In this blog we are going to tell you about Eldritch Knight Subclass in DnD 5e, so read this blog carefully to get the complete information.
The Eldritch Knight is a Fighter subclass in Dungeons & Dragons that mixes the martial and arcane in a formidable mixture of magic and combat. They may readily position themselves on the forefront, offering a protective barrier between their less-armored teammates and deadly adversaries, drawing on their expertise of protective and destructive magic.
Combining magic and melee offers some significant benefits, but players must understand how to create their character for optimum impact. The correct racial benefits and traits, stat allocation, spells, and feats can ensure that the razor’s edge between martial and arcane can be crossed with tremendous reward rather than severe repercussions.
What exactly is an Eldritch Knight?
Eldritch Knights are Fighters who have mastered the delicate arts of spellcasting. Eldritch Knights, like Rangers and Paladins, are semi-caster classes, however they only get spell slots up to 4th Level. They can only perform abjuration and evocation spells and are confined to the Wizard’s spell list.
STRENGTHS
Shield, Absorb Elements, Blur, Mirror Image, and more powerful defensive spells are available to the Eldritch Knight. Your spells also provide you some battle variety, which may help freshen up your options and make the character more enjoyable to play. Normally, only abjuration and evocation spells are cast.
WEAKNESSES
Fighters require a high CON modifier as well as a strong physical ability modification (STR or DEX). This leaves very little room for your spellcasting ability modifier, INT. They also acquire access to a small number of spell slots.
Eldritch Knights can mitigate this disadvantage by only casting spells that do not require a spellcasting modifier. While this is the best method to play Eldritch Knight, it limits their versatility in areas like crowd control and out-of-combat utility.
Another drawback of the Eldritch Knight is their dependency on the War Caster feat, particularly if they intend to play the “sword and board” approach emphasized in this guide. If you want to use a shield, you will require the War Caster feat to ignore the somantic components of your spells.
ABILITY RATES
Strength and Constitution should still be your main Abilities as an Eldritch Knight. These will increase your health to keep you moving and ensure that you can do damage with your melee weapon to be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Keeping these scores high will also allow you to fully utilise the Fighter class’s base capabilities as well as the subclass’s more martial-focused characteristics.
After you’ve resolved those two scores, I recommend concentrating on your Intelligence and spellcasting Ability. It may appear strange to put your spellcasting Ability just your third-highest for a subclass with spells, but there are reasons for this. You can gain a few spells for this subclass that don’t rely on your spellcasting modifier at all, which I’ll go into below.
It may be tempting to fire a Fireball at every chance, but as an Eldritch Knight, it should not be your primary emphasis. Instead of standing back casting spells, you should be in the centre of the combat, attacking adversaries and blocking strikes. So, if you manage to raise your Intelligence, feel free to pick some more Ability-reliant spells later on, but don’t focus on them straight now.
Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma are still up for grabs. How you chose to invest in these Abilities is heavily influenced by your vision for your character and the demands of your group. You may choose Dexterity to aid with saving throws, Wisdom to have a strong Perception to identify dangers and events before anyone else, or Charisma to help strengthen your group’s Face role. I’ve seen Eldritch Knights that highlight these remaining skills to varying degrees, and they’ve worked well, so it’s more a matter of personal choice.
Eldritch Knight Fighter 5E
Spellcasting
The Eldritch Knight, as one might think, has the ability to cast spells. Eldritch Knights are 1/3rd casters (Wizards are full casters, while Paladins/Rangers are 12 casters). That implies they can only learn up to 4th level spells and have a very restricted number of cantrips and spells known to them.
Their cantrips are not restricted by school, but they only get three by 10th grade. Make an informed decision!
Eldritch Knights, unlike Wizards, do not have a spellbook from which to draw spells. They memorize spells, as do most spontaneous casters. Surprisingly, Eldritch Knights have access to a comparable set of spells as Sorcerers. Their known spells, however, are school-limited. You are given four spells from any school. All nine additional spells must be from Abjuration or Evocation. Some spells can be replaced, but the school limitation applies.
The Eldritch Knight suffers a little here. Let us begin with Cantrips. Your options are quite restricted. When it comes to spells, you’ll require at least one offensive cantrip to synergize with later class abilities. Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade are excellent Melee Wizard abilities. They do damage with your weapon and have a limited area of influence. These two are just outstanding if you’re wielding a Greatsword. Any additional cantrip, from Acid Splash to Toll the Dead, might be used by a ranged construct.
Weapon Bond
You have an insanely powerful skill! I hope you didn’t have too high of expectations for a second level 3 feature. The fact that you can link with two weapons but only summon one at a time is omitted. A third bonded weapon dissipates one of the previous two bonds.
This has a lovely taste and harkens back to the archetype’s history. The problem is that it is essentially solely anti-disarmament. If you find yourself imprisoned, you have a fantastic technique to prepare for a jail break… But that’s about all.
In theory, this is one of the few methods in 5E to start a thrown weapons build, but reclaiming a weapon as a bonus action doesn’t provide you with enough attack speed to achieve anything. There are components of this class that allow you to use thrown weapons, however they all need your Bonus Action. Oh well.
You should unite with your main weapon and then disregard the fact that this exists. If you’re ever apprehended or put in an unarmed scenario, having this on hand can rescue your group.
Magic of War
At level 5, the Fighter may perform two attacks every Attack action. Cantrips have become a worthless commodity, especially because they only scale to two damage dice. Fortunately, you now have another tool in your arsenal!
This is going to work out fine as long as you’re not a Two-Weapon Fighter!
The ability to attack after a cantrip causes massive damage. That is absolutely true for a Melee build. Green Flame Blade is a weapon attack that causes a lot more damage when there are two foes nearby. Hit someone, deliver additional damage to them, and then hit them again! Excellent for Greatsword or Greataxe construction!
Remember to utilise your Bonus action. You can’t utilise this if you need to Second Wind. Because you don’t receive another additional action with this, Action Surge behaves strangely.
If you want to deal big damage by level 7, consider a Great Weapon build.
Limitations of the Eldritch Knight
- The game is difficult to play, and there is a risk of analysis paralysis.
- At higher levels, it is underwhelming.
- Multi-Ability-Dependent
The Most Appropriate Races for Eldritch Knight
There are several races that complement the Eldritch Knight construct, but none is more strong than the Mountain Dwarf. Mountain Dwarves earn a +2 bonus to both Strength and Constitution, indicating that they’re well on their way to acquiring the stats required to mount a formidable defence.
All Dwarves earn an automatic +2, but only the Mountain Dwarf may add that +2 to Strength. Half-Orc, Orc, Leonin, Goliath, and Loxodon are also viable possibilities because they all acquire +2 Strength and +1 Constitution. Any race that offers a considerable bonus to Strength, Constitution, or both is worth pursuing, so carefully examine the stat benefits each race gains before making your selection.
Backgrounds should be relevant to the character being constructed, although there are a few possibilities that would improve an Eldritch Knight build. Sage grants Arcana and History proficiency and lets the player to take academic instruction as a Wizard’s apprentice – which may be an excellent starting point for where they established their arcane foundation.
Soldier, on the other hand, grants competence in Athletics and Intimidation, and it’s excellent for detailing where the knight learnt their combat talents, achieved a rank, and formed their perspective on war and fighting. There is also the possibility to work with the Dungeon Master to create a background that is unique to the Eldritch Knight’s history and abilities.
Feats for Eldritch Knight
Feats can provide tremendous benefits to an Eldritch Knight build. However they are optional. Becoming a Warcaster provides an advantage on Constitution saving throws, which aids in the retention of focus for continuous spells. It also grants the Eldritch Knight the ability to utilise a spell attack as an attack of opportunity, as well as the ability to cast without the usage of somatic components – ideal for a character who already has their hands full with a shield and sword.
Magic Initiate lets the player to switch to a different magical class, such as the highly recommended Warlock, which grants access to Eldritch Blast and Hex. They acquire access to two cantrips and one first-level spell that can be cast once each long rest at its lowest level.
Elemental Adept lets the player to select a type of magical damage and makes all spells they cast of that element disregard magical resistances. This accomplishment may be selected several times, each time generating a new magical damage resistance breaker that might be useful against powerful opponents.
Character Creation: Eldritch Knight
Ability Scores
- Primary: Dexterity, Constitution
- Tier II: Intelligence
- Tier III: Charisma, Wisdom
- Absolute Dump Tier: Strength
Fighters should emphasise Strength to deal damage (or Dexterity if you’re opting for a ranged or Finesse weapon-based build) and Constitution to stay alive, regardless of how their ability scores are generated.
The Eldritch Knight, on the other hand, has other plans.
To reduce the amount of ability scores on which this subclass is dependant, I strongly propose a Dexterity-based build that employs finesse and ranged weapons and wears medium armour.
You can also become less MAD by decreasing your initial concentration on Intelligence and casting spells that don’t need foes to make saving attempts or you to cast spells.
Options such as Booming Blade, Shield, and Resist Energy all provide valuable benefits when using your spell slots, but they do not need a very high Intelligence score.
This can be an excellent way to avoid becoming overly MAD early on. When your abundant ability-score rises allow you to raise your Intelligence to 18 or higher, you can choose additional ability-dependent spells.
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Skills and Languages
Any race you pick will be able to speak Common, and you should choose languages that correspond to your history and the campaign you’re playing in.
As far as Fighter Skills go, Athletics will feed into your primary ability and Strength and are useful for grappling and shoving foes prone to attack advantage.
Aside from that, Stealth (which may be used to compensate for the drawback of wearing heavy armour), Perception (which is an evergreen choice for any class), Insight, and Intimidation are all universally potent.
You should feel free to choose based on your character’s background or the skill that corresponds to your second/third-highest ability score.
Fighting Technique
At the first level, all combatants have access to a fighting style.
Defense is a good choice for an Eldritch Knight since it reduces your need on a shield, freeing up your spare hand for annoying material and somatic components.
Conclusion
We Hope this blog is sufficient enough to provide the information about Eldritch Knight Subclass in DnD 5e. Thanks for reading this blog.