While my Wizard is catching up in terms of hours played, the D&D character I've played the most is my Blue Dragonborn Eldritch Knight Fighter, Jax (as a note, I didn't know Jax was an actual name when I came up with this, so I thought that this was just a cool fantasy-sounding name for a dragon-man).
Since... before I really ever played any class-based RPGs, I've always been enamored with the idea of the Battlemage - and to clarify, what I've always meant by Battlemage is someone who combines the heavy armor and weapons of a knight with the magical capabilities of a wizard. (The way I often see it portrayed, basically any spellcaster who fights in combat is a Battlemage, but I've always meant one that is just as tanky as any front-line fighter - like an Arcane equivalent of a Paladin). The Eldritch Knight is perhaps a little less magically capable than my imagined Battlemage, but it's the closest thing in 5th Edition to that ideal.
Unlike the Great Old One revision we looked at in the previous post, the Eldritch Knight in playtest 7 has seen more subtle tweaks and tune-ups. But I do think that, ultimately, they come out ahead.
First off, as with all Fighters (and basically all classes that use weapons by default,) EKs will gain the benefit of weapon masteries, and with that, the Fighter's specific ways of interacting with those masteries.
But we're looking mainly at the subclass, so let's compare this feature-to-feature. In this case, all the features of the 2014 EK return, but with some subtle shifts to their functionality in some cases.
Before we start, though, we need to address a big change, but also note that Eldritch Knights might wind up being the sole subclass to escape this change's implications. Action Surge no longer allows you to take the Magic action with your additional action. Thus, the old "Fireball Action Surge Fireball" technique is gone.
(Or is it?)
Spellcasting:
Spellcasting has gotten two changes, one of which I think is far more impactful than the other. We're still 1/3 Casters, meaning we have to wait until level 7 to get 2nd level spells, level 13 for 3rd level, and capping out at 17th level with 4th level spells. And, with the disappearance of the Arcane spell list, we are once again using the Wizard spell list to choose from.
Now: the old Eldritch Knight could only learn spells from the Abjuration and Evocation schools, with a few exceptions every few levels. That restriction now only applies to two of the three spells that you learn at level 3. For your first three spells, two must be from Evocation or Abjuration, but after that, all the spells you learn can be anything on the Wizard spell list you have slots to cast.
This is nice. While we could always pick up off-school spells at 3rd, 8th, 14th, and 20th level, this allows us to be much more flexible in the spells we pick up, giving us easier access to things like Hold Person, Polymorph, Misty Step, etc.
The next change is that we can now use an Arcane Focus for our Wizard spells.
This I think is negligible unless we are counting the Staff used for an Arcane Focus as a Quarterstaff (they are considered separate items in the adventuring gear section). I was really hoping, and will beg for it in the survey when we get it, for Eldritch Knights (and Arcane Tricksters) to be able to, like College of Swords Bards, use their weapon as a spellcasting focus. You could even make this part of Weapon Bond.
The reason is that currently, if you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you need to drop your weapon if you want to cast a reaction spell like Shield, Absorb Elements, or Counterspell. It's not all that disadvantageous to do so - you'll need to use your object interaction to pick the weapon back up at the start of your turn, or to use Weapon Bond to summon it back if it's no longer beneath you. But because it's more of an annoyance than a real penalty, I think it would be best to simply say that these combat-spellcasters are trained to cast spells while in combat.
War Bond:
So, Weapon Bond has been renamed War Bond. It is otherwise completely identical as far as I can tell.
This is one of those features that is fun, and in very unusual circumstances could potentially be helpful, but is honestly probably better for using with a Thrown weapon. And that is why you will definitely want to get a Trident as an Eldritch Knight, which have suddenly become basically the best one-handed martial weapon (and whether you like its mastery or not, you're a Fighter, so you can just change it).
War Magic:
Ok, here's the big one. War Magic is at the core of the Eldritch Knight's appeal (well, that and being able to cast Shield with full plate and a shield,) but it could always be a little frustrating. The old version let you make a single weapon attack as a bonus action after casting a cantrip.
This created breakpoints in terms of damage. First off, I'm assuming here that you're using either Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade, which both have the benefit of not relying on your Intelligence modifier for the attack roll. Given that you have two attacks per attack action, from level 7 (when you get this) to level 10, it's a good idea to cast a cantrip and then make a bonus action attack. But once you get to level 11, the scaling of the cantrip doesn't keep up with the damage of another attack unless you can reliably trigger its secondary effects (hitting a second target with GFB or getting a character to move with BB).
The new version fixes this, and it does this by basically flipping it. Now, when you take the Attack action, you can replace one of the attacks with one of your Wizard cantrips.
(Did you notice it yet?)
So, now, there's basically never a reason not to throw a cantrip in there. Indeed, this could even work with a ranged EK - Shooting off a Fire Bolt and then two arrows with your Longbow at level 11 means probably 3d10+2(1d8+5), which comes out to 16.5 + 19, or 35.5 damage, compared to 28.5 with just three longbow attacks (granted, you've probably got a much better hit bonus with your longbow). But for melee EKs using the SCAG cantrips, this becomes a no-brainer. On a single target, my EK with a +1 Battleaxe would make a Booming Blade attack (dealing 3d8+6, or 19.5 damage) and two regular attacks (ignoring the Chromatic Dragonborn breath option) for 1d8+6 (10.5 twice, so 21) and we're looking at 40.5 damage if everything hits (and 3d8 if the target moves). That's compared with my previous best single-target damage option, which was three attacks for 31.5.
I adore this change. And even better: we now get to save our bonus action for War Bond or Second Wind!
Eldritch Strike:
This feature is unchanged. But let's consider how the previous change affects it: The old War Magic required the following sequence of events: you cast a cantrip, and then, you can make an attack as a bonus action. That means that by the time you've attacked with a weapon (outside of the SCAG cantrips) you aren't casting other spells that turn. Sure, next turn they'll get disadvantage, but circumstances can change a lot in the next round.
Now, however, you can attack once, grant disadvantage, and then unleash some spell that requires a saving throw. It'll still only be a cantrip at this level - and you probably only have those SCAG cantrips. But if you don't care about not having utility cantrips, you could have something like Frostbite. But this will of course get more powerful when we get Improved War Magic.
Arcane Charge:
This feature is unchanged, and I also can't think of any nuances to the other changes that make it work significantly differently.
Improved War Magic:
This has gotten a similar treatment to War Magic, but it also makes the cost a little higher for casting a leveled spell. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace two of the attacks with a casting of a Wizard spell that has a casting time of an action.
Ok, a couple things:
First off, there's nothing saying we can't use this with War Magic on the same turn, meaning we could cast Green-Flame Blade with one attack and then Fireball with the other two.
Is it double-dipping on us to cost an additional attack as well as a spell slot? Possibly. I don't think it's the end of the world.
But let's talk about another nuance. This is the thing I've been hinting at the whole time.
The change to Action Surge is, I think, necessary to disincentivize spellcasters from dipping two levels into Fighter just so that they can cast two leveled spells in a turn. It encourages multiclassing into a class whose other features are probably going to go unused (though Medium Armor and a Shield for a Wizard is nothing to sneeze at). But as someone who was looking forward for years to be able to Fireball-Action Surge-Fireball, and whose campaign fell apart half a level (we were using XP) before I got to do that, I was crestfallen.
Here's the thing, though: an Eldritch Knight can still fucking do it.
See, (and here I have to try not to giggle like a mad fool) the change to Action Surge says we cannot take the Magic action as our additional action.
But we're not casting our spells with a Magic Action!
Unlike every other spellcaster, as far as I can tell (at least among the subclasses in the 2024 PHB,) when we cast a spell as part of our action, we're taking the Attack Action. And when we use our Action Surge, we are going to make another Attack Action. And as part of that Attack action, we're going to cast another fucking fireball.
Now: I don't know if this is intentional. They might break this by making an explicit rule that you can only ever cast a single leveled spell on your turn (with the exception of reaction spells). And I will not be surprised if they specifically make changes to address this, like changing Improved War Magic and even War Magic to say you can only do this once per turn. None of this will shock me.
But I hope they don't. And I think they shouldn't. And I'm not just saying that because it would help my character.
Because if I want to cast Fireball twice in a turn in this way, I'm going to need to invest 18 levels into the Fighter class. This is not a dip. This is not even a level that most campaigns go to. Indeed, we're going to have to wait five more levels to do this with the new system.
But don't you think that a character who has achieved 18th level as a specialized Battlemage, a master of magical combat, who has walked the path of the Fighter to the pinnacle of mortal capabilities... can't we give them something special?
I really hope this nuance is intentional and that it stays. Because it makes the Eldritch Knight truly unique among all the classes and subclasses.
Generally, if we get this version of the Fighter and the Eldritch Knight, I'd be really excited to play my good dragon man (I haven't been able to since converting him to the Fizban's version of the Chromatic Dragonborn).
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