Duskblade or Psychic Warrior

[Thrawn183]

I was thinking about these two classes and I have come to feel that they are rather similar in function (party role: "gish-in-a-can") and method (how they go about fulfilling that role). They both have roughly the same power level, some limited ability to use utility spells/powers, as well as almost the same degree of MAD and how that MAD affects their spells/powers. They have a spell/power list that functions in similar ways (5 spell levels vs. 6th level powers). There is even an element of similarity between the two classes' ability to nova (quick casting vs. blowing wads of power points at once), though I freely admit this is probably their most disparate element to compare.

So I have 3 questions for you:

1) If you were the DM and a player was trying to decide between the two (hypothetically of course), would you actually end up changing much of what you did depending on the choice the character made?

2) Which do you feel is the more powerful class? (in terms of taking on encounters of varied CR, sustainability all day, and not forgetting non-combat encounters.)

3) Which do you feel was better designed? (I'll throw out Truenamer as an example of poor design in case you are wondering what I'm asking.)

Note* This discussion will have no significant impact on the real world. It really is a hypothetical thing.

[AstralFire]

I1) If you were the DM and a player was trying to decide between the two (hypothetically of course), would you actually end up changing much of what you did depending on the choice the character made?

Other than potentially shifting the plot a little more arcane or psionically, no.


2) Which do you feel is the more powerful class? (in terms of taking on encounters of varied CR, sustainability all day, and not forgetting non-combat encounters.)

The Duskblade is much more combat oriented than the Psychic Warrior by nature. Power probably goes to a well-built Psywarrior, though they will have to be careful with their power points.


3) Which do you feel was better designed? (I'll throw out Truenamer as an example of poor design in case you are wondering what I'm asking.)

The PsyWarrior, but that's really not saying much against the Duskblade. Psionics - Soulknife doesn't count since it's pretty non-psionic except in flavor - is extremely well-built as part of an entire sub-system, one that was designed to make multiclassing feasible and give players more options and versatility at the expense of endurance. The Duskblade is a clear deviation from the original intent of the 3.x magic system and is a stand-alone class.

Something to note is that the Duskblade is also considerably more blasty than a Psywarrior. I prefer to play them since I find the "I buff myself, then kill them" mechanic to be less interesting in play than the "I do a weak buff, then blast them with my energy sword" mechanic.

[Overlard]

I think the PsyWar has more durability & versatility, but duskblades have more fun. :smallbiggrin:

[Nerd-o-rama]

They are rather similar, aren't they...

Well, Duskblades have better BAB, but Psychic Warriors have a significantly better (or at least more versatile) spell list. They can also wear heavy armor without casting failure or spending a feat on Armored Mage. PsyWars get (a lot of) feats instead of Arcane Channeling/Quick-Cast, but even though feats are usually inferior to class features, many of the [Psionic] ones are really quite good.

I think the general consensus of optimizers is that PsyWars have the edge in power, simply due to the usefulness of their power list. At least, I've never seen the King of Smack done with arcane magic.

[Draz74]

Note that one of the big differences between the classes is Intelligence vs. Wisdom. This is more of a flavor difference than anything, but the Duskblade will have a lot more skill points than the Psychic Warrior (although his list of class skills isn't especially impressive). If the PsyWarrior PrC's into Slayer for the good Will save, he will probably end up with a better Will save than the Duskblade due to Wis.

[d12]

Oddly enough, a friend and I ran a mock dungeon crawl for the purpose of trying out classes we were interested in, and we had a psychic warrior (one of his guys) and a duskblade (one of mine). Yeah, their power levels are pretty close. I would probably give the edge to the psywar on odd tricks with some of the ha-ha-look-at-me lollerskating stuff they can do. Course, we only really played to level 8 before shelving it for the time being, so I couldn't speak for levels past that. Swift Invisibility was fun for trying to get up to reach bastards. Most of the time the psywar and duskie were stealing the show (we also had a cleric and ninja around to round the party out) and they quickly became known as "the destroyers" because of the massive damage they could dish out.