OK, report time. This Saturday, I had the chance to play as a High Elf EK, at level 5. The party was me, a Tiefling Barbarian (SCAG Feral Variant) and a Human Rogue. A few things I've noticed:
- I had planned to be in melee as often as I could, but since the other two also planned for that I could attack from range when needed.
- With Chromatic Orb and Frostbite, it was easier for me to alternate between range and melee, since in a few situations I found myself too far from enemies.
- Damage-wise, I was the worst of the three (the Barbarian was the Frenzy kind, hard to compete). Still, in two fights I was comfortably negating hits with Shield, so I outlasted all of them HP-wise. The only fight where I had trouble was because I got critted by an owlbear.
- For my level 3 spell I chose Find Familiar, and was positively surprised. Always having advantage on your first attack makes for a lot of precision, and scouting was a lot easier.
- The DM was not happy about my massive AC (21 with Cloak of Protection, and 26 when using Shield), but since we were fighting many unintelligent monsters it would be lame if he simply stopped attacking me.