Creating a level 5 Melee EK

[Cramus]

Good day my friends,

My master is going to start a new campaign at level 5 and i am here to ask ideas for a melee EK

We will use point buy array, and i have 2 ideas:

Tank (only if none else wants the job), with shield and sword in hands,
DD, probably with a polearm and abuse of OAs and AOEs, both magic or physical.

I am new to use magics so every advice, from feats, atributes, skills, magics to learn, next 10 levels and so.

Thanks in advance.

[PeteNutButter]

I'm going to presume you mean Dungeon or game master, as I hope you are no kind of slave. ;)

At any rate you can tank very well with an EK, best option is usually to use a two-hander. Otherwise you'll need war caster feat, and even that doesn't solve all your problems since material components aren't addressed by the feat.

Tank with a two-hander via the shield spell. That plus plate is 23 AC a few times a day. You can take defensive fighting style for another +1 if you go polearm since the GWF style isn't that great with it. Shield spell is regrettably the best use of those level one slots, especially for a front liner.

Take polearm master and sentinel and control the battlefield. At level 7 you can cast a booming blade and do a melee attack as a bonus action.

[Kane0]

Rune Scribe is a great choice for an EK. It gives you more spell slots you can use shield/absorb elements on as well as gets you access to the excellent Earth and Fire runes. The changeable ASI also has some neat uses (good if you later pick up a good sling and want to abuse the wind + earth runes, or if you absolutely must increase your Spell Attack/DC for some reason, or obtain a STR boosting item).

Booming blade or Green Flame Blade is a great choice post level 7 where you can cast and bonus action swing, and the warcaster feat allows you to use them in place of an opportunity attack (booming blade is great for that).

Don't forget to pick up mirror image and haste later on, they are fantastic buffs for an EK especially if you have the AC to not need many Con saves (and you're good at those anyways).

As a fighter you also have access to bonus ASIs/Feats. That means you can afford to get the ones that people wish they could squeeze in like Lucky, Observant, an extra Resilient, Warcaster and Polearm Mastery + Sentinel + Great Weapon Master (that combo is especially costly).

Also, since you have the most amount of attacks (4 at level 20, plus action surge) you benefit the most from 'on hit' effects such as hunters mark and hex. If someone can cast these spells upon you make good use of them, and if you get the chance to grab a source of one of these (magic initiate feat may or may not be worth it for you) it'll be extra beneficial to you.

[djreynolds]

I'm going to presume you mean Dungeon or game master, as I hope you are no kind of slave. ;)

At any rate you can tank very well with an EK, best option is usually to use a two-hander. Otherwise you'll need war caster feat, and even that doesn't solve all your problems since material components aren't addressed by the feat.

Tank with a two-hander via the shield spell. That plus plate is 23 AC a few times a day. You can take defensive fighting style for another +1 if you go polearm since the GWF style isn't that great with it. Shield spell is regrettably the best use of those level one slots, especially for a front liner.

Take polearm master and sentinel and control the battlefield. At level 7 you can cast a booming blade and do a melee attack as a bonus action.

This is perfect. Also grab mirror image at 8th level. PFGE is a life saver. And shocking grasp, great to use, really good cantrip that helps out the party.

[ZenBear]

I'm going to presume you mean Dungeon or game master, as I hope you are no kind of slave. ;)

At any rate you can tank very well with an EK, best option is usually to use a two-hander. Otherwise you'll need war caster feat, and even that doesn't solve all your problems since material components aren't addressed by the feat.

Tank with a two-hander via the shield spell. That plus plate is 23 AC a few times a day. You can take defensive fighting style for another +1 if you go polearm since the GWF style isn't that great with it. Shield spell is regrettably the best use of those level one slots, especially for a front liner.

Take polearm master and sentinel and control the battlefield. At level 7 you can cast a booming blade and do a melee attack as a bonus action.

This, though my alternative suggestion is to wield a Versatile weapon 2-handed for option to grapple, use a hand axe for ranged (which you can summon back to your hand as a minor action, saves you taking Firebolt as one of your few cantrips), free hand for material components, or pick up a shield when the situation warrants. VHuman take Sentinel at 1, Warcaster at 4, or Mountain Dwarf take Warcaster at 4. This build doesn't require INT, but I would Point Buy a 14 at least for flavor/RP.

[Lollerabe]

I'm currently running a lvl 3 (soon 4) Rgnome str EK, due to house rules he can use great weapon master with his versatile war hammer. Anyway my progression is gonna be gwm at lvl 4 mobile at 6 and a str bump at 8.

Gwm' bonus action will be viable until lvl 7 at which point my bonus action will be used on booming or green flame blade 80% of the time through warmagic, however the -5/+10 part will stay relevant.
My point: if you go for polearm master keep in mind that the biggest part of the feat (at least IMO) will be almost completely irrelevant from lvl 7 until 11 - the length of the game, and/or if you wanna multi class after lvl7, has a huge effect on the value of PAM.
Mobile seems super legit to me tho, extra move speed as a melee is yummy and the synergy with booming blade is fantastic, I'd advise you to consider this feat as the extra damg from BB really adds up and mobile helps securing the trigger.

Unless you go sword and board I think warcaster is overrated, early on next to none of the spells you use require concentration, and by raw I'm pretty sure you cant abuse the Pam reach bb/gfb aoo without spell sniper (guess a nice dm would allow you to ignore that tho).

Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions

[djreynolds]

Mobile is a good feat. But if you are str EK, you are a tank. Stay put. That's your job. 18AC with just plate armor and 23AC with the shield spell. You can stay put, so grab more strength and instead of mobile grab sentinel, as this will give you some reaction attacks, and if you grab war caster you could use booming blade on AoO.

Mobile is good, but you want the fight to come to you.

[Lollerabe]

Legit points, however you have to get to the opponents to harm them, which mobile helps with. Furthermore I'm not talking bout not stayin in melee, I'm talking about whacking an enemy with BB then moving 5feet back (no aoo's triggered). The enemy can then stay put, in which case u re engage on ur turn, or move 5feet to bash you thus triggering BB.

Overall movespeed as a melee char is just gravy, as kiting and enemies in scattered formations becomes less problematic. I might be biased as my lil' murder gnome is in desperate need of movespeed (25ft - yuck).

So not at all disagreeing with your suggestions, just trying to clearify mine :)

[djreynolds]

Legit points, however you have to get to the opponents to harm them, which mobile helps with. Furthermore I'm not talking bout not stayin in melee, I'm talking about whacking an enemy with BB then moving 5feet back (no aoo's triggered). The enemy can then stay put, in which case u re engage on ur turn, or move 5feet to bash you thus triggering BB.

Overall movespeed as a melee char is just gravy, as kiting and enemies in scattered formations becomes less problematic. I might be biased as my lil' murder gnome is in desperate need of movespeed (25ft - yuck).

So not at all disagreeing with your suggestions, just trying to clearify mine :)

Misty step, good spell, 8th level for an EK. Long strider another good spell, non concentration.

But you know what is even better, 2 levels of rogue for cunning action. In fact all of my fighter builds include rogue, for expertise in athletics and cunning action. 2 levels.

Mobile seems expensive for you as a fighter at 4th level. But sentinel is sweet.

Honestly, and I am getting my arse handed to me in the Death House, nothing right now at level 4 is "smart" aside from hobgoblins. They will come to you.

But I do like the build though, gnome with a war hammer is very cool.

[Lollerabe]

Heh ye he's a bad'ass (my dm is working on a novel based on the campaign he's in, hope you'll give it a read once polished and posted). All the things you mentioned have some steep opportunity costs though, either lvl requirement, casting time (and spells known, at this point I got 3 can't justify long strider to myself). Mobile just happen to be a passive, and it lets you set the terms - anyway to each their own, I think we both have some valid points :)

[djreynolds]

Go for it, mobile is still a good feat. And your stance is valid, you have a 25 in speed and nothing has sentinel at these levels. And you do need those 1st level slots for the shield spell. It doesn't detract in any way from your character.

I preach it for monks, not getting hit with AoO is a big deal. Also remember shocking grasp is nice to have as a cantrip, it does take away the opponents reaction for the rest of their turn. Not sure if it keys on intelligence for the DC.

[Corran]

snip
If you want to tank go S&B. Shield (and blur, as well as both of these combined) work better with higher AC, given your limited spell slots. Defense fighting style goes without mention. So does warcster, and resilient wisdom at a later level (but not too late, wisdom is an important save), thus plan to start with an odd score at wisdom. That said, I would go even further, and go dex based as well. You lose 1 AC (unless you are ok with a -10 feet movement penalty), which can ofc be amended by grabbing medium armor master (though dont grab it unless you want to be stealthy, in that case take it, nothing works better for a character that wants to tank and to be able to be stealthy), but you have better dex saves and initiative (initiative is a lot more important than what usualy people give it credit for).

With the polearm you have two options. One way is to go polearm master and sentinel, the other way is to go polearm master, warcaster and spell sniper. First one offers stickiness and some battlefield control (though restricts you to using your action to take the attack action, since you cannot make the butt-end attack if you do not take the attack action, and also offers a lot of additional competittion -sentinel reaction, pm reaction- for your use of reaction you already have (shield, possibly counterspell). Second one offers some very damaging reactions (BB), and some softer stickiness (through warcaster BB), but runs to the same more or less problems (regarding your use of reaction). You can add the mobile feat if you want to force those damaging reactions a lot more often.