Duskblade Help 3.5e

[Greenmobboy]

So I have a level 3 NG Silverbrow Human Duskblade. For feats he has Arcane Disiple Travel, Versitle Spell casting, and Draconic aura. I had a solid idea for how I wanted to level my character, but the GM flat out banned Abjurant Champion. Any ideas for feats or PrC I can take to make my little Pontiff a real baddie?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Which Draconic Aura did you pick?

You want the feat Arcane Disciple in Complete Warrior. It's a free action to activate, so you can activate it multiple times in the same round. The attack bonus is a bonus and doesn't stack with itself, but multiple activations will stack up more and more d4s of extra damage.

There aren't really any prestige classes that make a Duskblade better without sacrificing caster levels, BAB, or both. Maybe take Warblade into Jade Phoenix Mage to expand your horizons, or dip Ur-Priest 2 and use a divine casting or dual-casting PrC to max it out, but otherwise just staying single-classed you should be fine.

[Gruftzwerg]

I have a optimized build for using Shivering Touch as Duskblade. Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, buy you could pick up some ideas there, like..

- Whirlwind when you hit lvl 13 Duskbalde and can full attack with your arcane channeling ability. Since Whirlwind is a big feat chain, you maybe want to go for the weapon enhancement (3/day WW).
- Bloodstorm Blade (prc) allows you to throw any melee weapon and let it count as melee attack back again. Abuse with Arcane Channeling to deliver your spell charges at range. (can further be combined with Whirlwind Attack).
- Wyrm Wizard lets you pick a spell from another classes list. Shivering Touch is assumed the best option here, but you could still use it for something else if you should have something in your mind.

Note that the build kicks in on the very late levels, so if you ain't going to reach that, keep it in mind when making your choices and ordering (lvl to) em.

[Rebel7284]

Which Draconic Aura did you pick?

You want the feat Arcane Disciple in Complete Warrior. It's a free action to activate, so you can activate it multiple times in the same round. The attack bonus is a bonus and doesn't stack with itself, but multiple activations will stack up more and more d4s of extra damage.

There aren't really any prestige classes that make a Duskblade better without sacrificing caster levels, BAB, or both. Maybe take Warblade into Jade Phoenix Mage to expand your horizons, or dip Ur-Priest 2 and use a divine casting or dual-casting PrC to max it out, but otherwise just staying single-classed you should be fine.

Based on context, I assume you mean Arcane Strike. Which is certainly a good feat.

It's a little difficult to figure out what good suggestions are since Abjurant Champion is pretty average for a Duskblade as they don't get too many Abjuration Spells and already have full BAB.

If you are going to play into later levels, I am a fan of Duskblade 3/Monk 2/Ur Priest 2/Sacred Fist X and Dusblade 9/Bard 1/Sublime Chord X however, those might also be too powerful for your table.

If you want something amusing, you can stack all the ways to channel a spell on one character.
- Duskblade
- Enchant weapon with Spell Storing + Bloodstone
- Smiting Spell metamagic

Possibly adding Spellsword (easy entry) or Ordained Champion (need some shenanigans to count as a divine caster)

[Kurald Galain]

So I have a level 3 NG Silverbrow Human Duskblade. For feats he has Arcane Disiple Travel, Versitle Spell casting, and Draconic aura. I had a solid idea for how I wanted to level my character, but the GM flat out banned Abjurant Champion. Any ideas for feats or PrC I can take to make my little Pontiff a real baddie?

Unless your campaign is going to spend a lot of time at the high levels (which, based on your current level, I'm guessing you're not), then there aren't any PrCs that are practical. If you want to be "a real baddie", convince your DM to let you retrain to either Warblade or Magus instead.

[Greenmobboy]

Unless your campaign is going to spend a lot of time at the high levels (which, based on your current level, I'm guessing you're not), then there aren't any PrCs that are practical. If you want to be "a real baddie", convince your DM to let you retrain to either Warblade or Magus instead.

We're starting low to get a good grip on our characters. The DM said that the real main story won't really start until level 12-13.

[nedz]

Duskblade works fine as a single class build and Abjurant Champion doesn't help too much anyway due to a lack of synergy.

Silverbrow opens up Draconic feats but you've probably looked at those - and you are too late for Draconic Wings.

Some Warblade, or Swordsage, dips may help - but those are best delayed a little anyway.

A Cleric (or similar) dip can help melee and appears to fit your theme.

[bean illus]

So I have a level 3 NG Silverbrow Human Duskblade. For feats he has Arcane Disiple Travel, Versitle Spell casting, and Draconic aura. I had a solid idea for how I wanted to level my character, but the GM flat out banned Abjurant Champion. Any ideas for feats or PrC I can take to make my little Pontiff a real baddie?

Yeah, DB is notoriously hard to multiclass, prc, or optimize. Most of the options have been mentioned.

One trick that's past you (unless your dm let's you rebuild with Able Learner) is 2 levels of chameleon, which puts most every touch spell in the game as known spells.

The good news is that DB comes on at level 13. It does sorta top out there.

The cloistered cleric option isn't horrible. You'll get more Travel Devo, and some wand access. Then, if your dm will let you Ordained Champion you can pick up 2 feats. Pick up EWP Spiked Chain and a sizing weapon. You'll really want Improved Trip and Power attack, but if you get Ordained Champion it'll only cost you one more feat.

Tripping has limits, but PA and full attack channeling from 5-15 ft is nice. Maybe get a way to Enlarge Person (potion?) for even more reach.

Oh, and DB already has all Knowledge skills, so trade it for Know Devo for more PA fun.

[Wildstag]

It's ridiculous, because it really only works at level 20 (well, kinda), but there's always the old Duskblade13/EnlightenedFist7.

Duskblade 13 works really well in general as a stopping point because after that you only get improvements to your previous abilities. Enlightened Fist gets you to CL 18, but more importantly, it allows you to convert a Ray spell into a Touch spell. Also, Hold Ray is not restricted to the same small pool of weapons that Fist of Energy is, which specifies that it only works with monk weapons or unarmed strikes.

Effectively, this allows you to use the Full Attack Arcane Channeling with a ray spell. The Duskblade gets some good rays late game, such as Polar Ray and Enervation.

The build is kinda MAD, so if you don't have a Wisdom of 13 and Dex of 13 (already hard on a gish that needs Strength and Intelligence), don't worry about this.

Also, it can be kinda dumb to play a character build that doesn't really come together until level 20, but also keep in mind that Duskblade 13 is still a strong base and you can do a lot with those levels. That base class is just a really well designed one.

P.S. Some GMs and denizens of the playground might argue that Arcane Channeling specifically only works with touch spells due to this line: "you can use a standard action to cast any touch spell you know and deliver the spell through your weapon with a melee attack".

I would argue (and I don't think I'm alone) that the Hold Ray ability will allow you to treat those rays as touch spells that you can then channel through your weapon.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There's the Duskblade 13/ Bard 1/ Sublime Chord 3+, which uses Arcane Channeling (full attack) with Whirlwind Attack and a Spiked Chain and preferably large+ size for reach, to cast Irresistible Dance on literally everyone.

[liquidformat]

I always like Knowledge Devotion for my Duskblades, EWP Spiked Chain is always a decent choice for them as well, Obtain Familiar/Improved is very powerful for duskblades since you have full bab, Power Attack is always a decent choice, I normally like taking Time with Arcane Disciple and hop into swiftblade after level 13 but you already took travel...

[Wildstag]

I always like Knowledge Devotion for my Duskblades, EWP Spiked Chain is always a decent choice for them as well, Obtain Familiar/Improved is very powerful for duskblades since you have full bab, Power Attack is always a decent choice, I normally like taking Time with Arcane Disciple and hop into swiftblade after level 13 but you already took travel...

Fwiw, he could still take the Celerity Domain through Arcane Disciple assuming he's a devotee of Fharlanghn. He'd need to be a worshipper of some deity with both Travel and Time or Celerity. He'd be very feat starved though, and probably wouldn't be able to get above level 6 in Swiftblade if that is the path Pontiff chose.

[Anthrowhale]

Duskblade 3/Spontaneous Cleric 10 is potentially pretty scary, and it might fit as a character as you are already dabbling in the divine. Despite the name, Arcane Channeling appears to apply to any known spell so spontaneous cleric spells should work. There are some quite debilitating cleric spells out there either for the purpose of channeling or melee combat. As examples:

L1: Lesser Shivering Touch // Opponents AC steadily declines until they lock up.
L2: Sense Weakness // auto confirm criticals
L3: Shivering Touch // Opponents lock up, no save.
L5: Surge of Fortune // auto 20 at will.

Using the above and a lesser rod of maximize spell you could (for example) automatically critical hit while delivering 18 points of dexterity damage at ECL 13.