Has your Fighter ever been in the heat of battle and thought, “Wow, it sure would be nice to have access to the Shield spell.” Well, with the Eldritch Knight subclass, you can mix and match magic and steel to carve through your enemies—and make it harder for them to carve through you in return.

In this article, we'll walk you through an example build for a level 4 Eldritch Knight Fighter, using the updated rules found in the new Player's Handbook and exploring how you can equip them for adventure!

• Put the ‘Mage' in ‘Damage'
• Key Subclass Features
• Background
• Species
• Ability Scores
• Feats
• Spells

Put the ‘Mage' in ‘Damage'

Wade into combat with magic at your side! The Eldritch Knight Fighter takes all of the damage-dealing, survivability, and tactical strengths of the Fighter and mixes in some arcane prowess.

Some Eldritch Knights lean into their arcane abilities by investing in their Intelligence score, which ensures offensive spells are more effective. Other Eldritch Knights may forgo investing in their Intelligence score, preferring to focus entirely on Strength and Constitution, combined with defensive magic to give them the edge in combat.

Either way, the versatile magic offered by the Eldritch Knight subclass can supplement your Fighter's martial capabilities, provide defensive buffs, and give them utility options in and out of combat.

Building Our Eldritch Knight Fighter

Artist: HOCHEOL RYU

In this section, we'll explore an example of how to build an Eldritch Knight Fighter who's as ready to sling a spell as they are to swing a sword. Using our species, background, and feat choices, we'll pick up a number of features to enhance our Eldritch Knight's spellcasting while still making them a master of melee combat.

Key Subclass Features

Spellcasting (Level 3). Our Fighter gains the ability to cast spells! There's a fair bit of nuance to this Eldritch Knight's spellcasting feature, so make sure to read it over so you don't miss anything. We choose our spells from the Wizard spell list, and we know two cantrips and three level 1 spells when we first gain this feature.

For cantrips, we'll choose Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp for both ranged and melee spell attack options.

For level 1 spells, we'll choose Burning Hands, Jump, and Shield for a mix of offensive, defensive, and utility options.

This feature also improves as we level up. We gain access to higher-level spells, more prepared spells, and more spell slots. To help you with your future spell choices, check out the Spells section further on in this article.

Casting Spells in Combat

Before you draw your Longsword, raise your Shield, and charge into combat, remember that some spells require Somatic components:

According to the D&D Beyond Basic Rules, "A Somatic component is a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. A spellcaster must use at least one of their hands to perform these movements."

While you can equip or unequip a weapon when you take the Attack action, you can't freely do so at other times while in Initiative. This means if you're wielding a Longsword in one hand and a Shield in the other and get hit by an enemy's attack, you can't cast the Shield spell as a Reaction.

One way to overcome this limitation is by taking the War Caster feat at level 4, which we discuss in more detail below.

War Bond (Level 3). This nifty feature allows us to bond with up to two weapons. While bonded to a weapon, we can summon it instantly to our hand using a Bonus Action. Need to chuck a Javelin at an enemy? As long as you're bonded to it, you won't need to trudge over to their corpse and collect it when combat is finished.

Background

Artist: LIXIN YIN

The Sage background fits perfectly with our Fighter's propensity for magic. We get the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat, which allows us to gain even more cantrips, a level 1 spell, and proficiency in the Arcana and History skills. It even provides a free casting of the level 1 spell once per Long Rest!

For our Magic Initiate choices, we'll choose Intelligence as our spellcasting ability. For our cantrip choices, we'll pick up Blade Ward, which is a nice defensive buff, and Toll the Dead, which is extra effective against all those enemies we've already nicked with our sword.

For our level 1 spell, we're going with the good ol' reliable Magic Missile because sometimes, you just need to make sure your attack finds its target. We can even cast this spell without a spell slot once per Long Rest, which is a great way to stretch our resources.

The Sage background allows us to boost our choice between our Fighter's Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores. We'll choose to boost Constitution by +2 and Intelligence by +1, as noted in the Ability Scores section below.

Species

Artist: ZUZANNA WUZYK

For our Fighter, we'll choose the Human species, which gives us access to a variety of helpful traits:

Resourceful. We gain Heroic Inspiration whenever we finish a Long Rest, which is useful in just about any scenario.

Skillful. We gain a skill proficiency of our choice. We'll choose the Persuasion skill to help smooth out the fact that we're not investing in Charisma.

Versatile. An Origin extra feat! You can't go wrong with Lucky, which allows us to expend Luck Points to give ourselves Advantage on important attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, and can even impose Disadvantage on creatures who make attack rolls against us. We'll start off with two Luck Points and gain more as our Proficiency Bonus increases.

Ability Scores

We need to spread our Fighter's focus between three important ability scores: Strength, Constitution, and Intelligence.

First, our melee attack rolls, damage from melee weapons, and capacity to wear Heavy armor effectively will scale off of Strength, so we need to ensure we've assigned sufficient resources here.

Constitution is also important because our Fighter will be in the heat of combat, and we need to ensure they've got the Hit Points to stay standing.

Last, we have Intelligence, which is our spellcasting ability for our Wizard spells. If you want to increase the likelihood that your offensive spells find their target, you'll need to invest some resources here.

Using the Point Buy method for determining our ability scores could look like this:

• Strength: 15
• Constitution: 14 + 2 = 16
• Intelligence: 13 + 1 = 14
• Wisdom: 10
• Dexterity: 8
• Charisma: 12

Feats

At level 4, we could easily decide to choose the Ability Score Improvement feat, which allows us to boost our all-important Strength or Constitution scores.

But, because we really want to lean into meshing magic with our martial capabilities, the War Caster is another excellent option. This feat allows us to increase our Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1 and helps us cast spells in combat. If we were to go with this feat, we'd want to boost our Intelligence because that's what we're using to cast our spells.

The most important benefit War Caster offers our Eldritch Knight is the capability to perform the Somatic components of spells even while wielding a weapon and Shield in one or both hands, so we won't need to stow anything before casting spells like Shield.

It also grants Advantage on Constitution saving throws we make to maintain Concentration, which may come in handy if we pick up Concentration spells later on.

Finally, when a creature provokes an Opportunity Attack from us by leaving our reach, we can take a Reaction to cast a spell at the creature rather than making an Opportunity Attack. The spell must have a casting time of one action and must target only that creature, which gives you the opportunity to drop a Shocking Grasp on a target who's hightailing it away from you.

Spells

Eldritch Knights can now prepare any spells from the Wizard spell list when their number of prepared spells increases upon gaining a Fighter level, provided the chosen spells are of a level for which they have spell slots.

When they gain a Fighter level, they can replace one spell on their list with another Wizard spell for which they have spell slots.

Since this guide covers up to level 4, here are some additional cantrips and level 1 spells to consider when building your Eldritch Knight:

• Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Message, Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, Thunderclap
• Level 1: Chromatic Orb, Disguise Self, False Life, Find Familiar, Thunderwave

Time to Combine Magic and Might!

The Eldritch Knight Fighter is a fantastic choice for players who love the raw power and durability of a Fighter but want to add a touch of arcane finesse.

If you're ready to wield both spell and steel, head over to the Character Builder to select your gear, prepare your spells, and get ready for battle!

Mike Bernier is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his partner, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.