The game before you is getting exciting! You’ve rolled initiative and are one of the first players against the pack of wolves circling your wagon. As a newly leveled 5th-level fighter, you bear your favorite weapons, a trusty pair of dual axes, ready for combat!

You score a hit, and one of the wolves is badly injured. 

Your turn ends, seemingly your abilities exhausted, and the monk goes next. 

She runs up next to a wolf and attacks! But she doesn’t attack once. She attacks twice! But wait! You hear her announce that she’s using something called a Ki point to do Flurry of Blows, which grants her 2 bonus unarmed strikes!

As a fighter, you ask yourself how the Hells the Monk can do that, and a discussion starts. Many topics are discussed, from proficiencies to features, feats, racial traits, and a mishmash of it all. And now the dungeon master is asking you why you didn’t choose to do an extra attack of your own, or action surge, at least. 

What? Could you do that? 

Of course, you can, ya’ dingus! You are level 5 now! 

My article aims to break down the Fighter’s capabilities at level 5 so new players can learn what to expect when they get to that level and what to anticipate when they start playing at higher levels. In this case, I’ll use the Fighter class as a general example to help describe lesser-known D&D game facts. In a later article, I’ll focus on racial traits, so they will be ignored for now. 

What Fighters Can Do At Level 5

The Fighter is designed to fight! Duh. But what does that mean exactly? Here’s a general list of what you can expect from a fighter class at level 5: 

Multi-Attack

Fighters at this level can use their Multi-Attack feat to attack twice when using a single attack action. This can happen every single turn if you want! This is one of the most important features available for the Fighter, and it only gets more robust at higher levels. 

Action Surge

Fighters at this level can take one additional action with their Action Surge Feature. –But only once before requiring a short/long rest. This means:

• They can use their additional action to attack twice!
• If used with the Multi-Attack feat, they can attack up to four times because of the additional attack action now on the table.
• They can attack and heal with a potion on the same turn. Allowing you to heal and attack simultaneously can mitigate incoming damage.
• They can attack and disengage on the same turn. This allows you to get an attack in while getting out of grave danger. 
• They can attack and do many other actions allowed in D&D. This allows so much versatility for clever fighters. 

Keep in mind that Action Surge is a one-and-done ability at level 5. Find out how often your party takes short rests to determine when you should use Action Surge. Just remember not to hold onto it forever. You better use it or lose it! 

Martial Archetype

Fighters at level 5 will have been able to specialize in a Martial Archetype of their choosing: 

1. Choosing the Champion Archetype gives the Fighter the Improved Critical Feature, which means you can strike a critical hit on a 19 on a d20 roll instead of a 20. While this option seems simple, this drastically increases your damage potential. You may get a critical hit 1 out of 10 times instead of 1 out of 20. 
2.  Choosing the Battlemaster Archetype gives the Fighter the Combat Superiority Feature, which provides you with a completely new ability: 4 x Superiority Dice (D8s that expend when used and regenerate after a short/long rest.)Superiority Dice give the Fighter a choice of three maneuvers, of which there are 17 to choose from, that directly control how they combat enemies. I will soon describe all the maneuvers available from the Player’s Handbook in another article because it deserves one. – I will say that this is a powerful feature that only gets stronger the higher your Fighter level reaches. You also receive the Student of War Feature, which gives your character the choice of proficiency with an artisan’s tool they want to have.
3. Eldritch Knight Archetype allows the Fighter to use the Spellcasting feat using Wizard spells from the Evocation and Abjuration spell lists. Very versatile! At level 5, your Fighter will have:

• Four 1st level spells.
• Three 1st level spell slots to utilize.
• Two cantrips of their choosing. 

• The Eldritch Knight Archetype also gives you the Weapon Bond Feature. This feature allows the Fighter to create a magical bond with one weapon. You can do this for up to two weapons at a time for those Fighters that want to fight dual wielded weapons too! Once you have bonded a weapon to yourself, you can’t be disarmed of that weapon unless you are incapacitated. You would also be able to summon one weapon as a bonus action, causing it to teleport instantly to your hand! Neato. The rules are more nuanced in the Player’s Handbook, but that’s the general description. Very useful feature!

Ability Score Improvement

Fighters at level 5 will have been able to upgrade their ability scores. This should’ve been done at level 4, but your Fighter will have improved significantly in rolling potential. You should have been able to give your Fighter one of two options:

•  2 points for one ability score, 
• Or 1 point for two ability scores.

Remember that you cannot move an ability score past 20, so no cheating or the dragon in the article will eat you. 

Knowledge Is Power

Let’s take this back to the top. Now that we know what the Fighter is capable of at level 5, particularly concerning the Features and Feats present at that level. I will reference a moment from one of my players, who is currently a level 5 Minotaur Fighter.

The party is currently in one of the final dungeons of the Lost Mines of Phandelver module, a dangerous place called Wave Echo Cave. In this dungeon, they were attacked by a pack of bugbears. 

The Minotaur fighter charged into the fray and executed a series of attacks that decimated a bugbear. He could attack four times using his Champion Archetype feature combined with the Multi-Attack Feat and Action Surge! He rolled a 19 on one of the attacks, dealing a critical hit. All in all, he successfully attacked the bugbear 3 out of 4 times. He missed the 3rd roll. 

The bugbear was defeated by the 2nd damage roll, so I let him describe the finishing move. He beheaded the poor bugbear. Nice and clean. And then, he ends his turn by walking to the next bugbear.

As if to say: “I’m coming for you next!”

As a DM, it’s fun when a player absolutely decimates an enemy, especially when I have the opportunity to state how the rest of the enemies around them react to such brutality. The bugbears tried to run in that game, but the rest of the party mopped them up nicely. They even played around with the bugbear’s head. It was a dominating round for the players! 

I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a thing or two about the Fighter at level 5. I plan to make similar articles for the rest of the classes available in D&D 5e, so stay tuned for that.

Did I miss anything that I should address? Leave me a comment below. 

Thanks for reading. 

(Edited on 8/24/23. Made Action Surge description much more clear and added in a forgotten feature of the Eldritch Knight Archtype, the Weapon Bond Feature. Thank you, Ryuhonda!)