Best Eldritch Knight BG3 Build Guide

Welcome to the best Eldritch Knight Build for Baldur’s Gate 3. For this build, we will be using the Eldritch Knight subclass of the Fighter class, which combines the excellent melee prowess of the Fighter class with spellcasting, without the need to delve into multiclassing. While the Eldritch Knight possesses decent spellcasting ability, it’s important to note that it is not a “full spellcaster” like some other classes (Wizard, Warlock, Cleric, etc) and therefore cannot learn spells above Second Level.

Please visit our Best BG3 Builds overview page for more builds, or check out our Best BG3 Fighter Build with the Battle Master subclass. If you are interested in more Fighter subclass builds, check our BG3 Fighter Builds category page. To get an overview of all classes please visit the BG3 Classes overview page.

The BG3 Eldritch Knight Build was last updated in November 2025. It works for both PC and Console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).

The Fighter can choose a Fighting Style and prioritize it, gaining an edge when wielding a certain type of weapon. For this build, we’ll be using Great Weapons (two-handed melee weapons).

Table of Contents:

Eldritch Knight Build Overview
1. Fighter Class Summary
2. Eldritch Knight Subclass Summary
Eldritch Knight Build Character Creation
Eldritch Knight Build Levelling Progression
Eldritch Knight Build Best Equipment
1. Early-Game Eldritch Knight Gear
2. Best Eldritch Knight Gear (Late-Game)
Eldritch Knight Build Extras and Tips & Tricks

Eldritch Knight Strengths

VERY STRONG IN MELEE
CAN CAST SPELLS
QUITE VERSATILE
MULTIPLE ATTACKS PER TURN
CAN WEAR ANY ARMOUR

Eldritch Knight Weaknesses

TAKES A LOT OF DAMAGE
ONLY HAS LOW LEVEL MAGIC

BG3 Eldritch Knight Build Overview

Before we get started with our BG3 Eldritch Knight Build, we will have a quick look at the Fighter Class and the Eldritch Knight subclass, which we will be using for this build. If you are already familiar with how they work, please skip this section.

Fighter Class Summary

Here is a quick summary of the most important aspects of the Fighter class.

Second Wind (Level 1) – Spend a Bonus Action to heal yourself for (1d10 + Fighter Level). Recharges on all Short and Long Rests.
Action Surge (Level 2) – Gain an extra Action on your current turn. Recharges on all Short and Long Rests.
Extra Attack (Level 5) – Your Actions now yield two weapon attacks, rather than one.
Indomitable (Level 9) – When you fail a Saving Throw, you can roll again and use the new result instead. Once per Long Rest.
Improved Extra Attack (Level 11) – Your Actions now yield three weapon attacks.

These Actions and Passive Features allow the Fighter to make more weapon attacks than any other class in the game, making them an excellent damage dealer, especially when wielding a heavy-hitting melee weapon.

Eldritch Knight Subclass Summary

The Eldritch Knight adds some basic spellcasting potential to the Fighter class.

Weapon Bond (Level 3) – Magically bond to the weapon in your main hand. It cannot be knocked out of your hand and returns to you when thrown.
Spellcasting (Level 3) – You gain access to spells from the Wizard Spell List. Eldritch Knights are limited to First and Second-Level Spells.
War Magic (Level 7) – After you cast a Cantrip, you can make a weapon attack with a Bonus Action.
Eldritch Strike (Level 10) – When you hit a creature with a melee attack, it has Disadvantage on its next Saving Throw against any spell you use against it. Lasts until the end of your next turn.

Eldritch Knight Build Character Creation (Level 1) for BG3

In this section, we will go over the basic Character Creation options for your BG3 Eldritch Knight build, namely Background, Race, Skills and Abilities.

Race

While you can use any race you want for this build, a handful will perform a little better due to features that synergise nicely. Here are our top five most highly rated choices for an Eldritch Knight Fighter:

Race	Strengths	Info
Half Orc	Intimidation Proficiency *Darkvision* *Savage Attacks* You roll an extra damage dice when you crit *Relentless Endurance* Once per Long Rest, restore to 1 HP instead of being Downed	Half-Orcs are some of the best melee damage dealers in BG3, thanks to the Savage Attacks passive feature. They are a great fit for the Eldritch Knight.
Duergar	Can wear Medium Armour Can wield axes and hammers *Dwarven Resilience* Advantage against Poisoned Resistance to Poison Damage *Superior Darkvision* *Duergar Resilience* Advantage on Saving Throws against illusions Advantage against Charmed and Paralysed *Duergar Magic* *Enlarge* (Level 3) *Invisibility* (Level 5)	With their wide choice of armour and weapon proficiencies, and resistances to poison, charm, and paralysis, Duergar are one of the strongest races in BG3. The only downside of Duergar is their small stature – this reduces their base Movement Speed to 7.5 metres per turn (most races get 9 metres).
Wood Elf	Proficiency in Stealth and Perception Extra Weapon Proficiencies: Shortswords Longswords Shortbows Longbows *Fey Ancestry* Advantage against Charmed Immune to Magical Sleep *Darkvision* *Fleet of Foot* – 1.5 metres of extra Movement Speed	Wood Elves are a great choice for most build types in BG3, thanks to their superior movement speed. Natural Proficency in Perception is always useful, and immunity to magical Sleep will help you out a lot, especially in the early game, where enemy mages love to spam this spell.
Githyanki	Can wear Light Armour & Medium Armour Extra Weapon Proficiencies: Shortswords Longswords Greatswords Astral Knowledge Gain *Proficiency* with all Skills belonging to a selected ability, once per Long Rest. Githyanki Psionics Mage Hand (Level 1) Enhance Leap (Level 3) Misty Step (Level 5)	Githyanki have excellent mobility thanks to Enhance Leap and Misty Step, allowing you to relentlessly pursue ranged enemies. Additionally, Githyanki get the full benefits from equipping various Githyanki weapons, sometimes granting additional Psychic Damage or special features.
Human	Can wear Light Armour and Shields Extra Weapon Proficiencies: Spears Pikes Halberds Glaives Human Versatility One unrestricted Skill choice Increases Carrying Capacity by 25%	Humans are useful for their unrestricted Skill choice. Used wisely, this allows your character to be proficient with a useful Skill that wouldn’t normally be available for your Class. The extra carrying capacity is a nice boost, too.

Fighting Style

For this Eldritch Knight build, we’re going to concentrate on Great Weapons, so we recommend choosing the Fighting Style that matches that. Great Weapon Fighting will automatically reroll a damage die that rolls a 1 or a 2 (once per attack), which helps to ensure we don’t deal terrible damage on any of our weapon attacks.

If you want to deviate from that, then you can also go with Two-Weapon Fighting, which adds your Ability Modifier to the damage of offhand attacks. The build will still work fine if you follow everything else.

Background & Skills

The best Backgrounds to choose for Fighters are either Outlander or Soldier, as these both give Proficiency in Athletics, the only Strength-based skill available through the Background selection. Athletics makes your Fighter better at pushing and throwing enemies, and helps them to resist enemy attempts to do the same in return.

Distribute your other Skill picks as you wish. It’s good to grab the History Skill, since it goes well with the high Intelligence score that we’ll have for this build.

Abilities

The Eldritch Knight Build must have a high Strength score, which is used to make your melee attacks stronger and more accurate. A good Intelligence score is also required for your spellcasting, which will be unlocked when you reach Level 3.

Ensure you have a minimum of 14 points in Constitution; otherwise, your HP will be too low. Investment in Dexterity isn’t required, because we’ll be wearing Heavy Armour which gets no benefit from DEX, and we don’t need to rely on bows for ranged attacks since we can cast Cantrips instead (from Level 3 onwards).

The last few points can be distributed as you wish. Make sure you end up with all scores on even numbers, because odd points don’t give any benefit (i.e. 13 DEX gives the same amount of benefit as 12 DEX).

Strength – 16
Dexterity – 10
Constitution – 14
Intelligence -16
Wisdom – 8
Charisma – 10

Levelling Progression for the Eldritch Knight Build

In this section, we will walk you through every level up for your Eldritch Knight build in BG3, from levels 2 to 12. Where needed, we will advise the best choices to pick when levelling up.

Level 2

At Level 2, you unlock Action Surge. This allows you to gain an extra Action on the same turn, so you can make an additional attack. This is particularly useful for finishing off an enemy before they have a chance to take their turn. Action Surge can only be used once per Short Rest.

Action Surge is a huge deal at this level because most other enemies won’t be able to activate a second action. Make sure you have this ready to go before the beginning of a tough fight. This can turn the fight in your favour when you can destroy a dangerous enemy quickly.

Level 3

At Level 3, it’s time to select your subclass. For this build, we are using the Eldritch Knight subclass.

The Eldritch Knight immediately gains access to the Weapon Bond action, which binds your Main Hand weapon to you, preventing it from being knocked out of your hand, and also making it automatically return to you if you throw it. You need to do this again after each Long Rest – try and make this a habit after every camp.

You can choose two Cantrips to learn. These are weaker versions of spells that do not require a spell slot to cast, so you can cast them as often as you want. We recommend starting with the following Cantrips:

Fire Bolt – This is the strongest damage-focused cantrip (most of the time), as it can be cast at long range and deals the most damage.
Ray of Frost – This is a little weaker than Fire Bolt, but we have it on backup in case you are fighting a fire-resistant enemy. It can also slow enemy movement.

You unlock access to two different spell lists, too – the Eldritch Knight spell list and the Wizard spell list.

You can choose two Level 1 spells from the Eldritch Knight spell list. The best ones for now are:

Thunderwave – Deals Thunder damage and can knock back enemies in a cone AOE. This can be used to knock enemies off ledges and cliffs, dealing fall damage or killing them instantly, potentially granting you a lot of damage from a cheap spell. Keep in mind that if you knock an enemy into a chasm, you won’t be able to get any loot from them!
Magic Missile – Fires three projectiles that deal Force damage. Each projectile is targeted independently; you can aim them all at the same target or each one at a separate target. The damage from this spell is modest, but it’s special because it cannot miss its target, giving you a reliable damage source even against enemies who have high defence.

You can choose just one spell from the Wizard spell list for now. We recommend:

Sleep – Put targets with up to 24 combined HP to sleep for 2 turns. If they take damage, are helped by an ally or are shoved, they will wake up early. This is a decent early-game control spell that can temporarily remove one stronger enemy or several weak minions from the fight. This spell is particularly useful because there is no Saving Throw against it; however, a few enemies are immune to it.

Level 4

At Level 4, you need to choose a Feat for your Eldritch Knight.

We recommend choosing Ability Improvement and increasing your Strength to 18. This will improve your Attack Rolls and damage output with melee weapons, helping to boost your overall damage.

You also need to choose one more spell from the Eldritch Knight list:

Burning Hands – Causes Fire Damage in a cone in front of you. Normally, I do not recommend this spell due to its short range. However, as a hybrid melee spellcaster, the Eldritch Fighter is much better placed to take advantage of short-range spells like this.

Level 5

At Level 5, you will gain an Extra Attack. This means that every Action will now grant you two weapon attacks, instead of the usual one. Bonus Actions and Reactions are unaffected by this change.

This is very powerful and hugely increases your damage potential per turn.

You can use this in combination with your Action Surge to make four weapon attacks in a single turn – perfect for when you need a heavy burst of damage.

Level 6

At Level 6, you can choose another Feat:

Get Ability Improvement again. Use it to increase your Strength score to 20.

Level 7

At Level 7, the Eldritch Knight gains access to more powerful magic, as well as a new passive feature.

You now gain War Magic, which allows you to make a weapon attack as a Bonus Action after you cast a Cantrip. Remember to do this if you don’t use your Bonus Action for something else, as this can considerably improve your damage output.

You now have access to Level 2 magic. You can choose two more spells from the Eldritch Knight list. We recommend the following options:

Shatter – Deals Thunder Damage in an AOE.
Scorching Ray – Launch three fire projectiles, either all at the same target or each one at a different enemy. These deal pretty good damage, but unlike Magic Missile, they can miss their target.

Level 8

At Level 8, you can choose another Feat for the Eldritch Knight.

Choose the Savage Attacker Feat, which will roll every weapon damage dice twice and choose the highest result. This significantly increases your average damage output.

You can also choose one more spell from the Wizard list:

Enlarge/Reduce – Lets you Enlarge or Reduce a target (can be cast on yourself). Enlarged characters deal more damage and gain Advantage on Strength checks, and the opposite is true for Reduced characters.

At this point, I also recommend replacing the Sleep spell with Hold Person, a much stronger stun spell that completely paralyses the target if they fail the Saving Throw. It can last for a long time, and your melee attacks against the target are guaranteed crits! It can be a little tricky to apply this right now, but at Level 10, you’ll get a subclass passive to help with this.

Level 9

At Level 9, you get the Indomitable passive. Once per Long Rest, this lets you automatically reroll a Saving Throw that you failed.

Replace Magic Missile with the Misty Step spell, which will allow you to teleport. Once you’ve done this, you can equip a different necklace to your Eldritch Knight and give the Amulet of Misty Step to someone else.

Level 10

At Level 10, you gain the Eldritch Strike passive. This means that when you hit an enemy with a weapon attack, they will be much more likely to fail a Saving Throw against a spell you target them with, before the end of the next turn. This works extremely well when paired with Hold Person. You will have a higher chance than usual to successfully stun the target with this spell. When successful, all of your subsequent melee attacks against them are guaranteed Critical Hits. When you manage to pull off this deadly combo, make sure you use Action Surge to capitalise on it!

You can select one more Cantrip:

Bone Chill – Deals Necrotic Damage and can prevent the target from healing.

You can choose another spell from the Eldritch Knight List:

Melf’s Acid Arrow – Fire an arrow that deals Acid Damage, and if it hits, deals more Acid damage on the target’s next turn. If it misses, it deals half of the initial Acid damage, and no subsequent damage. This is a good alternative to Scorching Ray against enemies who are resistant to Fire damage.

Level 11

At Level 11, your Extra Attack is replaced by Improved Extra Attack, which gives you three attacks per Action. At this point, your melee damage potential is getting huge.

You can also choose one more spell from the Eldritch Knight List:

Darkness – Blinds targets within, prevents direct targeting of entities hidden inside the cloud and obscures Line of Sight. Good for area denial or temporarily obscuring an ally from ranged attacks.

Level 12

This is the highest level in Baldur’s Gate 3 – once you reach this point, you have finished levelling up your character.

You can choose one final Feat here. You have two options:

Great Weapon Master if you want to focus on boosting your melee damage as much as possible.
Ability Improvement > Intelligence if you want to make your spells a little stronger.

Equipment for the Eldritch Knight

In this section, we will list the best equipment for the build. We have provided both an early-game and a late-game version of the list, so you can begin using the build early in the game instead of having to wait until Act III.

We have also included information about each item below the tables, such as how to obtain the item and any other notable information.

Don’t worry if your setup is not exactly the same as one of those outlined below – the build will still work fine if you’re missing some of the items.

Early Game Equipment

Early-game equipment is found in either Act I or the earlier parts of Act II in Baldur’s Gate 3. You don’t necessarily need to find all of the pieces below, but the more the better for the Fighter build. The two most important items for your Eldritch Knight Build in the early game are the Grymskull Helm and the Adamantine Splint Armour, more on these below.

Slot	Item	Effects	Location
Head	Grymskull Helm	Enemies cannot land Critical Hits on you 50% Fire Resistance	Looted from Grym in the Adamantine Forge
Cloak	Cloak of Protection	+1 to Armour Class and Saving Throws	Purchased from Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn
Chest	Adamantine Splint Armour	Reduces all incoming damage by 2 Melee attackers are sent Reeling, reducing their Attack Rolls by 1	Must be crafted at the Adamantine Forge.
Gloves	Gloves of the Growling Underdog	Gives you Advantage on Attack Rolls when surrounded by 2 or more foes	Looted from Dror Ragzlin’s treasure crates in the Shattered Sanctum.
Boots	Boots of Genial Striding	Difficult Terrain cannot reduce your Movement Speed. Other effects, like slipping on Grease or damage from Spikes still apply!	Purchased from Blurg in the Myconid Colony, in the Underdark
Necklace	Amulet of Misty Step	Lets you use the Misty Step spell to teleport to a valid location within line of sight.	Located in a chest in the Defiled Temple, near the Ogre called Polma.
Ring 1	Ring of Protection	+1 to Armour Class and Saving Throws	Steal the Sacred Idol in Druid Grove (quest)
Ring 2	Crusher’s Ring	Increases Movement Speed by 3 metres per turn Especially important if you chose a small race like a Dwarf	Looted from Crusher in the Goblin Camp.
Main Weapon	Blooded Greataxe	One of the best melee weapons in Act I for pure damage output Deals 1d4 bonus damage if your HP is below 50%.	Purchased from either Grat the Trader in the Goblin Camp or Roah Moonglow in Shattered Sanctum
Second Weapon	Any Ranged Weapon	We aren’t focusing on ranged combat much, so you can use whatever you find here. Heavy Crossbows and Longbows tend to be the highest damage options.	N/A

Grymskull Helm

The Grymskull Helm prevents enemies from landing Critical Hits on you, which is a very useful defensive bonus. You also have a 50% resistance to Fire damage when wearing it. It is looted from the boss Grym in the Adamantine Forge area of Grymforge towards the end of Act 1. This set piece is great for a Fighter who often is the main target of many enemies because you are fighting on the front line.

Cloak of Protection

The Cloak of Protection is one of the earliest cloaks available in the game, and provides a modest defensive buff – you gain a +1 bonus to your Armour Class and Saving Throws when wearing it. It can be purchased from Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn.

Adamantine Splint Armour

The Adamantine Splint Armour is a very powerful armour piece that can be obtained fairly early in the game towards the end of Act 1, and will probably last you until well into Act III. It reduces all incoming damage by 2, and sends your melee attackers Reeling for 2 turns, giving them a -1 penalty to Attack Rolls for every turn of Reeling remaining. This armour must be crafted at the Adamantine Forge, by finding the Splint Mould and some Mithral Ore – both can be found in the vicinity of the Adamantine Forge.

Gloves of the Growling Underdog

The Gloves of the Growling Underdog give you Advantage on your Attack Rolls when you are surrounded by 2 or more foes in combat. Advantage means that you will roll 2 dice for your Attack Roll and use the one that rolled with the highest number, considerably improving your chances of a good roll. You also get a +1 bonus to Strength Saving Throws. These gloves can be looted from Dror Ragzlin’s treasure crates in the Shattered Sanctum.

Boots of Genial Striding

The Boots of Genial Striding prevent difficult terrain (such as spikes, mud and grease) from reducing your Movement Speed. However, beware that these boots will not negate any other harmful effects from a surface, such as damage from spikes or the chance to slip over when walking on ice. They can be purchased from Blurg in the Myconid Colony, in the Underdark (Act I).

Amulet of Misty Step

The Amulet of Misty Step grants you access to the Misty Step spell, which allows you to teleport to a visible location within 18 metres, for a Bonus Action. This is great for quickly closing the gap to an enemy so you can get into melee where this build is at its strongest, or for escaping from a bad situation. The Amulet is located in a chest in the Defiled Temple, near the Ogre called Polma.

Crusher’s Ring

Crusher’s Ring simply increases your Movement Speed by 3 metres per turn. This is another useful item for closing the gap to enemies quickly so that you can spend your turns dealing melee damage instead of running between targets. The ring is looted from Crusher in the Goblin Camp.

Ring of Protection

The Ring of Protection has the same effect as the Cloak of Protection (they stack together) – it improves your Armour Class and Saving Throws by +1. It is awarded to you by Mol for completing the quest to steal the Sacred Idol in the Druid’s Grove.

Blooded Greataxe

We recommend the Blooded Greataxe because it is a highly damaging weapon that can be obtained very early in the game. Greataxes in general are excellent DPS weapons since they come with a 1d12 die, the largest damage die in the game for weapons. The Blooded Greataxe grants your melee weapon attacks an extra 1d4 Slashing Damage whenever you are below 50% Health. In the hands of a strong melee class like the Eldritch Knight, this weapon will carry you well into Act II even if you’re a complete beginner at the game.

This weapon can be purchased from either Grat the Trader in the Goblin Camp or Roah Moonglow in Shattered Sanctum. If the weapon does not appear in their wares, try Long Resting which will reshuffle the vendor items. You don’t need to spend any camp supplies on a Long Rest for this purpose.

Any Heavy Crossbow

Our ranged weapon isn’t the focus of this build – you should aim to be in melee as much as possible because this is where the Eldritch Knight excels. We also have access to cantrips, so a good ranged weapon isn’t needed. Just use any spear bow or crossbow in this slot.

Late Game Equipment

Late-game equipment can be found in the latter parts of Act II, and Act III. This is the most powerful version of the build, with access to the best items in the game.

Slot	Item	Effects	Location
Head	Helm of Balduran	You cannot be Stunned Enemies cannot land Critical Hits on you Heals you for 2HP every turn +1 to Armour Class and Saving Throws	Defeat Ansur the dragon below Wyrm’s Crossing. See below for more details.
Cloak	Cloak of Elemental Absorption	Once per Short Rest, absorb elemental damage and infuse your next attack with 1d6 of that damage type	Looted from an Opulent Chest inside Ketheric Thorm’s Chambers
Chest	Armour of Persistence	Reduces all incoming damage by 2 You get Blade Ward and Resistance at all times	Buy from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine
Gloves	Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength	Increase your Strength to 23 +1 to Strength Saving Throws	Taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.
Boots	Boots of Persistence	You get Freedom of Movement and Longstrider at all times This gives you a massive boost to your mobility and immunity to some restraining debuffs	Buy from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine
Necklace	Amulet of Greater Health	Increases your Constitution to 23 Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws	Can be taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.
Ring 1	Ring of Protection	+1 to Armour Class and Saving Throws	Steal the Sacred Idol in Druid Grove (quest)
Ring 2	Killer’s Sweetheart	Grants a guaranteed Critical Hit after killing an enemy Once per Long Rest	Found inside the Self-Same Trial in the Gauntlet of Shar.
Main Weapon	Balduran’s Giantslayer	Good base damage Doubles the damage bonus from your Strength Modifier Advantage when attacking foes who are Large or above Use Enlarge once per Short Rest, making your character bigger and stronger	Looted from Ansur in the Dragon’s Sanctum
Second Weapon	Any Ranged Weapon	We aren’t focusing on ranged combat much, so you can use whatever you find here. Heavy Crossbows and Longbows tend to be the highest damage options.	N/A

Helm of Balduran

The strongest helmet for your Fighter Build in BG3, the Helm of Balduran prevents enemies from landing Critical Hits on you, prevents you from being Stunned, heals you for 2 HP per turn, and gives a +1 bonus to Armour Class and Saving Throws. Obtaining this item is a multi-stage process – we wrote a detailed guide on how to find it.

Cloak of Elemental Absorption

Once per Short Rest, the Cloak of Elemental Absorption will absorb elemental damage, and infuse your next attack with 1d6 of that damage type. This is a fairly minor effect, but it can still generate a nice damage boost. It can be looted from an Opulent Chest inside Ketheric Thorm’s Chambers in Moonrise Towers.

Armour of Persistence

Another powerful armour piece, the Armour of Persistence reduces all incoming damage by 2, and passively grants Resistance (1d4 bonus to all Saving Throws) and Blade Ward (50% resistance to bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage). Note that gaining the Resistance and Blade Ward conditions from other sources will have no effect, as these buffs cannot stack with themselves.

The Armour of Persistence is purchased from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate, Act III. The Armour of Persistence costs 16000 Gold.

Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength

The Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength increase your Strength to 23, and give you a +1 bonus to Strength Saving Throws. This will increase your damage and accuracy with Strength-based attacks, most notably your melee weapon. The gloves can be taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.

Boots of Persistence

The Boots of Persistence permanently grant the wearer Freedom of Movement and Longstrider, improving your movement speed and preventing you from being slowed by difficult terrain, entangled, paralysed or magically restrained. This reduces the amount of ways that enemies can try to stun or immobilise your Eldritch Knight Fighter. These boots can be purchased from Dammon in the Forge of the Nine in the Lower City, Act III.

Amulet of Greater Health

The Amulet of Greater Health sets your Constitution to 23 and gives Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws. A higher Constitution means more HP. Can be taken from a pedestal in the archive of the House of Hope.

Killer’s Sweetheart

With the Killer’s Sweetheart ring equipped, once per Long Rest, you gain a guaranteed Critical Hit on your next attack after killing an enemy. This item would be better if it could be triggered more frequently, but it’s still a useful effect. It is found inside the Self-Same Trial in the Gauntlet of Shar.

Balduran’s Giantslayer

A Legendary Greatsword, Balduran’s Giantslayer is arguably the strongest melee weapon in the game. It doubles the damage bonus from your Strength Modifier when attacking (if you have the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength, this improves a +6 modifier to +12). It grants you Advantage when attacking large, huge or gargantuan enemies, and once per Short Rest allows you to enlarge yourself, gaining extra damage, Temporary HP and Advantage on Strength checks.

Balduran’s Giantslayer is looted from Ansur in the Dragon’s Sanctum. To find out how to access the Dragon’s Sanctum, follow this guide on How to find the Helm of Balduran – both items are located in the same room.

Eldritch Knight Build Extra Info

Below are some extra pieces of information that can help you get the most out of this Eldritch Knight Fighter build.

BG3 Eldritch Knight Build How to Play

The Fighter is arguably the easiest class in BG3 to play thanks to its huge attacking potential, good defensive capabilities and relative simplicity. Here are some tips to help you play your Eldritch Knight Fighter throughout BG3:

Early Game

This is the only part of the game where the Eldritch Knight can be a little tricky, because your attacks and mobility aren’t quite up to scratch yet, you haven’t found a good set of armour and you’ll get focused down a lot by enemies who perceive you as the biggest threat.

To counteract this threat, you should give your Eldritch Knight the best piece of Heavy Armour you’ve found, and get the Adamantine Splint Armour as soon as you’re strong enough to deal with the Grymforge (around Level 4-5). You can use Second Wind to heal yourself once per Short Rest.

At this stage of the game, your Fighter can only make one regular weapon attack per turn under normal circumstances, but you can use your Action Surge to get an extra Action on your turn, granting you another attack. Use this when you want to finish off a dangerous enemy quickly. This also recharges on Short Rests.

Remember to Bond with your weapon from Level 3 onwards. This prevents you from being Disarmed, and allows you to have the weapon automatically return to your hand if you throw it.

Mid to Late Game

When you hit Level 5, your Eldritch Knight gets an Extra Attack. This means that their Actions now grant two standard weapon attacks. Using Action Surge will now give you an additional two attacks. This is a good time to start making use of potions to boost your Fighter’s attacking capabilities (see below).

As you level up, maximise your Fighter’s Strength score and then get Feats like Savage Attacker and Great Weapons Expert to boost your melee weapon attacks as much as possible.

From Level 8 onwards, make use of the Eldritch Strike passive feature, which imposes Disadvantage on an enemy’s Saving Throw against your next spell when you hit them with a melee attack. Use either Haste or Action Surge to ensure you have at least two Actions on your turn, hit the foe with a melee attack and you will then have a very good chance of stunning them with a spell like Hold Person (this particular spell will guarantee Critical Hits against the target on all melee attacks, until they snap out of the stun).

At Level 11, you get three attacks per Action. The Fighter is the only class in the game who can do this, and at this point you are a true melee powerhouse.

Overpowered Potions for the Eldritch Knight Build

The Potion of Speed is arguably the most powerful potion in Baldur’s Gate 3. It doubles your Movement Speed and gives you an extra Action each turn.

One drawback of this potion is that when it expires, your character will be Lethargic for one turn, unable to move or take any Actions. So you should be careful not to have your character stranded in a dangerous position when the potion runs out!

You can craft the Potion of Speed in the alchemy menu by combining Ashes of Hyena Ear with any Salt. Create ashes, salts and other alchemy concentrates by combining three of the same ingredients together – for example, combining three Hyena Ears will create Ashes of Hyena Ear.

Hyena Ears can normally be looted from either Hyenas or Gnolls – you can find a lot of them around the Risen Road in Act I, for a good supply of them, which should last you a while.

You can combine this with the Elixir of Bloodlust. Elixirs and Potions can be stacked with each other, but you can only have one Elixir active at a time. Potions tend to expire after a few turns, whereas Elixirs last until your next Long Rest, unless you drink a different Elixir in the meantime.

The Elixir of Bloodlust grants your character another Action when you kill an enemy. This effect can only trigger once per turn. Combined with the Potion of Speed, this gives you two additional attacks if you defeat an enemy on your turn.

It can be crafted by combining Ashes of Worg Fang with any Salt. Worg Fangs are looted from Worgs, the beasts usually kept by Goblins.

This is an OP alchemy combo that you can use to turbocharge the Eldritch Knight’s mobility and damage output in tough fights!

BG3 Eldritch Knight Build Best Party Composition

Your BG3 character will always perform better when they are in a party with allies who complement each other and work well as a team.

There are lots of awesome party compositions in BG3, with so many classes and subclasses, the possible combinations are almost limitless.

Here is a combo that works great for the Fighter:

This Eldritch Knight Build
A support Cleric to debuff enemies and heal your team
- I strongly recommend the Light Domain Cleric for this role!
Another magical support character with the Haste spell, to buff your Fighter.
- Circle of Land Druid or School of Evocation Wizard
Eldritch Blast Warlock who can pick off damaged foes from long range and wreak havoc with attacking spells
- Hexblade Warlock or Great Old One Warlock

You could also replace the Warlock with a Rogue, which works just as well as long as you properly utilise stealth (or just go with Swashbuckler to remove the need for Stealth).

Eldritch Knight Build Illithid Powers (optional)

Illithid Powers are unlocked later in BG3 when you learn more about Mind Flayers and Tadpoles. By eating Jars of Mind Flayer Parasites you gain one point. This is another optional skill tree that you can get access to if you want. Here are some of the best Illithid Powers for the BG3 Fighter Build with the Eldritch Knight subclass:

Mind Blast: A conal blast of Psychic Damage that can also stun several targets at once. If you are outnumbered by several advancing enemies, then Mind Blast can help to swing things back in your favour.
Cull the Weak: When you reduce a creature’s hit points below a certain threshold, this power instantly kills it and deals 1-4 Psychic Damage to nearby enemies. This is particularly effective when engaging groups of weaker foes, enabling you to thin their numbers rapidly.
Fly: This can be used to reach hard to get to places or change positions in combat.
Mind Sanctuary: This creates an area that allows all within to use Actions and Bonus Actions interchangeably. This typically means you can deal more damage, since you can use your Bonus Action as a normal Action. However, enemies who are inside the area will also enjoy its benefits. Be careful with your placement so that your party gets buffed by the Mind Sanctuary and not the enemies!
Psionic Backlash: This is a top-tier Reaction from the Illithid Powers skill tree in BG3. It allows you to deal Psychic Damage when a nearby enemy casts a spell. This is especially useful if the target is casting a Concentration Spell. The damage from Psionic Backlash can immediately break their Concentration, ending the spell’s effects.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 Builds

If you want to check out the map of Baldur’s Gate 3, please visit the Baldur’s Gate 3 Interactive Map.

Best Eldritch Knight BG3 Build Guide – Maximum Power!