Dm threw a curveball at my EK

[mealar]

so my DM just made a house rule that any spell at lvl 2 or lower (including cantrips) can be cast as a bonus action, something to do with casters having more options during a turn and, and i'm looking at some of the higher EK stuff like war magic and seems a lot more underwhelming now. So my question is what do i do with this change? do i keep with my Ek and try and find combos anyway or should i look at maybe multiclassing options now to give me more spell slots to use for this?

For reference i have a fairly good stat spread only cha is low and we are lvl 2 atm, not sure how high lvl we will end up

[Esclados]

I'd say to double check with your DM to make sure of the rule first. By the reasoning provided, it sounds like your DM is using Matt Mercer's house rule he made for his larger group.

That would mean being able to cast a 2nd-level or lower spell as a bonus action on a turn that you already cast a 1st-level or higher spell - by the standard rules, you can only cast a cantrip on the same round as a 1st-level or higher spell, no matter which one is the bonus action. With that house rule a cleric could cast Bless, and then cast Healing Word in the same round, while normally, if a cleric wanted to Healing Word, they could only use a cantrip along with it, like Sacred Flame.

If that's the rule being used, it doesn't mean that much to an EK because you don't really have an important bonus action spell to use without multiclassing.

If it's actually that anything under 2 can be cast as a bonus action (I doubt it though!), you could definitely pick up Booming/Greenflame Blade to have extra attack from level 1... but that seems silly.

[mealar]

from the sounds of it think it is allowing you to cast 2 spell slots per turn but was more thinking of my own progression, i'll be getting GFB at lvl 3 anyway and can now combine that with the attack action in the same turn so was looking at warmagic as being kinda useless now. don't know how central that is to an EK as first time on one so really after thoughts on 2 options,

1. if warmagic isn't that big a deal anyway just stick with EK all the way and enjoying the extra dmg
2. if i'm getting that benefit anyway should i try a multiclass at lvl4 and is there something that would benefit from the new rule

[MrStabby]

I would be tempted to multiclass at level 6. Warlock would be good for loads of low level spell slots.

Bonus action hold person then auto-crit with two attacks seems pretty solid. Shooting a bow and following up with Eldritch blast is awesome...

[ImproperJustice]

Yeah. I think he just gave you War Magic like 15 levels earlier......

Spam Hold person and then multi-attack until the cows come home.

Sounds awesome to me.

Use Cantrips when you want to conserve spell slots.
As a player and fan of the EK, I don’t see a problem here at all.

[mealar]

Yeah. I think he just gave you War Magic like 15 levels earlier......

Spam Hold person and then multi-attack until the cows come home.

Sounds awesome to me.

Use Cantrips when you want to conserve spell slots.
As a player and fan of the EK, I don’t see a problem here at all.

not a problem but like you said it basically replaces some of the big EK features so is it worth me multi-classing into something else for other benefits of is the base fighter stuff worth sticking it out

[mephnick]

so my DM just made a house rule that any spell at lvl 2 or lower (including cantrips) can be cast as a bonus action, something to do with casters having more options during a turn

...where do these people come from

[GorogIrongut]

not a problem but like you said it basically replaces some of the big EK features so is it worth me multi-classing into something else for other benefits of is the base fighter stuff worth sticking it out

Your mileage may vary, but if it were me I'd multiclass into something else after level 6. Considering your low charisma, my gut says your best play would be to go Arcane Trickster (12) for the awesome Rogue chassis. That or I would go Gloom Stalker Ranger (14).

You could also go for a slightly higher powered caster and go Forge Cleric. Getting extra attack might be worth it... or you might find yourself wanting level 9 spells and bailing at level 3 instead. It's all about what you want and thus is a less clear cut option. That said, going the Forge Cleric route would make you a bonafide tank with EK under your belt.

-AT gives you a much more varied style of play. You're still a caster while also being able to do most anything (ASI's...).
-Gloom Stalker makes you a combat beast. You have the ability to hit HARD. You're a better caster. You get another fighting style. You become more skilled but not as much as the AT.
-Forge Cleric makes you a hard as nails caster. You tank up with Spirit Guardians and watch as EVERYONE bounces off of you with your ridiculous AC. Less skills here. Less punchy power than the GS. But you're casting circles around the other two options.

[holywhippet]

My DM started using that rule, or at least he allowed all cantrips to be cast as bonus actions once you'd reached a certain level. However he later switched it down so that you can only use the lowest level version of the cantrip (so no improved damage from level). Even still, our EK/Paladin uses booming blade pretty much every round to act like an extra attack.

[Biggstick]

Go 6 levels of EK for the ASI. Depending on what your stats work out to be (higher Int or Wis), I'd go either Wizard or Cleric respectively. Stack those spell levels on top of the solid Fighter chassis imo. Spells like Blur or Mirror Image and Action Surge sound pretty sweet.

Sure, it's a shift in what you may have planned for the character, but you'll get to embrace a much more magic-based character that will still at it's core be an Eldritch Knight. You just have a higher spell casting capability.

[MrStabby]

My DM started using that rule, or at least he allowed all cantrips to be cast as bonus actions once you'd reached a certain level. However he later switched it down so that you can only use the lowest level version of the cantrip (so no improved damage from level). Even still, our EK/Paladin uses booming blade pretty much every round to act like an extra attack.

Still not bad for cantrips like vicious mockery.

[KRSW]

Throw balance out of the window and just spam cantrips like others have said. Personally, I hate these kinds of things, and every time I am a player in games with outlandish rules like this I exploit them as much as possible. When you get to level 10 is where this becomes pretty dumb with eldritch strike. You can attack action someone and use a SCAG cantrip as a bonus action. Then next turn Hold person them as a bonus action and give them disadvantage on the save and if it lands do however many great weapon master attacks with advantage that all crit and use action surge.

On another note, I would show your DM how it makes one of your subclass features actually completely useless and irrelevant and see how he deals with that. If he gives you something to replace it then that is all well and good but that is typically what happens with homebrew rules like this. Even the optional flanking rule in the DMG where you get advantage for flanking makes a lot of features and spells a lot worse.

[JakOfAllTirades]

...where do these people come from

Dunning-Kruger hooked up with Sturgeon's Law; they had a thousand idiot love-children, and they all grew up to be D&D house-rules.

[Aaedimus]

...where do these people come from

like they said, it's similar to a Mat Mercer house rule, so I would say your rudeness is a little out of place.

[KRSW]

like they said, it's similar to a Mat Mercer house rule, so I would say your rudeness is a little out of place.

I like Matt Mercer a lot. However, I don't like this house rule in particular because I find it nonsensical and completely arbitrary. In terms of actual game balance, I don't think this is necessary whatsoever and I think it shows more of DM class favoritism than anything, and IMO that is total bull. If he thinks it is fun, whatever.

If you wanted to really push this to the limit, just dipping warlock 2 or 3 for eldritch blast is a good enough reason to never ever use this house rule as a DM.

But this thread is supposed to talk about how the house rule affects the OPs EK character. This house rule makes his level 7 subclass feature War Magic absolutely worthless, makes half of GWM and PAM also basically worthless if the character can take SCAG cantrips. Just because it is a house rule used by someone else does not make it good.

[mephnick]

like they said, it's similar to a Mat Mercer house rule

Yeah, that's about in line with his understanding of the system. It's a bad rule. I assume he brought it over to make casters more imbalanced so his players would feel at home switching from Pathfinder.

Funny voices, though.

[Lunali]

It's similar to a Matt Mercer rule in terms of the words used, but radically different in terms of the effects. Mercer's rule is that instead of being limited to a single non-cantrip you can cast one spell at any level and one that is level 2 or lower, as long as you are able to cast one as an action and one as a bonus action. For example, you could cast heal on yourself and a level 2 healing word on someone else.

This rule, at least the way it's been presented here, includes that relaxation of spell casting and seems to also allow one quickened spell per turn (of level 2 or lower) without being a sorcerer or spending points for it.

[Beelzebubba]

Yeah, that's about in line with his understanding of the system. It's a bad rule. I assume he brought it over to make casters more imbalanced so his players would feel at home switching from Pathfinder.

Yeah, he did, and it's gone from the current campaign.

I remember him saying a few times 'hey DMs, be careful about (house-ruling X) because it can blow up in your face later on'.

He learned his lesson.

[Vogie]

I'd probably go to EK 3, then grab 2 levels in a caster class, then go up to EK 11.

The easiest would be Wizard, as you can have 3 attacks followed by a leveled cantrip as a Bonus action. If you're melee, it'd likely be shocking grasp. If you're ranged it'd be Fire bolt. If you do go this route, I'd suggest war wizard for the Arcane Deflection if you're in the melee range.

If you are an Eldritch Archer, and have the stats to bump into warlock, you can use your 3 arrows and 3 Agnoizing EB rays to effectively-AoE up to 6 targets a turn

[GlenSmash!]

Yeah, he did, and it's gone from the current campaign.

I remember him saying a few times 'hey DMs, be careful about (house-ruling X) because it can blow up in your face later on'.

He learned his lesson.

Staying closer to 5e norms is one of my favorite aspects of Campaign 2.