Out of all Classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, the Fighter is closest to a classic warrior. There are three Subclass options that will allow you to customize your Fighter—Battle Master, Eldritch Knight, and Champion.
Of the three, Battle Master has the most customization options due to their Superiority Dice and Maneuvers. But which ones should you select?
All Maneuvers for Battle Master Fighters in BG3
Battle Masters in BG3 can choose three Maneuvers at level three, and then gain an additional two at levels seven and 11. If you progress as a Battle Master until level 11, you’ll have the opportunity to select a total of seven Maneuvers from the available 14.
- Commander’s Strike
- Disarming Strike
- Distracting Strike
- Evasive Footwork
- Feinting Attack
- Goading Attack
- Maneuvering Attack
- Menacing Attack
- Precision Attack
- Pushing Attack
- Rally
- Riposte
- Sweeping Attack
- Trip Attack
Battle Masters receive four Superiority Dice, which they can expend to activate a Maneuver either as an action, bonus action, or reaction depending on the specific Maneuver. Superiority Dice are restored after every short or long rest, so you don’t need to worry about saving them for life-and-death situations. You gain additional one additional Superiority Dice at level seven.
Superiority Dice begin as d8s, which influence attack rolls, damage rolls, or damage reduction for Maneuvers. At level 10, this dice improves to d10.
Each Maneuver from the list is viable, and selecting which three you want to start with at level three can become daunting. Here are our choices for the seven best Battle Master Maneuvers.
The best seven Maneuvers for Battle Masters in BG3
Selecting the following Maneuvers will ensure you’re making the most of your Superiority Dice and achieving the strongest third level possible for your Fighter—both as an individual character and as a contribution to the party as a whole.
7. Goading Attack
- (Action) Taunt an enemy by dealing 1d8-1d10 additional damage on your next attack, causing them to receive Disadvantage on attacks made on other targets.
An extra d8 of damage is of course nothing to scoff at, but the kicker on this Maneuver is the taunt effect. Taunts are very rare in Baldur’s Gate 3, making this ability a fairly unique protective ability.
Very often in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll find yourself thinking, “As long as they don’t attack my Wizard this turn, I’ll be able to…” only for your Wizard to be immediately attacked. With Goading Attack, you won’t have to hope anymore—it’s in your control.
Goading Attack has a somewhat bad rep, due to a glitch in the first patch where it would drop before the enemy’s turn. Now, it’s still not a perfect option. On the surface, Menacing Attack does everything it wants to do but better. Both skills even target Wisdom saving throws, making them even more similar than they seem.
However, Goading Attack does something in BG3 that it rarely does in tabletop 5E—it messes with AI. Enemies in BG3 tend to like to bully low AC targets that they have a high percent chance to affect. The AI is much less likely to attack someone with disadvantage and that sometimes includes spells that don’t care about spell attacks at all.
My Lae’zel would often Goad an enemy only for them to cast a saving throw spell that would decimate Gale. However, they targeted her instead, saving Gale a bunch of life. And enemies went for the swing on Lae’zel instead of my party’s squishy Monk all of the time.
6. Precision Attack
- (Action) When you attack, you can add the 1d8-1d10 to the attack roll.
This is a simple, non-flashy option for the Battle Master that might look weak on the surface. But, on average, Precision Attack improves your attack roll by about 25 to 30 percent—depending on your luck. That’s a big consistency boost.
Fighters have a few ways to boost damage by lowering accuracy, mainly through the Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter feats. This maneuver largely negates the penalty, making the Fighter’s hits go from a good average damage to an obscene amount.
In addition, if you’ve ever relied on Lae’zel to take the last 10 HP off of an enemy, only to have her miss and the enemy heal to full the next turn, you’ve been in a situation where you want Precision Attack. That extra dice to attack rolls really helps, especially in tandem with buffs like Bless or Bardic Inspiration.
5. Pushing Attack
- (Action) Deal an additional 1d8-1d10 of damage with normal weapon damage for a chance to push enemies 4.5m in the direction the attack comes from
“Shoving people around” might as well be the subtitle of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Pushing Attack is in a unique position among maneuvers in BG3, because pushing enemies down bottomless cliffs is both relatively easy and relatively common. On tabletop, you’re usually not going to be killing enemies through the abyss. In addition, falling damage tends to be relatively lighter in DnD 5E.
You might already know that your characters have access to a shove ability. What you might not have known, however, is that giving your allies a shove can be a great way to help them out. Maybe you’re getting them away from an enemy, out of the line of sight of an archer, or you just think it’d be funny. There are plenty of ways that friend-shoving can be useful!
BG3 features multiple combats where enemies will be conveniently positioned next to massive cliffs. Combining Pushing Attack with valid ranged weapons can let you execute one or more enemies before a big boss fight. Rarely will this take out a boss, but a lot of mid-card lackeys with annoying spells can be sent flying.
However, you’re not getting this 100 percent of the time. Some encounters will only do falling damage with this Maneuver, which is good but not excellent. In others, this basically does nothing but deal extra damage or force enemies to walk back into the range of your Polearm Master. Not necessarily terrible, but absolutely not something you take as one of your first three.
This is also an excellent combo with the Druid’s Spike Growth, granting your attack an extra 6d4 damage as you push them through several squares.
4. Distracting Strike
- (Action) Deal an additional 1d8-1d10 damage to a target and give your ally advantage on their next attack roll against it.
Distracting Strike is a must-have for a Fighter in a party with a Paladin or Rogue. Advantage on an attack is a fantastic way to almost guarantee damage with attack rolls. Even for parties with Wizards, setting up advantage for a great ranged spell attack, like Chromatic Orb, can lead to huge critical hits.
However, we wouldn’t say this is a gigantic, must-have Maneuver. Advantage for a single attack can be hard to guarantee, and it’s only on a single target. You also want to use it at the end of your Fighter’s string of attacks, since Fighters don’t make the best use of damage with a singular attack roll.
For specific party comps, this might be one of your first three. In general, though, save this for when you’re prepping a must-land attack roll.
3. Trip Attack
- (Action) Deal an additional 1d8-1d10 of damage with normal weapon damage and have a chance to knock an enemy prone.
Prone is a ridiculously weak status condition in DnD 5E and BG3. It puts enemies on their back and grants advantage to melee attacks against them, but they can just stand up during their turn and negate the downsides entirely.
That is, it’s weak for a dedicated action to apply Prone. Trip Attack deals damage, knocks prone, and then allows for additional follow-up immediately after. Fighters get up to three attacks at level 11, meaning you get two guaranteed attacks with advantage if your Trip Attack goes through.
Then, if you have allies who are able to get into melee range, you can have a dogpile of attacks with free advantage. They don’t need to be melee attacks, either. They can instead be ranged attacks that are nearby, meaning you can point-blank Scorching Rays or Eldritch Blasts into a prone target for advantage.
This is an excellent way to rely on yourself. An Action Surge and Hasted Fighter can put upwards of 10 attacks into an enemy in a turn. With Hunter’s Mark from a bow like the Hunting Shortbow, Trip Attack can be a great way to guarantee an incredibly high-damage turn.
When leveling your Battle Master, you must look at the party to see what options best cater to them.
In general, our first three have always been Menacing Attack, Riposte, and Trip Attack. They’re extremely useful for the Battle Master themselves, both offensively and defensively.
2. Riposte
- (Reaction) When an enemy misses you with a melee attack, immediately strike back with a main hand attack that deals an additional 1d8-1d10 damage.
This Maneuver is absolutely brilliant, as usually a third level Fighter won’t have any meaningful ways of using their reaction during a round of combat. Being natural contenders for having the highest AC out of any class, Fighters will always have a great amount of melee attacks missing them.
This Maneuver can essentially be viewed as an extra attack per round. What’s more, because it only uses a reaction, you still have your action available to use as you please (you can even use it on another Maneuver in the same round).
That being said, it’s not without its downsides. You spend your Superiority Dice immediately, instead of on hit. So you can miss, and that hurts for a resource you get five of per rest.
Still, during frantic combat, having a way to always be able to spend your dice is nice. And you’re spending it on massive damage for a reaction. This can quickly eat an enemy alive before they can land all of their Extra Attacks, potentially reducing damage from enemies in the long run. That’s especially good for the Gith that runs rampant in Act Two and Three.
1. Menacing Attack
- (Action) Deal an additional 1d8-1d10 of damage with normal weapon damage for the chance to inflict the Frightened condition on enemies
The Frightened condition halts enemies in place and imposes Disadvantage on their checks and Attack rolls, making them easy targets. They can run away from you, but that means they’re not moving towards your squishy Wizard or Sorcerer, leaving them to do their business.
Frightened also works perfectly against the targets that want to use attack rolls the most. This ability targets Wisdom saving throws, something that big dumb high-damage attackers don’t have much of. Even in the mid or late game, enemies like Grym can suffer greatly from being Frightened.
The only time that Menacing Attack isn’t useful is when enemies are immune to the Frightened condition. This is thankfully rare in BG3—even foes like Bernard, who are pretty clearly robots, can get scared—but you may want to Examine your foes to make sure.
This isn’t a hugely effective effect for spellcasters, unfortunately. Most spellcasters completely ignore attack rolls, instead targeting saving throws. And the Battle Master’s best solution to defeating a magic user is to turn them into jelly. So, you don’t want to lean entirely on Menacing Attack. But, for all of the dumb melee enemies that the game spams, Menacing Attack is the best Maneuver in BG3.
