How To Make Your Martial Character Interesting

Why do so many people think martials are boring? Can swinging a sword ever be as fun as slinging spells? I’ll talk about how we can help bridge the gap the gaming community fears.

So what makes us think that martial characters like fighters and barbarians are boring anyway? The most obvious difference is one of class features and magical ability. When most of your options are just swinging different weapons that deal similar damage it can feel underwhelming. Your friend playing a Bladelock, a warlock focused on melee combat, can choose to hurl a Fireball or toss out control spells while swinging a sword. This difference is often what people think of when they consider these classes to be boring.

Martial characters run into another problem in online forums. They have a reputation for being simple or single-thought characters in roleplay. Because classes in the warrior archetype don’t receive a great deal of skills or magical abilities they can be seen as poor performers for social encounters. If you are thinking that underwhelming combat plus poor performance in social skills sounds like a pretty boring combination, then you are beginning to see the problem we face.

What are we not seeing?

Fighter characters in D&D serve an important role, but like tanks in MMO games, they are not very flashy. There are three main roles in most MMO (massively multiplayer online) games: DPS, or damage per second. These are players dealing damage and using crazy powers. Healers, the supporting class of these games must manage many different tasks to help their fellows while using spells. And finally, the tanks, who are high hit point characters who can take damage and protect their friends. Why am I telling you all of this? It will all make sense in a moment.

Common complaints around MMO games are based on people who dislike playing tank characters. Tanks serve a very important purpose, they act like a punching bag to soften the damage coming in from enemies. Typically they do this by getting the attention of foes on the battlefield and, swinging a sword while they stand around. Do you see the relation yet? The classes of DPS and healer in these games usually have powerful abilities and deal high damage. Just like the wizards, clerics, and multi-class combos that people play in Dungeons & Dragons.

So they are boring?

While martial characters are not necessarily boring the problem arises due to the mechanics of Fifth Edition. Of the three warrior classes, the monk is the one with the most options in combat. They have features like stunning strike, they can run up walls and across water, and several other mystical abilities. Monks have a different problem however, many feel that they are not as effective as other classes. This leaves many players to believe they only have two choices for a martial character. The classes of fighter, and barbarian.

Fighter and barbarian as martial classes work pretty similarly. They both like to get in melee to prevent their party members from being swarmed, and they typically focus on swinging weapons until they kill foes. After making your 50th or so attack roll with a sword you might feel like you’re not doing that much. Your friends likely cast different spells every combat, or at least get to throw fire around with their attack roll. Some of these feelings are easily solved by magic items, others are not.

As mentioned near the beginning your fighter is not likely to have a lot of social options. You might have picked up proficiency in say intimidation, but if you end up playing out one-note social solutions that will become just as repetitive. We need a solution for these classes, and it needs to make the players feel involved.

Roleplay exists in many forms.

This problem of feeling bored with the game is not actually to do with being a martial character. Playing a spellcaster is not inherently fun as much as it is easier to cover up boredom with flashy spells. A fighter can have a backstory that is just as fulfilling and interesting as any other class. Often we just make fighters simple because we’ve trained ourselves that they cannot be anything more than that. A fighter could be a highly influential and well-mannered noble who has grand responsibilities. Skilled in the art of charisma and becoming the face of the party, one who interacts with the world and other characters on their behalf. So why don’t they?

Usually, the answer comes down to optimization. If you are taking skill proficiencies or feats for your character you want things that deal damage. As much as great weapon master makes for a fun barbarian it might become stale without varied weaponry and evocative descriptions during fights. You could take the actor feat and be a barbarian whose rage is their inner character unleashing themselves. There are a lot of possibilities for roleplay and interesting back and forth if you were to make such a flavor choice. However, taking that feat to gain certain advantages for roleplay will limit your possibility for ideal combat.

Then what can players do?

The first thing you should consider when making a character is what you want to be. Not what class you want to play, or feats you want to take. What kind of personality do you want to experience? Would you like a silly character? One that is incredibly serious and tactical? Any character concept you decide on should have enough space to remain interesting for a long time. Unless of course, you are just playing a one-shot, those are perfect for odd character ideas that could get old fast.

Characters who can go the distance of a campaign often have a few clear traits: A well-defined and evolving set of goals. You might have something like this if you read about the call in my other post. Finely crafted ideals, traits, bonds, and flaws. These will help you shape and guide your roleplay decisions as this character. How your character evolves with the world and the decisions made during the game is a lot of the fun in roleplaying.

Finally, your character needs some common ground with you as a player. This might sound odd but you want to be able to engage as both player and character. If you have no reason as a player to care but your character does, or the opposite happens, you will be stuck in an awkward place.

Let’s break it down.

To wrap up, I am going to lay out some ideas and general concepts for the traits I brought up a moment ago. I hope these can spark your own thoughts and ideas for characters. If you like this list then look around here often, as the “Character Path” once finished will have lots of tables and content just like this. There are many fantastic resources online as well for playing a fulfilling character.

For today we’ll worry about goals. It is best to have something the character can pursue while partaking in general adventuring. I believe that most main goals being achieved during downtime is a clean and freeing method of play. It allows you to feel encouraged to participate in any given adventure since it will likely help your progress one way or another. Additionally, you can work with your GM between adventures and sessions on how best to implement the advancement and roleplay of your character.

1. I adventure to train my mind and body to eventually face my ultimate foe.
2. I long for a life of extreme luxury, building a grand estate with servants and treasure for me to enjoy.
3. I quest for a solution to a grave misfortune. Whether a curse, disease, or the loss of something.

Expanding the ideas.

1: Your character might have the goal of felling a legendary dragon. You can learn possible weaknesses, gather resources for your eventual battle, and investigate nearby dragon cults and lairs throughout your adventuring. When you are finally at the end of your campaign you can gather your friends for an epic dragon hunt!

2: You might play a snobby nobleman, or a common man looking to move up in the world. This can be intertwined with the personality and bonds of your character easily, helping you shape what they act and sound like in social encounters. While you gather gold and power during your quests you can hire retainers, build forts and fancy homes, and expand your empire.

3: If you want a seedier past then your character might have planar debts or a vile curse. Many who played Baldur’s Gate 3 found an incredible amount of satisfaction from the roleplay offered by the character the Dark Urge. Having a character who wishes to be good and just but has numerous flaws can really flex your roleplay muscles. And if you want inspiration you could certainly do worse than checking out the characters from Baldur’s Gate games.