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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thebestjessins" data-source="post: 7517999" data-attributes="member: 6975719">I wanted to build a EK fighter for a new campaign that starts at 1st and goes to maybe 10th but one that focuses on very high survivability, good damage pacing, and the ability desire to tank and kite as much as possible. I haven’t seen a build quite like this yet and through I would share it so others can critique it before the game starts in case I overlooked something.Since this is a build I plan to play level per level I tried to think about how each level will play out instead of building for a specific skill that won’t hit until 7 or 8th level or something like that. The one odd catch is our DM gave us 30 points for our stat buy because the other 3 players are new to the game and wanted to give everyone a slight edge, but not a huge one. Knowing the EK is a bit MAD I am choosing to focus on the rapier and weapon finesse so this is a dex based build. This helps with using a crossbow as a ranged weapon, I can use a shield and gain the armor, and it stacks to help with acrobatics and also higher initiative (which is really important to me in this game since it’s so hard to raise). Then I chose Human variant with points in dex and con and the trait Defensive Duelist (easily clearing the prereq). Choosing the basic outfit of chainmail, rapier and shield, and light crossbow then selecting the fighting style of Defense. For first level my stats look like this:Str: 13 (+1, 5 points)Dex: 16 (+3, 15+1 human, 9 points)Con: 16 (+3, 15+1 human, 9 points)Int: 14 (+2, 7 points)Wis: 8 (-1, 0 pointsCha: 8 (-1, 0 points)Speed 30ftHP: 13AC: 19 base, 21 Defensive Duelist (16 chain mail + 2 shield + 1 Defense fighting style + 2 proficiency bonus on DD)Melee: Rapier +5 atk, 1d8+3 dmgRanged: Light Crossbow +5 atk, 1d8 + 3 dmgOk, so that’s the base 1st level, 2nd level only adds action surge, so that’s that. At 3rd level is where it starts to come together. Take Eldritch Knight, bond with shield and rapier, cantrips are Minor Illusion and Booming Blade, 1st lvl spells are Shield, Absorb Elements, and Find Familiar (for my any spell on list choice). The main idea of the build is to basically spam BB whenever I can, then move back 5ft away from the enemy. This invokes an attack of opportunity but since they can only be melee attacks I’ll pop the Defensive Duelist as a bonus every time to raise the AC up to try and avoid the damage. This forces the enemy to move somewhere to attack assuming it’s melee (which at low levels most are) and triggers the 1d8 thunder damage. A 21 AC is really high for a long time level wise and will go up with better armor and proficiency bonus increases over time. If I’m fighting a boss then I can  bonus action on Shield instead and jump to 24 AC for one round if I need the real save (or Absorb Elements). At 4th level just throw the +2 stat into Dex and bump up to +6 atk and 1d8+4 dmg on melee and ranged attacks. At 5th level it gets interesting because BB does base 1d8 thunder on the atk plus its usual 1d8 on movement of the enemy. But I also get 2 melee attacks per attack action if I want to go that route. So the choice is 2x1d8+4 (15 avg dmg)  for 2 melee attacks or 4d8+4 (18 avg) with BB (at 5th the spell does 1d8 on attack and 2d8 on enemy movement) for one attack if I can kite him afterwards. The thing I forgot to mention is that my plan was to use a familiar to use the help action on it’s turn to give me advantage on the first attack per round when I can almost guaranteeing a hit with the BB versus less of a chance to hit with the second melee action (plus at 5th the proficiency bonus goes to 3 so DD ac rises to a min of 22). I feel I’d rather bet on the more constant damage than chance of missing half the damage but only if I can kite him at least 5 ft. This particular trade only lasts 2 rounds before the War Magic makes it no issue though since I can use BB and then another melee attack.The main plan is to use ridiculous armor score to attempt to kite melee enemies to trigger the full damage of BB and see how it scales with level and other abilities. With using a familiar as help it should hit very often and with DD I should get hit not very often. Once it gets to higher levels I figure enemies will lean on magic and ranged attacks more often and the extra attacks per round might just work better tactics and math wise since if I can’t trick them into moving then it won’t trigger that extra damage. It’s not a big deal to drop to just full round attacks if I don’t think I can kite the enemy, like a wizard or something with primary ranged attacks. Since BB scales pretty well and DD also is based on proficiency bonus I feel like this sort of build might work for many levels. What are everyone else’s thoughts? Am I missing something here that makes this not work that well or does it just sound too gimmicky to be fun or functional?</blockquote>

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