Looking for a Fighter Wizard build

We are starting a new Campaign all 3.5 books except BO9S Psion and Miniatur handbook allowed.
I am looking for a Fighter / Wizard build, someone any suggestions?

Thanks

Khelvan.

Fighter 1 / Wizard 5 / Eldritch Knight X seems to be the simplest of the builds, without just using something like the Duskblade.

Take a look at Abjurant champion in complete mage. I'm also fond of the Knight Phantom, if you're playing on Eberron.

Generally, I find sorcerers work better than wizards as fighter/mages. They have more spells per day, and can continue fighting for longer, as well as focusing their abilities tightly on spells they KNOW will be useful. Wizards tend to have quite a bit of the "Shoot, if only I'd prepared X today instead!" Careful use of scrolls can help with this problem, but I tend to still prefer a sorcerer for this kind of character.

There's a lot of pretty powerful stuff you can do with a fighter/mage, regardless of which class you want to use. Check out the Spell Compendium - there are a number of excellent spells there for a warrior-caster. Look at the Whirling Blade and Wraithstrike spells. Both of those are good. Dragonskin's nice, as well - gives you a natural armor bonus and some energy resistance. Smiting Spell from PHB2 lets you use a touch spell as part of a melee attack. Arcane Strike, from Complete Warrior, lets you trade excess spell slots for attack and damage bonuses.

The Abjurant Champion class is scary powerful. It has full caster progression and full BAB, as well as a bunch of very powerful abilities. The entrance requirements aren't very difficult to attain, either. It's powerful enough that I don't think I'd allow it, as written, but your DM may feel otherwise.

The main warrior-mage classes I can think of in 3.5 are the Duskblade, Beguiler, Hexblade, Warlock, Warmage, Bard, and Battle Sorcerer. Some of those are more rogue-mage in style, though. The Battle Sorcerer is a variant Sorcerer in Unearthed Arcana. The Warmage is in Miniatures Handbook (I don't remember if it was also printed in Complete Arcane or something else?). The Warlock is in Complete Arcane. The Beguiler and Duskblade are in Player's Handbook II. The Hexblade is in Complete Warrior. These are all 20-level classes that you can start with from 1st-level if you feel like it.

There are, of course, prestige classes that fit as well, for later.

Regarding these, though: Duskblade is basically a warrior-mage straight from level 1, and is very strong, even brokenly so in some cases. Beguiler is a rogue-mage sort who gets some minor fighting tricks, but focuses on skills and spellcasting (and only has mind-affecting spells and such). Hexblade is an arcane, evilish equivalent to the Ranger or Paladin, in that they are primarily warriors who gain minor arcane spellcasting at 4th-level onward, and use some curse-related class features to weaken enemies in battle, but Hexblades are kinda weak.

Warlocks just blast stuff a lot with an infinitely-reuseable but kind of weak Eldritch Blast, and develop a handful of similarly-reuseable Invocations for various tricks, attacks, and special abilities. Warmages are essentially similar to Sorcerers but heavily focused on Evocation spells and general offense, able to cast arcane spells in armor to some extent, and with a bit more combat ability for their limited range of capabilities (all they do is blast stuff with various spells, and hit stuff with weapons, and they're not so good at the latter). Bards you know about cuz they're in the Player's Handbook. Battle Sorcerers are a variant on Sorcerers that get slightly better HP, attack bonus, and such, but fewer spells and a focus on combat spells.


Generally, much as I dislike the broken-ness of Duskblades when used effectively, they're the best fit for a typical warrior-mage in D&D. Another viable choice would be multiclassing between Fighter and Warmage, then at some point later on becoming an Eldritch Knight or something.

Arkhandus said:

...Regarding these, though: Duskblade is basically a warrior-mage straight from level 1, and is very strong, even brokenly so in some cases. Beguiler is a rogue-mage sort who gets some minor fighting tricks, but focuses on skills and spellcasting (and only has mind-affecting spells and such). Hexblade is an arcane, evilish equivalent to the Ranger or Paladin, in that they are primarily warriors who gain minor arcane spellcasting at 4th-level onward, and use some curse-related class features to weaken enemies in battle, but Hexblades are kinda weak.

Warlocks just blast stuff a lot with an infinitely-reuseable but kind of weak Eldritch Blast, and develop a handful of similarly-reuseable Invocations for various tricks, attacks, and special abilities. Warmages are essentially similar to Sorcerers but heavily focused on Evocation spells and general offense, able to cast arcane spells in armor to some extent, and with a bit more combat ability for their limited range of capabilities (all they do is blast stuff with various spells, and hit stuff with weapons, and they're not so good at the latter). Bards you know about cuz they're in the Player's Handbook. Battle Sorcerers are a variant on Sorcerers that get slightly better HP, attack bonus, and such, but fewer spells and a focus on combat spells...

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Duskblade or Warmage (depending on whether you want more fighting or more spellcasting, respectively) would both be better options than Fighter/Wizard multiclassing IMO. I have seen the Hexblade in play, and while the hexes (curses) are OK, the class is on the weak side overall. Duskblade is far stronger. Warmage is a plenty powerful blow-em-up class, but it might not have the "arcane fighter" feel that you want. Warlocks are also effective, but really too weak to be much of a fighter, with lousy hit points and AC; they are fine if your warrior archtype is archer, though, since that is essentially their role just using eldrich blasts instead of arrows.

The one I designed was Fighter 1/Sorcerer 6/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Knight Phantom 7

The main feat was Arcane Strike. You don't need anything else, but I paired it with TWF for even more fun.

I've played a Barbarian 1/Hexblade (up to 7th), taking extra rage at first level. With the alternate hexblade feature (the shadow companion at 4th that lowers AC) he's been a fun class to play... not death on two feet but certainly viable.

Fighter 1/Wizard 6/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 7. BAB +17. CL 18.

Feats: Arcane Strike, Power Attack
Spells: Wraithstrike, Mirror Image, Greater Magic Weapon, Stoneskin

Doug McCrae said:

Fighter 1/Wizard 6/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 7. BAB +17. CL 18.

Feats: Arcane Strike, Power Attack
Spells: Wraithstrike, Mirror Image, Greater Magic Weapon, Stoneskin

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Sorcerer is better for Arcane Strike. You don't need to umm and ahh about which spell to lose, and you get more slots to throw at the bad guy.

Get Persistent Spell also for all the fun stuff like Spiderskin, Shield, animal buffs etc. I have built a Sorcerer with nothing but buffs for the first three levels to make use of Persistent Spell, and then a whole bunch of 1 hour/level buffs at the higher level slots + the usual suspects (Gate, blasty spells, Enervation, Energy Drain, etc.)