Weapon Finesse Duskblade

[BENINHB]

With Weapon Finesse could you make an effective Duskblade based on DEX and INT??

Does STR provide much of their damage or is the damage from Arcane Channeling the majority??

3 levels of swashbuckler would give Weapon Finesse for free as well as INT to damage but 3 lvls of swash would leave your duskblade levels way behind.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I don't see why you'd want to... Strength is needed for Power Attack. Being able to use True Strike and full PA is one of the cheapest easiest damage sources a Duskblade has available. Eventually he can full attack with the +20 to hit at level 13, iirc.

So...I guess you could do it if you got Str 13 or 14 (I hate odd scores) and used power attack. The spells, arcane strike feat, and power attack alone is probably enough. But it's not like it's expensive to have an extra moderately high score. (Two 14s cost 12 points in point buy, the same as a 16 and a 10. As you level up, 4000 for a +2 ability score item becomes trivially cheap, etc...)

 

[Persiflage]

Take a level of Swordsage, picking up a Shadow Hand stance as you do so. Take the Shadow Blade feat. And now you get to add your Dex bonus to melee damage: it's not even instead of Strength, it's in addition to it

Wait a few levels before you dip so your initiator level is high enough to pick up decent maneuvers and you're good to go. A one-level Swordsage dip also gives you free Weapon Focus with your chosen discipline's favoured weapons, a +1 bonus to initiative, +2 to Will and Reflex saves and of course 6 maneuvers. The drop in caster level and a point of BAB is a trade-off, to be sure, but a level in a martial adept class opens the door to all kinds of crazy...

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Take a level of Swordsage, picking up a Shadow Hand stance as you do so. Take the Shadow Blade feat. And now you get to add your Dex bonus to melee damage: it's not even instead of Strength, it's in addition to it

Wait a few levels before you dip so your initiator level is high enough to pick up decent maneuvers and you're good to go. A one-level Swordsage dip also gives you free Weapon Focus with your chosen discipline's favoured weapons, a +1 bonus to initiative, +2 to Will and Reflex saves and of course 6 maneuvers. The drop in caster level and a point of BAB is a trade-off, to be sure, but a level in a martial adept class opens the door to all kinds of crazy...

Do note, you only get dex to damage with Shadow Hand discipline weapons. That's important to note, because other than the spiked chain (another feat to spend), every single other Shadow Hand weapon is light, so you can't even power attack with them at all. Unarmed Strike you could, since for power attack it's considered one handed. Then you'd want to convince your DM to allow the "unarmed swordsage" variant from the adaptation section and at least get him to agree that the variant should give your swordsage Improved Unarmed Strike feat, if not the monk's unarmed damage progression.

 

[Persiflage]

Do note, you only get dex to damage with Shadow Hand discipline weapons. That's important to note, because other than the spiked chain (another feat to spend), every single other Shadow Hand weapon is light, so you can't even power attack with them at all.

Oh quite, absolutely; I was shooting for the best way to make a Dex-synergy Duskblade and not worry about Strength overmuch, as the OP's question was "...could you make an effective Duskblade based on DEX and INT?"

I love the idea of going down the unarmed strike route and mixing up Duskblade abilities with Setting Sun maneuvers though. Or a race with natural weapons and some Tiger Claw goodness. Hmmm. If I wasn't pretty stuck on the idea that the best way to build a gish is just to play a primary spellcaster and take the appropriate toys, I might even be tempted to build one of these options for the hell of it.