Eldritch Knight

[CleverUsername123]

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[Sun Wukong]

It is. But the question is, do you want it to be a shapeshifter or not? How much armor would you like to have? What about spellcasting itself, do you want high caster level or something more dispellable?

[chad878262]

EK can be built a multitude of ways and be viable with or without shapeshifting. Elven can be a W/EK/BS reaching CL29, BAB25 as a baseline. You can also go Dragon Slayer and hit the same, even sacrificing AB for CL (W13/EK10/DS7=BAB 23, CL30). There are numerous other ways you can go, including lower CL with other non-caster progression classes. These are made viable by equipping as a Fighter. An example of this would be F12/W8/EK10 which hits CL17 for 9th level spells. At CL21 (PSC) it is easily dispelled, but gains damage and AB from fighter levels and is perfectly viable, just costs more due to needing to equip essentially as a non-caster (+4 armor/dodge/deflection/natural/shield gear). GMW will still be +5 so don't necessarily need an epic weapon, still can cast all the defensive buffs and can have 'emergency' escape buffs if you get hit with Greater dispel or mords.

It all is very dependent upon how you want to play, but Arcane Gish is still playable and quite powerful.

[Sun Wukong]

Another interesting Eldritch Knight build could be the following:

Swashbuckler 6/Wizard 6/Eldritch Knight 10/Archmage 8, you pick Spell Power III and Mastery of Shaping as your Archmage abilities. You will have caster level of 30, you get your intelligence modifier doubled added as damage against most enemies, and you have the ability to toss AoE offensive spells with impunity.

Cloud spells do not work sadly.

It can be bit slow to level... It shines during epics when you get your double intelligence modifier damage. But you can get by with invisibility spell and quest grind.

[aaron22]

one that i am having fun with right now is a W5/EK10/PM10/DS5. this one is less "powerful" than chad and sun's builds. CL of 27 and BAB of 22. but the fun thing about this one is it is basically un-killable. it is a tough bugger all through the progression and drops the CLs late in the game when you start picking up Auto stills. its a strength based build with a two handed weapon. so damage is decent enough. it hangs its hat on being very hard to kill. you dont need more ac, but can even put on a tower shield and make silly un-hitable even sillier.

think i can swap some BABs for CLs and use BM4 instead of DS. this would get you back up to 30CL and give scars too.

[metaquad4]

I'd do either:

Wizard 6/Blood Magus 4/Eldrich Knight 10/Dragonslayer 10

Which can be either a shifter, or an armored gish

OR

Wizard 6/Blood Magus 4/Eldrich Knight 10/Bladesinger (or Deathsinger, if you want a drow) 10

Which does best with a mithril breastplate. Won't have iron body though.

Both end up with 30 CL and 25 BAB

[chad878262]

think i can swap some BABs for CLs and use BM4 instead of DS. this would get you back up to 30CL and give scars too.

W6/EK10/PM10/BM4 = BAB 20 (thus only 4 APR) so not a very good melee gish IMO. Actually the build you have right now is quite powerful. CL27 is not the worst thing in the world and PM means even when you get dispelled you are still REALLY hard to kill. Still might want to have +4 AC items, but even if you don't, you'll be relatively well protected if you eat a greater dispel or even mords. I used to play a PM gish for a bit, but I eventually RCR'd to something else. It was fun and all, but it really is like having a gish that has Iron Body up permanently so very few area's were all that challenging. I think the only difference for mine was it was W7/EK10/PM10/DS3. BAB only 21, but CL28. With GMW, Greater Heroism and STR of 30 (with Bulls) that a 40 AB. I carried around pots/wands of bless/aid/prayer for when short term AB buffs were needed which allowed for use of PA/IPA (NH wasnt implemented yet or maybe I just didn't think of it).

In any case, as I said, there are a whole bunch of different combo's you could use and still have a viable melee gish. Just try to hit at least 21 BAB and at least ~27 Caster level or try and hit at least 26 BAB and build like a fighter where spells are just gravy if you don't mind the extra cost to equip with epic items.

[Steve]

I enjoy playing a Wizard (7), Eldritch Knight (10), Dragonslayer (10), Cleric (3). Cleric can give some nice perks (Evasion to Expose Weakness if you want!! ) or just to use to gain Feats that qualify you for Dragonslaer.

It has only 26 CL, but according to mrm3ntalist, that should be fine (Hi M3nt!!! ). But 25 BAB and super high STR with Imp. Knockdown and Armored Caster and IPA gives you a punch.

AC:
16 + 2 (DEX +3 item) + 8 (Mith full plate) + 6 IMA + 4 Shield spell + 4 deflection + 5 natural + 4 dodge = 49 (44 if dispelled but using +4 gear and +4 hvy shield...don't forget Displacement cast on Mirror Images for essential immortality)

AB:
32 + 2 (Bull's) + 5 GMW + 4 Gr. Heroism = 43 (+1 Haste = 44; +5 w/ Tenser's = 49; -6 IPA = 43)

DMG:
2-handed: 1d10 + 12 (STR Bull's * 1.5) + 5 GMW = 23 avg. (+12 IPA = 35)

[Groburn]

My build is currently Sorc/EK/Dragonslayer/Thaumaturge.
It was a breeze from 1-30. You only need Vampiric regen weapon unless you want to spend gold for kits/potions and you'll be just fine. You have 2x summons which do most of the work and you help them. Always keep your buffs up and with Ethereal Visage on you can hardly die from non spellcaster mobs. Don't have the exact levels of the toon yet cuz my game is updating and haven't played it a long time. Can come back to you if you're interested. I know that the toon had 5x attacks per round or 6 with haste and cl 29 and can stand his ground even just by himself in a fight.

[CleverUsername123]

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[aaron22]

It can be bit slow to level... It shines during epics when you get your double intelligence modifier damage. But you can get by with invisibility spell and quest grind.

but if you actually want to "play" the game, there are other builds that may work

[CleverUsername123]

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[aaron22]

if you go with SB5 in your EK build you lose 6 CLs from those classes alone. 4 can be made back from practiced. DS loses CLs on the evens so 2,4,6,8 all do not count toward your spell progress. same thing for the PM. BM loses progress on 5 and 10. FM, AM and AS have full progress.

so if you want an EK(need wiz or sorc) build with SB in it. you have to pick the last PrC you want from there and see where it gets you.

Sun's build is pretty good for that kind of build. SB/EK sounds really good but might be too much of a late bloomer to really have much fun with. AM gets you back some much needed CLs without losing much but since it is req heavy, it gets them back late. so you are getting lost CLs back late along with not getting 2xint to damage til epics.......

its your toon. play what you want. but doesnt sound....

viable 1-30

[chad878262]

I play a SB5/W5/EK10/BS10 Sun elf that works great. Mithral chain and rapier (namarra). CL24 at 30 so you want strong gear in case of dispel, but 27 bab so very strong when buffed. 14 DeX (18 with cats grace) and 26 INT (30).

[CleverUsername123]

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