Duskblade

The Duskblade is a base class that blends arcane spellcasting with front-line melee. Duskblades cast in armor without penalty, fight with full attack progression, and channel their spells straight into their weapon.

Durations

Duskblade ability durations are measured in turns (1 turn = 1 minute) and scale with your Duskblade level — 1 turn per level, minimum 5, maximum 20. Recasting refreshes the duration rather than stacking.

Arcane potency

Your Intelligence drives your Duskblade abilities through two numbers, both of them limited by a cap set by your Duskblade level:

Both are half your Intelligence modifier, each under its own cap set by your Duskblade level:

• Arcane potency — drives the Channeling damage dice and the epic aura. Cap climbs every 6 levels.
• Attunement's attack bonus — cap climbs every 5 levels, and never exceeds +10.

Duskblade level	Potency cap	Attack cap
1–4	1	+1
5	1	+2
10	2	+3
20	4	+5
30	6	+7
40	7	+9
50	9	+10
60	11	+10

So an Intelligence of 40 (+15 modifier) offers a potency of 7 and an attack bonus of +7 — but only once you have the Duskblade levels to carry them. Dipping a few levels of Duskblade gets you the flavor, not the power.

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The basics

Hit Die	d8
Attack progression	Full (as Fighter)
Saves	Good Fortitude and Will, poor Reflex
Skill points	2 + Intelligence modifier (×4 at 1st level)
Primary ability	Intelligence
Spellcasting	Arcane, Intelligence-based, spontaneous (no preparation)
Alignment	Any

Class skills: Concentration, Discipline, Heal, Lore, Parry, Spellcraft, Ride, Craft Trap, Craft Weapon, Craft Armor.

Intelligence requirement

To cast a spell you need an Intelligence of 10 + the spell's level — so a 5th-level spell requires Intelligence 15.

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Armored Mage (level 1)

You ignore arcane spell failure from armor and shields entirely.

This applies only to your Duskblade spells. Spells from another arcane class (Wizard, Sorcerer, Bard) still suffer normal armor spell failure.

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Arcane Attunement (level 1, active)

You sharpen your strikes with arcane focus.

• Effect: attack bonus of 1 per 2 points of Intelligence modifier, level-capped, to a maximum of +10
• Duration: 1 turn per Duskblade level (5–20 turns)
• Uses: 3 per day
• Activation: takes an action — it queues in combat and plays a cast animation, like any other class ability

The +10 ceiling needs an Intelligence modifier of +20 and Duskblade 45 — the largest attack bonus any class in the game grants itself.

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Arcane Channeling (level 3, active)

You pour arcane power into the weapon in your hand. While active, every hit you land deals bonus magical damage.

• Effect: 1d4 magical damage per point of arcane potency, on every hit
• Duration: 1 turn per Duskblade level (5–20 turns)
• Uses: 3 per day
• Requires a melee weapon equipped. If you dual wield, both weapons are coated.

The damage is rolled from your potency at the moment you hit, so buffing your Intelligence mid-fight increases the damage of an already-active channel. It is also read from whoever is holding the weapon — a channeled blade handed to someone else does nothing in their hands.

Arcane Channeling stacks with other weapon coatings — Flame Weapon, Darkfire, a Shadowdancer's Shadow Daze, an Assassin's Contagion. Each one rolls separately on the same swing.

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Epic Arcane Channeling (level 21, active)

The epic evolution of Arcane Channeling. It replaces the base ability and adds a retaliatory aura.

• Weapon effect: 1d6 magical damage per point of arcane potency on every hit
• Aura effect: anyone who strikes you takes 2d6 magical damage, plus 3 per point of arcane potency
• Duration: 1 turn per Duskblade level (5–20 turns)
• Uses: 3 per day

The aura applies even if you have no weapon equipped — only the weapon coating needs a melee weapon. It is built like the game's other damage shields (Death Armor, Elemental Shield, Mestil's Acid Sheath): a flat amount plus dice. The flat amount is three times your potency because the aura only fires when something hits you, while the weapon coating fires on every attack you make.

Activating it clears an active Arcane Channeling from your weapons: the two channels never run at the same time, and the epic one is always the stronger. Coatings from other classes and spells are untouched.

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Spellcasting

Duskblades cast spontaneously from a known-spells list, like a Sorcerer, using Intelligence. The list tops out at 5th-level spells at Duskblade level 17.

Spells per day

Level	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1	3	2	—	—	—	—
2	4	3	—	—	—	—
3	5	4	—	—	—	—
4	6	5	—	—	—	—
5	6	5	2	—	—	—
6	6	6	3	—	—	—
7	6	6	5	—	—	—
8	6	7	6	—	—	—
9	6	7	6	2	—	—
10	6	8	7	3	—	—
11	6	8	7	5	—	—
12	6	8	8	6	—	—
13	6	9	8	6	2	—
14	6	9	8	7	3	—
15	6	9	8	7	5	—
16	6	9	9	8	6	—
17	6	10	9	8	6	2
18	6	10	9	8	7	3
19	6	10	10	9	7	5
20	6	10	10	10	8	6

Spells per day past level 20

Your slots keep growing past 20, on the same schedule as every other caster in Wyrdwood. Starting at level 24, and again every 4 levels (24, 28, 32, … 60), you gain +1 slot at every spell level you have — reaching +10 at the level 60 cap. Levels 21–23 are unchanged from 20.

Character level	Bonus	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
20–23	—	6	10	10	10	8	6
24–27	+1	7	11	11	11	9	7
28–31	+2	8	12	12	12	10	8
32–35	+3	9	13	13	13	11	9
36–39	+4	10	14	14	14	12	10
40–43	+5	11	15	15	15	13	11
44–47	+6	12	16	16	16	14	12
48–51	+7	13	17	17	17	15	13
52–55	+8	14	18	18	18	16	14
56–59	+9	15	19	19	19	17	15
60	+10	16	20	20	20	18	16

These are base slots — bonus slots from a high Intelligence stack on top as usual.

Your caster level is simply your Duskblade level, all the way to 60, so spell durations, damage dice and save DCs keep scaling with every level you take. Above caster level 40 you also pick up the same Legendary DC bonus the other casters get: +1 to your spell save DCs per 4 caster levels past 40.

Spells known

Level	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1	3	2	—	—	—	—
4	3	5	—	—	—	—
8	3	5	4	—	—	—
12	3	5	4	4	—	—
16	3	5	4	4	4	—
20	3	5	4	4	4	4

Beyond 20th level you continue to learn one additional spell per level, filling out from the lowest spell level upward. Your known list is complete at level 41, at 3 / 10 / 10 / 8 / 8 / 6 — enough to hold the entire Duskblade list bar a couple of the highest-level picks. Levels past 41 add slots, not new spells known.

Spell list

Level 0 — Acid Splash, Light, Ray of Frost

Level 1 — Burning Hands, Color Spray, Expeditious Retreat, Identify, Magic Weapon, Ray of Enfeeblement, Resist Elements, Shield, True Strike

Level 2 — Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Endurance, Ghostly Visage, Ghoul Touch, Invisibility, Knock, Melf's Acid Arrow, See Invisibility, Ultravision

Level 3 — Find Traps, Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, Ice Storm, Keen Edge, Lesser Spell Breach, Protection from Elements, Vampiric Touch

Level 4 — Bigby's Interposing Hand, Dispel Magic, Elemental Shield, Enervation, Ethereal Visage, Firebrand, Improved Invisibility, Mestil's Acid Sheath, Phantasmal Killer

Level 5 — Bigby's Clenched Fist, Chain Lightning, Energy Buffer, Greater Spell Breach, Hold Monster, Hold Person, Premonition

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Level progression

Level	Gained
1	Armored Mage, Arcane Attunement, simple & martial weapons, light & medium armor, shields
2	Combat Casting
3	Arcane Channeling
6	Spell Penetration
16	Greater Spell Penetration
20	Quicken Spell
21	Epic Duskblade, Epic Arcane Channeling
22	Improved Combat Casting
23	Bonus feat (and every 3 levels after: 26, 29, 32, …)
25	Automatic Quicken Spell I & II
26	Epic Spell Penetration

Epic bonus feat list

Epic Spell Focus, Great Intelligence, Great Strength, Armor Skin, Damage Reduction, Epic Prowess, Devastating Critical, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Overwhelming Critical.