Ever wanted to be in two places at once? Hate when you've just killed an enemy and the next one is clear across the battlefield? The Echo Knight fighter is the answer to your woes. Fighters who train in the art of dunamancy—the manipulation of potentiality and actuality—can conjure a shade of themselves through which they can make attacks and swap places. This makes for a mobile, melee powerhouse.
The subclass was introduced in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Keep reading for a breakdown of how the subclass works and tips for building one:
Echo Knight fighter features
The Echo Knight relies on its 3rd-level feature Manifest Echo, which allows you to summon an image of yourself elsewhere on the battlefield. Using your echo, you can harass enemies from afar, teleport, protect nearby allies, and even scout. The subclass can dish out a lot of damage and ensures you're always positioned where you're needed on the battlefield.
- Manifest Echo (3rd level): As a bonus action, you conjure a semitransparent image of yourself within 15 feet. You can move the image freely, swap places with it, and make attacks through it, including opportunity attacks. Although your echo can be attacked and only has 1 hit point, you can resummon it as a bonus action.
- Unleash Incarnation (3rd level): While your echo is up, you can make an additional attack through it whenever you take the Attack action. The number of times you can use this feature scales off of your Constitution modifier.
- Echo Avatar (7th level): Scout ahead using your echo! You can see and hear through your echo but are blinded and deafened when you do. While using your echo in this way, the maximum distance it can be from you increases from 30 feet to 1,000.
- Shadow Martyr (10th level): See an ally about to take a hit? Once per short or long rest, you can spend your reaction to teleport your echo beside them. The attack targets the echo instead of your ally.
- Reclaim Potential (15th level): When your echo is destroyed, you gain temporary hit points. The number of temporary hit points you gain and your uses of this feature scale off of Constitution.
- Legion of One (18th level): What's better than having an echo? Two of them!
Pros
The Echo Knight fighter gets around the hurdles that come from being a melee-based martial character. Do you have an archer firing down on you from above? Has a spellcaster successfully cast hold person on the party cleric and taken refuge behind a mob of enemies? Drop your echo beside them and go to town.
The subclass also offers nice burst damage with its Unleash Incarnation feature, which allows you to make an additional attack through your echo when you take the Attack action. Theoretically, a 3rd-level fighter could get four attacks off in one turn by combining their Action Surge with Unleash Incarnation.
Fighters aren't known for their ability to scout—that's often a job left to the party rogue or ranger. But Echo Avatar allows you to fill this niche nicely. If you come to a crossroads in a dungeon, you don't need to split the party. Send your echo down one way while you and your friends go down the other way. Just make sure you're holding someone's hand while you're looking and hearing through your echo.
Cons
While the Echo Knight has a nice package of features, the subclass has its limitations. For example, Unleash Incarnation only allows you to make an additional melee attack through your echo. So, you might want to ditch that bow.
For all of its versatility, the echo is fragile. It has just 1 hit point. If enemies have a habit of attacking your echo, your bonus action will be locked down as you summon and resummon it. This harms the viability of a two-weapon build. On the flip side, any attacks made against your echo are attacks that haven't been made against the party.
Building an Echo Knight fighter
Ability scores
Strength or Dexterity should be your highest ability score. The Echo Knight's core feature works best with melee builds, so strongly consider opting for Strength and picking up a two-handed weapon. Dexterity can be a viable pick if you'd prefer having a bow in reserve for enemies that are especially far away or you're keen on a two-weapon build. Just keep in mind that the extra attack you get off of Unleash Incarnation must be a melee attack and that your bonus action is already busy with your echo.
Prioritize Constitution second. Your uses of Unleash Incarnation and Reclaim Potential scale off of it. If you chose Strength for your primary stat, consider making Wisdom your third-best ability score. There are quite a number of spells that target it. Chances are, you'll have heavy armor, so Dexterity won't be as important for you, though having just a +1 modifier will be nice for the occasional save you need to make.
Races
If your table uses the optional rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything for customizing your origin, you won't need to worry about which races offer Strength or Dexterity, since you can choose your own ability score increases. The following recommendations assume you won't be using that optional rule:
- Half-orc: The half-orc offers two features that complement your typical fighter. Relentless Endurance keeps you on your feet when the tides of battle turn against you and Savage Attacks makes your critical hits more brutal.
- Halfling: If you're going a Dex-based build, the stout halfling offers a bonus to both Dexterity and Constitution, each of which is important for you. The Lucky trait also lets you reroll 1s, while Brave gives you advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
- Goliath: The goliath was built for frontline combatants. It lets you shrug off damage. Proficiency in Athletics is nice, too.
- Human: If your Dungeon Master permits the variant human, you'll be swimming in feats as a fighter. This is a great race if you want more customization options for your character. For example, Ritual Caster gives you more options out of combat and is handy when the party is missing a wizard, and Skill Expert is a good pickup for classes with few skill proficiencies, like the fighter. Of course, you could just go all-in on feats that make you better in combat.
- Warforged: The warforged offers a lot. Notably, you get +1 AC and don't need to sleep, allowing you to keep watch through the night.
Shout out to the metallic dragonborn
The Echo Knight fighter isn't great at dealing with mobs. The metallic dragonborn variant introduced in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons helps patch that weakness. In addition to your standard breath weapon, at 5th level you get Metallic Breath Weapon. This trait adds two new breath options. One lets you push back enemies and knock them prone. The other can incapacitate them.
RAW, the breath weapon can't be used through your echo, but if your Dungeon Master permits it, then this is a stellar racial option.
Feats
The fighter class benefits from two additional Ability Score Improvements (at 6th and 14th level), allowing them to max out their core stats while picking up a feat or two along the way. Look to feats that help you make the most of your echo.
- Great Weapon Master: The quintessential feat for fighters that want to hit things hard, Great Weapon Master gets more value out of your Unleash Incarnation feature so that you can hit things harder more often!
- Mage Slayer: This feat capitalizes on the increased mobility your echo offers. While you position yourself between enemies and your squishy allies, move your echo to the enemy's backline so that you can attack any spellcasters concentrating on spells.
- Martial Adept: Squeeze more value out of your echo with a couple of Battle Master maneuvers. If you choose this feat, consider the Superior Technique fighting style.
- Sentinel: An iconic feat for martial builds, Sentinel pairs especially well with the Echo Knight. You can make opportunity attacks against a creature moving away from your echo, meaning that you can lock down enemies near both you and your echo.
What about Polearm Master?
Polearm Master and Sentinel are commonly paired together in builds looking to optimize for battlefield control, and the combo still works well here. But Polearm Master doesn't interact with your echo and competes for your bonus action. For the above list, I wanted to focus more on feats that, at least in some way, work with your core subclass feature. If you like the feat, by all means take it! It's a solid pick, just not a favorite of mine for this subclass.
Echo Knight fighter build
The following is a 10th-level Echo Knight build that uses a two-handed weapon. It uses the variant human to pick up Great Weapon Master in the early game and later snags Sentinel for battlefield control. Although the build uses heavy armor, I invested some points in Dexterity for those pesky Dex saves. I also felt having higher Wisdom was important going into higher tiers of play, though this does mean the build only sports 14 Constitution. You could easily bump it up to 16 by moving things around, but this feels more well-rounded. At higher levels, you can throw a couple more Ability Score Improvements at Constitution, anyway.
How will you build your Echo Knight?
The Echo Knight is a solid fighter subclass. Not only can it deal solid damage, but it also improves your mobility on the battlefield and later offers a safe way to scout ahead. With this subclass, you're unlikely to be forced to spend your turn moving into position before attacking. However, the echo is easy to take down and can lock down your bonus action. Nevertheless, the subclass shakes up how you approach combat and can make for good roleplay if your echo suddenly develops its own personality!
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
I'm currently playing a ranged lizardman echo knight and I use my Unleash Incarnation to make bite attacks from my echo... In my case It helps having a DM that allowed my bite attacks to be dex based
my fighter went down in battle right before we leveled to pick a subclass and I rollplayed the hell out of the idea that my echo is ghost of my near death experience
honestly this is one theme you can use. you can do so much with the idea of a double. my current favorite character ever is arlyo. she uses moths as her echo and its been absolutly creepy and fun. as a hexblood she tears off fingers and create coccuns and little moths . she has two sets of eyes. she is based off the idea that a little elf girl got lost in the woods and a creepy undead maybe fey hagggish creature found her and took her in as her child and through torture and experiments changed this lost elf girl into a hex blood. her name is just short for the sentence ARe You LOst. this page covers the basics but there is so much more. do not be afraid to take the chance to use a nice theme to disrupt the idea that this is dunamancy. a druid who uses a locust swarm. a fire genasie who uses it as a kinda heat illusion. this was a great beginers guide but let your imagination run wild
It what ways does Polearm Master not interact? (I get the Bonus action part)
Yup, you just missed it: "While the Echo Knight has a nice package of features, the subclass has its limitations. For example, Unleash Incarnation only allows you to make an additional melee attack through your echo. So, you might want to ditch that bow." (emphasis added)
playying one now an di have yet to break the game. and also you share eyesight, if you your self are blinded, then your echo is too.
"You can heighten your echo’s fury. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can make one additional melee attack from the echo’s position.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest."
It says when you take the attack action you can make an additional melee attack with your echo. It doesn't have to be melee, so an attack with a bow will still let you use this feature. Unleash incarnation is separate from the manifest echo feature I was referring to. Manifest echo let's you choose if the attack originates from you or your echo. This works with ranged and melee attacks.
Tried to reply. Double messaged instead. Reply in my other message.
"You can heighten your echo’s fury. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can make one additional melee attack from the echo’s position."
Do you mean that your attack can be a ranged attack to trigger the echo's bonus attack, but that the echo's attack still needs to be a melee attack or do you mean that the echo's can be a ranged attack?
wow. i just thought when I saw echo knight. "Wow. A doctor strange fighter. Might as well play a wizard." But now there is a different world with it! TY
I think the rules, as written, are pretty murky on this class, but the FAQ was pretty helpful. Going to agree with Sonnylol
Manifest Echo: "When you take the Attack action on your turn, any attack you make with that action can originate from your space or the echo’s space. You make this choice for each attack." Note that this is YOU attacking through your echo, not an attack made by the echo. Any attack you can make, including ranged attacks, can come from the echo's position. Edit: Also note that this means you and your echo attack with the same weapon.
Unleash Incarnation: "Whenever you take the Attack action, you can make one additional melee attack from the echo’s position." Unlike Manifest Echo, this attack actually originates from the echo itself, which is why it is limited to a melee attack (since your echo does not carry ammunition). What nothing I've read has made very clear is what weapon (if any) that extra melee attack would be made with, especially if you are armed with a ranged weapon.
A ranged weapon is not a melee weapon, so for me there is no confusion whatsoever.
Does the legion of one feature allow you to summon two echoes using the same bonus action? The wording is troubling me
i love this tenfod
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New MotM Bugbear 5 lvl Echo Knight and 3 lvl Ancestral Guardian is a nice combo, especially adding Sentinel on top of GWM and if you can, find a Weapon of Warning asap so you can get advantage on initiative rolls. I also think for your Fighting Style, grab Superior Technique Ambush, its just 1d6 per short rest but its a nice little helper for your initiative when you need it. For extra feats after that, Lucky is just always great and Resilient Wisdom when you're getting to higher tiers.
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what source book is this from
that is true but only because inanimate objects cant make dex saves
would you like that house to make a dex save
Suggestions:
"Unleash Incarnation (3rd level): While your echo is up, you can make an additional attack through it whenever you take the Attack action. The number of times you can use this feature scales off of your Constitution modifier."
The number of times it can be used seems small and doesn't scale. Con modifier + proficiency bonus sounds better. Short rest recovers 1 use, long rest recovers all.
The attack uses Prof and Con modifier to hit, and does your base weapon damage + Con modifier for damage. It is magical in nature for resistance purposes.
"Shadow Martyr (10th level): See an ally about to take a hit? Once per short or long rest, you can spend your reaction to teleport your echo beside them. The attack targets the echo instead of your ally. "
This needs a lot more specific definition on what kind of attack it works for ? Does it work just for melee/ranged/magical Attacks? Or can it be used to protect an ally hit by a fireball too?
"Legion of One (18th level): What's better than having an echo? Two of them!"
Sounds good, but Unleash incarnation and Shadow Martyr should have the same use limit, just being able to do them twice.
Echo Avatar can active a number of times equal to con bonus. Long rest to recover. The character should be Deafened, Blinded, and Restrained.
"It is the same size as you"
Should be same size AND weight. Which means it would set off traps that go off when walked on.
Rather than a grey translucent image, it should look identical to the character. "magical identical image of you"
The AC should be 8 + your Con and prof bonus.
"If your echo is ever more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn, it is destroyed."
Instead of destroyed, it should be dissipates. Shouldn't be able to get Reclaim potential from this.