Eldritch knight

[Fayt]

Okay I want to make an eldritch knight. I want to go from sorcerer (empyrial bloodline (sp)) into eldritch knight. if I take ten levels in eldritch knight and then level up the last 3 levels as a sorcerer will I end up getting 9th level spells or will it make me take 3rd level spells again?

[Frostfeather]

Yes you'll end up getting 9th level spells.

[Fayt]

alright so eldritch knight levels basically add to my sorc levels for purposes of spells. a level 17 character (10 ek and 7s) going to level 18 (10ek, 8s) will get a level 9 spell despite being a level 8 sorc right?

[Frostfeather]

From memory, it'd be when you go to character level 19 since EK doesn't get spell progression on its first level.

But otherwise yeah.

[Fayt]

oh no I was saying in my 17 to 18 character the ek is already level 10 but im taking my 18th level as a 8th level sorc. will the sorc still get 9th level spells or will they be stuck with 3rd?

[talemore]

Pretty much a pointless class.
Wizards don't need to be to be a fighter.
They got transformation.

[Fayt]

its more about the buffs for it. I generally like to buff myself in games. I recognize its sub optimal but I guess thats kind of the reason to play any class thats not wizard. I suppose you could do that if you wanted too. use only the characters that can be wizards or make mercs to be wizards and only play the game with 6 full on spell casting wizards but that doesn't sound very fun. scum save every time you get caught out of position. apparently the devs thought it would be cool to see wizards (or in my case sorcerers) do melee too because they gave them a lot of melee range spells and buffs for melee damage. I disagree about it being a pointless class, I see it as a suboptimal class but then no one probably played the game completely optimally and personally im enjoying it.

[Immortal Reaver]

You need Sorcerer 9 / Eldritch Knight 10 to get 9th level spells.

Eldritch Knight does not affect spellcasting in it's first level, so it will be 1 level behind.
Sorcerer gets 9th level spells at lvl 18, but EK pushes it to lvl 19.

[FunkyMonkey]

Also, be mindful to get the feat for martial weapons before you want to take levels in Eldritch knight. Also, remember that Eldritch knight doesn't give you any armor proficiencies and if you take armor proficiency through a feat, you still take spell failure chance unless you take even more feats to offset that.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Fayt:

its more about the buffs for it. I generally like to buff myself in games. I recognize its sub optimal but I guess thats kind of the reason to play any class thats not wizard. I suppose you could do that if you wanted too. use only the characters that can be wizards or make mercs to be wizards and only play the game with 6 full on spell casting wizards but that doesn't sound very fun. scum save every time you get caught out of position. apparently the devs thought it would be cool to see wizards (or in my case sorcerers) do melee too because they gave them a lot of melee range spells and buffs for melee damage. I disagree about it being a pointless class, I see it as a suboptimal class but then no one probably played the game completely optimally and personally im enjoying it.

EK isn't supoptimal. If anything, it's a bit op and it's used in a lot of min/max builds.

And 6 Wizards/Sorcerers can be tons of fun. No reloading needed if you do it right - ie high Initiative and a plan for fights that start in an unfavorable position. One or more can easily be tanky enough to fill that role for the few seconds enemies are actually alive.

[Fayt]

Yeah I was mostly replying to the dude who said it was pointless. I know there is a build for linsy which uses ek but why don't they have her go arcane trickster for huge amounts of sneak damage?

[Frostfeather]

Well a lot comes down to group composition, strategy, and just personal preference. Mostly personal preference, honestly.

[Immortal Reaver]

Originally posted by Fayt:

Yeah I was mostly replying to the dude who said it was pointless. I know there is a build for linsy which uses ek but why don't they have her go arcane trickster for huge amounts of sneak damage?

Mostly because she is primary melee tank for builds like that. Mirror Image, high AC. It goes EK for it's full BAB progression, because when you get 16 BAB, you will get 4th attack. That makes her more likely to proc crit, so that melee damage dealers get AoO from Outflank, which can proc another AoO from crit, and so on.

[Fayt]

That makes sense but I'm going to have my mc as a ek, I have regongar and I have harrim so I should be fine on the front line department.

[Fayt]

Originally posted by FunkyMonkey:

Also, be mindful to get the feat for martial weapons before you want to take levels in Eldritch knight. Also, remember that Eldritch knight doesn't give you any armor proficiencies and if you take armor proficiency through a feat, you still take spell failure chance unless you take even more feats to offset that.

I took one level in alchemist to get the mutagen so I could start with max wisdom. The subclass was grenedier so I didn't have to waste a feat grabbing martial weapon proficiency. It means for the first half of the game I'll be a squishy little prankster but I think it will still work out.

[Fayt]

okay okay last question (hopefully) for a while. If I take dragon disciple and I hit max level with it then I got arcane trickster as my next one to level up would I get more EL for sorc or would it go back to whatever sorc was. so 4 levels for sorc to get second level spells, 10 levels for dd (-3 for the level thing) would be 7 levels added on to it making it equal to a level 11 sorc casting even though my character level is 14 at this point. 1 more level for sneak attack. would the last 5 levels from arcane trickster make it 12-16 sorc or would they make it 4-9 sorc?