#Literally the only thing eldritch knight has over this is the 3rd attack & extra feats

[elfboypussy]

6 blade pact warlock / 3 swords bard / 3 battle master almost makes a better eldritch knight than 12 eldritch knight what the fuck 😭

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #70: Scáthach

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making  the queen of the Land of Shadows and Witch of Dun Scaith, Scáthach!

Or at least we’re trying to, because to properly make her, you have to make someone who’s great at literally everything. Don’t worry though, you’ll just have to settle for being very good at most things instead.

Check out below the cut for the full breakdown, or you can look at the character sheet over here!

Note: I’m not changing the build around for it, but Tasha’s added the ability to cast cantrips as weapon attacks to the sixth level of bladesinger, so it might be worth the effort to shift things around to get that benefit.

Race and Background

Scathach used to be human, but now she’s half divine and guards the underworld. Fallen Aasimar would be more flavorful, but Half Elf gives us more to work with, also makes us half human, and will appease any stickler DMs when it comes to level 10. They get Darkvision; Fey Ancestry, giving you resistance to being charmed and immunity to magical sleep, and Skill Versatility, making you proficient in two skills of your choice. Here we’re going with Athletics and Religion to balance your physical and mental skills. You also get +2 Charisma and +1 in two abilities of your choice, here Dexterity and Wisdom. 

Guardian of the Underworld is one hell of a resume, but it keeps you away from the rest of humanity and makes you a lot smarter than most people, so Sage is a pretty close approximation, giving you proficiency in Arcana and History. 

Stats

Make your Dexterity as high as possible- you know where to stick those spears, and you’re also remarkably hard to stick spears into. Second is your Intelligence, you mentor some of the greatest warriors and mages in Ireland, so you’re pretty smart. For that same reason, make Wisdom third. Your Constitution isn’t as high as we’d like it. You’re supposed to be immortal, but we have plenty of ways to make that a nonissue. Same for your Strength, we don’t really need it, but it should be a lot higher than 10. Finally, dump Charisma; you can be hard to get along with sometimes, especially when people bring up your age.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: Starting off as a fighter gives you proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as in two fighter skills, like Acrobatics and Intimidation. You also pick up a Fighting Style. Two-Weapon Fighting will make your left hand just as strong as your right... just as soon as you can dual-wield your spears. We’ll get there. You also get a Second Wind, letting you use your Bonus Action once per short rest to heal yourself. You’ve got tons of runes, one of them has got to be able to heal you.

Eventually, you’ll be dual-wielding spears, but for now just focus on using the one.

2. Monk 1: Hopping over to Monk nets you Martial Arts, letting you use your much stronger dexterity instead of strength for weapon attacks, a d4 for unarmed attacks, and your bonus action to make an unarmed strike after making a weapon attack with your action. You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC of 10+your dexterity modifier+your wisdom modifier when not wearing armor. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to be wearing, but it’s definitely not armor.

3. Fighter 2: Back in Fighter now, you get an Action Surge, letting you tack an extra action to one of your turns once per short rest.

4. Fighter 3: Grab Eldritch Knight as your martial archetype, gaining Spells that use your Intelligence to cast and the ability to Weapon Bond. If you spend an hour performing the ritual, you can bond a weapon to yourself, making it impossible to disarm you unless you’re incapacitated, and you can summon one bonded weapon as a bonus action as long as you’re in the same plane. You can have up to two weapons bonded at once.

For your spells, Create Bonfire and Frostbite are fire and ice runes, respectively. Protection from Evil and Good will make you more of an anti-divinity powerhouse, Shield will boost your AC higher and protect you from missiles, and Sleep’s just useful.

5. Fighter 4: For your first feat, grab Dual Wielder to increase your AC by 1 while holding two weapons, finally allow you to dual wield spears, and draw two weapons at once. Summoning weapons is cool, but maybe you should just keep some on hand too.

For your spell, Magic Missile can be even more summoned spears that always hit their target.

6. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice per action. This adds up to two times normally, three times with your off hand/martial arts, four times with your action surge, and five times altogether.

7. Fighter 6: Use your next ASI to become a War Caster, giving you advantage on concentration saves, the ability to cast spells as opportunity attacks, and best of all, the ability to cast somatic spells with both hands occupied by weapons. If you’re going to dual wield, you better do it right.

8. Fighter 7: With our last level in fighter for a bit, you learn some War Magic. If you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can attack with a weapon as a bonus action. Now you can really mix your magecraft and weapon wielding!

For your spell, grab Darkness to bring a bit of Dun Scaith back to the material plane.

9. Wizard 1: We’ll be heading back to the fighter levels soon, but we’re taking a quick detour for some extra magic power. When you become a wizard, you gain another set of Spells that also use Intelligence to cast, but are kept in your Spellbook and have to be prepared ahead of time. You also gain Arcane Recovery, letting you recover a number of spellslots on a short rest with a total level equal to half your wizard level, rounded up.

You also get a ton of spells at level one, most of which will be your Wisdom of Dun Scaith helping you steal some abilities from other classes. Jump and Featherfall from monks, and Comprehend Languages and False Life from Warlocks, specifically. You also get Detect Magic and Indentify to help you sniff out magical artifacts that you probably already know about. Finally, you get Booming Blade, Chill Touch, and Message as cantrips.

10. Wizard 2: Second level wizards specialize in a school of magic, and being a half-elf qualifies you for becoming a Bladesinger. Bladesingers gain Training in War and Song, a long way of saying Performance proficiency, and the titular Bladesong, which you can activate as a bonus action. It lasts for a minute, and while active you add your Intelligence modifier to your AC and concentration saves, add 10′ to your movement speed, and have advantage on acrobatics checks. You gain a number of bladesongs equal to your proficiency per short rest, and it will end early if you wear medium or heavy armor, a shield, or make a two-handed attack with a weapon. None of those should be issues for you.

For your spells this level, grab Longstrider for extra mobility and Cause Fear because you tend to have that effect on people. Especially your pupils.

11. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. Cloud of Daggers lets you summon a swarm of Gae Bolgs in a 5′ cube, dealing damage to those who enter. Hold Person lets you stun a Humanoid for up to a minute if they fail a Wisdom save each turn, for free advantage on attacks in guaranteed critical hits.

12. Wizard 4: Now that we can finally use spells and spears at the same time, we can use these ASIs for stats. Bump up your Intelligence for more wizard spells, stronger spells in general, and a stronger bladesong.

You also learn how to cast Gust for a wind rune, can Misty Step for high-speed movement, and Detect Thoughts for some more Clairvoyance.

13. Wizard 5: Our last wizard level gives you some third level spells! Magic Circle lets you carve protective runes to ward off or capture extraplanar beings, and Haste makes you anime-character level fast, doubling your movement and giving you an extra action each turn.

14. Fighter 8: Another ASI, this time bumping up your Dexterity for more damage to others and less damage to you. You also learn how to use your clairvoyance to Locate Objects. 

15. FIghter 9: You become Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed saving throw once per long rest.

16. Fighter 10: Tenth level Eldritch Knights can make Eldritch Strikes, imposing disadvantage against the next spell save a creature makes before the end of your next turn when you hit them with a weapon attack.

For your spells, you can Encode Thoughts, making a physical copy of either your own thoughts, or those you read with Detect Thoughts, to literally steal people’s skills. You also learn how to combine your summoned spears with an ice rune to create Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm.

17. Fighter 11: Thanks to another Extra Attack, you get a third attack each action. You also learn to combine your summon spears with a fire rune to make some Scorching Rays. 

18. Fighter 12: Another ASI. Use this one to improve your Intelligence for stronger spells and songs.

19. Fighter 13: You gain a second use of Indomitable per rest, and learn how to carve a Glyph of Warding. It can either be used as an explosive trap, or to cast a 3rd level or lower spell on activation. All you have are 3rd level or lower spells, so that’s not much of an limitation.

20. Fighter 14: Use your last ASI to empower your Constitution for more health and stronger concentration saves. You also get your final spell, Melf’s Minute Meteors, to summon some lasting spears, launching a few each turn as a bonus action.

Pros:

You have a really strong Armor Class, ranging anywhere from 17 with only your weapons to 26 with your bladesong and spear active, meaning you can last for a while on the front lines.

You also have plenty of options for dealing with enemies, ranging from spell-enhanced physical combat to using regular damaging spells.

Finally, you’re really smart, and have great focus. You have a high intelligence score and proficiency in most intelligence checks, meaning you’re always caught up on whatever lore the party needs to know. Your Concentration is also solid, thanks to War Caster and your Bladesong.

Cons:

Overall, the build is kind of unfocused. In FGO, being a good fighter and spellcaster makes you extra powerful. In D&D, it makes you spread thin.

Grabbing all that extra martial ability means you’re stuck with low level spells. Upcasting a glyph of warding to level 5 is nice, but let’s be honest; high level spells are just better.

Your Charisma is pretty low, and you don’t have proficiency in any interpersonal skills. Knowing the right thing to do won’t help much if you can’t convince others to go along with your plan.

Next up: If I had a nickel for every dual-wielding magical spearperson I’ve built, I’d have two nickels. It’s not a lot, but it’s strange that it happened twice.