Eldritch Knight, Effective or Defective?

[NimrodvanHall]

my advise for an eldrich knight would be:
take sorc if you know what you will cast over and over and over again, or wizz if you dont (or really like quickenspell) as usual
(assuming mellee)

on feats:
Arcane strike
extend spell (at high lvl persistant spell)
power attack
practiced spellcaster
(quicken spell if wizard)

on spells, soem things i'd take
mage armor, shield, true strike
mirror immage, wraith strike(CAd), see invis/glitterdust
blurr, haste, fly, heroism, greater magic weapon
POLYMORPH, greater invis, stone skin, fire shield
Improved blink(CA),Tensers instand bar(a spell that sumons an in with 4 gallons of beer and snacks ;p)
Greater heroism, tensers transformation
Gr teleport(no way like home)
Mindblank(always take mindblank;p) moment of prescience
SHAPECHANGE

on gear
spellstoring Greatsword (gotta love a Blinking annishag full powerattacking with wraithstrike, and letting that vampiric touch go off)
a thisledown padded armor (races of the wild) as it has no ASF max dex +10 and allows you to get critt immume

on the party
characters played by friends should help having a great time.

 

[KarinsDad]

my advise for an eldrich knight would be:
take sorc if you know what you will cast over and over and over again, or wizz if you dont (or really like quickenspell) as usual

Sorcerers can use Quicken Spell if they take the Arcane Preparation feat.

 

[xen_xheng]

You can have more caster level if you just play a Wiz5/EK and use the "Militia" regional feat from Forgotten Realms (which gives all martial weapons proficiency).

 

[Hypersmurf]

Another nice combo I've been thinking about is:

Bard 7/Pal 2/Sublime Chord 2/Eldritch Knight X adding to Sublime Chord spellcasting

For maximum effectiveness, you should go into Eldritch Knight on the strength of your bard and paladin levels, then take a level of Sublime Chord (requires 13 ranks in 2 skills which you need to buy cross-class with your Eldritch Knight skill points) and carry on with Eldritch Knight from there, taking at most one more level in Sublime Chord.

Won't work that way. You can only add your EK spellcasting levels to an arcane spellcasting class you belonged to before adding the prestige class. Not before the first level that provides spell advancement, but before adding the class.

You must take the first level of Sublime Chord before you take the first level of Eldritch Knight, or you can only add EK levels to Bard.

-Hyp.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

Won't work that way. You can only add your EK spellcasting levels to an arcane spellcasting class you belonged to before adding the prestige class. Not before the first level that provides spell advancement, but before adding the class.

You must take the first level of Sublime Chord before you take the first level of Eldritch Knight, or you can only add EK levels to Bard.

I agree that Hyp is (technically)correct as the rules are written...but does anyone know if this is actually the intent of the designers? It honestly never occurred to me to read these sections in any way other than with the underlying assumption that the character will be progressing exclusively in the prestige class.

In other words, I have always assumed that the authors don't actually care whether you possessed any levels in the "existing class" when you first took a level in the prestige class, as long as you possessed at least one level at the time you gained the particular benefit of the prestige class (so you would, in fact, be able to apply the "+1 level" to Sublime Chord). The alternative just seems ridiculous to me...but it wouldn't be the first time a rule I think is ridiculous made its way into officialdom.

So...does anyone know if anyone "with authority" has commented on this point?

 

[Hypersmurf]

It honestly never occurred to me to read these sections in any way other than with the underlying assumption that the character will be progressing exclusively in the prestige class.

Oh...

It never occurred to me to read "before adding the prestige class" as anything other than "before adding the prestige class"...

-Hyp.

 

[FireLance]

Won't work that way. You can only add your EK spellcasting levels to an arcane spellcasting class you belonged to before adding the prestige class. Not before the first level that provides spell advancement, but before adding the class.

You must take the first level of Sublime Chord before you take the first level of Eldritch Knight, or you can only add EK levels to Bard.

This is technically correct, but in all the recent examples of PrCs that grant +1 spellcaster level, the wording is changed to something along the lines of "add to a spellcasting class you belonged to before adding the prestige class level".

Note, for example, this excerpt from Five Nations on the Knight Phantom prestige class which is very similar to the Eldritch Knight in the DMG.

While WotC has not issued any official errata to ret-con the PrCs that were published before this apparent change in policy, your DM may decide to do so as a house rule. However, if he insists on going strictly by the RAW, Bard 7/Paladin 3/Sublime Chord 2/Eldritch Knight X or Bard 8/Paladin 2/Sublime Chord 2/Eldritch Knight X makes a decent substitute. You just lose out on one level of Sublime Chord spellcasting.

Or, if you're playing in Eberron, try and join the Knights Phantom instead of becoming an Eldritch Knight .

 

[Shin Okada]

My current character is Paladin 2/Warmage 4/havoc Mage2/Spellsword1/Eldritch Knight 2. Yes just started to be Eldritch knight. But shooting 3 scorching rays at relatively higher attack roll is nice.

Especially when you can do that while swinging a sword and not provoking AoO. And in Mithral Heavy Plate. But those abilities are coming from other classes.

 

[nittanytbone]

Why not take Still Spell to get around the armor limitations?

Yeah, it jacks everything up a spell level, but that could work out ok, especially for your sorcerers who get a ton of spell slots anyways.

 

[Shin Okada]

Why not take Still Spell to get around the armor limitations?

Yeah, it jacks everything up a spell level, but that could work out ok, especially for your sorcerers who get a ton of spell slots anyways.

Not a bad idea indeed. But in case of sorcerers, casting a metamagiced version of a 1 action spell becomes a full-round action. It sometimes causes strategic disadvantages.