Do I Want My Good Dragon Boy to Become a Little Steampunk?

For about a year, we've had a home game in which I've played Jax Sardare, a Blue Dragonborn Eldritch Knight Fighter (with a Sage background.)

He is, along with the group's Paladin, one of the tanks of the group. I've got a +1 shield, Splint Mail (Plate is SO EXPENSIVE, guys) and the defensive fighting style, which currently has his AC up to 21, and he has Shield to cast if anything actually hits him (he also has Absorb Elements to deal with Fireballs and such.)

Now, I've always liked the idea of a Battlemage - a heavily-armored battlefield warrior who can call upon arcane magic - mechanically it's something you can often find in Paladins, but I like the arcane, wizard-y flavor of this version better.

I really can't complain too much about the Eldritch Knight, which has proven to be quite the juggernaut and capable of dishing out a decent amount of damage. (He's level 6, so I'm looking forward to leveling up so he can get War Magic and thus Booming Blade for 2d8+4 and then strike again for 1d8+4 - and of course also looking forward to the next level so I can cap his strength.)

I think the character could be perfectly viable sticking with EK all the way to 20 (if we were ever to get there.) The character's backstory would also make it make sense for him to multiclass into Wizard at some point, as he'd always had ambitions to be more of a master of magic than just a fighter.

Of course, the Artificer has come along to distract me with its new hotness, and so now I'm contemplating multiclassing into that instead or as well (I could, of course, possibly go with a Fighter/Artificer/Wizard build.)

Jax currently has 18 Strength, 14 Intelligence, and 14 Constitution, so he meets the requirements for all the multiclassing and can also happily wear the heaviest of armors.

There's also a question of what his ultimate role for the group is.

I've really played him mostly as the group's tank, focusing on making him unhittable (our DM seems to crit me with shocking regularity, which my more paranoid imaginings suggest she's frustrated at all the Shielding I do, which by this point gives him an effective AC of 26, and thus fudges things, though I don't actually believe that.) Of course, with a +0 to both Wisdom and Dex, there are certainly some vulnerabilities he has (really hoping our Paladin hits 6 soon so I can stand next to him for his beautiful aura.)

So Jax is there to be the immovable object, and admittedly, multiclassing into anything is probably not going to make him tankier.

For one thing, Artificers have a lower hit die and Wizards' are even lower - I'm giving up effectively one or two max HP for every level I put in those respective classes.

The other thing that makes me hesitate is that Fighters get additional Ability Score Improvements. I've used two of these so far, but there are 5 more for me to take, which would allow me to potentially get my CON or INT up to 20 and the other up to 18, or of course I could get some Feats (resilient Wisdom feels like a useful one, and Warcaster feels almost mandatory - Booming Blade as an opportunity attack? Isn't that nasty? That's what, 4d8+4 damage immediately, and more as I level up?)

If I were to MC into Wizard or Artificer, there are only 5, and only 3 I'd have access to given my existing 6-level investment into Fighter. Naturally I think I'd wait until I had 8 levels of Fighter so I could get by 3rd Fighter ASI, which would leave 3 from the other classes. So six, or rather three left. So Strength is maxed and then I could either bump both INT and CON to 16 and get Warcaster or favor one or the other.

Now, let's talk spells and features.

EKs are "Third Casters," I believe, and so I was never going to get super powerful spellcasting. If we assume I'm going to 8 in Fighter, that gives me only two levels as a caster (I could get 3 if I put another level into the class, but that might not be so useful just for spells.)

If we put the next twelve levels into playing a Wizard, the total "Spellcaster" level would be 14, which would mean I could eventually have 7th level spells, but never 8th or 9th.

The real benefit, I think, of going Wizard is that I could get a Spellbook, which would allow me to swap out spells much more easily (even with a single-level dip) especially given that all my EK spells are Wizard spells anyway. 12 levels of Wizard would also mean getting all but the final Arcane Tradition feature, and no Signature Spells. Ritual Casting could also be very nice.

Given that the character was originally built to be a kind of "Time Cop," enforcing the proper timeline (though we're nowhere near that tier of play just yet,) I think having advanced spellcasting could be very good, and something like Divination (Portent is pretty darn powerful, folks) would be quite good.

Of course, my focus is already very Strength-based, and I only have a +2 to Intelligence. Granted, I could focus on a lot of spells that don't care about spellcasting ability, but it does hobble things a little. I'd need to either spend every ASI to get Int to 20 (which means no Warcaster) or resign myself to not quite maxing out his spells (unless we come across those books that raise your skills.)

Now, let's say we go Artificer. Again, assuming we get to 8 in Fighter, that leaves 12 levels of Artifcer, which means by level 20, we're an 8th level spellcaster. This gives us only 4th level spells, which is where EKs cap out anyway, so that might be notable - there's no real advantage in terms of spellcasting here. If I were to just immediately go into Artificer, forgoing War Magic and my level 8 ASI, I could get 14 levels of Artificer and thus be a 9th level spellcaster, with 5th level spells (again, right at 20, mind you.) Now, this would get us plenty of cool Artificer abilities, including Magic Item Savant (5 attuned items and no restrictions on what you can attune to) and all of their Arcane Infusions.

It's interesting.

We'd also have to consider which subclass to go for. Going Battle-Smith feels the most natural for a melee-fighter, but on the other hand, the ability to use Intelligence for attack rolls is less exciting when you already have 18 or potentially 20 strength, likewise the Extra Attack feature. So the only real benefit of the Battle-Smith is getting smite-like spells and the robot buddy (which, to be fair, is pretty darn cool.)

I could go Alchemist, which would give me some healing capabilities, but with a Cleric and a Paladin in the party, I'm not sure how much we really need that.

As an Artillerist, we'd get some bigger ranged nukes, and given that our only ranged arcane caster is a Warlock (great single-target damage, a bit more limited for AOE) that might be something we could use.

Now, what about mix-and-matching?

First off, what in the Figher would I be missing? The extra ASIs are definitely nice.

Eldritch Knights also get some cool things, like Arcane Charge (which allows them to teleport after they use Action Surge.) And Indomitable feels pretty important to deal with nasty abilities that require saving throws.

The additional extra attacks seem really fun, though perhaps with War Magic that's less important (Booming Blade is going to level up regardless of what classes I pour levels into, so while multiple attacks from the weapon are going to be better thanks to the additional Strength bonuses, by 17 I will be doing 4d8+5 and then 1d8+5 if I hit with both Booming Blade and the War Magic bonus attack. So that's 32.5 mix of slashing and thunder on average versus 38 slashing with four attacks at level 20. (Yes, the Booming Blade will also do an additional 4d8 thunder if the target moves, but that has never happened - it seems to work more as a deterrent than a real damage source.))

Of course, the loss of health is also a bit sad.

So right now, I'm thinking that this build just might not be right for the character I'm playing. I think a dip into Wizard might work out, and with three levels of Wizard I'd get up to 5th level spells, not to mention a Spellbook and Ritual Casting.

I think we've got some time before I really need to make this decision (or possibly ask a friendly DM to let me re-do some of my leveling. It is a home game after all, and if Matt Mercer was willing to let Travis bump up his Strength to 13 so Fjord could become a Paladin, maybe I can do something similar!)

While I love the idea of a Steampunk battlemage (he even has some steampunk goggles already!) I think this does not quite fit the character I've created. Oh well.

Still, it makes me really want to try something in another game.