Best build for battlemage?

[daveyfunk]

Soooo currently I'm thinking choices are:

EK
Strength Melee Wizard
Dex Melee Wizard

With EK I'd maybe go for dueling for first feat as I'd use a shield and would possibly choose half high elf for the cantrip at the start and for the melee wizard I'd choose shield dwarf for the medium armour proficiency, but would still go sword and board.

For EK and strength melee wizard I'd build with 8 int to start and use the headband, but I think dex melee wizard can build legit into dex/con/int

Wondering what people view as the best choice for battlemage at the mo? Think the only way to build an effective build without the headband would be the dex melee wizard?

[GRRz|Snake]

Eldritch Knight !

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/01/01/6101019194588817fb53dbba91f31829.jpg

[LevelSix_SYSTEM]

I plan on splashing Gale with a level of Fighter for heavy armor prof, done & done

I cant remember what all the Eldritch Knight skills were but I think one was bonding to weapon?
Totally not worth losing 6/7/8/9 level spells IMO

[LevelSix_SYSTEM]

But if set on EK then I'd go STR for melee, would be better as you get heavy armor as being Fighter main

[jonnin]

gith wizard take warlock/hex at 4 and you have medium armor, longsword, greatsword, or for dex dual wield short swords, all with extra cantrip damage from hex, ability to learn spells and prepare a lot more spells. EK has few spells and can't do much at level 4. Later, yes, but not yet. Picking armor at level 4 is a weak choice too.

issue: gith can't see in dark, get dancing lights cantrip.

various mechanics..
dual wield dex gets you more from your medium armor racial AND you can offhand stab while using spells as main action. And dex is good saving throw to have boosted. Hex works on the offhand stab, too.

cheese:
wizard has an exploit to learn cleric spells so you can heal too, for now.

str based you can use the healing weapon, and it procs even on spell damage, for now.

weird alternative:
ranger -> wizard splash at 4. Its a better EK, at level 4. Has a better familiar option or the mark and colossus ideas all to play with. Can cast a few odd spells that no one else gets.

[talemore]

You don't need int
You already have free spells

That's a change from the precious editions
Cantrips make Int useless. Why not take the spells who are useful and make it into a cantrip, spam it to the world's end

Add points to dex. Low health progression, low to no requirement into Intelligence and since armor penalties are nullified you may as well use heavy armor and have everything else in strenght

The fact still stand is that wizard is the worst starting class because of the lower health progression. Once you obtained enough health from another class is when you obtain the most bang for the buck

[daveyfunk]

I'm thinking the added bonus of an EK is that there's no action cost to changing weapon and so strongest feats to take would be defence at level 2 and great weapon master at level 4. That way you can use a 2 hander to make your attack and then equip a shield at the end of your turn to give you the +2 AC from shield on top of the +1 from defence. That way you have best of both worlds by being super tanky on the enemy turn but have the advantage of GWM on your attack. I guess that benefits any fighter class over all, but is something that the EK has over a wizard. I mean, in reality it only adds +1 AC from the defence feat as a wizard can equip shield at end of turn, but when they bring in better heavy armour, an EK would be SUPER tanky if doing this

[daveyfunk]

Actually, I take that all back. EK would surely be overpowered with better heavy armour coming in and then choosing dual wielder as feat at level 4. This means you get the +1AC from dual wielder but put your best weapon in your offhand and so you have the action to use a spell/cantrip and then attack using your bonus action. You can either be offensive with a spell/cantrip or weapon attack on action or be defensive keeping something like blade ward up as an action. I think a dual wield EK in heavy armour would be more effective than a melee wizard as battlemage? With the feat at level 2 you could choose two weapon fighter to give a bonus to your offhand attack or defence to get +1AC. I feel +1 AC would be more beneficial than adding +3 to an attack though? That said, with high AC, constantly keeping blade ward up and then cleric further buffing AC, you'd be virtually untouchable from physical attacks and so would be a good idea to build for saving throws.

[daveyfunk]

Originally posted by pandariuskairos:

Heavily armored Warlock.

Yeah, I just get a bit bored of Warlock, personally. You'd need to take armour as a proficiency at level 4 to be able to do spells and so just means you're limited as to weapon in your offhand, but still does give versatility if you duel wield to use EB and then attack with offhand

In that respect though, I find that hunter is probably more versatile where they have hunters mark and also have colossus slayer, which when added together can cause huge damage duel wielding

[jonnin]

Cantrips make Int useless. Why not take the spells who are useful and make it into a cantrip, spam it to the world's end

I believe that many spells require rolls to hit now, and those rolls are tied to int. +4 from int vs -2 for dumping it is a 6 point range, at 5% per point 30% hit chance lost from dumping int (sans set to 18 item). The item lets you do screwy things, but you can't get to 20 relying on it. If I were doing the story, I would have it get stolen in act 2 just to bust the bubble of people dumping int :P

ATM int is irrelevant because magic missile. At some point, though, you may want to hit with disintegrate or something a bit more potent.

[Diablerie]

Originally posted by talemore:

You don't need int
You already have free spells

That's a change from the precious editions
Cantrips make Int useless. Why not take the spells who are useful and make it into a cantrip, spam it to the world's end

Add points to dex. Low health progression, low to no requirement into Intelligence and since armor penalties are nullified you may as well use heavy armor and have everything else in strenght

The fact still stand is that wizard is the worst starting class because of the lower health progression. Once you obtained enough health from another class is when you obtain the most bang for the buck

Lower health is a non issue in bg 3 so long as you rock more armor class than your companions. They will always be targeted more than you.

[guard65]

I just skipped most the build and the feat issues and gave my mage the following item. Of course I lone wolf sniper everything. The rest can wait at camp if I need them.
new entry "UNI_DaisyDress"
type "Armor"
using "ARM_Robe_Body"
data "RootTemplate" "d943c31f-a8c9-49b0-8eba-f120b5075a67"
data "ValueOverride" "4100"
data "ArmorClass" "14"
data "Boosts" "ActionResource(Movement,3,0)"

[talemore]

Originally posted by Pumis:

Originally posted by talemore:

You don't need int
You already have free spells

That's a change from the precious editions
Cantrips make Int useless. Why not take the spells who are useful and make it into a cantrip, spam it to the world's end

Add points to dex. Low health progression, low to no requirement into Intelligence and since armor penalties are nullified you may as well use heavy armor and have everything else in strenght

The fact still stand is that wizard is the worst starting class because of the lower health progression. Once you obtained enough health from another class is when you obtain the most bang for the buck

This comment makes no sense. You do understand that cantrips scale with int?

You don't need to scale anything. Use the spells who don't scale with int

[bullse]

IMHO, the best build currently in EA BG3 Act 1 till ACT 2 reveals the goodies it will have/bestow, is the INT gimmick (you gimp the INT in your build cause you going to get 18 INT once you equip the headpiece INT 18 off the Orges) wizard tank build (aka battlemage cause you walking around in 15 AC Gith armor from Lae'zel) with race being either Shield Dwarf or Gith. And you really want to make it even more stupid of a build, grab the feat that allows you to wear a shield at level 4 and you got a real tank who can achieve 30 AC with Mirror Image). Can solo the entirety of Act 1 with it, hands down.

[Arlen]

Originally posted by Pumis:

Originally posted by talemore:

You don't need int
You already have free spells

That's a change from the precious editions
Cantrips make Int useless. Why not take the spells who are useful and make it into a cantrip, spam it to the world's end

Add points to dex. Low health progression, low to no requirement into Intelligence and since armor penalties are nullified you may as well use heavy armor and have everything else in strenght

The fact still stand is that wizard is the worst starting class because of the lower health progression. Once you obtained enough health from another class is when you obtain the most bang for the buck

This comment makes no sense. You do understand that cantrips scale with int?

Cantrips do not scale with intelligence, they scale with level.

MC - int of 8 light half elf, racial ability cantrip - firebolt - 1d6 damage and creates a surface effect

Gale - wizard - int 16 - firebolt - 1d6 fire damage and creates a surface effect.

Asterion - thief - int 10 or so - firebolt scroll - 1d6 fire damage and creates a surface effect.

[Arlen]

anyway - back to the original claim - modiefiers effect your chance to hit - but does not scale the cantrip. The cantrip does what it says it does, no more, no less, until level 5 when it scales for more damage. So - the claim that cantrips scale with your modifiers is incorrect, as only specific classes, specifically warlock, add their modifier to cantrips to scale the damage. Can a warlock be a battlemage, sure, but the subclass or pact that allows this is not in the game yet, nor is the bladesinger subclass in the game yet as well.

This can be worked around by using scrolls. Not all spells require an intelligence or wisdom modifier to use, fog cloud, silence, sleep, bless, grease all can be used by anyone, and will work as the spell description states, and a few arrows can be used to mimic cantrips. With a little planning at character creation, you can exploit this, as a 12 or 14 intelligence, something you would already plan on doing as if you were building a battlemage anyway. The druid Trader sells arrows and scrolls, which replenish everytime you rest, and can also be pickpocketed rather easily using Asterion, and if you get caught, well, just reload.