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

Art History major?

Maye, it is definitely something YOU are doing wrong. I have over 2,500hrs and have completed 100's of playthroughs in Tactician and Honour Mode, and my main class is the Eldritch Knight.
People thing they need to be Casters and I even saw someone saying that they should use INT as their Attack Modifier instead of STR but INT isn't even the Eldritch Knights Spellcasting modifier so I already know most of you are using the EK completely wrong as it's spellcasting modifier is WIS!
Furthermore, stop using it as a caster. These are FIGHTERS! It is under the Fighter Class for a reason.
Your main priority when building an EK is obviously STR, WIS, then dump everything into CON, it's that simple.
For those of you who are still confused, I'll make it easy for you.
YOU ARE A FIGHTER

Yeah, you can do incredible things with them. Shield, Fireshield, Mirror Image and Misty Step make your fighter an unkillable machine.

I don't think it's the worst subclass out there, but it's just not as good offensively?

I get the impression it's a more mobile fighter with some ways of being hit less and a couple tricks up their sleeve. I don't think there's some secret multiclass synergy to it. Itemization, yes, it *is* still a fighter.

There's always a subclass that's second or third best. Compared to other weaker subclasses out there, it's still really good if you invest in mobility spells.

(The problem is of course that a monk will always be better than the eldritch knight at the eldritch knight's job, but you can say that about many builds. It can be a fun class that feels good to play. It has a lot of flavour. It's pretty decent, just not OP).

Eldritch Knights use Intelligence as their spellcasting modifier, not wisdom.

Int is for spell save and attack modifier anyway. If you went for EK because of the mobility and defense, you'll never need int

The more I've played the Eldritch Knight, the more I think it's pretty strong. Not only are there great items in the game for the class, but having access to some of the spells is solid.

Shield alone is a great feature. Even if the class only had shield, it'd be tempting, imo.

The biggest drawback to the Eldritch Knight--in my estimation--is the sheer number of scrolls in the game. There are so many that it's not like your battlemaster can't cast spells all the time if they want to.

Scrolls and Items. I think a lot of the frustration comes from thinking you would get a fighter/offensive caster as implied by all the offensive spells in the selection and then realising you are better of sticking to Shield and the like. There's nothing wrong with it, it might just not be what you wanted when skilling into the subclass.

Obviously, folks want a "gish" feeling when playing Eldritch Knight. They want that sense of a fighter/magic-user.

The problem, of course, is that a Swords Bard is better at giving that flavor. Except you have to "suffer" through the music accompaniment. I say suffer because not every player envisions music as part of their fighter/magic-user fantasy.

You also get a better experience playing a Blade Warlock/Sorcerer... except, again, you're forced to deal with flavor elements that might not fit what you're going for.

In my opinion, it's more than reasonable to want to play a Fighter/Magic-user type class that's just as good as the Swords Bard or the Blade Warlock, but with the flavor slant desired. One thing that annoys me about DnD is the flavor gatekeeping.

But that's jsut the thing. You get three attacks per action. If you're using your action on a hold person, that's a wasted action, unless you really can't reach the enemy.

But that's where, indeed, multiclassing comes in. Want more magic, into to Wizard. Especially Abjurers mix *ludicrously* well with Eldritch Knight, though that is again going the Tank route.

A 6/6 Abjurer/EK can haste himself, cast counterspell and shield and everytime that shield procs - you get stacks of Arcane Ward, mitigating damage, which you can even use to protect your allies. Also get 3 feats for your ASI's or fine tuning. And you can still fling fireballs if you really want to.

You are looking at EK just from the '12 levels of abilities on spreadsheet' perspective. However good itemization as you progress, put them on top.

I thought the point of this thread is discussing if Eldritch Knight is a good, maybe even equivalent alternative to Battle Master.

Not if they are on top because at the end of the day EK and Champion are still Fighter and get three attacks per action, resulting in an amazing opening of six attacks with a twohanded weapon in every big battle.

At the end of the day, I'd say yes.

Having access to Shield, Magic Missiles, Thunderwave, Darkness and Hold Person is equivalent to (Or even better than) having access to Battle Master's maneuvers.

It's class features kind of suck (War Magic and Eldritch Strike are simply kind of terrible) with Weapon Bond being marginally useful; Protection against several enemies whom like to disarm, ability to use a couple of bond related weapons and some fringe usage in a throw build (I.e. Utilizing a one handed thrown weapon during Act 1 instead of the Returning Pike so you can dual wield and thus benefit from the Duelling fighting style for +2 damage (Yes, Duelling. Since you only have one weapon equipped when the attack calculation takes place) and utilizing the Lightning Jabber in Act 2)

But the spell access is good enough to warrant use. Even more so if you're considering multiclassing, whereby it's a partial caster that has some useful base spells it can learn while you get your 2nd attack (As well as proficiency in all weapons and armour types).

Champion... On the other hand... Is a 3 level dip for a crit build that wants the +1 crit range and Action Surge...

I'd say it depends on whether eldritch strike works with ranged weapons. If yes, then it could be a nice alternative to the swords bard, using the same combination of arrow of many targets & arcane acuity helmet, but with eldritch inertia adding disadvantage on saving throws. Limited spellbook does not matter, since spells can be cast from scrolls.

Where do you get so many scrolls that you could get to the point that "limited spellbook doesnt matter" ???

Besides scrolls can be cast by anyone in BG3, even the other two Fighters, the nonmagic Rogues, Monks, and Barbarians can do it - though the later not during Rage.

Shops.

Ok.

Then the next question would be: where do I get unlimited money ?

Or are you using theft ?

You can get a ton of gold by looting everything or just multi-class the eldritch knight with wizard.

Depends on the character. I'm a bit confused why you would need an unlimited amount of money, though, since there are no respawning enemies (that I know of) in the game.

There may be no respawning opponents but especially on the first game one wouldnt know what spells one would want to use or how many opponents one would face.