by Michael Strauss

Created on: October 27, 2009

The 4th edition D&D fighter is the simplest of the defender classes. A fighter marks may choose to mark any enemy it attacks until the end of the fighter's next turn and can attack marked enemies that either shift away from the fighter or make an attack that does not include the fighter. In addition, fighters gain a bonus on opportunity attacks equal to their wisdom modifier and if they hit with an opportunity attack provoked by movement, the moving enemy immediately ends the movement. This combination of abilities makes a fighter "sticky". Once a fighter has engaged an enemy, it is hard for the enemy to disengage.

The guardian fighter focuses on high defense in order to mitigate damage from engaged enemies. A guardian fighter wields a one handed weapon and a shield and wears the best armor available. Guardian fighters need a good attack bonus in order to prove a credible threat to engaged enemies, but tend to deal only moderate damage. The following are some the best choices for race, ability scores, feats, powers, and paragon paths for a guardian fighter.

Ability Scores - Like all fighters, strength should be the primary attribute for a guardian fighter. When using the standard 22 point-buy, unless you choose a race that provides a +2 bonus to your secondary ability score, you should avoid putting an 18 in your strength before race bonus. Fighters have a lot of feats and powers that require good scores in a secondary ability. Still, a guardian fighter should try to have at least an 18 in strength after racial bumps, in order to maximize attack bonus.

Race - Four races make the best fighters, dragonborn and dwarves from the PHB and warforged and shifters from the Eberron Players Guide (EPG). Except for dwarves, all of the races get a +2 bonus to strength. Warforged and shifters also get a +2 bonus to good fighter secondary attributes (constitution, dexterity, or wisdom). Dragonborn get a +2 bonus to charisma, which isn't very useful, but have a minor, once per encounter breath weapon attack that can mark multiple enemies at once. Finally, dwarves get a +2 bonus to both wisdom and constitution and have a good deal of racial feats that are excellent for fighters.

Feats - Feats will depend primarily on your race and weapon choice and are tied closely to secondary attributes. Heavy blade fighters will tend towards dexterity as secondary attribute and axe/hammer fighters will tend towards constitution as a secondary attribute. All fighters have a use for wisdom,

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