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

[Evenglare]

Cool, seems like everyone is on board with this Idea. I'm glad I brought it up!

 

[Prism]

Its what we have done when converting a couple of characters. EK with illusion and transmutation. AT with illusion and transmutation

 

[Piratecat]

We have a warlock with all the sorcerer wild magic stuff, and a rogue/thief with some subbed in assassin and fighter abilities. That's conversion for you. Works great.

 

[steeldragons]

I would say, as far as the "why is it this way/can we do this weithout mucking things up" question, it is primarily a "flavor balance" thing. They put in a "sword & spell" guy, but they wanted or needed it to be distinct from a bard (who gets enchantments and illusions, amongst other things), the arcane trickster (who gets enchantment and illusion), and the blade warlock (who gets a smattering of everything). Makes sense, to reinforce the "fighter subclass" flavor, they would make the make all about "fighting", attacking and defending, i.e. evocation and abjuration (with a smattering of everything else for spells that might fall outside those schools and/or allow a limited utility). 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.

So, long observation short, it's really just about presenting a "subclass" they could put under fighter...a guy with "fighting magic"...but there's no real reason it has to stay that way.

As @Piratecat mentions above, an Elvin EK who is all about illusion & charms is totally a doable archetype with the EK class. I could also see Jedi-esque fighters (which the class as a whole is probably there to foster): flippy acrobatic light-armored warriors with some enchantments (mind magic) and telekinetic-type spells (mage hand, expeditious retreat, jump, etc...) but nothing flashy 'splodey. The Dwarf kingdom's shock trooper "Fire-Knights of the Great Forge" (I'm thinking a Knights Templar-like order/cabal revering Moradin [instead of Baphomet], who specializes in and uses only spells of earth and fire, also known colloquially as the "Magmancers" .

And, as is always my preferred attitude in D&D, if you see something you don't like or want to do differently, CHANGE IT! Specifically, in this case, I see no reason the system will somehow falter or "break" by doing what has been suggested (and just allowing any spell schools to EK PCs).


I don't see or think there is any actual "inter-class power level balance" that is going to be thrown into a tizzy.

 

[Sadrik]

This is fine from my perspective too. It is cool to have the potential to pick any two schools. It opens up EK and AT to doing more cool stuff. I am definitely not in the school of oh just create a new subclass to account for each possible variation. Instead all of it should be handled by the EK. Sure some of the combinations may be different than the Abj/Evo combination but nothing more powerful than that in the main function of the class (front line fighting).

 

[Paraxis]

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.

 

[Piratecat]

I just made a Dex-based Elven knight NPC using charisma and illusion/enchantment spells. Looks thoroughly balanced to me. Fun idea.

 

[AverageCitizen]

What I want to feel like a swordmage or bladesinger is a bonus action cantrip.

Say something that shoves the target at range, does casting ability modifier damage, grapples the target for one round , stuff like that.

That way from the get go any arcane caster can feel like a swordmage, attacking and casting a spell in the same round.

At level 7 they can attack as a bonus action on any turn they use their action to cast a cantrip, which is similar.

 

[Piratecat]

At level 7 they can attack as a bonus action on any turn they use their action to cast a cantrip, which is similar.

Eh. Kind of. The lvl 17 NPC I just built could attack with a cantrip (action, doing 4d8 dmg) and a sword attack (bonus action, 1d8+6), averaging 28 dmg if both hit; or he could attack 3 times with one sword and once with a second (average damage 42 if all hit.) That cantrip better have a particularly badass effect to make it worthwhile.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Eh. Kind of. The lvl 17 NPC I just built could attack with a cantrip (action, doing 4d8 dmg) and a sword attack (bonus action, 1d8+6), averaging 28 dmg if both hit; or he could attack 3 times with one sword and once with a second (average damage 42 if all hit.) That cantrip better have a particularly badass effect to make it worthwhile.

I dunno. Range?