Baldur's Gate 3 Eldritch Knight Fighter Class Build (Arcane Warrior)

welcome back for another class guide video have you ever wondered what would happen if xena the princess warrior had a baby with harry potter you've never wondered that well wonder no more for today we're going to be talking about the eldritch knight fighter class in baldur's gate 3's early access before we get started i want to give a shout out to carmine paulo and crazy pills for becoming youtube channel members and also another shout out to kit over on patreon who's a big supporter of the channel thank you guys so much links to my twitter and my discord server will be below let's get right into it with this build for the fighter class you're going to be engaging in intense physical combat backed up by some powerful wizard spells the combination of both of these types of combat can be extremely deadly and confusing for an opponent this build is meant for those of you who are fighters at heart but enjoy dipping into the arcane arts as a fighter you'll start off with 10 hit points plus your constitution modifier you'll be proficient in strength and constitution saving throws and you will have proficiency in all armor all weapons and shields you can basically use whatever you want and receive that beautiful proficiency bonus for this build though i'll be using medium armor for it allows for the highest armor class in early access and i'll be focused on being a frontline damage dealer with a large heavy weapon you won't actually get to become an eldritch knight and use magic until you reach level 3 so levels 1 and 2 will be solely based on martial damage in character creation you of course want to choose fighter as your class and then your class passive choice should reflect the type of weapon that you want to use since i will be using large two-handed weapons great weapon fighting is the perfect choice here taking this passive will make the game re-roll the dive for you if you roll a one or a two on a damaged eye for an attack with a two-handed melee weapon this will absolutely come in handy and help you dish out more consistent damage since we're focused on heavy melee weapons strength will be our primary ability score and we want a race that will give us at least a plus one to strength allowing us to get our strength ability score to 16 with a plus three modifier races that also offer a boost to constitution intelligence or dexterity will be most beneficial for the eldritch knight the two racial choices that really stand out are the shield dwarf which gives you a plus two to strength and constitution and the githyanki which gives you a plus two to strength and a plus one to intelligence shield dwarf is the better choice here if you really want to max out your stats in early access but i personally prefer the githyanki for they get jump as a racial feature at level three you can also get jump as a spell choice when you become an eldritch knight but keep in mind the amount of spells and spell slots that you have are limited you're not a full-blown wizard now let's talk about assigning ability points there's many ways and combinations that you can go about this as an eldritch knight it's not as straightforward as some of the other classes might be especially in the current build of early access however there are some important things to keep in mind you will want your primary weapons ability to be at least 16 to give yourself that plus three modifier in our case this will be strength in early access the best armor you can get is lazelle's medium armor and to complement that you want to have a 14 in dexterity to get that plus two dexterity modifier which will be added to your medium armor's armor class number if larian adds splint and plate heavy armor to the game then you won't need to rely on dexterity to help with your armor class anymore constitution is always important as a fighter for it helps with hp and it also helps with concentration on certain spells although i'm not going to be using any concentration spells myself so you want constitution to be up there with your strength ability score if possible intelligence is where it gets a little trickier your intelligence modifier will benefit many of the spells that you have access to when you become an eldritch knight but it's also possible and viable to build your eldritch knight around spells that don't actually use your intelligence modifier such as magic missile or spells that serve more as one-time buffs there's also a magical headband in early access that is on an ogre mage in the blighted village this headband boosts your intelligence to 18 simply by wearing it if you want to build your character around this item you certainly can this will allow you to dump intelligence in character creation and use those extra points to boost your other important abilities i typically don't do my builds around magical items in the game for these items can easily be taken out of early access or moved and we're technically not supposed to know that they're even there when you're building your character but with that said this item makes this build so much easier to do if you do plan on picking up this headband this is what your ability scores might look like as a shield dwarf and this is what they might look like as a gift yankee when you reach level 2 as a fighter you get the fighter's classic feature called action surge action surge will allow you to use an extra action on your turn you can only use this once per long rest i tend to get antsy and i usually pop it in the beginning of most of my fights to try to single-handedly take out one of the enemies right at the start of the battle but sometimes it's better to save it for when you need it level 3 is where we get to finally become part wizard as an eldritch knight we get to start off this new adventure by choosing two can trips from a list of 13. even though you'll be mostly engaged in melee combat you probably want to pick up at least one can trip that is range based firebolt is one of the most common choices here it deals one to ten fire damage and even more importantly it sets flammable objects and surfaces on fire it's great to have at least one or two characters in your party that can really take advantage of the environment without the cost of a spell slot ray of frost is similar in this aspect but it deals one to eight cold damage and slows the target and it can also freeze blood or water surfaces if one of your party members already has one of these two can trips fill in the gap and pick up the missing one in terms of the other can trips chill touch and poison spray are very situational so i'd probably skip out on those shocking grasp deals damage and prevents the target from taking a reaction but it's already fairly easy to avoid reactions in baldur's gate 3 through the jump mechanics or by using shove so i probably wouldn't pick this can trip up either in terms of more utility-based can trips dancing lights has proven very useful for myself dancing lights creates wisps of light that illuminate a 12 meter radius at the cost of using your bonus action this is really good because you can light up an area near an opponent in a dark place and still use your action to deal damage i use it in almost every combat encounter in the underdark i highly recommend it there's a couple more cantrips here to choose from but i would say firebolt ray of frost and dancing lights are the top ones to consider that can really help out your combat encounters now we get to pick some wizard spells as an eldritch knight at level 3 you will only have two level 1 spell slots to cast your spells with this will increase to 3 at level 4. to put this in comparison a wizard at level 4 will have 4 level 1 spell slots and 3 level 2 spell slots so the eldritch knight is not nearly as magically gifted as a full spellcaster this is why we put so much focus on strength in character creation we first get to choose two spells from a list of six the one that stands out the most is magic missile one of the best spells in the game magic missile creates three darts each of which deal one d4 plus one force damage you can choose where each dart goes individually target them all on one enemy or maybe use one on a low hp enemy and then send the other two off at a different target magic missile also does not miss it's guaranteed damage there's a few situations where it can be blocked but they are not relevant in early access yet magic missile does not use your intelligence modifier in any way shape or form so if you ever do create a lower intelligence eldritch knight magic missile will operate just as good as if you had high intelligence the other two spells that are noteworthy in my opinion are burning hands and thunder wave burning hands is an aoe close range spell that deals 3d6 fire damage to targets within its cone targets can succeed on a dexterity saving throw to mitigate the damage this spell of course can also ignite anything flammable it's also nice to have an aoe option and burning hands is a good choice thunder wave is one of the most fun spells in the game and it can be really really powerful it will deal 2d8 thunder damage to enemies in its cone giving it that aoe aspect and even more importantly it pushes enemies and sometimes friendlies away if they fail a constitution saving throw so you can literally launch enemies off cliffs even if they're not necessarily close to the edge a successful thunder wave can completely change the direction of a combat encounter and it's just really fun to use it won't always work but even if it doesn't you can still deal that decent aoe damage so i'd recommend choosing magic missile and one of the other two that we just talked about and when you get to level four you can pick up the missing one at level three you also get a choice of one more spell from a larger list of 17 wizard spells at this point i would personally look for more utility-based spells or ones that will buff your character if you're a gift yankee at level 3 you automatically get jump as a one time per long rest action but if you're not a gif maybe consider picking it up as a spell here cast jump before a combat encounter begins and no enemy will be safe from your great axe if you can actually remember to cast it before combat i think it's better than the spell expeditious for tree which allows you to turn dash into a bonus action either way increasing your eldritch knight's mobility is a huge plus and advantage for your party so consider one of these spells another useful spell which is not as combat focused is featherfall which slows the rate of descent for your entire party when they or you are jumping or falling from a high area this can also actually be used in combat alongside jump and you never have to worry about dying from an insanely high far jump and the last spell that i would consider with this build would be false life which gives you seven temporary hit points that will remain until fully rested or depleted by an enemy it never hurts to start your day off with extra hp just keep in mind that it will use up one of your limited spell slots upon reaching early access max level of four you get to choose one more spell from the list of spells that we saw before at level three this is where you would probably pick up thunder wave burning hands or magic missile depending on which one you don't have in this case magic missile is the only one showing for me because i already picked up thunder wave and burning hands you also get the option to choose a feat or use your ability score improvement which will give you two ability score points to spend what you probably want to do here is get your strength score to 18 to get that plus 4 modifier depending on how you originally assigned your points this may take one or two points into strength constitution is also good to get to 18 if you can if you take a look at the feats there are some interesting ones like great weapon master however i don't really recommend taking any of them right now you will have to give up your ability score improvement if you want to take a feat and that's a big sacrifice great weapon master will increase your damage output in a significant way when using heavy weapons however it also decreases your actual chances of hitting your target to help counterbalance this you could have a cleric use bless on you but i wouldn't rely on this in early access but also don't be afraid to have fun and that will be it for the eldritch night class great class and it's going to get even better when the official game comes out when they start adding more spells and stuff like that if you guys ended up enjoying this video please like comment and subscribe i really appreciate it it's a huge help to my videos i do all sorts of content on this channel ranging from live streams to game reviews to game tutorials to lore videos to class guides and much more i'd love to have some of you guys back for a future video until next time

Channel: WolfheartFPS

Views: 108,783

Keywords: Baldur's Gate 3, Baldur's Gate 3 Fighter, eldritch knight, baldur's gate 3 class build, class guide, fighter build, bg3, baldurs, gate, early access, bg3 ea, balder's gate 3, baulder's gate 3, races, wizard, warlock, life domain cleric, ranger knight, beginner's guide, wolfheartfps, larian studios

Id: 77zTCsSSrX8

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020