PHB II: The Review

[User3]

Ok, so I just checked out the PHB II. Overall, I’m disappointed, but here are the highlights:

--Immediate action spells are here with a vengence. I’m talking about 30-40 of them. WTF? Why even nerf 3.0 Haste if you expect every caster to bust out two spells a round.

--Clerics still rock. How do you feel about a feat that grants DR 5/-- in exchange for a turning attempt, as a swift action. Yeh, I feel pretty shitty too. How do you feel about a character option where they don’t cure or inflict spontaneously and instead cast one of their domains spontaneously? Yeh, me too.

Druids get a class option where they don’t get a wildshape and in exchange for Shapeshifting, which is something awful. I really think this was a reprint of an April Fool’s draft of this book. They get another option where they trade summoning spontaneously for doing the same with cure spells, which is the option they are taking. Are we surprised that they get two options when most classes get only one?

--Feats for the Fighters and Rogues. Did Rogues really need like six more ways to make a dude flatfooted to a single attack? I know its awesome and you get sneak attacks, but was flanking just too much work?

And did Fighters really need more ways to set feats on fire for a +2 to attack(s) and/or damage(and only in odd circumstances). Really now, why would you do that? Weapon Supremacy is like a five feat chain and you crap like being able to take 10 on one attack and a +4 vs being disarmed. Why God? What have we done to offend you?

That’s being said, you are required by law and Jesus to take Robilar’s Gambit. At the beginning of your round you decide to let your enemies get a +4 to attack and damage(which is not small) in exchange for an AoO for every attack they make. It does not interrupt, which is odd, but the feat requires Combat Reflexes and a +12 BAB so you take it right when you start to suck, and then you don’t suck so hard.

There are now even a tactical feat for people who want to make Charismatic fighters. They are totally weird options, like “Playing Dead” or the option that when you do one point of damage and expend a move action to get a chance to inflict your Cha mod as a penalty to an enemy (so yes, the Sorcerer is really going to take this when he figures out a way to get Intimidate as a class skill since its free power).

Overall, if you want to blow feats for more attacks, there are now feat options for you to do that(but don’t ask me how they interact, like the charge feat that lets you get both two-weapon attacks and the one that lets you get multiple Spring Attacks).

There are also a bunch of options like “make an attack hit some other dude” or “make it hit my ally”, or “make that attack get cancelled.” Its really odd.

The downside is that all these new feats make creating a fighter like doing your taxes.

--Teamwork benefits range from dumb(Use your Hide for your team, but only if they are in an sitting ambush situation, which nearly useless if you can just get concealment) to awesome things like being able to charge through allies.

--Rebuilding options read like this: “you and your DM sit down when you level and you fix your character, at his option. He might make your go on a quest where you get XP and treasure.”

--Now there are organizations you want to join which offer real benefits. Some benefits are awesome (free feats), while other are asstastic (like bonuses to influences guys in the organization and free followers who will get killed in any adventure, or might just be better than you if you play your cards right at a low level). Some are just odd (who needs an option to get a dragon as a cohort with Leadership? That’s already a goddamn option).

--Sorcerers get urine dumped on their heads.

Their class option is “lose your familiar, and we won’t bone you on casting times for your metamagic.” Since thats just like being molested by a priest and then paid off by the Catholic church, I’m really quite ambivalent towards this option. Since you can get a familiar as a feat, this is just like being -1 feat your whole life, as if as a Sorcerer you already were being laughed at by the Wizard’s feats. Every Sorcerer in the work will take this feat, but he’ll feel so dirty….

They also get Heritage feats, which are exactly like setting feats on fire for dumb things. They even get the “ability” to take multiple kinds of heritages, further burning feats for non-abilities(and none stack together). Weee!

--Sixty pages or so on how to RP. Thanks WotC! I was afraid you were going to screw us on content!

-Spellcasters gets some new feats: There is a +1 cost feat you make ice spells act like Grease for a round, so that’s neat, but otherwise you don’t care. Arcane thesis is a feat that makes all metamgic on a chosen spell cost -1 with no “must cost at least +1” BS, so you might take this to run around as a Sorcerer just casting Empowered Fireballs as 3rd level spells (maybe not). Elven Spell Lore lets you chose a spell that you can change its energy type when you cast it. Earth type, here we go! Its just like Ultima damage, but without the FF reference!

Overall, it looks like they really want you to cast Fireball and/or Scorching Rays your whole life.

--They have some “builds” based on feat choices. I actually laughed out loud. Share with your friends for instant comedy!

-Duskblades get full BAB and spellcasting like Bard’s, but with a weird list that you immediately find ways to add spells known. Expect Duskblade/Sublime Chord/Eldritch Knight builds in the days to come.

-Beguilers get some honestly good spells on their list, and are just like a Warmage or Dread Necromancer. You PrC out of it as soon as humanly possible, or you go to 20 (at 20 they auto-beat SR with all their spells). However, they are an Int-based caster. (WTF? Why don’t we get nice things?)

--Crazy “niche” spells. Examples include a full-round spell that has an effect when you start casting it(no save); and another effect when you stop casting it (has a save), or a 1st level spell that does a 1d6 fire damage if you make your SR roll, and small damage if you don’t make it (meaning that Rogues with a single level in Sorcerer can do sneak damage with this spell, despite their low caster level).

Add in crazy crap like “I’m a 1st level swift action spell that stands you up from prone without AoOs” and “I automatically reduce your move speed by 20, which means I bone halfings with real boning goodness.”

To be fair, there are like two interesting Necromancy spells. To be harsh, there are spells that put a crazy Crown on your head for magic powers. No bull.

--Wizards get class options where you trade an ass familiar for a crazy spell-like depending on your specialization. Some specialists get boned, while others do the boning. Consult your local proctologist for details.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Heh, very entertaining.

[Book]

Good read, K.

That's interesting that you dig the Beguiler. Just how similar is Beguiler to say, the Arcane Trickster or a Bard? I'm assuming it can scout as well.

[RandomCasualty]

Wellthe druid shapeshift was IMO supposed to be inferior to wildshape. It's the druid's part of the "polymorph mechanics get nerfed for all hell" paradigm set into the book. Basically what they want you to do is force everyone to use this "variant" and eliminate the PHB poly spells, so you're just left with trollform and dragonshape and the druid's wildshape is gone. Of course, because it's a supplement, they don't go right out and say that. Shapeshift actually looks like a much more balanced alternative to fix an overpowered class. I don't think it's intended as a real option so much as a rule the DM forces on you. And it does indeed hit druids hard (it's about time).

Speaking of 3.0 haste, the celerity line of spells seem to be nearly just that. Althought they are a bit more balanced, since you give up your next turn, it's still a way for a wizard to pop off two spells in a row if he wants to. Alternately you can take an action (including spellcasting) to interrupt someone. I don't even want to think of all the craziness you can do with that. The celerity chain may prove to be the most overpowered spells WotC has produced yet. and will likely turn the game into a M:tG style interrupt chain.

[User3]

That's interesting that you dig the Beguiler. Just how similar is Beguiler to say, the Arcane Trickster or a Bard? I'm assuming it can scout as well

It gets armor profs and armor casting, decent enchantment spells, and trapfinding. Toss in a little Arcane Disciple, and its a completely playable class (despite the fact that charm spells and social skills need good Cha, and you are an Int caster).

They even get Time Stop. Its about time that someone realized that if you aren't doing some crazy crap at 18th level, you aren't even playing the same game as other guys.

[User3]

I gotta say that the Beguiler being an Int caster is a positive step. It means that someone somewhere actually understands how the skill points system works. There are 5, yes five social skills (excluding Perform and Speak Language), of which four of them (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Gather Information) are Charisma dependent. The fifth (and usually 2nd most important) is Wisdom based.

Even at first level, the difference between having ranks in a skill and not is larger than the difference between having your primary stat and a dump stat. (+4 vs. +0 or +3 vs. +0), and at higher levels the comparison just isn't fair at all (even at second level, you can get a big pile of synnergy bonuses from skill ranks that will obviate even a substantial Charisma penalty to your all-important Diplomancy checks).

Charisma adds to 4 skills that make a dime's difference in your Social encounters - Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Intimidate. That means that putting your 17 in Charisma gives you +12 to your skills. But at first level that same 17 in Intelligence would give you +12 to your skills, and it gives another +3 at level 2 (plus some synergy bonuses) and another +3 at level 3, and so on forever. Further, it gives you extra bonus languages which is going to really matter to a diplomancer for a long time.

Yes, a proper Diplomancer has Intelligence as their highest stat and Charisma as their second highest stat. It's about time someone realized that and planned accordingly. The Beguiler being an Int-caster is great news. Great news. Probably it's the only playable class in the whole damned book.

-Username17

[User3]

I gotta say that the Beguiler being an Int caster is a positive step. It means that someone somewhere actually understands how the skill points system works.

That assumes that anyone even uses skills on their Beguiler.

Charm spells are a straight Charisma check, and the mind-controlling spells you get at 1st level are flat-out better than anything a regular DM will give you with a skill check.

Beguilers get Still and Silent Spell as bonus feats. They really are supposed to walk into normal social situations, cast a spell, and no one is the wiser. The "Diplomancer" that most people think of is a guy who boosts his skill checks to crazy levels, and this guy just doesn't have the spell list to do that.

Heck, this guy doesn't even get Telepathy, meaning he still has to PrC to have a chance of using his best powers.

[Book]

Then it looks like the Beguiler is a prime candidate to take the easy-&-awesome combo of Mindbender-1 + Mindsight feat (the latter is from the LoM book).

***

And ... I'm hoping to get PHB-II this weekend.

[Username17]

Pshaw! As if anyone actually uses the opposed harisma checks to order charmed victims to do anything. Really, that's dumbtastic and only ever happens in combat.

The real power of Charm is not the part where you can order them to do anything (except things they wouldn't ordinarily do). That's small cheese with a lower case "c". The real power is where a charmed opponent counts as friendly, and perceives your actions in a favorable fashion.

The Diplomacy DC to make a friendly target Helpful is only 20. And then it will do things it wouldn't ordinarily do on your behalf and it persists after the spell is over.

The drawback is that it takes a minute so you can't do it in combat. But the advantage is that it means that you can permanently and reliably diplomance any opponent that fails a Will save at evel 2. And by reliably, I mean that you "take 10" and it automatically happens if you have a Charisma of 12+. So charm person is pretty much the same as dominate person for characters with a full complementof social skills.

That's where the Beguiler goes into awesome town. As a second level character you can perform real feats of Diplomancy and redeem enemies for full value and everything.

-Username17

[User3]

The real power of Charm is not the part where you can order them to do anything (except things they wouldn't ordinarily do). That's small cheese with a lower case "c". The real power is where a charmed opponent counts as friendly, and perceives your actions in a favorable fashion.

The Diplomacy DC to make a friendly target Helpful is only 20. And then it will do things it wouldn't ordinarily do on your behalf and it persists after the spell is over.

By the RAW, doesn't the "friendly" status of being charmed go away at the termination of the spell - thereby negating any subsequent attachment effects (like converting the target to "helpful" via Diplo)? That would entail a resetting of the target's social status with the caster in addition to re-rolling any relevant Diplo checks.

[dbb]

If you use Telekinesis to hoist an object up a cliff face to a point where your friend can grab it and set it down atop the cliff, what happens to the object when the duration of Telekinesis expires?

If you polymorph your enemy into a fish, and he suffocates and dies because he's on dry land, what happens to your enemy when the duration of the polymorph expires (or is dispelled)?

If you cast Hold Person on someone who you happen to really hate, and then stab him right in the face until he dies, what happens to him when the duration of Hold Person expires?

If you conjure up some wood with Minor Creation, which you then use to build a fire, which you then use to barbecue some choice cuts of Chimera meat for dinner, what happens to the Chimera steaks once the duration of Minor Creation expires?

--d.

[RandomCasualty]

Well, NPC attitudes tend to be under the jurisdiction of the DM anyway. So for instance, if you turned a guy to friendly, then stabbed him,he wouldn't stay friendly. He'd go to hostile. Similarly, when charm expires, if the guy realizes you charmed him, he might get pissed off about it and no longer trust you.

[Username17]

It is of course entirely possible for the previously charmed and now helpful ally-former-enemy to eventually turn on you. Especially if his old friends show up and convince him "Dude, you totally got charmed, that guy you like so much is a lying Beguiler who totally lies."

But until that happens, that guy is totally your compatriot. Like any henchman, he's subject to enemy charms, better offers by the competition, and resentment of poor treatment on your part. But there's no time limit here. He's just your pally pal until something comes up that turns him against you.

That's how Diplomancy works. The next Diplomancer can just undo all your hard work.

-Username17

[RandomCasualty]

Well, actually diplomancers really can't undo the other guys work. Diplomacy just alters the guy's reaction towards *you* and that's it. While you can make him friendly toward you, it doesn't mean he now hates his former allies. In fact, his reaction to them hasn't changed.

Given how the game works however, there's no real duration on diplomacy effects. You can turn a guy up to helpful and he could turn to indifferent or worse the next day simply because he's in a crappy mood. The DM of course sets the NPC initial reaction to anything he wants at the start of an encounter, and I don't think diplomacy uses necessarily prevent him from doing that each and every encounter.

Further, other effects aside from diplomacy can alter a creature's reaction. This stuff isn't actually put into the books becaue there's no way to make an exhaustive list of everything. Giving an NPC 1000 gold for instance, is probably going to make him like you alot more, regardless of you diplomacy. Stabbing him with a sword or kidnapping his family will make him like you alot less. We don't have a table for this stuff but it's pretty much common sense.

I think that it's reasonable to say that the NPC figuring out he got charmed would probably be reason enough to lower his reaction, but I suppose that's a DM call anyway.

[dbb]

Well, NPC attitudes tend to be under the jurisdiction of the DM anyway. So for instance, if you turned a guy to friendly, then stabbed him,he wouldn't stay friendly. He'd go to hostile. Similarly, when charm expires, if the guy realizes you charmed him, he might get pissed off about it and no longer trust you.

That's absolutely possible -- although if you were just going to stab someone in the face, you generally don't bother charming them first.

Most people want to be liked. If you charm someone and then treat him like dirt, the charm will work out poorly, and when it wears off, they're going to be really mad, especially if they figure out you charmed them.

But if you charm someone and then treat them well -- show them trust and respect, help them out when they need help -- then even when the charm wears off, they're probably going to think, "Huh, I really like this guy." If you treat them well enough and sincerely try to be their friend, even their figuring out that you initially charmed them may well not be enough to turn them hostile. Why should it? If you wanted to hurt or exploit them, after all, you could have done that really easily when you had them magically compelled to trust you. Since you didn't, the odds are pretty good that you genuinely want to be their friend, and that's not negligible.

Of course, just because they like you doesn't mean they'll stop being evil (if they were evil to start with). But it does make them much more open to listening to your thoughts on the benefits of receiving an Atonement so they don't have to be evil any more.

--d.

[dbb]

First, a note: the binding on my copy is really tight, to the point where I'm unsure it's safe to open the book all the way without damaging it.

About the cover art -- those of you who are new to D&D (and by "new" I mean "started after 1985" may not recognize the little joke that Wizbro is playing with the DMG II and PHB II covers. Please click [counturl=36]here[/counturl] and [counturl=37]here[/counturl], if so. I am duly amused, but really they ought to have done it for the core books instead. Nonetheless, I'm a sucker for historical awareness.

New Classes!

The Beguiler is conceptually a Rogue except with spells instead of stabbing things, and hence gets all the Rogue skills but a slightly small number of skill points, I guess because it's an Int caster. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually do anything very well. The Wizard BAB combined with d6 hit dice and no sneak attack makes the fact that it gets weapon proficiencies at all, much less a couple of decent martial weapons, something of a cruel joke. You aren't getting into melee if you can possibly avoid it, even with your Bardic armor exemption.

Actual abilities are also rather scarce. At 2nd level you get a +1 to your spell DCs under the same criteriae as for Sneak Attacks, and this eventually goes up to +2; you also eventually get a bonus to spell penetration checks which becomes auto-success at 20th level. The latter isn't bad, the former is unimpressive for reasons about which more later.

Then they would have you believe that getting to use Feint for spells as well as melee attacks is an ability, which is true only if you're using spells that require an attack roll and are not touch attacks. The number of spells on the Beguiler list that meet both of these criteriae is, unless I am miscounting, zero. To add insult to injury, you then get to feint as a move action (a swift action if you blew a feat on Improved Feint), which I guess would be almost nice if feinting did you any damned good whatsoever. And finally you get Still and Silent Spell as bonus feats.

Well, okay. None of this is really worth writing home about, but Wizards don't exactly overflow with class features and yet still kick ass, right? So clearly you must have an awesome spell list.

(EDIT: Looked in the wrong place for the spell list. Oops!)
Except, um. Sort of. There are some very good spells, yes, spells that a Wizard would pick right off. There even are a couple of actually good beguiler spells introduced in the book, but every last damned spell one of them is also on the Wizard list. For the same level. Which means that, since you have the Sorcerer spell progression, you actually get them a level late.

What's worse, even if they were all good, you would still be stuck in an unpleasant position. As the Enchantment/Illusion specialist with almost no spells from other schools, you basically target Will saves. And that's all you do, unless you consider dealing nonlethal damage to be worthwhile. (Okay -- you do get one spell that targets Fort.) This is why I consider the DC bonus to be fundamentally unimpressive -- if you only do one thing ever, you had damned well better have it work consistently, because when you run into things that are immune or especially resistant to your big trick -- which is to say, undead, constructs, and creatures with high Will saves -- you're not doing a whole lot of good.

In short, except for a better hit die, an improved skill list, Trapfinding, and some weapon proficiencies, the Beguiler is almost exactly like a wizard with a slower spell progression who specialized in Enchantment (but at the cost of pretty much every other school except Illusion, rather than two of them) and made some extremely suboptimal choices with his bonus feats. That strikes me as a hopelessly terrible exchange, though I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Verdict: FAILURE.

--d.

[User3]

You're looking at the list of their spells that are unique to the PHB II. Their full spell list is on page 11, and includes some pretty decent stuff.

[Book]

I still don't have PHB2, but I'll take a stab at what I think might work well with the Beguiler.

1. Minbender-1 (CA) + Mindsight Feat (LoM) = This should be extremely easy for a Beguiler to enter into. Good FORT Save, 100' Telepathy (for charm combos), plus the brokenness of Mindsight. All good.

2. A Gnome Beguiler should be able to use the Shadowcraft Mage (RoS) to good effect. Grab the Earth Spell feat and your Silent Image "Shadow ##%" spells should rock the house.

3. The Extraordinary Concentration feat (along with a CWI-made Concentration skill booster) lets you multitasking concentration spells (which you have a lot of) with normal spellcasting.

4. UMD as a class skill for the win! Now you can supplement your limited spell base with staves and wands.

EDIT: I'll post more once I get the book. I'm skeptical of any new class being on the same power levels as a Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Psion, or Artificer ... but I think the Beguiler has a lot of promise.

[dbb]

Golly, is my face red. For whatever reason I assumed their spell list would be in the spell list section, as it is for most base classes, rather than with the class, where it usually is for prestige classes. Edited!

I'm still not impressed by the class. It sucks less than I thought it did, but essentially everything it does other than trapfinding you can do better as a specialist wizard and still have a wider selection of spells. For a class that focuses on messing with people's heads, it's just not acceptable to get Suggestion later than a Wizard does.

--d.

[dbb]

More new classes!

The Dragon Shaman gets Cleric BAB and saves with a d10 hit die, without a real spellcasting progression. I am initially unimpressed, but on closer examination there's some goodness here. In essence, your big trick is the ability to give all your friends within 30 feet some bonuses, and you get to have one bonus or another going pretty much all the time. One of the things you can give people is Fast Healing up to half their total hit points, which will save you some money on god sticks; you can also hand out DR, Energy Resistance (though only to one type of energy), bonuses on Diplomacy skills, bonuses on Spot/Listen/Init checks, bonuses on melee damage, and a Fire Shield-like effect that damages people smacking you or your friends around. It's a little bit like being a bard, except you don't have to sing and you get to do other stuff at the same time.

Your higher-level knicknacks include a power based on what kind of dragon you worship (some of which are awful, like being able to walk across icy surfaces without needing a balance check -- and some of which are handy, like continuous water breathing or Spider Climb at will), immunity to paralysis and sleep, a natural armor bonus, energy immunity, and, at 19th level, wings.

There are also two toys I feel like singling out for special attention. One is the breath weapon, which sucks damage-wise (2d6 at fourth level and +1d6 every other level -- so you max out at 10d6, which is a joke at 20th level), but offers a ray of hope in being usable once per 1d4 rounds rather than X times a day. It's not so much that this is a good ability -- it isn't -- as that I am encouraged by any sign that someone's figured out that limiting things within a combat is better than limiting things per day or whatever.

The other is the lay-on-hands-esque curing ability, which also allows you to remove status conditions in place of some amount of hit point curing. I like! It's a definite improvement on the Paladin version and adds some handy flexibility.

Unfortunately, on the whole, I'm not really all that jazzed. A bard is probably better long-term, just because so many of the shaman's abilities are extremely specific; and when your biggest selling point is that a bard is a little better than you are, you're not that great. Give it a full BAB and it's a surprisingly tolerable fighting class, though.

--d.

[Username17]

I have to say it: I'm super psyched about the Beguiler. That's the first really playable lass they've thrown down for a long time.

Of course, it's another class that highly encourages you to be a Gnome, but I'm willing to accept that if it means that i to play a diplomancer and be actually effective in a game setting.

---

Now, the class is going to suck in a Living Greyhawk setup, because the entire point of your character is that you totally rock in non-combat situations and convert opponents just frequently enough that you can usually have an Umber Hulk trailing after you to deal with the (many) opponents that your spells don't work well against directly.

Here's how I see it being played:

1st level: Out of combat, you have diplomatic skills and trap finding that are as good as anyone else is likely to have, so you're pretty much the star character whenever people aren't being stabbed. Your spells won't work on a lot of enemies, but you have martial weapon proficiencies and a size bonus to attack rolls, so you you can actually perform as well as can be expected against the skeletons and animated bread baskets that make you sad.

2nd level: You get auto-matic diplomancy against any creature that is already Friendly and your charms lkast long enough to force someone to listen to your spiel. So you go into combat with like 2 Orcs with great axes - a small and shitty army that nonetheless puts you on an even footing with even a min/maxxed Barbarian.

4th level: Your second level spells come on, you've gotten yourself a good enough

6th level: You take a level of Mindbender, and you now have suggestion. You now bypass all that "language dependent" BS and you can order any minded opponent you ever encounter to go sit in the corner until you can explain why they were totally wrong to not be on your team from the get-go. You win D&D.

9th level: You start taking levels of Shadowcraft Mage. It's embarassing to be sure. 1, you're a fvcking Gnome. And 2, the picture of the Shadowcraft Mage in Races of Stone is a Man. A man with boobs, but a man nonetheless. It's uncomfortable. But in a few levels you'll be casting Heightened silent image spells to jack your enemies over when your mind affecting bullshit won't work.

That's the Beguiler - you get to be the complete all-star whenever combat isn't going on, in exchange for which you get to end every 5th combat with an extra minion that fights for your team in subsequent battles. It's not something that an Enchanter couldn't do, it's just something that a wizard can't do without taking bullshit feats to get extra class skills and such.

A Beguiler can get his Diplomancy groove on at level 2. That kicks the shit out what you can do in that vein as a Wizard. Not a big deal for players starting their lives at level 7, but hugely important for starting characters at first level.

-Username17

[Book]

Well, I just got the book ... and man-oh-man, do I like the Beguiler more than I originally thought. I was going to expound on my earlier Beguiler optimization ideas that I posted earlier - but Frank's followup covered that quite well.

The Gnome Beguiler/Shadowcraft Mage is just a no-brainer. Fill that out with a boatload of easy-to-qualify frontloaded PrC's (full spellcasting progression of course) like Mindbender and Shadow Adept [synergy!] and you are good to go! I would actually want as many Beguiler levels as possible though, as those 6 skills/level are way to valuable to lose.

If you opt for BoED material, the Nymph's Kiss feat is a no-brainer. It improves your skill-monkiness, your saves, and adds a +2 to all your CHA-based saves (UMD, Bluff, Diplo, etc.).

Other feats of interest should be Darkstalker (LoM), the obvious SF/GSF (many of your off. spells are heavily reliant on DC), Extra Spell (for Limited Wish or high versatility spells), and the ones I mentioned in my last post.

My favorite trap monkey prior to this was Artificer or Human Rogue1/Cloistered Cleric X (with Able Learner & Nymph's Kiss feat). Not that the Rogue is bad (it's an extremely balanced class). But I trap/skill monkey characters tend to get huge boosts from spellcasting accompaniment.

[Username17]

Under no circumstances will you take Nymph's Kiss. NK requires that you be Good, Mindbender requires that you be Non-good. In the long run, you'd rather be able totelepathically communicate with Ropers than have a flat bonus on communicating with Gnomes and Dragons.

-Username17

[dbb]

The Duskblade! Apparently all the good names for fighter/mage classes have already been sucked up by terrible prestige classes, so they had to reach pretty far down in the barrel for this one. Conceptually, you're a warrior/wizard -- that's it. Like every other damned thing in D&D that's any good, the Duskblade is supposed to have been developed by elves, but they generously let other races have access to it.

You have d8 hit die, fighter BAB, Fort and Will saves high, and proficiency with all armors and non-tower shields, and martial weapons. Not bad! You have the Dread Necromancer spellcasting mechanic, and are an Int-based caster. Again, not bad! So far we're showing some promise. You have a Bard-like casting progression, but only 5 levels instead of 6, and a really crazy high number of spells per day (at 20th level, you're 10/10/10/8/6 -- seriously). Well, not great, but not outrageously awful.

You start out ignoring ASF from light armor and shields, and get medium armor at 4th and heavy shields at 7th. Well ... okay. The shield thing is a little silly, but the point is that eventually you get to wear any armor you want (must be mithril if it's heavy armor) and not have ASF. Good! Though I am unclear why they therefore feel like mentioning the Twilight armor enhancement, since it doesn't stack with your ASF ignoring -- you aren't getting heavy armor down to 0% ASF with Twilight, and if it's not heavy armor you just don't care. Nobody's going to get a +1 twilight breastplate before they're actually 4th level anyway.

You get some worthless abilities (like 0-level spell likes and Combat Casting) and then at 3rd level you get to cast Touch spells through your sword. Unfortunately, it takes a standard action at first, so at 6th through 12th level you are left with the unpalatable choice of making one attack with a weapon and a touch spell, or making a full attack and getting your BAB bonus attacks. Not so good! At 13th level you get to do this as part of a full attack action, and the spell lasts until the end of the round. Much better! Hitting someone with 3 Vampiric Touches in a round is good times.

At 5th level you get what is essentially Sudden Quicken, once per day, and you get another use every 5 levels. Not bad at all.

At 6th level you get a +2 on spell penetration checks against anyone you've hit with a melee attack during the current encounter, and the bonus keeps going up to eventually become +5.

And that's pretty much it. Your spell list is basically a sort of castrated version of the Wizard list that focuses mainly on single-target, touch, and buff spells. It does include some good stuff -- Color Spray, Vampiric Touch, etc. Amusingly, Polar Ray is a 5th level spell for Duskblades, as is Bigby's Clenched Fist; though Dispel Magic is 4th.

Overall, this is a very, very good fighting class. It ages better than any of the existing +1 BAB classes ... and it's still not as good as a dedicated spellcaster. Despite the very slow spell progression, it's quite playable. I am irrationally fond of it.

--d.

[Book]

Ah yes, the alignment restriction of MB. That's right.

I was just looking over the Beguiler's spell list when I noticed the editing mess that is Legion of Sentinels. Which is somewhat unclear in its actual attack bonus (the last sentence of paragraph 3 is perplexing).

**

Nice write-up on the Duskblade, dbb. I'll check that out next. Looks like a strong candidate for the Extra Spell feat ... for Wraithstrike.