Arcane duelist question

[EndocrineBandit]

How viable would it be to take a couple levels of arcane duelist, then finishing the progression with legacy champion? The 1/2 bab is ghastly and I'm looking to improve on that without homebrew or houseruling. I'm not really sure what to use for the initial requirements for arcane duelist

[ExLibrisMortis]

Uh, you'd gain about two points of base attack, but you'd still be an arcane duelist without any spell progression, so... maybe hexblade 4/crusader 2 entry is worthwhile.

[Rebel7284]

If more BAB is what you want, what about becoming a necropolitan and then paying someone to spellstich you with Divine Power?

Alternatively, Duskblade 1/Paladin of Tyranny 2/Hexblade 2/Ur Priest 4/Arcane Duelist 10

Or the cheesy version:
Duskblade 1/Were-Fleshraker 4/Ur Priest 4/Arcane Duelist 10 cure Lycanthropy once you self-qualify for everything.

[Zaq]

Uh, you'd gain about two points of base attack, but you'd still be an arcane duelist without any spell progression, so... maybe hexblade 4/crusader 2 entry is worthwhile.

Yeah, Legacy Champion gives 8/10 class feature progression and 7/10 BAB. You'd still need to take two real levels of Arcane Duelist, which would provide 1 BAB, so you'd get 8 BAB over 12 levels. Which is all of one point higher than you'd get from just taking 10 levels of AD and then two levels in a full-BAB class, and you'd get whatever benefits that full-BAB class offers (which are likely more useful than the reduced ritual costs of LC).

LC isn't a terrible idea, but it's not automatically going to make a bad character good or a good character great. Unless the BAB is preventing you from qualifying for a feat on time or something, I'd honestly rather have the AD features two levels faster than have the ever-so-slightly faster BAB progression of LC at the cost of slowing down the progression.

[Grod_The_Giant]

As Zaq noted, it won't help your BAB much. On the other hand, you probably don't need more than three levels of Arcane Duelist, ever. Cha to AC in all armor is nice, and Dexterous Attack + two-handed Power Attack is free damage. (Flurry of Swords is awesome, but it's not worth the intervening seven levels.)

[EndocrineBandit]

Duskblade will likely be a no go, simply because the build doesn't need to be any more MAD than what it already is, hexblade/crusader would be neat. Hmm. The lycanthrope probably wouldn't be okay with the DM. He tends to frown on the ridiculous cheese. The character doesn't need to be optimal, hell.. arcane duelist is far from a power house of a prc, but it's neat and i think it would be fun to run one. Hmm. You pose a valid point about LC, might as well take the AD through. I'm wanting the false keenness, the blur, and the [afaict] at will mirror image. The whole class just seems fun to me, even if it's underwhelming.

[Thurbane]

There was some discussion on this recently: [3.5] Arcane Duelist Build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?532019)

[Nifft]

As Zaq noted, it won't help your BAB much. On the other hand, you probably don't need more than three levels of Arcane Duelist, ever. Cha to AC in all armor is nice, and Dexterous Attack + two-handed Power Attack is free damage. (Flurry of Swords is awesome, but it's not worth the intervening seven levels.)

Dexterous Attack + Stormguard Warrior would be pretty neat.

Reduce your weapon's base damage but stack on a huge amount of bonus damage.