Question: How do I apply the Weapon Bond feature using the interface? I increased the level of my Fighter just to see how the new options were added to the interface (I put it back to level 1 when I finished), and I saw there was a panel acknowledging that EK could use Weapon Bond, but I didn't see a way to designate any of my weapons as being bound to me. I hope that it's not something that I'm just supposed to keep track of on my own. That wouldn't be a big deal, but it seems flawed when everything else seems to be covered.
You can customize the weapon name in the attacks section.
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You know, this may be due to inexperience (I've only played twice years ago and never as an EK), but it seems to me that I've seen a lot of posts being concerned about the ability to cast somatic spells.
Why can't we just sheathe or drop our weapon and cast the spell? The PHB says that is one thing that can be done in tandem with our movement/action. It also lists stuff like picking up a dropped axe, pulling a lever, handing an item to another character, and several other things. Now I can understand it being an issue if your AC is affected by having your weapon in hand, or you want to keep a weapon in hand in case you get an attack of opportunity (I plan to dual wield so I'll have a weapon in hand regardless), but other than that, I don't see what the problem is.
Am I missing something? Or is it that most of the people making said posts are forgetting how quickly and easily they're allowed to stow their weapons?
Stowing a weapon is an action. But if you're just casting a spell, you can use your free action to drop your weapon, action to cast. Then next turn you can "interact with an object" as part of your attack or movement to pick it back up. Or if you hadn't moved in the same turn you cast the spell, you can do it then as well.
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I'm eagerly awaiting my campaign to start (hopefully next Friday). I haven't played in years and I've been designing and redesigning my character over and over up to level 8. I'd like some feedback, please.
Stout Halfling: Lucky (I can reroll any 1 and take the second roll on all but damage rolls), Brave (Advantage to being Frightened), Halfling Nimbleness (I can enter the space of any creature 1 size larger than me), Stout Resilience (Advantage to being Poisoned and Resistance to Poison Damage), +2 Dex for being a Halfling, +1 Con for being a Stout Halfing)
Standard Array: 10/+0 Str, 17/+3 Dex, 14/+2 Con, 14 Int/+2, 12 Wis/+1, 8/-1 Cha (including the racial bonuses)
Mercenary Veteran (Athletics, Persuasion, Land Vehicles, Dice)
Level 3 - I plan to bind one short sword and my crossbow (leave the crossbow loaded and in my room and summon it when I need to take a shot), and I plan to learn the Cantrips Booming Blade and Toll the Dead, as well as 1st level Spells Shield, Absorb Elements, and Ice Knife ( I was originally planning to learn Protection from Good and Evil, but was bothered by the components being consumed even though there's no cost to them).
Level 4 - I plan to take the feat Mage Initiate, choose Wizard as the class, and use the feat to learn the Cantrips Shocking Grasp and Green Flame Blade as well as the 1st level Spell Feather Fall as my once-per-long rest use aka emergency use spell, and learn Magic Missile as my regular spell that I get to learn.
Level 5 - Extra Attack.
Level 6 - I plan to take the feat Ritual Caster, choose Wizard, and use the feat to learn Comprehend Language and Find Familiar (and any other rituals I eventually find that are applicable), then summon an owl. I plan to use her for recon as well as when I'm in the dark and there's no one to cast any kind of light spell (no Dark Vision for hobbits). Specifically, I plan to have her sit on my head so when I turn my head, she looks where I would be looking if I could see (owls have Keen Sight and Keen Hearing and Dark Vision for 60ft). I could also use her to cast Shocking Grasp on people since she could fly by, brush them with a feather, and fly away (owls don't provoke attacks of opportunity).
Level 7 - War Magic. I said I planned everything out, but I haven't planned my Level 2 spells, yet.
Level 8 - I plan to take the feat Spell Sniper which Doubles the Range of any Spell that Requires an Attack Roll (I wonder how that works with SCAG Cantrips), lets my Ranged Spell Attacks ignore Half Cover and 3/4 Cover, and lets me learn 1 Cantrip that requires an Attack Roll from any of the main Spellcaster Classes; that will either be Wizard for Fire Bolt (I've avoided it because I'm concerned about accidentally hitting allies) or Warlock for Eldritch Blast (even though I'd only have a +1 to hit instead of +4, I think it's silly that the Eldritch Knight can't do Eldritch Blast).
Originally, I was going to take the War Caster feat at Level 6 or 8, but that seemed less beneficial to me the more I thought about it; none of my Spells so far are Concentration, I'm not concerned about Somatic gestures since I can't swing both weapons when casting a Spell (regardless of War Magic or even Improved War Magic), so the only thing that really applies to my character as I see him is Casting a Spell as a Reaction for an Attack of Opportunity. That part isn't bad, but I felt it was more important to have as many Cantrips as I could to attack with since my Learned Spells are so few (by this point, with this feat, I'd have 5 Cantrips of various Ranges and Damage types, and would still learn 1 more at Level 10, most likely Lightning Lure).
What do y'all think? Also, since I haven't figured out my Level 2 spells, yet, I welcome any suggestions for that as well.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
"Stowing a weapon is an action. But if you're just casting a spell, you can use your free action to drop your weapon, action to cast. Then next turn you can "interact with an object" as part of your attack or movement to pick it back up. Or if you hadn't moved in the same turn you cast the spell, you can do it then as well." *Sorry, I don't usually comment on forums and didn't notice the "Quote" button*
See, that's the thing. The PHB specifically says I can Sheathe my weapon as part of my Action and that I can Draw my weapon as part of my action (though not both in the same action). I don't know where "free action" comes in. I can't find it when I do a search for it, so if it's an official term vs slang i'm not familiar with yet, it sounds like it's a term from a previous version.
Regardless, in the table Interacting with Objects Around You (which I assume is roughly the same as a free action), it says I can draw or sheathe a sword in tandem with my movement and action (in tandem meaning at the same time, so I don't lose either my movement or my action when I do this). So per that table (it's in Chapter 9 Combat, placed directly under Movement and Position if anyone wants to double check), I can have my sword in one hand and anything else, like a shield, in the other hand, sheathe my sword, cast my spell, move, and even do a bonus action if I have one. Then on my next turn, if I'm attacking with my weapon, I can draw my sword and do so while still being able to move and perform a bonus action.
It seems to me, that given this option, be it called a free action or something else (I think I'll just call it free action from this point, seems tidier), putting your weapon out of the way to do a somatic spell isn't that big a deal (other than than needing your weapon in hand for things I mentioned in my original post).
So jumping in I had a thought that could work, but I'm trying to see if I could even do it with a knight first. My main idea is the tired trope of hand cross bows akimbo using the variant human to get the crossbow expert feat, and then use mage hand to load the crossbows as i fire them. Would still need to cock them back, but the idea is still there for loading without needing a mechanical item. Maybe arcane trickster would be better for this, but I want a more open fighter.
plus, I could fluff that the crossbow is being used as a wand to 'shoot' things with catapult or other spells as fight, and thanks to the fest I could still get up close to shoot things with the cross bow bolt.
Its entirely dependent on the player, but sheathing a weapon just to cast a spell is clunky as all hell, and means you don't get any reaction spells unless the weapon has been put away to begin with, so useful spells like shield or absorb elements are a no go. If feats are allowed, I'd just go with Warcaster and not even have to worry about it at all.
Its entirely dependent on the player, but sheathing a weapon just to cast a spell is clunky as all hell, and means you don't get any reaction spells unless the weapon has been put away to begin with, so useful spells like shield or absorb elements are a no go. If feats are allowed, I'd just go with Warcaster and not even have to worry about it at all.
Sheathing a weapon is neither an action, bonus action, or reaction per what I've cited in the PHB, so why is it "clunky"? Because you don't like to say it? Once it's established that you do this (for visualization purposes), you don't have to keep saying it unless you just want to be really detailed about it. Just like I don't have to say "I sheathe my weapon to get out a health potion." I can just say "I get out a health potion". Or even just "I take a health potion" as it can be assumed I got one out of my inventory to take it.
This is just me, because I plan to fight with two weapons and plan to cast cantrips often, my off hand will be frequently empty for reaction spells; the only time I should have the second weapon in hand is when I intend to attack with both my action and bonus action. Also, I don't intend to use concentration spells early on, so war caster isn't as big a deal for me as others. But that's personal. My overall point is that casting a somatic spell, as an action, is smoothly done with a simple sheathing of a sword (and I'd like to assume putting up other weapons would be just as quick).
Hey, if I'm wrong about what I've cited earlier, if I've missed or misunderstood a word in that section that makes it clear that you can't sheathe or draw a sword as easily as I think, tell me/point it out/clear it up for me, please. But right now, it looks to me like people are just holding on to old habits from previous editions that no longer apply. And if that's the case, once people start looking at it in a different light, the whole thing gets easier to handle.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
So jumping in I had a thought that could work, but I'm trying to see if I could even do it with a knight first. My main idea is the tired trope of hand cross bows akimbo using the variant human to get the crossbow expert feat, and then use mage hand to load the crossbows as i fire them. Would still need to cock them back, but the idea is still there for loading without needing a mechanical item. Maybe arcane trickster would be better for this, but I want a more open fighter.
plus, I could fluff that the crossbow is being used as a wand to 'shoot' things with catapult or other spells as fight, and thanks to the fest I could still get up close to shoot things with the cross bow bolt.
Thoughts?
Mage Hand takes an action to cast and an action to control. The Crossbow Expert feat only lets you attack with a hand crossbow as bonus action if you make a weapon attack with your action. But you can't make a weapon attack with your action because you're telling your mage hand to load the hand crossbow with your action. So, if you're using your mage hand to load the crossbow, you can neither attack with your main weapon nor fire with your crossbow, at least without burning your action surge.
What exactly are you trying to do with your other hand that you don't want to use it to load bolts into the crossbow? The feat you want already eliminates the loading time issue. If I knew what you were trying to do instead, it might make more sense to me, but right now, it doesn't seem viable without changing the rules of how Mage hand works.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
Mage hand maxes at 10lbs of weight it can lift/pull so that wouldn't work to cock a crossbow. Conservatively, you would be looking at 75-100lbs of pull to cock one.
Mage Hand takes an action to cast and an action to control. The Crossbow Expert feat only lets you attack with a hand crossbow as bonus action if you make a weapon attack with your action. But you can't make a weapon attack with your action because you're telling your mage hand to load the hand crossbow with your action. So, if you're using your mage hand to load the crossbow, you can neither attack with your main weapon nor fire with your crossbow, at least without burning your action surge. What exactly are you trying to do with your other hand that you don't want to use it to load bolts into the crossbow? The feat you want already eliminates the loading time issue. If I knew what you were trying to do instead, it might make more sense to me, but right now, it doesn't seem viable wit'
oh, my apologies: I want to have a character shooting with a crossbow in each hand, and I read that since you need a free hand to load a bolt I was wondering If I could pass it off to a mage hand or something. I'm mainly a ccw guy, not a caster.
You can shoot with a crossbow in each hand...you simply have no way to reload them. And as mentioned above, Mage Hand has to have a full action to use after casting so this will not accomplish what you are desiring.
Double hand crossbows is flashy and quite dashing...once.
What you could do is have four hand crossbows and then bind two of them to you with Weapon Bond.
Then, when in combat, fire once with your Action, and summon one bound crossbow with your bonus action, and fire again. Then on your next turn, you repeat with your two unfired crossbows. That might need some finagling, but I think it's doable. After that, you'd have to load them again or use other attacks for the rest of the combat.
Another alternative might be to get permission from your DM to find or design a crossbow that fired multiple shots before reloading. I'm relatively sure there are real weapons like that, and if not, this is a game where you can do just about anything you want under the right circumstances.
So does no one have an opinion on my EK? You can say you think it's bad if that's the case. Right now, none of y'all are saying anything.
Btw, I was looking at 2nd level spells last night and thought I might go with Scorching Ray and Dragon's Breath. Originally I wanted Misty Step for my non evocation/abjuration spell, but I really want to try having my owl familiar fly over the enemy and breath various forms of dragon death down upon the enemy. I can always change it at level 9 if it's not viable.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I really enjoyed reading the planned EK build up through level 8.
I particularly like the use of the owl familiar, since you include a nice role playing visualization on how you would use the mechanics of the familiar. It gave me some cool ideas on how to use a bat familiar. Familiars are by far my favorite accessory to an EK right now. I envision that use of the familiar would increase in complexity and usefulness as the levels progress. It also seems like you can use your familiar’s help action to get advantage on many attack situations, which simulates the true strike cantrip.
I also liked the idea of summoning a loaded crossbow from your room, for a quick fire trick. I have played with the idea of bonding with a magic arrow so it could be fired repeatately.
I got enamoured with the idea of Chill Touch as a ranged attack cantrip with a 120 ft range, and it seems like you could attack with this from hiding without giving away your position, unlike firebolt, which paints a bright line from the target straight to you. I like the idea of using spell sniper to boost the power of this terrifying attack.
I would probably save all my spell slots for shield and absorb elements. I hate to waste spell slots on attacks that could miss or have too low a DC to be effective.
I have played with the idea of bonding with a magic arrow so it could be fired repeatately.
I got enamoured with the idea of Chill Touch as a ranged attack cantrip with a 120 ft range, and it seems like you could attack with this from hiding without giving away your position, unlike firebolt, which paints a bright line from the target straight to you. I like the idea of using spell sniper to boost the power of this terrifying attack.
I would probably save all my spell slots for shield and absorb elements. I hate to waste spell slots on attacks that could miss or have too low a DC to be effective.
I don't know about magic arrow. I'll have to look it up.
i thought about Chill Touch, but I wasn't happy with the damage potential. If you notice, all my attack spells either do more damage than it, (Toll the Dead) depend on my weapon attack to hit (Booming Blade), and/or do some kind of damage regardless of what I do (Magic Missile). That said, at level 8 Chill Touch would be doing more damage and I wouldn't be worried about hitting my allies like with Fire Bolt. On the other hand, Eldritch Blast is just so cool.
I also thought about using my spell slots for protection only, but my character has to hurt something with magic, and it seems a waste to leave that only for the cantrips. I may just get an attack spell each new level just to play around and get it out of my system before choosing a more defensive option.
*I just had a thought: I wonder if I can convince my DM to allow me to include my owl in my shield spell when it's on my head.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I looked it over, I would go 7 warrior/1 wizard. You would lose the level 8 ASI but you will gain it back via class abilities. You are spending 2 ASI slots on feats that 1 level of wizard would give you. You would get additional spells, cantrips and ritual casting. That frees up those 2 ASI for different feats to flesh out your build. You could take Crossbow Expert and lose disadvantage on ranged attacks(dual wield shortsword/hand crossbow) from melee and still get Spell Sniper with those 2 ASI's. You would end up with Spell sniper, it won't do anything for the melee cantrips, since they require a melee attack roll, not a spell attack roll, but if you still want it for firebolt, it works out great for that, or take War Caster, and use Booming blade as an Attack of Opportunity and watch them go BOOM as they run past you.
Crossbow Expert
Spell Sniper or war caster
Extra Attack
Ritual Casting
6 additional spells from wizard and some additional cantrips
7 fighter/1 wizard gets you all you want with an additional feat to spend.
I looked it over, I would go 7 warrior/1 wizard. You would lose the level 8 ASI but you will gain it back via class abilities. You are spending 2 ASI slots on feats that 1 level of wizard would give you. You would get additional spells, cantrips and ritual casting. That frees up those 2 ASI for different feats to flesh out your build. You could take Crossbow Expert and lose disadvantage on ranged attacks(dual wield shortsword/hand crossbow) from melee and still get Spell Sniper with those 2 ASI's. You would end up with Spell sniper, it won't do anything for the melee cantrips, since they require a melee attack roll, not a spell attack roll, but if you still want it for firebolt, it works out great for that, or take War Caster, and use Booming blade as an Attack of Opportunity and watch them go BOOM as they run past you.
Crossbow Expert
Spell Sniper or war caster
Extra Attack
Ritual Casting
6 additional spells from wizard and some additional cantrips
7 fighter/1 wizard gets you all you want with an additional feat to spend.
When I was trying to decide what class I wanted, my DM asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to beat people up and also use magic. Also, I specifically said I did not want to have to decide my spells everyday. So wizard was always off the list. I'm also not very concerned with crossbows as I figure I'd use my cantrips to do range attacks (the bound crossbow thing was more about coolness than anything else). That said, if it affects ranged spells as well in regards to no longer having disadvantage, that's an added benefit that hadn't crossed my mind.
Spell Sniper says it doubles the ranges of spells that require an attack roll, not that it only doubles the ranges of ranged spell attacks (it does specifically say ranged spell attacks in regards to ignoring cover). The SCAG cantrips have ranges, in particular Green Flame Blade which does damage to a creature five feet away from the one you originally hit with your weapon as part of your spell. With Spell Sniper, you could say it can now attack a creature 10 feet away. A bigger stretch could be to say that touch attack spells like Shocking Grasp could now be applied to a creature five feet away. I think both uses would be up to the DM, and I seriously doubt any DM would agree to extending touch attack spells out to five feet, but the wording is open to interpretation (and I think it would be cool).
I've always intended to get War Caster. Just not early as I wanted more attack cantrips first and only one of the three benefits really applied to the fighter I've envisioned. But I'm still waffling on when I should get these feats as good team work might make one feat less urgent than another (like the reason I haven't planned to learn any kind of light cantrips is because I hope a teammate would be able to handle lights for me, giving me time to learn Find Familiar and get my owl).
I apologize if it seems like im just shooting down your suggestions. They're good ones. Just not ones I want to explore as of yet.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
What you could do is have four hand crossbows and then bind two of them to you with Weapon Bond.
Then, when in combat, fire once with your Action, and summon one bound crossbow with your bonus action, and fire again. Then on your next turn, you repeat with your two unfired crossbows. That might need some finagling, but I think it's doable. After that, you'd have to load them again or use other attacks for the rest of the combat.
Another alternative might be to get permission from your DM to find or design a crossbow that fired multiple shots before reloading. I'm relatively sure there are real weapons like that, and if not, this is a game where you can do just about anything you want under the right circumstances.
That's a good point! Thanks for helping me figure this out, I was trying to figure out the action economy of something like that. I suppose I could try and use a tinkerer's kit or something to enhance the crossbow, but it would be up to the DM for it in the end.
Yeah. If you try to design a crossbow, and your DM is against it, you might offer a trade off of less damage per bolt, claiming they're lighter which is the reason the crossbow can fire more of them. Or take a penalty to hit, claiming the multiple shots make the weapon less accurate. In the case of that last one, it could give you the option of firing a single bolt with normal accuracy and multiple bolts with decreased accuracy, but each bolt gets a separate attack roll. I mean the Crossbow Expert feat let's you do this anyway when you're able to make more than one attack with your attack option, but you'd still need a free hand, which would prevent you from attacking with your bonus action.
Oh, another alternative would be to design wrist crossbows. That way, your hands would always be free to load them.
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A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
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I'm eagerly awaiting my campaign to start (hopefully next Friday). I haven't played in years and I've been designing and redesigning my character over and over up to level 8. I'd like some feedback, please.
Stout Halfling: Lucky (I can reroll any 1 and take the second roll on all but damage rolls), Brave (Advantage to being Frightened), Halfling Nimbleness (I can enter the space of any creature 1 size larger than me), Stout Resilience (Advantage to being Poisoned and Resistance to Poison Damage), +2 Dex for being a Halfling, +1 Con for being a Stout Halfing)
Standard Array: 10/+0 Str, 17/+3 Dex, 14/+2 Con, 14 Int/+2, 12 Wis/+1, 8/-1 Cha (including the racial bonuses)
Fighter (Leather armor, double Short Swords, Light Crossbow, Acrobatics, Perception, Two-Weapon Fighting)
Mercenary Veteran (Athletics, Persuasion, Land Vehicles, Dice)
Level 3 - I plan to bind one short sword and my crossbow (leave the crossbow loaded and in my room and summon it when I need to take a shot), and I plan to learn the Cantrips Booming Blade and Toll the Dead, as well as 1st level Spells Shield, Absorb Elements, and Ice Knife ( I was originally planning to learn Protection from Good and Evil, but was bothered by the components being consumed even though there's no cost to them).
Level 4 - I plan to take the feat Mage Initiate, choose Wizard as the class, and use the feat to learn the Cantrips Shocking Grasp and Green Flame Blade as well as the 1st level Spell Feather Fall as my once-per-long rest use aka emergency use spell, and learn Magic Missile as my regular spell that I get to learn.
Level 5 - Extra Attack.
Level 6 - I plan to take the feat Ritual Caster, choose Wizard, and use the feat to learn Comprehend Language and Find Familiar (and any other rituals I eventually find that are applicable), then summon an owl. I plan to use her for recon as well as when I'm in the dark and there's no one to cast any kind of light spell (no Dark Vision for hobbits). Specifically, I plan to have her sit on my head so when I turn my head, she looks where I would be looking if I could see (owls have Keen Sight and Keen Hearing and Dark Vision for 60ft). I could also use her to cast Shocking Grasp on people since she could fly by, brush them with a feather, and fly away (owls don't provoke attacks of opportunity).
Level 7 - War Magic. I said I planned everything out, but I haven't planned my Level 2 spells, yet.
Level 8 - I plan to take the feat Spell Sniper which Doubles the Range of any Spell that Requires an Attack Roll (I wonder how that works with SCAG Cantrips), lets my Ranged Spell Attacks ignore Half Cover and 3/4 Cover, and lets me learn 1 Cantrip that requires an Attack Roll from any of the main Spellcaster Classes; that will either be Wizard for Fire Bolt (I've avoided it because I'm concerned about accidentally hitting allies) or Warlock for Eldritch Blast (even though I'd only have a +1 to hit instead of +4, I think it's silly that the Eldritch Knight can't do Eldritch Blast).
Originally, I was going to take the War Caster feat at Level 6 or 8, but that seemed less beneficial to me the more I thought about it; none of my Spells so far are Concentration, I'm not concerned about Somatic gestures since I can't swing both weapons when casting a Spell (regardless of War Magic or even Improved War Magic), so the only thing that really applies to my character as I see him is Casting a Spell as a Reaction for an Attack of Opportunity. That part isn't bad, but I felt it was more important to have as many Cantrips as I could to attack with since my Learned Spells are so few (by this point, with this feat, I'd have 5 Cantrips of various Ranges and Damage types, and would still learn 1 more at Level 10, most likely Lightning Lure).
What do y'all think? Also, since I haven't figured out my Level 2 spells, yet, I welcome any suggestions for that as well.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
"Stowing a weapon is an action. But if you're just casting a spell, you can use your free action to drop your weapon, action to cast. Then next turn you can "interact with an object" as part of your attack or movement to pick it back up. Or if you hadn't moved in the same turn you cast the spell, you can do it then as well." *Sorry, I don't usually comment on forums and didn't notice the "Quote" button*
See, that's the thing. The PHB specifically says I can Sheathe my weapon as part of my Action and that I can Draw my weapon as part of my action (though not both in the same action). I don't know where "free action" comes in. I can't find it when I do a search for it, so if it's an official term vs slang i'm not familiar with yet, it sounds like it's a term from a previous version.
Regardless, in the table Interacting with Objects Around You (which I assume is roughly the same as a free action), it says I can draw or sheathe a sword in tandem with my movement and action (in tandem meaning at the same time, so I don't lose either my movement or my action when I do this). So per that table (it's in Chapter 9 Combat, placed directly under Movement and Position if anyone wants to double check), I can have my sword in one hand and anything else, like a shield, in the other hand, sheathe my sword, cast my spell, move, and even do a bonus action if I have one. Then on my next turn, if I'm attacking with my weapon, I can draw my sword and do so while still being able to move and perform a bonus action.
It seems to me, that given this option, be it called a free action or something else (I think I'll just call it free action from this point, seems tidier), putting your weapon out of the way to do a somatic spell isn't that big a deal (other than than needing your weapon in hand for things I mentioned in my original post).
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
So jumping in I had a thought that could work, but I'm trying to see if I could even do it with a knight first. My main idea is the tired trope of hand cross bows akimbo using the variant human to get the crossbow expert feat, and then use mage hand to load the crossbows as i fire them. Would still need to cock them back, but the idea is still there for loading without needing a mechanical item. Maybe arcane trickster would be better for this, but I want a more open fighter.
plus, I could fluff that the crossbow is being used as a wand to 'shoot' things with catapult or other spells as fight, and thanks to the fest I could still get up close to shoot things with the cross bow bolt.
Thoughts?
Its entirely dependent on the player, but sheathing a weapon just to cast a spell is clunky as all hell, and means you don't get any reaction spells unless the weapon has been put away to begin with, so useful spells like shield or absorb elements are a no go. If feats are allowed, I'd just go with Warcaster and not even have to worry about it at all.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
Mage hand maxes at 10lbs of weight it can lift/pull so that wouldn't work to cock a crossbow. Conservatively, you would be looking at 75-100lbs of pull to cock one.
oh, my apologies: I want to have a character shooting with a crossbow in each hand, and I read that since you need a free hand to load a bolt I was wondering If I could pass it off to a mage hand or something. I'm mainly a ccw guy, not a caster.
You can shoot with a crossbow in each hand...you simply have no way to reload them. And as mentioned above, Mage Hand has to have a full action to use after casting so this will not accomplish what you are desiring.
Double hand crossbows is flashy and quite dashing...once.
Pain Heals, Chicks Dig Scars, Glory Lasts Forever!
If you took Crossbow Feat you can shoot the hand crossbow twice, once as an action and once as a bonus action IIRC.
Perpetually annoyed that Eldritch Knights can't use Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Smite, and Eldritch Sight.
What you could do is have four hand crossbows and then bind two of them to you with Weapon Bond.
Then, when in combat, fire once with your Action, and summon one bound crossbow with your bonus action, and fire again. Then on your next turn, you repeat with your two unfired crossbows. That might need some finagling, but I think it's doable. After that, you'd have to load them again or use other attacks for the rest of the combat.
Another alternative might be to get permission from your DM to find or design a crossbow that fired multiple shots before reloading. I'm relatively sure there are real weapons like that, and if not, this is a game where you can do just about anything you want under the right circumstances.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
So does no one have an opinion on my EK? You can say you think it's bad if that's the case. Right now, none of y'all are saying anything.
Btw, I was looking at 2nd level spells last night and thought I might go with Scorching Ray and Dragon's Breath. Originally I wanted Misty Step for my non evocation/abjuration spell, but I really want to try having my owl familiar fly over the enemy and breath various forms of dragon death down upon the enemy. I can always change it at level 9 if it's not viable.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
I really enjoyed reading the planned EK build up through level 8.
I particularly like the use of the owl familiar, since you include a nice role playing visualization on how you would use the mechanics of the familiar. It gave me some cool ideas on how to use a bat familiar. Familiars are by far my favorite accessory to an EK right now. I envision that use of the familiar would increase in complexity and usefulness as the levels progress. It also seems like you can use your familiar’s help action to get advantage on many attack situations, which simulates the true strike cantrip.
I also liked the idea of summoning a loaded crossbow from your room, for a quick fire trick. I have played with the idea of bonding with a magic arrow so it could be fired repeatately.
I got enamoured with the idea of Chill Touch as a ranged attack cantrip with a 120 ft range, and it seems like you could attack with this from hiding without giving away your position, unlike firebolt, which paints a bright line from the target straight to you. I like the idea of using spell sniper to boost the power of this terrifying attack.
I would probably save all my spell slots for shield and absorb elements. I hate to waste spell slots on attacks that could miss or have too low a DC to be effective.
“Surviving Port Nyanzaru” - Dungeon Master Tier 1
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
I looked it over, I would go 7 warrior/1 wizard. You would lose the level 8 ASI but you will gain it back via class abilities. You are spending 2 ASI slots on feats that 1 level of wizard would give you. You would get additional spells, cantrips and ritual casting. That frees up those 2 ASI for different feats to flesh out your build. You could take Crossbow Expert and lose disadvantage on ranged attacks(dual wield shortsword/hand crossbow) from melee and still get Spell Sniper with those 2 ASI's. You would end up with Spell sniper, it won't do anything for the melee cantrips, since they require a melee attack roll, not a spell attack roll, but if you still want it for firebolt, it works out great for that, or take War Caster, and use Booming blade as an Attack of Opportunity and watch them go BOOM as they run past you.
7 fighter/1 wizard gets you all you want with an additional feat to spend.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.
Yeah. If you try to design a crossbow, and your DM is against it, you might offer a trade off of less damage per bolt, claiming they're lighter which is the reason the crossbow can fire more of them. Or take a penalty to hit, claiming the multiple shots make the weapon less accurate. In the case of that last one, it could give you the option of firing a single bolt with normal accuracy and multiple bolts with decreased accuracy, but each bolt gets a separate attack roll. I mean the Crossbow Expert feat let's you do this anyway when you're able to make more than one attack with your attack option, but you'd still need a free hand, which would prevent you from attacking with your bonus action.
Oh, another alternative would be to design wrist crossbows. That way, your hands would always be free to load them.
A long time fantasy fan with very little DnD experience.
I hope to jump into the game with both feet.