Hit Die: d8 – Just good enough for melee combat with a decent CON score.īase Attack Bonus: Full – Excellent, considering this is a gish-type class. Both are viable builds, but I tend to favor the versatility of the early-exit Duskblade, as there is a lot of sacrifice in getting to full-round channeling. There’s generally 2 kinds of Duskblade builds: ones that go to level 13 to get the full-round Arcane Channeling in order to spread their DPS and spells between monsters with a reach weapon, full attacking, and those who exit some time after level 3 or 6 and make do with the basic ability in order to focus on single-target DPS. There are some variant builds that use Duskblade more extensively in order to abuse the full-channel Arcane Channeling to damage hordes of enemies with huge reach or buff allies by the same mechanic. There are not very many endgame options for a Duskblade, so it is best to exist the class via Prestige or Multiclass at some point, also. A Duskblade can be a nice addition to a Brains-Over-Brawn build (high-INT melee fighter), as she gets a good handful of useful spells in the core 3 levels. Ultimately, the Duskblade is not good at much else besides dealing damage, so this guide is mostly optimizing for more damage and some amount of utility. It is also a generic class that can be used to add flavor to other builds, so you could have a charger but start with some levels of Duskblade because you want magic-infused attacks. While it is out-damaged by other classes and builds, it has a few perks (lots of free cantrips, a few random useful spells, full BAB) that some people may like. While the class is limited in spell selection, it is very good at doing nova-style damage in melee using its Arcane Channeling ability to both attack and cast a touch-range spell on an enemy. If you trust your players not to intentionally make one another obsolete, then they can play whatever combination they like and still be perfectly fine.The Duskblade is probably the easiest way to both cast spells and do melee combat, but far from the best. In the average party, if you're playing a wizard and not dominating everything all the time, then you aren't playing the class to it's full potential and that's okay. ![]() And you can stretch the rule of thumb quite a bit if your players are reasonable. It's entirely reasonable let newer players use more powerful classes. That's a 2 tier difference.īut, a poorly built wizard controlled by a new player can still lose to a fighter played to the hilt by a veteran. Anybody who isn't a full caster (or full psionic manifester) is going to feel a bit obsolete in a party of tier 1 casters. Wizards, Erudites, and Druids are more flexible than Warblades, more powerful than Warblades, and, with the proper transmutation buffs, better melee classes than the Warblade. They have a bit wider range than the Warblade, but if they coordinate during character creation, there will inevitably be a blindspot that the Warblade can build towards, or at least a role that's worth doubling up. In the other direction, a Warblade could be a valuable member of a team with sorcerers and psions, because they both have limited spell lists and need to focus on a few things. More damage output against both single and multiple targets than fighter, better at whatever monks are supposed to do than the monk (defense?), Swordsage even more so. If your party is heavy on fighters and monks, then you're likely to see Warblade overshadowing them, in that he can be better than them in their own area of expertise. He can't deal the single target damage of a barbarian and he doesn't have the skills of a rogue, but he does have additional options and flexibility that will benefit the team. If your party is mostly things like barbarian and rogue, then the Warblade probably won't overshadow them too badly, in that he is unlikely to be better than them in their own area of expertise. The rule of thumb is to try to keep your party within 2 tiers (ie, ideally no 2 members more than 1 apart) to avoid anyone being overshadowed, unless your players are operating at markedly different optimization levels. TOB classes are mostly tier 3, most standard martial classes are tier 4 or 5, and full casters are tier 1 or 2. ![]() Really, it's all about tiers (you can find them here, they're pretty widely accepted in the d&d community at large). They're not as good as full casters, but they're a far sight better than any of the normal martial classes, while still keeping a mostly martial flavor. There's also an often voiced opinion among some groups that monk is OP, so you see what happens when you put stock in unsubstantiated "conventional wisdom".Īs far as power for TOB characters, consider them about on par with a fairly standard gish at average optimization levels, but possibly with a lower optimization ceiling.
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