Eldritch Knight Build Questions

[Kael Altreul]

I think Eldritch Knight would be for this, but if something else would be better feel free to let me know. Was wondering if this specific idea was doable or any suggestions for it. I want to do a 1H/Shield Str based Fighter/Arcane Caster. Looking for Offtank melee with support spells and heavy armor. I know about arcane failure and all that and I believe I can nab feats to get around this for most part. Was going with Human for race.

Is there anything that would outright prevent this? What classes should I do to best do this? Start fighter then go wizard and end at EK? What kind of stat spread should I aim for? Thank you anyone able to help me. I appreciate it.

[InEffect]

Guess you could abuse the monk AC bug and go robes +shield to get ASF down if you really want to. Not a single clue why would you if crane wing would cost less feats and provide more AC, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

[CHAO$$$]

Wizard has the fastest spell progression to rank3 (level 5 compared to sorc at level 6). Specialist wizard would be ideal for the bonus spell slots just make sure the opposition schools dont ruin something in your spell selection.

The best spells to look for are mirror image and displacement for survivability in melee. With these you can largely ignore other defense options as long as you dont use him to main tank.

The big damage potential lategame for eldritch knight comes from hellfire ray tho imo - and you need dexterity for that. There are a bunch of early dexterity weapons with agile in the main game (id go for rapier + kill the visitor from pitax during the troll quest but he is missable!!) however knowing where these are requires some meta knowledge. The feat requirement with weapon finesse is very manageable.
Theres also a +2 agile kama near the village next to silverstep lake if you want the monk dip + flurry.
Every weapon class should take 1 level in viv for mutagen + sneak attack. Viv is pretty consistently the strongest level 1 in the game.

Dropping 1 or 2 levels for early melee power still lets you get rank9 spells lategame but it will be delayed which is obviously not great.

The other feat every melee should have is outflank at level 5 or 7? Cant quite remember

Still Hellfire ray has some of the highest single target nuke potential in the game IF you can actually hit it and eldritch knights full BAB helps a lot with that. (You want point blank shot and precise shot feats to get effective +5 to hit for those rays - maybe a ranged eldritch knight would be overall the better option with 1VIV/5WIZ/10EK)

edit: lategame you also want empower/maximize rods. Look out for those in shops , especially during the "festival" even later in the game. Those are half the reason casters are as good as they are damage wise.

[Kael Altreul]

Thank you for the information. Anyone else have anything I should know? Anyone have recommendation on feats or starting Stat spread?

[CHAO$$$]

I forgot sense vitals. Rank2 spell - basically gives a short duration fairly high sneak attack bonus. Should work great with EK regardless of weapon once you catch up with BAB.

Also grease is the best rank 1 spell in the game. Probably should be nerfed.

Outflank is the best melee damage feat in the game (its a teamwork feat tho) available at level 5 i think. None of the other feats are particularly insane. Get accomplished sneak attacker if you go 1viv. Get weapon finesse + agile weapons if you go melee+dex. point blank shot + precise shot + multishot for ranged. Rest is largely preference. Everything that boosts crit later on. For melee crit range is a really good stat. Keen weapons increase crit range, so does the improved critical feat. Check the requirements of feats in the menu. The base crit range of a weapon matters a lot. Only weapons with a base crit range of 18-20 will go up to 15-20 with keen.

Max int, max primary damage stat.

There are some persuasion checks in the game that are MC only.

[Zuul]

It’s not the build you’re looking for since you want sword and board...but I’ve always been partial to scaled fist monk/sorc/dragon disciple. You definitely remain a support caster...but you can stack a good hunk of AC, hit like a ton of bricks once you pick up dragon ferocity, and with the silly str bonus you wind up with and the extra attack from flurry the BAB progression isn’t even that bad.

I only even mention it because it sounds somewhat like the play style you’re looking for.

(You can even throw in 2 levels of pally to get silly saving throws too, but that’s almost too much dilution)

[belangf]

You don`t actually need to have fighter levels for Eldrich Knight. You just need the Martial weapons proficiency, which you can take as one of your feat. You can simply take 5 levels of Wizard and then go EK. This will maximize you caster level.

Although if you want to use shield you also need to take the proficiency feat separately for that. Starting with 1 lvl of a martial class will allow you to take more useful feats, but you lose 1 caster level.

[Kael Altreul]

Thanks everyone. Was thinking STR based. Not sure about items or what have you to boost my stats after starting other than simply maxing int and pushing my STR way up leftover in con.

Fighter lvl 1 was mainly for weapons, shield, armor skills, and 2+1 feats(human). It was a nice way to get all of those little things in a nice package. Starting feats I should rush the two arcane training so once I hit level 2(and get my wizard 1) I don't have to worry about failing non stop... Right?

My first consideration was starting wiz 5 like poster said and I was aware of the weapon feat changes from pnp, but I wanted tooany of the fighter starting stuff so settled on current idea.

The scaled fist ectect I considered and that is similar to another character idea I planned to run later which is why I am holding off on that avenue, for now.

If it's STR based any specific must have feats? Combat casting and similar combat/melee related magic fears seemed like obvious choices. If 1h/shield didn't pan out my backup was pretty much to go for a reach weapon and try to maximize those attack of opportunity moments.