Baldur’s Gate 3: The Eldritch Frost Archer – An original control martial build

I’ve been trying to make Eldritch Knight work for a long time. My problems were always the same:

• your spellcasting ability is INT, making the only viable multiclass a Wizard multiclass.
• You just don’t get enough spell slots. If you take a single Wizard level, you have almost no spell slots. If you take several, you start losing on too much from the Fighter skills (Improved Extra Attack, Eldritch Strike, and so on).

That was until I shifted my paradigm and stopped caring about spells as a direct way to deal damage. One can just use those for utility.

The true power of Eldritch Knight come from two features – War Magic and Eldritch Strike.

War Magic allows you to cast a cantrip, then make a weapon attack with a bonus action. On paper, this looks poor, but it’s actually really good, especially in Honour Mode. See, you have three attacks with level 11 fighter, and can use a Hastened Action to cast a cantrip, and which will give you a fourth attack. To get that many attacks in a single turn in Honour Mode is not easy, and with that little setup it is downright impossible.

Eldritch Strike seemingly inflicts disadvantage on saving throws against spells you cast, but this actually also applies to saving throws against conditions inflicted to enemies (thanks to u/Qwuan for this discovery). That applies to frost, reverberation, but also… poison.

This is where the control dimension of the build starts making sense. This build isn’t so much of a caster controller (like your typical Arcane Acuity builds) as it is a ground ice & poison spreading machine.

Lae’zel is a good candidate for this build. She’s naturally a Fighter and starts with a good armor, but you’ll need to respec her to give her more DEX.

We’re going to go for pure, 12 Eldritch Knight. Level 11 Fighter is non-negotiable due to Improved Extra Attack, and that doesn’t leave a lot of space for multiclassing (although there is one option – see Alternative Approaches below).

With that, we’ll get access to:

• The usual fighter kit
• Fighting style, Action Surge, etc.
• Four feats, as fighter gets an extra feat at level 6.
• Some utility with spells and cantrips.
• War Magic at level 7.
• Eldritch Strike at level 10.
• Improved Extra Attack at level 11.

• Decent sustained damage. It’s not going to compare with any dedicated damage archer build, but it’s nothing to laugh at either.
• High initiative. With that and Eldritch Strike, late game this archer will be the best poison applier you’ve ever seen.
• Some utility with cantrips and spells.
• Really high AC late game.
• Very few contested items, and has easy fallback alternatives, which makes for a super easy itemization.

• Comes online somewhat late (level 7).
• Usually can’t wear Risky Ring (other builds need it more than you do), so you can’t always use Sharpshooter.
• Badly needs to be Hastened
• but on the flip side, in Honour Mode, benefits from Haste much more than other builds.
• Not a party face.

Open Fighter. Take 16 DEX, 16 INT, 14 CON. Rest is up to you.

16 CON is a consideration if you don’t intend to wear Diadem of Arcane Synergy, but that’s only +12 HP late game and a super minor impact on CON saving throws, so don’t overthink it.

If you intend to get Hag’s Hair, you can go 17 DEX. But this build isn’t that good a candidate for it, so best start at 16 DEX.

You’ll be starting as Fighter, so you get all the proficiencies you need. Halfling is pretty good due to speed penalty being irrelevant and resistance to critical failures with Halfling luck. But you can safely pick whatever you like.

At level 1, take the Archery fighting style.

At level 3, take the… Battle Master subclass. No, I didn’t misstype. See, Eldritch Knight is really bad in the early levels. Until you get War Magic, it basically doesn’t give you anything (that’s even truer as you’ll be getting most of your core items around the same time). Until then, you might as well have something to carry you. So, Battle Master with whatever manœuvres have a ranged version.

At level 4, take the Sharpshooter feat.

Level 5 will give you your extra attack.

At level 6, take Ability Score Improvement for +2 DEX.

At level 7, respec. Open with the exact same stats. Take Eldritch Knight at level 3. Take the same feats as before.

At level 8, take another +2 DEX.

Keep leveling up as Fighter until level 12. At level 12, you can consider different choices for your last feat:

• Alert.
• +2 INT. Especially good if you have Diadem of Arcane Synergy. It also raises your spell save DC, which, strangely, also happens to be the DC for your poison coatings.
• Dual Wielder if you want to couple Mourning Frost with another weapon for its passive bonus (e.g. Knife of the Undermountain King, Club of Hill Giant Strength, Rhapsody). You can even take it at level 8.
• Elemental Adept: Cold.

The best approach is probably to go for +2 INT, but all other alternatives can be justified depending on your general party setup.

Cantrips are personal preference. I usually like to take Mage Hand. If you can’t wear Mourning Frost, make sure to learn Ray of Frost as well. Shocking Grasp is also pretty good.

After level 8, just take whatever you like.

Some spells are just taken to be replaced at next level, because the replacing a spell allows you to choose the replacement from the full list with wizard spells, which is usually not available.

Joltshooter[bg3.wiki] can be acquired very early and with basically no danger. It is a good longbow for the early game. You should drop it once you acquire a +1 Longbow (feel free to buy one at Dammon’s).

Grab yourself any good shield and wear it. You can use the extra AC.

At the goblin camp, get the Gloves of Archery[bg3.wiki].

The Watersparkers[bg3.wiki] are a good boots option in the beginning.

Titanstring Bow[bg3.wiki] is usually for dedicated archer builds and should be forfeited if contested. If it is free, however, by all means – do wear the best bow of the game. Of course, make sure you stack Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength on the side (or grab the Club of Hill Giant Strength[bg3.wiki]).

In the Underdark, make sure you get Mourning Frost[bg3.wiki]. This is a very important item for your build. You do not necessarily need to wear it right now (a Cold Sorcerer Support can have it), but once you start firing a lot of Many Targets arrows, especially late game, you should wear it.

Grab the Boots of Stormy Clamour[bg3.wiki]. If uncontested, these will be your best boots for the whole game.

At the forge, get yourself the Adamantine Splint Armour[bg3.wiki]. This will be your armor for the rest of the act, possibly even until act 3.

If both Diadem of Arcane Synergy and Coldbrim Hat are contested, wear Grymskull Helm[bg3.wiki] for an access to Hunter’s Mark.

In the Underdark i]or[/i] in the Mountain Pass, you can grab and wear [[b]Winter’s Clutches[/b][bg3.wiki]. These are staying for a while.

At the Crèche, four of your most important items are available, making for a very timely respec at level 7. The Diadem of Arcane Synergy[bg3.wiki] is one of the best items of the game and a good fit for you. It’s not entirely sure that you’ll be able to wear it – but fear not, you have an excellent replacement in Ring of Arcane Synergy[bg3.wiki], which will combo well with your War Magic. You can pair it with Ring of Elemental Infusion[bg3.wiki], and voilà! You have your rings for the rest of the game. Finally, you can also grab and wear the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation[bg3.wiki].

If available, you can wear Yuan-Ti Scale Mail[bg3.wiki]. If not, don’t worry – your current heavy armor will suffice. The same goes for Cloak of Protection[bg3.wiki].

Evasive Shoes are a possibility if Boots of Stormy Clamour[bg3.wiki] are contested.

Grab the Snowburst Ring[bg3.wiki]. This will replace your Ring of Elemental Infusion.

Make sure you get the Coldbrim Hat[bg3.wiki]. You can also consider Marksmanship Hat[bg3.wiki] if the former is contested.

You could get Circlet of Hunting[bg3.wiki], if you intend to use Gontr Mael later.

At Moonrise, make sure you buy Drakethroat Glaive[bg3.wiki]. You have priority on the enchantment given by this item, and should always get Cold damage.

If Necklace of Elemental Augmentation is contested, you can grab and wear Spineshudder Amulet[bg3.wiki]. Surgeon’s Subjugation Amulet[bg3.wiki] is also a possible replacement.

If available, wear Sentinel Shield[bg3.wiki]. Otherwise, grab any +1 Shield. There should be one at Moonrise.

Finally, grab Cloak of Elemental Absorption[bg3.wiki].

Cloak of Displacement[bg3.wiki] is probably your best in slot, but, guess what – it is contested. And quite frankly, you do not need it that bad. You can fall back on other good cloaks, such as Cloak of Protection or Cloak of Elemental Absorption.

Regardless of weather you can wear Titanstring, you should probably go for The Dead Shot[bg3.wiki] for a while. It doesn’t compete with Titanstring in terms of damage, and doesn’t need to. The damage is still good, and so is the extra critical hit chance. It also opens up other elixirs options, such as Bloodlust, Viciousness or Vigilance.

Your best bow, however, will be Gontr Mael[bg3.wiki]. It allows you to cast Haste without fear of Lethargy. Better yet, it can inflict Guiding Bolt on targets you hit if said targets fail a DEX saving throw. Guess what? That saving throw is against a condition, so Eldritch Strike will inflict disadvantage. Better yet, Guiding Bolt will trigger the boost from Circlet of Hunting for you. It all clicks!

If you didn’t get Circlet of Hunting, you can use Mask of Soul Perception[bg3.wiki] instead.

Armour of Agility[bg3.wiki] is your best armor. If it is contested, you can also wear Unwanted Masterwork Scalemail[bg3.wiki].

Don’t bother using Cold Arrows (unless you want the extra damage on Wet enemies). By the time Cold damage really becomes relevant, you will have your core items, including Drakethroat Glaive for free cold damage on your bow.

Starting from Act 2, you’ll want to start stacking Arrows of Many Targets. You can also start stacking special arrows (Humanoid, Dragon, Aberration and Undead especially), but your bread and butter arrows will be Many Targets. They will allow you to apply frost, ground ice, poison, eldritch strike and reverberation on several targets at once.

Feel free to fuel damage spell scrolls to this build. Once you have spread Eldritch Inertia on a lot of enemies, casting a level 4-6 damage spell on multiple enemies and watching them fail their saving throw is really fun.

Make sure you stock strong coatings such as Malice, Crawler Mucus/Karabasan’s Gift, Oil of Accuracy for attack rolls, etc.

You can’t really wear Risky Ring – your ring slots are full, and this ring is usually required by other builds. That means you will have to micromanage Sharpshooter and deactivate it if your chances to hit get too low (< 70%).

In the late game, however, Circlet of Hunting and Gontr Mael will make this much easier.

It is your responsibility to apply coatings for the rest of your party, such as Malice, Crawler Mucus or Oil of Combustion (remove all frost related gear if you use the latter, of course). If possible, you should coat your weapon just before the fight.

Your typical combat turn should look like this, assuming 1) your weapon is already coated and 2) you are Hastened by yourself or a caster :

• Attack with your regular action (3 attacks) and spread cold, reverberation and Eldritch inertia with special arrows. Do not cast a cantrip first, you’ll lose your extra attacks.
• Cast a Cantrip (usually Ray of Frost, possibly Shocking Grasp if you need to get out of melee range of an enemy) with your Hastened action to trigger War Magic.
• Use your bonus action to attack a fourth time.

Usually, your spell slots should be saved for utility. Spells will not trigger War magic and should not be used in combat (Bonus action Misty Step being the one relevant exception).

However, once you have spread a lot of Eldritch Inertia, feel free to use your Hastened action to cast a big damaging spell such as Chain Lightning or Cone of Cold (with a scroll).

This build applies poison very well to a number of enemies thanks to Arrow of Many Targets. However, it seems that the saving throw against poison is done before Eldritch Strike is applied, which means the enemies do not roll with disadvantage. There is a workaround, however. If you want to apply coating to an enemy (or group of enemy), start by firing an arrow (or arrow of many targets) to your targets. Then, and only then, coat your weapon with the desired poison (with a bonus action). Repeat the attack you previously did, and all enemies will roll the saving throw with disadvantage. If you’re trying to paralyse a single enemy (or a group of close enemies), you can also throw a Karabasan’s Gift grenade.

You could forego your last feat to get a level in War Cleric, which allows you to attack with a bonus action thrice per day, without the need for War Magic. However, you’ll need to respec and open cleric, you make sure your items (Arcane Synergy) scale with INT and not WIS. It’s probably not worth the trouble.

Slap in 23 STR Gloves (or STR Elixirs) and keep using Titanstring. You’re welcome.

Note: you can also apply Piercing damage vulnerability through another party member (Bloodthirst or Bhaalist Armour).

Slap in Band of the Mystic Scoundrel and use compatible scrolls. You’re welcome.

I honestly gave up on making a viable melee version of Eldritch Knight. Even this one with frost… well, ground ice is overwritten by blood pools. So, yeah.

Melee Eldritch Knight isn’t the worst thing on the planet – it’s still a Fighter – but honestly, spare yourself the trouble, go with an Archer.

If something isn’t clear to you, or if you feel like I missed something, let me know in the comments below. I read every single comment I get, and will do my best to answer yours.

Thanks for reading the guide and I hope you have fun with the build!