D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Eldritch knight abilities?

[jasin]

What are they?

As far as I've heard:

Fighter BAB, d6, good Fort, 2 skill points. Bonus fighter feat at 1st, +1 level of spellcasting 2nd-10th.

Anything else? Any unique special abilities?

Also, they get knowledge (nobility & royalty) as a class skill? How come?

 

[hong]

Hey there, J.

The EK doesn't get any specials, AFAIK. It's like the myst*c th*urge in that respect.

 

[Jalkain]

Eldritch Knights are supposed to be based on 3.0e Spellswords, so I had assumed that they would get some reduction in their arcane failure chance when casting in armour. Is this not the case?

Knowledge (nobility & royalty) would seem to imply that they are in fact noble knights, albeit spellcasting ones.

 

[youspoonybard]

1 bonus fighter feat at first level.

2-10 spellcasting level +1.

That's it in a jiffy.

 

[sithramir]

Did I just hear correctly that I lose 1 level of casting class to gain d6 hps (a feat at that lost casting level) and a fighters BAB? Droooooool.

 

[Chun-tzu]

Did I just hear correctly that I lose 1 level of casting class to gain d6 hps (a feat at that lost casting level) and a fighters BAB? Droooooool.

You also need a level in a warrior class to qualify for the PrC, putting you at 2 levels below a dedicated spellcaster.

Fighter's BAB is nice, but combined with the spellcaster levels you needed to qualify, you're still a few points short of a dedicated warrior. You probably won't be wearing armor, and will need magic items and spells to boost AC, and you don't have the hit points to stay too long in combat.

Overall, seems a pretty reasonable trade-off. It may be a bit more balanced than the Mystic Theurge or Arcane Trickster.

BTW, the Eldritch Knight is not based on the Spellsword. They fill similar niches, though (as fighter/wizard PrCs). The Eldritch Knight is better at fighting and spellcasting, but the Spellsword gets some bonus powers.

 

[Skaros]

You also need a level in a warrior class to qualify for the PrC, putting you at 2 levels below a dedicated spellcaster.

Fighter's BAB is nice, but combined with the spellcaster levels you needed to qualify, you're still a few points short of a dedicated warrior. You probably won't be wearing armor, and will need magic items and spells to boost AC, and you don't have the hit points to stay too long in combat.

Overall, seems a pretty reasonable trade-off. It may be a bit more balanced than the Mystic Theurge or Arcane Trickster.

BTW, the Eldritch Knight is not based on the Spellsword. They fill similar niches, though (as fighter/wizard PrCs). The Eldritch Knight is better at fighting and spellcasting, but the Spellsword gets some bonus powers.

I agree. I love the idea of a fighting mage, so I've been tossing around class combinations and spell choices for an eldritch warrior for the last week or so, and haven't found anything better than mediocre in power.

My favorite for flavor is a paladin/sorcerer, but to take advantage of that high charisma you'd want 2 paladin levels (to get divine grace), and you need 6 sorcerer levels....so you wait to lvl 9 for your first EK level, and you are 3 caster levels behind a straight wizard (2 behind a straight sorcerer).

Then you can't wear armor without failing to cast spells.

Nice prestige class in my opinion. Fun but not powerful.

Skaros

 

[Qvintus]

they dont get any special ablitys

 

[LokiDR]

This seems boring as hell, for the same reason the thurge seems boring: nothing special. Good BAB and lots of spells? So? It might be better than multiclassing but that doesn't make it interesting. At least the thurge has a bunch of spells to play with.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

Loki:

Wasn't there just a quote from one of the WotC people who said, frankly, "Multiclassing is broken for spellcasters. We looked and we looked, but we couldn't come up with a general solution we could live with. So we put in PrC's which sort of generally do what the absent general solution ought to."

That would tend to indicate that they aren't putting these PrC's in for flavor.