How Do I Roleplay: A Fighter?

 A human in clanging plate armor holds her shield before her as she runs toward the massed goblins. An elf behind her, clad in studded leather armor, peppers the goblins with arrows loosed from his exquisite bow. The half-orc nearby shouts orders, helping the two combatants coordinate their assault to the best advantage.

--On Fighters, From the Fifth Edition Player's Handbook

Fighters are perhaps one of the most easily recognizable classes, as well as one of the least interesting on the surface. Without any subclass, special flavoring, feats, or special magic items, a fighter can quite easily seem like ‘just a guy with a sword’. While this is the case in a lot of circumstances, it’s quite possible to make your fighter interesting and unique. 

In Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, there are some basic guides on how to add some personal flair and favor to your Fighter, so I will be loosely basing this discussion off of that material, with more of an eye to how said Fighter would act. Fighters are also very easy to apply your own ideas to, as they are so often changed based on their background or subclass, that you can almost treat them as a blank framework you can apply character traits to, if you should want.

The first topic that Xanathar’s covers is a Heraldic Sign, a symbol your fighter might carry on their person, symbolizing the cause they fight for. The book explains that Fighters often fight for a cause, group, or person, so I think we can take this a step further. Decide what cause your Fighter supports, whether it is a personal vendetta against a particular villain, working for the good of a settlement or city, or supporting a loftier cause such as a nation or faith. It’s also a good idea to consider the limitations of this cause, and things that could tempt your Fighter to act outside of their cause, or even against it. This applies an interesting dynamic to the Fighter that isn’t seen often and depending on the character can make up as large as part of your story as a Paladin’s oath might in theirs. 

Another topic covered in this section of the book is an instructor or trainer, someone who taught you the skills you have as a Fighter. Of course, this has more of a place in your backstory, but it can still affect how your character acts. Knowing who your trainer was and how they acted towards you can cause your Fighter to be friendlier or more hostile to NPCs and other characters you meet that are similar to them. Perhaps your Fighter feels more inclined to defend a homestead from a goblin raid because the farmer reminds them of their fond memories of the Fighter who trained them. Or maybe their instructor was a less-understanding person and your memories under them might not be so pleasant, and so you might be short or standoffish towards people who remind you of them. You should also consider why you were trained, and the circumstances under which you were trained. All of these things can have an impact on your character and how they interact with the people around them. Your trainer may even have an impact on why you fight, and how you decide to fight. 

Speaking of how you fight, the final section concerning Fighters in Xanathar’s discusses fighting styles, and what signature style your Fighter might have. There are, of course, Fighting Styles as laid out in the Fighter section of the Player’s Handbook, but consider more how your fighting looks. Is it flashy, simple, high-spirited, or quick and efficient? And thinking about which Fighting Style feature to choose, consider why you use that fighting style. If you chose the Defense style, why is that? Are you more committed to defending your friends in combat than you are to dealing damage or defeating the enemy?

Your fighting style and how you narrate how you fight in combat can also be a powerful tool to give a look into your character. Whether you are a former city watchman, soldier, street-brawler, or gladiator, the way you fight can give the other players (and even the DM) a deeper look into your character. Perhaps your Fighter lets their facade of nobility and poise drop when they enter combat, favoring a heavy, brutal flurry of attacks. Or maybe they play the part of the competent and dangerous warrior, but in outright combat they wield their weapons clumsily and shy away from incoming strikes, belying the inexperience beneath the surface. 

You should also consider your subclass and how that affects you as a character. If your Fighter is a Battlemaster, think about why they know the techniques they use; or if you play a Rune Knight, where did you acquire the runes that make up part of your arsenal? The Fighter has so much opportunity for their subclass to affect their character, as the subclass supplies most of the flavor to the ‘guy with a sword’ framework rather than the class features. 

While Fighter may seem like one of the most basic or boring classes in the game, this actually makes them much easier to apply character to, as the basic framework of what a fighter is can be applied to almost any type of character.