My first character was an EK, but being so new to D&D I wasn't having a good experience playing and they eventually died so that I could play a basic Fighter/Champion. I've now played 2 of these types of characters and have enjoyed it while getting a better understanding of the game and it's mechanics.
I'm about to start a new campaign with strangers and I want to have a better experience while also being a good teammate (is that the right term?)
I'm playing as a warforged with dueling as my fighting style. Some questions I have are do I need a focus or can I just cast at will? How do components work, are the used up or infinite? What are some good spells to choose? Any things you'd suggest under things I wished I knew. Thanks in advance.
Spell components are used up only if it states it is consumed in the spell description, otherwise you can pretty much keep reuse components. Being a EK your spell choices are limited to mainly Abjuration and Evocation schools from the Wizard spell list (with cantrips being the exception). Solid early spells from this list include Absorb Elements, Magic Missile, Protection from Good/Evil and Shield. Mainly because they don't require your spell casting modifier which in most cases will not be too high in the early levels.
The main thing to remember is that the EK is still primarily a martial character with a sprinkling of magic unlike the actually gish classes like Hexblade, Bladesinger or Swords Bard. So you will not be casting game changing spells very often. Your most used spell will most likely be Booming Blade.
Cool. I was thinking I would use the spell casting in range situations or when an enemy is in snared by a spell that would hit me if I engaged in melee.
Something important to know is when you cast a spell, such as booming blade/green flame blade, it uses your action. So when you hit level 5 and get 2 attacks, you can either cast the spell (and attack once with it) or attack twice. You can’t cast the spell and attack a second time. Often at level 5, you’re better off attacking twice than casting.
You either need a focus or components for any spell with the M tag. You don’t need both. But you do need a free hand to access them — so sword and shield gets to be a challenge.
The big exception is if a spell has a component with a gp cost, you need that specific component, even if you are using a focus.
An Eldritch Knight cannot use a spellcasting focus, but they can use a component pouch. A focus (like a wand) is something you have to hold to use, you only need a free hand to use a component pouch, which will fit in with your dueling Fighting Style, but you won’t be able to use a shield too (unless you play as a Thri-kreen).
One thing I would recommend is to consider taking 2 levels of Wizard, one after you hit 5th level as a Fighter, and one after you hit 11th level as a Fighter. That will double your cantrips, allow you to use a spellcasting focus (like a staff*) if you want to, let you cast ritual spells, allow you to take more 1st-level spells that aren’t restricted by school, and let you prepare a variety of spells each morning. It’ll practically double how “magic” you get to be at the expense of a little spell progression. It will also let you take a Wizard subclass like Divination or Bladesinger which will complement your Fighter features nicely. (Of course, if you want to be more fighter than spellcaster then skip this plan.)
Presuming that you want to go less “Arcane” and more “Knight,” I would actually like to walk back my previous recommendation of multiclassing with Wizard and suggest Paladin instead, for a number of reasons.
Most EK players eschew Evocations in favor of Abjurations since they will likely get more mileage out of those spells, the spells don’t rely on a high Int score, and they don’t compete with Extra Attacks the way Evocations do. That’s one of the drawbacks to an EK, you don’t get to feel very “eldritch” with them. Many of the best, low level Paladin spells, like bless, divine favor, protection from evil and good, and shield of faith have the same advantage of not caring how low one’s casting ability is.
Paladins get a Fighting Style, so you could double up with Dueling and something like Defense for extra AC.
Divine Smite will work just as well with multiclass spell slots, and 2 levels of Paladin equals 3 levels of EK when determining how many slots you get.
Lay on Hands is great when it’s needed, even with only 2 levels of Paladin because it only takes 1 point to pick up a fallen comrade.
It won’t hurt your Hit Dice progression like Wiz will.
They can put their focus on their shield.
If you wanna lean into the Eldritch side and hold back the Knight side of things, a two level dip into Wiz is great, but if you wanna lean harder into the Knightly side of things then I strongly suggest Paly instead, and sooner, maybe for levels 6 & 7 (instead of 7 & 13 for Wiz). You’re gonna love your life.
Disclaimer: I have not yet played this character, but have theorycrafted him for a small-ish thing our DM is asking us to do.
EK to 6, then a 4 level dip to Bladesinger Wizard. Back to EK to 16 (where our characters are t be for this thing) Taking the EK to 6 gets 2 ASI/Feat chances, then the 4 dip to Bladesinger grants all the Wizardly perks (Ritual casting, a little Arcane Recovery, a BUNCH of new spells and slots) and specifically the Bladesong. My build is Dex based, using Studded Leather, to keep in Light Armor and ensure Bladesong is viable, for it's +5AC bonus. Used Dueling Fighting style for extra damage and a Rapier for a weapon. He has a ton of spells and slots, so great utility if needed and adding Shield to Bladesong means he will likely only be hit if I allow it, lol. Misty Step is in there to ensure I can get to enemies quickly, or get out quickly if needed. He offers a pretty wide variety of things to the group, but working the character up from level 1, his prime role would have been front line using all the basic Fighter skills to be a good front liner, while waiting for the more impressive things to come online as he levels.
To me, this is a highly viable character, because even without subclass features and such, a Fighter is a pretty solid group member as a front line melee. It means you're viable, valuable and contributing all along and only getting more and more impressive as you level with not only the potency of your character (damage spells and defensive stuff to keep you alive in the melee mess) but the utility you can bring at sometimes unexpected times, like Identify, or Featherfall or Invisibility when it's needed.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Things like charm person might be useful, when you get second level slots suggestion is good. But as an Eldritch Knight your still a martial fighter and support and magical coercion would probably be more effective then just damage dealing spells, since you can just hit em' with your sword and do essentially the same amount of damage.
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BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
Here's a link to a character I am going to end up using in a min-campaign our DM has made to help him finish his world build for a more involved campaign where we will start as level 1. The group, as it stands, looks like it will have a Drakewarden Ranger, a Ranger (Hunter) Rogue (scout) multiclass and a Druid (unsure of circle but I think he's looking at Moon) This character will obviously be our "tank" moving in early to the fray. Sitting at 20 AC normal will have him at 25 during a fight (Bladesong) and pops of 30AC (Shield spell) when needed. the Wizard levels offer not only Bladesong for the AC boost, but Ritual Caster to allow some other magic to flow without necessarily eating up spell slots. I think it will work well.
Here's a link to a character I am going to end up using in a min-campaign our DM has made to help him finish his world build for a more involved campaign where we will start as level 1. The group, as it stands, looks like it will have a Drakewarden Ranger, a Ranger (Hunter) Rogue (scout) multiclass and a Druid (unsure of circle but I think he's looking at Moon) This character will obviously be our "tank" moving in early to the fray. Sitting at 20 AC normal will have him at 25 during a fight (Bladesong) and pops of 30AC (Shield spell) when needed. the Wizard levels offer not only Bladesong for the AC boost, but Ritual Caster to allow some other magic to flow without necessarily eating up spell slots. I think it will work well.
How heavily homebrewed/houseruled is this character? Your boy is rocking 5 feats when the character only has access to 4 not to mention a bunch of additional ASI improvements that are unaccounted for.
Its hard to rate/critique a build when we don't know the base homebrew/houserules you are using.
Yes, apologies for not mentioning the feat thing. For every ASI level, we were allowed to take a non-combat feat. This was in addition to taking the ASI or a combat related Feat. We all ended up milking the non combat feats to get ones that offered an ability point with them. Rolled stats titled things a fair bit too. Not the standard you migh get with point buy, but Dex and Int could both still be at 20 using that method. Con Str and Wis would all be a bit lower and there wouldn't be proficiency on Int saves. That's all my fault, because I had him done using Point buy and basic leveling and the overall was almost the same (again, Wis, Str and such lower) Also, as link below shows, Int fell to 18. Could swap that for Dex, dropping AC and Dex attacks by one, but that is going to be a situational if you were going to cast more than swing. Adjusted build:
I haven't found any examples of this, but the character I'm building is a dark elf EK with Spell Sniper (Warlock) for Eldritch Blast. I'm using a rapier until I get Shadow Blade. all other spells are situational. Multiple attacks of multiple beams of Eldritch Blast. At 7th lvl I get to add my melee attack as a bonus action using Shadow Blade thanks to War Magic. I also have useful reactions like Shield to keep me safe on the front lines. What I like about this build is that I've got a beefy ranged attack and a healthy melee attack using a total of 1 spell slot. I have a lot of options for more utility and out of combat spells. This probably isn't the most powerful EK build and will probably drive the DM crazy with the amount of Eldritch Blast bolts I'll be slinging, but it sounds like a fun and strong build to me.
Given this thread got necro'd, I am curious how the EK ended up working out for you? I was originally of the mindset that EK was weak, but that's because I was trying to build it into some sort of blaster, and it didn't work well. I think the key though, is selecting spells that make you a better fighter, and there are a lot of those. With that as a focus, it think that EK would be really good. things like shield aren't very sexy spells, but they sure are effective.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
My first character was an EK, but being so new to D&D I wasn't having a good experience playing and they eventually died so that I could play a basic Fighter/Champion. I've now played 2 of these types of characters and have enjoyed it while getting a better understanding of the game and it's mechanics.
I'm about to start a new campaign with strangers and I want to have a better experience while also being a good teammate (is that the right term?)
I'm playing as a warforged with dueling as my fighting style. Some questions I have are do I need a focus or can I just cast at will? How do components work, are the used up or infinite? What are some good spells to choose? Any things you'd suggest under things I wished I knew. Thanks in advance.
Ya Boi
Jedi Poet
Spell components are used up only if it states it is consumed in the spell description, otherwise you can pretty much keep reuse components. Being a EK your spell choices are limited to mainly Abjuration and Evocation schools from the Wizard spell list (with cantrips being the exception). Solid early spells from this list include Absorb Elements, Magic Missile, Protection from Good/Evil and Shield. Mainly because they don't require your spell casting modifier which in most cases will not be too high in the early levels.
The main thing to remember is that the EK is still primarily a martial character with a sprinkling of magic unlike the actually gish classes like Hexblade, Bladesinger or Swords Bard. So you will not be casting game changing spells very often. Your most used spell will most likely be Booming Blade.
Cool. I was thinking I would use the spell casting in range situations or when an enemy is in snared by a spell that would hit me if I engaged in melee.
Do I need an arcane focus?
Something important to know is when you cast a spell, such as booming blade/green flame blade, it uses your action. So when you hit level 5 and get 2 attacks, you can either cast the spell (and attack once with it) or attack twice. You can’t cast the spell and attack a second time. Often at level 5, you’re better off attacking twice than casting.
You either need a focus or components for any spell with the M tag. You don’t need both. But you do need a free hand to access them — so sword and shield gets to be a challenge.
The big exception is if a spell has a component with a gp cost, you need that specific component, even if you are using a focus.
An Eldritch Knight cannot use a spellcasting focus, but they can use a component pouch. A focus (like a wand) is something you have to hold to use, you only need a free hand to use a component pouch, which will fit in with your dueling Fighting Style, but you won’t be able to use a shield too (unless you play as a Thri-kreen).
One thing I would recommend is to consider taking 2 levels of Wizard, one after you hit 5th level as a Fighter, and one after you hit 11th level as a Fighter. That will double your cantrips, allow you to use a spellcasting focus (like a staff*) if you want to, let you cast ritual spells, allow you to take more 1st-level spells that aren’t restricted by school, and let you prepare a variety of spells each morning. It’ll practically double how “magic” you get to be at the expense of a little spell progression. It will also let you take a Wizard subclass like Divination or Bladesinger which will complement your Fighter features nicely. (Of course, if you want to be more fighter than spellcaster then skip this plan.)
*Every staff also counts as a quarterstaff
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All good stuff. Thanks.
Presuming that you want to go less “Arcane” and more “Knight,” I would actually like to walk back my previous recommendation of multiclassing with Wizard and suggest Paladin instead, for a number of reasons.
If you wanna lean into the Eldritch side and hold back the Knight side of things, a two level dip into Wiz is great, but if you wanna lean harder into the Knightly side of things then I strongly suggest Paly instead, and sooner, maybe for levels 6 & 7 (instead of 7 & 13 for Wiz). You’re gonna love your life.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Disclaimer: I have not yet played this character, but have theorycrafted him for a small-ish thing our DM is asking us to do.
EK to 6, then a 4 level dip to Bladesinger Wizard. Back to EK to 16 (where our characters are t be for this thing) Taking the EK to 6 gets 2 ASI/Feat chances, then the 4 dip to Bladesinger grants all the Wizardly perks (Ritual casting, a little Arcane Recovery, a BUNCH of new spells and slots) and specifically the Bladesong. My build is Dex based, using Studded Leather, to keep in Light Armor and ensure Bladesong is viable, for it's +5AC bonus. Used Dueling Fighting style for extra damage and a Rapier for a weapon. He has a ton of spells and slots, so great utility if needed and adding Shield to Bladesong means he will likely only be hit if I allow it, lol. Misty Step is in there to ensure I can get to enemies quickly, or get out quickly if needed. He offers a pretty wide variety of things to the group, but working the character up from level 1, his prime role would have been front line using all the basic Fighter skills to be a good front liner, while waiting for the more impressive things to come online as he levels.
To me, this is a highly viable character, because even without subclass features and such, a Fighter is a pretty solid group member as a front line melee. It means you're viable, valuable and contributing all along and only getting more and more impressive as you level with not only the potency of your character (damage spells and defensive stuff to keep you alive in the melee mess) but the utility you can bring at sometimes unexpected times, like Identify, or Featherfall or Invisibility when it's needed.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
this is a lot to think about. first session is today so we'll have time to think about these different options. good stuff.
Things like charm person might be useful, when you get second level slots suggestion is good. But as an Eldritch Knight your still a martial fighter and support and magical coercion would probably be more effective then just damage dealing spells, since you can just hit em' with your sword and do essentially the same amount of damage.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Here's a link to a character I am going to end up using in a min-campaign our DM has made to help him finish his world build for a more involved campaign where we will start as level 1. The group, as it stands, looks like it will have a Drakewarden Ranger, a Ranger (Hunter) Rogue (scout) multiclass and a Druid (unsure of circle but I think he's looking at Moon) This character will obviously be our "tank" moving in early to the fray. Sitting at 20 AC normal will have him at 25 during a fight (Bladesong) and pops of 30AC (Shield spell) when needed. the Wizard levels offer not only Bladesong for the AC boost, but Ritual Caster to allow some other magic to flow without necessarily eating up spell slots. I think it will work well.
https://ddb.ac/characters/55660700/VnisIa
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
How heavily homebrewed/houseruled is this character? Your boy is rocking 5 feats when the character only has access to 4 not to mention a bunch of additional ASI improvements that are unaccounted for.
Its hard to rate/critique a build when we don't know the base homebrew/houserules you are using.
Yes, apologies for not mentioning the feat thing. For every ASI level, we were allowed to take a non-combat feat. This was in addition to taking the ASI or a combat related Feat. We all ended up milking the non combat feats to get ones that offered an ability point with them. Rolled stats titled things a fair bit too. Not the standard you migh get with point buy, but Dex and Int could both still be at 20 using that method. Con Str and Wis would all be a bit lower and there wouldn't be proficiency on Int saves. That's all my fault, because I had him done using Point buy and basic leveling and the overall was almost the same (again, Wis, Str and such lower) Also, as link below shows, Int fell to 18. Could swap that for Dex, dropping AC and Dex attacks by one, but that is going to be a situational if you were going to cast more than swing. Adjusted build:
https://ddb.ac/characters/71246077/4Ur6dO
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
I haven't found any examples of this, but the character I'm building is a dark elf EK with Spell Sniper (Warlock) for Eldritch Blast. I'm using a rapier until I get Shadow Blade. all other spells are situational. Multiple attacks of multiple beams of Eldritch Blast. At 7th lvl I get to add my melee attack as a bonus action using Shadow Blade thanks to War Magic. I also have useful reactions like Shield to keep me safe on the front lines. What I like about this build is that I've got a beefy ranged attack and a healthy melee attack using a total of 1 spell slot. I have a lot of options for more utility and out of combat spells. This probably isn't the most powerful EK build and will probably drive the DM crazy with the amount of Eldritch Blast bolts I'll be slinging, but it sounds like a fun and strong build to me.
Cool
Given this thread got necro'd, I am curious how the EK ended up working out for you? I was originally of the mindset that EK was weak, but that's because I was trying to build it into some sort of blaster, and it didn't work well. I think the key though, is selecting spells that make you a better fighter, and there are a lot of those. With that as a focus, it think that EK would be really good. things like shield aren't very sexy spells, but they sure are effective.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Unfortunately I had to leave that group before we really got going and I haven't had the chance to play with the character again.