Second, you can gain an item about 5 hours or so into Early Access that when equipped sets the Intelligence of a character to 18. This of course doesn’t take into account what Cantrips you acquire, and if those are offensive then Intelligence becomes much more valuable to your Eldritch Knight. Of those three things, only Burning Hands requires Intelligence to be effective, and it has limited application. However, there are a couple things about Early Access that change how one might build and Eldritch Knight, for Early Access only.įirst, the limited pool of spells means that you are either going to cast Magic Missile, an AoE Conal spell like Burning Hands, or some sort of buff like Expeditious Retreat.
They need Constitution to give them a large HP pool, and they need Intelligence to increase the likelihood that their spells will connect. AbilitiesĮldritch Knights need Strength for their Attack and Damage Rolls with melee weapons. You’re not likely to use Stealth much as an Eldritch Knight, so I suggest Acrobatics or Sleight of Hand if you want Dex Skills. These are: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. Again, Intelligence-based Skills work well, as do Dexterity ones if you have some points into Dexterity. Skillsįor Skills you can take any you want that are available to you, but you should try to match these to your Abilities. The choice is up to you, but you don’t really need much Intelligence during Character Creation for your Eldritch Knight in Early Access, and I’ll explain why in the Abilities section. They also have a lot more options when it comes to Skills. Githyanki allow you to get to 17 in Strength easily, and increase your Intelligence allowing you to get to 16 here. Shield Dwarves will allow you to gain 17 Strength and 17 Constitution, which means when you hit Level 4 you can have 18 in both of these, which is fantastic.
There are two really good Races for Eldritch Knight that I can recommend for Early Access, and those are Shield Dwarf and Githyanki. These are: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature and Religion. However, taking a Background that boosts Intelligence Skills is not a bad idea. What Background you choose here isn’t super important since Strength only benefits Athletics, and Constitution has no Skills related to it. However, this will hold you in good stead during Early Access.
You don’t have to follow this to the letter, and it’s likely this will change at full launch of the game.
In this section we’ll take a look at how to setup your Eldritch Knight during Character Creation for the best results. Additionally, you can choose up to three targets with it, allowing you to finish off low HP enemies while still dealing damage against your primary target. Magic Missile is one of the most OP spells you can get in Early Access, because things like low lighting don’t affect your hit chance with this spell, nor can the target save or use their Armor Class to protect them. Probably the biggest upside of playing an Eldritch Knight in Early Access, compared to a Battle Master, is the ability to use Magic Missile (which can’t miss). However, these can be used hit targets from far away, or to do devastating AoE attacks when in melee range. In Early Access they will only be able to gain a maximum of 3 Level 1 spells, which isn’t a huge amount.