So I made this for this thread over in general discussion Here
I think I did a good job. I want to see what other people thik. Is it balanced? Is it broke? Is there a way to cheese it? Would you let one play at your table?
The purpose of this class is not a perfect blend of combat and casting like the magus. This class is more like a magical switch hitter. He spends most rounds as any wizard would, but he trades in his spell school (and the extra spell of each level that comes with) for the ability to smack things around on the rounds he isn't casting.
This example is based on a pretty bizarre deviation from the standard eldritch knight. Magus 2/Wizard 5/Hellknight Signifier 3/Eldritch Knight 10. The Hellknight Signifier allows arcane armor use. The magus is a fighter substitue to show how drastic the difference between magus and this hybrid class are.
you can find the table for the Magus/Wizard/HS/EK Here and the table for my Hybrid Class Eldritch Kngith Here
Those include Level, BAB, Saves, Feats, Class Features, Spell progression.
Please Tell me what you think.
The Eldritch Knight Hybrid table has an ability called Arcane Combat Expertise listed at level 2,6,10,14 and 18 as well as it's capstone Arcane Combat Mastry. This is it's description.
At 2nd level the Eldritch Knight gains Arcane Strike and Arcane Armor Mastery as bonus feat. He does not need to meet the prerequisites for these.
At 6th level when an Eldritch Knight wears armor he reduced his armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and decreases his spell failure chance by 5%.
At 6th level when an Eldritch Knight uses his Arcane Strike he can forgo +1 of the damage bonus to instead add the corrosive, flaming, frost or shock quality to his weapon.
These qualities increase his weapon's effective enhancement bonus, and does not allow them to excese +10.
At 10th level and every 4 levels therafter he reduces his armor check penalty by an additional 1 and his arcane spell falure chance by an aditional 5%. He can also move his full speed in medium or heavy armor.
At 10th level he can activate either his Arcane Armor Mastery or his Arcane Strike as an immediate action.
At 14th level he can instead reduce his damage bonus by +2 to instead add the corrosive burst, flaming burst, freezing burst or shocking burst to his weapon.
At 18th level the Elderitch Knight can active his Arcane Strike and Arcane Armor Mastery with the same swift action. He can not use this ability to activate both simultaneously with a different kind of action.
Arcane Combat Mastery
At 20th level if the Eldritch Knight used his swift action to activate either Arcane Strike, Arcane Armor Mastery or both he can use his spell critical ability as a free action instead of a swift action.
Here I have defined why I think this class is balanced, and why it's not the magus with 9 spell levels
I'm going to compare the features and progressions of the hybrid class to the multiclass, as well as the cleric as a reference to a 3/4 BAB 9 level caster, and other hybrid classes
BAB The multiclass version has a very slow start, same as a half BAB class (like single class wizard) untill 8th level, lags then doesnt catch up untill level 17. The Hybrid Class is 3/4, equivalent to cleric and magus
The fortitude and will saves are the multiclasses strong saves. It's fortitude and reflex saves lag behind a single class, will saves are much stronger than normal for early levels.
Hybrid has standard good fort/will progression, same as cleric and magus
The Multiclass gets scribe scroll at 3rd level and bonus feats at levels 7, 9, 11, 15 and 19. The hybrid gets arcane strike and arcane armor at 2nd level but must choose which to use until 18, and bonus at 4, 8, 12, and 16, 20
The levels at which the multiclass gets its feats vary a little bit based on choosing magus or wizard first, and EK or HS first, but all remain realatively similar to swashbuckeler progression
This nets the hybrid one feet over the multiclass at 20, but arcane strike is esentially the replacement for arcane pool, and is strictly worse. Other than that hybrid's bonus feat progression is same as swashbuckler.
The multiclass gains a wierd medly of class features. He can use spell combat and spell strike for any spells on the magus list at level 1st, and can use spell combat with 6th level spells at 14th, 2 earlier than magus
Spellstrike and spell combat say when he casts a spell from the magus spell list, not when he casts a magus spell
Diverse Training is better than the magus but is on par for a hybrid class
Both multiclass and hybrid get an arcane bond. The hybrid must bond with a melee weapon, this encourages melee combat. This is the only feature explicitly melee though so it's not restrictive.
The Multiclass can use light armor at first level (first leather, than mythril chain), Than Mythril fullplate at level 10
The hybrid gains arcane strike similar to arcane pool, and arcane armor ability at level 2, allowing for mithral fullplate at level 6.
Allowing fullplate earlier distracts from the ability to wear mythral chain shirt at level 10, without the need for the swift action for arcane spell failure. The chain shirt option decreases AC by 5
The hybrid class's armor and weapon abilities take up the same action, and thus cause the caster to choose between casting spells and attacking in melee. He can not do both like the magus, or multiclass can
In addition to this his ability to use a swift action to cast a quickened spell is more limited than a full classed wizard. If armored he must use a stilled metamagic aswell, effectively making quicken cost +5 levels
Furthermore he would only be able to cast a quickened stilled spell on a turn he did not cast a spell with his standard action, unless unarmored.
Spells; the multiclass has some spellcasting issues. one trait can mitigate the lowered caster level but he gains 8 cantrips, and with ability modifier considered 9-11 1st level spells.
Gaining 2nd level spells 1 level after magus isnt that bad for the multiclass. The multiclass gains 1 more wizard spell slot of each level than the hybrid because of his school.
Conclusion. The multiclass does an arguably better job of being a magus. The hybrid class does not take the role of the magus. The magus is a blend of melee and spell, the hybrid is a wizard who's school is combat
The Hybrid is designed to specifically encourage having to choose either casting or weapon attack. The swift action is used for both arcane strike and arcane armor, as well as quicken spell if not wearing armor
Quicken spell is the most powerful tool in a wizards metamagic toolbox. It means two spells per round. The capstone of the hybrid encourages armor use, causing the additional spell level increase for still, quickened spells
The part that may seem worrysome is level 18, 19 and 20. This allows at the cost of a swift action to both attack and cast a spell. At level 20 the hybrid can get a spell off every critical they confirm.
(These options are Spellstrike = spell plus one melee attack if it's range touch. A second spell from spell critical if that crits. OR Full attack for three attacks and three chances to crit for a free action spell.)
As a capstone it is better than normal spell critical, it is afterall level 20. The thing that makes this different than the magus is that they must crit for it to work, and that forces a wizard into matrial combat
The ability to stay out of martial combat is one of the ways a wizard defends it's self. The hybrid could /potentially/ cast more than one spell, but only if he engages in martial combat. for high crit range it must be MELEE
The full wizard on the other hand can reliably cast a spell and a quickened spell every round. What the capstone and bonded weapon do is encourages the hybrid to be more vulnerable a nudge at level 1 and push at 19/20
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Do you think you can put it all together in a single description? It's difficult to assess it when it's thrown across multiple links and tables.
You have no description for bond melee weapon and diverse training. I would split arcane strike from arcane armor and put it at level 3. It adds something to a dead level and reduces a desire to "dip" into the class.
Overall, I like the setup. It keeps it's "melee capable caster" feel without stepping on the magus toes of weaving magic and melee together. The biggest issue I can see is that other than wizard schools, this would be superior to wizard due to survivability.
Per his commentary: "Bond Melee Weapon" is an Arcane Bond that can only be used with melee weapons and "Diverse Training" is a feature that lets you use the hybrid class' levels as fighter levels for the purpose of prerequisites.
This class probably isn't absurdly powerful (vs. existing 9th level casters) but it does a terrible job of being balanced against them in terms of class features. You've done a decent job of analyzing how its balanced against your hypothetical multi-class, but lets compare against a straight wizard:
For the cost of Arcane School, a more restricted arcane bond and Scribe Scroll, this class gets:
Its basically tons of free stuff for what is already the strongest class in the game. Even if the new Eldritch Knight hybrid class ignores all of its armor wielding class features, its effectively just a more powerful wizard with slightly fewer spells. This class grants even more flexibility, better defenses, and so on.
I like the concept that he can switch his focus between martial combat and spellcasting, but it needs a lot of work. Cellion's assessment seems correct.
You could start with a base set of attributes, that would be a lesser reflection of what you want the class to be but represent the things that the character can always do no matter what. For example, maybe he can't cast his highest level spell, has a reduced caster level and poor or medium BAB.
A certain number of times per day he can enter martial or caster mode to gain a toolbag of goodies. For example, caster gives him all his spells and full caster level, plus a couple of extra things depending on his level. Martial gives him full BAB, weapon bonuses, and maybe an extra HP per HD.
Just ideas.
I think it would require a special spell list (maybe magus) that isn't as strong as the wizard as compensation for everything listed by Cellion.
Eldritch Knight is balanced by the fact you're a slightly weaker wizard for most of your career, and you don't really reap the benefits of the build until late game. You can't really implement it by doing a direct translation of abilities.
Even the mere fact it's a 9-level arcane spellcaster with 3/4 BAB is a major problem. This class framework doesn't really exist in the game. The only 9-level spellcasters with 3/4 BAB are divine spellcasters like the druid and cleric. The design team attempted to balance them by limiting the spell list to mostly statistic buffs and out-of-combat utility spells, but even that wasn't enough to stop them from being among the most powerful classes in the game. And you're suggesting giving this class the best spell list in the game.
The only way you can really make it work is to gut the spell list.