Alternate Spellswords

[One Two Three Five]

I know 23/4/3 is the right way, but are there any that work otherwise? Barb-spellswords? CoT ones? PDK?

[Opustus]

CoT ought to be decent. You could also go DEX Spell23/Monk3/Fighter4; gets more AC and attacks per round but less damage. Spellsword25/Ranger5 should be fine, too; it can change to dualwield, exchanges one pre-epic feat for an epic feat, has more CL, has only two less AC compared to 23/4/3 and no UMD but that isn't a big deal.

[msterswrdsmn]

I wouldn't use ranger personally, as you need 9 ranger levels at least to effectively duel wield. The runic ranger leathers also have an increased arcane spell failure I think, so you'd need still spell to effectively cast wearing those. You COULD take token ranger levels to skilldump. Discipline (obvious choice), hide/ms (sneaky spellsword) and animal empathy (no summons for spellswords? No problem!) come to mind

You could make a dex based spellsword using barb levels, I'd imagine. Barbs pick up uncanny dodge, and you can use taunt to further lower your opponents AC to help with the midlevel BAB growth spellswords get.

PDK needs CHA, so you might be splitting your stats a little too much there

Harper scout comes to mind for skilldumping and stackable cats grace with the default class for a dex based spellsword, and maybe the harper mage class if you wanted to rub out a quick auto quicken I.

[Opustus]

PDK doesn't require CHA outside of Valiant or Protector (can't remember) but with the feat cost, low level into it, and no summon the benefits would be slim. And yus, the ranger dualwield would be very situational and I just realised you'd need to wear light armour when you'd want to use greensteel chain (unless there are better choices I don't know about?).

[One Two Three Five]

So CoT or PDK maybe but almost certainly a hard no on anything else?

What about weapons? I know rapier/scim are standard now, and bastard sword was popular for a while, but if I wanted to do, say, a scythe or greatsword, would that be even close to decent, or is it like two-handing on every other character?

[Opustus]

If I rated the options, comparing them to the 23/4/3 standard:

1. Spell23/Fighter4/BardorRogue3
2. Same with CoT: two less damage, more saves.
3. Dex Spell/monk/fighter: more AC and attacks with monk UBAB, but less damage.
4. Str Spellsword25/ranger5: one less regular feat, one more epic feat, two less AC, more CL.
5. With pdk: probably very bad, not enough feats pre-epic, poor synergy with pdk due to no summon.

The tradeoff wielding a two-handed weapon is: +2 ab, +damage, -4 AC. It is doable, but most would argue it's less good.

[The1Kobra]

One build I've been looking at is 23/4/3 Wizard/Paladin Or Blackguard/Rogue or Bard. STR based, but has some CHA to it. The projected build I made works very nicely with drow.

It should handle like the STR based fighter ones except you now get to use divine might and divine shield for damage and Uber AC.

[StrykerMontgomery]

I feel like Konan the Librarian should be a thing.