Eldritch Knight 5E Guide | Rules, Tips, Builds, and More

Do you know what’s a pretty good mechanic? Magic. The authors of Player’s Handbook got that down pretty well when they gave the Fighter and Rogue some. The Eldritch Knight are practitioners of magic. While the Champion and Battlemaster honed their bodies to master the battlefield, the Eldritch Knight was doing their homework. They’ve decided to study the schools of magic dedicated to protection and damage to better master warfare. Did that end up being a good decision? Or should the magic users be the only ones dedicated to magic? Let’s find out in our Eldritch Knight 5e Guide.

Best of Both Worlds: Eldritch Knight Fighter 5E

Like most magic-slinging archetypes, the Eldritch Knight is a pretty great choice. Unlike earlier editions, the Eldritch Knight can mostly only learn Abjuration and Evocation, limiting their problem solving capabilities. However, that doesn’t mean the Eldritch Knight doesn’t do a superb job dishing out damage, especially in a frontline role.

Spellcasting

As perhaps expected, the Eldritch Knight can cast spells. Eldritch Knights are known as 1/3rd casters (Wizards are full casters, Paladins/Rangers are ½ casters). That means they only gain up to 4th level spells, and acquire a very limited amount of cantrips and spells known. 

Their cantrips are not limited by any school, but they only get 3 by 10th level. Choose wisely!

Unlike Wizards, whose spells they take from, Eldritch Knights don’t have a spellbook. They commit spells to memory, like most spontaneous casters. Eldritch Knights actually get a similar number of spells known to Sorcerers, funny enough. However, their spells known are school-limited. You get a total of 4 spells known from any school. All 9 other spells must be from Abjuration or Evocation. You are able to replace some spells, but the school limitation applies.

Also, you’re an Intelligence caster. So that’s nice.

The Eldritch Knight suffers just a bit here. Let’s start with Cantrips. Your choices are incredibly limited. In terms of what spells to pick up, you’re going to want at least one offensive cantrip to synergize with later class abilities. If you’re a Melee Wizard, Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade are stellar choices. They use your weapon damage, and have some area of effect. If you’re using a Greatsword, these two are simply stellar. A ranged build could realistically use any other cantrip, from Acid Splash to Toll the Dead.

Your spells are pretty limited. You get a good pool of 1st to 3rd level slots, but only one 4th. Keep that in mind when you pick up scaling spells, like Fireball. Also keep in mind that you’re probably wanting a lot of Strength/Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. Not exactly easy stats to keep increasing at the same levels!

Even so, your Abjuration spells are going to be pretty simple to pick out. Eldritch Knights keep their armor proficiencies, so you won’t need Mage Armor or anything like that. Consider picking up spells that protect you, like Protection from Evil and Good or Protection from Energy. Remove Curse can be effective, but a Cleric or Wizard might be able to use it better. Shield is great early on, boosting your frontliner’s AC to a ridiculous degree. Most other casters can use the Dispel and Counterspell abilities a bit better than you, but having another chance to negate magic is always nice. Synergize with your party; Abjuration is incredibly versatile.

Evocation is… less cool. The issue is that you don’t have the spell slots to keep up with damage. You’ll want to take really good area of effect spells (a la Fireball or Burning hands) that you only use in many-creature combats. Otherwise, your ability to swing your weapon 3-4 times will outdamage most single-target abilities you can pick up.

Weapon Bond

You just got a crazy strong ability! I hope you weren’t expecting too much out of a second level 3 feature.

…you learn a ritual that creates a magical bond between yourself and one weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. The weapon must be within your reach throughout the ritual, at the conclusion of which you touch the weapon and forge the bond.

Once you have bonded a weapon to yourself, you can’t be disarmed of that weapon unless you are incapacitated. If it is on the same plane of existence, you can summon that weapon as a bonus action on your turn, causing it to teleport instantly to your hand.

Left out is that you can bond with two weapons, but only summon one at a time. A third bonded weapon causes one of the other two bonds to dissipate. 

This has wonderful flavor and is reminiscent of the archetype’s past. The issue is that it’s essentially only anti-disarm. If you find yourself imprisoned, you have a great way to arm yourself for the prison break..? But that’s kinda it.

Theoretically, this is one of the few ways in 5E to get a thrown weapons build going, but reclaiming a weapon as a bonus action doesn’t give you enough attack speed to actually do anything. There are aspects of this class that make thrown weapons viable, but they all require your Bonus Action. Dang it.

You should bond with your primary weapon and then just kinda ignore that this exists. If you’re ever captured or put into an unarmed situation, whipping this out can save your party.

War Magic

At level 5, the Fighter can make 2 attacks with every Attack action. Cantrips have fallen to the wayside as a useless commodity, especially since they’ve only scaled to two damage dice. Luckily, there’s another addition to your toolkit!

Beginning at 7th level, when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

As long as you’re not a Two-Weapon Fighter, this is gonna work out great!

The ability to attack after a cantrip leads to a ton of damage. For a Melee build, that’s strictly the case. Green Flame Blade is a weapon attack that deals a lot of extra damage if there’s two enemies. Hit someone, deal bonus damage, hit them again! Fantastic for a Greatsword or Greataxe build!

More questionable is a ranged build. If you have good Dexterity, then Toll the Dead’s 2d12 might not make too much sense. Especially since ranged builds are so accurate for Fighters! Theoretically, you could use this opportunity to cast True Strike before every ranged attack for Advantage, but attacking twice is just as good. In general, 2d12 will probably roll better than d8+5, so run the Cantrip path if you’re looking for damage.

Remember that this uses your Bonus action. If you’re needing to Second Wind, you can’t use this. Action Surge also works weirdly with this, since you don’t get another bonus action with it.

Consider a Great Weapon build if you’re looking for significant damage by level 7.

Eldritch Strike

You’ve gotten 3 levels to really get used to casting cantrips and then stabbing someone; a joyful task. Now, you get some really fun synergy.

At 10th level, you learn how to make your weapon strikes undercut a creature’s resistance to your spells. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, that creature has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes against a spell you cast before the end of your next turn.

Weapon attacks are, shockingly, what a Fighter is good at. A Ranged Build has a ridiculously high chance to hit a Weapon attack – especially if your plan is to do that True Strike idea.

At minimum, you are in a strange loop here. On your turn, you cast a Cantrip, then make a Weapon Attack. Then, on your next turn, your enemy has disadvantage against your Cantrip… and then you make a Weapon Attack. It’s a cycle that potentially ends pretty fast, since they can’t save against Toll the Dead anymore! Well, they can’t save easily, at least.

More importantly, you have a much better time using spells like Banishment to make an enemy’s life painful. Since your Weapon Attack leads into disadvantage, your burst spells suddenly deal a heck of a lot more damage.

Unfortunately, these are only spells you cast. That means your Wizard can’t actually benefit much from this.

Still, use this so you can keep your Intelligence relatively low while still being a good spellcaster. And finally, you get significant Action Surge synergy!

Arcane Charge

Most of these abilities have been strictly aggressive. Now, you can get some utility!

At 15th level, you gain the ability to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see when you use your Action Surge. You can teleport before or after the additional action.

The Fighter’s Action Surge is between 30 – 70% of the reason to take the class. It’s the main reason to multiclass, and resets on any short rest. That means that, up to twice per short rest, you gain a free cast of Misty Step.

That’s… pretty whatever. 

At least it’s flexible. You could dump all your damage into someone, Action Surge, deal more damage, and then teleport and Move to your next enemy. That’s not nothing! It also means you have much greater incentive to use Action Surge to finish off an enemy, since you get to move to your next enemy basically guaranteed. 

It also means you won’t be wasting your Action Surge if you, say, take out the enemy with your follow-up Cantrip. Then, you can teleport 30 feet, move 30 feet, and almost always be next to someone for your weapon swing. Extremely good, in like, that specific situation.

Not bad; make sure you remember to use this whenever you Action Surge! But, its Action Surge limitation is the thing that holds it back.

Improved War Magic

It took literally 11 levels, but you’re finally better at casting a spell and then stabbing someone.

Starting at 18th level, when you use your action to cast a spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

That’s right! Now cantrips aren’t the only thing that have a pretty significant bonus action!

Admittedly, this is a pretty light addition to a spellcast. But a level 3 spell is likely more effective than 3 extra weapon swings… in specific situations.

This lets you Banish, and then get a headstart on dealing with another foe. Or destroy all but one enemy with a Fireball, and then walk up and poke them. 

This is relatively perfect timing for this ability. The only cantrip that could possibly beat out 4 weapon swings in damage is Green Flame Blade with another enemy sitting next to the target. So you’ve probably not been using War Magic in combats for one whole level now. Improved War Magic takes the relative weakness of War Magic and turns it into bonus damage for your actual spells! Evocation has never looked so painful!

Make a good decision on whether or not it’s time to cast your spells, and remember that Action Surge now can mean 2 Fireballs with a Greatsword slam!

Best Race for Eldritch Knight Fighters

Because of the spellcasting requirement, the Eldritch Knight pulls you in 3 directions. First off, despite your spellcasting, please boost either Strength or Dexterity as high as you can. That’s your weapon attacks, primary source of damage, and what defines you as a Fighter. If you’re in melee, consider raising your Constitution to a point where you’re comfortable taking damage. And, of course, raise your Intelligence where you can.

Githyanki

Coming from the Mordekainen’s Tome of Foes are the Githyanki. These psychic creatures might be perfect for Eldritch Knights. You gain a +2 to Strength and +1 to Intelligence (so make sure to get good Constitution!). You get some proficiencies and some free spells that let you solve some problems. Not bad, since your spell selection is so limited at the time you get your racial spells. You do waste Martial Prodigy, but… who really cares? You get so much other good stuff! These magical warriors are perfect for you.

Feral Tiefling

If you’re looking for a ranged build, the Feral Tiefling from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide might be for you. Coming in at +2 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence, the Feral Tiefling is perfect if you want to boost your spells at the cost of relative squishiness. Darkvision and Hellish Resistance is astounding for you; you’ll be trading Fireballs at some points in the game! Finally, if your GM allows you to take Winged over the basic tiefling spells, please do! Free flight is always nice; if you can position yourself well. you can take potshots all over the battlefield.

Best Feats for Eldritch Knight Fighter

The Eldritch Knight has a shocking amount of build diversity. Access to melee damage, ranged damage, and spell slot options makes selecting feats quite difficult. And the Fighter even has extra feats to work with. Let’s talk through a few feats that can be build-arounds for the Eldritch Knight.

Crusher

+1s to physical stats are hard to come across. Tasha’s gave us a few options with Slasher, Crusher, and Piercer. Of the three, the Crusher feat is our favorite. It applies a potent debuff in a positional shift to anyone you hit, and a crit applies advantage to attacks against the target for the rest of the turn. That can really turn the tides of a fight! A well-timed critical hit is almost like you hit a Guiding Bolt on them for every single attack.

That being said, Slasher feat and Piercer are well-worth finding. Slasher is good defensively while Piercer is nothing but damage.

Fey Touched

The Eldritch Knight has access to a couple of spell slots but not many spells known. 13 is not much to count on! By taking Fey Touched, you can get quite a few benefits.

First, you get a +1 to Intelligence. That inches you towards an even number, or rounds you out in the first place. That’s great, since even a few levels of Eldritch Knight provides powerful crowd control options. Pumping that DC is nice.

Then, you get two spells known. Misty Step is a great 2nd level spell. Moving 30 feet instantly, no opportunity attack or anything, is useful. Especially with a class that likes to engage in melee combat like the Fighter. You even get a single slot to work with for free, so you might as well Bonus Action teleport again.

Finally, you get a 1st level spell from divination or enchantment. That’s pretty good. That gives you access to Hex, Hunter’s Mark, or Silvery Barbs. All of those are great spells to have on your list, especially as you inch towards endgame. We recommend Hex, since it’s more difficult to access that then Silvery Barbs, and Hex is usually a stronger version of Hunter’s Mark. The free spell slot is nice to have for a spell that lasts a while, anyways.

Great Weapon Master

Like many Fighters, you should probably consider taking one of the two Accuracy Down/Damage Up feats. Carving a niche in that party means either tanking with a shield (and the Shield spell) or taking that Extra Attack and decimating a single target faster than a Wizard can. Great Weapon Master is one of those options.

It provides the ability to drop accuracy by -5 to boost damage by +10, a massive increase in damage for any build in 5E. Fighters don’t have great access to extra accuracy, but the Eldritch Knight can utilize some specific spells to keep enemies down while you swing for the fences, like Hold Person. But, even if you can’t lock someone down, you can still choose to deal extra damage.

Then, on a crit or kill, you can bonus action to swing again. That’s a good bonus action to have in your pocket, even if it’s very inconsistent.

Metamagic Adept

For any caster, considering Metamagic Adept isn’t a bad idea. By taking this feat, you gain 2 Metamagic Points and access to 2 Metamagic abilities.

Metamagic in 5E is interesting. Even for a class with limited access to it, like the Fighter, getting Quickened, Distant, Extended, or even Careful can come in handy. This feat can come up only once or twice a day, but that once or twice a day is very, very impactful. We recommend Quickened and Distant to allow for the maximum opportunity for you to swing a fight in your favor. Quickened will lock you out of standard action spells, but you can still War Magic twice.

Polearm Master

Polearm Master provides any Fighter with access to great area control options. Whenever an enemy walks next to you, you can spend a reaction to prod them in the head. That’s great, since it lets you have access to your reaction at all times. This is a bit weaker on Eldritch Knight, since you can Counterspell, but that’s a decision you can make on-the-fly.

Then, there’s the extra bonus action. The hilt-butt of the Polearm Master gives you another way to deal damage to your targets. While the Eldritch Knight has very above-average access to bonus actions, like Misty Step, you still want access to a very consistent option. The hilt-butt deals good damage, requires no investment, and deals melee damage. Exactly what a Fighter wants!

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter, just like Great Weapon Master, is the other high-damage option for a Fighter. Similar to Great Weapon Fighter, you can choose to drop your attack roll by 5 to boost up your damage by 10. A really strong trade, and much stronger thanks to the Archery Fighting Style. You already had a +2; a -5 is not that big of a deal. In return, you get to hit like you had 20 extra Dexterity.

The other option improves your accuracy in certain situations, which is fine. No Bonus Action opportunity, but that can be ameliorated with spells like Misty Step. You have choices.

Tough

Tough is an alright option for an Eldritch Knight planning on using their magic to protect themselves. Nice and simple, you get 2 health per level. That’s not great on the surface, but when you think about it, it’s basically like +4 Constitution. And by level 20, that’s 40 HP. A lot of extra breathing room for healers to keep you alive in a fight.

War Caster

If you plan on going for a Sword and Board Eldritch Knight build and tanking the frontlines with a million AC, you can with War Caster. War Caster lets you cast spells while your hand is full, a necessity for most DMs. 

Some might hand-wave the casting requirements and, in that case, this feat is still good. That’s because you get advantage on Concentration checks. Eldritch Knight can cast Haste or Fly or Protection from Good and Evil, so keeping your Concentration there is a good idea. War Caster is the best way to access this, though the Resilient feat is an okay option.

Finally, you can make an opportunity attack with a single target spell. If someone’s trying to get away from you, just lock them down with Hold Person. Really strong option for a melee frontliner Eldritch Knight.

Best Multiclass Options for Eldritch Knight Fighter

The Eldritch Knight, like all Fighters, can work with a few different classes. Here are some of the ones that are uniquely powerful with the Eldritch Knight.

Wizard

The Wizard is the contemporary choice for an Eldritch Knight multiclass. Typically, you only go about 8 levels into Eldritch Knight to supplement a typical core of 12 Wizard. That gives you high durability and some weapon skills. But, more importantly, you get Action Surge on a Wizard. That’s huge.

Even a 2 level dip into Wizard is acceptable. It provides Spellbook spell learning which can round out your spells known. You also get 5th level spell slots and a Wizard school, like Divination. Portent is great for any caster, but at least an Eldritch Knight tends to not have to invest in more Intelligence for it.

Warlock

This is a weird one. By investing primarily in Charisma, you could utilize War Magic as a means to make the Eldritch Blast machine gun. War Magic allows you to make a weapon attack after a Cantrip, and Eldritch Blast will always get to 4 blasts at level 17. This means you can make 5 attacks into a target with, say, Hex. That’s quite significant! With Action Surge, that’s 10 attacks.

By investing in Charisma, you can also get your Charisma to damage for those attacks. A Hexblade can use Charisma for the weapon attacks, as well. Though, this build should probably use a ranged weapon, investing in both Charisma and Dexterity. 

Your low Int is a problem, but can be funneled into buffs and non-attack roll spells, like Shield or Feather Fall. The Fighter’s core abilities are fairly strong and can carry you until your Eldritch Blasts are online.

A weird multiclass for sure. But it’s a fun build with good synergies.

Best Backgrounds for Eldritch Knight Fighter

We appreciate backgrounds that allow our Eldritch Knight to use their Intelligence to their advantage. However, we are also quite careful to see if we can find Perception and other build aspects.

Investigator

Investigator is likely the best thing you can grab for Eldritch Knight. This background, from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, provides quite a few proficiencies that the Fighter otherwise has trouble getting. We like to grab Investigation and Perception here, since they are skills that apply to many different situations. Investigation isn’t on the Fighter’s default list, either.

We also get the opportunity to get Disguise Kits and Thieves’ Tools, two good tools to have in many situations. Then, you get the subpar equipment and a fine background feature. 10gp isn’t great, but is workable. And the background means you get some level of notoriety in most cities. Not bad to have in your back pocket.

Izzet Engineer

This background, from the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, provides the Eldritch Knight access to Arcana and Investigation. These are two of the more common Intelligence skills you are asked to roll, so they’re nice to have. Artisan’s tools are bad in general, but you can get away with Alchemist’s Supplies or a Jeweler’s Kit and have a good time making some money. And learning Draconic can be nice to do for most campaigns. 

Then, you get quite a big pile of random goods! That leaves you poor in terms of gold, with only 5 pieces to your name, but provides you with your tools and some stuff to sell. The basic Feature of Urban Infrastructure is… Fine. Nothing incredible, but does provide some great utility for a heist mission.

Then, there are the Izzet Guild Spells. You can add strong options like Create or Destroy Water, Produce Flame, Heat Metal, and even Call Lightning to your list. Pretty significant for a background.

Sage

If you’re stuck with the Player’s Handbook, the Sage is a good enough option. Arcana and History are good intelligence-based skills for many situations, and getting two languages can solve some problems for you. Your equipment is very interesting, ranging from the dead-useful 10 gp to the mysterious letter.

Your Researcher ability is fun, though will typically only apply to a large city. Otherwise, it’s just another quest to be done. Again, not great, but a fun opener to a campaign with potential to be more.

FAQ for the Eldritch Knight Fighter

What is the Eldritch Knight good for?

The Eldritch Knight adds additional spell slots to the Fighter’s list. For a Fighter/Wizard multiclass, this means you can invest in additional Fighter levels without losing as many spell lists. For a pure Fighter build, this allows you to have a decent ranged option in cantrips, strong defensive options in spells like Shield, great buffs like Haste, and problem solving spells like Counterspell. While not strictly better in fights than other subclasses, the Eldritch Knight still has uses in out-of-combat situations and during combats with swarms of enemies.

Is War Caster good for Eldritch Knight?

War Caster is a good idea to get for any Eldritch Knight who plans to go to the frontlines. The Wizard spell list has a few good Concentration spells, including Haste in the lategame, that the Fighter wants to keep concentration on most of the time. Even then, if you plan on doing Sword and Shield Fighter, you’re going to want to consider getting it just so you can cast without your DM doing any hand-waving.

What is the best weapon for an Eldritch Knight?

The Eldritch Knight tends to be best with a Longbow or Greatsword. Greenflame-Blade is a large damage boost for the build from level 7 to 11, while for a ranged character, you want a Bow for Sharpshooter. Dual Wielding is difficult to do for Eldritch Knight without War Caster, and double Crossbow is difficult without Crossbow Expert.

Example Eldritch Knight Fighter Build

Before we discuss our buildpath, it is important to define what our DM is looking for. They have the following ruleset.

• No Lineages. Our DM wants races to work like they did originally. This closes plenty of doors for us.
• Any book is allowed. Other than the lineage rule, we can pull races and backgrounds from any book.
• Standard Array ability scores. We have to use the standard array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 for our ability scores. This is mostly fine.
• Standard Equipment. No average gold for our goodies. That’s not a huge deal, but does lock us out of Thieves’ Tools.
• No multiclassing. Our DM doesn’t want to deal with multiclassed characters. And, well, fair enough.

So, to start, we’ll build a Winged Tiefling. We want that mobility, that +2 Dexterity, and a +1 to Intelligence. That’s because we’re gonna build our pure Eldritch Knight as an Archer, making good use of that Archery fighting style to deal significant damage from a distance. We could be a frontliner instead, but for the sake of argument, we’re going to have a party of a Hexblade, War Cleric, and Ranger. We’d prefer to have another ranged character in this situation, which is far from impossible for our build.

The background will be Izzet Engineer, providing us Arcana and Investigation. Our Fighter’s skills will be Acrobatics and Perception. We want to flex our Intelligence as well as provide minor out-of-combat utility.

Our stats are important, but extremely flexible. Our plan is to flex our impressive feat access with some odd numbers. This’ll weaken our spellcasting early on, but we do plan on bumping our Int with feats like Fey Touched. Won’t take us too long to be back on track with Intelligence. However, a 16 Dexterity and 16 Intelligence (or even focusing on Constitution instead of Intelligence) strategy isn’t a terrible idea.

5E Eldritch Knight Fighter Build

Race: Winged Tiefling Ability Scores: STR 10, DEX 17 (15 + 2), CON 13, INT 15 (14 + 1), WIS 12, CHA 8 Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Perception, Arcana, Investigation, Alchemist’s Supplies Starting Equipment: Leather Armor, Longbow, 20 Arrows, Rapier, Shield, 2 Scimitars, Dungeoneer’s Pack, Izzet Insignia, Alchemist’s Supplies, failed experiment, Hammer, Block and Tackle, Common Clothes, 5gp Languages: Common, Infernal, Draconic

Cantrips: Chill Touch, Prestidigitation, Toll the Dead

Spells (Abjuration and Evocation): Protection from Good and Evil, Shield, Find Familiar, Darkness, Rime’s Binding Ice, Gust of Wind, Fireball, Melf’s Minute Meteors, Banishment

Spells (Any School): Silvery Barbs, Hex, Misty Step, Hold Person, Haste

Level	Class Benefits	Choices
1	-Fighting Style-Second Wind	Like we discussed earlier in the build guide, we are going to take the Archery Fighting Style. If we were melee, I’d recommend Defense in general, Great Weapon Fighting (only if we’re using Greatswords and not Glaives), or Dueling if you don’t like not doing damage while using a Sword and Shield. I think Defense is better than Dueling personally, but killing people is sometimes better than dodging hits for even a turn longer. However, since we’re the ranged build, Archery provides too much benefit to ignore.
2	-Action Surge	No choices here. However, in general, you should be very willing to Action Surge. A successful Action Surge does so much for you. It could revive an ally, take an enemy out of the fight, or simply bring the fight closer to its conclusion. Action Surge often, especially if you think it’ll get a kill. Fights can become dangerous if you horde resources, especially ones that recharge on a Short Rest.
3	-Spellcasting -Weapon Bond	Oh boy, now things are going to get complicated. Cantrips. You get two cantrips to start, and sadly one of them has to be a ranged damage-dealing cantrip for our level seven. We’ll take Chill Touch so we have some anti-healing for weird situations. We could take Toll the Dead for damage, but our weapon will be out-pacing our cantrip in most situations. Then we can take Prestidigitation to handle out-of-combat scenarios.(As a side-note, for melee Eldritch Knights, take either Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade. You’ll appreciate that when you get to War Magic.) Spells. We’re going to immediately pivot to later game options via Shield and Protection from Evil and Good. These spells will always be useful to us, so having it available now is good. However, we won’t be ignoring damage. Ice Knife is a long-ranged area-of-effect option that we can use to help our allies. Weapon Bond. Bond to a Longbow and a weapon with Finesse, preferably a Rapier. We want our Longbow so we can access Extra Attack and a free hand as often as possible. Our melee option should rarely matter, but we want it to hurt quite a lot when we need it to.
4	-Ability Score Improvement	Feat. Nice and easy, we’ll get Fey Touched. We really appreciate that +1 to Intelligence, and our spell list is in desperate need of some patching-up. While we don’t have 2nd level spells yet, a teleport per day is more than fine. We’ll otherwise learn Hex to deal damage and debuff specific ability checks. Spell. Another spell, though on the limited spell list. Find Familiar will hold into endgame, so we’ll scoop it up. We actually don’t have a stellar scout yet, so having an option for sending something into danger is too good to pass up.We don’t need to tag any spells out quite yet.
5	-Extra Attack	Unlike many spellcasters, the Eldritch Knight does not learn a spell every level. This is a long dry spell, and Ice Knife and Magic Missile are still relatively good value.With Extra Attack, we are safely far ahead of ever needing to use a Cantrip. Well, until we get War Magic, at the very least. You’ll only need Chill Touch for situations where the boss is capable of healing significant amounts of health in a burst.
6	-Ability Score Improvement	Another feat! Here we’ll mend our poor ability scores with +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution. It’s important that we’re landing bow shots for high damage. And, with more health every level, we’ll be in a relatively safe place for the rest of the game. We don’t really need more than this in terms of HP. We’re not frontlining, after all.At this point, Ice Knife is tagging out for Silvery Barbs. This lets us support our allies from a distance and buff ourselves or someone else. Ice Knife doesn’t have the damage to keep up for much longer.
7	-War Magic	War Magic is a weird situation. Let’s say we have a +1 Longbow. Our Longbow deals 1d8+5 damage, with a +10 to attack. Our Chill Touch is a +7 to hit with 2d8 damage. We only want to War Magic when our Chill Touch will be preventing healing. Which is a bit of a drag. But, when you fight someone with a Cleric or another healer? You better be begging War Magic for forgiveness.For melee builds, War Magic is your best friend. Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade are very strong cantrips for damage. Use them every turn you can.We get our first 2nd level Spell. For the purpose of our build, Darkness will allow us to escape from dangerous situations.
8	-Ability Score Improvement	We get to cap Dexterity here. +2 Dexterity is great for us, improving our attack and damage rolls for our primary damage source, as well as giving us opportunities to roll high on initiative.We also get a not-locked spell here. Hold Person is our go-to. Humanoids must save against this or they explode. And, later on, you can use weapon attacks to keep someone locked down for a while, even with our 16 Intelligence.
9	-Indomitable	Feel free to use Indomitable at any time that you’re worried about a particularly dangerous saving throw. Your goal is to avoid missing out on actions. Whether that is paralysis or unconsciousness, make it count.
10	-Eldritch Strike	This is the big reason to be a bow-shooting Eldritch Knight. By being at range, you always have access to a long-ranged way to nuke saving throws. Then, you can follow up with spells like Hold Person. How is anything supposed to save against that? Cantrip. While we love the potential problem-solving abilities of your build, Toll the Dead gives us damage that can theoretically outpace a bow shot. Especially for heavily armored enemies, targeting a saving throw is occasionally handy. Spell. Rime’s Binding Ice, when used carefully, can allow us a lot of freedom to escape from dangerous situations. You can shoot someone, Action Surge, and then Rime’s to reduce their speed to 0 (probably). Our first good Area of Effect option.
11	-Extra Attack (2)	Nice, we get to shoot three times in a turn. There is very little reason to use Toll the Dead or Chill Touch, unless their situational benefits come up. Spell. We actually don’t care much about many 2nd level spells here, but Gust of Wind is fine. It’ll prevent people from approaching you or your Ranger ally.
12	-Ability Score Improvement	Sharpshooter is our go-to here. We invested in Archery Style, we have some limited ways to impose advantage to our attacks through our party. Get those +10s!Let’s take a look at our spells very quickly. Cantrips: Chill Touch, Prestidigitation, Toll the DeadSpells (Abjuration and Evocation): Protection from Good and Evil, Shield, Find Familiar, Darkness, Rime’s Binding Ice, Gust of Wind Spells (Any School): Silvery Barbs, Hex, Misty Step, Hold Person Looking good! We don’t have much damage, but with Hex and Silvery Barbs working together, we likely drain our 1st (and maybe even 2nd) level spells quickly. I’m liking this list overall, though Hold Person’s benefits depend on your campaign. For the sake of our build, we’ll be consistently fighting Humanoids all game.
13	-Indomitable (2/2)	Sweet, we can indomitable again.Wait, what’s that boss music… Spells. Fireball. We get to deck people for 8d6. This might seem low at this level, but it certainly does more damage to multiple targets than our Bow can! And, weirdly enough, area of effect spells don’t really get more damage than this.
14	-Ability Score Improvement	This is another fun level. Feats. We’re at a bit of a loss for feats. Because our build is so reliant on taking people out of the fight for a little while, we’ll take +2 Intelligence. Yeah, it’s a bit boring. But, our goal is to utilize both our magical and physical side to control the battlefield and deal a ton of damage. We’ve gotten the damage, so it’s time for control. Spells. We’ll take Haste. While we have several concentration spells to work with, Haste can be hugely beneficial for our Cleric and Hexblade. We can also use it occasionally to quadruple-attack, if we just want to spam out arrows.
15	-Arcane Charge	Whew! That was a fun few levels. Now, when we action surge, we teleport. Good for repositioning, especially since we can fly.
16	-Ability Score Improvement	Well, we’ve gotten this far. Might as well cap out Intelligence to 20. This maxes out our natural spell save DC, making it even harder to survive our spells after a weapon attack. Spell. We’ll actually take Melf’s Minute Meteors. Since we don’t have excellent ways to access our Bonus Action, this spell can theoretically deal 12d6 damage over the course of six turns. Since we have high Int and can hit them with an arrow first, this damage is fairly likely to succeed.
17	-Action Surge (2/2)-Indomitable (3/3)	Another few levels where spells don’t get added to our list. We get another Action Surge, so you better use these twice per rest!I’m still very happy with our spell list, but feel free to tag out spells as needed for your campaign and party. This is not the most moldable list in history, but every level is an opportunity.
18	-Improved War Magic	You can now Fireball and toss out an arrow at someone. Yippee! In all seriousness, this is a good boost to damage for a turn that is otherwise reliant on Action Surge to be useful.
19	-Ability Score Improvement	Feat and a level four spell! Feat. The floor is wide open for us. We’ll actually take Lucky. Lucky gives us three rerolls and, in the endgame, failed rolls can likely end up with us becoming permanently paralyzed or shoved off of a cliff. Keep yourself safe. Spell. Banishment is our choice, tucking a priority target out of the fight. This can save your ally’s life too, if used correctly. So, we’re just gonna keep that in mind, even if it is a Concentration spell. Most level four spells are, sadly.
20	-Extra Attack (3)	We get another swing, and another spell? That’s wild. Raulothim’s Psychic Lance is our choice, combining our high intelligence with a very strong option that basically requires a Legendary Save. Incapacitation is a hard status to be immune to, so this is a status that enemies will have to save against.

Conclusion – Our Take on the Eldritch Knight

The Eldritch Knight is an absolutely fantastic fighter archetype. Spellcasting is extremely nice, and you actually get fantastic damage potential. Unlike most Fighters, you’re not amazing at swinging that sword, but you’ve got magic to back you up. If you’re missing an Arcane Caster, and just so happen to need a Weapon Fighter, then this is perfect! It’s also perfect if you’re just wanting a fancy 5E Fighter, but perhaps not with a Wizard in the party.