In Dungeons & Dragons, you and your friends create a group of mighty (or not) adventurers. Some become powerful protectors. Some become masters of magic. And some prefer to get close and personal in order to bring pain to their enemies. Known as martials, these are characters whose job it is to do non-magical damage (though your magical gear might say otherwise), sometimes up close, sometimes at range, depending on your build.
There are many feats to help you make your character even better at this job. Here, we have a few examples of how to improve yourself in the melee department, to ensure you and your friends will be the only ones left standing.
10 Medium Or Heavy Armor Master (Player's Handbook)
Starting with two feats rather than one this time. Since you're a melee fighter, there's a good chance you'll be wearing medium or heavy armor (don't worry monks and barbarians, there are feats for you guys here too). Medium armor master will null the disadvantages in stealth checks that medium armor tends to give you, and you'll be able to add up to three points of your dexterity modifier in your AC.
As for the heavies, your strength ability score increases in one and every non-magical attack you receive decreases in three hit points. Both these feats will help you stay alive, making them excellent choices.
9 Sentinel (Player's Handbook)
The worst part of focusing on melee damage is that your ranged enemies will do everything in their power to stay away from you. It is the best situation for them after all. Though you'll still have to reach them, Sentinel will make sure they won't get away so easy.
First, with an enemy within 5ft of you attacks someone who isn't you, you can use your reaction to hit them. Second, disengaging won't save your enemies from your opportunity attacks. Third, when you hit someone with an opportunity attack, their movement drops to zero. So, if someone attempts to run away from you, you can hit them and drop their movement.
It also combos pretty well with other feats from this list, as well as battle master fighters who can knock enemies prone with their attacks.
8 Polearm Master (Player's Handbook)
Speaking of good feat combos, you have Polearm Master, which is pretty good in and of itself, and even better when combined with Sentinel. To use this one, Polearm weapons are necessary. It gives you the option to attack with your bonus action using the other tip of the weapon.
It also allows you to give opportunity attacks when someone enters your range instead of only when they leave (a range of 10ft thanks to Polearms' reach). Combining with Sentinel that drops enemies' movement with opportunity attacks, you can prevent them from reaching you and then, on your turn, you can do all your attacks and simply take a step back, so the opportunity attack will trigger again on their round.
7 Mage Slayer (Player's Handbook)
A very important thing to every martial character is to demonstrate their superiority over the puny spellcasters you find along the way. And this feat will help you accomplish just that.
If you are 5ft away from a spellcaster, you get advantage on any saving throw caused by one of their spells. If they cast a spell, regardless who it targets, you also get an opportunity attack to hit them and, if they have a spell on concentration, their concentration saving throw will be at disadvantage. This one can also combo with the Sentinel feat to drop the spellcasters' movement to zero and prevent them from running away from you as well.
These two feats combined also work really well for battle master fighters, who can knock enemies prone with their maneuvers and, without movement speed, preventing the enemy from getting back up (talking from experience here).
6 Great Weapon Master (Player's Handbook)
To become a true beast on the battlefield, two-handed weapons are the way to go. And this feat makes them even wilder than they can already be. The first thing it does is to allow you to attack as a bonus action whenever you get a natural 20 or whenever you drop someone's health to zero (this part, by the way, works on any melee weapon, not just two-handed ones), so you can quickly switch between enemies once they fall.
You can also accept a -5 penalty on your attack rolls in order to receive a +10 on your damage. It will be harder to hit someone, but if you do, it'll be a disaster. For your enemy, that is.
5 Mobile (Player's Handbook)
Continuing with the whole "ranged enemies will try to stay away from you" thing, mobile is a good way to prevent that from happening. You increase your overall movement by 10ft, and it will also allow you to ignore difficult terrain when you use the Dash action.
If that wasn't enough, in case you attack someone, they cannot use opportunity attacks on you until the next round, and the coolest part is that you don't even need to hit your attack for this effect to apply. Did you miss? No worries. You can also make a sweet feat combo here...
4 Charger (Player's Handbook)
The problem with the Dash action, regardless if you have Mobile, is that it consumes your action, and not everyone can attack with their bonus action. Well, fear no more. Whenever you use Dash, the Charger feat allows you to use your bonus action to either attack someone or push them 5ft away from you.
However, if you move 10ft or more in a straight line to get to your target, it gets better. If you choose to attack, your damage will be increased by five. If you choose to push, your target will be pushed 10ft away from you instead. Though this feat and Mobile are more situational, they can both work well together and are good on their own as well.
3 Orcish Fury (Xanathar's Guide To Everything)
Half-Orcs, it's your time to shine. This underrated feat will give one point in either strength or constitution. But don't worry, that's not all. Once per rest, you can add an extra weapon die in one of your attacks. Essentially, it's like a mini-natural 20 that you can trigger by yourself, though it's just one die that you can add. Still, if you actually get a natural 20, this die would also double, so you can cause even more damage.
Also, whenever you use the racial trait Relentless Endurance, you get a free attack with your reaction. A good opportunity to strike back at whoever tried to off you.
2 Crusher, Piercer Or Slasher (Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything)
Three neat feats that work rather similarly, where you can choose depending on what type of weapon you use (Crusher for bludgeoning, Piercer for, well, piercing, and Slasher for, you guessed it, slashing). Crusher will give you 1 ability score to put it in either strength or dexterity. Once per turn, when you hit another creature, you also get to move 5ft and, if you hit someone with a natural 20, all attacks made against said creature will have advantage until your next turn.
The other two work similarly. Both Piercer and Slasher will give you one point to add on either strength or dexterity. Piercer allows you to re-roll a damage die and take the new value once per turn, and you can roll an extra die when you hit someone with a 20. Slasher can decrease the movement of one creature you hit by 10ft, and they get disadvantage on all their attacks until your next turn if you hit them with a natural 20.
1 Dual Wielder (Player's Handbook)
Lastly, but certainly not least, Dual Wielder is one feat that is often overlooked, but it's good for giving extra attacks. This one allows you to fight with two weapons without requiring one of them to be light. The second weapon grants you an extra AC point (like a half-shield) as well. Combining with two-weapon fighting style, you can have quite some fun with this feat, being able to attack with your bonus actual without receiving penalties on the second weapon's damage.