Duskblade Spells For Fighting Undead

[Harrow]

I'm helping design a back-up character for an undead-heavy campaign. The player is interested in playing a Duskblade, but, when I looked into their spell list, it seems that most of the better spells for channeling at this level (Ghoul Touch and Vampiric Touch) don't work on undead. So now I'm looking for spells that can be channeled that would work that could be added via Extra Spell or maybe just asking the DM nicely.

Important campaign information: That character will likely be coming in at level 13, which is also the level that we're all capped at. We've got something kind of E6 inspired going on, where we can't level past 13 and gain extra feats instead. All 1st party 3.5 content is allowed except the books of exalted deeds and vile darkness, with the DM willing to look at 3.0, dragon magazine, and pathfinder stuff.

The only decent spell I've been able to find so far is Bestow Curse. It's pretty nifty, but I'd like to offer other options.

[rrwoods]

This isn't undead-specific, but can sort of proxy for it if other members of the party have good undead-killing capabilities:

The duskblade is level 13. Assuming a single-classed character, full attack arcane channeling is online at this point. Your best bet to channel is probably dimension hop. Assuming you start combat adjacent to all your allies, you get to put them in exactly the best possible positions by channeling dimension hop and hitting each of three allies once. Alternatively, if this is impractical in any given scenario (or just too cheesy for your liking generally), moving your enemies around is effective too. You can even mix and match on any given full attack!

EDIT: shocking grasp is also fine. It's only 5d6, but given full attack lets you discharge the spell multiple times it can be an effective killshot if you can hit multiple times.

EDIT: chill touch maybe? The save DC for the undead-specific effect is gonna be low, but depending on build and items it might be okay.

[Aracor]

My recommendation: Combust. 2nd level spell from Spell Compendium.

Since Duskblades still have limited spells known, it won't really unbalance things to add to their potential spell list.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=7807766&postcount=19 is something put together by others on this site.

[Fizban]

If the spell list is too short, expand the spell list. Dusbklade is a class with later design philosophies, constrained to the earlier spell lists of PHB and what few spells were crammed into PHB2, one of the best examples of a list that needs expansion.


PHB/PHB 2:
0th
Acid Splash
Disrupt Undead
Ray of Frost
Touch of Fatigue

1st
Bigby's Tripping Hand^
Blade of Blood^
Burning Hands
Cause Fear
Chill Touch
Color Spray
Expeditious Retreat*
Feather Fall*
Jump
Kelgore's Fire Bolt^
Lesser Deflect^
Magic Weapon
Obscuring Mist
Ray of Enfeeblement
Resist Energy
Rouse^
Shocking Grasp
Stand^
Swift Expeditious Retreat^
True Strike

2nd
Acid Arrow
Animalistic Power^
Bear's Endurance
Bigby's Striking Fist^
Cat's Grace
Darkvision
Deflect^
Dimension Hop^
False Life*
Ghoul Touch
Spectral Hand*
Scorching Ray
See Invisibility
Seeking Ray^
Spider Climb
Stretch Weapon^
Sure Strike^
Swift Fly^
Swift Invisibility^
Touch of Idiocy

3rd
Arcane Sight*
Contagion*
Crown of Might^
Crown of Protecton^
Dispelling Touch^
Dispel Magic**
Doom Scarabs^
Energy Aegis^
Energy Surge^
Greater Magic Weapon
Halt^
Keen Edge
Protection from Energy
Ray of Exhaustion
Regroup^
Vampiric Touch

4th
Blight*
Channeled Pyroburst^
Dimension Door
Ennervation
Fire Shield
Interposing Hand
Phantasmal Killer
Shout
Slashing Dispel^**
Sonic Shield^**
Toxic Weapon^**

5th
Chain Lightning
Clenched Fist
Disintegrate
Etherealness, Swift^
Hold Monster
Polar Ray
Slashing Dispel^
Waves of Fatigue

*Additional PHB spell
^PHB2 spell
**Reduced from original level
^^Increased from normal level


Spell Compendium:
0th
Electric Jolt
Launch Bolt
Launch Item

1st
Benign Transposition
Blades of Fire
Buzzing Bee
Corrosive Grasp
Deep Breath
Dispel Ward
Fist of Stone
Hail of Stone
Ice Dagger
Incite
Inhibit
Low-Light Vision
Ray of Clumbsiness
Ray of Flame
Spell Flower
Wings of the Sea

2nd
Baleful Transposition
Battering Ram
Body of the Sun
Belker Claws+T
Combust+
Daggerspell Stance
Death Armor
Fireburst
Rainbow Beam
Ray of Ice
Scorch
Weapon of Energy**

3rd
Disrupt Undead, Greater
False Gravity
Hailstones
Sound Lance
Weapon of Impact

4th
Corporeal Instability
Rainbow Blast^^
Ray of Deanimation

5th
Acid Sheath
Dragonsight
Fireburst, Greater
Moonbow
Night's Caress
Prismatic Ray
Ray Deflection
Reciprocal Gyre

**Reduced from original level
^^Increased from original level

+Belker Claws and Combust are a special case: delaying them until 3rd means they don't show up until they have almost maximum damage, but adding them at all represents a significant increase in damage potential compared to the original list (which only has Shocking Grasp and Vampiric Touch for flat touch damage). Best practice is to either not allow them at all, or add them at 2nd, so for completeness they are listed here at 2nd.
TThe original MoF Combust listed under Traditional Energy Spells is suitable at 2nd normally.

Complete Mage
1st
Bloodletting
Dawnburst
Death's Call
Jet of Steam
Vigilant Slumber

2nd
Arcane Turmoil
Boiling Blood

3rd
Ghost Lantern

4th
Finger of Agony

5th
Channeled Lifetheft
Channeled Sonic Blast
Cryptwarden's Grasp
Dimension Jumper
Lightning Leap
This list was carefully chosen based on both the visible themes, and conspicuous absences in the PHB2 list (one or two of which I did deliberately overturn, re: dispelling), rather than just putting every spell a "gish' could ever want on there. An earlier version (mostly the same) with some of the reasoning can be found here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?498005-If-you-were-me-how-would-you-feel-about-spell-compendium&p=21124047&viewfull=1#post21124047).

There still remains the question of what a "touch' spell is, and just how the level 13 upgrade works. It is possible from the vague wording that one of the writers or editors thought ranged touch spells could also be channeled, and that's why the options are so low. Either way, though you probably already have a strong opinion on what the readings are, you should make sure everyone agrees first.

[Kurald Galain]

DM willing to look at 3.0, dragon magazine, and pathfinder stuff.
Since you mention Pathfinder, the obvious choice is to play a Magus. Among other things, the Magus can create a Holy weapon at need, has defensive buffs like Mirror Image and Stoneskin, area debuffs like Slow and Glitterdust, and can natively learn any two wizard spells for a feat.

If you insist on duskblade, the answer is Shocking Grasp (only 1d6 less damage than vamp touch, and it works fine on undead). Ghoul Touch is not great anyway (only works on humanoids, and sickens your teammates), so you're not missing out. That said, duskblade's spell list is seriously anemic and can be boosted by many spells without unbalancing anything.

But yeah, Magus. Hands down.

[Anthrowhale]

If you can find a sorcerer who as previously used Dragonblood Spell-pact to acquire Cure <x> Wounds from a Favored Soul, you could trade for that. In a full attack arcane channel, you can then both heal the party and damage the bad guys with the same spell.

[RexDart]

My DM uses an expanded Duskblade spell list that includes Moon Blade, which seems pretty good for messing up the undead.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Harrow
That character will likely be coming in at level 13….

Another option, if it fits with the character and campaign, is to take Arcane Disciple and select a deity with the healing domain. That would give you Cure spells as class spells, which should be available to channel.

Sadly, you won’t ever have the joy of channeling a Heal into a vampire, but you can still channel positive energy, which is something.

.