Min/Max Boards

Well, I finally got to an agreement with my DM!

As we could simply not make our points solid enough, we justified the quick cast and the full attack with the folowing use:

1.- I use Quick Cast to use a Vampiric Touch, I hold the charge.
2.- I begin a full-attack and the first attack will be the touch attack for the delivery of the Vampiric Touch (I'll probably have a kind of Two Weapon fighting penalty, because I'm using a Greatsword and I have to hold it with one hand to deliver the spell with the other hand).
3.- I do the remaining attacks with the sword (holding it woth both hands, no penalty), using Arcane Channeling to cast another spell, like a Shocking Grasp or another Vampiric Touch.

Another way that I can use this, would be the following:

1.- I activate my boots of speed to get the Haste effect.
2.- I do a full-attack with my sword using Arcane Channeling.
3.- I do the Quick Cast before using the extra attack greanted by the Haste.
4.- I spend the extra attack to deliver the spell.

This sound pretty decent and well-justified to me, what do you think? 

What I thought about the 5th build is that I could channel a spell as an Ordained Champion, another one as a Spellsword (it's a super natural ability + a spell-like ability, I don't see any problem in using the two of them on the same weapon) and, finally, use the Arcane Channeling of the Duskblade to smash 3 spells on the enemy with one hit plus the damage and magical enhancements of the sword.

I thought about taking the Mystic Theurge prestige class to advance in arcane and divine spells on the epic levels.

I also thought of replacing the Cleric levels for Archivist levels to have access to every spell in the game, but I wouldn't have the 2 extra feats granted by the Combat Feats class feature of the Ordained Champion, and the Smite class feature would be useless, because I wouldn't have any turn undead attempts, but the possibility to cherrypick any spell would make up for it, I guess.

What do you think?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently playing a Duskblade in a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 game with my friends and we got into an extended talk with the dungeon master because I intended to do the following in one turn with all my actions:

1.- Using the Duskblade's Quick Cast class feature, I cast a Vampiric Touch as a swift action on the enemy.
2.- I do a full attack using the remaining actions.

The master argued that I can't do that, because I'm making a touch attack to deliver the vampiric touch and therefore I can't do the full attack. A friend and me said that the touch attack is granted with the casting, that it should not affect the remaining actions because, otherwise, with almost all the touch spells, you would need one standard action to cast the spell and another one to make the touch attack and deliver it, but all the touch spells can be delivered on the same turn that you cast them, and you're using only 1 standard action.

He said that the Quick Cast allowed me to cast the Vampiric Touch spell more quicly, but that doesn't include the touch attack to deliver the spell. I argued that there are no rules that say that, and the Quick Cast would be pretty useless with touch attacks if I had to spend a swift action for casting only and still needed a standard action to deliver the spell (It would be the same as just casting the spell normally), and the touch attack should be included in the swift action without affecting the other actions.

I tried to search for rules that clarify this issue, but I haven't been able to find any, what do you think? Are there any rules that support any side of this discussion?

If I didn't explain myself correctly, please let me know and I'll fix it.

Thanks a lot for your attention! 

Hi everyone!

I want to make a new character for a game that I'm playing with some friends, here are some of the characteristics of the game:

• We're playing in Forgotten Realms.
• Almost all the books are allowed, we consult the DM to agree on how to play certain rules.
• We will play epic levels, our characters are lvl 19 right now.

My friends have a lot more experience than me making characters, and they optimize their builds whenever they can; I would like to do the same to a certain extent, but I would like to do a character that can do unique amazing things.

My character is going to be lvl 19 and he is a human, he has to be of good alignment to be able to use some awesome Book of Exalted Deeds spells.

I thought about making a character that specializes in channeling magic through his sword as his battle style (I don't want to play a full Duskblade because I would like to use a wide variety of spells); after some time looking at the books and asking some questions, I found what I consider the three best class features that let you channel spells through a weapon:

• The Duskblade's Arcane Channeling (3rd level):From Player's Handbook II, this ability can let you cast and channel touch spells through your weapon; you can hold the charge of a spell (I actually asked for this particular issue, you can see it here: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=9363.new#new), so I want to use it to channel spells that let you do touches per caster level; for example, the Storm Touch and the Scalding Touch from Magic of Eberron (I asked my DM and he said that I can choose a few spells from this book), so I can hold the charge of those spells and, on the following turns, do full-attacks dealing the damage of my weapon and the spell on each attack.
• The Ordained Champion's Channel Spell (the revised version): From Complete Champion, this ability can let you channel any spell that has a creature or creatures as targets, using a move action to channel the spell and smash it on the enemy with a successful hit. This can channel a larger number of spells than the Arcane Channeling, so you can channel some ray and area spells, and this ability can be used an indefinite number of times. You can't hold the charge of these spells as the rule specifies that it discharges from the weapon when you hit.
• The Spellsword's Channel Spell: From Complete Warrior, this ability is just amazing! This can let you channel any spell that you can cast into your weapon and, if you hit a target, the target is the only one to be affected by the spell, and that allows you to do some pretty cool stuff like channel a Wall of Fire or a Cloudkill and make the enemy suffer for a good number of rounds (I asked about this too, you can see the thread here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275977)

I know that there are other ways to channel spells through a weapon, like the Spell Storing weapon enhancement or the Smiting Spell feat from Player's handbook II, but I want to be able to channel spells without altering the spell slot level or having to depend on my weapon's capacity to do so.

I made a couple of builds with this idea in mind, and I managed to make builds that have these ablities with a good variety of spells; some of them have one, others have two and others have all of these channeling abilities. The problem is... I don't know which one to use, that's why I'm making this topic.

I'll show you what I've got, and I would like you to give me your opinions and tell me if these builds can make a good character to play (some of them have exp penaltys from multiclassing, but that's not a problem because one of my friends already has that penalty too, so we could level up at the same speed if I use them).

What I would like to know about these builds is the following:

• If the build is worth playing for you;
• If the build is good, which Tier would it belong to (if you're familiar with the tier system);
• If there is a way to make it better, mantaining his channeling abilities, what would it be?

You don't have to do this for all of the builds; if there is one that is more interesting to you, I will apreciate it if you share your thoughts.

I made some tables to show the level advancement of these builds, showing the special abilities, scores and feats that they get (as well as the feats chosen to meet the requirements for prestige classes) on each level from 1 to 20. If the info is wrong in some place, please tell me so I can fix it.

Here are the builds:

1. Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 3/Dragonslayer 1/Spellsword 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 1

2. Duskblade 3/Wizard 3/Spellsword 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 4

2.1. Duskblade 3/Sorcerer 4/Spellsword 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 3

3. Duskblade 3/Sorcerer 3/Cleric 1/Ordained Champion1/Abjurant Champion 5/Ordained Champion 2/Spellsword 5 (I call this "The Channeling Master")

3.1. Duskblade 3/Wizard 3/Cleric 1/Ordained Champion1/Abjurant Champion 5/Ordained Champion 2/Spellsword 5 (This is my favorite build of these 5 options, but I don't know if it's worth playing to make a good and competitive character)

Thanks to the Martial Arcanist class feature of the Abjurant Champion (from complete mage), all of thede builds can cast spells with a fairly good spellcaster level.

Well, these are my options, if you can't see the images or something like that, tell me and I'll fix it.

What do you think? Are these builds worth playing?

Sorry if I made any spelling errors.

Thanks for your attention!

Well, that pretty much clarifies it for me .

Thanks a lot for the help!

Have a very good day!

Hi everyone!

I play Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 with my friends and I have read many topics and handbooks that were posted on this forum, and I decided to participate a little more.

I love doing experiments with character builds, so I'll be sharing what I've got from time to time; I'm still quite new, so I would like to see what you think. Also, I'll be asking some questions sometimes to make sure that I'm applying the rules well.

I think that's everything there is to say for now.

Have a nice day!