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Just learned that I have the option of one Flaw Feat at start, and that all books are open to me so long as everything passes GM inspection. The GM would prefer I stick to one expansion set if I utilize them (either Eberron or Faerun) but said it isnt a big issue.

For armor since I'm starting at 5th - I was thinking MW Hide - but I dunno - It seems off balance to me.

The real problem with my choice on armor is this: I don't know my stats yet. I'll be using the standard 4d6 rolls. But I wont be rolling them till possibly sometime near the end of the week. also at the same time if I choose one of my early feats to be the one to increase spell failure to no chance during heavy.... But then that cuts into my utilizing the Knowledge devotion and other such feats earlier on.

Also, I don't think I'm gonna stick with Duskblade till 13th... Let me explain.

It seems to me that the best way to utilize the greater weapon channeling is reach only with whirl like combat abilities to "reach out and touch" as many enemies as possible.

I really hadn't planned on him using a reach weapon. Now I undestand the greater channeling is still usefull, and in fact has great synergy with cleave and greater cleave. But it still just isnt really what I has looking for out of the class. But now that brings up the notion of what prestiges to look into.

What do you all think?

I wouldn't take battle caster. You'll be able to use mithral or elven darkleaf (Arms and Equipment Guide) to get almost any armor down to medium anyway. That won't be cost-effective right away, but I'd still skip the feat.

Eschew material shouldn't be necessary if you restrict yourself to a light shield or no shield. You can use a longsword in two hands if you want, for the better power attack ratio. That still leaves you with a free hand when not attacking.

It would be easy for you to take abjurant champion (Complete Mage), though it doesn't provide that much benefit to you.

You could always put a level into sand shaper (Sandstorm) for the extra spells known.

May 22, 2012 -- 2:50PM, Tetsuoh wrote:

Okay any suggestions on rods for a duskblade?

If you've got money left over to spend on rods, you haven't invested enough in your primary offensive or defensive gear. Especially at level 5.

If you meant wands, there's a handbook for that. You're limited as a duskblade, due to a narrowly focused spell list, but eternal wands remain an option, particularly if they function with wand chambers (slot them in your weapon so it's always "in hand"). The handbook, however, is slightly off - see the comment thread below it and you'll see what I mean.

May 22, 2012 -- 4:16PM, Tetsuoh wrote:

May 22, 2012 -- 3:20PM, Tempest_Stormwind wrote:

May 22, 2012 -- 2:50PM, Tetsuoh wrote:

Okay any suggestions on rods for a duskblade?

If you've got money left over to spend on rods, you haven't invested enough in your primary offensive or defensive gear. Especially at level 5.

Oh another very handy handbook, you always have interesting reads Tempest.

No I meant what I said. BUT I wasn't saying I was looking to buy any at lvl 5. I have enough to worry on what to spend my 9k on, what with weapon abilities, a possible drake - helm and everything else.

BUT what got me was the fact that NO rods were listed in the handbook you showed me. That kinda threw me, after all the duskblade is a caster class still, and there are bound to be rods that fit the class well enough to be included in the handbooks equipment list - and yet there aren't any.

Even Runestaff's are talked about - but not rods.

That's because rods are never really used for anything - they're explicitly for oddly unique effects rather than anything specific. This means that each one stands completley on its own most of the time, instead of dovetailing and synergizing with existing class features. I mean, things like the Rod of Lordly Might look cool, but really, that's a lot of money for what amounts to bling, when that money could be going for substance. There's a small handful of rods which are generically useful, like the Immovable Rod, but these are also almost never worth the expense when that money could be spent keeping you alive.

Unless a particular unique effect is critical to some other aspect of a build - the quintessential examples are the metamagic rods (see below), the Nightstick to Divine Metamagic users, or the Rod of Undead Mastery to minion-based necromancers - they're generally ignored. The only ones of these that work with duskblades are the metamagic rods, but since duskblades tend to favor two-handed attacks, they generally don't have a hand free for the rod! In your case, though, since you've insisted on a one-handed reach weapon, I might look into the Empower rod (since duskblades are all about Damage Damage Damage Damage, and that's the quintessential damage metamagic feat) as a good place to aim for. Quicken is also a good call, but duskblades get an inherent quickcast that tends to give you enough of that same resource when it really matters. (Not to mention Arcane Channelling already lets you cast a spell and do other stuff in the same round. The fact that the "other stuff" is limited to a simple attack and the spell is limited to a touch spell (typically a debuff or a damage blast) is balanced out by arcane channelling being at will and both of those things being exactly what you'd want to do anyway.)

May 23, 2012 -- 12:04PM, Deoxhydroxinate wrote:

A metamagic rod of Extend spell could be very handy (and relatively cheap for the lesser version for around 3k).  Also, isn't there a wand sheath or similar which could be used with Wraithstrike?

Most duskblade spells aren't buffs, though, and since they don't pump their DCs (touch spells don't tend to allow saves and you get enough slots to not need much higher than 15 Intelligence anyway), debuff or damage-over-time spells aren't worth extending. That's why I suggested Empower over Extend.

The wand chamber (CAdv) allows you to "slot" a wand into your weapon so both are "in hand" at the same time. They really are wonderful choices, particularly with swift or immediate wands. The Rules Compendium makes it clear that activating these wands is a swift or immediate action respectively. (Check the comment thread in the wand handbook I linked above for examples of how we're using this in one of our current games.)