and Skill Feats
  • Varying Skill Feats
• Fighter Feats
  • General Feats
• Fighter Weapons
  • Archery Builds
  • Single-Weapon Builds
  • Two-Handed Builds
  • Two-Weapon Builds
  • Sword-and-Board Builds
• Fighter Armor
• Archetypes
• Fighter Multiclass Archetype

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Fighter Class Features

Key Attribute: Your choice of Strength or Dexterity. Choosewhichever caters to your preferences. Strength-based fighters will be largelylocked into melee, while Dexterity-based fighters can switch between melee andranged combat but may deal slightly less damage.

Hit Points: 10+ hit points, and it’s easyfor you to focus on keeping your Constitution high since the Fighter needs sofew high Attributes.

Proficiencies: Good perception, good saves,great armor, and the best weapon proficiencies. Sure, you likely won’t have alot of skills, but you can invest in Intelligence or spend feats if that’s anissue.

• Perception: Expert at 1st level and youimprove to Master at 7th and get an additonal +2 to Perception checks forInitiative.
• Saving Throws: Fortitude and Reflex saveswill be good, especially if you emphasized Dexterity, but Will saves are ahuge weakness so don’t dump your Wisdom.
• Skills: A total of 4+ skills is average,but Fighters often dump Intelligence so you may find yourself with fewskills. Take Athletics if you plan to rely on Strength, and considerAcrobatics if you plan to rely on Dexterity.
• Attacks: The best attack proficiency inthe game, and fighters are the only class proficient with Advanced weaponsby default.
• Defenses: Second only to the Champion.Trained in all armor and unarmored defense at 1st level, and yourproficiency rises to Master so your AC should be higher than nearly anyother character.
• Class DC: Critical specializations can sometimes rely uponyour class DC.

1: Reactive Strike: Very few creatures inPathfinder 2e have the ability to punish creatures for moving through theirreach, so most creatures can simply rush past each other to reach vulnerabletargets. The ability to make even one additional attack in these cases is asignificant deterrent, and the Fighter is the only class that gets this optionwithout spending a feat.

1: Shield Block: It’s difficult to choose touse a shield without this feat, so getting it for free is helpful. Don’t feellike you absolutely need to use it, but remember that shields are always anoption if you find yourself in a tough spot.

5: Fighter Weapon Mastery: The Fighter’sweapon proficiency advances strangely. You choose one weapon group (Brawling,Swords, etc.) and your proficiency with that group (including AdvancedWeapons) advances at 5th level while your other weapon proficiencies remainunchanged.

9: Combat Flexibility: Class feats are thebest feats, and getting one more of any level offers a ton of great options.Since you get to change this every day, it’s a great way to experiment withoptions which you’re not certain that you’ll like without spending Downtime totrain, and it’s a great way to bring in material from newly-publishedsourcebooks.

15: Improved Flexibility: Another free classfeat! Great for all the same reasons that Combat Flexibility is great.

Fighter Attributes

Strength-based Fighter

Most fighters will be Strength-based. Dexterity is not the “god stat” that itwas in Pathfinder 1e. Since you only need three high Attributes, you have someflexibility. You get 4 Boosts at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20, and you willlikely put your 4th boost into the same Attribute after boosting Strength,Constitution, and Wisdom.

Str: Your key Attribute.

Dex: Full Plate has a Dexterity Cap of +0,and you probably want to be in Full Plate. Once you’re in Full Plate, theBulwark trait replaces your Dexterity modifier. But a bit of Dexterity willmake it easier to attack at range, which can be helpful if you’re using aweapon that’s good for throwing.

Con: Hit points and Fortitude saves.

Int: Useful for starting skills andlanguages. You can only maximize three skills, and you get a total of 4+skills so dumping Intelligence to 8 means that you’ll still get three skillsthat you can maximize, but just being Trained in a skill is often enough tomake it useful.

Wis: Essential for Perception and WillSaves, which are your biggest defensive gap.

Cha: Useful if you’re building forIntimidation. Demoralize is fantastic, but not every Fighter needs to be builtto use it.

Dexterity-based Fighter

Finesse weapons and ranged weapons make Dexterity-based builds an option, butkeep in mind that even the most Dexterity-heavy Fighter can still benefit alot from high Strength. Unfortunately, needing Strength makes it hard toinvest in Intelligence or Charisma.

Str: You want some for Propulsive weapons(bows) and for melee weapons, plus heavier armor provides a higher total ACbonus, and you still want to avoid check penalties by having enoughStrength.

Dex: Your Key Attribute.

Con: Even if you fight at range, you wantthe extra hit points.

Int: starting skills and languages.

Wis: Essential for Perception and WillSaves, which are your biggest defensive gap.

Cha: useful if you’re building forIntimidation.

Fighter Ancestries and Heritages

Since the Fighter primarily needs boosts to physical Attributes and everyAncestry gets one, nearly any Ancestry works. Strangely, a bonus to Wisdomfrom an Ancestry is actually a better way to identify Ancestries that workwell. Also look closely at Ancestry Feats, especially those which reduce theproficiency type on racial Advanced Weapons and grant access to Uncommonweapons.

For more help selecting an Ancestry and Heritage, see ourFighter Ancestries and Heritages Breakdown.

Fighter Backgrounds

Look for backgrounds that offer boosts to Strength, Dexterity, orConstitution, depending on your build. You can make use of a wide variety ofskill feats depending on your build, so you have a lot of great options.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

• Acrobat^(PC1)
• Farmhand^(PC1)
• Guard^(PC1)
• Laborer^(PC1)
• Martial Disciple^(PC1)
• Warrior^(PC1)

Fighter Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

• Acrobatics (Dex): Acrobatics isn’tespecially useful, but you’re capable of being good at it.
  • Assurance: Great, but not alwayseffective. See myPractical Guide to Assurancefor more information.
  • Quick Jump: A good way to circumventdifficult terrain.
• Arcana (Int): Intelligence is your biggestdump stat.
• Athletics (Str): Athletics is used for avariety of special maneuvers in combat, including Shove and Trip.
  • Assurance: Great, but not alwayseffective. See myPractical Guide to Assurancefor more information.
  • Titan Wrestler: A lot of enemies willbe bigger than you, and you still want to be able to Trip and Shovethem.
• Crafting (Int): Useful for repairingdamaged shields, but don’t expect to go making anything exciting. Youprobably don’t need to go beyond Trained for a long time. If you continue touse shields at high levels, improving your Proficiency and taking QuickRepair can allow you to repair a damaged shield in the heat of combat,quickly returning your cripplingly expensive shield to fulleffectiveness.
• Deception (Cha): Unless you’re built forIntimidation you won’t have the Charisma to back this up.
• Diplomacy (Cha): Unless you’re built forIntimidation you won’t have the Charisma to back this up.
• Intimidation (Cha): Essential forIntimidation builds, but if you dumped Charisma it won’t work.
  • Battle Cry: Start every fight bymaking one enemy Frightened.
  • Intimidating Glare: Language barrierson Intimidation are a serious hindrance, but you may want to retrainthis once you get Scare to Death because it will totally replace theDemoralize action.
  • Intimidating Prowess: If you takethis at all, I would wait until you have 20 Strength so the bonus isworth the feat.
  • Scare to Death: Spend one Action topick out the creature in the room the lowest Will save and kill them orsend them fleeing. Repeat until the room is cleared. At this point youonly need weapons for things that are strong enough to threaten yourwhole party on their own. Battle Cry is still worthwhile, and you might Demoralize goes who survive long enough for Scare to Death’s Frightened effect to wear off, but Scareto Death will be most of the Actions that you spend scaring enemies.
  • Terrified Retreat: If the target’slevel is lower than yours, there’s probably more than one creature inthe fight, and sending one or more of them fleeing will make the fightmuch easier for you.
• Lore (Int): Intelligence is your biggestdump stat.
• Medicine (Wis): You need Wisdom tocompensate for your relatively poor Will saves and to boost your Perception,so you may have enough to make this work. It’s also your only healing optionshort of resting or items.
• Nature (Wis): Essential if you want tofight while mounted, but otherwise skip it.
  • Bonded Animal: A poor man’s AnimalCompanion, a Bonded Animal is a great stand-in for mounted charactersuntil you can get a Multiclass Archetype that gives you an AnimalCompanion. A great option for mounted builds, but I would retrain itonce you get an Animal Companion.
• Occultism (Int): Intelligence is yourbiggest dump stat.
• Performance (Cha): Aside from a handful offeats that you probably don’t want, there is no reason for you to be good atthis.
• Religion (Wis): You’ll have the Wisdomto make this work passably, but I would leave it a Wisdom-based spellcasterif you have one in the party.
• Society (Int): Intelligence is your biggestdump stat.
• Stealth (Dex): Many fighters have highDexterity, so Stealth is absolutely an option.
• Survival (Wis): Only situationallyuseful.
• Thievery (Dex): Many fighters have highDexterity, and Thievery is an absolutely crucial skill to have available tothe party.

Varying Skill Feats

• Assurance^(PC1): Assurancewith Athletics makes it much easier to use things like Shove againstlower-level enemies late in your turn because you don’t need to worry aboutMultiple Attack Penalty.

Fighter Feats

For more help selecting Class Feats, see ourFighter Class Feats Breakdown.

General Feats

• Diehard: Fighters are the front line ofmost parties, so you’re going to take a lot of damage, and as a result youmay find yourself dropping to 0 hit points frequently. I would pick upoptions like Toughness first, but if you have a General Feat to spend youcould do much worse.
• Fleet: Offset the speed penalty fromheavy armor.
• Incredible Initiative: Won’t stack with the Fighter’s Battlefield Surveyor feature.
• Ride: If you’re fighting while mounted,you want to have this. Rolling checks every turn to command your mount getsannoying very quickly, and failing makes you feel really silly.
• Toughness: Fighters already get a lot ofhit points, but they also take a lot of damage so you want as many as youcan possibly get.

Fighter Weapons

Your choice of weapons needs to line up with your Class Feat choices. If you’re running around with a longbow, Power Attack won’t help you. Expect to pick a single weapon that will be your weapon of choice unless a magic item comes along that justifies switching. In some cases you can change your type of weapon with little effort (battle axe to longsword isn’t a big change), but in other cases you may need to retrain a long list of feats to change weapons effectively.

Archery Builds

Your choice of weapon as an archer comes down to two decision points. First,will your Strength score be 14 or higher? If so (and there’s little reason whyit shouldn’t), get a composite bow. Second, you need to consider the range atwhich you’ll be fighting. Shortbows work better within 30 ft. because theyaren’t Volley weapons, but in every other case longbows are better. At lowlevels you can switch between bows easily, but at high levels when you havemagic weapons you won’t want to drop your +2 Greater Striking Longbow to use amundane shortbow just because and enemy is only 25 ft. away.

Crossbows are generally worthless due to their poor action economy comparedto bows. Ignore their existence.

Single-Weapon Builds

Single-Weapon builds are a lot of fun, and enable things like holding shields, pushing, and grappling with your free hand. Your first thought might be a nimble, high-dexterity fencer, but that’s definitely not your only option. Even high-Dexterity fighters still need high Strength for the bonus damage, and a Strength-based single-weapon build may actually be more effective in some ways.

Consider the weapon traits which you find valuable, as they’re often more important than your weapon’s damage die. The gap between a rapier’s d6 and a longsword’s d8 isn’t significant, even when you’re rolling multiple dice. Agile is great if you plan to make numerous attacks, but if you’re relying on options like Power Attack, you don’t need to worry about Agile. Try to get an idea of what feats you want to take as you gain levels, and choose a weapon which works well with those feats.

Having a free hand can also help with Athletics-based Actions in combat like Grab and Shove. In the remaster rules, these special attacks take on the traits of the hand or weapon which you use to perform the attack. Since fists have the Agile trait by default, and empty hand means having the Agile trait for your special attacks. Of course, at high levels a weapon with a matching trait (a warhammer for shove, etc.) will be more mathematicaly impactful.

• Battle Axe / Longsword / Pick / Warhammer: Simple, go-to weapons. The d8 damage die is geat, and Power Attackpresents a significant damage boost, especially at low levels. The BattleAxe’s Sweep property is helpful against multiple foes, especially if youplan to use Swipe. Longswords are Versatile, which makes it easier to dealwith enemy damage resistances. Picks have Fatal, which is like deadly butmore lethal (those are all synonyms), so if you’re trying to get lots ofcritical hits it’s great. Warhammers have the Shove property, which ishelpful if you want to Shove but don’t have a free hand.
• Bastard Sword / Dwarven Waraxe: If youplan to primarily fight two-handed but want the ability to use a free handfor stuff like shoving, the Bastard Sword and Dwarven War Axe are your bestoptions. You can also use options like Dual-Handed Assault to get thebenefits of a d12 damage die while still maintaining a free hand. TheDwarven War Axe adds the Sweep property, but is otherwise identical to theBastard Sword, so go for the Dwarven War Axe if it’s convenient to doso.
• Flail: A great option for Fighters willingto put a lot of thought into combat maneuvers. You do sacrifice a little bit of damage comparedto popular weapons like the Longsword, but having both Disarm and Trip on one weapon plus theabsolutely amazing Flail Critical Specialization Effect makes flails incredibly effective.
• Gnome Flickmace / Whip: Reach on aone-handed weapon is a huge advantage. You get the most important part of apolearm, but you can also use your other hand for things like a shield. TheGnome Flickmace has a bigger damage die than the Whip and doesn’t have the Nonlethaltrait, but otherwise the whip is a much better weapon due to its numeroususeful traits. Unfortunately, some creatures are immune to nonlethal damage,so the whip isn’t always a safe bet. If you’re building to make attacks ofopportunity, consider either a flickmace or a whip, and look at feats likeCombat Reflexes.
• Katana: Similar in many ways to therapier, but it’s an Advanced Weapon so you’re either spending a feat orlosing attack bonus.
• Rapier: The go-to for Dexterity-basedmelee builds, but by no means a perfect weapon. Deadly is great, but likelywon’t close the damage gap between d6 and d8, and disarm is onlysituationally useful. Finesse is nice at low levels, but your Dexterity andStrength will rarely be more than 2 apart so it’s not a significant boost toyour attack bonus.

Two-Handed Builds

There are two good reasons to use a two-handed weapon: reach, and big damagedice. No one-handed weapon has a damage die larger than 1d8, and no one-handedweapons have reach without also having a handicap like the Nonlethal trait orbeing an Advanced weapon. Two-handed weapons frequently have interestingtraits like Backswing and Forceful, but otherwise they’re not much differentfrom one-handed weapons.

• Elven Curve Blade: I can’t think of a casewhere the Elven Curve Blade is better than a Falchion. Maybe for an elfrogue with the Elven Weapon Familiarity feat? For the Fighter, it’sbasically a worse Falchion.
• Falchion: If you’re planning to rely onmultiple attacks every turn, the Falchion can be good. Swipe in particularworks very well with the Falchion. The 1d10 damage die is smaller than otheroptions, but the bonus damage from Forceful is very effective if you’reusing something like Swipe to make multiple attacks before your MultipleAttack Penalty applies. Otherwise, stick to weapons with a larger damage dielike the Greataxe and Greatsword.
• Greataxe: Simple and straight to thepoint, the Greataxe has a big damage die and Sweep so it works well withPower Attack for single enemies and Swipe with multiple enemies.
• Greatpick: Fighters crit more often than anyone else (thanks to PF2 math) and Fatal adds an extra die to crits and the Pick Critical Specialization adds more damage when you crit. Add in Vicious Swing and start deleting your foes.
• Greatclub / Maul: Backswing is a badtrait, and Shove isn’t good enough to make these viable on its own.
• Greatsword / Halberd: Basic, genericoptions that have Versatile instead of something interesting. If you don’tplan to use special maneuvers like Trip or Shove, go for one of these.
• Guisarme / Ranseur: Reach and you can usethem for a special maneuver. I prefer Trip over Disarm, personally.
• Horsechopper: Low damage die for atwo-handed weapon, but you get Reach, Trip, and Versatile on a singleweapon. I consider it on par with the Guisarme, but I wouldn’t go to greatlengths to find one.
• War Flail / Spiked Chain: Like the Flail,the War Flail and the Spiked Chain emphasize special maneuvers likedisarming and tripping over raw damage. The War Flail is the better option:Spiked Chain reduces the damage die and loses Sweep in favor of Finesse.Finesse is most likely no more than +1 to attacks if you’re maximizing yourDexterity, and you need high Strength to Disarm and Trip successfullyanyway.

Two-Weapon Builds

Two-weapon builds have twice as much room to choose weapons, but you alsoneed to spend more money to enhance those weapons. You also need to considerhow the two weapons interact with each other, and with the feats you plan totake.

In most cases, you’ll be using two different weapons: a larger primary weapon like a longsword and a smaller Agile weapon like a dagger. Double Slice is your defining class feat at low levels, so having an Agile second weapon is helpful. Of course, with the Fighter’s unusually high attack bonus, your second attack is still fairly accurate compared to other classes. You have more flexibility with your primary weapon; see Single-weapon builds, above, but keep in mind that you have two weapons which might support things like Disarm and Trip, so you may want to spread those capabilities across your weapons if you plan to use them.

Be sure to pick up a set of Blazons of Shared Power ^(GaG) to dramatically reduce the cost of putting magic on both of your weapons. They haven’t made it into the Remaster yet, but Legacy content is still valid unless it gets reprinted.

• Dagger / Starknife: The Starknife isjust a better dagger, so there’s little reason to use a dagger except as abackup weapon. The Starknife’s damage isn’t as good as a shortsword, andDeadly isn’t enough to close that gap, but the ability to throw it istempting so it’s worth considering as your second weapon.
• Dogslicer / Filcher’s fork: Similar toother weapons, but notably the Dogslicer and Filcher’s Fork add Backstabber.It’s a bit of extra damage, but without something like Twin Feint toguarantee an Off-Guard target, I don’t think they’re worth a feat.
• Clan Dagger / Main-gauche: Much like theStarknife, the Clan Dagger and Main-gauche are upgraded daggers, adding theParry trait. Giving up a shield means reduced AC, but with a Parry weaponyou can spend an Action for a +1 Circ*mstance bonus to AC, making up some ofthe gap. If you take Twin Parry at 4th level, this bonus increases to +2 tomatch the bonus from a shield. Even with an Agile weapon, your third attackis still made at -8, so spending your third Action to defend yourself isfrequently a better idea than attempting another Strike. The differencebetween the Clan Dagger and the Main-gauche is Versatile or Disarm. Disarmis situational because monsters don’t typically use weapons, but the ClanDagger is Uncommon so it’s not available to most characters.
• Gauntlet / Spiked Gauntlet: Not a lot ofdamage, but combine the best parts of two-weapon fighting and duelingbuilds. A free hand allows you to perform special maneuvers like Disarm andTrip, though admittedly you won’t get the item bonus to the check that youwould from a weapon designed for that maneuver. You may also be able to makeuse of the dueling feats like Dueling Parry and Dueling Riposte, which areavailable two levels before the comparable Two-Weapon Fighting feats andfrequently have the same effect. At the very least, a gauntlet is a greatbackup weapon.
• Hatchet: Agile, throwable, and 1d6damage. It has Sweep, too, so if you switch to another target your thirdStrike in a turn will only be at a total penalty of -7.
• Sawtooth Saber: Tailor-made fortwo-weapon fighting, the Sawtooth Saber is the only published weapon withthe Twin property. Twin adds some extra damage to your second attack, whichis great motivation to make more attacks each turn. The Sawtooth Saber alsohas the Agile trait, which is absolutely crucial for Double Slice. However,because the Sawtooth Saber is an Advanced Weapon your proficiency bonus willlag behind other weapons unless your take Advanced Weapon training at 6thlevel, and I don’t know if the tiny bit of extra damage is worth a classfeat when there are comparable options like the shortsword.
• Shortsword: Reliable and uncomplicated.1d6 damage and versatile, so if all you need is damage you’re good togo.

Sword-and-Board Builds

For typical sword-and-board builds, see Single-Weapon Builds, above. If you plan to use a shield boss or shield spike to perform two-weapon fighting, see Two-Weapon Builds, above.

Fighter Armor

Whatever you do, don’t use light armor since Armor specialization effects don’t apply to light armor. Even if you’re an archer, it’s easy (and smart) to have enough Strength to not be impeded by heavy armor. However, Dexterity-based characters should avoid Full Plate because the Bulwark trait may actually reduce your bonus to Reflex Saves.

Archetypes

This is not a comprehensive list of archetypes which might be useful for this class. For more on archetypes, see our archetype handbooks.

• Alchemist: Mutagens are a tempting buff,and other alchemical items can give you a lot of utility and supportoptions. Alchemical bombs are a martial weapon, so you get your usualproficiency bonus to attacks and your Weapon Specialization damage bonuseswith them.
• Barbarian: Rage is a significant buff fora melee fighter. You have enough AC to absorb the AC penalty, and thetemporary hit points should make up the difference anyway.
• Champion: Champion’s Reaction is reallygood, but it will conflict with your other Reaction options like ReactiveStrike. The biggest benefit is probably access to Focus Spells like Lay onHands which will scale with your level without further investment. If you’regoing for a mounted combat build, you might like Divine Ally to get ananimal Companion, but you can also get an Animal Companion from the Druid orthe Ranger so that shouldn’t be the only thing you want from the Champion ifyou choose to multiclass.
• Cleric: Clerics have a surprisinglylarge amount to offer martial classes like the Champion and the Fighter. Thededication feat doesn’t offer much in the way of proficiencies, but theDivine spell list’s cantrips include great options like Guidance (easy +1 onbasically anything whenever you want it, with a cooldown) and Shield(no-hand Shield Block with a cooldown, but works great if you don’t use ashield). Domain Initiate gives you a Focus Pool and access to several usefuldomain spells depending on your choice of deity.
• Druid: If you want spellcasting, I thinkthat the Cleric makes more sense. If you want Focus Spells, I think theChampion makes more sense. If you want an Animal Companion, the Rangeroffers the same options, plus other feats that cater to the Fighter’smartial capabilities. There are some amusing things that you can do withWild Shape and related feats, but sticking to weapons will be more effectiveand you would need to invest a significant number of class feats to makethose options worthwhile.
• Monk: With the right stance feat yourunarmed strikes are as good as some two-handed weapons, but remember thatsome stances require you to be unarmored. You can combine many of the Monk’scapabilities with Fighter Class Feats which are usually intended for fencingbuilds. Monastic Weaponry gets you access to interesting options likeShuriken, as well as several melee options like the Kama and the Sai, both ofwhich are potential candidates for two-weapon fighting builds. Monks’ Flurrygets you access to Flurry of Blows, but remember that it’s a Flourish so youcan’t combine it with things like Double Shot or Two-Weapon Flurry. There’sa lot to capitalize on here.
• Ranger: A good option for archers andtwo-weapon fighting builds. Disrupt Prey is easy to miss, but it essentiallyadds another version of Reactive Strike that you can use against your Preywhich can also disrupt some actions. You can also get an Animal Companion,which is crucial for mounted builds.
• Rogue: You don’t get to choose a Racket,which dramatically limits your Rogue Class Feat options, but there are stilla few gems. You’re Next and Dread Striker are great for Intimidationenthusiasts. Quick Draw is absolutely required for thrown weapon builds.

Fighter Multiclass Archetype

2. Fighter Dedication: Trained in MartialWeapons sounds nice for classes limited to Simple Weapons, but it’s a trap.The proficiency won’t advance, so Simple Weapons will become more effectivethan Martial Weapons very quickly for any character that has any businessusing weapons. Effectively the only thing you get from this is proficiencyin one skill and access to the rest of the Archetype.
4. Basic Maneuver: The Fighter has great1st-level feats for any weapon-using character because the class needs tosupport any weapon configuration from level 1.
4. Fighter Resiliency: These bonus hp featsare not worth the Feat. Take Toughness.
4. Reactive Striker: Excellent on literallyany melee character that uses a weapon.
6. Advanced Maneuver: Fighters have somereally great 6th-level and 8th-level feats for martial characters.
12. Diverse Weapon Expert: If you need this,you need to not use weapons.