Dexterity vs Strength Builds in DnD 5e
Martial classes live and die on their ability to do weapon damage, but most martial characters can be built to rely on either strength or dexterity. We tend to think of a Medieval sword fighter as a strong brute, but a fast, dextrous fighter can be just as effective. This is a breakdown of both styles, and a breakdown of what classes can use which styles.
This duel from Game of Thrones is a great example of the difference between the two styles:
Strength
A strength-based fighter is your classic knight in shining armor. They typically wear heavy armor for superior protection, and most weapons can be used with strength for damage. For any strength-based weapon, your strength stat determines both your chance to hit and the damage you do with each strike.
Weapon and shield and two-weapon fighting both work with strength, and equally as well as similar dexterity builds. A fighting style unique to strength builds is great-weapon fighting—fighting with a weapon that requires both hands. This is typically the superior damage option, but has less defensive capability. Additionally, most reach weapons, like polearms and pikes, are great weapons and require strength.
Aside from weapon damage, the big use of strength is grappling and shoving. Strength helps determine your Athletics score, which is the check used to successfully grapple or shove an opponent. Grabbing an opponent to prevent them from fleeing, shoving them away from you, and shoving them down onto the ground can all be effective battlefield control tactics, and feats like Shield Master and Tavern Brawler can make grapple or shove builds much more viable. Athletics is also used for physical checks requiring strength, like swimming and climbing.
Other strength checks are more rare, but do come up from time to time. If you’re entering a castle and someone drops the portcullis on your party, that’s a strength save. Additionally, tools like a crowbar or portable ram can give you a lot of utility with your strength.
Dexterity
A dexterity-based fighter is fast and nimble, more like a fencer than knight, but can be equally effective. They typically wear light armor for superior mobility, and, under optimal conditions, can have defense almost as high as a strength fighter in full plate mail. For any dexterity-based weapon, dexterity determines both your chance to hit and the damage you do. To use dexterity with a weapon, it must have either the ranged or finesse property.
Weapon and shield and two-weapon fighting both work with dexterity, and equally as well as similar strength builds. A fighting style unique to dexterity builds is a ranged fighter, like an archer. All ranged weapons use dexterity (although some thrown weapons still use strength). There is one reach weapon that can be used with dexterity, and that is the whip, but this is a lower-damage weapon than many other options.
One of the main benefits of a dexterity fighter is that dexterity is typically a much more useful stat than strength. Dexterity helps determine your initiative, your armor class in light armor (or without armor), and skills like acrobatics, stealth, and sleight of hand. The acrobatics skill can be used to break (but not initiate) grapples or shoves, so it can still be an effective defense against strong opponents. Acrobatics is also used to keep your footing in difficult situations, like when you jump down to a lower area or run across rooftops.
Additionally, dexterity saves are much more common than strength saves. Dexterity saves include things like dodging out of the way of falling rocks or a fireball spell.
Class Breakdown
Note: some classes that don’t have a need for either strength or dexterity have been omitted.
Barbarian: Bonus rage damage only works with strength attacks, so strength typically works better for barbarians (although they also require a good dexterity score for defense).
Bard: With most subclasses only having access to light armor, dexterity usually works much better, but there are some niche strength builds. Usually, this requires multiclassing into another class for armor proficiency.
Cleric: Any cleric that gets Divine Strike at level 8 can get good weapon damage and can be built using either strength or dexterity for their weapon strikes. (Clerics that get Potent Spellcasting instead of Divine Strikes at level 8 typically use cantrips for their main damage, but can also get some good use out of weapons.) A larger determining factor might be what armor and weapon proficiencies the subclass has access to—subclasses with heavy armor proficiency typically veer toward strength, and a lack of finesse simple weapons often makes strength builds a little easier to figure out for subclasses without martial weapon proficiency.
Fighter: Both strength and dexterity builds work great. Very diverse builds possible here. Bear in mind that Fighters get more attacks than almost anyone, so the damage bonus from great weapon fighting goes further here than on other builds, but dexterity fighters are perfectly capable as well.
Monk: Monks can technically use strength for their damage, but so many of their abilities work with dexterity that it’s difficult to make a strength build work.
Paladin: Though primarily thought of as heavily armored strength fighters, dexterity paladins are viable and can be very effective. Bear in mind, though, that the paladin smite feature requires a melee weapon strike and will not work with ranged weapons.
Ranger: Without natural proficiency in heavy armor, it’s hard to make a strength build work, as medium armor requires a fairly high dexterity score (14). Strength builds are possible, but there are some risks. Stats are usually spread very thin unless the ranger finds some other way to boost their defense. Races with a natural defense, like tortles and loxodon, can safely ignore dexterity. Some other builds involve multiclassing into fighter or cleric to gain heavy armor proficiency. Unless you have a specific plan for this, though, it’s generally much better to stick with a dexterity build.
Rogue: Dexterity all the way. Strength rogues are theoretically possible, but not really viable.
About the Author
Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a web developer and writer in the Kansas City area. He's been playing TTRPGs since 2020 and is involved in the disability-related TTRPG podcast Tales from the Crips. He's into classic movies, mental health, and, of course, DnD. Also, he's in a band. One time, they rocked so hard it killed a man.