Eldritch Knight 5e - Ultimate Guide for Dungeons and Dragons

[@ondrejhronec9220]

Hey y'all! I currently play an Eldritch knigh and I absolutely love it. He's a fire genasi who inherited his fiery abilities from his mom he never met. His father is a humble blacksmith and one female efreet, who used to watch him from the flames of his forge, fell in love with him (probably due to his muscles and ability to play with fire 😜) so she made love to him and that's how my little hero was born. He's a smith who makes his own weapons and armor and enchants them with his inherited magic. His name is Eldur (which means"fire" in islandic? ). As I really wanted to keep only the fire element for this guy, me and DM made homebrew spell chart allowing me to take only those evocation spells which deal fire damage. As a compensation, Eldur can also learn self-cast illusion spells such as mirror image and blur. Abjuration spells are available too (as Eldritch knights have 2 magic schools available - we combined fire+self-illusion into one school and abjuration is the second one). So far very interesting character. My first feat picked was Durable as I needed to get my constitution to 20 and we homebrew it to affect the Second wind as well. Which means the second wind now gives automatically 10+(2xCON) = 20 hp. And the second feat will probably be HAM for extra strength and damage reduction. The reason why I'm picking war caster feat at level 8 is that the only illusion spells worth of having advantage on maintaining concentration are available at level 7 (level 2 spells blur and see invisibility). Before that, my only concentration spell is produce flame and I rarely use it in combat. I'm also thinking about getting fey touched feat to get misty step and "heroism" spell which requires concentration as well. It's gonna be interesting on higher levels :D using great sword in 2 hands, no space for physical shield. However, using just one type of weapon granted me ability to learn parry and using a sword to potentially block incoming attack with adding +1 AC. However, Eldur as a Smith will make a magical bracer enchanted with charges of Shield spell (if he'd ever run out of his spell slots) and he'll also forge a giant sword enchanted with absorb elements that works against elemental melee attacks. On successful parry (meaning my sword will block elemental melee attack), the sword will provide resistance to absorbed element and provide +1d6 additional damage of absorbed element to my next melee attack. It's like when those 2 melee weapons clash in the air, sword kinda steals the elemental power from the enemy weapon. It's all fun playing with materials and finding resources to craft more powerful gear. Just let your imagination work! 😜

[@saintpaulsnail]

I picked Variant Human with the Magic Initiate Warlock feat to get Mage Hand, Eldritch Blast, and Hex, giving me magic at level 1. I made him as a Dex-based fighter with two-weapon fighting so every hit on a Hexed enemy gives an additional 1d6 necrotic damage. At 4th level I took War Magic. At 8th level I plan to take the Fey Touched feat to take Misty Step and Bless. With Bless I can increase my attack bonus and saving throws as well as 2 party members. At 7th level I took Thunderwave for damage and battlefield control. We had a very hard to see and hard to hit enemy at one point, but I rolled a 20 on perception to see it, and then used Magic Missile to hit it. The right spell at the right time.

[@ericpeterson8732]

You do know that you are mixing spell stats, right? Magic Initiate gives you access but doesn't change the spellcasting modifier. So unless you have a good Cha on top of your Str, Con, and Int, Eldritch Blast is going to miss a lot. Using your Wisdom for Bless isn't bad because Bless is a buff and doesn't use it. Also, your build is very bonus action crowded. Hex takes a bonus action to cast and a bonus action to switch, so you won't be able to use your off hand weapon (which also uses a bonus action) on those turns. I hope you rolled well, because you used your ASIs for feats. But other than that, I like it. Those feats that grant spells are great for versatility as long as you don't need the corresponding ability to be very high. After all, you're still a fighter.

[@thomash.5473]

Cool yet another great video with lots of information. Thanks Patrick for giving us your optimized eldritch knight. I've got a player who has taken this option. So we'll see how that goes. Thanks again Patrick for showing us the way as far as the spell slinging knight goes.

[@dantepiper]

I always thought that this archetype was a bit under powered. That is why if I play a fighter I choose Rune Knight from Unearthed Arcana. It's restrictive but also gives plenty of buffs to you and your attacks.

[@dumplingduppy1502]

Same i believe allowing ek to be a cantrip masters and cast cantrips as a bouns action before or after an attack actions when they reach high levels would be a good power up (limiting it so it wouldnt be op ofc)

[@Vagran]

I might have misheard some of the strategies, but Booming Blade and Shadowblade have been tweaked in Tasha's cauldren. They don't play nice with each other anymore rules as written, but your DM might be cool with it.

[@ShardPF2e]

Yep, you now need to brandish a weapon worth at least 1sp for booming blade and green flame blade, and shadow blade doesn't count

[@315retro]

This is super helpful. I'm on my first campaign and just chose eldrich knight. Great timing.

[@Comicsluvr]

A couple of notes: V Human gets you War Caster out of the gate, freeing future ASIs for Feats or stat improvement. A Warforged with your build would have 22 AC. This is with ZERO magic item investment. Not too shabby. If you can manage to get to a 13 Wisdom with your first ASI then you can Multiclass into Forge Cleric. Once you hit second level there you'll have the option of yet another point of AC or a +1 magic weapon and you can swap these out day by day as desired.

[@dumplingduppy1502]

My eldritch knight build is a mix martial artist fisher. A variant human with unarmfighting, traven brawler and tough feat and an old busted tressyum(familiar) on her head. She loves grappling her foe before summoning her war hammer and driving it in their chest.

[@bullrusher77]

I have a major issue with this build from the get go. That is that you could only have plate armor by DM discretion. I say this because the cost for plate armor is 1,500 gold which is an absurd amount of gold to spend from character creation from the get go as well as it being unclear at what point in the build this would become possible. If that could be clarified and known, that would be incredibly helpful.

[@thecrossroadstavern1447]

You made a great video that’s 10mins long and that’s why I chose to watch your video rather than the 30-40 min doctoral videos lol GREAT POINTS! Keep content creating, hero.

[@FamousCoozie]

Oh man, I watched the whole video before realizing this was from SkullSplitter. Love your stuff, the blind bags are my favorite. I'm about to start running my first Eldritch Knight and this video really helped.

[@SkullSplitter]

Huzzah! Thank you!

[@MrDegan2]

I got to play one at a high level one shot a while back, favorite moment was attacking an enemy, getting the hit and giving them disadvantage on saves, teleporting back before action surge fireball right at their face. probably not efficient or ever likely to get to play one to that level with how many games go but did single handedly make we want to play the subclass somewhere down the line

[@tylersmith5909]

Bro tysm u just guided me to make one of my most OP characters I have ever made/planned!

[@davecorriveau4057]

Hello, Here is my build for an Eldricht Knight at lvl 4: Race: Variant Human (+1 Str; +1 Con) Feats: Crusher (+1 Con), War caster (LVL4) Background: Soldier Stats: STR 16 DEX: 10 CON: 16 INT: 12 WIS: 13 CHA: 8 Weapon of choice: Warhammer (to use the Crusher feat) Fighting style: Dueling Cantrip: Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade Spells: Absorb Elements, Find familiar, Shield

[@RocKnight11]

What's your go-to familiar? I'm a rat fan myself. Ideal for sneaking around dungeons or thieves hideouts undetected. I also like the raven for the mimicry potential.

[@OniNoSweeney]

I have a Half-Orc Eldritch Knight who is an Inquisator with the Unarmed Fighting Style and cantrips Create Bonfire & Booming Blade. I grapple people, drag them into the fire, and beat a confession out of them with my stick; if they escape and run out of the fire....

[@timjackson9334]

I made an Eldritch Knight but with a Sith theme. Using Custom Lineage I started with the Telekinetic feat. My two cantrips being Lightning Lure and Shocking Grasp. I also took Mage Armor, Shield, and Catapult. Lightning Lure and Shocking Grasp combo well together.

[@RocKnight11]

Some more ideas if you are playing a Sith/Jedi Knight: 1. Mage Hand is like a low-level telekinesis spell. 2. Spell like Friends and Charm Person could act like the "Old Jedi Mind Trick." 3. Witch Bolt is practically like Sith Lightning. 4. Thunderwave is similar to Force Push 5. Summoning a bonded weapon (Weapon Bond) could work very much like a Lightsaber. My goodness, I love this class.

[@rcschmidt668]

I was waiting for a comment on the magic init feat. That may be a better build for cantrips and that 1 spell. Maybe even ritual caster if more utility is needed in the party.

[@paulrowlands2105]

when I rolled my stats for my character I got 18.18.17.15.15

[@RoadrunnerMoose]

OK that's great and I'm happy that Minotaurs can work with this build. My only question is the campaign I'm fixing to play starts us at level 1. I figured since I can't start with plate armor, mail is fine, but what should my starting stats look like?

[@SkullSplitter]

Strength and Con are your friends, Dex will be useful as well.

[@RoadrunnerMoose]

@@SkullSplitter right on. Here's what I rolled for my stats: HP:13, AC: 18, STR: 17, DEX: 12, CON: 16, INT: 10, WIS: 10, CHA: 9 Does that look good or are there some adjustments that you would recommend?

[@christopherlynch3314]

Great video thanks.

[@jvtrevisan]

What do you think about a High Elf Eldritch Kingdom with Faction Agent Background?

[@wills8611]

Very help full. But what if you want to multi class it? Forge domain cleric gets you a plus one to weapon or armor right out the gate or second level wizard war magic. Both ways gets you three more cantrips. Although cleric get you healing spells. Going cleric however makes your point sending dicey. Depends on what style you want to play.

[@dragoninthewest1]

I played an Eldritch Knight who was an archer.

[@SkullSplitter]

Nice!

[@alanrumney800]

What are your thoughts on making a super tank that is a multi-class Eldritch Knight / Abjuration Wizard that pops up shield to also get Arcane Ward? I was thinking about making this as my next toon. Combine with some magical armor you'll have an AC30 tank before you know it that with a shock absorber from magical damage also.

[@SkullSplitter]

Might be interesting to dig into...

[@АлександрСудаков-с2и]

Not the worst choise, but since ward scales wrom wiz-levels, the benefit won't be as big as it might seem (additional "hp" from ward is +- the same as additional hp you'd get from a fighter levels of equal amount). The ward regen from shield will be not that big, since it's a 1 level spell, and picking abjurer does not really help you stack ac for Eldritch Knight (EC already has access to shield and haste). Might want to pick a war mage or bladesinger for that. Ec 12/wm 8 might be good, haven't tried it in game tho (if you go less then 11 in EC, then you should consider why are you picking EC in the first place)

[@ayax5188]

I appreciate this video, thanks man

[@SkullSplitter]

Glad it helped. Are you planning on playing one?

[@arrowodd7695]

Eldritch Knight is the best fighter subclass.

[@Tsukinotaku]

I've been thinking about Ritual Caster feat to be able to save on that first spell slot and get Find Familiar as a ritual instead I did hear some theory craft with Magic Initiate but I dunno about that....

[@harrisonmcbride196]

Hello, I’m playing an eldritch knight right now and am using mirror image, shield, and blink. Non are concentration so it makes you very hard to kill. I will say though you aren’t a very good rank for the party when your blinking out every turn lol

[@harrisonmcbride196]

Tank*

[@ericpeterson8732]

So you used your non evocation/abjuration spells on mirror image and blink? What level are you?

[@douglasdiggins8296]

What are you talking about...? The EK is fantastic...

[@teknyte-1]

We need more of these post tashas due to the racial stat rework

[@Crosis89]

Help me understand something, please. Everyone keeps saying take Shadow Blade. But why? My +1 Longsword does similar damage and does not take a spellslot. I am sure I am missing something but I for the life of me cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[@urosnikolic2314]

Can a arcane knigh work with a draconic sorcerer multi class?

[@SkullSplitter]

Work? Yes; is it the uber optimal class, probably not (sorcadin would probably be better there).

[@urosnikolic2314]

Kinda working on a red dragon born paladin sorcerer with a red draconic bloodline

[@SkullSplitter]

Nice!

[@Isopherus]

I'm running an eldritch knight Eladrin with dex based weapon. Any tips?

[@SkullSplitter]

Dont get hit; mobile may be your friend. Huzzah!

[@atanor2768]

Dipping in 2 levels in Paladin can be done? Smite, more spell progression, more support, 2 fighting styles...

[@collinw9792]

You need a 13 charisma though, so it would either cripple your hp or your EK spells