What do you think of the Duskblade?

[Felon]

It seems that the title "What do you think of the Duskblade?" is now irrelevant. Everybody is talking about other gish classes than about the Duskblade. Thanks but I have looked over them and find them lacking from the plusses that the Duskblade class has.

Yeah, plus every time I spot the thread's title, I keep seeing the word "duckblade". It takes me bad places.

 

[Gez]

Yeah, plus every time I spot the thread's title, I keep seeing the word "duckblade". It takes me bad places.

That's nothing compared to the swordsage. Rather than separating it in sword-sage, I always think of it as a portmanteau of sword and sausage.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Yeah, plus every time I spot the thread's title, I keep seeing the word "duckblade". It takes me bad places.

Well, that would be because of your vision, reading ability or because of the lame name that WOTC gave them versus my expert spelling

 

[DM-Rocco]

Silly to put a minimum of '0' in the text. Oh well.

Thanks,
Rich

You can get into wierd places if you go into negatives, plus, just because you have a 0 doesn't mean you can't cast spells of that level i.e. high ability bonus spells.

 

[DM-Rocco]

It seems that the title "What do you think of the Duskblade?" is now irrelevant. Everybody is talking about other gish classes than about the Duskblade. Thanks but I have looked over them and find them lacking from the plusses that the Duskblade class has.

I guess I prefer the duskblade as well. I like the sorcerer only because you can cast the really good spells at higher levels, like meter swarm. But, if I was to go for a class like that, I guess I would prefer a straight up sorcerer. However, I am more partial to Wizards, it is just to hard to give up the flexability and the bonus feats.

For what it does, I think the Duskblade is pound for pound a more complete character than the Battle Sorcerer, mainly because of the full BAB and the arcane channeling, which you could still do a Arcane strike on top of, ouch!

 

[Klaus]

I guess I prefer the duskblade as well. I like the sorcerer only because you can cast the really good spells at higher levels, like meter swarm. But, if I was to go for a class like that, I guess I would prefer a straight up sorcerer. However, I am more partial to Wizards, it is just to hard to give up the flexability and the bonus feats.

For what it does, I think the Duskblade is pound for pound a more complete character than the Battle Sorcerer, mainly because of the full BAB and the arcane channeling, which you could still do a Arcane strike on top of, ouch!

I don't know. I find the Duskblade's spell list to be really limited (which it needs to be, to balance off the full BAB). The Duskblade is, imho, more of a "fighter with arcane tricks" than a warrior/mage hybrid.

YMMV, of course.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I don't know. I find the Duskblade's spell list to be really limited (which it needs to be, to balance off the full BAB). The Duskblade is, imho, more of a "fighter with arcane tricks" than a warrior/mage hybrid.

Well, if you look at the class that it was modeled after, it is within standards. It appears to be taliored after the fighter/mage class from first edition. Take a 20th level character in each edition and you get about the same amount of power and spells per day as a fighter/mage when compared to a 20th level duskblade. The difference is a full BAB with the Duskblade versus the full spell list of the fighter/mage.

I think I would prefer to see them have full use of the wizard spell list with a clerics BAB, which is closer to the class they are modeled after.

I am going to play one this summer in a new game, and that DM is kind of a dink for rules, so I doubt he will change the list. I however would alter the spell list or redo the class a bit if someone wanted to try one out in one of my games.

YMMV, of course.

? :\

 

[DM-Rocco]

As far as changes that I would make go, I would give them Automatic Still Spell for purposes of casting spells in armor, starting with light, then medium and then heavy. If something else restricted their ability to cast spells, like being tied up, then they would have to use the still spell feat.

I would give a PC the option of an expanded spell list, more touch, cone and ranged touch spells to choose from, and they could keep their full BAB, or I would knock the BAB to medium and give them full wizard spell list to choose from with maybe a few extra spells to know.

I think a way to increase the DC of the spells being cast may be in order too. At level 20, a wizard can heighten any spell to a 9th level slot, making the DC a lot higher, a Duskblade at the least, misses out on a potenial 4 to a DC increwase because of a lack of higher level spells. Not sure how to resolve this, but it just occured to me.

I might also find a way to give them 6th level spells by level 19 or 20, but maybe that is just me.

 

[rgard]

I don't know. I find the Duskblade's spell list to be really limited (which it needs to be, to balance off the full BAB). The Duskblade is, imho, more of a "fighter with arcane tricks" than a warrior/mage hybrid.

YMMV, of course.

Hi, found this over in the Dragon 355 thread:

<snip>

The 1st level one is very nice.. you give up the bonus feat and can ignore the weight of armor for encumbrance and armor slows you as thought it was one category lighter than it is, and ASF is half-normal. 4th level one gives you Evasion as long as you're unencumbered or lightly encumbered. 8th level is okay.. it lets you bond your armor so you can don/remove it as a full-round action and gives you some minor AC bonuses. 10th level gives you Fortification (another neat one). The 18th level one gives you spell resistance equal to 11 + Hit Dice.

<snip>

The 1st level one with later addition of 1 Spellsword level is looking really attractive now. Maybe a good alternative to the Duskblade and Battle Sorcerer.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Klaus]

Well, if you look at the class that it was modeled after, it is within standards. It appears to be taliored after the fighter/mage class from first edition. Take a 20th level character in each edition and you get about the same amount of power and spells per day as a fighter/mage when compared to a 20th level duskblade. The difference is a full BAB with the Duskblade versus the full spell list of the fighter/mage.

I think I would prefer to see them have full use of the wizard spell list with a clerics BAB, which is closer to the class they are modeled after.

I am going to play one this summer in a new game, and that DM is kind of a dink for rules, so I doubt he will change the list. I however would alter the spell list or redo the class a bit if someone wanted to try one out in one of my games.


? :\

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary.