I need help making my character. I have already decided on her backstory being that she dabbled in magic to improve her melee capabilities. I can't decide whether I want to be a Hexblade warlock, an Eldritch Knight fighter, or Bladesinger wizard. I want some opinions on whether I should focus more on melee and be E.K., or should I go with Bladesinger for more variety, or I should I be a Hexblade to directly empower my weapon. The party consists of a Rogue, Cleric, Monk, and me. pls help
A character that 'dabbles in magic to improve her melee' sounds primarily like an Eldritch Knight. Bladesingers are wizards who dabble in melee to shore up their magic, and Hexblades are right-down-the-middle sorts who rely on magic as much as their weapon. If you're looking primarily to be a Tough Gal who can whip out the occasional bit of arcana to help her blows land, then Eldritch Knight is about the closest you'll get.
Alternatively, how light do you want your 'dabbling' to be? You could also simply take the Magic Initiate feat to gain two cantrips and a 1/day first-level spell, which is often all you need to feel like a character with a useful drop of magic. The new Rune Knight fighter subclass is also a 'touch of magic' option, using mystic runes to grant various benefits. Rune Knight with Magic Initiate could be an interesting unconventional 'Magic Fighter' idea without the baggage associated with Eldritch Knight.
Mostly, this comes down to how (and how often) you want this character to use her magic. Are you looking for magical martial strikes every turn? Just a pinch here and there to help out? Something else?
Nobody can or should tell you what character you should play. Pretty much any character can have a melee focus with a dabbling in magic. From a purely arcane point of view there is the Bard, the Artificer, the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Archer fighter and the Arcane Trickster rogue class. From a Divine magic perspective there is the Cleric, the Druid, the Ranger and the Paladin. There are so many standard choices that you can make before you even start with multiclassing. As has already been said, the variant human can take one of the feats such as ritual caster or magic initiate, and other races such as Tiefling start with minor magics - meaning any class at all could have melee and minor magic.
You need to think about what would be fun for you.Do you specifically only want arcane magic or is Divine acceptable too, do you want to stand in combat toe to toe with melee weapons and now and again do a bit of magic, do you want to be a bit of both, do you want to fight at a distance and use magic to augment your ranged weapon attacks. There are so many choices, and generally only someone that really knows you can help, or experience will teach you.
I'll back the others on this. From a first glance at your post, it looks like you want to be mainly martial with occasional magics. That's Eldritch Knight or another martial character with Magic Initiate to me. The other options are all much more spell focused. However, only you can decide. I know it's a pain, but you should read through all the descriptions, and try to see which fits your vision for your character best.
If you go down the Eldritch Knight route, however, remember that the magic abilities only start to come online at Level 3. This upset one of my players a little, as his backstory said he already dabbled in magics before starting the adventure. He was mollified by the fact that we were going to whizz through the first couple of levels: everyone wants to start getting their abilities quickly, so we're taking the fun route of 1 level per session for at least the first 2 sessions to get everyone their subclasses.
The basic idea is start Fighter for Con saves, all weapon and armor proficiencies, and a base melee attack. Wizard 6 to get your magic on, bladesinger for the bladesinger extra attack. Fighter to level 8 to get 3 more ASIs and War Magic.
When you attack, you use the Bladesinger extra attack to get a strike in and cast a cantrip, say Booming Blade (which would help you to weather the set back from Fighter one and going to 7th level over all for extra attack). Because you cast a cantrip with your action, you can now use War Magic to attack again with a bonus action attack.
Drawbacks- doesn't come fully online until 13th level and relies on cantrips for extra damage until 7th.
The other levels (assuming that you go higher) could be fighter for more melee, wizard for more magic, battle smith to key all attacks off of intelligence, or whatever else.
Going Warlock1 would allow you to get Eldritch Blast and eventually allow you to make attacks on up to 6 different characters (4 from EB at 17, one from the attack, and one from War Magic) but you would almost have to go hexblade, cap intelligence at 13, dex at 14, go medium armor and forgo bladesinging to pull it off OR roll 3 really high numbers (dex, intelligence, and charisma) and a 14 or better for constitution.
Thanks a lot. I didn't really think of the other options. I am thinking that I will go for an Eldritch Knight after reviewing all the options, but I appreciate your feedback!
I've since read all the descriptions and have decided on Eldritch Knight. I think it is fine that the magic only kicks in at 3rd level, because I was thinking of making her backstory melee focused first, then learning the magic. Thanks for your input.
I agree, Eldritch knight is a great idea for that party, because a Cleric and a Eldritch knight could tank together, while dealing great damage. I would like to say props to you all (In the campaign) for choosing something so well balanced. (0u0)
I DM'd a one-shot where one of my players played as an Eldritch Knight, and I was surprised at just how versatile she ended up being. I had assumed her character would be outshined by the other players as dedicated casters or as dedicated melee, but the Eldritch Knight stayed toe-to-toe throughout the adventure, and when it inevitably turned into PVP (it was an evil one-shot where everyone had secret goals that put them in conflict at the end), the Eldritch Knight nearly killed the other players until they all decided to team up and kill their boss instead...
EK with a two level dip into abjuror wizard effectively lets you regenerate hit points every time you get hit by an attack. By casting shield, you add HP back to your ward. And shield can be upcast.
The dip also provides a familiar, slots, and very good utility spells.
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I need help making my character. I have already decided on her backstory being that she dabbled in magic to improve her melee capabilities. I can't decide whether I want to be a Hexblade warlock, an Eldritch Knight fighter, or Bladesinger wizard. I want some opinions on whether I should focus more on melee and be E.K., or should I go with Bladesinger for more variety, or I should I be a Hexblade to directly empower my weapon. The party consists of a Rogue, Cleric, Monk, and me. pls help
A character that 'dabbles in magic to improve her melee' sounds primarily like an Eldritch Knight. Bladesingers are wizards who dabble in melee to shore up their magic, and Hexblades are right-down-the-middle sorts who rely on magic as much as their weapon. If you're looking primarily to be a Tough Gal who can whip out the occasional bit of arcana to help her blows land, then Eldritch Knight is about the closest you'll get.
Alternatively, how light do you want your 'dabbling' to be? You could also simply take the Magic Initiate feat to gain two cantrips and a 1/day first-level spell, which is often all you need to feel like a character with a useful drop of magic. The new Rune Knight fighter subclass is also a 'touch of magic' option, using mystic runes to grant various benefits. Rune Knight with Magic Initiate could be an interesting unconventional 'Magic Fighter' idea without the baggage associated with Eldritch Knight.
Mostly, this comes down to how (and how often) you want this character to use her magic. Are you looking for magical martial strikes every turn? Just a pinch here and there to help out? Something else?
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Nobody can or should tell you what character you should play. Pretty much any character can have a melee focus with a dabbling in magic. From a purely arcane point of view there is the Bard, the Artificer, the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Archer fighter and the Arcane Trickster rogue class. From a Divine magic perspective there is the Cleric, the Druid, the Ranger and the Paladin. There are so many standard choices that you can make before you even start with multiclassing. As has already been said, the variant human can take one of the feats such as ritual caster or magic initiate, and other races such as Tiefling start with minor magics - meaning any class at all could have melee and minor magic.
You need to think about what would be fun for you.Do you specifically only want arcane magic or is Divine acceptable too, do you want to stand in combat toe to toe with melee weapons and now and again do a bit of magic, do you want to be a bit of both, do you want to fight at a distance and use magic to augment your ranged weapon attacks. There are so many choices, and generally only someone that really knows you can help, or experience will teach you.
I'll back the others on this. From a first glance at your post, it looks like you want to be mainly martial with occasional magics. That's Eldritch Knight or another martial character with Magic Initiate to me. The other options are all much more spell focused. However, only you can decide. I know it's a pain, but you should read through all the descriptions, and try to see which fits your vision for your character best.
If you go down the Eldritch Knight route, however, remember that the magic abilities only start to come online at Level 3. This upset one of my players a little, as his backstory said he already dabbled in magics before starting the adventure. He was mollified by the fact that we were going to whizz through the first couple of levels: everyone wants to start getting their abilities quickly, so we're taking the fun route of 1 level per session for at least the first 2 sessions to get everyone their subclasses.
Fighter1, Bladesinger6, fighter7, XX
The basic idea is start Fighter for Con saves, all weapon and armor proficiencies, and a base melee attack. Wizard 6 to get your magic on, bladesinger for the bladesinger extra attack. Fighter to level 8 to get 3 more ASIs and War Magic.
When you attack, you use the Bladesinger extra attack to get a strike in and cast a cantrip, say Booming Blade (which would help you to weather the set back from Fighter one and going to 7th level over all for extra attack). Because you cast a cantrip with your action, you can now use War Magic to attack again with a bonus action attack.
Drawbacks- doesn't come fully online until 13th level and relies on cantrips for extra damage until 7th.
The other levels (assuming that you go higher) could be fighter for more melee, wizard for more magic, battle smith to key all attacks off of intelligence, or whatever else.
Going Warlock1 would allow you to get Eldritch Blast and eventually allow you to make attacks on up to 6 different characters (4 from EB at 17, one from the attack, and one from War Magic) but you would almost have to go hexblade, cap intelligence at 13, dex at 14, go medium armor and forgo bladesinging to pull it off OR roll 3 really high numbers (dex, intelligence, and charisma) and a 14 or better for constitution.
Thanks a lot. I didn't really think of the other options. I am thinking that I will go for an Eldritch Knight after reviewing all the options, but I appreciate your feedback!
I've since read all the descriptions and have decided on Eldritch Knight. I think it is fine that the magic only kicks in at 3rd level, because I was thinking of making her backstory melee focused first, then learning the magic. Thanks for your input.
I agree, Eldritch knight is a great idea for that party, because a Cleric and a Eldritch knight could tank together, while dealing great damage. I would like to say props to you all (In the campaign) for choosing something so well balanced. (0u0)
I DM'd a one-shot where one of my players played as an Eldritch Knight, and I was surprised at just how versatile she ended up being. I had assumed her character would be outshined by the other players as dedicated casters or as dedicated melee, but the Eldritch Knight stayed toe-to-toe throughout the adventure, and when it inevitably turned into PVP (it was an evil one-shot where everyone had secret goals that put them in conflict at the end), the Eldritch Knight nearly killed the other players until they all decided to team up and kill their boss instead...
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EK with a two level dip into abjuror wizard effectively lets you regenerate hit points every time you get hit by an attack. By casting shield, you add HP back to your ward. And shield can be upcast.
The dip also provides a familiar, slots, and very good utility spells.