Making the Duelist Better [3.5e]

[Temotei]

What would you guys do to balance the duelist prestige class? I've heard and believe it's pretty underpowered.

[Human Paragon 3]

Lightening its prerequisites would be a great start. Maybe something like Improved Feint. Then get rid of the perform requirement.

More Precise Strike dice would be nice. Enhanced mobility is useless for anybody with ranks in tumble, so forget about that.

Maybe an ability that just flat out gives you a bonus on non-standard combat maneuvers (Disarm, trip, feint), either a blanket +4, a +2 that becomes +4, add duelist's int bonus, or maybe even duelist level.

An ability that lets you inflict status effects on enemies (like stun, daze, or fatigue) might be nice.

I'd allow him to wear light armor and still get his bonuses, too.

[Eldariel]

You're giving up the sources of damage in the game (TWF/THF). Therefore, you need some real bonus damage. Maybe Dex to damage as a start. In addition to Precise Strike, with better advancement. Maybe give it an extra attack at the highest attack bonus or so, and some Critical-improving abilities. Also, removing the cap on the Int mod to AC would be a good plan. And yeah, lower prerequisites would be nice. And allowing light armor.

[Pluto]

I want Duelist to gain the ability to demoralize its opponents, to use craftiness to catch them off guard. I want Duelist to be compatable with damage-dealing combat styles. I want to get rid of the Duelist's silly prerequisites and the unarmored qualifier in its AC bonus.

Basically, I want it to be Stormwrack's Scarlet Corsair. (It's not even that powerful, but it does Duelist right IMO.)

[Eldariel]

I think Invisible Blade's Free Feint is an absolute must, btw. I mean, what is swashbuckling if not an array of feints and strikes?

[Rixx]

The Pathfinder Duelist is a lot better, in my opinion, and much truer to the Duelist's theme.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/pres...lasses/duelist

At second level, they get an ability called Parry, which lets them forego an attack in order to attempt to negate an attack directed at them. At 5th level, they gain Riposte, which gives them an Attack of Opportunity whenever they successfully parry a strike.

They also get to keep their class features when wearing light armor.

[DragoonWraith]

At second level, they get an ability called Parry, which lets them forego an attack in order to attempt to negate an attack directed at them. At 5th level, they gain Riposte, which gives them an Attack of Opportunity whenever they successfully parry a strike.

That's ironically very close to what I did with the Dualist, though my Dualist's power level is much higher than their Duelist, since she doesn't have to forgo an attack, can do it much more often, gets those abilities much more quickly, and gets other bonuses besides. I think it largely depends on the power level of your game, but I feel like the PF Duelist is further from my own personal desired power level than my Dualist is.

(And yes, the name Dualist is intentional, it's a bad pun; she's a dual-wielding duelist, after all!)