The iconic elven warrior/mage

The duskblade is a great warrior/mage, able to match the concept right from the begining. but he is definatly more a warrior with some spells, very few have range or area of effect, no charms, enchantments or illusions - its an envoker/buffer.

the eldrich knight - a wizard who can carry a sword, the medium BAB & d6 hd mean you stay out of melee. 2nd attack at 10th? right...
You are down 2 casting levels, which means you may not match up to a wiz in the party - but you have a full wizards capability otherwise.

The Knight Phantom (ebberon supplement/WotC site) - EK on steroids, you must know phantom steed, but get special abilities, d8 hd and +9 caster levels.
If your concept is a fighter/mage as calvery - this is a good fit.
They have a stronger organization, ie more obligations and ties.

Warmage - you are not a swordsman you are artillery. All you can do is blast things, and you are very good at that, so why ever bother to swing a sword? You loose the versitility of using magic for things other than killing. This seems far more human than elvish to me.

Battle sorcerer - Depends heavily on spells chosen. In melee you are going to be much like a rogue fighting undead/constructs - you are okay with a sword, but don't have BAB or HP to back it up. As far as casting goes - you are going to know only a few spells, if carefully picked you could have both effectiveness in combat and some variety. Borrow heavily from the duskblade list for good melee spells, throw in a few faves like grease, invisibility or rope trick. Mechanically inferior, but fits my concept of a fighter/mage well.

Wiz5/Ftr1/SS1/DraS1/EK9/ obscurePrC3 oh please.
total agreement on this one you have maxed caster level and BAB just fine if you start at 15th lvl, but is sucked getting there, and what are you going to do each round in combat? cast a spell, just like a straight wizard.

An idea would be swashbuckler 3/Wiz 5/Abjurant Champ 5/EK 7 which leaves you with 8th level spells, BA 17 and if you take Exotic weapon Elven Thinblade, d8weapon that has good crits.

Though if you want simple, my love of the duskblade is boundless.

Duskbalde spells -- I don't get it. PHB II says the spell list is on page 98 ... and there is a spell list there. But the class description also mentions 0-level spells, and there is no 0-level duskblade spell list. The sample duskblades have spells not on the page 98 list. What gives? I couldn't find an errata document on the WOTC site correcting it.

Edit: disregard ... I found the spell list out of sequence at the very end of the entry on page 24. Who proofs these books?

wildstarsreach said:

An idea would be swashbuckler 3/Wiz 5/Abjurant Champ 5/EK 7 which leaves you with 8th level spells, BA 17 and if you take Exotic weapon Elven Thinblade, d8weapon that has good crits.

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How about:

Swashbuckler 3/Wiz 3/Elf Paragon 3/Abjurant Champion 5?

Finish that off with Eldritch Knight, Spellsword, Bladesinger, or whatever prestige class makes you happy.

-Stuart

szilard said:

How about:

Swashbuckler 3/Wiz 3/Elf Paragon 3/Abjurant Champion 5?

Finish that off with Eldritch Knight, Spellsword, Bladesinger, or whatever prestige class makes you happy.

-Stuart

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You get no argument out of me as I would be happy with any of those suggestions myself. Hope our suggestion have helped the thread poster.

Good suggestions, all. I'm not too crazy about the 4+ class multi-class mixes, as good as they may be mechanically.

The duskbalde is pretty cool ... my only reservation really being the limited spell list and very slow access to new spells. I'd like to tweak the melee down slightly for broader & faster spell access.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Good suggestions, all. I'm not too crazy about the 4+ class multi-class mixes, as good as they may be mechanically.

The duskbalde is pretty cool ... my only reservation really being the limited spell list and very slow access to new spells. I'd like to tweak the melee down slightly for broader & faster spell access.

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Then you want Battle Sorcerer.

Gains: Cleric BAB, Light Armor proficiency (and cast in Light Armor without ASF), Proficient with all Simple weapons and one light or one-handed Martial weapon, HD d8, replace Bluff with Intimidate.

Loses: 1 spell known at each spell level (can be brought to 0), 1 less spell per day at each spell level (minimum 1).

It is, essentially, an arcane cleric.

Then you want Battle Sorcerer.
<edit>
Loses: 1 spell known at each spell level (can be brought to 0), 1 less spell per day at each spell level (minimum 1).

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If you're using the DCv1, you can take a Bloodline feat and get that spell back.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Good suggestions, all. I'm not too crazy about the 4+ class multi-class mixes, as good as they may be mechanically.

The duskbalde is pretty cool ... my only reservation really being the limited spell list and very slow access to new spells. I'd like to tweak the melee down slightly for broader & faster spell access.

Click to expand...

Except you're already multiclassing two classes at minimum to get what you want. Many PrCs are specifically designed and intended to enhance a pair of classes. So now you're up to three. Unless they are crazy 13 level PrCs or what have you, you're can either continue in one of your base classes, or move into another PrC, but that decision generally won't matter until 16th level or so.

I think for most non-druids, 3 classes at minimum seems pretty common, even if you aren't blending things. For wizards it was often Wizard 5 / Something else 10 / Something Like Archmage 5. Newer options allow for stuff like Wizard 3 / Master Specialist 10 / Iot7V 7. The same goes for fighters and rogues. If you go straight from rogue to shadow dancer, you either need to return to rogue or find something new to finish off with. Still three classes.

This gets worse for blended people. A mystic theurge will run out of MT levels at 16th, and will likely want to find some way to continue advancing in their chosen schtick. Ditto for the Gish. Why would someone with 10 levels of EK want to turn back into taking normal fighter or wizard levels? That seems like a very bad idea both from a mechanical standpoint and a concept one. It doesn't make sense that someone who has been making a habit for most of their career of blending magic and weapon use will suddenly stop advancing one of those aspects of his style.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Good suggestions, all. I'm not too crazy about the 4+ class multi-class mixes, as good as they may be mechanically.

The duskbalde is pretty cool ... my only reservation really being the limited spell list and very slow access to new spells. I'd like to tweak the melee down slightly for broader & faster spell access.

Click to expand...

I at 8th level with the current duskblade character I have. right now duskblade 6/Fighter 2. By 20th level the plan is to have a skirmisher who can charge in strike and get out. Duskblade 9/Fighter 6/Ranger 1/Scout 4. Human character, has BA +19, improved Skirmish +4d6, blade of blood +3d6, shocking grasp +5d6 or Vampiric touch 6d6 and an AC into the 40's. I took the Armored Savant replacement fighter level to have the mithril full plate considered light and letting my character move 30 + any other considerations.

4 classes and no need for a PrC and the limited spell selection if good enough with the character concept that I have of a nasty skirmisher. Taking shield spec and shield ward out of PHB 2 to improve touch AC.