A fast Duskblade revision

[Grod_The_Giant]

Duskblades are barely tier 3, but in the worst way-- they can deal massive damage in-combat, but aren't especially versatile outside it. Here are a few ideas for fixing that:

• Fighter or metamagic bonus feats at 6th, 12th, 18th levels
• Advanced Learning at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels, learning a single sorcerer/wizard spell of any school at 1 level higher than normal.
• Add Balance, Handle Animal, Profession, Listen, Spot,Use Magic Device to skill list, boost points to 4+ Int
• Obtain Familiar in place of Arcane Attunement
• Cap spells/day at 8
• Add the following spells to the list (or adjust their levels):

Spoiler

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0-level
Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Mage Hand, Message, Mending

1st level
Shield, Mount, Enlarge Person, Whelm

2nd level
Fog Cloud, Dimension Door, Web, Gust of Wind, Shatter, Alter Self, Fly, Whispering Wind, Hold Person, Dispelling Touch, and Energy Surge (Lesser)

3rd level
Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Nondetection, Phantom Steed, Sleet Storm, Arcane Sight, Haste, Inevitable Defeat, Trollshape

4th level
Solid Fog, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire, Wall of Ice, Bestow Curse, Polymorph, Teleport, Overland Flight, Slay Living, Slashing Dispel, Overwhelm

5th level
Feeblemind, Wall of Force, Greater Dispel Magic, True Seeing, Teleport Object, and Greater Energy Surge.

And as a possible variant, base spellcasting off Charisma instead of Intelligence, add social skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate) to skill list, and remove Decipher Script, all Knowledge skills but Arcana.

Thoughts?

[NeoSeraphi]

Whoa whoa whoa! If you're leaving haste as a 3rd level spell, and explosive runes and dispel magic as 3rd level spells, what makes you think it's balanced at all to bump dimension door up to 2nd level?! Dimension door is a crazy good spell, and you have duskblades getting it at 5th level, earlier than any other class in the game. That is some pretty strange balancing you've got there.

Bonus feats from the two lists you've set out won't help the duskblade's out of combat utility. They will make him more useful in combat, which is the opposite of what you say you've set out to do, so it's really not that helpful to achieving your goal.

The class feature you're referring to is called "Eclectic Learning", and it's from the PHB II (Alternate warmage class feature). This will help, somewhat.

No good fluff reason for the duskblade to have Use Magic Device. He is a spellblade, not a rogue. He doesn't need wands from other classes and there's no reason he should be able to use them.

Obtain Familiar is absurdly powerful for the duskblade, but as long as your DM isn't letting you take things like Improved Familiar or Combat Familiar you should be fine. Leaving the familiar to the scout role will boost the duskblade's versatility.