Duskblade - what are some good races and/or PrCs for them?

My friend is building a Duskblade for a level 12 campaign (as mentioned here), and is looking at races and PrCs for it. Currently, he might be an elf (y'know, it just works) or even a Hagspawn from Unapproachable East (+2 LA, but +4 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha, Natural Armour, SR, Darkvision and is a Monstrous Humanoid + some other stuff).

PrCs, I am personally at a loss. I can't think of any decent ones for a Duskblade. While I like the "Battle Mage" archetype, there are few PrCs in WotC books I can think of. Hold on, there's the Spellsword - would that synergy well with Duskblade?

Anyways, as always feedback is greatly appreciated.

Oh, and his stats are 17, 16, 16, 15, 10, 9; arrange as desired. We rolled 3d10 drop the lowest and got some awesome scrores

cheers,
--N

I personally think you should avoid PrC's with Duskblades and get to 13th level ASAP.

They are already a better spellsword than the Spellsword (or bladesinger) PrC.




But if you really want to hit a Prc, the below thread at Wizards has some nice builds in it. Including one the allows you to full attack channel a Harm spell.

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=637776

Nyaricus said:

Currently, he might be an elf (y'know, it just works) or even a Hagspawn from Unapproachable East (+2 LA, but +4 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha, Natural Armour, SR, Darkvision and is a Monstrous Humanoid + some other stuff).

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Most of the core races work well for a duskblade. Half-orcs take the int hit, but make up for it with Str. As a caster, you'll want to avoid LA races in general. Hagspawn with their SR are kind of annoying - remember that unless you use your standard action to lower it, your SR applies equally to friendly spells as well as hostile. Losing that heal you needed to your own spell resistance really blows.

PrCs, I am personally at a loss. I can't think of any decent ones for a Duskblade. While I like the "Battle Mage" archetype, there are few PrCs in WotC books I can think of. Hold on, there's the Spellsword - would that synergy well with Duskblade?

Click to expand...

Frankly, the Duskblade is one of those classes that was designed right - they don't need a PrC to rock the casbah. They're like Druids; unless there's something that screams "oh my god I'm so perfect for this character, take me, take me", then don't bother with PrCs.

I'd stay straight Duskblade, personally. One more level and he gets Arcane Channeling (Full Attack) and 4th level spells. Tossing off Enervations and full attacks (3 swings, base) with each strike packing a 6d6 Vampiric Touch means you're quite the threat.

Oh, and his stats are 17, 16, 16, 15, 10, 9; arrange as desired. We rolled 3d10 drop the lowest and got some awesome scrores

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Drop the 17 into Str, one of the 16s into Int, the other into Con. The others arrange to taste.

Make sure to pick up Arcane Strike as a feat. If you take Battle Caster you can do your duskblade-ing in full plate.

I discovered that Duskblades qualify very well for War Mind, if combined with a psionic race.

--
gnfnrf

dagger said:

I personally think you should avoid PrC's with Duskblades and get to 13th level ASAP.

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Strong agreement.

The exception to not prestige classing or multi-classing appears to be using the class as a dip to get channeling abilities for better touch spells (Harm is the classic example). But the level 13 ability is a strong incentive to stay in Duskblade and level 14 is late to start thinking prestige classes.

If you did want to prestige class despite this, few options with synergy exist but I'd look into an accelerated spellcasting class. Divine Crusader or Ur-Priest, for example.

But the Duskblade also suffers the fate of many classes with weaker than the best spellcasting (Bard, Psychic Warrior, Wilder) in that Prestige classes tend to balance the +1 caster level boost around the classes with the best progression (Wizard, Sorcerer, Psion) and ignore things that you traded good progresion for (hit points, saves, etcs . . .). So it's hard to get a good prestige class that maintains spellcasting and isn't weaker in important ways.

So pure class seems to be the best overall compromise to me . . .

I had actually asked the same question a few months ago when the PHB II came out. I had originally thought to use Duskblade as an entry in to the Bladesinger PRC, but after really looking at the two classes I realized they just didn't mesh that well.

I believe the conclusion on our last thread was that the Duskblade was designed like a 20 level prestige class, and whether good or bad, there really weren't any PRCs out there that complimented the Duskblade class. It's one of those classes, like the Monk, that IMO have enough interesting stuff at each level to discourage multiclassing.

As for race, I'd go with human. You'll be getting feat-starved if you *need* to take Arcane Strike, Battle Caster and (maybe) Somatic Weaponry from Complete Mage. Channeling a spell and using the Whirlwind Attack feat would rock, but that's going to take quite a few feats if you are a single classed Duskblade.