Help with rogue/duskblade build

[Shazman]

I am considering making a rogue2/duskblade x for a back-up character for my Age of Worms character should he bite the dust. I am considering being a human and taking practiced spellcaster, spell pentetration, power attack and improved initiative as my feats. What feat choices would ENworlders suggest? Also, are there any spell choices that are must have's for a duskblade?

 

[cmanos]

As I am playing in the AoW AP as awell, and have seen two of our characters go down very hard over the course of the last two sessions (3FoE), I am contemplating my own characert's mortality as well. My thoughts are, it all really depends on your role in the party, and what the other players are playing.

The AP was written for 4 characters of the 'standard' makeup....1 melee specialist, 1 arcane caster, 1 divine caster and 1 skill monkey. We'll need to know how many other PC's there are, what they are, and what you see your role in the party being. Being a duskblade/rogue, you are almost trying to do 3 roles. Do you have a specific plan for where you are taking your character or are you just thinking it would make a cool character?

I'll give you an example. We are playing with a party of 6. Paladin, Fighter, Scout, Sorceress, Archivist and replacing our never-raging Barbarian will be a Warmage. That gives us 2 primary fighters(Pal, Ftr), 1 primary archer(Sct), 1 primary troubleshooter(Sct), 2 Primary Arcane (Sor, Wmg), 1 primary divine (Archivist) and 1 secondary divine (Pal). If I, the archivist, go down first, I'll be bringing in a straight cleric, as the party will really need the healing. I know if the scout goes down, there will be a druid coming in, who could take up the healing if I went down, so knowing that, if the scout goes down before me, I'll be bringing in a skillmonkey. Haven't decided exactly what, but am considering the Beguiler or the Spellthief. Leaning towards spellthief. We have backup fighters and backup arcane, so if any one of them go down before me, I can weigh the party makeup, along with what they are bringing in, to aid the party as best I can.

As it is I have 3 backup characters, a Spellthief or Beguiler, a Swashbuckler and a Cleric. Which I bring in as a secondary all depends on what the party really needs after the dust clears.

With the AP's you really need to think bigger than individual characters. You really need to think as a party. If one member of the party goes down, you need to think carefully what the party really needs to be effective.

Lety us know the rest of your party's make-up and we can help you better.

 

[Shazman]

We have mostly melee characters plus a druid and an NPC cleric and a bard cohort. I was looking to fill the trapfinding, arcane roll while still being able to mix it up in combat.

 

[cmanos]

how about going with a Dex based character to complement the rogue's need for a good dex. Instead of Power Attack, go with Weapon Finesse. You can get away with a low strength if you hit more often and are harder to hit in the process.

 

[Shazman]

I was thinking power attack combined with a quickened true strike due to quick casting ability at 5th level.

 

[Ilium]

Definitely a good combo with the Duskblade. I assume you have good reason for those Rogue levels?

One feat that seems tailor-made for duskblades is Arcane Strike. Since they get quite a few spell slots and full BAB they can make very good use of it.

 

[Shazman]

Yep ,as I said above, it's for trapfinding, plus the Refelx save and evasion are pretty sweet as well.

 

[brendan candries]

Check out the daggerspell mage (CAdv).

Rogue/Duskblade makes a nice entry in that class.

DSM gives 6 skillpoints per level instead of the DB's 2.

examples:

Rog1/DB9/DSM10 for extra dagger goodies

Rog1/DB13/DSM6 for full round arcane channeling

 

[Shazman]

I might replace spell penetration with sudden empower. Any thoughts on this.