D&D 5E Rune Knight Is The Best Fighter Overall IMHO.

[Zardnaar]

Then again, you might!

It's sutuationally S tier when it matters. Shield is S tier all the time, Absorb Elements is common enough.

PEG is B tier maybe C. Awesome right situation useless outside of that situation.

We're playing curse of strahd beats me why no one takes it. I can't talk I'm the cleric.

Edit.
Requires concentration and better options is why. Order cleric it'd competing with bonus action bless plus triggering an AoO.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's good I wouldn't rate it over ahead or absorb elements. They're useful all the time.

You may not even encounter anything requiring PEG.

Last Time I played an EK I never encountered anything requiring Absorb Elements!

 

[ECMO3]

There are more monsters that PEG effects than there are monsters that do elemental damage which would be mitigated by Absorb Elements.

AE does have the advantage of being a reaction and thereby being better from an action economy point of view, but it is more situational and when it is used it not nearly as battle-changing as PEG is.

Where PEG really shines is against things like Beholders, Mind Flayers, Vampires , Chain Devils etc that commonly frighten or charm you.

For example, a fighter in a fight against a mind flayer is generally a big liability as it is the first guy the mind flayer is going to try to dominate .... and then make him hack his stunned friends to death with high-damage martial attacks and advantage. PEG stops that cold.

On a Cleric it is not the powerhouse it is on another melee character like an EK. Other things a cleric has access to are often better for concentration, including higher level spell options, and Clerics usually have very high Wisdom saves (where fighters are usually very low). With an EK though you do not have a lot of other things vying for concentration, especially because your spell choices are so limited. Witchbolt and Tasha's Brew are the only other 1st level evocation/abjuration concentration spells you can even get with your normal EK spell selections.

 

[Zardnaar]

There are more monsters that PEG effects than there are monsters that do elemental damage which would be mitigated by Absorb Elements.

AE does have the advantage of being a reaction and thereby being better from an action economy point of view, but it is more situational and when it is used it not nearly as battle-changing as PEG is.

Where PEG really shines is against things like Beholders, Mind Flayers, Vampires , Chain Devils etc that commonly frighten or charm you.

For example, a fighter in a fight against a mind flayer is generally a big liability as it is the first guy the mind flayer is going to try to dominate .... and then make him hack his stunned friends to death with high-damage martial attacks and advantage. PEG stops that cold.

On a Cleric it is not the powerhouse it is on another melee character like an EK. Other things a cleric has access to are often better for concentration, including higher level spell options, and Clerics usually have very high Wisdom saves (where fighters are usually very low). With an EK though you do not have a lot of other things vying for concentration, especially because your spell choices are so limited. Witchbolt and Tasha's Brew are the only other 1st level evocation/abjuration concentration spells you can even get with your normal EK spell selections.

Touched think I'll add it to tge list if spells EK takes.

I normally bless the Rune Knight his problem if he gets frightened/charmed etc.

In that scenario we have a plan.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Did have an EK cast absorb elements tonight, but it only mitigated 5 hp of damage. I think they would have been better saving the spell slot for an extra Shield.

 

[Zardnaar]

Did have an EK cast absorb elements tonight, but it only mitigated 5 hp of damage. I think they would have been better saving the spell slot for an extra Shield.

It also does an extra d6 damage. We always forget that part.

 

[ECMO3]

It also does an extra d6 damage. We always forget that part.

It does, and I have benefitted from that, but only rarely because many enemies that trigger AE are also often immune to that type of damage.

 

[Zardnaar]

It does, and I have benefitted from that, but only rarely because many enemies that trigger AE are also often immune to that type of damage.

Yup noticed tgat. Mostly it's casters doing that so they don't really usevtgat part of the doell.

 

[Horwath]

Yes a large portion of foes - elementals, undead, celestials, fiends, fey, and aberations. It certainly varies by campaign, but that is 44 pages of monsters on D&D beyond out of 138 pages total. In addition to the disadvantage on attack rolls, it also completely nullifies frightened and charmed from those creatures (assuming you cast it before their turn). These are two very debilitating conditions on a melee combatant, frightened completely stops movement towards the enemy and charmed stops you from attacking them. That is in addition to other effects that often come along with these conditions when imposed by an enemy (incapacitated, controlled, must run away etc). It turns an encounter from something like a Chain Devil from a very tough fight to a walk in the park for a tier 2 fighter.

IME, it is the second best EK spell after Shield. It is more useful than Absorb Elements, which I would say is the third. All three of those are abjurations and none of them require intelligence, making them ideal on an EK.

A 3rd level EK has two spells to pick from this small list, and a 4th-6th level EK has three spells to take:
Absorb Elements
Alarm
Mage Armor
Protection from Evil and Good
Shield
Snare
Burning Hands
Chromatic Orb
Earth Tremor
Frost Fingers
Magic Missile
Tasha's Caustic Brew
Thunderwave
Witchbolt

What spells would you pick from that list instead of the 3 I mentioned?

If you are running a high intelligence a few of them are decent options, but even those are very situational as these are 1st level spells without slots to upcast effectively, none are good controls spells (even when compared to other 1st level spells) and they are not going to do a lot of damage for this level or any future level.

I'm a simple man;

Cantrips:
Booming blade,
Green Flame blade

1st level spells:
Absorb elements,
Shield,
Silvery barbs,

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It also does an extra d6 damage. We always forget that part.

The target died anyway, so that made no difference.