The eldritch knight 5e, a powerful armored titan as well as the master of magic and the blade. This fighter archetype gives a glorious character image but has made a lot of gamers unsatisfied.
This ultimate guide will contain all the important aspects of eldritch knights. We have mentioned the vital features and abilities that make 5e Eldritch Knights different from other subclasses, overview or eldritch knight, and their abilities as well as weaknesses.
Table of Contents
Let’s get into the main point, starting with- What Are Eldritch Knights?
So before we move forward it is important to have a clear understanding of eldritch knights, they were arcane warriors or fighters of Faerûn who devoted their whole lives to the gain knowledge of both martial fighting styles as well as the practice of the Art.
Eldritch knight is a fighter archetype that gets in the fighter’s toes into the realm of arcane magic.
It is meant to represent deadly war mages bedecked in armor and damaging their foe away with combat-focused spells.
Unfortunately, most of the players who build eldritch knights 5e do not get a good result rather end up with a weak as well as character.
This happens mainly for the following two fundamental issues with eldritch knights:
You may have very few spell slots or Your ability scores are quite thin.
While the eldritch knight does give fully armored caster access to fireball spells and the like, you will not be able to blast for longer periods.
Your 5e eldritch knight spell progression is quite slower than other spellcasting classes, and when you are having access to a couple of fireballs at the 13th level is very good to have as a fighter, it’s not really worth losing out on the other enemy archetype options for it.
The second one is a far more critical problem. The issue is how far you will require to stretch your ability scores to have a spellcasting attack modifier or spell DC that is high enough to make those spells worth or effective.
You will remain a fighter and also require a good amount of Strength or Dexterity along with a high Constitution, in addition to a very high Intelligence.
For the 3 ability scores, you will need a +3 or +2, something that is just not possible at the very beginning levels.
Abilities of Eldritch knight 5e –
Eldritch knights have a certain type of connection with either one or a pair of weapons which is mainly because of the rituals.
After you do that a knight might summon it to their hand and also never lose their grip, so long as they were inside and in control of themself in battle.
The eldritch knights have learned to effectively and skillfully make an attack on their enemies with the help of weapons as well as magic, alternating between weapon strikes and spell castings with great efficiency.
The Eldritch Knight’s some unique capabilities:
- Soul-bond with the selected weapons
- Wizard spellcasting.
- The casting of spells allows one to make weapon attacks as a bonus action. The powerful wizard spellcasting.
Eldritch knight 5e spells –
This is a common pain-in-the-ass thing for the players. We have made a brief order of some spells :
CANTRIPS –
Evocation
Dancing Lights
Fire Bolt
Light
Ray of Frost
Shocking Grasp
Abjuration
Blade Ward
FIRST LEVEL-
Evocation
Burning Hands
Chromatic Orb
Magic Missile
Thunderwave
Witch Bolt
Abjuration
Alarm
Mage Armor
Protection from Evil and Good
Shield
SECOND LEVEL-
Evocation
Continual Flame
Darkness
Gust of Wind
Scorching Ray
Shatter
Abjuration
Arcane Lock
THIRD LEVEL——–
Evocation
Fireball
Lightning Bolt
Sending
Abjuration
Counterspell
Dispel Magic
Glyph of Warding
Magic Circle
Nondetection
Protection from Energy
Remove Curse
FOURTH LEVEL-
Evocation
Fire Shield
Ice Storm
Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
Wall of Fire
Abjuration
Banishment
Stone Skin.
Some other abilities of Eldritch knights:
Weapon Bond – this is yet another feature of Eldritch knight that allows one to magically bond a weapon to themselves.
The enemies will not be able to disarm them until and unless the person is fully down for the count.
Further, one can teleport their weapon into their own as long as they are on the same plane of existence.
War Magic – this gives the players the ability to make a bonus attack after casting a spell at the 7th level. Now, the person casts a true strike as well as makes a bonus attack.
Eldritch Strike – these strikes mainly happen at the 10th level that causes enemies with a melee attack to have a disadvantage on saving throws against the player’s spells.
This means you can strike an opponent and after that can cast a spell that knocks them prone. But there is a con that this can give more of a chance to knock enemies prone or deal area damage.
War Caster in eldritch knight 5e –
When you will be in the 4th level you will be required to select between an ability score increase or a feat. It is highly suggested to always go for the feat war caster.
Every power it provides is very crucial to making an knight 5e work properly.
It is also a prerequisite for the archetype.
Here’s everything about war caster-
Its prerequisite: the prerequisite of the feat is the ability to cast at least one spell.
You need to know how to cast spells in the middle of the combat, learning the ways and techniques that can give you the following advantages-
You will have the benefit of Constitution saving throws that you prepare in order to maintain your focus on a spell when you take damage.
You can also perform the somatic components of spells even while having any weapon or a shield in one or both of the hands.
Whenever a very aggressive creature’s movement initiates a provocation or opportunity attack from you, you can simply use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, instead of making an opportunity attack.
Remember that the spell you are casting should have a casting time of 1 action along with that the spell must target only that particular creature.
Conclusion:
Thus, now you must have a clear idea regarding eldritch knight 5e and before you build them you must go through the eldritch knight spells, the features, and abilities that set Eldritch Knights different from other subclasses.
Here we have made a lucid analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the importance of ability scores?
For an Eldritch Knight, your priority Abilities should still be Strength and Constitution. These will improve your health to keep you on your feet and make sure that you can dish out damage with your melee weapon to be a force feared on the battlefield.
If you keep these scores high you will also be sure that you can easily take full benefit of the base features that you get with the Fighter class as well as the more martial-focused characteristics of the subclass.
After those two scores are settled, It is highly recommended to focus on your Intelligence along with your spellcasting Ability.
It might seem a little odd to make your spellcasting Ability only your third-highest for a subclass with spells, but there are some valid reasons. You can have a handful of spells for this subclass, which we have mentioned above in the article that does not really depend on your spellcasting modifier at all.
How does the spellcasting feature of Eldritch knight 5e work?
The deadly feature of the Eldritch 5e subclass is spellcasting.
In simple terms, this means its ability to cast spells from the wizard spell list.
With this amazing Spellcasting feature, you can choose three wizards that can trip and three 1st-level wizard spells at 3rd level and then slowly increase that selection as your character improves.
Eldritch Knights always look for or focus on spells that maximize their capabilities in battle, and provide almost exclusively from the abjuration and evocation schools of magic.
Well, they can also learn one or two spells from the other schools but usually, Eldritch Knights 5e are mostly going to concentrate on their magical talents of keeping themselves alive and dealing harm to their foes with more than just a blade.
This extra spellcasting oomph is especially useful at solving the issue of the one thing fighters really struggle with: inflicting AoE damage.
What are the weaknesses of eldritch knights 5e?
As it is well-known all the fighters require a powerful physical ability modifier (STR or DEX) as well as a high CON modifier, this ends up with very little room leftover for your spellcasting ability modifier, INT and this means they will also gain access to a very limited pool of spell slots.
5e eldritch Knights can also give the option to offset this downside by the exclusive use of spells that do not need any spellcasting modifier.
Well, this is the best way to play Eldritch Knight, it degrades their versatility in things like – crowd control or out-of-combat utility.