Eldritch Knight

[Jeivar]

A friend of mine will be DM-ing The Lost Mine of Phandelver tomorrow. He has stated that he will use it as a prequel to another adventure in which we play the descendants of the original heroes. Since I want my main character to be a half-elf noble Paladin, I thought for the mines I'd go with a high elf noble Eldritch Knight, largely for flavour. I was gonna go with a Ranger but I already tried it for a single session that probably won't go any further.

I'm curious about the EK but I don't have the books myself and I just thought I'd ask about it a bit to save time tomorrow when 5-6 people are sharing the PH. Basically how does the Eldritch Knight play? How are the new rules for spellcasting while wearing armour?

[Ferrin33]

A friend of mine will be DM-ing The Lost Mine of Phandelver tomorrow. He has stated that he will use it as a prequel to another adventure in which we play the descendants of the original heroes. Since I want my main character to be a half-elf noble Paladin, I thought for the mines I'd go with a high elf noble Eldritch Knight, largely for flavour. I was gonna go with a Ranger but I already tried it for a single session that probably won't go any further.

I'm curious about the EK but I don't have the books myself and I just thought I'd ask about it a bit to save time tomorrow when 5-6 people are sharing the PH. Basically how does the Eldritch Knight play? How are the new rules for spellcasting while wearing armour?

If you're proficient in the armor you can cast spells in it, if you're not you can't. It's really simple now.

[Jeivar]

If you're proficient in the armor you can cast spells in it, if you're not you can't. It's really simple now.

Sweet! And how much spellcasting does the knight get?

[Mechaviking]

He advances at 1/3 the way up the table, so not great at it but he has some nifty tricks. I think most of his versatility would come from being able to use scrolls. His biggest problem is that he is a specialist in Abjuration and Evocation magic.

[Ferrin33]

Sweet! And how much spellcasting does the knight get?

It's in the Player's Handbook at the Fighter Class. Up to 4th level spells.

[Madfellow]

Unfortunately the Eldritch Knight doesn't get spellcasting until level 3, but in the meantime you've got a badass fighter to work with. :smallamused: One nifty trick though is that the EK can summon his weapons into his hands at will, so he can't ever be disarmed.

[edge2054]

Unfortunately the Eldritch Knight doesn't get spellcasting until level 3, but in the meantime you've got a badass fighter to work with. :smallamused: One nifty trick though is that the EK can summon his weapons into his hands at will, so he can't ever be disarmed.

He can also sneak his Assault Cannon through Ares Security by simply leaving it in the Rigger's Van and summoning it once the fight starts.

Sorry wrong game.

On a more serious note, what spells would people pick for an EK? It seems like Shield would be one of the better options but I wonder if there's something more effective considering how quickly Shield could blow through spell slots.

[Madfellow]

I would advise making one of your 1st-level spells Expeditious Retreat. Bonus action to cast, and it lets you Dash as a bonus action every turn. A good fighter can get a lot of use out of that.

As for the rest, really, take what you want. There are a lot of good choices, and no real bad ones. Take spells that let you do things that a normal fighter can't do.

[rlc]

blade ward and true strike seem like they'd be good cantrips to take. fire shield might be a good spell.

[Ferrin33]

blade ward and true strike seem like they'd be good cantrips to take. fire shield might be a good spell.

True Strike is only for one attack, I don't think it's worth it for a Fighter.

[Aron Times]

True Strike combos with the War Magic ability, which allows an Eldritch Knight to cast a cantrip and attack in the same action. It's nowhere as damaging as attacking twice, thrice, or even four times, but when you really need to hit something and the damage doesn't matter much, it's there.

[Easy_Lee]

If you have a mind to dip, two levels of warlock can net you agonizing repelling eldritch blast, which can be used with eldritch knight war magic (7) to perform a single attack and a powerful EB in the same round. You can also go further into warlock for blade-pact leading to thirsting blade at 5, yielding additional charisma damage on weapon attacks.

However, by that point you'd probably get more out of continuing down warlock than staying EB. Since you never get to use your 3rd or 4th fighter bonus attacks with war magic, it doesn't scale as well as it could, and you'd be better off going EB 8 / warlock 12 for 5th-level warlock casting, six attribute boosts/feats, and six warlock invocations. It doesn't get as many uses of indomitable and action surge as a pure fighter, and you miss some archetype features (improved war magic, teleports on action surges, force disadvantage against your spells), but I'd argue it's worth it in the long run and has quite a lot of power if you take the fighter levels first.

[edge2054]

True Strike combos with the War Magic ability, which allows an Eldritch Knight to cast a cantrip and attack in the same action. It's nowhere as damaging as attacking twice, thrice, or even four times, but when you really need to hit something and the damage doesn't matter much, it's there.

True Strike won't work until the next turn, the spell is very explicit in this regard.

I also fail to see how rolling one attack with advantage is superior to rolling two attacks without.

[Gnaeus]

I also fail to see how rolling one attack with advantage is superior to rolling two attacks without.

In most cases it isn't. The most common use will be if something else is giving you disadvantage, because one regular attack is often stronger than 2 disadvantaged attacks.

[Scirocco]

True Strike won't work until the next turn, the spell is very explicit in this regard.

I also fail to see how rolling one attack with advantage is superior to rolling two attacks without.

Might be ok for sniper builds with Sharpshooter and no Xbow Expert, but yeah that's a corner case.

[MaxWilson]

I recommend the Minor Illusion cantrip for creating "total cover" where there actually isn't any. It doesn't take concentration to maintain, and the next round you pop up, take somebody out, and scoot right back under "cover". It's not always useful but sometimes it is.

Flame Bolt/Acid Splash/Chill Touch/Ray of Enfeeblement are all good in their various ways for enemies that are resistant to non-magical attacks. Blade Ward has obvious utility when you're tanking (i.e. you are distracting the Ogre while everyone else beats on it with ranged weapons) but it's somewhat redundant with the Dodge action so not a high priority early on.

Message cantrip can be good.

I second Expeditious Retreat as a great choice for either ranged or melee builds (although it's Transmutation). It combos well with the Mobile feat to let you attack relatively safely without retaliation (unless your opponents are smart enough to Ready for you to come into range).

Shield is great, Blur is great (non-abj/evoc though), Call Familiar can be great (non-abj/evoc). Counterspell is great later on, Banishment is terrific (it's abjuration, CHA save-based, and combined with your Eldritch Strike it should be nearly impossible to resist). Fireball has obvious utility for swarm scenarios.

One thing to be wary of regarding Shield is that it's a little ambiguous when you can use it if you don't have Warcaster. Some DMs might say it's fine to use when you're using a two-handed weapon, some might say it's fine when you're using sword-and-shield but your sword is your bonded weapon ('cause you can "drop" it without actually dropping it), others might say you can use it when using a two-handed ranged weapon like a bow, others might say you can't use it at all unless you've got one hand completely empty (thus restricting you to shield + cantrips). Ask.

At level 3 I'd probably take Shield (assuming the DM has a reasonably lenient policy on casting it), Mage Armor ('cause I'd be DEX-based and I like having an option to armor up quickly when surprised at night), and Expeditious Retreat.