"Eldritch archer" build

[Spacehamster]

This one popped into my head and not seen anyone else mention anything similar so thought I would share, and ask if it works as I think?

Half elf with starting stats: 9/16/14/8/13/16
Levels: eldritch knight 8, Hunter ranger 4 and Warlock chain any 8, ASI's goes to maxing CHA and DEX, two remaining ones for sharpshooter and spell sniper, combat styles is mariner and archery, mandatory evocations is the eldritch blast enhancing ones.

With this as I understand you can eldritch blast a foe, do a bonus action now attack against it and do a horde breaker attack against an enemy within 5ft of the target am I right?

[Ventruenox]

Sounds about right, but the absolute earliest you can do this is character level 11, 10 if you got EB from Magic Initiate.

[Spacehamster]

Sounds about right, but the absolute earliest you can do this is character level 11, 10 if you got EB from Magic Initiate.

Yeah aware that it comes fully online late, but it's not a gimp build until then either so should not pose much problem, fighter until 7, then 2 lock then 3 ranger. :)

On the plus side it is a good build both when it comes to stealth(Max DEX and invisibility spell) and social(Max CHA) so it's not useless outside its combat tricks. :)

[djreynolds]

This one popped into my head and not seen anyone else mention anything similar so thought I would share, and ask if it works as I think?

Half elf with starting stats: 9/16/14/8/13/16
Levels: eldritch knight 8, Hunter ranger 4 and Warlock chain any 8, ASI's goes to maxing CHA and DEX, two remaining ones for sharpshooter and spell sniper, combat styles is mariner and archery, mandatory evocations is the eldritch blast enhancing ones.

With this as I understand you can eldritch blast a foe, do a bonus action now attack against it and do a horde breaker attack against an enemy within 5ft of the target am I right?

That looks awesome.

Is there any trouble since eldritch knight is 1/3 caster? Could you take this 9 or 12?

I believe eldritch strike works with any casting stat (AFB) it could be worth it grabbing 12 in EK

[Degwerks]

This one popped into my head and not seen anyone else mention anything similar so thought I would share, and ask if it works as I think?

Half elf with starting stats: 9/16/14/8/13/16
Levels: eldritch knight 8, Hunter ranger 4 and Warlock chain any 8, ASI's goes to maxing CHA and DEX, two remaining ones for sharpshooter and spell sniper, combat styles is mariner and archery, mandatory evocations is the eldritch blast enhancing ones.

With this as I understand you can eldritch blast a foe, do a bonus action now attack against it and do a horde breaker attack against an enemy within 5ft of the target am I right?

This is kinda cool, good job.
Make sure to take Repelling Blast to move targets closer together so Horde Breaker can trigger.

[Trampaige]

What comes to mind immediately is the loophole where people read that you can make a magical ranged weapon into your pact weapon. To me, it's pretty clearly intended to be melee, but the paragraph about making a magical weapon your pact weapon doesn't specify (even though the previous paragraph is melee specific.) To be honest, it's really silly that it doesn't just allow all weapons, given that eldritch blast is vastly superior to trying to fight with a ranged weapon.

If your DM agrees with this ruling and UA is on the table, you could consider going blade pact and picking up eldritch smite. You'd then have the option to smite on your ranged attacks once per round, and have the option to knock huge or smaller targets prone as a source of crowd control. You could repelling blast something to push it far back, then smite if the crossbow shot hits, knocking it prone and costing it half its movement just to stand up. Single targets would probably never be able to reach you. Or alternately, it gives the melee party members advantage on their attacks while its prone. You wouldn't have very many spell slots between warlock and eldritch knight, but it puts more eldritch in the archer.

[Consensus]

[QUOTE=Trampaige;22505176]What comes to mind immediately is the loophole where people read that you can make a magical ranged weapon into your pact weapon. To me, it's pretty clearly intended to be melee/QUOTE]

It has been confirmed that a ranged magical pact weapon is the intention

[Trampaige]

That's good to know. Still, it's utterly nonsense that you can bond with a magical ranged weapon, but can't conjure your own ranged weapon. It's ridiculously inconsistent.

[Consensus]

That's good to know. Still, it's utterly nonsense that you can bond with a magical ranged weapon, but can't conjure your own ranged weapon. It's ridiculously inconsistent.
Oh it totally is, I 100% agree, especially since that moon bow invocation was in the UA. It's almost like WOTC hates admitting they made mistakes. "Alternate Feature Ranger"

[MeeposFire]

I have used this basic concept except instead of ranger I use rogue. It grants more single target damage though it is not quite as nice with sharpshooter since you really want to hit with that one weapon attack. Rogue is also great due to skills and special defenses.

[Desteplo]

Use a heavy crossbow
-lvl7 eldritch knight
-2 warlock
-11 rogue
-d10 +5, plus 4d10+20, 6d6

[Foff]

use whatever the hell you want, combo rogue sneak attack with warlock devil's sight, cast darkness on your crossbow, enjoy being a roaming ball of pitch black darkness moving around shooting black beams at people

if you wanna stick to the ranger bonus attack try playing with repelling blast and UA Grasp of Hadar invocations (more than likely to become official with Xanathar's guide to everything) to reposition enemies closer to each other more consistently

[Kane0]

This is a pretty popular build. EK up to 7 is a solid start to any game amd allows you to switch hit, the warlock dip happens right at the mid levels to establish your EB + bonus action attack shtick then ranger or rogue after that until the end of the campaign to add ever increasing damage and options. I’m a fan of AT rogue since it adds to your casting, cunning action + expertise is always great and sneal attack works wonders with your bonus action bowshot as well as if you need to get back into switch hitting in melee.