Mastering the Echo: The Best Skill for Your Echo Knight
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The Echo Knight, a fighter subclass from Critical Role’s Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, presents a unique blend of martial prowess and tactical positioning. It begs the question: What is the best skill for an Echo Knight? While the subclass is incredibly versatile, one skill stands out as particularly synergistic with its core mechanics: Athletics.
Athletics, a Strength-based skill, isn’t just about lifting heavy objects; it’s about controlling your physical space and leveraging your body for dominance on the battlefield. For the Echo Knight, it offers a suite of benefits that enhance their fighting style and tactical potential. While Dexterity is a great option, and many players will want to utilize it, Athletics will often be the most optimal. Here’s why.
The Power of Athletics for Echo Knights
Grappling and Battlefield Control
Echo Knights excel at controlling the flow of battle, and grappling is a key tool in that arsenal. Athletics is the skill used to initiate and maintain grapples. By successfully grappling an enemy, you can pin them down, hindering their movement and making them easier targets for your own attacks and those of your allies. The Echo Knight, by utilizing the echo, can grapple enemies while staying out of reach, thus enhancing their own safety. You can grapple from your own space, or the echo’s. This makes you a tanky, hard-to-get-away-from threat.
Shoving for Tactical Advantage
While the echo itself can’t shove (as it’s not a creature), your Echo Knight can utilize Athletics to shove enemies. Shoving allows you to either knock a creature prone or push them away. By using this, along with your Echo, you can place enemies exactly where you want them: next to your allies, away from objectives, or off cliffs. This gives you excellent control over the battlefield.
Movement and Maneuverability
Athletics also comes into play during difficult terrain. While the Echo Knight can circumvent many movement-based challenges using their echo’s teleportation and the fact that the echo itself can move through difficult terrain unimpeded, there will be many cases where athletic feats of climbing, jumping, or swimming can be invaluable. Having a high Athletics modifier ensures your Echo Knight can move into advantageous positions.
Strength Focus and Weapon Compatibility
The Echo Knight subclass often benefits from a Strength-based build, which directly synergizes with the Athletics skill. This allows for heavy armor, powerful melee weapons like glaives, halberds, and lances, and a consistent damage output. By focusing on Strength, you are not only enhancing your melee attacks and damage potential but also your Athletics skill. The two work in perfect harmony.
Overcoming Challenges
In many situations, an Echo Knight may find themselves facing physical obstacles. A locked gate, a crumbling wall, or a fast-flowing river may all require a successful Athletics check to overcome. This makes the Echo Knight a valuable member of any adventuring party, capable of more than just hitting things with a sword.
The Runner-Up: Dexterity
While Athletics provides optimal synergy, the next best skill for the Echo Knight is Dexterity. Dexterity provides a boost to stealth, initiative, and some ranged attack roles. However, the optimal playstyle for an Echo Knight is often a Strength-based, melee-focused character. A Dexterity build is good, and may make sense in certain situations, but Athletics will generally be the strongest option.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Echo Knights and Skills
What is the best race for an Echo Knight?
Generally, Echo Knight players choose races similar to other Fighters. For a Strength build, consider a Dwarf, Half-Orc, or Dragonborn. For a Dexterity build, an Elf is an excellent choice. A Human is versatile and works well with either approach.
Is it better to play an Echo Knight with Strength or Dexterity?
While both can be effective, Strength is generally preferred for Echo Knights due to their melee-focused abilities and synergy with Athletics. A Strength build allows for the use of heavy armor and powerful reach weapons. A Dexterity build is good if you are attempting to stealth, but it does not synergize as well with the core mechanics of the subclass.
What is a good multiclass for an Echo Knight?
The Ancestral Guardian Barbarian is a popular and mechanically sound multiclass for the Echo Knight. Its flavor also blends well. The combination of the Barbarian’s rage and the Echo Knight’s teleportation and battlefield control can make for a very powerful character.
How many echoes can an Echo Knight have?
At higher levels, Echo Knights can summon and maintain two echoes at once.
Can my echo shove?
No, the echo cannot shove. Shoving requires an attack against a creature, and the echo is considered an effect of an ability, not a creature. However, you can shove utilizing your own attack action.
Is the Echo Knight overpowered?
Some consider the Echo Knight to be overpowered due to its ability to attack from the echo’s location without incurring melee damage risks. It’s a very strong martial class, and if not played properly in a campaign can overshadow other martial classes.
What is the best weapon for an Echo Knight?
Two-handed reach weapons, such as the glaive, halberd, and lance, work well for Echo Knights due to their extended reach and high damage potential.
Can a Fireball spell affect my echo?
No. Spells that affect “creatures” will not impact your echo. The echo is not a creature, it’s an effect of an ability.
Can I flank with my echo?
No, you cannot flank with your echo because it is not a creature, it is an object. Flanking requires two creatures on opposite sides of the same enemy.
What spells can affect my echo?
Cantrips like Firebolt, Light, and Magic Stone can interact with the echo. Gust, Mage Hand and other spells which depend on weight will be based on your weight. Spells like Shape Water can freeze the echo as it is not a creature.
How many attacks can an Echo Knight have?
With Action Surge and Unleash Incarnation, an Echo Knight can make up to six attacks in a single turn.
Does my echo trigger opportunity attacks?
No, the echo does not trigger opportunity attacks as it is considered an object, not a creature.
Can an Echo Knight teleport?
Yes, as a bonus action, you can teleport, magically swapping places with your echo at a cost of 15 feet of your movement.
Can an Echo Knight grapple?
Yes, you can grapple using your own space, or the echo’s space. You initiate the grapple check using your own Athletics modifier.
Can an Echo Knight escape a grapple?
Yes, you can teleport to switch places with your echo, allowing you to escape grapples and difficult terrain using 15ft of movement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while the Echo Knight is a versatile class, Athletics is the best skill for maximizing the subclass’s potential. It perfectly complements the subclass’s playstyle, enabling battlefield control, effective grappling and shoving, and overcoming physical obstacles. By focusing on Strength and training the Athletics skill, you can create a very effective Echo Knight.