Summary
Fighters, or whatever name the game gives them, are the bread and butter of every tabletop RPG, andDungeons & Dragonsis no exception. They’re essentially the guy who is just good at fighting, capable of using many weapons and focused on non-magical combat — though your subclass affects that last part.
Yet, fighters offer a balanced choice, dealing consistent damage while maintaining a sturdy presence unlike spellcasting classes. Their straightforward nature makes it relatively easier for the Dungeon Master to manage their abilities, but a well-optimized fighter can still present a challenge. How can you ensure your fighters are appropriately tested?
Your goal is to challenge the character, not kill them. A DM can do anything, so eliminating the whole party is relatively easy.
Using these tactics too often can also take the fun away from your player; properly challenging them is one thing, but annulling everything they do is another. Be mindful when implementing these suggestions.
7Analyze Their Build And Weapon Choices
Dealing With A Melee And A Ranged Character Is Very Different
A crucial detail you have to know about your fighter is their basic battle tactics, including which weapons they use. Yes, they can virtually use any weapon in the game, but their character will be optimized to a specific type of weapon. Not only is it important to appropriately reward your player with loot, but it’s also important so you can know how to fight them.
The likely combinations here will be a heavy, two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon with a shield, two one-handed weapons for dual-wielding (with either both being melee, both ranged, or one of each), or a ranged weapon. Most melee options can be dealt with similarly, but focusing on ranged weaponry will completely change how the fighter behaves on the battlefield.
How To Deal With A Melee Fighter
Melee fighters will be close to the action and will likely have good health or AC (armor class). Surrounding them and overwhelming them could be useful, but they will likely kill this horde with some ease, depending on the level. That is still useful if you use flanking rules, as it’ll increase the chance of their enemies hitting them.
Still, focus on ranged combat. Have enemies being too far from their reach while the enemies can still shoot them with arrows or magic, forcing the player to be smart about their repositioning. You can make hybrid enemies that can fight melee once the fighter reaches them or give them abilities such as Nimble Escape or Misty Step to get out of range once the fighter reaches them.
How To Deal With A Ranged Fighter
You can still use ranged attacks against a ranged fighter, as a shootout can work well here. However, you can also make powerful melee characters who have a lot of movement or maybe even teleportation abilities to get into melee range as fast as possible.
That will force a ranged fighter to fight with melee options (they can still cause damage through finesse weapons, but not all their abilities will be useful), and their ranged attacks will have a disadvantage for having enemies at close range — though the crossbow expert feat can annul that part. Lastly, something as simple as counting arrows, something many DMs don’t do, can help balance things a lot.
6Enhance Your Armor Class And Health
Always Effective
Fighters rarely rely on forcing enemies into saving throws, and even then, it’s mainly to cause certain effects rather than dish out damage. In most cases and subclasses, a fighter still needs to hit the target, and they have a lot of chances of doing so, as the class with most attacks per turn.
Simply giving important enemies a high AC and a lot of health is already an efficient way to decrease how many attacks will hit them in the turn, making this a solid strategy to challenge a fighter, regardless of the level.
5Use Many Enemies
Have Them Waste Their Resources
Fighters don’t have that many resources, and almost all of them recover with a short rest, meaning that a one-hour in-game break is enough for them to recover their Second Wind, Action Surge, and even maneuvers if they are a battle master.
In other words, don’t be afraid of giving them a lot to deal with right away, especially if the place they are is relatively safe to take short rests with few to no repercussions. Throwing a lot of enemies to force them into an Action Surge to hit everyone in one turn is not a bad deal to force them into on occasion. That may even add an extra layer of difficulty if they want to save certain resources for boss fights later.
4Give Them Few To No Time To Rest
Test Their Endurance
All that said, you can also take them (and the whole party) by surprise by attacking them when they decide to rest, which is a moment they’ll be particularly vulnerable. And we’re not necessarily talking about night ambushes, but even a short rest that is being done in a dungeon.
That said, this is a moment where the fighter and all player characters will be very vulnerable, and this might make things worse, so consider this mainly if high difficulty is a thing everyone enjoys. Don’t throw too difficult enemies during these moments — balance things out with their vulnerability and lack of available abilities.
3Give Enemies Resistance
Useful At Any Level
Almost every powerful enemy is resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical sources, meaning that all basic weapons are less effective against them. An enemy like that will be a nightmare for a fighter, at least until they get a +1 weapon or better, as these are magical.
Still, nothing stops you from giving an enemy resistance to whatever damage type your fighter’s main weapon uses, even if it is magical. Cutting their damage in half is an effective challenge here, one that will require mostly teamwork (or being creative with their backup weapons) for the fighter to beat.
2Give Them Disadvantage
Many Conditions Apply Here
We mentioned before how fighters can attack many times in a turn. They get a second attack at level five, a third attack at level 11, and a fourth attack at level 20, and they can use action surge to get two to four extra hits, depending on their level. And that’s not counting a possible bonus action attack or things such as having Haste applied to them.
This is where giving them certain conditions can be useful here. Instead of paralyzing them (which is effective but never fun), you can use things that give them disadvantage, such as being poisoned, restrained, or frightened. By having all their attacks at a disadvantage, the chances of one of these going through are significantly lower, and may even discourage the fighter from using Action Surge.
1Use Magic
They Can’t Do Much About It
Fighters can’t do a lot when you throw a Fireball at them. By default, they’re proficient in Strength and Constitution saving throws, and unless their build is around Dexterity, there’s not much they can do against these and other powerful spells, especially since most spells rely on Dexterity saving throws.
You can also target them with spells that rely on Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence, depending on which of these is your player fighter’s weakest link. That opens up the opportunity to cause psychic damage, mind control them, or even banish them. Their best defense here is Indomitable, which lets them re-roll a failed saving throw, but that’s only a few times per long rest.
