Eldritch Knight, how do you play it?

[SOLDIER-1st]

Just out of curiosity, how do you play an EK? I've never managed to have much success with one, so I was wondering how other people did.

[Mistwalker]

That depends on what you want to do.

I have one right now, just got his 7th character level and his first EK level.

I wasn't planning on having him go that route, but ended up there. He has a level of ranger, 5 of teleportation subschool of conjuration.

He uses a bow as his main combat weapon, and in the last flight used fly, vanish, mirror image and his shift ability to good effect, staying out of melee range and letting his images take the brunt of ranged fire at him.

Seems to be working well

[Kyle Baird]

Melee Fighter, self-buffer, highly mobile. Never worry about offensive spells, stick with defensive, buffs, and control. Keep in mind that at high-level AC doesn't matter as much, a 50% miss chance is a far greater defense.

[Torinath]

Also what kind of point buy are you using. A lot of the choices I would make depend on the point buy because the class is very MAD, unless you go Ranged like Mistwalker.

I have one that is 7th level now(Fighter1/Transmuter5/EK1). He uses a Quarterstaff as a Double weapon with one end with spellstoring for Shocking Grasp. The DM allowed using Quickstaff from Complete Warrior so he has pretty decent AC when using Combat Expertise. But we had a 25 point buy... If it was a lower point buy the DEX requirement would be prohibitive and I probably would have just went with using the Quarterstaff Two-Handed. I really wanted to play a melee wizard type that just bopped things hard with his staff :).

Edit: He is perfectly capable of being on the front line. With False life which lasts hours/level he has a lot more HP than our Paladin "Tank" and he has a higher AC when using Combat Expertise.
Edit#2: He uses Mage Armor and Shield for defense and he most often uses haste.

[Daniel Moyer]

Celestial Sorcerer 9/EK 5... I had a bow as a back-up weapon, but the BaB damage is already done by level 10 which was when I switched over. (had to have Heavenly Wings & certain Bloodline Spells) Ranged Touch Attacks benefited the most IMO, especially since they use the same feats as the bow.

If you're allowed access to the Spell Compendium I recommend looking at 'Whirling Blade' (2nd level), counts as an attack, but uses your casting stat for the attack modifier... I call it the 'ghetto lightning bolt'. I won't mention the other spell I enjoyed as to not derail your thread.

[Jon Otaguro 428]

I played my Paladin/Sorcerer/EK mostly as a melee fighter, however, with lower hit points than the barbarian and paladin and lower ac than the paladin, I used a reach weapon and tried to stay out of situations where lots of creatures could attack me. Also, as a sorcerer, I tried to keep up mirror image as much as possible.

Damage wise, my EK was weaker in melee than the barbarian, but I added some versatility to the group with castings of overland flight, haste, etc. I know most on these boards think blasting is weak, but as a draconic sorcerer, I really liked fire snake (basically 1D6+1 per level).

[Elven_Blades]

The last time I played a EK (back in 3.5), i played it as a duel wand wielder. I think it was 6 wizard / 2 fighter/ x EK. I don't know If duel wand-ing is or will become available, but basically i focused on making 2 ranged touch attacks with r. touch spell wands each turn. I also made my own wands, otherwise this can be cost prohibitive, plus that let me make wands at higher than min caster level. Side effect of having much more spell slots available for buff and tech spells to help out the party. Overall, worked out pretty good for me.

[Quantum Steve]

I've never really liked EK. Until level 6, you're a Wizard with 1 less caster level and 1 more HP. Not even remotely a fair trade. Oh, yeah, also Martial Weapon Proficiency (Yay!) Because of the additional lost casting level of EK, not until character level 9 does he overcome his handicap to become a functional character again (i.e. on par with a straight Wizard who took Martial Weapon Proficiency as his human feat).
After level 9, though, an EK is actually pretty fun to play. I've done short adventures with a few different high level EKs varying from archers to mobile melee to heavy hitters, from self buffers to blasters to debuffers. I expect summoner work well too. (casting style, not class)

If you want to try an EK from level 1, try playing a Magus. If that doesn't appeal to you, be prepared to deal with the EKs shortcomings. I recommend you wait till level six to take your level of fighter. Play the first 5 levels as you would any other wizard.

Alternatively, an EK is less awful if you take more levels in your martial side. 2-4 levels in Pal or Rng can keep you going through 5-6 levels of Wiz or Sor better than a single level of Ftr. Your spell progression will suffer, but you won't be a handicapped caster for your first 6-8 levels.

[Ardenup]

Depends on what you want. In 3.5 the only way to get BAB 17 and 9th level spells was mixing EK with dragonslayer and Abjurant Champ.

Nice, but cheesy.

Now my group allows 3.5 spells and feats but not classes/prc's

So accepting that If you wanna go ranged then Wiz5/Ftr1/AA/EK works well.

If you want melee (and that's being GOOD at melee) Then Wpn Master4/Wiz6/EK 10 is good at melee (he gets armor weapon training 1, Weapon Guard, Acces to wpn Spl before EK, 8th level spells and enough feats to take nearly any combat feat tree)

I like stepup, following step, stepup and strike, disruptive, spellbreaker, teleport tactician, combat reflexes

wearing duelist gloves + weapon training, wpn fcs, spl, power attack, arcane strike makes you hit hard (having a spell storing arcane bonded weapon helps)

But guess what? If you just go Arcane Duelist Bard, you can do all that in heavy armor, plus buff the party to hell (good hope, inspire courage) in exchange for better CL and 6th level spells instead of 8. And you get to play an arcane fighty guy from level 1.

[LazarX]

I played it as as a straight elf fighter/wizard/ek mix. The point buy was pretty generous and I didn't go crazy max on Intelligence. She was most melee with a combination of defense magic, and party buffs like haste. I used craft wand for basic offensive staples, just so I'd always have something to do.

[Cold Napalm]

As I would a wizard...only with the option to go slumming with the fighters when bored. Now in 3.5 with more useful PrCs and using EK as a filler for those, I was more self buffing and melee fighting...but with straight EK...no.

[Pendagast]

played a few eks:

best one started out elven wizard with a high dex, went five levels of diviner first then got fighter then went ek.
the high dex on the wizard kept it shooting bows plenty well until it picked up martial prowess.

after the high dex and bonuses to init from diviner, i took improved init and the init trait reactive.

I always went first. was pretty cool.

[Belsarious II]

This is my EK

actually will not enter EK till next level
Witch 5 / Ranger 1 / EK

[nate lange]

i played an EK in pathfinder for a while and am running a campaign right now with a group of elven EK npc's...
my pc was human fighter 1/transmuter 5/EK. he was a glaive specialist with a good INT and even better STR (thanks to item). mostly cast buffs- glaive was very effective for discouraging attackers (thanks to the reach) while buffing party, and enlarge person + combat reflexes earned me tons of AoO's.
my npc's are elves- fighter or ranger 1/wizard (mostly trans.)5/EK. because of the CON penalty they almost all invested in Toughness (and still don't have tons of HP) but their racial +2 DEX works really well with rapiers or curved blades and with mithril chainshirts or breastplates (and arcane armor feats) and combat expertise they have pretty respectible ACs.
hope that helps (the glaive wielder was really fun to play).

[nate lange]

paladin/celestial sorcerer/ek was also a lot of fun to roleplay, but definately less optimized in a lot of ways- you get a huge return for your CHA (which is especially handy in low point buy campaigns) but spellcasting really lags with sorcerers gaining new spell levels one level higher and you'll want at least 2 or 3 pally levels...