Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General It is possible to play as high elf eldritch knight?

I wanna use half elf with new build beside arane trickster and wizard, and eldritch knights looks very interesting to me. It is possible to build that way? STR is only 15, should i go full dexterity? If so, what melee weapons would be the best for a dex eldritch knight? Scimitars? Rapiers? Dual or with shield?

Also, is this good stats for those build?

STR 10

DEX 17(+1 at lvl 4)

INT 14 (18 if use circle)

CON 15(+1 at lvl 4)

WIS 12

CHA 8

Yes, you can certainly do that, there's nothing wrong with the concept, or the stats. Dex fighters work well. I usually caution people against relying on an item that boosts a primary stat, but that seems to be very common for BG3.

For the weapons, I would not build for dual wielding, at least after launch, because at level 7 and above you'll get the ability to main attack as a bonus action after casting a cantrip, and you won't get anything out of building for dual-wielding because cantrips are usually much better than off-hand attacks. ATM we only go to level 5, so you could build that way and it wouldn't be bad, but not what I'd recommend. Shield and rapier probably, because BG3 currently allows you to cast spells without needing a free hand.

Circlet on boost to 17

So a couple caveats/tips:

1. With 10 STR you are going to have mobility issues and you will get targeted for Ensnaring strike a LOT - thankfully you can just chug an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength and that will put you at 21 STR until Long rest. Ethel sells them x3 per long rest.
2. Dex fighters have more limited weapon choices as I am sure you know. Yes, twin scimitars are your best bet here for dual wield, and a rapier/shield for extra protection. Then again with your Potion of Hill Giant Strength you can just use strength weapons instead.
3. So given that, why the high Dex? Are you not planning to wear any armor? Medium scale mail only recognizes +2 DEX to AC.
4. If you insist on wearing the Warped headband of intellect then you open yourself up to not having crit protection - this is usually a bad deal for a melee class. Are you planning to stick to ranged damage?

I guess I am hoping to understand what your objective is here. Where is your main source of damage? What kind of AC will you be sporting? Are you planning to do ranged damage with Bows Longbows and crossbows? Or do you want to be a Melee battle wizard? Is there an RP reason for this build?

If you want a proper Battle Wizard, then this build will serve you better. Not a High elf though.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=841647#Post841647

Final game should allow rolling for stats so a High Elf EK with Strength should be possible.

A finesse build using a Rapier or something just doesn't sit well with me. An EK for me is about protecting yourself with magic and going to town with powerful / many attacks, because you are a Fighter. Or maybe I just generally have something against a fencing combat style. Dual wielding Scimitars would be cool, but as mentioned the off-hand attack is redundant with the way the EK War Magic ability is designed. War Magic also clashes with Fighter Extra Attacks. The whole design feels really janky and I hope they can streamline it with the next edition of D&D. Also, the meager spell slot amount and super slow progression doesn't really make up for losing Battlemaster's combat manoeuvers. Everything about the EK feels a bit like a gimmick.

Thats because EK is just bad, same as Champion. Battlemaster is only good subclass option for fighter in phb.

I would not build a class/char with a special item or potion in mind. The stupidly designed headband from Gump was luckily changed from 18 to 17 Int, this could happen to similarly weird designs too, hopefully, for example being able to get a 21 Str potion in an amount that nullyfies any class based properties.

Did you read about the Eldritch Knight a bit? We don't know what Larian will make with the higher levels, but maybe it is at least generally after the DnD rules, so you could use f.e. this: https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/fighter/subclasses/eldritch-knight/

With your build I too do not really get what the high Dex is for. Is it for RP? I like Barbarian and Fighter but I cannot imagine my char as especially strong, so currently I'm trying a Dex based Battlemaster Fighter, to use ranged mainly. But for an Eldritch Knight high Dex does not seem that important as ranged weapons might not be the best choice.

I don't like heavy armor from the idea and looks, so the +2 for medium armor from high Dex is nice for me. But normally with as Fighter I would use heavy armor (although heavy armor in DnD is really crab, the best is a whopping 1 AC more than best medium + Dex modifier, fantastic ...; beware, in DnD at least most heavy armor has a Str requirement, the chain mail currently in BG3 however has not) and put Dex lower. 16 Str-10 Dex-16 Con-14 Int-... maybe, if not at start (not possible with an elf, I think) then at lvl 4.

I’ll just add to what folk have already said above that it’s possible to complete the game with pretty much any build (at least that doesn’t totally suck). Optimising your character is by no means required to be effective enough to be fun to play, so it is totally feasible to create a character that prioritises roleplay. Of course, some battles will be harder and you might rely more on your party if your own character has some weaknesses, but personally I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Personally, I don’t like builds that rely on specific items to be effective (though no shade to those who enjoy playing with these possibilities) but you don’t actually need high INT to be an effective Eldritch Knight if you focus on spells that don’t make use of your INT modifier, of which there are a few that you might find useful.