Help with a spellsword!

[Giftstoff]

So I need help from more patient mechanical minds.

Tiefling (Bloodline of ???)

Two handed sword spellblade .

[Ozzy.nl]

For blackgaurd to be fully good you need about 61 levels of it to reach the epic fiend. Without it I would not recomand BG in anyway.
And Spell sword gets the best features higher in level. Mage armor growing stronger and at level 21 two imbues on a weapon and armor. without giong high spellsword you are also dispel bait since your CL will never be high enouhg.

I would not try a BG in the spell sword class.

[Hunter548]

You're going to need good str or dex, good con, good int, and good cha. That seems a little MAD to me.

[Astral]

So I need help from more patient mechanical minds.

Tiefling (Bloodline of Allure: +2 CHA, +2 CON, -2 WIS.)

Two handed sword spellblade blackguard build. Is it possible to be good?

It's not gonna be good. It's gonna need at least 16 flat cha, int for spells, con because con, and that leaves you with very crappy ab (be it through str or dex). On top of that you wont have enough feats to get the basic must-take combat feats and divine shield/might, not to mention meta-magic and spell focuses.

At the bottom line, some things are not meant to be (like a functional bard monk paladin build that I'd totally play, for example) because in Arelith you cant get more than 2 attributes topped off properly.

My advice to give up the spellsword and go for a bard. Bards were always the go-to Spellsword before the path existed and it has much better synergy with charisma and con.

[Spaniardl]

I agree. Not a good idea. Maybe a fun sounding idea, but a lot of fun-sounding ideas are not very good build-wise.

The only thing that would come close to making sense is if you just took 4 blackguard levels for divine shield and possibly divine might. But, the nice thing about spellswords is that you don't need charisma, when you add blackguard you are requiring some charisma.

Also, spellswords are kind of in need of a lot of feats, and you waste two with blackguard.

[Spaniardl]

You could just make a spellsword who is evil and pretend to be blackguardy... i gues. =)

[susitsu]

it's not possible to be good.

it is completely possible to still take on aspects of all the roleplay. you're playing a wizard, after-all. you could always just make yourself more unholy through ritual.

[Giftstoff]

Alright, so changing gears, what would be the best spellsword tiefling with double sword?

[Spaniardl]

If you use a two-handed weapon you will be sacrificing a lot of AC that a spellsword normally gets from having an empty offhand. However, if you do want to use a two-handed weapon, then you would really have to focus on highest damage possible, and high hp.

I would not recommend doublesword, because I think it will be tough fitting in the 3 duel wield feats. Also, you need your dex to be 15 to get improved 2 wpn fighting, which will hurt your stats. However, on the positive side, having a more attacks per round and chances to utilize your imbue effect is a VERY good thing. However, the 15 dex kills it. If you forced me at gun point to come up with a build for this I would do the following... (Keep in mind, you would have to be okay with having low/no ac, which means you should find a body that has ac to guard for you, and like running in and out of fights)

Human - Tiefling - 24 wiz - 6 ftr
Gift of Brutality, Strength, Con
str 15 (15+2+2=19) + 5 as you level + 2 feats = 26
con 14 (14+2+2=18)
int 16 + 2 as you level + 1 feat = 19. (u could get 20 int and 1 more ac/dmg, but ur ac is so bad it doesnt matter anyway)
cha 8-2
wis 8-2
dex 14

(i did not put the feats in the best order, up to you)
Level progression: 18 wiz, 3 ftr, 6 wiz, 3 ftr
Stats as you level: str, int, int, int, str, str, str
Feats 7 general: blind fight, toughness, ambidexterity, two-weapon fighting, improved two weapon fighting, spell focus abjuration, weapon focus
2 fighter preepic: weapon specialization, improved critical
2 fighter epic: prowess, epic weapon specialization
4 epic: epic skill focus discipline, epic weapon focus, great stength 1, great strength 2
5 wiz: extend spell, silent spell, arcane def abjuration, great int 1, epic mage armor

Disclaimer: I think you are better off going with a greatsword or greataxe and ditching dual wield, and gaining disarm feats, that is if you really want to use a two-handed weapon of course. Ultimately, I still think a 1 handed weapon is best and with that route you should go with the typical bard levels with spellsword.

[Baron Saturday]

Double-bladed swords are really hard to build for, which makes me sad. To make it work, you pretty much have to go with half-orc to get ambidexterity without wasting points on Dex, which hurts your int, and you still need three feats (two weapon feats + exotic), plus getting auto still... I dunno. I don't see it working without making huge sacrifices.

I really wish all the double-sided weapons could be finessed.

[Iceborn]

It's possible to build a double-blade str spellsword.
Mind, the build is relatively weaker than the dex variant with, unironically, the quarterstaff.
You sacrifice a good chunk of your AC (a lot of it actually), and you are tragically short on feats, but if you stick to medium armor and basically forego taking any spell focus, you might~ just fit everything you need to not be rolfstomped by ship rats.

The standard 23/4/3 spellsword build would probably look something like this:

Wizard 1-17.
1 Expertise
3 Exotic Proficiency
5 Extend Spell
6 Ambidexterity
9 Two-weapon Fighting
10 Empower Spell
12 Weapon Focus
15 Blind Fight, errrrrr, let's say spell focus: abjuration
Fighter at 18
18: Improved Two Weapon Fighting, improved critical
19: Improved expertise? KD? I dunno.
Wizard at 21
21: Epic Weapon Focus
23: Arcane Defense: Abjuration (because dispels suck)
24: ESF discipline
Rogue/bard at 25
27: Armor Skin
Wizard at 28
29: EMA
30 fighter: Weapon Specialization, Epic Weapon Specialization.

23 wizard levels. CL against dispels: 28
6-7 attacks, about 48 of AB. 50~ AC, a little less.
You still get about 10 of damage over the dex build. Only 10 because due to your less amazing AC you are going to take plenty more of hits, so you'll want to have the HP to make up for it.
So your end stats will be something like... 36 str, 28 con, 20 int, and the rest doesn't matter.

[yellowcateyes]

So your end stats will be something like... 36 str, 28 con, 20 int, and the rest doesn't matter.

Ambidexterity requires 15 base Dex. Given that, and the absence of stat feats on this build, I don't think the described stat spread is possible.

Unless this build is specifically a half-orc, in which case the ambidexterity comes free.

Edit: Also, this is a bit off.

48 of AB.

You end up with 16 BAB + 6 Spellsword AB + 13 STR + 3 Foci + 5 GMW, for 43 AB. While you get +2 from a 2H weapon, this is canceled out by -2 from dual-wielding with all three feats.

[Iceborn]

Good call. I was thinking about those things a while ago.

Though going half-orc spellsword is particularly painful, since you need 19-20 base int to make use of all your spells, and even maxing int and taking the gif, you are still off by 2 points. So those are two points that you need to invest through level ups. Or bloodline, I guess.

In summary, double-sided swords suck, spellswords too stat hungry to be worth the pain that is building one that uses double-swords. Let alone a STR spellsword.