Hello, I'm relatively new to D&D's nooks and crannies, and only really played very basic bard and fighter but I'm really curious in making a human battlemage for a campaign I'll be joining.
However, I don't know how to go about it. I figured dual class would work (to catch up with this campaign, the DM is putting me at 14th level since I'm a late entry) but also I get told online about things like Eldritch Fighter, and classes like cleric war domain and paladin. But I don't want to be faith. I essentially want a fighter with magic. How can I go about this?
tl;dr I want a battlemage, fighter with magic, but I'm not sure how to go about it effectively and in a fun way to play
The great news about DnD 5E is that every class except Barbarian has at least SOME magic in it. You don't need to multiclass to be a combat caster.
Eldritch Knight isn't really a battlemage. They're a fighter that can cast a few spells but has very limited spell slots. They make great tanks because they can frontline and cast shield for an instant +5 boost to their AC while still having all the other fighter perks like high AC and tons of attacks per turn.
War Wizard is good because they get to add their intelligence to their initiative which helps them take their turn earlier, and their arcane deflection ability is great for those tough saving throws or to give your AC just a nudge to avoid an attack. Bladesinger (if you're an elf or half elf) is also another good battle mage type. They can wear light armor, and they can go into bladesong and add their intelligence bonus to their AC for the duration. Both are very good battlefield controllers
Valor bard is a bard that can wear medium armor, attack twice and give their bardic inspiration to boost damage or armor class. Sword bard is another combat bard that can fight in the front with the melee guys. Their inspiration is great at boosting their own damage output. Both are full casters.
Hexblade is the warlock version of a melee caster and has some fun abilities like armor of hexes, hex weapon, etc.
Just about any cleric class can be considered a combat caster. Tempest and light clerics are probably the most dedicated damage dealing clerics.
Moon druid can turn into tougher creatures with their wild shape ability, and even into elementals at higher level. They are definitely combat casters.
Rangers of all subclasses get magic that can be used to heal allies or harm enemies, and there's a ranger for every playing style.
So basically, how much magic do you want? Do you want to get up to 4th, 5th, or 9th level spells (or somewhere in between)?
And how martial do you want to be? Do you just want to be able wear armor and a shield, do decent damage with weapons, or make multiple weapon attacks?
What kind of magic are you looking for? Do you want to buff yourself? Heal people? Do damage at range? Give your melee attacks a little boost? Melee fighter or archer?
Most classes, depending on subclass choice, can do those to different extents, which one you want to focus on can direct your choices.
Eldritch Knight looks fantastic to play from looking it up. I adore heavy armor, and the capability of having a 2h martial being bonded is fun.
I guess I want the character to be kinda Jedi like, primarily martial with a study of magic to use. Rp wise, fighter that has an innate magic capability, but needing to be honed. And Eldritch Knight looks it fits.
Eldritch Knight looks fantastic to play from looking it up. I adore heavy armor, and the capability of having a 2h martial being bonded is fun.
I guess I want the character to be kinda Jedi like, primarily martial with a study of magic to use. Rp wise, fighter that has an innate magic capability, but needing to be honed. And Eldritch Knight looks it fits.
Keep in mind that Paladin doesn't have to be a religious type in 5e. They do take an oath, but so does every member of many (if not all) militaries. The spells that they have access to can also fit the Jedi mold (which interestingly enough is referred to as a religion a few times during the Star Wars movies). Paladins are half casters (they get their spellcasting ability at level 2 and become 10th level casters at level 20) while Eldritch Knights are third casters (spellcasting at 3, 6th level casters at 20). Much of Paladins damage will come from Divine Smite while EKs are typically from Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade or from their ability to make several attacks (up to four from the Attack action plus a possible bonus action attack depending on the specific build).
With either class, you'll probably want to avoid spells that make a spell attack or force a save in most cases, since your spellcasting ability affects your ability to land those spells. Where it sounds like you want to be primarily a melee fighter, Stength will be your primary focus when you want heavy armor and 2h weapons. You'll probably want a Constition score of at least 13 (even numbers are better since modifiers increase on evens, but humans get +1s for racial bonuses unless you go with an Eberron variation). You can get a spellcasting stat up to a 16 while starting with a strength of 16 and a constition of 13, but it's harder with a human than a race with a +2 and a +1 bonus. It means that you'll have to take 2 dump stats (8) instead of an 8 and a 10 (not a ton harder, but still harder). Even with that, you're not likely to bump your spellcasting stat until late, if at all, particularly if feats are on the table. While fighters to get more ASIs, the feats that are available will often leave you wanting to use them instead of buffing a spellcasting stat, particularly if you want a good con score.
AoE spells like Fireball can be useful even with a lower spellcasting stat since you'll have half damage if they save and multiple creatures making rolls means more chances for some to fail. Overall, you'll want self buff spells that improve your martial prowess.
14th level gives you a lot to play with, especially ASI wise. If you want to be primarily martial I'd suggest considering going Battlemaster (flavouring the maneuvers as magical effects) and picking up magic through feats and dipping a caster class. From the general description you gave it seems you more want roleplay and utility magic rather than a lot of combat magic? Are you getting any magic items?
Eldritch Knight looks fantastic to play from looking it up. I adore heavy armor, and the capability of having a 2h martial being bonded is fun.
I guess I want the character to be kinda Jedi like, primarily martial with a study of magic to use. Rp wise, fighter that has an innate magic capability, but needing to be honed. And Eldritch Knight looks it fits.
If you like the look of Eldritch Knight, play Eldritch Knight!
Since your new I would suggest playing straight hexblade nothing is more discouraging than realizing you could have survived if you remembered you had a feature, spell, etc..
For your first go round keep it simple. The hexblade gets extra attack, good armor proficiencies, hex, and rechargeable spell slots on a short rest. Eldritch knight would be good to but the spell casting as a 3rd caster is a bit low. They do get some interesting abilities but I think the hexblade will be easier to keep track of for a 1st timer especially starting at such a high level.
I second the vote for warlock, though you don't necessarily need to be a hexblade, you have plenty of ASI to have high strength/dex if you're not trying to do weird multiclass stuff. If you're a newish player, and you're playing a high-level game, odds are very high that remembering and balancing a lot of different abilities and spells might get overwhelming. With a Warlock, you have a shorter list of spells, only one level of spell slot, and you're encouraged to use most or all of your spell slots each encounter instead of trying to pace yourself through the entire adventure day. Any Warlock with Pact of the Blade taken at 3rd level and Thirsting Blade invocation has two attacks per Attack action and thus is a fully viable melee character, or you could take 5 levels of a martial class like Fighter or Paladin to get the same (that will proliferate your abilities though, so I think sticking with Pact of the Blade is better for you). I think starting at Level 1 as a Fighter is a wise move, just to get medium armor, shields, heavy armor, and martial weapons out of the way, unless you plan on going Hexblade and/or being Dex Based.
Some broad suggestions I'd make for a level 14 Warlock that would feel like a battle mage:
A Zariel Tiefling Fiend Warlock (Pact of the Blade), strength-con-cha based, Fighter 1/Warlock 13: Fiend Warlock gets a lot of big flashy combat spells added to their list (Fireball, Wall of Fire, etc), so no one is going to doubt you're a "mage." Dark One's Blessing will help you stay tanky in combat, as long as you keep dropping baddies. Fighter 1 gets you good armor/weapons and Defensive fighting style and proficiency in Con saves (very important for melee casters), so with Plate, Shield, and 1 handed Weapon you'll be sitting on an AC of 21. With no feats, at 14 you can have Str 18/Con 16/Cha 20, or you could be at Cha 18 and have Warcaster or Elemental Adept (Fire). Thirsting Blade, Improved Pact Weapon, Lifedrinker, Agonizing Blast... maybe grasp of hadar? Your Eldritch Blast is great. Your Fireball type evocation spells are big and fun. Your melee strikes are very good (heck, you could pick up Eldritch Smite invocation and be very scary in melee, though it's fewer Fireballs). Your THP pool will make you tanky. A very solid all-around build.
A Glaysa/Dispater Tiefling Hexblade Warlock (Pact of the Blade), dex-con-cha based, Warlock 14: Hexblade gets you medium armor, which (even with Medium Armor Master) is probably less feat-intensive than raising your Dex all the way to 20 for good AC from Mage Armor. But the bonus spells are a mixed bag, very concentration-intensive, which competes with the gold standard of Hex. A Hexblade is not going to be casting as many big flashy spells, so you may find yourself feeling more like a budget Paladin rather than a battlemage... Honestly don't like this as much as the Fiend above, but at 14 you'd probably have Dex 16/Con 16/Cha 20 with Medium Armor Master or Warcaster, and AC 20 with a shield and Half Plate. Same invocations as above, your melee strikes and Eldritch Blast are still great, but you have to choose spells from a Warlock spell list that's a little light on flashy evocation.
Since your new I would suggest playing straight hexblade nothing is more discouraging than realizing you could have survived if you remembered you had a feature, spell, etc..
For your first go round keep it simple. The hexblade gets extra attack, good armor proficiencies, hex, and rechargeable spell slots on a short rest. Eldritch knight would be good to but the spell casting as a 3rd caster is a bit low. They do get some interesting abilities but I think the hexblade will be easier to keep track of for a 1st timer especially starting at such a high level.
Hexblade Pact of the Blade would not be easier to keep track of at that level... You have to keep track of your pact magic slots, spells known, invocations (6), Mystic Arcanum (6th and 7th level) and your patron features. You'd also have to invest heavily in Con/Tough feat to keep up on the front lines at that level vs just being primarily a D10 class and wouldn't have access to heavy armor (not a problem in general, but something OP wants).
I'd be tempted to go Forge Cleric for this. Heavy armor, resistance to fire damage, +1 AC when in heavy armor, by 14th level your Divine Strike gives you an extra 2d8 fire damage once per turn, and you pick up spells like animate objects (which is ridiculous), heat metal, elemental weapon... Just don't play up the deity aspect in RP.
I do like just how many options there are for being a battle mage in the 5e system. Almost every class has at least one subclass that could fulfill some version of that concept. Even Barbarian has a couple subclasses that give you at least some access to magic-like abilities.
Creating a Jedi-equivalent battlemage is a pretty interesting idea. It makes sense to focus primarily on combat, but it would be fun to use that as a guide for which spells to learn... Mage Hand seems like the most obvious cantrip to take. Thunderwave would be a great way to replicate a force push.... lol I keep thinking of which spells would fit the flavor well, but mostly its a combination of charm spells and force/thunder spells that push opponents.
I do like just how many options there are for being a battle mage in the 5e system. Almost every class has at least one subclass that could fulfill some version of that concept. Even Barbarian has a couple subclasses that give you at least some access to magic-like abilities.
Creating a Jedi-equivalent battlemage is a pretty interesting idea. It makes sense to focus primarily on combat, but it would be fun to use that as a guide for which spells to learn... Mage Hand seems like the most obvious cantrip to take. Thunderwave would be a great way to replicate a force push.... lol I keep thinking of which spells would fit the flavor well, but mostly its a combination of charm spells and force/thunder spells that push opponents.
The push/pull invocations for Eldritch Blast, which happens to use force damage (ok, that last bit is a stretch that was made for laughs). Devil's sight could be flavored as using the force to sense things, hence the reason it's easier to attack others and dodge their attacks. Other options like Guidance, Resistance, Faerie Fire, or Shield could also play up certain aspects.
Eldritch Knight is really fun to play, and you get to be a frontline combatant with a few utility spells. However, what you won't be is a "battle mage."
The most vital spells for Eldritch Knights are Shield, Protection from Good and Evil, and Absorb Elements. Eldritch Knights are one of the best tank characters in the game, whilst they still dish out decent damage. However, your spells are largely going to be about protecting yourself. It takes a long time to get 2nd level spells, and by the time you get 3rd level spells, they've already fallen far enough behind the curve that they won't feel very impressive.
The problem with the notion of a battle mage is that what you may envisage is someone who is skilled at both martial combat, but can also blast enemies down with spells. An Eldritch Knight doesn't have sufficient spells slots (or high enough level spells) to use them on offensive ranged spells effectively. Though you may have something like Ray of Frost or Firebolt as one of your Cantrips, because your primary strength is in using your attacks in melee where you can tank for your party, you'll seldom want to stand back blasting things. So with a battle mage, you might be envisaging someone who is effectively a Fighter/Sorcerer or Fighter/Wizard, but by taking that multiclass route you will be weak in melee, and weak in spellcasting. Sorcerers, Wizards and other 'pure' spellcaster classes benefit from being a pure class, as you'll want access to those high level spells as early as possible.
I'd advise going Eldritch Knight from what you've said - it's a lot of fun. But be sure to think hard about the spells you take - you'll never be the party Sorcerer hurling fire every round, so don't try to be. Use your spells to keep yourself up.
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Hello, I'm relatively new to D&D's nooks and crannies, and only really played very basic bard and fighter but I'm really curious in making a human battlemage for a campaign I'll be joining.
However, I don't know how to go about it. I figured dual class would work (to catch up with this campaign, the DM is putting me at 14th level since I'm a late entry) but also I get told online about things like Eldritch Fighter, and classes like cleric war domain and paladin. But I don't want to be faith. I essentially want a fighter with magic. How can I go about this?
tl;dr I want a battlemage, fighter with magic, but I'm not sure how to go about it effectively and in a fun way to play
The great news about DnD 5E is that every class except Barbarian has at least SOME magic in it. You don't need to multiclass to be a combat caster.
Eldritch Knight isn't really a battlemage. They're a fighter that can cast a few spells but has very limited spell slots. They make great tanks because they can frontline and cast shield for an instant +5 boost to their AC while still having all the other fighter perks like high AC and tons of attacks per turn.
War Wizard is good because they get to add their intelligence to their initiative which helps them take their turn earlier, and their arcane deflection ability is great for those tough saving throws or to give your AC just a nudge to avoid an attack. Bladesinger (if you're an elf or half elf) is also another good battle mage type. They can wear light armor, and they can go into bladesong and add their intelligence bonus to their AC for the duration. Both are very good battlefield controllers
Valor bard is a bard that can wear medium armor, attack twice and give their bardic inspiration to boost damage or armor class. Sword bard is another combat bard that can fight in the front with the melee guys. Their inspiration is great at boosting their own damage output. Both are full casters.
Hexblade is the warlock version of a melee caster and has some fun abilities like armor of hexes, hex weapon, etc.
Just about any cleric class can be considered a combat caster. Tempest and light clerics are probably the most dedicated damage dealing clerics.
Moon druid can turn into tougher creatures with their wild shape ability, and even into elementals at higher level. They are definitely combat casters.
Rangers of all subclasses get magic that can be used to heal allies or harm enemies, and there's a ranger for every playing style.
So basically, how much magic do you want? Do you want to get up to 4th, 5th, or 9th level spells (or somewhere in between)?
And how martial do you want to be? Do you just want to be able wear armor and a shield, do decent damage with weapons, or make multiple weapon attacks?
I guess I want to be pretty martial, almost Jedi like. Eldritch Knight, after looking it up, looks like that fits the description quite well..?
What kind of magic are you looking for? Do you want to buff yourself? Heal people? Do damage at range? Give your melee attacks a little boost? Melee fighter or archer?
Most classes, depending on subclass choice, can do those to different extents, which one you want to focus on can direct your choices.
Eldritch Knight looks fantastic to play from looking it up. I adore heavy armor, and the capability of having a 2h martial being bonded is fun.
I guess I want the character to be kinda Jedi like, primarily martial with a study of magic to use. Rp wise, fighter that has an innate magic capability, but needing to be honed. And Eldritch Knight looks it fits.
Keep in mind that Paladin doesn't have to be a religious type in 5e. They do take an oath, but so does every member of many (if not all) militaries. The spells that they have access to can also fit the Jedi mold (which interestingly enough is referred to as a religion a few times during the Star Wars movies). Paladins are half casters (they get their spellcasting ability at level 2 and become 10th level casters at level 20) while Eldritch Knights are third casters (spellcasting at 3, 6th level casters at 20). Much of Paladins damage will come from Divine Smite while EKs are typically from Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade or from their ability to make several attacks (up to four from the Attack action plus a possible bonus action attack depending on the specific build).
With either class, you'll probably want to avoid spells that make a spell attack or force a save in most cases, since your spellcasting ability affects your ability to land those spells. Where it sounds like you want to be primarily a melee fighter, Stength will be your primary focus when you want heavy armor and 2h weapons. You'll probably want a Constition score of at least 13 (even numbers are better since modifiers increase on evens, but humans get +1s for racial bonuses unless you go with an Eberron variation). You can get a spellcasting stat up to a 16 while starting with a strength of 16 and a constition of 13, but it's harder with a human than a race with a +2 and a +1 bonus. It means that you'll have to take 2 dump stats (8) instead of an 8 and a 10 (not a ton harder, but still harder). Even with that, you're not likely to bump your spellcasting stat until late, if at all, particularly if feats are on the table. While fighters to get more ASIs, the feats that are available will often leave you wanting to use them instead of buffing a spellcasting stat, particularly if you want a good con score.
AoE spells like Fireball can be useful even with a lower spellcasting stat since you'll have half damage if they save and multiple creatures making rolls means more chances for some to fail. Overall, you'll want self buff spells that improve your martial prowess.
14th level gives you a lot to play with, especially ASI wise. If you want to be primarily martial I'd suggest considering going Battlemaster (flavouring the maneuvers as magical effects) and picking up magic through feats and dipping a caster class. From the general description you gave it seems you more want roleplay and utility magic rather than a lot of combat magic? Are you getting any magic items?
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If you like the look of Eldritch Knight, play Eldritch Knight!
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
I personally don't like the eldritch knight, I think you get a better mix of martial and magical abilities just by multiclassing fighter and wizard.
Since your new I would suggest playing straight hexblade nothing is more discouraging than realizing you could have survived if you remembered you had a feature, spell, etc..
For your first go round keep it simple. The hexblade gets extra attack, good armor proficiencies, hex, and rechargeable spell slots on a short rest. Eldritch knight would be good to but the spell casting as a 3rd caster is a bit low. They do get some interesting abilities but I think the hexblade will be easier to keep track of for a 1st timer especially starting at such a high level.
I second the vote for warlock, though you don't necessarily need to be a hexblade, you have plenty of ASI to have high strength/dex if you're not trying to do weird multiclass stuff. If you're a newish player, and you're playing a high-level game, odds are very high that remembering and balancing a lot of different abilities and spells might get overwhelming. With a Warlock, you have a shorter list of spells, only one level of spell slot, and you're encouraged to use most or all of your spell slots each encounter instead of trying to pace yourself through the entire adventure day. Any Warlock with Pact of the Blade taken at 3rd level and Thirsting Blade invocation has two attacks per Attack action and thus is a fully viable melee character, or you could take 5 levels of a martial class like Fighter or Paladin to get the same (that will proliferate your abilities though, so I think sticking with Pact of the Blade is better for you). I think starting at Level 1 as a Fighter is a wise move, just to get medium armor, shields, heavy armor, and martial weapons out of the way, unless you plan on going Hexblade and/or being Dex Based.
Some broad suggestions I'd make for a level 14 Warlock that would feel like a battle mage:
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Hexblade Pact of the Blade would not be easier to keep track of at that level... You have to keep track of your pact magic slots, spells known, invocations (6), Mystic Arcanum (6th and 7th level) and your patron features. You'd also have to invest heavily in Con/Tough feat to keep up on the front lines at that level vs just being primarily a D10 class and wouldn't have access to heavy armor (not a problem in general, but something OP wants).
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I'd be tempted to go Forge Cleric for this. Heavy armor, resistance to fire damage, +1 AC when in heavy armor, by 14th level your Divine Strike gives you an extra 2d8 fire damage once per turn, and you pick up spells like animate objects (which is ridiculous), heat metal, elemental weapon... Just don't play up the deity aspect in RP.
I do like just how many options there are for being a battle mage in the 5e system. Almost every class has at least one subclass that could fulfill some version of that concept. Even Barbarian has a couple subclasses that give you at least some access to magic-like abilities.
Creating a Jedi-equivalent battlemage is a pretty interesting idea. It makes sense to focus primarily on combat, but it would be fun to use that as a guide for which spells to learn... Mage Hand seems like the most obvious cantrip to take. Thunderwave would be a great way to replicate a force push.... lol I keep thinking of which spells would fit the flavor well, but mostly its a combination of charm spells and force/thunder spells that push opponents.
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The push/pull invocations for Eldritch Blast, which happens to use force damage (ok, that last bit is a stretch that was made for laughs). Devil's sight could be flavored as using the force to sense things, hence the reason it's easier to attack others and dodge their attacks. Other options like Guidance, Resistance, Faerie Fire, or Shield could also play up certain aspects.
Eldritch Knight is really fun to play, and you get to be a frontline combatant with a few utility spells. However, what you won't be is a "battle mage."
The most vital spells for Eldritch Knights are Shield, Protection from Good and Evil, and Absorb Elements. Eldritch Knights are one of the best tank characters in the game, whilst they still dish out decent damage. However, your spells are largely going to be about protecting yourself. It takes a long time to get 2nd level spells, and by the time you get 3rd level spells, they've already fallen far enough behind the curve that they won't feel very impressive.
The problem with the notion of a battle mage is that what you may envisage is someone who is skilled at both martial combat, but can also blast enemies down with spells. An Eldritch Knight doesn't have sufficient spells slots (or high enough level spells) to use them on offensive ranged spells effectively. Though you may have something like Ray of Frost or Firebolt as one of your Cantrips, because your primary strength is in using your attacks in melee where you can tank for your party, you'll seldom want to stand back blasting things. So with a battle mage, you might be envisaging someone who is effectively a Fighter/Sorcerer or Fighter/Wizard, but by taking that multiclass route you will be weak in melee, and weak in spellcasting. Sorcerers, Wizards and other 'pure' spellcaster classes benefit from being a pure class, as you'll want access to those high level spells as early as possible.
I'd advise going Eldritch Knight from what you've said - it's a lot of fun. But be sure to think hard about the spells you take - you'll never be the party Sorcerer hurling fire every round, so don't try to be. Use your spells to keep yourself up.