Eldritch Knights are awesome. They combine the best thing in the game, casting spells, with the most fun thing in the game, stabbing people in the face.
When most people think of an Eldritch Knight, they think of throwing a fireball and charging into battle. This is stupid, since direct damage spells suck and Eldritch Knights can’t fight worth a damn without buffs. This guide is about real Eldritch Knights with real ultimate power and how to play them.
Races
There are a couple good races for an Eldritch Knight. Those are Human and Dwarf for the Wizard Eldritch Knight, and Human and Human for the Sorcerer Eldritch Knight. If you’re willing to play one of the Bad-Touched races, Aasimars works for Sorcerers and Tieflings for Wizards. I don’t suggest playing an Aasimar though, since the Sorcerer Eldritch Knight is a Paladin and a person can only hold so many sticks up their ass.
Classes
There are two kinds of Eldritch Knight-Wizards and Sorcerers. Bards cast arcane spells, but they’re totally awesome and don’t need levels in Eldritch Knight. Wizards take 2 levels of Fighter, 8 of Wizard, and 10 of Eldritch Knight and cast totally awesome 9th level spells like Disjunction. Some people might like to get more levels of fighter and less of Wizard, but they’re stupid because no amount of bonus feats compares to 9th level spells. I suggest being a Necromancer, because for some reason Blind Sight is Transmutation.
Sorcerers take 2 levels of Paladin, 8 of Sorcerer, and 10 of Eldritch Knight. They trade the bonus feats for Charisma to saves and a stick in their ass (this is an unlisted Paladin class feature). Because WotC hates Sorcerers, they don’t get 9th level spells. I’m not sure what they get in return, since spontaneous spellcasting doesn’t matter when you only cast a couple of each spell every day, but I’m sure it’s something. I’d say their higher Charisma lets them get laid more, but Paladins are prudes and don’t get laid. Some of these Eldritch Knights trade 2 levels of Sorcerer (and, by extension, their precious 8th level spells) for 2 more of Paladin to get +1 BAB and Turn Undead, which allows them to get Divine Power or Divine Shield. They can only get one, because Obsidian didn’t fix Bioware’s screw-up that prevents you from taking a Divine feat if you’re not taking a level in a divine class. I suggest Divine Shield, because your buffs should cover you on damage. You could also be a Blackguard, which is totally better because you get to wear cool armor and don’t have to be a Paladin. Sorcerer/Blackguard/ Eldritch Knights get the full benefit of their high Charisma scores which, contrary to popular belief, is not the huge bonus to saving throws but rather the ability to have good social skills despite eating babies and kicking puppies.
A special note for Aasimars becoming Blackguards: You are an Outsider, and contact with yourself is hopefully going to be peaceful. This doesn’t matter in NWN 2, but in D&D that’s a requirement for the class to make peaceful contact with an evil Outsider.
Oh, and your familiar is a Beetle, because it gives you more HP and you’re a warrior. Standard familiar saving procedures apply.
Feats and Skills
The most important thing to do with feats is to download the fix that allows you to take Practiced Spellcaster. Somehow, it also allows you to take Practiced Spellcaster in online games, which is totally awesome. Once you’ve done that, you take Luck of Heroes as your first level feat because it’s totally awesome. If you’re a Wizard, you took a level of Fighter at 1st level (I don’t know how that works either) and get a bonus feat like Power Attack or Combat Expertise or Knockdown. These are all feats you’re going to have sooner or later, so get whichever one you think is going to be most useful at low levels. If you’re a Sorcerer you took a level of Paladin and don’t get this awesomeness. You might be a Human though, in which case you get it anyway. Your 3rd level feat is Practiced Spellcaster because that’s when you take your first level in a spellcasting class. After that I don’t care as long as you get the right feats, which are Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Knockdown, Improved Knockdown, Extend Spell, and Persistent Spell. If you’re a Sorcerer you don’t get Persistent Spell because WotC hates you and you don’t get 9th level spells. You might want to get Weapon Focus, which you take in some two handed weapon like the Greatsword or Falchion. There’s no reason for you to ever use one handed weapons.
The only skills you care about are Concentration, Spellcraft, and Tumble. You probably have more than that, so go nuts and get Use Magic Device and maybe some other crazy things. Blackguards need 5 ranks in Hide for some reason. Why a heavily armored warrior of darkness needs to be able to hide I don’t know, but I don’t write the rules.
Spells
Level 1: You take Mage Armor and Shield and you rock the house. If you’re a Wizard you take Enlarge Person and hit things really hard. Except for Mage Armor, you’ll be using these spells forever, so get used to it. Ray of Enfeeblement is an awesome debuff spell and you’ll be using it later. Magic Weapon is useful if you have the slots to spare, but you probably don’t so forget about it.
Level 2: You get Mirror Image and False Life and people can’t touch you. Then you get Heroism and make up for most of the BAB you lost. Death Armor is silly at this level but gets good later when it doesn’t run out before you finish casting it. Bull’s Strength, Cat’s Grace, and Bear’s Endurance rock the house and you use them a lot. Blind Sight and Darkness is a great combo that makes other people cry. Ghostly Visage is awesome at this level because most monsters don’t have magic weapons. If you’re a Wizard you scribe a scroll of Combust. This isn’t a really good spell, but it lets you set people on fire.
Level 3: Improved Mage Armor replaces Mage Armor. Note that it stacks with the base armor bonus of your armor (which is a Mithral Chain shirt hopefully made to reduce spell failure) but not the enhancement bonus. It gives +6 as of patch 1.03. Greater Magic Weapon is awesome and you love it and memorize it every day. Spiderskin gives you more AC, and you love AC. It also does some other stuff that’s useful and makes you look cool. Displacement is good for one level until you get Greater Invisibility. Haste will be useful once you can Extend it or are high enough level that it doesn’t go away in 10 seconds. You also want Keen Edge. Rage does something silly like give you someone else’s best class feature for a single spell. Level 3 spells are the ones you really won’t have enough of, which is why Wizards are best and scribe lots of scrolls.
Level 4: Even though Wizards don’t get these until level 10 and Sorcerers level 11, they still rock. It has silly things like Stoneskin and Greater Invisibility that make people not hurt you, Elemental Shield which kicks people in the nuts whenever they hit you, Wall of Fire and Black Tentacles that let you control the battlefield, and Enervation which never misses and makes people weaker.
Level 5: At this level you get things like Mind Blank (Lesser) and Spell Mantle (Lesser) and that’s it. You also get Interposing Hand which makes people miss and Firebrand which is the only damaging spell you ever use. You’ll probably use this level for Extended 4th level spells.
Level 6: At this level you can get Acid Fog and Forceful Hand to make people cry, Globe of Invulnerability Etherealness and Greater Stoneskin to make you unstoppable, and Transformation to turn you into a killing machine. You might also use Stone Body prior to using Transformation because it’s not like you’re going to be casting spells anyway. There’s also Greater Heroism which you cast before every fight, ever.
Level 7: This gives you Energy Immunity, which you use for Acid so you can stand in an Acid Fog and not get hurt. Later you use it for Fire and Incendiary Cloud, but that’s still 4 levels away. You also get Grasping Hand to make people stay away, Shadow Shield to protect you from the mean Necromancers, and Ethereal Jaunt to buff up while enemies look around going “WTF?”
Level 8: For protection you now have Protection from Spells and Iron Body if you ever want to risk it. You also get Incendiary Cloud which you stand in while immune to fire and make people take an extra 8d6 damage. Clenched Fist is used to make people cry while you stab them in the face. The only useful Divination spells are at this level, but you took Divination as your barred school and don’t care. Create Greater Undead gives you a friend who helps you stab people.
Level 9: Only Wizards get these spells because WotC hates Sorcerers. You can do fun things like Disjoin people who rely on buffs or Summon an Elemental to help you or use Crushing Hand to remove people from the fight and slowly kill them. You might sometimes use Shapechange, which is like Transformation on crack if you use the right form. If Energy Drain ever gets fixed it’s another awesome debuff, otherwise it sucks and you never take it.
נכתב ע"י Ceilingcat, פורסם באתר NWvault
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