D&D 5E (2014) sorcerous eldritch knights

[pukunui]

Has anyone tried making a variant of the eldritch knight that uses Charisma and the sorcerer spell list instead of Intelligence and the wizard spell list? Any unintended consequences?

 

[vecna00]

I haven't tried it, but there's nothing wrong with doing so. Give it a shot!

 

[Li Shenron]

Agreed, I don't see any serious problem with the idea. You'll get a different 'feel' in character concept and the PC will naturally gravitate towards more Cha-based skills and checks instead of Int-based, but it will be largely equivalent.

 

[pukunui]

Cool. As an aside, are there any spells that are only available to the sorcerer?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

IIRC, the main differences between the Wizard and Sorceror spell lists are that the Wizard has a few of the more "complex" utility spells than the Sorceror. There shouldn't be an issue with the spell list.

It would probably be regarded as a bit of a power bump, because Charisma seems to be generally more useful than Intelligence overall. I doubt that its actually a problem though.

 

[Xeviat]

Since EKs are limited to Evocations and Abjurations with their spells (outside of the few freebees they get), you'll want to limit which sorcerer spells can be chosen similarly.

Rather than a simple pallet swap, I'd rather see some different effects. Changing up War Magic, Eldritch Strike, Arcane Charge, and Improved War Magic would really get you a different feel, even though those abilities would work perfectly fine for a sorcerer EK.

I think the EK structure could work well for a Templar (Cleric) and Warden (Druid) as well, but again I'd rather see some unique archetype abilities instead of just using the EK's.

 

[Xeviat]

Double post.

 

[77IM]

I think enhance ability is only a sorcerer spell, not wizard. I'm sure there are a couple others but that's the big one for me. And in theory that's a pretty good spell for an EK, but it's not so good that it will really affect game balance.

 

[DEFCON 1]

My Eldritch Knight player ended up making a deal with an extraplanar entity as part of the campaign, so I made all further advancements of his EK use the Warlock spell list rather than the Wizard (plus exchange out some of his Fighter EK features for Warlock features). I found there to be no issues. At least, no issues that weren't just directly related to being an 11+ level character. I always found it was just high-level characters themselves in general that would cause potential overpowering issues than any one specific feature for a particular class.

I'd have more difficulty maintaining balance with six Level 11+ PCs built strictly by the book at the table than I would with four Level 11+ PCs that had class features swapped around because they made for more interesting characters. I'd maintain that just adding one more PC throws game balance off more than changing two to four class features on one particular character.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I think enhance ability is only a sorcerer spell, not wizard. I'm sure there are a couple others but that's the big one for me. And in theory that's a pretty good spell for an EK, but it's not so good that it will really affect game balance.

No cantrips or 1st level spells. At second level, you're correct that enhance ability is available to Sorcerers but not Wizards, as is the EE spell warding wind. Of the remaining spell levels...
3rd: water walk
4th: dominate beast
5th: insect plague
6th: none
7th: fire storm
8th: earthquake
9th: none

The list of spells a Wizard gets, but a Sorcerer does not, is of course dramatically larger.