Which of the Martial Archetypes or multiclassing as a Druid will increase my versatility the most?

Question

In our DnD 5e game, my character is (currently) a level 3 Dragonborn Fighter. Currently, his stats are not something to shake your head at (for his level).

• 30+ health
• 17 STR
• Greatsword (2D6 damage +3 STR mod and +2 proficiency bonus)
• Second Wind (spend a bonus action to recover 1D10+Fighter Level HP)
• Action Surge (Gain another action as your bonus action)

Downsides: I traded in some decent defense for my Greatsword as a starter weapon (goes with my backstory). So I'm sitting pretty on an abysmal 12 total armor class. Most of that comes with my Racial attributes.

Normally, this wouldn't be something that anyone would really see as anything to "fix", however, we also have two, very capable Barbarians in the squad as well. So as far as DPS goes, they have it covered.

Also in the team we have a Rogue, a Warlock, and an (NPC) Druid. These 3 are considered the squishier ones, and my character is a bit more of a "Team Player" type guy, so I was wondering which options I should take to embrace that a bit?

For example, at level 3, I have access to Martial Archetypes. Several of the options that Battle Master provides sound "Team Player"-ish. The other option I was thinking was multi-classing, and taking on possibly a Healer-Druid type subclass as well/instead.

What do you suggest? (Keep it mainly to the Fighter or Druid class to answer please.)

Answer 1

So, not to sound obvious, but multiclassing as a Druid will increase your versatility the most. The Druid is a full caster with a nice variety of offensive, defensive, and utility spells. As well as the healing you mention. 1 level of Druid would give you 2 cantrips and access to all 1st level Druid spells. 2 would give you Wild Shape, after that it's pretty much all just more spells.

Of the 3 Martial Archetypes, Champion doesn't increase versatility at all. It only makes you better at killing things.

Battle Master only makes you better at combat, but you do get access to a wide range of combat options. It would definitely increase your versatility within combat, just not outside of it.

Eldritch Knight is a bit more interesting - it slowly gives you spells. For the most part, they're restricted to Evocation and Abjuration, meaning that once again it mostly just increases your combat versatility. With that said, some Abjuration spells are useful for things other than killing, and careful selection of the few spells you get to choose freely can massively increase your out-of-combat utility.

So, the simplest option to increase your versatility would be to stick with Fighter and take Eldritch Knight. This could be done in conjunction with a single level of Druid to get all the 1st level Druid spells. The multiclassing rules on spell slots would work out in your favour here; for example, you could cast Cure Wounds out of your highest level spell slots.

If you really want to just boost your versatility, you should dump Fighter and go for Druid. That said, at that point your Fighter levels would be going to waste a bit. If you want to focus on Druid, you should definitely get either 4 or 6 levels of Fighter so that you don't lose an ability score increase.

In the end, you can mix and match Druid and Fighter levels however you want; but you should probably keep them in multiples of 4 so that you don't lose ability score increases. After that, it's just a matter of deciding which Druid or Fighter features you want and taking enough levels to get them.