D&D 5E May belong in the homebrew forum but about Eldritch Knight

[Piratecat]

Of the EK's known spoells, only 2 of the 3 starting spells hav to be evo. or abj. When they gain a new spell or spell level, they have to choose evo. or abj. But, at every level up, they can swap out spells and there is no indication of limitation to the schools for that.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but replacement spells outside of abjuration or evocation are specifically prohibited (p 75, just above the "Spellcasting Ability" subheading.)

 

[steeldragons]

Ah. So it is. Failed Int.[Reading] roll. haha.

Right, nevermind that. My general point stands, change it how you wanna.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Not completely true. When you level up, you can swap out your non-Evo/Abj spells you got at 8th, 14th, and 20th with another non-Evo/Abj spell.

Although amusingly... them adding 20th level to that small section of what spells they can swap out is actually kind of silly, because who would ever select their new spell they get at 20th level and then immediately swap it out for another one? No one. So what spell they select at 20th isn't really ever going to be swapped. So in truth... it's only your 8th and 14th level non-school spells you can swap out with another non-school spell.

That being said... even though the book doesn't say you can, as a DM I would also allow you to swap out your 1st level spell that could come from a non-Evo/Abj school with another non-Evo/Abj spell, just like the ones you can at 8th and 14th. But that's just me. It makes up for the silliness of adding 20th level to that list.

 

[Piratecat]

As a quick example, the illusion/enchantment list for my lvl 17 high elven faerie (eldritch) knight:

Cantrips: chill touch (4d8, no healing for a round), minor illusion, prestidigitation, shocking grasp
1st: charm person, shield (+5 AC), silent image
2nd: blur, hold person, invisibility, mirror image, suggestion
3rd: hypnotic pattern, major image, phantom steed (100 ft move)

So he uses prestidigitation and minor illusion as glamour to look particularly shiny and glorious (you could swap in Friends here if you chose), and leans towards blur and mirror image as his combat defense spells. With Eldritch strike (hit a creature, and they gain disadvantage to save against your next spell), he could spend his action hitting everyone he can reach (4 attacks with 2 weapons), then spend his action surge casting Hypnotic Pattern. At the very least, this gives him enough time to pretentiously gloat.

 

[DammitVictor]

Honestly it won't change much even if you take it a step further.

Let them use charisma as the casting ability score and pick either the sorcerer, warlock, or bard list to pick from.
Let them use wisdom as the casting ability score and pick either the cleric or druid list to choose spells from.

It seems odd to me that they use intelligence and pick wizard spells to begin with, but don't keep spell books and prepare spells they function more like sorcerers anyway.

Man, I really like this. Makes the archetype considerably more flexible, and at the same time... you want the best spell list, it gets tied to the worst ability score.