🗡️ Eldritch Knight: Abjuration & Evocation 💰 Arcane Trickster: Enchantment & Illusion So, when are we going to see more blends for the other schools of magic? Conjuration, Necromancy, Transmutation & Divination. We see some Divination with the Barbarian's Ancestral Guardian.
Barbarian with divination/necromancy spells for divine raging alongside some undead buddies. Monk with conjuration/transmutation spells to make things with your ki
One abjuration spell that may have been overlooked for 1st level casting is Protection from Evil and Good. This spell is concentration, so with only one spell slot an EK gets continuous utility out of it. It gives some of the most common enemy types disadvantage on their attacks against you, making it arguably as good as shield in many circumstances, and a lot easier on ye' old spell slot economy.
Another good choice for second level is shadow blade. They mentioned it in the arcane trickster spell list but I think it's even better on a fighter because a fighter gets more attacks as they level up meaning that they'll be dealing that 2d8 damage more times per turn. Also Fighter's have proficiency in constitution saves so even if they choose to be front liners they can still use this spell and will more likely than not still maintain concentration. It's also another one of those spells that doesn't use your intelligence.
My thoughts exactly - Shadow Blade also scales a little with your level - it starts as a 2d8 sword that deals psychic damage, and when you pick up 3rd level spell slots it deals 3d8. 3 or 4 attacks per round with a psychic 2d8 or 3d8 weapon is pretty potent indeed!
I think you can also use your Shadow Blade when making attacks using the SCAG cantrips - 2 or 3d8 + the extra damage GFB or BB offer is phenomenal. And if you take the War Caster feat, you could do this all as an opportunity attack as well and make your DM sigh heavily, mumble about needing to take a minute, and walk away from the table.
B) Some feedback from an eldritch knight every Tuesday for the past two years - just reached level 15. War magic is awesome if you use sword and board fighting style. The extra damage from green flame blade will generally be equal or even higher to what you would do with your second attack plus you'll get a bonus action attack. As such, I would argue the whole subclass is more suited to this style of fighting. Booming blade + warcaster is an insane combo at all levels: enemies will never want to move away from you. On first level spells, you guys really missed the spell that gives all DMs fits when used correctly: protection from good and evil. Against nearly all the important enemies of the game, with the already high armor class you have you turn into a veritable juggernaught. I have been using it since level 4 and has turned many an impossible fight into loop sided victories for me and my group. For second level, I can't believe you guys didn't mention shadowblade. It's really what makes this class come together. It makes all your attacks - and you are a fighter, you have the most attacks out of anyone in the game - into 2d8+modifiers and most of the time you'll have advantage too! Once you get third attack or third level spells and you can upcast it into 3d8+modifier, it's borderline unfair easily surpassing sharpshooter or gmw and having better accuracy too!
One thing about Booming Blade + Warcaster - you can add in Polearm Master which grants an opportunity attack when enemies enter your reach, and juice a bunch of extra damage that way and soft-lock targets.
I've played with 3/4 different DM's that consider cantrips that are cast as part of the attack action (Booming Blade/Green Flame blade/Freezing blade(homebrew cantrip that that forces the target of your next attack to make a con save or have disadvantage on their next attack roll (lvl 1) and gets 1d8 damage every cantrip level up after that)) as the 'first attack' allowing the players to attack as many times as they can adding the bonus damage to the first attack only. I dont know if its specified in the rules that you cant do that but they allow it, and i think its a fun rule to implement, since it allows the Eldrich knight to use their attackst to their fullest and still cast.
Shadow blade is also a finesse weapon, so if you want to multiclass into arcane trickster, you can stack sneak attack on your one melee attack when you use war magic, which can make war magic actually outpace three or four melee attacks because it can only be used once per turn.
Then add in lvl 2 blur for nearly everything else and you can't be touched 😂 I'm. Lvl 15 too and my DM always gets salty in combat because he can never hit me 😂 don't forget the advantage on concentration checks from war caster as well as the bonuses to con from being a fighter and you usually never drop concentration on any spell you cast it can be an amazing class
@@M0ebius I had that and sentinel too but my DM ruled I could use warcaster with neither so I used our (homebrew) rules of retraining feats to take them out for more con (and the healer feat, healer feat on a fighter is broken)
Eldritch knight rocks at high levels. Nothing quite like being able to just *cast* haste on yourself without having to bum it off wizard and then also using action surge. Also eldritch strike + blindness is a pretty reliable combo. My suggestion for 2nd level out of school is enlarge reduce. Makes you do extra damage, and be automatically decent at grappling which is usefull
....ever thought of mixing 8 Levels Sorcerer with 12 Levels of another Fighter Class? Like a Rune Knight? Or combining an Echo Knight with Shadow Sorc for having Advantage on Attacks and Spells while a doubled you and a shadowy Wolf with his 8 worldly Pals rip into a Guy?
I personally like to take Shadow Blade as one of your wildcard choices as an Eldritch knight. The base damage of the weapon and the number of attacks a fighter can make can be pretty amazing.
@@kathrynck I dumped dex and took the shield master feat to give +2 to dex saves and 1/2 spell damage. I like the extra charisma because my character is a detective of sorts who needs the buff for social interaction.
Loved playing my Tiefling Eldritch Knight, Reverence. I adapted him from a previous 4E swordmage. Gotta say, being able to Shield up to AC26 (think we're at Lv14 now) is pretty sweet. I absolutely love playing this character. And having a critical counterspell at the right moment is awesome.
I have a lvl 14 Dex-based Deep Gnome Eldritch Knight. For out of school spells I choose Mirror Image and Shadow Blade. Make sure to get Sentinel to work with Mirror Image. When a enemy hits a target other than you (like your illusionary self) you get a opportunity attack. Shadow Blade is a great way to boost your damage. Jeremy Crawford has ruled that in addition to the 2d8 damage you get to add your attribute bonus as well. You can also upcast to increase the damage even more. This will mean you can out damage a sword and board Battlemaster. Also, pick yourself up a ring of spell storing. Personally, I load it up with shield spells to always boost my AC when needed. A magic shield is also nice to have. You do have to use a component pouch for spells like fireball and lightning bolt. If you want an focus you'll have to get ruby of the war mage. But I use shadow blade so I can drop it, cast a AOE with components then recall the shadow blade for a bonus action.
On the note of that Action Surge double-casting a spell rule, I had a player playing a Sorcerer decide to take 2 levels in Fighter so they could get armor, weapons, and Action Surge, just cause being able to dump out a 5th and a 6th level spell in one turn was worth it to them.
By RAW you can't do that unless you have spelldriver, and even that's limited. PHB p202 Under Casting Times and Bonus Action You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.
@@KiinyoWest Action Surge is the exception to that restriction. As they already said in the video. The EK could Cast fireball, action surge, cast it again. www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/23/action-surge-spell-2/
@@KiinyoWest As Asqmo said, and the video printed out, that restriction *only occurs* as a consequence of casting using a bonus action action. Outside of that specific circumstance, your action(s) and reaction can be used for casting as many spells as you can.
@@KiinyoWest "When you cast a spell with a casting time of a BONUS action, you can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action."
played one in a game that started at 13, and I was new to 5th ed. I took fire bolt and it did save our butts once because the target was immune to nonmagical attacks, also feather fall proved itself a number of times,( I had my find familiar through the ritual casting feat). I found that yes the three first level spells shield, absorb elements and feather fall where the most usefull, however made good use of some others along the way including tidal wave. I selected "poorly" on a lot of my spells but I have found that it is more about learning to use the spells you have than always counting on having the right obvious spell.
You can use Eldritch Strike and stuff like Hold Person and Hold Monster to potentially lock down single enemies and guarantee crits for yourself and your allies. It’s a very, very powerful combo that generates turn advantage
Here is a really strong build for an Eldritch Knight: Make a DEX based fighter using the High Elf subrace. You get a +2 DEX, a +1 INT, the strong racial features of the Elf, as well as gaining an additional Cantrip. Said Cantrip uses INT so that works out well. Your main weapon will either be a Scimitar or a Rapier. Get the Dueling fighting style so you can use a shield for that tasty +2 AC. Once you get to 4th Level, I suggest picking up War Caster. For that Advantage on Concentration checks. For the rest, bump up your DEX and INT whenever you get an ASI Your key spells will be: Cantrips: Green Flame Blade Booming Blade 1st: Shield Absorb Elements (Situational but handy) Protection from Evil and Good Magic Missile 2nd: Magic Weapon (if you don’t have an actual Magical Weapon) Misty Step Mirror Image 3rd: Dispel Magic Counterspell Haste/Thunderstep (your choice) And if you’re feeling spicy: your choice of either Fireball or Thunderbolt 4th: Banishment/Polymorph (your choice)
My first character in our CoS campaign (that we just concluded) was lost to a curse. He was a druid, and so I a rolled something outside my wheelhouse, a fighter, but also decided to attempt some multi-class. So, I took 2 levels as fighter to start, and then 5 levels as wizard. She was a soldier with an Detective background, so he got Investigation and History bonuses, which made the idea of a high-INT fighter palatable. In essence: she was a cop that found out she could use magic, and started studying magic. She spent some furlough time to study and gained some wizard levels during that time. However, once she was put back on patrol, the Mists of Barovia rolled in and she joined our party. When she leveled up the next time, she became a 5th level wizard and 3rd level Eldritch Knight. It got VERY fun as time when on to get Extra Attack when out of spell slots, but also really cool to drop two spells with Action Surge as spells. Favorite opener on the BBEG: Starting the combat round with two back-to-back fireballs in the same round.
This is exactly the content I'm here to see! Been waiting to see the Dungeon Dudes take on the Eldritch Knight since the Hexblade video came out. Love this!
I've found that a high-INT Eldritch Knight build does well with a Firebolt as, in order to have such a build without rolling for it and then rolling well, it gives you a reliable range attack. To that end, a high defense build does well with Blade Ward, allowing you to tank like a non-Bear Barbarian and then using your Bonus Action to attack (to that end, the high AC/defense EK all but demands you take the Sentinel feat as quickly as possible to force enemies to stay by you).
I cried when Steelwind Strike came out in Xanathar's and realized it was one spell level too high for Eldritch Knights. It seems like it would be such a great spell for them. :(
I love eldritch knights, and I especially like them with a 1-2 level dip into wizard. It gives you extra cantrips for damage/roleplay/etc., extra spells and spell slots, arcane recovery (which only is 1 first level slot, but after a long dungeon that extra slot for shield or absorb elements could come in handy). It does especially well with the spellbook which allows you to pick up different spells from different schools, both initially when you first grab it, and along the way, because you never are gonna be the main magical damage dealer, but it gives you the opportunity to have a lot more utility or strategic spells (and help the main casters save some of their lower slots if needed), and to be able to cast ritual spells to save even more spell slots. If you decide to pick up a second level of wizard eventually for more slots or spells known then I like going divination for portent, because it is just a nice ability to have especially if you are on the front lines making sure you hit or the enemies miss that killing blow or saving throw.
As an Eldredge Knight you need to be taking Shadow blade and or Spirit guardians for cantrips you need booming blade and green flame blade for your alternate pics I really like catapult at low levels because it requires a saving throw or told the Bell or ice knife for similar reasons. Those make for good consistent range to tax before you have the ability to close with the enemy quickly. I think it's the perfect match for longsword and shield basically because Battle Masters better to be in Archer and whole arm Master pairs best with cavalier. So keeping that in mind you're going to want to take shieldmaster and war caster and probably sentinel. Until you get sentinel take the protection fighting style and then switch it for the one that gives you a plus two to damage later. You go strength and con and then shieldmaster gives you the bonus to the deck safe plus a weaponizes your bonus action into creating advantage. So ideally in low light you always use Shadow blade you attack your multiple attacks and then on the next turn you shove them down and then attack them with advantage or whatever. If that's not applicable you use green flame blade and you make your two attacks
Cantrips: - Booming Blade (for opportunity attacks) - Shocking Grasp (to give you party a chance to escape) - Blade Warding (to become the ultimate frontliner) Or - Firebolt (decent long range damage) . 1st Level Spells - ShIeld - Burning Hands (low lvl AOE) / Change for anything you want at higher lvls - Project from Evil and Good / Change to Absorb Elements when you get 3rd lvl spells (you want to be concentrating on Haste) . 2nd level spells: - Misty Step - Mirror Image - Blindness/ Deafness Or Anything for RP, like Find Familiar, Detect Thoughts, Alter Self, etc . 3rd Level Spells: - Haste - Counterspell - Fireball - Glyph of Warding or Magic Circle, depends on the Campaign - Here you can change that burning hands, for Lightning Bolt for exemple. . 4th Level Spells: - Storm Sphere (Offense) / Fire Shield (Defense) - Banishment
I wanna start off by saying that my wife and I absolutely love watching your videos. We learn a lot and we always come away better than we were when we first started watching them. We were sitting here talking and we were wondering if you guys could do a video about the best reaction spells? We would be very grateful. Thank you for your consideration and have a good day.
so i like artificer and i been wanting to make a fire genais artificer battlesmith/ eldritch knight so i could main int get the awesome find familiar so could advantage of having 2 pets on the battlefield on giving adv. the other disadv to my enemies though I dont know if that multi class would be worth it being I haven't been able to test. also nice to see you guys back in the same room. XD
I'm playing a Githyanki EK in my friend's campaign, and I'm loving him so far. Mage Hand as a free cantrip has come in handy greatly during our first major dungeon run, and im almost at 5th level where they get Misty Step as a racial feature. I didnt go into it thinking for synergy though so instead of Booming Blade I took Minor Illusion, as well as Lightning Lure as we have two squishy characters who our DM loves to throw melee attackers at, so it helps with getting them out of danger by pulling enemies into my greatsword range. For first level spells I took Thunderwave(area clearing, first and so far only use it demolished a trio of goblins), Catapult for excellent damage and a ranged option, and Alarm. Then Protection from Good and Evil at my 4th level since we were going up against a Night Hag and she loves her magic fuckery. So far I'm absolutely loving the mix between magic and melee, and I'm having a blast with it.
I feel like mentioning that for closequarter combat, the lightning bolt can be cast at point blank range and straight in front of you, while fireball has a huge area of effect and it is more likely that you would get caught in the blast.
Honestly, I only ever take magic initiate on classes that dont have any spells by default. Being able to grab the best 2 utility cantrips along-side rare use spells like mage armor, find familiar, feather fall, good berry, identify... Seems way better than grabbing the 3rd and 4th best cantrips and a single extra level 1 spell. Do you find these handful of extra spells very useful?
@@___i3ambi126 Rember that the EK can cast cantrips and follow up with melee attacks as a bonus action (at level 5 or 7) and later on can cast any spell followed up by bonus melee so the more cantrips and spells you know the greater the potential for damage output, tanking or crowd control or party buffing. Magic Initiate let's you pick from any class, so you could pick a heal cantrip (usually unavailable as EK picks from Wizard list) and heal yourself before every attack. Even fucking Blade Ward becomes a decent cantrip at that point!
@@matiskrawiec But there are no healing cantrips in 5e. And you already gain access to the best damage dice cantrip by default as an ek. The only way magic initiate will improve it is by dealing force damage instead of fire. Knowing more spells doesnt mean you get to cast more, its just more versatility. This is definitely good, but learning the 5th best spell isn't as much of a bonus as a full martial building learning the best spell through this feat. (Remember that you can still only cast the magic initiate first level spell once per day even if you have spell slots). Blade ward is not bad with the eldritch knight.
@@___i3ambi126 Totally my bad, I was thinking of the low level healing spells, my friend has dipped into cleric to get a few casts of those. Not all cantrips have to be about straight up damage. You can always use more crowd control ones or lower damage but more targets ones.
Garnet Havast was a level 7 Eldritch knight of mine, she took the arcane adept feat for her human feat and maxd her int score with a high dex score, between weapon bond and mage armor she could be surprised in the bath and be fully ready in 6 seconds. Ruby of the war mage in her rapier let her be a dex fighter but the real power was disadvantage to saving her hold person and laying the smack on enemies
I played an Eldritch Knight for a couple years in a campaign, got all the way to 19th before campaign ended. Chose a human at 1st level and took Magical Training to get a non Abjuration/Evocation spell +2 cantrips. Then at 4th level picked up Ritual Caster (Wizard). In a three member party these really helped will out the lack of wizard.
A lvl 15 combo I love when fighting things with Magic Resistance is to pummel 3 guys with your attacks, Action Surge, teleport 30 feet away and fireball their asses. All while having ridiculous AC from Plate Mail and Shield + the Shield spell and giving them disadvantage to hit you with Blur.
Hector Mummy Lord has 97 HP. Before we even factor in hit chance, your build does (1d8+7)x3 + 8d6 = 62.5 average dmg. Let’s say you optimize and took Polearm Master + spear with your shield, that still only does 69 average dmg assuming all attacks hit and the DEX save fails. Nowhere near enough. CBE+SS Fighter on the other hand deals (1d6+15)x7=129.5 average dmg - you ACTUALLY have a chance to kill a Mummy Lord in one turn, particularly once you factor in subclass features like Precision Attack or Fighting Spirit, as well as things like magic weapons.
Currently playing a level 12 Eldritch Knight. My fav combo is using action surge to cast blur and mirror image in the same turn. After that I jump between using my multi attack or using booming blade to keep them from running away.
One thing to note is that the secondary effect of Booming Blade only triggers if the target continues moving after they get hit with it, which nothing requires that they do. It's not automatic damage, and if the target is savvy enough to recognize Booming Blade, they may decide it's better to not move than to take the extra damage. Really, this is what the spell is designed for, to disincentivize moving away. It's a tank spell, not a damage spell.
I have a level 11 Eldritch Knight/Artificer. I personally enjoy my fighter. My DM has given me some decent armour, so I'm sitting at an AC of 25 and a +2 to saving throws; pair with shield master, and you have a good, well-balanced character. I'm running him as a gnome, so the movement speed is a burden, but the features and cantrips I've chosen are a good combination. A War caster is definitely a good choice for a feat.
Great guide! Some things I want to add: Sentinel + Mirror Image works! Fire Shield is 10 min, non-concentration, non-intelligence Evocation!! Stoneskin is a great 1 hour situational Abjuration spell. Shadow Blade is the BEST fit for fighters because they get 4 attacks in total. "Eldritch Barage" = attack on 1st turn, Hold Person on 2nd and Action Surge full attacks can be Devastating (capital D)! Nondetection is awesome, though you could ask your bard. Remove Curse, Sending. Bladesinger or War Magic multiclass is awesome. This also gives you ritual casting for all levels for which you have spell slots! 3 level dip gives you cantrips, Invisibility, HP, SB, MI, MS, Spider Climb, Web, Dragon's Breath on your familiar and more.. Shatter is OK. Fly, anyone? I think an enemy can still decide not to move after AoO with Booming Blade but that might be just me? You might say Fey Teleportation works if you spend a spell slot too, pick UA Fey Touched or play Eladrin/Shadar-Kai. Dex EK are great. Gnome or High Elf. Did I miss something? I must have. I've never played an EK for real, lol.
My favorite 2nd level spell on my eldritch knight is Hold Person. Just imagine you restrain your enemy giving every attack against it advantage and every attack that hit does critical damage. Now action surge and boom you're swinging 4-6 times all at advantage and all doing CRIT! MASSVIVE DAMAGE! 😆😆
Awesome breakdown. In regards to using a pole arm with Booming blade, you can take the Spell Sniper feat so that you can use booming blade from 10ft, you also pick up a cantrip too.
I say: throw out the eldritch knight spell casting table, and use the warlock one instead. Switch from int to char. Play that. It's better. Just make sure not to give too many short rests.
I say: Just take two levels of Hexblade with your EK, then transition into Divine Soul Sorcerer after EK8/Hex2. You get the best of all worlds. Here’s a build breakdown: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/671379654686277645/676870356954382367/Ronins_Hexblade_Forcelance_build_breakdown.pdf
@@katherineminor3402 hex blade is weak. And makes no sense. What are those spectres all about? I personally don't believe that either is strong. I think that putting the warlock slots on an eldritch knight would make them on par with paladin in strength.
I just had my PCs fight an EK bounty hunter that was hired by a noble that 2 of them had angered (lvl 10 EK vs 5 lvl 4 PCs) He had: Blur,shield and the defensive duelist feat....It was so much fun having him 1v5 them while barely getting hit Eventually they forced him to run away with invisibility but i managed to get them really scared (Also they told me they loved to hate him) I'm planning him to be a recurring secondary villain,this Is EXACTLY the video i needed
From experience, I'll say that Thunderwave is a great spell to have. I have a Warforged Eldritch Knight who's by far the tankiest member of our team, and tends to get grouped up on a lot. Having the ability to shove a bunch of foes away from you at once to give yourself some breathing room is great.
My 12 yr old niece playing in her first campaign is playing an Eldritch Knight and this will be so helpful to her. Thank You. Also I almost exclusively play Gishes so this was very helpful to me as well.
Great rundown per usual, I just played an 8th level eldritch knight and built him almost exactly like you recommended. Being in that sweet spot where GFB did more damage combined with a BA attack, that was always the best attack option for me in that game. I did take protection from evil and good as my one C spell, and burning hands to have AOE. As a High Elf I took Toll the Dead as my free cantrip to give a ranged attack that is a save vs attack roll, otherwise, you can have trouble vs those AC tank monsters.
I'm actually running an eldritch knight in the current campaign I'm in and alot of the advice you guys gave was extremely helpful, I'm mostly using the same functions you guys listed but I prefer to utilize Blade Ward as my other can cantrip since it offers a resistence to all piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage during its duration. I plan on using your suggestion for Find Familiar during my next game session to spice things up. Great job on the video guys.
I'm going to be playing an Eldritch Knight in our next big campaign and I am so excited. I am planning on multiclassing into War Magic Wizard though because I want a little more spellcasting ability, personally. But EK/WW makes for a great build. Once you have War Magic at level 7 your SCAG cantrips do more damage than 2 attacks and even at level 11 the cantrip plus bonus action attack damage is about the same as having 3 attacks since the cantrip damage increases. With War Magic Wizard you get a bonus to initiative rolls and Arcane Deflection for a mini shield or +4 to saving throws without using spell slots. Also if going more into wizard you get more spell slots and higher level spell slots (to upcast spells) and a ton more spells known of any school, more cantrips, plus ritual casting. You can stock up on utility and defensive spells and get higher level spells sooner depending on when you multiclass and how many wizard levels you take.
Recently got into playing a lot more Fighters and Eldritch Knight is really fun. Built a Dex-focused one with Defensive Duelist and the backstory of being a pirate with a cursed magical tattoo. All their magic is based around swords, like Burning Hands being flavored as throwing a large blade of fire, and so I- for the first time ever- took the largely ignored cantrip Sword Burst.
There are 9 spells available for eldritch knight for 2nd level spells, so you don't need it to be an abjuration spell. So take scorching ray if you want a utility range option, shatter to disable a group of enemies and possibly destroy their weapons, or darkness to blind your enemies to give them disadvantage or to help make an escape. Also arcane lock can be useful to an eldritch knight for escape, preventing you from being robbed while you sleep, keeping a target from escaping being interrogated or held capture for a bounty or other reason. Those are just a few examples of how arcane lock can be useful.
I think this subclass is a little bit missnamed since its more of an arcane knight and you have not much to do with Eldritch beings or knowledge or anything eldritch in nature.
@@jarlsnake6023 Lol in Spanish we also call it arcane knight. I don't know why it's eldritch in English when arcane is more accurate. Maybe to make it different from the arcane trickster? It's the only thing I can think of
Multi class to take 3 levels as a war mage gives you a +2 to armour and means you don't need to put any points into Dex as you add int to initiative! Plus just 3 levels in wizard gives you 6 spells which is over half the number a L20 Eldrich night has
I feel like the main benefit of eldrich knight over just multiclassing into an actual spell caster is that you dont have to have the high mental stat (and that its legal even in a game that doesnt allow multiclassing of course). Otherwise it just doesnt seem worth.
I've learned to multiclass a spellcaster class with a martial class for armour and weapon proficiency. So far, both my cleric/wizard and paladin/wizard have been serving me very well, especially the latter.
I think this one might be worth revisiting with tashas cauldron. There's a number of feats that give spells, and other feats that really enhance spell casting.
Cantrip: Booming Blade. I have a maul-wielding Eldritch Knight, and I ALWAYS use booming blade. It's so, so, so good. Also, Blade Ward is fun if I can't run into range in a turn, cutting down damage when enemies run at me. And I took firebolt, just to have a ranged spell, in case something's flying. I don't carry a ranged weapon. (Also, my high elf's intelligence is 16, so he's not terrible with spell attack and saves) 1st level: Shield is an absolute must. I almost never use any other spell. It helps so much, since I don't use a shield. I also took Chromatic Orb because of the versatility of being able to change the damage type, and Magic Missile again for flying enemies and almost nothing resists force damage. I'm liking the sounds of Mirror Image. I took Heavy Armor Master for my 4th level feat, so reducing physical damage by 3 to help with Haste concentration checks could be helpful... This video has given me a lot to think about, moving forward! Thank you!
One of my players has taken a two level dip into wizard to gain the blade singer features. I feel this really brings the class to a higher level of viability since you get a spell book where you can learn almost any spell of a level of a level you could cast while also giving you those higher spell slots much sooner.
On the booming blade with warcaster on opportunity attacks: I think that by RAW the target can decide to stop its movemement once it gets hit so as to avoid the additional damage. Then again, that kind of stickiness is rare in 5E, so that's a nice Catch 22 you put it in. Oh and spell sniper doubles the range of booming blade for polearm master!
depends if you want a mage that can fight, or a warrior than can do magic. Eldritch knight and hexblades are the only one that truly do the second. For arcane magic, at least.
@@jacobjensen7704 Except they're not. They can melee, but after level 11 if they cast then they're losing multiple attacks. They're better off just being a battlemaster at that point. EK's spellcasting doesn't synergize well with their melee. They also don't get to use INT for their melee attacks, so they're splitting stats like crazy to gish, where someone like a battlesmith or hexblade use their casting mod for attacks. EK only really stands out when you MUST cast and MUST get an attack in during the same round, and for action surge.
My EK is a bounty hunter. He uses magic more as a tool to help debilitate his bounty and finish the job. His bread and butter is his crossbow but he can always have an ace in his sleeve with magic. It's super fun
Booming blade/warcaster/polearm master/spell sniper/sentinel means you get the full benefit of the combination over the full 10ft range. It's feat heavy but luckily fighters get a lot of them so they have some to spare
War magic on the EK can also make the blade ward cantrip really handy when you're trying to front line for your party or when you get surrounded. You can sit there tanking hits while still dishing out some damage on the front line. It's nice.
I created an Eldritch Knight longbow sniper that eventually got Blink and Haste. After 1 session with those spells in my bank, my DM homebrewed a solution against just me because he had no answer for how fast I took down high-CR enemies. I never did try the two-spell thing. Nice.
My current Eldritch Knight is an absolute boss to play. I dipped one level of Wizard however to bolster 1st level spell choices, cantrips and spell slots (arcane recovery for an extra 1st level spell is very helpful as she burns through spells fast). It's actually made her really useful as a utility caster while in combat familiar grants easy advantage and spells like expeditious retreat get her upfront fast. I also took magic initiate as human varient for an extra shield spell and cantrips which again helps against spell burnout.
if you dipped one level into wizard, might as well go to level 2 in wizard and take the War Magic tradition. Gain a bonus to initiative equal to your intelligence modifier and you get Arcane Deflection for a mini shield (+2 AC) or a +4 bonus to any saving throw, without using a spell slot. The drawback is only being able to cast cantrips for spells on your next turn (oh no) but you're a fighter and can just hit stuff instead.
@@matthewmiller1847 it's a really tough call as it means delaying features like feats/asi, extra attack, war magic and 2nd level spells further. On balance for low levels my next level will be lvl 4 fighter fir the mobile feat. Got a trick I want to try involving booming blade at 5ft with a greatsword (great weapon fighting style) before switching to a heavy reach weapon (weapon bond helps here) at 10ft to maintain AoO range while encouraging the foe to move. Haven't heard of it being used before so interested to see if it's a viable strategy.
@@reespewa I would definitely continue more into Fighter next. I didnt know what level fighter you were. But going back to wizard level 2 would be a good idea later on. I plan on taking an Eldritch Knight to level 8 for War Magic and all those ASI's before I would multiclass wizard
I have a Kobold Eldritch Knight that uses find familiar and pack tactics. I'd use Protection from Good and Evil to impose disadvantage on a host of enemies for 10 minutes, rather than Shield for one hit. Later, I'd like to pick up Sharpshooter, Crossbow expert and the spell Enlarge/Reduce. Enlarge adds 1d4 damage to each weapon attack hit and advantage on strength checks.
My last group switched to 5e after finishing a Pathfinder campaign. My GM let me play a homebrew class called Arcane Knight. It was basically a sorcerer that can do some fighter stuff. Sadly, it still had the sorcerer's HD so I kept getting knocked out or killed in every battle. After the 4th time it happened, he let me switch to Eldritch Knight. I lost over half the spells but had a higher HD and better armor. I never got knocked out again.
I'm playing a Sword&Board EK combined with a Celestial Warlock. Defensive reactions with EK, offensive with the Warlock, ressing the more squishy allies in combat. It's amazing!
I would like to point out something with the War magic feature at level 7 and its synergy with Green-Flame Blade. Before level 5, Green-Flame Blade simply bounces extra fire damage to an adjacent target. At level 5, the damage to the original and adjacent target deal and extra 1d8 damage, effectively a 2d8 damage increase. Let's say we have a level 5 fighter with a +4 Strength, a +3 Intelligence, and a greatsword. The total damage of two attacks with the greatsword is 4d6+8 damage for an average of 22 damage, assuming both attacks hit. If the fighter casts Green-Flame Blade with a greatsword, the damage becames 2d6+4 for the attacks and 2d8+3 for an average of 23 damage. Statistically, the cantrip and two attacks will deal roughly the same damage if the cantrip's damage can bounce to another target. If the fighter prefers a sword and board to a greatsword, then the damage changes. Two attacks comes to 2d8+8 damage for an average of 17 damage and Green-Flame Blade becomes 3d8+7 damage for an average of 20 damage, assuming the damage bounces. A fighter with a more defensive loadout or smaller weapons can effectively use cantrips and probably deal more damage. Keep in mind, the damage of Green-Flame Blade increases by 2d8 at level 11 and again at level 17. A level 17 fighter with +5 Strength, +4 Intelligence, and a greatsword has three attacks, dealing 6d6+15 damage, averaging out to 36 damage. A Green-Flame Blade cast will deal 2d6+5 and 6d8+4 damage, averaging out to 40 damage, excluding the bonus action attack. Based on these stats, casting a cantrip, specifically Green-Flame Blade, can deal more damage than attacking multiple times, especially at level 7 when the bonus action attack is unlocked. Admittedly, the cantrip is more all-in, since you're betting all the damage on landing a single blow instead of spreading the damage out over multiple blows. And the other thing with attacking normally is the fighter can do two-weapon fighting or pick up the Crossbow Expert Feature and constantly use the bonus action to make an extra attack anyway. TL;DR Green-Flame Blade can deal more damage under the right circumstances, but it's a little riskier than taking multiple attacks.
Vedalken EK is very powerful. 3rd lvl I take Expeditious Retreat, Absorb Elements, and Protection from E/G and at 8th lvl I take war caster and Blur. Blur! It’s so good on a fighter. At some point take resilient for Dex. Have PROF in STR/DEX/CON and Vedalken gives you ADV on INT/WIS/CHA. It’s a very powerful class/race combo
the Eldritch Knight is good but if the DM allows multi-class into 2 levels of Wizard going for Blade Singer gives it such a boost with additional spell levels, and the bonus to AC and movement when using the Blade Song
This is a great video, thanks so much! I just rolled one up in session 0 today, mostly because I just wanted to hit things with swords and spells. But this video has made me really excited for the possibility of a support EK, who casts counterspell and banishment and darkness (we have a warlock in the party!). Thanks for the great tips!
I'm planning a Star Wars themed Eldritch Knight. With the Shocking Grasp and Lightning Lure cantrips. Starting with the Telekinetic feat, and Telepathic feat later on. I just need something for my Light Saber weapon.
When it comes to using polearm master and warcaster feats together, I actually prefer to use debuff spells like hold person or levitate to take them out of the fight, or even buffs like haste to give them that extra edge without using my action
I've been playing a eldrich knight for the last couple years, although he multiclassed into wizard, so it's a bit different. For a pure EK, you need to steer away from any spell that requires a to hit or save. You missed a core offense spell in Magic Missile. First it is the archetypal wizard spell but it also is reliable ranged damage for a low INT caster. You mentioned Mirror Image as an out of school spell at second level, but I'd counter with either Blur which when combined with decent armor and Warcaster for good concentration checks can make you nigh unhittable or Invisibility which is one of the most useful abilities in game. Another useful Abjuration is Protection from Good and Evil; more situational but amazing when applicable. Of note, even one level of wizard multiclassing gives you a spell book and allows you to have access to /FAR/ more 1st level spells and cantrips.
Blade ward cantrip for resistance. 2nd level alter self helps with water breathing or weapons in a pinch. Dragon breath on a familiar. Couple this with ritual caster feat your spell list can be decent.
Thanatos EK Hexblade is a pretty dominant build. I wrote a guide for it: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/671379654686277645/676870356954382367/Ronins_Hexblade_Forcelance_build_breakdown.pdf
I love the Booming Blade but it loses part of it's amazingness after you gain your 2nd extra attack and even more the 3rd but it still worth having if you choose the war caster feat cause of the opportunity attack situation. Very good video especially cause you cemented the ideias I already had.
The only nit-pick I could have on Shocking Grasp as a cantrip choice is to lock out a target's reaction so a squishy cloth-wearer can flee without an Opportunity Attack and still use their action for some clutch, battle-winning spell. It's very niche, but there are applications.
as good as booming blade and green flame blade are, i think people underestimate lightning lure, especially on an eldritch knight. If an enemy decides to run, you can pull them back into opportunity attack range
My go-to strategy for my Eldritch Knight was to cast Flaming Sphere early on in the combat. Then after I attacked someone, I would ram them with the sphere, forcing them to immediately make the saving throw at disadvantage. Then as soon as their next turn started they would have to make the save again because they were already standing in front of it. great way to focus down an enemy As far as out of school spells, I personally found Alter Self to be life saver, but that's also because a good portion of our campaign ended up underwater. But giving yourself a swim speed for combat was a huge advantage
Love this class. Playing it now for the 2nd time and really agree with a lot said here. It feels like the evocation side of it is very lacklustre. I convinced my dm to allow me to be a divination and abduration knight for back story reasons and it really helps with the utility of the class i get things like detect magic and identify and locate object without worrying about it taking my out of school spell choices. This in turn gives me a bit more versatility without making me op in any way. Its added a lot to the rp too
The Eldritch Knight fighter is among the ranks for my Spellblade build and I'm even playing as one in a Curse of Strahd campaign; my Spellblade still needs work though.
Nice clip, i have used many of your tips on my Eldritch Knight. You have forgotton a realy good level 1 Spell. Magic missle will not need an attack roll and strikes with force damage. It is always good to have this damage option.
Eldritch knight has been my favorite thing to mix with other martial classes or caster classes. I've mixed it with War wizard which allows you to use counter spells to bump up cantrips like eldritch blast or booming blade, or go with a dex build and mix it with blade singer and get the ac boost from bladesong along with some higher spell slots, then action surge with those higher spell slots before you use jump to close the gap in the fight. So long as you get Shadow Blade, your Eldritch Knight can be a pretty mean damage dealer, even if you go with a wizard as the majority of the levels to get higher slots.
"Why do they call you, Sellsword?"
"I ride in to a town, sell my sword, leave town, and then summon my sword back to my hand. Profit!"
Totally stealing this.
I did this once
(The only problem was that the merchant was also a scammer)
I love it hahaha
@@wellfolks9096 when you sell your weapon to a merchant who turns out to be a transmutation wizard, and instead of 25g you get 25 rocks.
Tim Lewis
Jokes on him
I still gained 25 rocks
🗡️ Eldritch Knight: Abjuration & Evocation
💰 Arcane Trickster: Enchantment & Illusion
So, when are we going to see more blends for the other schools of magic? Conjuration, Necromancy, Transmutation & Divination.
We see some Divination with the Barbarian's Ancestral Guardian.
I allow EK's and AT's to select from any school. Their spell selections are already limited enough.
Barbarian with divination/necromancy spells for divine raging alongside some undead buddies.
Monk with conjuration/transmutation spells to make things with your ki
Transmutation fighter needs to be it's own thing
Necromancy + Transmutation sounds rather Frankenstein, warping the world and unnatural life.
Bard has a any Necromancy and Divination spell from any school prepaired caster.
Wait a minute. Are they actually in the same room? Mind blown.
Ikr?! I'm a lot happier than I expected to see that.
Omg, they are!!!
What kind of sorcery is this?
Glad to see you back together
Yup, based on Monty casting a shadow onto Kelly, they are indeed in the same room; no green screen trickery.
One abjuration spell that may have been overlooked for 1st level casting is Protection from Evil and Good. This spell is concentration, so with only one spell slot an EK gets continuous utility out of it. It gives some of the most common enemy types disadvantage on their attacks against you, making it arguably as good as shield in many circumstances, and a lot easier on ye' old spell slot economy.
Especially great because it also makes you immune to becoming frightened (unfortunately the list does not include dragons)
So with this and Shield, you can basically be as durable as a Bladesinger but with the option to wear medium armor and use a greatsword?
Another good choice for second level is shadow blade. They mentioned it in the arcane trickster spell list but I think it's even better on a fighter because a fighter gets more attacks as they level up meaning that they'll be dealing that 2d8 damage more times per turn. Also Fighter's have proficiency in constitution saves so even if they choose to be front liners they can still use this spell and will more likely than not still maintain concentration. It's also another one of those spells that doesn't use your intelligence.
My thoughts exactly - Shadow Blade also scales a little with your level - it starts as a 2d8 sword that deals psychic damage, and when you pick up 3rd level spell slots it deals 3d8. 3 or 4 attacks per round with a psychic 2d8 or 3d8 weapon is pretty potent indeed!
It's 2d8 + strenght or dexterity,
@@taragwendolyn its also adds you strenght or dexterity on the damage
I think you can also use your Shadow Blade when making attacks using the SCAG cantrips - 2 or 3d8 + the extra damage GFB or BB offer is phenomenal. And if you take the War Caster feat, you could do this all as an opportunity attack as well and make your DM sigh heavily, mumble about needing to take a minute, and walk away from the table.
And you can throw it
I literally gasped when I saw you guys back together! It's so good to watch Monty watch Kelly!
B) Some feedback from an eldritch knight every Tuesday for the past two years - just reached level 15. War magic is awesome if you use sword and board fighting style. The extra damage from green flame blade will generally be equal or even higher to what you would do with your second attack plus you'll get a bonus action attack. As such, I would argue the whole subclass is more suited to this style of fighting. Booming blade + warcaster is an insane combo at all levels: enemies will never want to move away from you. On first level spells, you guys really missed the spell that gives all DMs fits when used correctly: protection from good and evil. Against nearly all the important enemies of the game, with the already high armor class you have you turn into a veritable juggernaught. I have been using it since level 4 and has turned many an impossible fight into loop sided victories for me and my group. For second level, I can't believe you guys didn't mention shadowblade. It's really what makes this class come together. It makes all your attacks - and you are a fighter, you have the most attacks out of anyone in the game - into 2d8+modifiers and most of the time you'll have advantage too! Once you get third attack or third level spells and you can upcast it into 3d8+modifier, it's borderline unfair easily surpassing sharpshooter or gmw and having better accuracy too!
One thing about Booming Blade + Warcaster - you can add in Polearm Master which grants an opportunity attack when enemies enter your reach, and juice a bunch of extra damage that way and soft-lock targets.
I've played with 3/4 different DM's that consider cantrips that are cast as part of the attack action (Booming Blade/Green Flame blade/Freezing blade(homebrew cantrip that that forces the target of your next attack to make a con save or have disadvantage on their next attack roll (lvl 1) and gets 1d8 damage every cantrip level up after that)) as the 'first attack' allowing the players to attack as many times as they can adding the bonus damage to the first attack only. I dont know if its specified in the rules that you cant do that but they allow it, and i think its a fun rule to implement, since it allows the Eldrich knight to use their attackst to their fullest and still cast.
Shadow blade is also a finesse weapon, so if you want to multiclass into arcane trickster, you can stack sneak attack on your one melee attack when you use war magic, which can make war magic actually outpace three or four melee attacks because it can only be used once per turn.
Then add in lvl 2 blur for nearly everything else and you can't be touched 😂 I'm. Lvl 15 too and my DM always gets salty in combat because he can never hit me 😂 don't forget the advantage on concentration checks from war caster as well as the bonuses to con from being a fighter and you usually never drop concentration on any spell you cast it can be an amazing class
@@M0ebius I had that and sentinel too but my DM ruled I could use warcaster with neither so I used our (homebrew) rules of retraining feats to take them out for more con (and the healer feat, healer feat on a fighter is broken)
Eldritch knight rocks at high levels. Nothing quite like being able to just *cast* haste on yourself without having to bum it off wizard and then also using action surge. Also eldritch strike + blindness is a pretty reliable combo. My suggestion for 2nd level out of school is enlarge reduce. Makes you do extra damage, and be automatically decent at grappling which is usefull
....ever thought of mixing 8 Levels Sorcerer with 12 Levels of another Fighter Class? Like a Rune Knight? Or combining an Echo Knight with Shadow Sorc for having Advantage on Attacks and Spells while a doubled you and a shadowy Wolf with his 8 worldly Pals rip into a Guy?
Nice to see you guys back in one studio!
I never was a big fan of mixing magic and melee, but now for some reason I desperately want to try to.
I personally like to take Shadow Blade as one of your wildcard choices as an Eldritch knight. The base damage of the weapon and the number of attacks a fighter can make can be pretty amazing.
Running one now! He is part of an organization that hunts cultists. An inquisitor of sorts.
Thats a pretty idea to rob thx
@@gabrielcassemiro9741 have a list of prohibited magic acts you are to enforce, otherwise your character will just be a thug.
@@wyopaul82 thats a good point to mantain the order in the pc got it and thx again
I always dump-stat charisma on an EK. it goes well with any bounty-hunter style role.
@@kathrynck I dumped dex and took the shield master feat to give +2 to dex saves and 1/2 spell damage. I like the extra charisma because my character is a detective of sorts who needs the buff for social interaction.
Loved playing my Tiefling Eldritch Knight, Reverence. I adapted him from a previous 4E swordmage. Gotta say, being able to Shield up to AC26 (think we're at Lv14 now) is pretty sweet. I absolutely love playing this character. And having a critical counterspell at the right moment is awesome.
I started playing D&D a few months ago and my very first character is an Eldritch Knight.
Same!
I have a lvl 14 Dex-based Deep Gnome Eldritch Knight. For out of school spells I choose Mirror Image and Shadow Blade. Make sure to get Sentinel to work with Mirror Image. When a enemy hits a target other than you (like your illusionary self) you get a opportunity attack. Shadow Blade is a great way to boost your damage. Jeremy Crawford has ruled that in addition to the 2d8 damage you get to add your attribute bonus as well. You can also upcast to increase the damage even more. This will mean you can out damage a sword and board Battlemaster. Also, pick yourself up a ring of spell storing. Personally, I load it up with shield spells to always boost my AC when needed. A magic shield is also nice to have. You do have to use a component pouch for spells like fireball and lightning bolt. If you want an focus you'll have to get ruby of the war mage. But I use shadow blade so I can drop it, cast a AOE with components then recall the shadow blade for a bonus action.
On the note of that Action Surge double-casting a spell rule, I had a player playing a Sorcerer decide to take 2 levels in Fighter so they could get armor, weapons, and Action Surge, just cause being able to dump out a 5th and a 6th level spell in one turn was worth it to them.
By RAW you can't do that unless you have spelldriver, and even that's limited.
PHB p202 Under Casting Times and Bonus Action
You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.
@@KiinyoWest Action Surge is the exception to that restriction. As they already said in the video. The EK could Cast fireball, action surge, cast it again. www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/23/action-surge-spell-2/
@@KiinyoWest As Asqmo said, and the video printed out, that restriction *only occurs* as a consequence of casting using a bonus action action. Outside of that specific circumstance, your action(s) and reaction can be used for casting as many spells as you can.
@@KiinyoWest "When you cast a spell with a casting time of a BONUS action, you can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action."
Reading is hard.
played one in a game that started at 13, and I was new to 5th ed. I took fire bolt and it did save our butts once because the target was immune to nonmagical attacks, also feather fall proved itself a number of times,( I had my find familiar through the ritual casting feat). I found that yes the three first level spells shield, absorb elements and feather fall where the most usefull, however made good use of some others along the way including tidal wave. I selected "poorly" on a lot of my spells but I have found that it is more about learning to use the spells you have than always counting on having the right obvious spell.
You can use Eldritch Strike and stuff like Hold Person and Hold Monster to potentially lock down single enemies and guarantee crits for yourself and your allies. It’s a very, very powerful combo that generates turn advantage
Here is a really strong build for an Eldritch Knight:
Make a DEX based fighter using the High Elf subrace. You get a +2 DEX, a +1 INT, the strong racial features of the Elf, as well as gaining an additional Cantrip. Said Cantrip uses INT so that works out well. Your main weapon will either be a Scimitar or a Rapier. Get the Dueling fighting style so you can use a shield for that tasty +2 AC. Once you get to 4th Level, I suggest picking up War Caster. For that Advantage on Concentration checks. For the rest, bump up your DEX and INT whenever you get an ASI
Your key spells will be:
Cantrips:
Green Flame Blade
Booming Blade
1st:
Shield
Absorb Elements (Situational but handy)
Protection from Evil and Good
Magic Missile
2nd:
Magic Weapon (if you don’t have an actual Magical Weapon)
Misty Step
Mirror Image
3rd:
Dispel Magic
Counterspell
Haste/Thunderstep (your choice)
And if you’re feeling spicy: your choice of either Fireball or Thunderbolt
4th:
Banishment/Polymorph (your choice)
Yeah, concentrating on DEX makes for a much less MAD EK
No mention of the infamous EK Annihilation? Hold person, action surge, obliterate opponent with a flurry of guaranteed crits.
Omg
Hold person is enchantment not abjuration or evocation
@@charleswatson4549 You can take it at 8th level or retrain the 3rd level out-of-school spell to get Hold Person
My first character in our CoS campaign (that we just concluded) was lost to a curse. He was a druid, and so I a rolled something outside my wheelhouse, a fighter, but also decided to attempt some multi-class. So, I took 2 levels as fighter to start, and then 5 levels as wizard. She was a soldier with an Detective background, so he got Investigation and History bonuses, which made the idea of a high-INT fighter palatable.
In essence: she was a cop that found out she could use magic, and started studying magic. She spent some furlough time to study and gained some wizard levels during that time. However, once she was put back on patrol, the Mists of Barovia rolled in and she joined our party.
When she leveled up the next time, she became a 5th level wizard and 3rd level Eldritch Knight. It got VERY fun as time when on to get Extra Attack when out of spell slots, but also really cool to drop two spells with Action Surge as spells.
Favorite opener on the BBEG: Starting the combat round with two back-to-back fireballs in the same round.
Eldritch knight with the magic weapon spell also make stupidly great archers.
This is exactly the content I'm here to see! Been waiting to see the Dungeon Dudes take on the Eldritch Knight since the Hexblade video came out. Love this!
I've found that a high-INT Eldritch Knight build does well with a Firebolt as, in order to have such a build without rolling for it and then rolling well, it gives you a reliable range attack. To that end, a high defense build does well with Blade Ward, allowing you to tank like a non-Bear Barbarian and then using your Bonus Action to attack (to that end, the high AC/defense EK all but demands you take the Sentinel feat as quickly as possible to force enemies to stay by you).
I cried when Steelwind Strike came out in Xanathar's and realized it was one spell level too high for Eldritch Knights. It seems like it would be such a great spell for them. :(
I love eldritch knights, and I especially like them with a 1-2 level dip into wizard. It gives you extra cantrips for damage/roleplay/etc., extra spells and spell slots, arcane recovery (which only is 1 first level slot, but after a long dungeon that extra slot for shield or absorb elements could come in handy). It does especially well with the spellbook which allows you to pick up different spells from different schools, both initially when you first grab it, and along the way, because you never are gonna be the main magical damage dealer, but it gives you the opportunity to have a lot more utility or strategic spells (and help the main casters save some of their lower slots if needed), and to be able to cast ritual spells to save even more spell slots. If you decide to pick up a second level of wizard eventually for more slots or spells known then I like going divination for portent, because it is just a nice ability to have especially if you are on the front lines making sure you hit or the enemies miss that killing blow or saving throw.
Perfect timing! I'm just building an EK for a campaign!
As an Eldredge Knight you need to be taking Shadow blade and or Spirit guardians for cantrips you need booming blade and green flame blade for your alternate pics I really like catapult at low levels because it requires a saving throw or told the Bell or ice knife for similar reasons. Those make for good consistent range to tax before you have the ability to close with the enemy quickly. I think it's the perfect match for longsword and shield basically because Battle Masters better to be in Archer and whole arm Master pairs best with cavalier. So keeping that in mind you're going to want to take shieldmaster and war caster and probably sentinel. Until you get sentinel take the protection fighting style and then switch it for the one that gives you a plus two to damage later. You go strength and con and then shieldmaster gives you the bonus to the deck safe plus a weaponizes your bonus action into creating advantage. So ideally in low light you always use Shadow blade you attack your multiple attacks and then on the next turn you shove them down and then attack them with advantage or whatever. If that's not applicable you use green flame blade and you make your two attacks
I love the subclass guides that you guys are releasing recently! Thank you! I look forward to more.
I wonder how many times Monty can say the words "One-Two Punch" in a single video :)
Cantrips:
- Booming Blade (for opportunity attacks)
- Shocking Grasp (to give you party a chance to escape)
- Blade Warding (to become the ultimate frontliner)
Or
- Firebolt (decent long range damage)
.
1st Level Spells
- ShIeld
- Burning Hands (low lvl AOE) / Change for anything you want at higher lvls
- Project from Evil and Good / Change to Absorb Elements when you get 3rd lvl spells (you want to be concentrating on Haste)
.
2nd level spells:
- Misty Step
- Mirror Image
- Blindness/ Deafness
Or
Anything for RP, like Find Familiar, Detect Thoughts, Alter Self, etc
.
3rd Level Spells:
- Haste
- Counterspell
- Fireball
- Glyph of Warding or Magic Circle, depends on the Campaign
- Here you can change that burning hands, for Lightning Bolt for exemple.
.
4th Level Spells:
- Storm Sphere (Offense) / Fire Shield (Defense)
- Banishment
I wanna start off by saying that my wife and I absolutely love watching your videos. We learn a lot and we always come away better than we were when we first started watching them. We were sitting here talking and we were wondering if you guys could do a video about the best reaction spells? We would be very grateful. Thank you for your consideration and have a good day.
so i like artificer and i been wanting to make a fire genais artificer battlesmith/ eldritch knight so i could main int get the awesome find familiar so could advantage of having 2 pets on the battlefield on giving adv. the other disadv to my enemies though I dont know if that multi class would be worth it being I haven't been able to test.
also nice to see you guys back in the same room. XD
I'm playing a Githyanki EK in my friend's campaign, and I'm loving him so far. Mage Hand as a free cantrip has come in handy greatly during our first major dungeon run, and im almost at 5th level where they get Misty Step as a racial feature. I didnt go into it thinking for synergy though so instead of Booming Blade I took Minor Illusion, as well as Lightning Lure as we have two squishy characters who our DM loves to throw melee attackers at, so it helps with getting them out of danger by pulling enemies into my greatsword range. For first level spells I took Thunderwave(area clearing, first and so far only use it demolished a trio of goblins), Catapult for excellent damage and a ranged option, and Alarm. Then Protection from Good and Evil at my 4th level since we were going up against a Night Hag and she loves her magic fuckery. So far I'm absolutely loving the mix between magic and melee, and I'm having a blast with it.
I feel like mentioning that for closequarter combat, the lightning bolt can be cast at point blank range and straight in front of you, while fireball has a huge area of effect and it is more likely that you would get caught in the blast.
I'm surprised you guys didn't mention feats that grant more spells like Magic Initiate since this subclass gets so few of them.
I built my Eldritch Knight to take Magic Initiate and dip into the Cleric spell list for Bless spell, and a couple more cantrips.
Honestly, I only ever take magic initiate on classes that dont have any spells by default. Being able to grab the best 2 utility cantrips along-side rare use spells like mage armor, find familiar, feather fall, good berry, identify... Seems way better than grabbing the 3rd and 4th best cantrips and a single extra level 1 spell.
Do you find these handful of extra spells very useful?
@@___i3ambi126 Rember that the EK can cast cantrips and follow up with melee attacks as a bonus action (at level 5 or 7) and later on can cast any spell followed up by bonus melee so the more cantrips and spells you know the greater the potential for damage output, tanking or crowd control or party buffing. Magic Initiate let's you pick from any class, so you could pick a heal cantrip (usually unavailable as EK picks from Wizard list) and heal yourself before every attack. Even fucking Blade Ward becomes a decent cantrip at that point!
@@matiskrawiec But there are no healing cantrips in 5e.
And you already gain access to the best damage dice cantrip by default as an ek. The only way magic initiate will improve it is by dealing force damage instead of fire. Knowing more spells doesnt mean you get to cast more, its just more versatility. This is definitely good, but learning the 5th best spell isn't as much of a bonus as a full martial building learning the best spell through this feat. (Remember that you can still only cast the magic initiate first level spell once per day even if you have spell slots).
Blade ward is not bad with the eldritch knight.
@@___i3ambi126 Totally my bad, I was thinking of the low level healing spells, my friend has dipped into cleric to get a few casts of those.
Not all cantrips have to be about straight up damage. You can always use more crowd control ones or lower damage but more targets ones.
Garnet Havast was a level 7 Eldritch knight of mine, she took the arcane adept feat for her human feat and maxd her int score with a high dex score, between weapon bond and mage armor she could be surprised in the bath and be fully ready in 6 seconds. Ruby of the war mage in her rapier let her be a dex fighter but the real power was disadvantage to saving her hold person and laying the smack on enemies
I played an Eldritch Knight for a couple years in a campaign, got all the way to 19th before campaign ended. Chose a human at 1st level and took Magical Training to get a non Abjuration/Evocation spell +2 cantrips. Then at 4th level picked up Ritual Caster (Wizard). In a three member party these really helped will out the lack of wizard.
A lvl 15 combo I love when fighting things with Magic Resistance is to pummel 3 guys with your attacks, Action Surge, teleport 30 feet away and fireball their asses. All while having ridiculous AC from Plate Mail and Shield + the Shield spell and giving them disadvantage to hit you with Blur.
Hector Yeah but Fireball at level 15 is pretty damn underwhelming.
@@M0ebius Tell that to the Mummy Lord you can cook in one round.
Hector Every Fighter with Sharp Shooter + Crossbow Expert or Great Weapon Master + Polearm Master can cook a mummy lord in one round.
@@M0ebius Nah.
Hector Mummy Lord has 97 HP. Before we even factor in hit chance, your build does (1d8+7)x3 + 8d6 = 62.5 average dmg. Let’s say you optimize and took Polearm Master + spear with your shield, that still only does 69 average dmg assuming all attacks hit and the DEX save fails. Nowhere near enough.
CBE+SS Fighter on the other hand deals (1d6+15)x7=129.5 average dmg - you ACTUALLY have a chance to kill a Mummy Lord in one turn, particularly once you factor in subclass features like Precision Attack or Fighting Spirit, as well as things like magic weapons.
Currently playing a level 12 Eldritch Knight. My fav combo is using action surge to cast blur and mirror image in the same turn. After that I jump between using my multi attack or using booming blade to keep them from running away.
One thing to note is that the secondary effect of Booming Blade only triggers if the target continues moving after they get hit with it, which nothing requires that they do. It's not automatic damage, and if the target is savvy enough to recognize Booming Blade, they may decide it's better to not move than to take the extra damage. Really, this is what the spell is designed for, to disincentivize moving away. It's a tank spell, not a damage spell.
It does an additional 1d8 of thunder damage at 5th level
I have a level 11 Eldritch Knight/Artificer. I personally enjoy my fighter. My DM has given me some decent armour, so I'm sitting at an AC of 25 and a +2 to saving throws; pair with shield master, and you have a good, well-balanced character. I'm running him as a gnome, so the movement speed is a burden, but the features and cantrips I've chosen are a good combination. A War caster is definitely a good choice for a feat.
They are reunited!!! YEEESSS! That made my day!
Great guide! Some things I want to add:
Sentinel + Mirror Image works!
Fire Shield is 10 min, non-concentration, non-intelligence Evocation!! Stoneskin is a great 1 hour situational Abjuration spell.
Shadow Blade is the BEST fit for fighters because they get 4 attacks in total.
"Eldritch Barage" = attack on 1st turn, Hold Person on 2nd and Action Surge full attacks can be Devastating (capital D)!
Nondetection is awesome, though you could ask your bard. Remove Curse, Sending.
Bladesinger or War Magic multiclass is awesome. This also gives you ritual casting for all levels for which you have spell slots! 3 level dip gives you cantrips, Invisibility, HP, SB, MI, MS, Spider Climb, Web, Dragon's Breath on your familiar and more..
Shatter is OK. Fly, anyone?
I think an enemy can still decide not to move after AoO with Booming Blade but that might be just me?
You might say Fey Teleportation works if you spend a spell slot too, pick UA Fey Touched or play Eladrin/Shadar-Kai. Dex EK are great. Gnome or High Elf.
Did I miss something? I must have.
I've never played an EK for real, lol.
My favorite 2nd level spell on my eldritch knight is Hold Person. Just imagine you restrain your enemy giving every attack against it advantage and every attack that hit does critical damage. Now action surge and boom you're swinging 4-6 times all at advantage and all doing CRIT! MASSVIVE DAMAGE! 😆😆
Awesome breakdown. In regards to using a pole arm with Booming blade, you can take the Spell Sniper feat so that you can use booming blade from 10ft, you also pick up a cantrip too.
I say: throw out the eldritch knight spell casting table, and use the warlock one instead. Switch from int to char.
Play that. It's better. Just make sure not to give too many short rests.
I say: Just take two levels of Hexblade with your EK, then transition into Divine Soul Sorcerer after EK8/Hex2. You get the best of all worlds. Here’s a build breakdown:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/671379654686277645/676870356954382367/Ronins_Hexblade_Forcelance_build_breakdown.pdf
So just play a hexblade
@@katherineminor3402 hex blade is weak. And makes no sense. What are those spectres all about?
I personally don't believe that either is strong. I think that putting the warlock slots on an eldritch knight would make them on par with paladin in strength.
I just had my PCs fight an EK bounty hunter that was hired by a noble that 2 of them had angered (lvl 10 EK vs 5 lvl 4 PCs)
He had: Blur,shield and the defensive duelist feat....It was so much fun having him 1v5 them while barely getting hit
Eventually they forced him to run away with invisibility but i managed to get them really scared (Also they told me they loved to hate him) I'm planning him to be a recurring secondary villain,this Is EXACTLY the video i needed
From experience, I'll say that Thunderwave is a great spell to have. I have a Warforged Eldritch Knight who's by far the tankiest member of our team, and tends to get grouped up on a lot. Having the ability to shove a bunch of foes away from you at once to give yourself some breathing room is great.
My 12 yr old niece playing in her first campaign is playing an Eldritch Knight and this will be so helpful to her. Thank You. Also I almost exclusively play Gishes so this was very helpful to me as well.
Great rundown per usual, I just played an 8th level eldritch knight and built him almost exactly like you recommended. Being in that sweet spot where GFB did more damage combined with a BA attack, that was always the best attack option for me in that game. I did take protection from evil and good as my one C spell, and burning hands to have AOE. As a High Elf I took Toll the Dead as my free cantrip to give a ranged attack that is a save vs attack roll, otherwise, you can have trouble vs those AC tank monsters.
I'm actually running an eldritch knight in the current campaign I'm in and alot of the advice you guys gave was extremely helpful, I'm mostly using the same functions you guys listed but I prefer to utilize Blade Ward as my other can cantrip since it offers a resistence to all piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage during its duration. I plan on using your suggestion for Find Familiar during my next game session to spice things up. Great job on the video guys.
I'm going to be playing an Eldritch Knight in our next big campaign and I am so excited. I am planning on multiclassing into War Magic Wizard though because I want a little more spellcasting ability, personally. But EK/WW makes for a great build. Once you have War Magic at level 7 your SCAG cantrips do more damage than 2 attacks and even at level 11 the cantrip plus bonus action attack damage is about the same as having 3 attacks since the cantrip damage increases. With War Magic Wizard you get a bonus to initiative rolls and Arcane Deflection for a mini shield or +4 to saving throws without using spell slots. Also if going more into wizard you get more spell slots and higher level spell slots (to upcast spells) and a ton more spells known of any school, more cantrips, plus ritual casting. You can stock up on utility and defensive spells and get higher level spells sooner depending on when you multiclass and how many wizard levels you take.
Recently got into playing a lot more Fighters and Eldritch Knight is really fun. Built a Dex-focused one with Defensive Duelist and the backstory of being a pirate with a cursed magical tattoo. All their magic is based around swords, like Burning Hands being flavored as throwing a large blade of fire, and so I- for the first time ever- took the largely ignored cantrip Sword Burst.
There are 9 spells available for eldritch knight for 2nd level spells, so you don't need it to be an abjuration spell. So take scorching ray if you want a utility range option, shatter to disable a group of enemies and possibly destroy their weapons, or darkness to blind your enemies to give them disadvantage or to help make an escape. Also arcane lock can be useful to an eldritch knight for escape, preventing you from being robbed while you sleep, keeping a target from escaping being interrogated or held capture for a bounty or other reason. Those are just a few examples of how arcane lock can be useful.
The best second level spell with off choice is Blur! Perma disadvantage, yes please
I think this subclass is a little bit missnamed since its more of an arcane knight and you have not much to do with Eldritch beings or knowledge or anything eldritch in nature.
In Portuguese we call this class arcane knight (cavaleiro arcano) and I totally agree eldritch knight is not a pretty accurate name
wotc is famous for not knowing what eldritch means
@@jarlsnake6023 Lol in Spanish we also call it arcane knight. I don't know why it's eldritch in English when arcane is more accurate. Maybe to make it different from the arcane trickster? It's the only thing I can think of
@@maid_of_heart3261 In Polish they named it Mystic Knight to make things even thing-ier
@@andruloni Omg that's just perfect. I'm gonna start calling it the mystic knight
Just who I’ve been watching to create my first campaign!!!
Multi class to take 3 levels as a war mage gives you a +2 to armour and means you don't need to put any points into Dex as you add int to initiative! Plus just 3 levels in wizard gives you 6 spells which is over half the number a L20 Eldrich night has
I feel like the main benefit of eldrich knight over just multiclassing into an actual spell caster is that you dont have to have the high mental stat (and that its legal even in a game that doesnt allow multiclassing of course).
Otherwise it just doesnt seem worth.
I've learned to multiclass a spellcaster class with a martial class for armour and weapon proficiency. So far, both my cleric/wizard and paladin/wizard have been serving me very well, especially the latter.
I think this one might be worth revisiting with tashas cauldron. There's a number of feats that give spells, and other feats that really enhance spell casting.
Cantrip: Booming Blade. I have a maul-wielding Eldritch Knight, and I ALWAYS use booming blade. It's so, so, so good. Also, Blade Ward is fun if I can't run into range in a turn, cutting down damage when enemies run at me. And I took firebolt, just to have a ranged spell, in case something's flying. I don't carry a ranged weapon. (Also, my high elf's intelligence is 16, so he's not terrible with spell attack and saves)
1st level: Shield is an absolute must. I almost never use any other spell. It helps so much, since I don't use a shield. I also took Chromatic Orb because of the versatility of being able to change the damage type, and Magic Missile again for flying enemies and almost nothing resists force damage.
I'm liking the sounds of Mirror Image. I took Heavy Armor Master for my 4th level feat, so reducing physical damage by 3 to help with Haste concentration checks could be helpful... This video has given me a lot to think about, moving forward! Thank you!
This is my favorite character concept of all time!
One of my players has taken a two level dip into wizard to gain the blade singer features. I feel this really brings the class to a higher level of viability since you get a spell book where you can learn almost any spell of a level of a level you could cast while also giving you those higher spell slots much sooner.
On the booming blade with warcaster on opportunity attacks: I think that by RAW the target can decide to stop its movemement once it gets hit so as to avoid the additional damage. Then again, that kind of stickiness is rare in 5E, so that's a nice Catch 22 you put it in.
Oh and spell sniper doubles the range of booming blade for polearm master!
"...blend sword and sorcery like few other classes can..." Besides hexblades, and artificers, and bladesingers, and bards, and arcane tricksters....
I found that funny too. In fact, Ek doesn't blend sword and magic nearly as well as the ones you just mentioned.
Uhhh yeah... that's what they said...
depends if you want a mage that can fight, or a warrior than can do magic. Eldritch knight and hexblades are the only one that truly do the second. For arcane magic, at least.
Eldritch Knights are the best gish at melee. They are fighters after all.
@@jacobjensen7704 Except they're not. They can melee, but after level 11 if they cast then they're losing multiple attacks. They're better off just being a battlemaster at that point. EK's spellcasting doesn't synergize well with their melee. They also don't get to use INT for their melee attacks, so they're splitting stats like crazy to gish, where someone like a battlesmith or hexblade use their casting mod for attacks. EK only really stands out when you MUST cast and MUST get an attack in during the same round, and for action surge.
My EK is a bounty hunter. He uses magic more as a tool to help debilitate his bounty and finish the job. His bread and butter is his crossbow but he can always have an ace in his sleeve with magic. It's super fun
Booming blade/warcaster/polearm master/spell sniper/sentinel means you get the full benefit of the combination over the full 10ft range. It's feat heavy but luckily fighters get a lot of them so they have some to spare
War magic on the EK can also make the blade ward cantrip really handy when you're trying to front line for your party or when you get surrounded. You can sit there tanking hits while still dishing out some damage on the front line. It's nice.
I created an Eldritch Knight longbow sniper that eventually got Blink and Haste. After 1 session with those spells in my bank, my DM homebrewed a solution against just me because he had no answer for how fast I took down high-CR enemies. I never did try the two-spell thing. Nice.
My current Eldritch Knight is an absolute boss to play. I dipped one level of Wizard however to bolster 1st level spell choices, cantrips and spell slots (arcane recovery for an extra 1st level spell is very helpful as she burns through spells fast). It's actually made her really useful as a utility caster while in combat familiar grants easy advantage and spells like expeditious retreat get her upfront fast. I also took magic initiate as human varient for an extra shield spell and cantrips which again helps against spell burnout.
if you dipped one level into wizard, might as well go to level 2 in wizard and take the War Magic tradition. Gain a bonus to initiative equal to your intelligence modifier and you get Arcane Deflection for a mini shield (+2 AC) or a +4 bonus to any saving throw, without using a spell slot. The drawback is only being able to cast cantrips for spells on your next turn (oh no) but you're a fighter and can just hit stuff instead.
@@matthewmiller1847 it's a really tough call as it means delaying features like feats/asi, extra attack, war magic and 2nd level spells further. On balance for low levels my next level will be lvl 4 fighter fir the mobile feat. Got a trick I want to try involving booming blade at 5ft with a greatsword (great weapon fighting style) before switching to a heavy reach weapon (weapon bond helps here) at 10ft to maintain AoO range while encouraging the foe to move. Haven't heard of it being used before so interested to see if it's a viable strategy.
@@reespewa I would definitely continue more into Fighter next. I didnt know what level fighter you were. But going back to wizard level 2 would be a good idea later on. I plan on taking an Eldritch Knight to level 8 for War Magic and all those ASI's before I would multiclass wizard
I have a Kobold Eldritch Knight that uses find familiar and pack tactics. I'd use Protection from Good and Evil to impose disadvantage on a host of enemies for 10 minutes, rather than Shield for one hit. Later, I'd like to pick up Sharpshooter, Crossbow expert and the spell Enlarge/Reduce. Enlarge adds 1d4 damage to each weapon attack hit and advantage on strength checks.
My last group switched to 5e after finishing a Pathfinder campaign. My GM let me play a homebrew class called Arcane Knight. It was basically a sorcerer that can do some fighter stuff. Sadly, it still had the sorcerer's HD so I kept getting knocked out or killed in every battle. After the 4th time it happened, he let me switch to Eldritch Knight. I lost over half the spells but had a higher HD and better armor. I never got knocked out again.
I would like a "what if" discussion of different playstyles that happen with other Schools of Magic pairings. Especially with Transmutation.
Glad to see you boys back together.
I'm playing a Sword&Board EK combined with a Celestial Warlock. Defensive reactions with EK, offensive with the Warlock, ressing the more squishy allies in combat. It's amazing!
I would like to point out something with the War magic feature at level 7 and its synergy with Green-Flame Blade. Before level 5, Green-Flame Blade simply bounces extra fire damage to an adjacent target. At level 5, the damage to the original and adjacent target deal and extra 1d8 damage, effectively a 2d8 damage increase.
Let's say we have a level 5 fighter with a +4 Strength, a +3 Intelligence, and a greatsword. The total damage of two attacks with the greatsword is 4d6+8 damage for an average of 22 damage, assuming both attacks hit. If the fighter casts Green-Flame Blade with a greatsword, the damage becames 2d6+4 for the attacks and 2d8+3 for an average of 23 damage. Statistically, the cantrip and two attacks will deal roughly the same damage if the cantrip's damage can bounce to another target. If the fighter prefers a sword and board to a greatsword, then the damage changes. Two attacks comes to 2d8+8 damage for an average of 17 damage and Green-Flame Blade becomes 3d8+7 damage for an average of 20 damage, assuming the damage bounces. A fighter with a more defensive loadout or smaller weapons can effectively use cantrips and probably deal more damage.
Keep in mind, the damage of Green-Flame Blade increases by 2d8 at level 11 and again at level 17. A level 17 fighter with +5 Strength, +4 Intelligence, and a greatsword has three attacks, dealing 6d6+15 damage, averaging out to 36 damage. A Green-Flame Blade cast will deal 2d6+5 and 6d8+4 damage, averaging out to 40 damage, excluding the bonus action attack.
Based on these stats, casting a cantrip, specifically Green-Flame Blade, can deal more damage than attacking multiple times, especially at level 7 when the bonus action attack is unlocked. Admittedly, the cantrip is more all-in, since you're betting all the damage on landing a single blow instead of spreading the damage out over multiple blows. And the other thing with attacking normally is the fighter can do two-weapon fighting or pick up the Crossbow Expert Feature and constantly use the bonus action to make an extra attack anyway.
TL;DR Green-Flame Blade can deal more damage under the right circumstances, but it's a little riskier than taking multiple attacks.
Wow, I just rolled an EK for a session this Friday, super serendipitous to see this pop up!
Vedalken EK is very powerful. 3rd lvl I take Expeditious Retreat, Absorb Elements, and Protection from E/G and at 8th lvl I take war caster and Blur. Blur! It’s so good on a fighter. At some point take resilient for Dex. Have PROF in STR/DEX/CON and Vedalken gives you ADV on INT/WIS/CHA. It’s a very powerful class/race combo
Great to see you fellas back together again!
the Eldritch Knight is good but if the DM allows multi-class into 2 levels of Wizard going for Blade Singer gives it such a boost with additional spell levels, and the bonus to AC and movement when using the Blade Song
This is a great video, thanks so much! I just rolled one up in session 0 today, mostly because I just wanted to hit things with swords and spells. But this video has made me really excited for the possibility of a support EK, who casts counterspell and banishment and darkness (we have a warlock in the party!). Thanks for the great tips!
I'm planning a Star Wars themed Eldritch Knight. With the Shocking Grasp and Lightning Lure cantrips. Starting with the Telekinetic feat, and Telepathic feat later on. I just need something for my Light Saber weapon.
Love it! I am gonna use some stormy spells, and add some SW flavor in my gameplay 😅😅😅
*UNLIMITED POWER*
Currently playing EK8/Bladesinger2 and it is an incredibly powerful combination which is slot of fun to play!
Even better would be EK8/Hexblade 2 then transition into Divine Soul Sorcerer.
When it comes to using polearm master and warcaster feats together, I actually prefer to use debuff spells like hold person or levitate to take them out of the fight, or even buffs like haste to give them that extra edge without using my action
I've been playing a eldrich knight for the last couple years, although he multiclassed into wizard, so it's a bit different. For a pure EK, you need to steer away from any spell that requires a to hit or save. You missed a core offense spell in Magic Missile. First it is the archetypal wizard spell but it also is reliable ranged damage for a low INT caster. You mentioned Mirror Image as an out of school spell at second level, but I'd counter with either Blur which when combined with decent armor and Warcaster for good concentration checks can make you nigh unhittable or Invisibility which is one of the most useful abilities in game. Another useful Abjuration is Protection from Good and Evil; more situational but amazing when applicable.
Of note, even one level of wizard multiclassing gives you a spell book and allows you to have access to /FAR/ more 1st level spells and cantrips.
So nice to see you guys together and not split screen
Blade ward cantrip for resistance. 2nd level alter self helps with water breathing or weapons in a pinch. Dragon breath on a familiar. Couple this with ritual caster feat your spell list can be decent.
I've never played one but it the end game perks for the subclass never felt like they were better than a fighter/hex-blade multiclass.
Thanatos EK Hexblade is a pretty dominant build. I wrote a guide for it:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/671379654686277645/676870356954382367/Ronins_Hexblade_Forcelance_build_breakdown.pdf
I love the Booming Blade but it loses part of it's amazingness after you gain your 2nd extra attack and even more the 3rd but it still worth having if you choose the war caster feat cause of the opportunity attack situation. Very good video especially cause you cemented the ideias I already had.
The only nit-pick I could have on Shocking Grasp as a cantrip choice is to lock out a target's reaction so a squishy cloth-wearer can flee without an Opportunity Attack and still use their action for some clutch, battle-winning spell. It's very niche, but there are applications.
Glad to see you guys are back in the same room. Btw I like your thumbnails.
as good as booming blade and green flame blade are, i think people underestimate lightning lure, especially on an eldritch knight. If an enemy decides to run, you can pull them back into opportunity attack range
My go-to strategy for my Eldritch Knight was to cast Flaming Sphere early on in the combat. Then after I attacked someone, I would ram them with the sphere, forcing them to immediately make the saving throw at disadvantage. Then as soon as their next turn started they would have to make the save again because they were already standing in front of it. great way to focus down an enemy
As far as out of school spells, I personally found Alter Self to be life saver, but that's also because a good portion of our campaign ended up underwater. But giving yourself a swim speed for combat was a huge advantage
Garen Hulmaster is the perfect example of an eldritch knight... Forgotten realms novels does a three book series about this man and it's really good.
Love this class. Playing it now for the 2nd time and really agree with a lot said here. It feels like the evocation side of it is very lacklustre. I convinced my dm to allow me to be a divination and abduration knight for back story reasons and it really helps with the utility of the class i get things like detect magic and identify and locate object without worrying about it taking my out of school spell choices. This in turn gives me a bit more versatility without making me op in any way. Its added a lot to the rp too
The Eldritch Knight fighter is among the ranks for my Spellblade build and I'm even playing as one in a Curse of Strahd campaign; my Spellblade still needs work though.
I just started a new campaign and I'm planning on playing EK!! We JUST hit level 3, I'm so excited.
Nice clip, i have used many of your tips on my Eldritch Knight.
You have forgotton a realy good level 1 Spell.
Magic missle will not need an attack roll and strikes with force damage.
It is always good to have this damage option.
Ohhh, use the new feat in the new book and get a free Eldritch Invocation ( Devil Sight ) that will synergize well with Darkness. That will be fun.
Eldritch knight has been my favorite thing to mix with other martial classes or caster classes. I've mixed it with War wizard which allows you to use counter spells to bump up cantrips like eldritch blast or booming blade, or go with a dex build and mix it with blade singer and get the ac boost from bladesong along with some higher spell slots, then action surge with those higher spell slots before you use jump to close the gap in the fight.
So long as you get Shadow Blade, your Eldritch Knight can be a pretty mean damage dealer, even if you go with a wizard as the majority of the levels to get higher slots.