D&D 5E (2024) Breaking The Eldritch Knight (Eberron)

[UngeheuerLich]

You get it a lot earlier tgan CME and it CME gets interrupted....

Not if you take fey touched at level 8 and you get CME with greater dragonmark. Or do I confuse something?

 

[Ancoulainn]

You could also be Khoravar and use Fey Gift to get shillelagh, if other cantrips won't matter that much.

Also, could you carry a shield with this build?

No, you can't. Shillelagh is a Druid spell and has a material component and you cannot use your Quarterstaff as a spellcasting focus to cast Druid spells because your feature says "You can use an Arcane Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Wizard spells" and Chapter 7 makes it clear that you can only use a spellcasting focus when you have a respective feature as it says "the spellcaster can substitute a Spellcasting Focus if the caster has a feature that allows that substitution." Eldritch Knights don't have a feature that allows them to use a spellcasting focus for Druid spells and neither spells from Magic Initiate nor racial spells are added to your spell list. That you have them always prepared doesn't change that. Notice how the Spells of the Mark features of the Dragonmark origin feats say "If you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature, the spells on the Mark of XYZ Spells table are added to that feature’s spell list" and that such a wording is missing when it comes to the Magic Initiate Origin feats.

So, you need a free hand to touch your component pouch which prevents you from using a shield. War Caster doesn't help with that because War Caster only helps with the somatic components, not with the material components. If you want to use a shield, you need to take a level in Druid or two levels in Ranger and get Shillelagh via Druidic Warrior.

 

[Ancoulainn]

If you take warcaster yes

War Caster only helps with the somatic component, not the material component. Shillelagh is a Druid spell and has a material component and you cannot use your Quarterstaff as a spellcasting focus to cast Druid spells because the Eldritch Knight's feature says "You can use an Arcane Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Wizard spells" and Chapter 7 makes it clear that you can only use a spellcasting focus when you have a respective feature as it says "the spellcaster can substitute a Spellcasting Focus if the caster has a feature that allows that substitution." Eldritch Knights don't have a feature that allows them to use a spellcasting focus for Druid spells and neither spells from Magic Initiate nor racial spells are added to your spell list. That you have them always prepared doesn't change that. Notice how the Spells of the Mark features of the Dragonmark origin feats say "If you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature, the spells on the Mark of XYZ Spells table are added to that feature’s spell list" and that such a wording is missing when it comes to the Magic Initiate Origin feats.

So, you need a free hand to touch your component pouch to cast Shillelagh which prevents you from using a shield. If you want to use a shield, you need to take a level in Druid or two levels in Ranger and get Shillelagh via Druidic Warrior.

 

[Zardnaar]

War Caster only helps with the somatic component, not the material component. Shillelagh is a Druid spell and has a material component and you cannot use your Quarterstaff as a spellcasting focus to cast Druid spells because the Eldritch Knight's feature says "You can use an Arcane Focus as a Spellcasting Focus for your Wizard spells" and Chapter 7 makes it clear that you can only use a spellcasting focus when you have a respective feature as it says "the spellcaster can substitute a Spellcasting Focus if the caster has a feature that allows that substitution." Eldritch Knights don't have a feature that allows them to use a spellcasting focus for Druid spells and neither spells from Magic Initiate nor racial spells are added to your spell list. That you have them always prepared doesn't change that. Notice how the Spells of the Mark features of the Dragonmark origin feats say "If you have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature, the spells on the Mark of XYZ Spells table are added to that feature’s spell list" and that such a wording is missing when it comes to the Magic Initiate Origin feats.

So, you need a free hand to touch your component pouch to cast Shillelagh which prevents you from using a shield. If you want to use a shield, you need to take a level in Druid or two levels in Ranger and get Shillelagh via Druidic Warrior.

Its ambiguous and RAI who knows. Rarely enforced anyway as without warcaster you cant even cast shield.

We have errata that basically let's gosh types do their thing. EKs, Valor Bards, bladesingers being gish.

If you have a hardass DM you go skip the shillelagh part.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You could have a staff that is a druid focus at one end and an arcane focus at the other (the end with the knob).

 

[Silam]

You could have a staff that is a druid focus at one end and an arcane focus at the other (the end with the knob).

Or maybe tie up a little bit of mistletoe to your quarterstaff and call it a day?

 

[Ancoulainn]

Its ambiguous and RAI who knows. Rarely enforced anyway as without warcaster you cant even cast shield.

We have errata that basically let's gosh types do their thing. EKs, Valor Bards, bladesingers being gish.

If you have a hardass DM you go skip the shillelagh part.

I don't see how it can be ambiguous or hardass when it's spelled out in the PHB. The PHB tells you that you can only use an spellcasting focus when you have a feature that allows its use. And the feature Eldritch Knights have says that it works for Wizard spells. Shillelagh is not a Wizard spell. It couldn't be clearer.

But yes, they are not always entirely clear or good with English. For example, the Great Weapon Fighting Style says "When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3." and Divine Smite says "The target takes an extra 2d8 Radiant damage from the attack.", but SAC says "For example, if you have this feat and make an attack roll with a Greatsword, you can treat any 1 or 2 you roll on the weapon’s 2d6 as a 3. If you cast Divine Smite after hitting with this attack, you can’t treat a 1 or 2 rolled for the spell’s damage as a 3." If that's what they wanted to say, it would have been easy to say "When you roll the weapon's damage for an attack...".

But regardless, I think that the situation with the spellcasting focus is more than just bad use of English and I think enforcing the basic rules of spell components is like limiting Berserker Barbarians' Frenzy to once per turn or Great Weapon Master to the attacks made during the Attack Action.

But whether it is rarely enforced or not is not really an argument by itself. Even if it were, is it rarely enforced because DMs don't care about spell components or is it rarely enforced because DMs get tired of players not knowing how to play their build and rather let it go than police or argue with them every 2 seconds because the sessions devolved to the equivalent of pee wee soccer? How many players know that casting Polymorph on a raging Barbarian ends their rage because they lose access to their class features? How many players constantly forget that attacks on prone targets from more than 5 feet away have disadvantage, even if it's a melee attack made with a reach weapon or by a Bugbear or Elemental Monk? And then you want to ask your Eldritch Knight on top of that to consider how spellcasting foci work?

Either way, you don't have to if you don't want to. But that would beg the question why people are discussing builds at all if they just decide to ignore rules they don't like and then try to sneak them past the DM. Just say that Hunter's Mark does 10d6 Radiant Sneak Attack damage on every attack and be done with it.

 

[Ancoulainn]

You could have a staff that is a druid focus at one end and an arcane focus at the other (the end with the knob).

Except Eldritch Knights can't use Druidic Foci. They lack the required feature that would say they could.

 

[Ancoulainn]

Or maybe tie up a little bit of mistletoe to your quarterstaff and call it a day?

Jep, that's the solution right there ;-) A little creativity gets you anywhere!

Or use a Ruby of the War Mage which "allows you to use a simple or martial weapon as a spellcasting focus for your spells", but the mistletoe is cheaper and doesn't require an attunement slot.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Except Eldritch Knights can't use Druidic Foci. They lack the required feature that would say they could.

Not even with mistletoe wrapped round it?

NB this is a leg pull.