[elesser]

i am starting a duskblade and was just wanting to know what you think i should fouces on and what you think of duskblades

[RedSlayer]

Duskblades are ok. They kinda suffer from MAD, but you can work around it.

I recommend getting the battle caster feat and heavy armor prof. ASAP.

Pick up Arcane Strike ASAP.

Also, be prepared to use your Arcane Channeling/Arcane Strike nearly every turn. Thats the way Duskblades do their thing.

Dont bother with an expensive ranged weapon, your spells can help you with that.

[theoneofthechuck]

It's good that I found this little post, I was going to start one myself about duskblades. I notice that RedSlayer gives some advice on how to amp the duskblade, so to speak, I'm just curious as to what people think about them? Do they like the class, hate it, think it's to uber/gimpy. Looking it over multiple times, the main thing about it that have me teetering on the edge of "WTF!?"ness about this class, is the Spells Per Day that they can cast, 6/10/10/10/8/6 from 0-5th level spells. Granted that they only go up to 5th level casters, and have a limited list of spells to draw from, isn't it just a little much? I love the idea of having a base class that's a mix of melee and spell caster, so I'm still pulling for this class. I'm just curious of other peoples thoughts and what not. Anywho, going on long enough I suppose, hope to hear from a few people!

[RedSlayer]

Its basically a gish class from the start. While the number of spells may look impressive, considering that you must use them every single round of combat to have any kind of effectiveness, they arent "uber" or anything like that.

This class is great dealing large amounts of direct damage to single foes. However, Direct Damage is considered one of the weakest ways to attack somebody (after about level 8 or so), as well as being able to be effective at only one foe at a time.

In conclusion: Its nice. Its got some decent saves, some "ok" spellcasting. (maybe even weak. No utility, no buffs), and nice BAB. They are very feat hungry, and they're combat effective-ness tapers off kinda quickly. They arent very mobile, and you need to have very good stats (meaning in your average point buy, they are worse off than a monk/paladin)

Hope that helps a little

[theoneofthechuck]

Actually it does help quite a bit thank you. I haven't been able to play in any campaings higher then level 3 or 4 (I know, I'm pathetic ; so I don't really know what's good for higher levels and what not, so for someone who wants to play something like the duskblade but would like it to be more effective at higher levels... so that would be like a fighter/wizard or fighter/scorcerer or a combination of that eh?

[RedSlayer]

Well, I'll put it this way. Duskblades are good at what they do. High Damage to single foes. The are effective at this throughout 20 levels. But after about level 8-9, this tactic isnt effective, as HD grow exponentially. So while the class is good at what it does, what it does is weak.

As for fighter/wizard, fighter/sorcerer builds: If you just go by straight multiclass fighter/caster, you will get hosed. If you are going Core-books only, Go Fighter1/Wiz5/Eldritch Knight X. The Eldritch knight is a staple of the gish class.

If you have access to Complete Warrior, the most common build I see is Fighter1/Wizard5/Eldritch Knight 9/Spellsword 5 (not nessesarily in that order, probably mix and match the EK and spellsword levels). That is the more fighter oriented build. (able to wear mithral fullplate w/n casting penalty). If you want 9th level casting available, you might go EK 10, Spellsword 3, Wiz 6 (but only able to get in with Mithral Chain Shirt)

In the end of the first, you have four attacks: BAB 16/11/6/1; HD: d10+5d4+9d6+5d8, Caster Level: 16 (20 with practiced spellcaster ((a must)); Spell Level: 8, 0% chance to fail in mithral fullplate, non-mithral chain shirt. Channel Spell (a la duskblade) 3/day.

Second: Same BAB. d10+6d6+10d6+3d8. Caster level 17 (20 w/ practiced manifester) Spell level 9, 0% in Mithral fullplate, othrwise only studded leather. has lower fortsave than previous. this has a better will save

its got some nice stuff. As a human, you end up with 8 + 3 fighter bonus + 2 wizard bonus feats. A nice little variety, can pick up a number of nice things. (arcane strike comes to mind. as does battle caster) You get all the casting you could want. (buffs, DD, save or die/suffer/disables... did I mention Wish and Gate?) Might want to pick up "craft magical arms and armor" as you can actually use most of the stuff you make. Your BAB going to be very nice, as you have great buffs and is already conciderable. Channel spell is essentially the same thing as the duskblade, but you can now put your enchantment, necromancy, and other non-evocation spells in the hit too.

The best part about this build, is that it is way generic enough to have any kind of concept fit. You can be Ragor the Deathknight. (sythe w/ improved critical + necromancy magic anyone?) or maybe more of a hulk like character (bulls strength, bears endurance, stoneskin) . Its litterally an open pallet.

Yeah, those are probably the most common gish builds. They can sure do a lot, and far better than the bard at the "jack of all trades" buisness.