I think it looks pretty good. You have a very good array of stats and a wide range of proficient languages and skills. Don't worry too much if the character is optimal or not,unless the rest of your party are a group of uber-munchkins all that really matters is that you have fun playing the character.
A few things to bear in mind though.
The utility of sleep will diminish as you level up. As a first level spell it can affect 5-40 (avg. 22.5) hit points of enemies, which means with an average roll it could affect a single gnoll or three goblins. It is OK for now, but if you multi-class into Wizard for 2 levels I would make sure you retrain it when you next take a level in Fighter.
Most of your spells do not have a material component. This means that you will need to have a hand free when casting these spells. Your DM seems generous so may allow you to hold your weapon with your shield hand while casting. While your weapon counts as an Arcane Focus thanks to your DM, an Arcane Focus only substitutes for a material component with no gp cost. The Warcaster feat would allow you to cast spells with somatic but no material components while both your hands are full.
If you are going to multi-class into Wizard for Bladesinger, I would recommend doing so at level 7. Because of the way determining your spell slots works for multi-class characters, the best time to multi-class out of Eldritch Knight is when you have a multiple of 3 levels.
I was planning to swap Sleep for Shadow Blade at level 7 anyway. Also, once I multiclass, I'll have to sacrifice my shield anyway thus I'll free up a hand. Also I want to avoid having too many spells that require materials with a gp cost.
As for feats, I might take War Caster regardless for spells as opportunity attacks plus advantage on concentration checks. Any other feats?
Eldritch Knight is a truly awful piece of game design. EK's features are not only actively nerfing the main and only thing a Fighter can do, which is hitting things, but it also gets weaker if you get buffs or acquire stronger weapons. So bad.
You can do fine with EK by just swinging and spamming Shield and Absorb Elements, but it will always remain a broken class and using it's main feature, which is casting magic and hitting, is a trap.
EK probably isn't the most OP but I consider it a very solid class.
I do see Shinimas's point though, which is that after 11th level with you get 3 attacks the 7th lvl ability probably isn't really competing anymore. Once you are doing 3 attacks with Weapon+Stat, it's probably not competing with Cantrip and 1 Weapon+Stat. The exception could be GreenFlame/Booming Blade, as they scale well with lvl do double stat (melee weapon and Int for spell) and still let you get an extra attack in there.
I see the primary advantage of EK is that she has a solid ranged attack at will (cantrip) which scales with level. So an EK isn't as disadvantaged at range, especially since it just requires a free hand instead of drawing a javalin and those do NOT scale with level.
I agree that just hitting them with a Sword is probably better then using a low level spell. That said if the EK concentrates on buff spells and deflections like Shield she should be far harder to hit then any regular Fighter and have an expanded bag of tricks.
But yeah, I am hoping to focus on bonus action spells (Expeditious Retreat. Shadow Blade, etc.) Also, reaction spells (Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell)
Summon a weapon is cool, although very rarely useful. You also can't summon your shield per RAW, because it's considered a piece of armor.
Using War Magic is bad at higher levels, using 3 attacks is better, unless you have low STR/DEX and no magic weapon at level 11+. War Magic gets worse the stronger you get. Better weapons, buffs, stat increases etc. all make War Magic worse and it's already close to being the same as just swinging even if you have a standard d8 weapon.
Disadvantage somewhat mitigates the low-ish INT score, but you don't really have good spells to cast againist enemies, but yeah, you're slightly more likely to do 14 damage instead of 7 with your Shatter spell...on level 10. It's good if you have Hold Person, but I'd pick Misty Step instead.
The teleport is nice. Not amazing, but useful.
Now you can cast Shatter for 14 damage and swing once. Too bad you're fighting Ancient Dragons. Most of the useful spells on EK are buffs and reaction spells that don't benefit from this feature.
The normal Fighter features are fine and EK isn't too weak because you're basically a standard fighter that gets to spam Shield and Absorb Elements. It's just that the class features are so terrible that it blows my mind. Why would they design it to become worse with Extra Attack?
Summon a weapon is cool, although very rarely useful. You also can't summon your shield per RAW, because it's considered a piece of armor.
Using War Magic is bad at higher levels, using 3 attacks is better, unless you have low STR/DEX and no magic weapon at level 11+. War Magic gets worse the stronger you get. Better weapons, buffs, stat increases etc. all make War Magic worse and it's already close to being the same as just swinging even if you have a standard d8 weapon.
Disadvantage somewhat mitigates the low-ish INT score, but you don't really have good spells to cast againist enemies, but yeah, you're slightly more likely to do 14 damage instead of 7 with your Shatter spell...on level 10. It's good if you have Hold Person, but I'd pick Misty Step instead.
The teleport is nice. Not amazing, but useful.
Now you can cast Shatter for 14 damage and swing once. Too bad you're fighting Ancient Dragons. Most of the useful spells on EK are buffs and reaction spells that don't benefit from this feature.
The normal Fighter features are fine and EK isn't too weak because you're basically a standard fighter that gets to spam Shield and Absorb Elements. It's just that the class features are so terrible that it blows my mind. Why would they design it to become worse with Extra Attack?
Regarding your points about Weapon Bond, you could always discuss with your DM to tweak it for your game so that you can summon shields or even armor as a bonus action. Also, if you're entering a place unarmed and you end up in a combat situation, boom. Your weapon comes to you. At least it's better than a warlock's pact of the blade feature which takes an action.
Actually, there is a case where War Magic can be helpful even if it's just for one attack: True Strike, which can grant advantage on your next attack. Or you can use the SCAG melee cantrips and then a regular attack as a bonus.
Don't underestimate the imposing of disadvantage. Especially since, in theory, you could hit multiple targets for one attack each, and then Action Surge to blast them with an AoE spell which they all have disadvantage on.
Arcane Charge you can use before or after the Action Surge. You can think of it as Misty Step but rechargeable after a short rest.
With Improved War Magic, you could cast a spell like Haste and then get two attacks: your hasted attack and your bonus action attack.
I was referring to the actions a hypothetical character would make, not you when I said "she". It's a habit I picked up from White Wolf games, defaulting to a feminine pronoun when talking about a theoretical person.
The EK can get around not being MAD with a Circlet of Intelligence, sets your Int to 19, so you'll have strong DCs for your spells.
I agree with you I think using your spells for direct damage is a trap, as a Fighter you'll be mostly better hitting things with your sword. There can be exceptions to this, but it's harder as you get past 11th lvl. I could only see if being competitive with cantrip melee spells, so you trade 1 strong attack instead of lots of attacks. This could be useful if you have Adv from a source but not on every attack. There are reasons for it, but it's not an "all the time" ability.
Spells should be for orthogonal problem solving: Absorb Elements, Shield, Counter-Spell, Wall of (element), etc...
To me the worse part is that you only get 1 non-evocation/abjuration spell per spell level to do real orthogonal problem solving. Feather Fall or Find Familiar, or it's either Misty Step or Mirror Image or Invisibility, etc... at high levels spells. I would stay away from anything with Concentration as you'll be taking it in the face.
True, a Headband of Intellect would definitely help.
Concentration spells shouldn't be much of a problem, since I'm proficient in CON saves. Add War Caster and Bladesong into the mix, and it'll be tough for me to lose those spells.
I've already got plans for what I plan to take for non abjuration/evocation spells. Level 7, I'm swapping Sleep for Shadow Blade. Level 8, I'm learning Misty Step or Hold Person. Level 14, I'm grabbing Haste. As for Feather Fall, Find Familiar, and spells like Expeditious Retreat, I can learn those with my wizard levels.
True Strike gives you advantage on your next attack NEXT TURN. So you forgo 1-3 attacks, hit the enemy once and then have advantage on 1 out of 2-4 attacks next round. It's inferior to just hitting. I was considering SCAG cantrips. With PHB cantrips War Magic is even worse. 3d8+15 (20 DEX/STR mod*3)=28.5, versus 2d8+2d8+10=28 (with War Magic+Booming Blade). If you have Dueling and a +1 Rapier, which is more than reasonable at level 11, you get 37.5 vs 34.
I mean, yeah, but you don't have powerful spells. It would almost always be better to just hit the enemies again if you Action Surge, especially if you have a decent weapon.
Arcane Charge is fine.
Fair enough. I guess you can cast Haste and hit a guy once more on the turn you cast it. What other spells would be useful with Imp. War Magic? I honestly can't think of any right now.
Using War Magic is bad at higher levels, using 3 attacks is better, unless you have low STR/DEX and no magic weapon at level 11+. War Magic gets worse the stronger you get. Better weapons, buffs, stat increases etc. all make War Magic worse and it's already close to being the same as just swinging even if you have a standard d8 weapon.
The normal Fighter features are fine and EK isn't too weak because you're basically a standard fighter that gets to spam Shield and Absorb Elements. It's just that the class features are so terrible that it blows my mind. Why would they design it to become worse with Extra Attack?
War Magic is useful whenever a cantrip is useful. If you're trying to shut down a spellcaster's Counterspells, the Attack action won't help you; Shocking Grasp will. If you're trying to run away or keep an enemy in a harmful area of effect, the Attack action won't help you; Ray of Frost will. When you're holding a choke point, you're better off using Blade Ward and leaving the damage to the rest of the party that's behind safety.
Spells should be for orthogonal problem solving: Absorb Elements, Shield, Counter-Spell, Wall of (element), etc...
To me the worse part is that you only get 1 non-evocation/abjuration spell per spell level to do real orthogonal problem solving. Feather Fall or Find Familiar, or it's either Misty Step or Mirror Image or Invisibility, etc... at high levels spells. I would stay away from anything with Concentration as you'll be taking it in the face.
Between proficiency in CON saves, War Caster (which you can afford thanks to the extra ASIs) and access to heavy armor, a shield, and the Shield spell, concentration shouldn't be hard to maintain. Warding Wind can be very useful since the Fighter can afford to be in the fray. Magic Weapon and Shadow Blade are the other obvious choices among 2nd level spells. At 13+, Haste or Fly are no-brainers.
I frankly don't see how out of the three subclasses in PhB, the Eldritch Knight is somehow the trap. Battlemaster isn't bad, but I generally find the EK to generally be far more adaptable then they are, and the Champion is...well, most people already know what that's like.
Yeah, its still a Fighter class, not a wizard, so its spellcasting abilities aren't great. As a magic swordsman that uses arcane magic though, I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do pretty well for the most part.
It's just that War Magic and Eldritch Strike are near useless. Being able to spam Shield is useful for anybody, but its class features are broken, since it really can't cast offensive spells and swing at the same time effectively.
Medium Armor Master would give you 1 extra AC over Studded Leather even at 20 Dex. Skilled would also be good since your stats are so high you can become an effective skill monkey that can do it all. Otherwise just double down on stat increases.
Eldritch Strike, useless? Hit enemy -> Levitate. Congrats, you probably took someone out of the fight and can shoot them with impunity. Other contenders that only have 1 save: Earthbind, Web, Enlarge/Reduce.
There's also Frostbite to debuff the enemy's attack rolls, which you can pair with War Magic.
Another use of War Magic I missed earlier: if you're going for an archery build and someone gets close, Shocking Grasp -> walk away -> shoot bow.
Medium Armor Master reread. I thought it just upped the max Dex bonus you could get and gave you +1 Str or Dex, like a medium armor version of Heavy Armor Master.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Eldritch Knight is a truly awful piece of game design. EK's features are not only actively nerfing the main and only thing a Fighter can do, which is hitting things, but it also gets weaker if you get buffs or acquire stronger weapons. So bad.
You can do fine with EK by just swinging and spamming Shield and Absorb Elements, but it will always remain a broken class and using it's main feature, which is casting magic and hitting, is a trap.
I fail to understand how EK is a trap of a subclass. Have you overlooked the level up features?
Level 3: Summon weapons bound to you as a bonus action.
Level 7: Use cantrip as an action, then a weapon attack as a bonus action.
Level 10: Impose disadvantage on saves against your spells after hitting them.
Level 15: Teleport before/after using Action Surge.
Level 18: Same as level 7, but works with any spell.
Besides, with EK, you still have access to Action Surge, Indomitable, more than one extra attack, and seven ASIs.
I'm withTiamatZX,
EK probably isn't the most OP but I consider it a very solid class.
I do see Shinimas's point though, which is that after 11th level with you get 3 attacks the 7th lvl ability probably isn't really competing anymore. Once you are doing 3 attacks with Weapon+Stat, it's probably not competing with Cantrip and 1 Weapon+Stat. The exception could be GreenFlame/Booming Blade, as they scale well with lvl do double stat (melee weapon and Int for spell) and still let you get an extra attack in there.
I see the primary advantage of EK is that she has a solid ranged attack at will (cantrip) which scales with level. So an EK isn't as disadvantaged at range, especially since it just requires a free hand instead of drawing a javalin and those do NOT scale with level.
I agree that just hitting them with a Sword is probably better then using a low level spell. That said if the EK concentrates on buff spells and deflections like Shield she should be far harder to hit then any regular Fighter and have an expanded bag of tricks.
She? I'm a guy.
But yeah, I am hoping to focus on bonus action spells (Expeditious Retreat. Shadow Blade, etc.) Also, reaction spells (Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell)
Also, with the right multiclass, an EK can be even better.
Summon a weapon is cool, although very rarely useful. You also can't summon your shield per RAW, because it's considered a piece of armor.
Using War Magic is bad at higher levels, using 3 attacks is better, unless you have low STR/DEX and no magic weapon at level 11+. War Magic gets worse the stronger you get. Better weapons, buffs, stat increases etc. all make War Magic worse and it's already close to being the same as just swinging even if you have a standard d8 weapon.
Disadvantage somewhat mitigates the low-ish INT score, but you don't really have good spells to cast againist enemies, but yeah, you're slightly more likely to do 14 damage instead of 7 with your Shatter spell...on level 10. It's good if you have Hold Person, but I'd pick Misty Step instead.
The teleport is nice. Not amazing, but useful.
Now you can cast Shatter for 14 damage and swing once. Too bad you're fighting Ancient Dragons. Most of the useful spells on EK are buffs and reaction spells that don't benefit from this feature.
The normal Fighter features are fine and EK isn't too weak because you're basically a standard fighter that gets to spam Shield and Absorb Elements. It's just that the class features are so terrible that it blows my mind. Why would they design it to become worse with Extra Attack?
It's a habit I picked up from White Wolf games, defaulting to a feminine pronoun when talking about a theoretical person.
The EK can get around not being MAD with a Circlet of Intelligence, sets your Int to 19, so you'll have strong DCs for your spells.
Ah, I see. I didn't realize that.
True, a Headband of Intellect would definitely help.
Concentration spells shouldn't be much of a problem, since I'm proficient in CON saves. Add War Caster and Bladesong into the mix, and it'll be tough for me to lose those spells.
I've already got plans for what I plan to take for non abjuration/evocation spells. Level 7, I'm swapping Sleep for Shadow Blade. Level 8, I'm learning Misty Step or Hold Person. Level 14, I'm grabbing Haste. As for Feather Fall, Find Familiar, and spells like Expeditious Retreat, I can learn those with my wizard levels.
Sure.
True Strike gives you advantage on your next attack NEXT TURN. So you forgo 1-3 attacks, hit the enemy once and then have advantage on 1 out of 2-4 attacks next round. It's inferior to just hitting. I was considering SCAG cantrips. With PHB cantrips War Magic is even worse. 3d8+15 (20 DEX/STR mod*3)=28.5, versus 2d8+2d8+10=28 (with War Magic+Booming Blade). If you have Dueling and a +1 Rapier, which is more than reasonable at level 11, you get 37.5 vs 34.
I mean, yeah, but you don't have powerful spells. It would almost always be better to just hit the enemies again if you Action Surge, especially if you have a decent weapon.
Arcane Charge is fine.
Fair enough. I guess you can cast Haste and hit a guy once more on the turn you cast it. What other spells would be useful with Imp. War Magic? I honestly can't think of any right now.
I frankly don't see how out of the three subclasses in PhB, the Eldritch Knight is somehow the trap. Battlemaster isn't bad, but I generally find the EK to generally be far more adaptable then they are, and the Champion is...well, most people already know what that's like.
Yeah, its still a Fighter class, not a wizard, so its spellcasting abilities aren't great. As a magic swordsman that uses arcane magic though, I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do pretty well for the most part.
So what feats are good for me to pick based on my build? I already have Resilient (Wisdom) and Prodigy.
It's just that War Magic and Eldritch Strike are near useless. Being able to spam Shield is useful for anybody, but its class features are broken, since it really can't cast offensive spells and swing at the same time effectively.
Medium Armor Master would give you 1 extra AC over Studded Leather even at 20 Dex. Skilled would also be good since your stats are so high you can become an effective skill monkey that can do it all. Otherwise just double down on stat increases.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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