Ash Kinght (Echo Knight + Fire) (5e Optimized Character Build)

Concept

   A swordsman with ash oozing off his blades steps onto the battlefield. A second swordsman, entirely made of shadow and embers appears next to him and joins him in battle. They flourish their blades and make precise attacks. When one lands in just the right spot, flames erupt and their foes are turned to ash.
   Mechanically speaking, the Ash Knight is a crit fisher build that is designed to be fun to play as well as critically hit like a truck. I’m sure that this isn’t the most efficient crit fisher build out there but this build is also taylormade for my kind of combat playstile so it might not be for everyone.
   If you're looking for a build that is not too complex, but also lets you be extremely mobile and stealthy, while also having a few powerful combat and utility options, you will have fun with this.

Race

   Any race with bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution will work well for this build. Also look for any race that has an ability or spell that augments the Attack action, such as the Bugbear’s surprise attack feature or the Fire Genasi’s Flame Blade spell.
   Any race that gives you a feat is also extremely good for this build. Feats like Strike of the Giants or Magic Initiate with the Hex spell, or other feats that give you spells or features that augment your attack damage with every hit are the standout options.
   For this build, I would go with Variant Human, put my stat bonuses into Dexterity and Constitution, and take the Piercer feat. This will add an extra damage die to our critical hits and make our weapon damage more consistent.

Class

   Your starting class is going to be Fighter built for melee fighting and you’ll want to choose a fighting style and weapons that work well with your chosen stats.
   This build benefits the most from making the most attacks possible and getting the most out of those attacks. I will be choosing Leather Armor to promote good Dexterity, two Shortswords to work with the Piercer feat, and the Two-Weapon Fighting Fighting Style to get the most out of all of my attacks.

Ability Scores

   Make either Strength or Dexterity your highest ability score depending on which weapons and armor you chose. After that, prioritize Constitution and make sure your Charisma score is at least 13 so you can multiclass into Warlock later.

Recomended Standard Array

• Str: 10
• Dex: 15
• Con: 14
• Int: 8
• Wis: 12
• Cha: 13

Recomended Point Buy

• Str: 10
• Dex: 15
• Con: 15
• Int: 8
• Wis: 10
• Cha: 13

Background

   If your DM allows backgrounds that grant feats, you should take the Giant Foundling background so you can get the Strike of the Giants feat. All of the options with this feat are good but also look at the 4th level feats in Bigby’s Book because each of them has a different strike option as a prerequisite.
   Note that you can only use Strike of the Giants a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus and that you decide to use the feat when you hit a target so you will never miss with a use of this feat.
   For my build, I will be choosing Fire Strike to use when I critically hit and as a gateway to Ember of the Fire Giant down the road.

Leveling Up & Tactics

   These entries show how you should progress through the game as well as any tactics you should be using. It also shows how major class features and feats fit into the build.
   The entries are made for my specific version of this build so you may need to modify your tactics if you didn’t use my build.

1st Level (Fighter 1)

   Use your action and your bonus action to attack with shortswords using Piercer to help with damage. When you get a critical hit, use Strike of the Giants for even more crit damage. At 2nd level continue with fighter and use action surge to do this twice.

3rd Level (Fighter 3)

   Now we get our Martial Archetype of Echo Knight. This allows us to do all sorts of creative things with our Echo but the main one we care about is the Unleash Incarnation feature. Any time you take the attack action, you can expend a use of this feature to have your Echo make one attack. Normally, if you wanted your echo to attack, you need to sacrifice your own attack, but this gets around that.
   You can now go nova by attacking as your action, and then using Unleash Incarnation to attack again. Then you can use action surge and repeat that move, and you still have your bonus action.
   That's a total of five attacks in one round but keep in mind that you can only use Unleash Incarnation a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier.
   At 4th level, I would take the Ember of the Fire Giant feat; This lets you burn and blind creatures within 15 feet of you or your echo; very useful if you're surrounded. At 5th level you get extra attack wich means you can make 3 attacks as an action (2 + Unleash Incarnation) and then action surge and bonus action attack for a total of 7 attacks in a nova round.

6th Level (Fighter 5, Warlock 1)

   Multiclassing into Warlock gives you a lot of cool things that add to this build. For spells, I recommend Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and Hex. Use Hex on your first turn to mark something for death, then use the nova strategy to make a ridiculous number of attacks adding the Hex damage to each of them.
   For your Otherworldly Patron, you will choose the Hexblade. You won’t get much out of your Hex Warrior Feature but Hexblade’s Curse doubles your chance to crit, and adds your proficiency bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target, for all seven of your nova round attacks.
   Using Hex and Hexblde’s curse on the same target, and then following it with your seven attack nova round, will deal devastating damage so that you can enjoy the other benefit of Hexblde’s Curse; if the cursed target dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier. This healing will never be that good but it's better than nothing.
   At 7th level take another warlock level to get eldritich invocations. The Eldritch Invocations you choose at this level can be whatever you want, but you will be replacing one of these Invocations with Improved Pact Weapon at next level. At 8th level you will get Pact of the Blade and Improved Pact Weapon. This will give you maximum versitility with your pact weapon and a +1 bonus to make up for your reletivly low primary ability at this level. You should also consider taking the Shadow Blade spell. You can't use Hex and Shadow Blade at the same time, and 2 Shadow Blade attacks plus one Shortsword deals less damage than 3 Shortsword + Hex attacks but you can attack anything with Shadow Blade and the damage isn't lower by much. Another thing to consider is that you can't use the Piercer feat with Shadow Blade.

9th Level and Higher

   After taking three levels of Warlock you should go fighter the rest of the way. Use your ability score increases to get your Dexterity to at least 18 and then max out your Constitution score. After that, if you’re happy with your stats, consider taking the Dual Wielder feat, or increasing your Charisma if you want spells that aren’t utility spells.

4.00

(one vote)

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