Which direction should I go with my Duskblade to fit my group.

[Vhagar]

Hi!

Right now I'm in a melee heavy campaign where I am currently one of 2 half-casters, the other being a Bard. My group is made of a ranger, rogue, monk, bard, and (me) a duskblade. We used to have a barbarian but they recently left our campaign.

We are currently all between levels 6 to 8 and so far the campaign has been going well, but I'm starting to worry about us 1. not having a full caster. and 2. not having a designated tank. Our barbarian fulfilled that role before she left. Our Monk seems to feel that she can fulfill the tanking role if necessary so I'm also curious to know if you all think a monk can make a proper tank for a group. I'd be happy to fuffil some of that role myself, but I'm unsure if a Duskblade does well in that role as I've heard they are mainly for damage output.

Im trying to use the versatility of my class to fill the gaps in my group but i find it hard. My damage output is huge right now in comparison to the other players but i find that if I'm taking the brunt of attacks I can't survive to long without a lot of attention from the Bard. I'm also worried about my damage output plateauing at higher levels because of duskblades limited spell list.

Id be curious to know what you all think about how I should build my duskblade going forward to unlock there full potential in my group. Thanks!

[Kurald Galain]

Im trying to use the versatility of my class to fill the gaps in my group but i find it hard. My damage output is huge right now in comparison to the other players but i find that if I'm taking the brunt of attacks I can't survive to long without a lot of attention from the Bard. I'm also worried about my damage output plateauing at higher levels because of duskblades limited spell list.
That makes sense. The duskblade has almost zero versatility, and has no damage boosts to speak of once Shocking Grasp maxes out (until very high level when Vamp Touch deals slightly more damage). Except in the hypothetical where you can hit lots of enemies with the L13 ability, but in practice that'll almost never happen.

It strikes me that duskblade is effectively a class for low levels only, and beyond that you should retrain or rebuild if possible.

[gorfnab]

The Bard can become a full caster at levels 10+ by taking the Sublime Chord prestige class. My usual recommendation for a caster based Bard is Bard 8/ Virtuoso 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso (advancing Sublime Chord casting) 8.

Some light reading for the Bard:
The Bard's Handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=9v1004t4m9ja9mf4ms0pngdpu1&topic=8686)
New Bard Handbook (http://www.joshuad.net/new-bard-handbook/)
Inspire Courage Optimization Handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=9v1004t4m9ja9mf4ms0pngdpu1&topic=8936)

What is the build so far for your Duskblade (feats, skill allocations, magic items, etc.) and what source books do you have available to use in your campaign?

Some light reading that may help you with your Duskblade build:
The Duskblade's Handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=9v1004t4m9ja9mf4ms0pngdpu1&topic=8696)

[BowStreetRunner]

The closest I ever got to a real workable Tank without something like Knight, Crusader, or Psychic Warrior was with a Spiked Chain tripper build. You could probably manage with a just a high Dex, Combat Reflexes, Spiked Chain (or a reach weapon plus another for adjacent opponents), and Improved Trip or Stand Still. Things like Improved Trip and Stand Still are used to hold the enemy at weapon's length. Never let them get close and you don't have to soak damage.