Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Am I missing something, or is Eldritch Knight just bad?

I do realize a lot of this is down to 5e D&D's class balance rather than anything BG3 specific, but even so- the EK just feels remarkably weak compared to the other fighter options. I tried to make Lae'Zel work as an EK in my current playthrough, and at level 7 I finally just gave up and re-rolled her as a Battlemaster, which seems way better overall.
To be clear, I'm sure you could roll up a MC Eldritch Knight and beat the game with it, but it still feels like it's just worse overall than the other two fighter options.

So, you need an extra attribute (or permanently sacrifice your helmet slot for the warped band), you get a very limited set of spells- never above level 2, that doesn't actually include a lot of stuff like Blur or Hold Person that would be useful for a fighter/caster (I know you can get a few general wizard spells, but it's two total for your character). The offensive spells you get are usually going to be less useful than just attacking, in my experience, and there's very few good buffs on the list. Shield is good, at least?
You can bind a weapon and throw it, but unless it's specifically a thrown weapon, the damage straight up sucks unless you build your entire character around it- I'm doing 5 damage with a bound greatsword, and that's on a character with the Tavern Brawler feat and 19 strength. (there are good thrown weapons, sure, but they work without the EK's Bind Weapon feature and they're only found in act 3- and one only works if you're a dwarf).
You can use a cantrip and attack in the same turn, but I'm struggling to see when you'd be better off doing that instead of just attacking twice- at level 7 Shocking Grasp will do an average of 9 damage a hit, and if your level 7 fighter doesn't do more than that on average with weapon attacks, you've screwed the pooch terribly building them.
At level 10 you can give people disadvantage on saves against your spells, which would be great- except you only have a handful of spells that would benefit, and even with disadvantage on a save, you're *still* probably better off just hitting a target with your weapon as opposed to using Burning Hands or one of the other handful of spells you have that allow a save.

So, as the title says, am I missing something important about how to build and/or play EK well, or do they just genuinely suck as hard as it feels like they do? The best use of them I can find is "fighter that can self-cast Shield and Blur" and that just doesn't come close to comparing to a battle Master fighter, in my experience.

The bind weapon thing is useful for more than just thrown weapons, though there is a build that uses it for just that. It is also handy when enemies disarm or heat metal you. For example, the commander of the Githyanki patrols likes to disarm. So then suddenly your 2h weapon specialist has to waste a turn picking and up and equipping their weapon, or be a laughable excuse for a monk or ranged attacker.

Spell-wise, they do get some handy spells. Longstrider and Misty Step both let them improve their mobility. Shield you mentioned. At level 8, they can get Hold Person or Blur, as at that level, they get access to the whole Wizzy list (for level 1 and 2). When they are given the option to swap out a spell, they can also choose a replacement from the fully wizzy list.

They are also half casters, which means some of their levels count toward your caster level (which impacts what spell levels you gain access to). So say you wanted to make a fighter/wizard with 6 levels in each class. If you took either of the other two fighter subclasses, you would not have access to any 4th level wizzy spells. But if you take Eldritch Knight, you would get 2. Now say you wanted 8 levels of fighter, and 4 wizzy, instead (or 9/3, but that's a bad split). The Eldritch Knight version would be able to cast 3 fireballs. The others would not be able to cast a single one. And you can drop that fireball right on your allies, because you'll be an evocation Wizzy. Or, instead of fireball, you can forego int, and cast haste on yourself instead. If you go 10/2, you'll only have 2 3rd level spells, but you will then be able to hit an enemy, then cast a spell on them with them at a disadvantage.

But basically, you are either doing it for the mobility, or you want to MC in a little bit of something else. Probably wizzy.

Yeah, I can't speak for everybody, but I think the class sucks. Whoever created it didn't do a very good job, in my opinion.

It's especially bad in bg3 because everyone can cast spells directly from scrolls.

Personally, I would change:

1. higher level spells faster. a full caster at level 12 has 6th level spells. an ek has 2nd. I would raise that to 3rd, minimum, keeping it about half of the full caster.

2. instead of the subclass features at level 7 and 10, give a +1 int at each of those levels, for a total int boost of +2 (to a max of 20).

--or--

3. allow the ek to use int in place of str for weapon attack rolls and damage with bonded weapon. this ability granted at level 3, but completely negating the above two suggestions.

Eldritch Knight is NOT "just bad". It's plays pretty much exactly like other fighter classes, BUT because it has access to spells people get their heads turned around. If you don't know D&D spells, OR think that because it has spell casting, you can play it like a wizard with a sword, it will be very easy to make a dud character.

You DO NOT require a high intelligence to play an EK effectively. However, that does mean that you should select spells that don't require you to force enemies to make saves, OR use your Int stat in any way. This means a lot of the spell "options" aren't options. EK is a 1/3 spell caster. Which means it's spell progression is slower than even Paladin and Ranger.

I suggest, you look at mostly buff/utility spells rather than damage/offensive type spells, and you'll have a lot more fun with it.
Cantrips: I would take Mage Hand, and your pick of Light, Minor Illusion, or Acid Splash (for AoE destruction of crates to make looting faster, IF this is your main lead character).

Level 1 spells, you get 2 that are school restricted to Evocation or Abjuration. Take Shield (obviously), and Magic Missile. MM auto hits, and damage isn't based on Int, so it performs the same with 8 int and with 22 int.
Level 1 spells (unrestricted): You should pick a good utility spell, that you will be able to use regularly. I HIGHLY recommend Expeditious Retreat. It allows you to dash as a bonus action, which can be super helpful as a melee to get into position. Other decent options are Longstrider or Enhanced Leap if no one else in your party has them.

Remember, EVERY time you level up, after level 3, you CAN replace a spell known. WHEN you replace a spell known, you aren't restricted by the school of magic like you were at level 3. So you can always pick something like Thunderwave at level 4, and then replace it with something you WILL use like Enhanced Leap at level 5.

YES. War Magic (level 7 feature) is a trap. Don't use it. It's even bad in regular D&D. Not all subclass features are good. Some are just there for thematic effect. Unfortunately what works in a Table Top game like D&D doesn't always port well to a PC game situation like BG3, and this is one of those features.

--Bound Weapons--
So, a huge benefit of a bound weapon, is it CANNOT be disarmed. Which is really good in lots of fights, because it wastes your whole Action to re-equip a weapon. As far as throwing and Tavern Brawler work, yes.

ONLY throw a weapon, that has the "thrown" property. This is any javelin, spear, trident, dagger, hand axe, or light hammer.

If you throw a weapon that does NOT have the thrown property, it is counted as an improvised weapon, and so the damage die is determined by the weight of the thrown object. As such NONE of the items magical properties are applied, and you do NOT add your strength modifier as bonus damage to the damage roll. Tavern Brawler will still apply your Str mod once, as it says, but you will not get the base str mod that you would normally expect to see. ALSO if you are throwing a weapon without the thrown property, you do NOT add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll, so you will have a lower chance to hit. It's bad news all around. 100% do not recommend.

The biggest benefit to throwing a BOUND weapon, is it "returns to your hands" except when it doesn't. There are a few weapons in the game that are designed to be thrown, and will automatically return, but an EK can bind any weapon to make it return when thrown. Biggest things to remember here are:
1: ALWAYS try to remember to Bind your weapon after a long rest. It's a tedious book keeping feature that is carried over from the D&D rules as written. In a table top game though, the DM just assumes you always bind your weapon after a rest.
2: IF you are using your EK to start combat by throwing your weapon, BE CAREFUL! If you do this, and your EK character does NOT get top place in the initiative, the thrown weapon will NOT return to the character, AND it will break your weapon bond. The best way to circumvent this, is to carry 2 weapons, and have one that you throw to start a fight, that ISN'T your bound weapon. Just remember to pick it back up after the fight is over.
3: Accidents happen, so it's also good to carry a backup weapon that returns when thrown without requiring you to use weapon bond. The "Returning Pike" is available from a vendor at the goblin camp in Act 1, is a great option for this, if you don't intend to use it as your main weapon to begin with.

Not EK specific, but you can also throw enemies (assuming you're strong enough to lift them). It requires a check based on your athletics, so take proficiency and if you can expertise, but you can totally pick up enemies and throw them at another enemy, or off an edge. They'll land prone, so it's a fantastic way to give other melee in your party advantage on attack rolls. Plus it's just fun to throw people around.

But yeah all that to say, EK isn't bad, it's just easy to build a bad EK, and a lot of people fall prey to the misconception that just because you have access to spells that you can play it like a wizard.

Good points. I have 2 corrections/points of concern.

1: Technically they are 1/3 casters not 1/2. Paladin and Ranger are 1/2 casters, and their spells progress faster than Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster.
2: While hold person is a good spell, it DOES require the target to make a save, so if your Intelligence score is low, they'll resist it a lot more. I would suggest Misty Step and Mirror Image or Darkness or Knock/Arcane Lock. Something that adds utility without being dependent on your Int score. Darkness can be especially potent late game, if you have any of the multiple gear items that prevent you from being blinded. This will give you advantage against enemies in your darkness, and prevent enemy archers and spell casters from targeting you.

Re: Multiclassing. I would point out, that fighters get a 3rd attack at level 11. So, if you take more than 1 level of another class you're giving up 1/3 of your damage output at higher levels. IMO, there are better ways to get haste than casting it yourself, and if you MC you also miss out on the 12 level ASI/Feat. I think the EK is built well enough to play as a straight class fighter, but I guess if you can't live without the spell sword fantasy, you CAN dip wizard. Just be sure to not neglect your Int stat or your spells will be resisted most of the time.

Yeah, I mostly just mentioned Hold Person because the OP thought EKs don't get it, when they can. The save issue is something you can benefit from the level 10 lowering of saves from, though. But given how hard fighters hit, well, on that second round, you'll probably be better off just finishing killing the target

As far as haste goes, yeah, there are other means, but this is a way to do it. Though, if you're doing mostly for haste, you'll want to go sorc instead of wizzy, most likely, so you can Twin Cast it. Edit: of course, not ideal for an eldritch Knight, as yet another stat, and you need 5 levels of sorc to get access to level 3 sorc spells. The unique Wizard spell learning mechanic, and how it is gated by caster level, rather than your wizard level, is a big part of why Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are more limited in their spell casting slots.

A personal tip I complieted a solo play w/o any tadpole.
So I dumped dexterity and I used elixir that gived me initiative.
I used the green halberd from the lathander temple. I went with 15 str 17 con 16 int as a start. Heavy larmor mastery and the ring the gived me immune to blindness grym's helmet. And the boots that gived me temp hp when I casted concentration spells.
So the idea is to cast darkness and with polarm you can have bigger reach and an extra attack and an opportunity attack if they approach. But the enemy cannot cast to the darkness.
So the most of the time I was safely killing everyone from the darkness. When some creatures where immune to darkness I just started to cast on the first turn true strike so I gained temp hp and stacked up dmg resistance. I mostly came out with half ho left w/o drinking ho potions.
At a certain point of the game the enemy have counter spell.
To negate it I casted father fall because it's a bonus action and they are waisting the counter spell for that. After that I just casted darkness and it was game over for them.
I went up til lvl 12 with EK just to get more spell from feats.
But its a little bit booring to play.
BTW I don't had tavern brawler.

Why yes - Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster both obviously suck.

I'm even more annoyed by this because EK was mainly a mage, only with a bit of fighter to the side, in earlier editions. Likewise AT was a mage, just one who was also doing some thievery.

Here its a FULL Fighter doing a tiny bit of magic, and a FULL Rogue also doing a tiny bit of magic.

You get VERY few spells. You only get level 2 and even that rather late. Its simply as weak as it could possibly be.

At the very least they should have given them different names. Like, I dunno, Spellsword and Magic Dagger ? But frankly these subclasses are quite superflous in the first place.

The only scenario in which I could think these are useful is if you play EK6 / Wizard 6. Then you actually get an EK as they are IMHO supposed to be. With MORE magic than a Paladin or Ranger. Not less.

I guess on the plus side you can now finally cast spells in armor in 5e. Boy was that annoying in past editions.

The Eldritch Knight is going to be bad if you try to play it like a Battlemaster or a Wizard, but they're neither so you probably shouldn't play them like that.

The main draw of this class is that they're Fighters (Action Surge, bonus feat) that has access to a small, but strong selection of defensive spells (like Shield) that doesn't have a lot of compeition for spellslots (unlike Wizards and Sorcerers). They are also the class that has the best synergy with the Bladeward cantrip (War Magic, little reliance on concentration spells), letting them swap freely in and out of Barbarian levels of tanking without having to worry about how many Rage uses you have left.

In BG3, their defensive utility will slowly, but surely fall behind as various items can make up for that, but they got access to a different type of build; throwing weapons. Bound Weapon makes every weapon a returning weapon, so slap that feature on a throwing weapon of your choice and pick up the Tavern Brawler feat for double strength to dmg on thrown attacks. Because Bound Weapon returns the weapon to you with every attack and automatically equips it, this lets you multiattack with double strength at range and swap to melee without any action economy issues. You can go for the 3 attacks per turn, or class into Rogue for 2 attacks +Sneak Attack (use daggers).

Are EKs a good build? Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say they're good in the grand scheme of things. Fighters (and Rogues for that matter) aren't very strong classes and you usually only want them for specific subclasses in multiclass builds (Battlemaster for Fighter, Assassin for Rogue). This is a recurring problem with classes who aren't dedicated spellcasters or Paladins.

I do have to wonder if being able to swap out spells known for any spell rather than ones on the EK list isn't a bug- if I were DMing a game, that would seem like an obvious attempt to dodge around how the class is actually supposed to work. Given how few actually useful spells you get otherwise though, I wouldn't feel bad about abusing it to make a character better in BG3.
Overall, I'm still left thinking my original impression was right though- that being, yeah, you *can* make an EK work, but overall, they're not going to be as good as one of the other fighter sublcassses. More of a "pick it for RP flavour" kind of class.

To be fair, Champion is pretty much useless. Especially in BG3 where we have other ways of boosting crit range.

Hard disagree.

The crit bonuses stack. Champion is very strong. The additional crit boosting items make the Champion stronger, not weaker.

It's really not. A +1 crit range isn’t a big deal when the class doesn’t get mechanics to support it. It only multiplies dmg dice, after all.

The fact that we can stack crit ranges on other characters who actually can take advantage of that just makes it worse for Champions, not better. For every +1 we can stack to crit range, the weaker Champion becomes because the relative increase get smaller. Going from 20 to 19+ for crits is a 100% increase. But from 19 to 18 is just 50%. 18 to 17 is 33,3%. Etc.

Even on Great Weapon Master builds Champion is underwhelming at best, because Larian made it so we use out bonus action for so many additional things, like jumping and shoving. So you’d only notice when you’re stuck in melee already, at which point you probably much prefer a Battlemasters maneuvers or an EKs defenses anyway.

At least the Eldritch Knight has some defensive utility to offer rather than constantly praying for a crit to get any value from their subclass. And throwing weapons builds with a fair bit of flexibility. And can provide additional out of combat utility.

Champion might be the most boring subclass, but this is a really odd way of evaluating an ability. You might as well say HP, ability score, or spell slot increases are weak because each one is a smaller relative increase.

It's a tired and goofy way of trying to use numbers to say a lot of nothing.

Simply put, the Champion has an increased chance of getting a crit. The additional gear helps the Champion achieve that goal. There are *multiple* ways to stack damage dice and create advantage that help the Champion.

Yes, other classes can try for the crit build, but they'll never be as good at it as the Champion, and they're likely opting for other builds anyway, meaning they're using those item slots for other benefits.

If we're calculating the dmg output a feature gives, we need to look at how much additional dmg it gives relative to not having it so we can compare it to other features. Let's do a really simple example:
A greatsword has 2d6 (7) dmg that is multiplied on a crit. On average, that is an increase of 0.35 dmg per attack you make with that weapon if you have a 5% chance to crit, AKA 7 extra dmg per 20 attacks. With 10% crit rate, you gain 0,7 dmg on average per attack (or 7 per 10 attacks), which is twice as much bonus dmg.

Compared to Battlemaster, how many attacks will it take before we go over the value of their superiority dice? Since superirity dice are only used up when they have an effect, we can assume 4.5 dmg + crit modifier. With 5% crit chance, that's 4.725 dmg per superiority dice and they have 4-6 er short rest (and they can become d10 instead of d8 for slightly more dmg, but let's stick with d8). With 4 dice, that's 18,9 extra dmg per short rest. That means it will on average take about 54 attacks per short rest for Champion to earn the same bonus dmg with a greatsword.

But if we start with a higher crit rate, which is not that hard to achieve in BG3 between equipment and elixirs, Champion no longer deals 100% more crit dmg. If we start with 19+ (18+ for Champions) they only deal 1.05 compared to 0.7 additional dmg per attack, which is still just 0.35 more on average. So the value of picking Champion compared to another subclass gets smaller and smaller the better your baseline crit chance is.

Again comparing to Battlemaster, it's now +0.35 dmg per attack for the Champion versus 4,95 dmg per superiority die. So it is going to take roughly 57 attacks to break even with 4 dice per shortrest. The higher the base critical chance is, the more attacks a Champion has to make to break even with a Battlemaster, because the Battlemaster also scales with crit chance.


But let's go all out with a Barbarian 9/Champion 3 Half-Orc with a greataxe. They deal +3d12 dmg on a critical hit and with Reckless Attack they have 19% chance to crit. Which is 3,705 dmg per attack. Swap out Champion with Battlemaster and we deal +3d12 on crits with a 9,75% crit (with Reckless Attack) for 1,90125 per attack. A difference of 1,80375. What if we increase the base crit to 10%? Now the Barbarian 9/Battlemaster 3 deals 3,705 dmg per attack in crits vs 5,41125. That's a difference of 1,70625, which means the relative bonus Champions got is now smaller. All the while, Battlemaster maneuvers slowly get stronger with each increse in crit chance. And this isn't comparing the value of the maneuvers themselves, nor the value of burst vs sustained dmg. Burst dmg is very valuable because the more actions you can deny the enemy the better.

At 19% crit rate (base 10% with advantage), Battlemasters do 5,355 per die. So 21,42 per short rest. That means the Champion breaks even around around 12-13 attacks.

Edit: Accidental math. It should be +3d12, not 4d12. Working on fixing the numbers. Edit: Updated.

This is the only build I can think of where Champion can be good, and it only works at max level because you need Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical from Barbarian (minimum 9 lvls) and you need to be a half-orc. So Champion is literally just a dip on another race/class combo that can actually make use of the incrased crit chance. And it doesn't really work as well with greatswords, since it doesn't increase your crit multiplier, just 1 additional dice last time I checked,so a greatsword crit would be +4d6 and not +6d6. Which complicates the comparison a lot because of all the unique items, where greatswords have some singers.


To apply a comparison to HP, spellslots or ability scores, we have to compare it to what else they could go towards. All HP stack, so it's just a categorically different comparison. But for spellslots, you don't want the spellslots for their own sake; you want them for the abilities they let you use. However, unlike a Champion's crit bonus, spellslots also consistently unlock stronger abilities to use them with and the ability to upcast spells you already have. The more spells and spell-affecting abilities you have, the stronger spellslots become. This is contrary to how Champion works, because the more you can stack your crit chance, the weaker Champion becomes relative to the competition. Diminishing returns 101.

And for ability scores, you can simply do the math for whether increasing them or taking a feat if better, including how various items in the game will affect it. Are you willing to rely on Elixirs for your str score? How many feats vs ability score increases do you actually need? Etc.

A martial with spells isn't a spellcaster who can use a weapon.
It's a martial with spells.
They're meant to focus on the supporty, buffing/debuffing, melee helping, & concentration kinds of spells an actual spellcaster would be unlikely to use. And not the damage & save-or-suck spells a caster likes.

But that was covered well enough by other people so moving to the actual reason I bothered to add comment:

Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are honestly provided (both in 5e and BG3) as the excuse to have Int on a martial. That's their main purpose.
To let you put higher Int on you character for dialogue and roleplay purposes, without having to feel like you wasted your stats.
A build fitting option to go with your narrative desire to play a melee warrior that is smart.
As opposed to stacking Int on a barbarian that will never use it in combat, and make you feel like you gimped yourself.

Paladin, Bladelock, and Bard (if desired) are the excuses for Charisma on a martial, Monk is the excuse for Wisdom on a martial, and EK + AT are the excuses for Intelligence on a Martial.

Your forgetting a very important factor in reviewing crit builds: Luck.
You cannot assume mathematical averages will actually happen. It's frankly unreasonable to assume they will.

For a player like me, a person with substantially bad luck who will always get bad results from any chance based game mechanic, the choice isn't "diminishing returns vs use different option", the choice is "maybe crit sometimes or literally never crit".

KotUMK, Bloodthirst, Deadshot, some cape I don't remember the name of, and a helmet that's a spoiler.
From what I remember in equipment, you could stack your critical roll down to 15 (just from gear). So 25% crit chance. Make it 30% using the crit elixir.
So you'd think in theory one would crit 25% of the time. In practice, they only way I'd have any hope of critting at least 30% of the time is if I had 100% crit chance.

Every source of improved critical lowers your roll by 1, which raises your chance by 5%.
If going from 0-5, I should just stay at 0 because I'll still literally never crit. If going from 5-10, I should stay at 0 because I'll still literally never crit.
If I don't have at least 20% chance, I have 0% chance. Anything below 50% is 10%.

You posit that relative increase begets diminishing returns, meaning that that 5% is worth most when you have none and the more you have the less it's worth.
I posit that because of luck, and the premise that what actually matters is your net total chance, not relative comparison; a 5% increase only actually matters if I already have enough (20%), and matters more the higher the total gets, except for the outlier where the most important chance increase is the one that hits/crosses the 50% chance threshold.
I would never do a crit build without including at least 3 fighter levels for Champion, because that extra 5% is needed for the attempt at a crit build to feel even remotely worth it. A crit build without champion is one where I don't get any crits.

This isn't just thoughts either, I've been getting it in practice.
My most played character so far (and yes, one that's finished the game) is a Goolock Bladelock, because that's just what I chose.
I had decided I wanted to capitalize on Mortal Reminder, so I stacked the items listed above (but replaced one weapon with the weapons that get buffed by being a pact weapon), the Risky Ring for constant advantage, 6 levels in fighter to take Champion and use the fact that Extra Attack actually stacks with the Bladelock Extra Attack, and the elixer.
Guess what still almost never happens. Guess what would happen even less if I wasn't Champion subclass.
Mind you optimizing effectiveness was never the actual goal for building that character. I just wanted to do cool stuff with the features gained from my initial narratively based class choice.

You can't quanitfy luck outside of running averages or running simulations, at which point you'd need to know how the game system actually works in the code or have a very high sample size from the game*. Since no game is ever going to have actually random results as one might expect them unless it enforces the percentages we see over x amount of rolls, it is entirely plausible that my estimations are more generous to Champions than the game is by making the player's effective crit rate be higher than stated. Or by making it lower than stated, because then consistent benefits become even more important.

*Sidenote: Your personal anecdote isn't a good sample size, unless you're logging crit rates as you play. Human memory is very prone to selection bias, so someone who is having fun with a Champion, or already thinks the subclass is good, is likely to remember more crits that mattered and forget more of the times they needed a crit, but didn't get one.

The reliance on luck means that Champions builds are unreliable at best, and the diminishing returns of their small increase to crits means that the same build with a different subclass is likly going to provide more benefits. Battlemasters and Eldritch Knights aren't just doing almost as much avg crit dmg on a crit build with a large enough sample size, but they also provide benefits that are consistent.

Champion is really bad in tabletop and the way BG3 implemented crit stacking makes them worse because it introduced diminishing returns on top of not being good to begin with. It's a wasted subclass that could've been replaced by almost anything else, or been given a proper homebrew treatment, like Beastmasters got.

You want a martial crit build? Build with Paladin, not Champion. You might crit slightly less, but at least Divine Smite is a mechanic that can make those crits worthwhile.

Oh, pretty sure your numbers actually skew in the Champion's favor. A few reasons for this.
1) Riposte. This can result in you getting a reactionary attack on a turn you might not otherwise have one. And that means you aren't just getting the bonus die, but a full on attack, with all that entails. Easily 4x the direct damage benefit from a single die spent.
2) Indirect damage. A prone enemy can result in an ally having advantage, which now lets them hit when they might otherwise have missed.
3) Control/overkill. Say you have an enemy with 10 hp remaining. A Battle Master will not use a move for damage upping reasons there, because dead is dead. But the champion's +1 to crit rate could lead to a crit on said enemy, a hit that will technically do more damage, but damage that is meaningless, pure overkill.

I agree that Champion is kind of lackluster even in tabletop, but I think in game it suffers even more. There are very few things with effects like the Sword of Life Stealing, something that adds value to crits beyond "2h weapon make big number!" So there isn't much itemization that broadens what it means to crit, but chasing crit rate limits your gearing options, so it has a higher opportunity cost. Beyond that, there's the issue of resource management. In BG3, I can whack a room at the Gith base, click short rest, and then go whack another one with all my Battle Master charges available. Table top? That wouldn't fly, because a short rest is an hour long rest. The Gith will interrupt the party before they get that. And that means that the Champion is much more likely to get to the point where the quantity of crit hits exceeds what the BM can do. So yeah, when you can easily replenish your resources, that means "limited resources" is much, much less of a drawback, and it is no surprise then that classes/subclasses that have those mechanics come out on top.