D&D 5E The Eldritch Knight...what am I missing?

I'm not familiar enough with the multiclassing rules to say if Hemlock is correct (it *looks* right). But if he is correct, EK11/W9 is *far better*

[MENTION=6787650]Hemlock[/MENTION] is correct on the multi-classing spellcaster rules. Not just because I say so, but because Jeremy Crawford confirms the same information via tweets which can be found by web search.

Alright, so then I guess my question becomes this: If I want a pretty equal distribution of melee capability and blasting power, which is the best option among these:

1. EK 20
2. EK 11/Wiz 9
3. EK 7/Wiz 13

don't dismiss other options easily. My bet would be on EK 14, Wiz 6
You get greater wsr magic and 3rd level spells. You also get the level 6 power of the wizard school.

If it were my character, I'd go the EK 14, Wiz 6 route for the reasons [MENTION=59057]UngeheuerLich[/MENTION] outlines if aiming for a character that primarily uses weapons and has magic for buffs and special occasions. Or I would go EK 3, Wiz 17 for what is basically a wizard with better equipment options replacing a few staple spells like mage armor and having a wider selection of low-level spells available.

Not that it's the most optimized blaster, but there's a certain amount of satisfaction as an EK20 hitting 4-5 people with your attacks and then Action Surge for a Fireball all at disadvantage thanks to Eldritch Strike.

So for the closest to a 50/50 mix, it would be EK 11/Wiz 9, for optimized blasting while still having good melee capability?

either ek 3, 7, 11 or 14. Maybe 16 for another stat increase and you don't lose too much on the spellcasting side because you have 3rd level spells from the eldritch knight. For some schools the level 6 benefits may not be worth giving up a stat increase and what else you get with fighter 15. But if you go that high, you may as well take level 17 and 18 too. You still have the big level 2 feature of the mage and access to level 4 spells and a spellbook with quite a few useful spells actually. Elven bladesinger may come to mind as does evoker which makes spamming fireballs trivially easy.

krakistophales said:

So for the closest to a 50/50 mix, it would be EK 11/Wiz 9, for optimized blasting while still having good melee capability?

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Yeah, probably. That lets you pull tricks like Magic Weapon VI or Greater Invisibility in order to make up for not having a fourth attack.

Wizard levels should probably go into Evoker, since blasting is what you're interested in.

The more urgent question is, "In what level should you take these levels?" Since realistically you're never going to hit EK 11/Wiz 9 anyway. I'd recommend starting as fighter and taking one level of wizard as soon as practical, just so you can get access to cool wizard stuff like familiars and Disguise Self. By level 6 you should be EK 5/Wizard 1, and then probably head up to EK 5/Wizard 7 by 12th level, then EK 11/Wizard 7 by 18th level, followed by EK 11/Wizard 9 at 20th. That should give you a reasonably good gishy feel where you're always pretty good at both roles, especially if you know how to properly leverage low-level wizard spells like Blur/Web/Find Familiar.

One downside to this progression is that War Magic doesn't arrive until pretty late, 14th level, so if that's important to you, you might prioritize EK 7 sooner. For me, bonus actions tend to be pretty busy already between GWM/Crossbow Expert/Polearm Master bonus attacks, spells like Flaming Sphere/Animate Objects/Animate Dead/Expeditious Retreat, the DMG Overrun/Evade maneuvers, and whatever else I'm overlooking right now; so for me not having War Magic earlier isn't as much of a loss as you might think.

UngeheuerLich said:

either ek 3, 7, 11 or 14. Maybe 16 for another stat increase and you don't lose too much on the spellcasting side because you have 3rd level spells from the eldritch knight. For some schools the level 6 benefits may not be worth giving up a stat increase and what else you get with fighter 15. But if you go that high, you may as well take level 17 and 18 too. You still have the big level 2 feature of the mage and access to level 4 spells and a spellbook with quite a few useful spells actually. Elven bladesinger may come to mind as does evoker which makes spamming fireballs trivially easy.

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Again, EK 18/Mage 2 does not have access to level 4 spells, only to level 4 spell slots. EK gets his first level 4 spell at EK 19, and if you're going to EK 19 you really might as well go to EK 20.

EK 1, 2, 11 and 20 are the only breakpoints I'd seriously consider. And the first two aren't even really EK, they're just plain Fighter.