Items for the melee mage...

[Nifft]

Ooo, too bad about barred schools. Illusion and Necromancy are excellent for a gish*.

If it's possible to retrain, this build would rock:
1/ Barbarian 1 -- skill points, hit points, speed, rage, and you are emphatically Chaotic
2/ Wizard 1
3/ Wizard 2
4/ Wolf 1
5/ Wolf 2
6/ Wizard 3
7/ Wizard 4
8/ Spellsword 1 -- reduced ASF (cast in Mithral chain shirt)
9/ Abjurant Champion 1 -- Full BAB, full spellcasting, some bonuses to shield spell (Complete Mage)
...
13/ Abjurant Champion 5

Then, whatever, if your campaign gets this high you should have an idea which direction is best for your character.

Feats: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip. They're decent feats in and of themselves, but for a Wolf, tripping should be part of his instinct. And you will have the Int bonus to pull it off.

Cheers, -- N

*) Fighter/Mage who focuses on melee.

 

[boolean]

As I understand it, hybrid form lycanthropes can still cast,

Yes and no.

A lycanthrope spellcaster cannot cast spells with verbal, somatic, or material components while in animal form, or spells with verbal components while in hybrid form.

 

[WinnipegDragon]

A lycanthrope spellcaster cannot cast spells with verbal, somatic, or material components while in animal form, or spells with verbal components while in hybrid form.

Ah damn... That's a killer...

There are some interesting options here, so I'll approach my DM for some idea about the leeway he'll allow me.

The DM is aware of our lack of trapmonkey ability and is giving us a campaign where it won't be a huge detriment, so I don't think I need to head in that direction. I'm thinking that if I can't retrain feats/levels I'll go the path of the ambush/targeted killer.

Good advice from all, thanks! Keep it coming if you have more ideas!

 

[udalrich]

You can talk to your GM to see if he'll let you take Natural Spell. It's intended to let Druid's cast while wild-shaped. You're not wild-shaping, but you have a similar problem.

If that doesn't work, Tongues is a Brd 2/ Wiz 3/ Clr 4 spells that lets the target speak the language of any intelligent creature. At third level, nobody in your party is going to be casting it for a while, but you could consider a magic item that grants the effect. By the rules, the cost (made by a Bard) would be 2 (spell level) * 4 (caster level) * 1.5 (10 min/level) * 2000 (continuous) = 24000 gp. However, you should be able to get a sizable discount by restricting it to only one language. By comparison, a Belt of Dwarvenkind costs 14.9k gp and lets you read, speak and understand Dwarven, gains bonuses or penalties for checks against other races, and grants darkvision, stonecunning, +2 con and +2 on saves against poison and spells. Darkvision, the Con bonus and the bonus on saves seem like they should be worth about 14k by themselves.

Failing all else, Silent Spell is only +1 level and will let you cast anything in hybrid form.