A wee bit of PC design...

[FoxWander]

There's a lot of good advice here so far, but I've got a few thoughts to consider. For your specialist wizard, I'll second Asha'man's advice on dropping evocation instead of conjuration. Mainly because conjuration has better spells overall instead of just blasting, but also because with your split focus your CL will be too low to give evocations the punch they need to be worthwhile.

I'd still go with Mystic Theurge over more Cleric levels. Since turning is based on cleric not caster level you'll never have the 'oomph' you need to affect undead of your CR anyway (and I'm not sure what you mean about your "# of Feats" above). You're better off using your turn attempts powering divine feats, especially since earth and plant domains give you even more turns per day. Remember- many of the divine feats don't specify what type of turn attempt must be spent, regardless of what prerequisites they have. DMM Reach is quite useful and not nearly as cheesy as DMM Persist. Sacred Boost and Sacred Healing will help in your healing role also.

One last thing, with your plant theme/pseudo-druid thing going, try to talk your DM into giving you summon natures ally on your cleric side instead of summon monster. Even better, see if he'll allow Greenbound Summoning along with it (from Lost Empires of Faerun). It's a little stronger at lower levels than normal summons but you could argue it makes up for your lack of casting punch before you get practiced spellcaster.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There's a lot of good advice here so far, but I've got a few thoughts to consider. For your specialist wizard, I'll second Asha'man's advice on dropping evocation instead of conjuration. Mainly because conjuration has better spells overall instead of just blasting, but also because with your split focus your CL will be too low to give evocations the punch they need to be worthwhile.

Well, because of this being changed to a 3.5 campaign, I'm going to have to give up 2 Schools. I took a look at the 3.5 spell lists, and I'm now very inclined to agree: I'm making him a Transmuter who is dropping Evocation and Necromancy. Certain spells I liked became Conjurations.

Even with the multiclassing, however, Practiced Spellcaster means my PC will only be 2-3 levels behind the pure Wizard in overall effectiveness of a spell we both know- with both PCs at 12th level, my guy will either have an effective Wizard level of 9th or 10th as a Sorcerer. What I won't have is his number of spells & versatility.

I'd still go with Mystic Theurge over more Cleric levels. Since turning is based on cleric not caster level you'll never have the 'oomph' you need to affect undead of your CR anyway (and I'm not sure what you mean about your "# of Feats" above).

You're probably 100% right. Its hard to tell, though- we haven't faced much in the way of undead.

By "# of Feats," I'm referring to the possibility of 5 more levels of Wiz. Unlikely, I know, but...

You're better off using your turn attempts powering divine feats, especially since earth and plant domains give you even more turns per day. Remember- many of the divine feats don't specify what type of turn attempt must be spent, regardless of what prerequisites they have.

That might be true RAW, but I'm a lawyer IRL, and I'm not sure I want to be called one in an RPG. Some that aren't explicit in the text often say something about channeling "Negative or Positive" energy...the stuff that powers the standard Turning attempts. And in addition, the Elemental Divine feats specifically say "Elemental" energy. On top of that, Elemental Healing expressly says that you can't use standard Turning to activate it, "unlike other divine feats"- not dispositive, but surely indicative of the overall spirit of things.

Still, its worth asking. Odds are high that those Domain-based turns will never see much use. If I'd been able to play this PC in RttToEE, though, feats like Elemental Smiting or Elemental Healing might have come in handy!

And as the text of CompDiv points out, the Divine feats are a good tool for increasing the versatility of Paladins who- like this PC- perpetually lag a single-classed cleric in the Turning department.

The major flaw I see, though, is that this guy may not have a high enough Cha to justify any of the feats. I'm prioritizing Wis as his main stat, then Int. Since the PC will be able to wear the heaviest of armors, I won't worry about his Dex (unusual for me) and concentrate on Con. Str will probably be an afterthought, and Cha may not be much better.

OTOH, if I go with a Sorc build instead of SpecWiz, I KNOW he'll have Cha as his next highest stat, meaning he'd be a better turner...and a better utilizer of Divine Feats as well.

One last thing, with your plant theme/pseudo-druid thing going, try to talk your DM into giving you summon natures ally on your cleric side instead of summon monster.

He might go for that.

Even better, see if he'll allow Greenbound Summoning along with it (from Lost Empires of Faerun). It's a little stronger at lower levels than normal summons but you could argue it makes up for your lack of casting punch before you get practiced spellcaster.

He won't go for that- that sourcebook list is absolutely set in stone.

I'm still unsettled about race. Human gets the bonus feat & skill points, Dwarves get darkvision, save bonuses and won't get slowed down by heavy armor, Gnomes get a size bonus to AC & some spell-like abilities, and Elves get a couple of martial weapons to use.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I did a little analysis- some of my best 12 lvl build options look like:


Classes: Clc3/SpecWiz5/Geo4
Caster lvs: Clc7/Sorc5
Practiced Spellcaster revised spell power: Clc11/SpecWiz9
Max Spell Level: Clc4/SpecWiz3
Spell Versatility: 3

Classes: Clc3/SpecWiz5/Geo3/MT1
Caster lvs: Clc7/SpecWiz6
Practiced Spellcaster revised spell power: Clc11/SpecWiz10
Max Spell Level: Clc4/SpecWiz3
Spell Versatility: 2

Classes: Clc3/Sorc4/Geo5
Caster lvs: Clc7/Sorc5
Practiced Spellcaster revised spell power: Clc11/Sorc9
Max Spell Level: Clc4/Sorc3
Spell Versatility: 4

Classes: Clc3/Sorc4/Geo5
Caster lvs: Clc6/Sorc6
Practiced Spellcaster revised spell power: Clc10/Sorc10
Max Spell Level: Clc4/Sorc3
Spell Versatility: 4

Classes: Clc3/Sorc4/Geo4/MT1
Caster lvs: Clc7/Sorc4
Practiced Spellcaster revised spell power: Clc11/Sorc10
Max Spell Level: Clc4/Sorc3
Spell Versatility: 3

In some ways, the Sorc builds are actually better than the SpecWiz ones- because I'm not trying to get that extra level to earn a Feat, the Sorc builds can actually result in either a higher Spell Versatility or a higher caster level.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK...here's what I have so far, in brief:

Brother Sycamore
Human, Age 37
Classes:
Clc of Obad-Hai (Earth & Plant) 3/Sorc 4/Geomancer 4/Mystic Theurge 1

Has 4th lvl Clc spells (cast at 11th level power) & 3rd lvl Sorc spells (cast at 10th level power). Can cast all of his spells in full armor without ASF due to Spell Versatility 3.

Stats:
Str 10
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 22
Cha 17

Feats:
Extend Spell
Extra Turning
Sacred Healing (CompDiv version)
Practiced Spellcaster- Clc
Practiced Spellcaster- Sorc
Improved Familiar- Sm. Earth Elemental

DM will be assigning magic gear to insure that new PCs are in line with the old party (which was a tad magic poor), so I don't know as yet how he'll be equipped in detail.

He will wear Hvy armor and use Quarterstaff and a Sickle as his main melee weapons. Spell Selection will emphasize Buff/Heals, but I'll have a couple of curveball spells up his sleeves- if the DM equips me with a decent magic weapon or 2, Whirling Blade with a magical sickle could be cool...

I went with Sorc after discussing the SpecWiz option for so long because of the reduced MAD factor...and that synergy with using the Sorc's casting stat with the Clc's Turning stat had a bunch of benefits.

Thanks for that suggestion about Divine feats, Foxwander- it proved to be the deciding factor. CompDiv's version of Sacred Healing combined with Extra Turning and this PC's stats means my all my partymates will "Fast Healing 1" for a significant amount...saving my actual cures for later. This, combined with Vigor (Mass, Lesser) Extended means Bro. Sycamore will be able to keep the party on their feet for much more than "15 minutes."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Finally got to shake the dust off the dice with this PC!

We've only run one combat, doing battle with a half-dozen or so Desmodu.

Brother Sycamore did pretty much what I expected him to do- a couple of shots from a heavy crossbow- all misses (and no, no mods would have helped that series of "2s")- interspersed with buffing the main warrior with a Bull's Strength and an Enlarge- both Extended.

Nobody in the group had ever used a reach weapon in 3.X (except me), so it was a couple of combat rounds before I could get the others to understand that this guy who now had reach to go along with his Great Cleave could do some serious damage if he positioned himself a little better.

It was a looooong combat, too- a few of the players were rolling so badly, I joked about casting Entangle- an allusion to this same group's "Slaughter of the Harpies" (most recently recounted in Post #8 of that thread).

After the combat was through, I burned a few Turns Undeads to give each partymember (and a captive) 45hp back, with the "tank" getting an extra Cure on top of that (he got nailed with more than a couple of crits).

Right now, though, the question is going to be spell duration. The game is a 3/3.5 fusion of sorts, so its unclear at the moment whether my buffs last minutes or hours.

 

[Herobizkit]

... and here I was going to suggest making a Favored Soul over Cleric for the extra spell slots. Heh.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was taking a hard, serious look at that class, but the FS didn't fit because of its more martial nature and its utter lack of Turning. I really didn't want this guy on the front line. (Heck...when the party's in single-file, the Wiz stands in front of Br. Sycamore!)

Sure, this guy will never Turn as well as a pure Cleric, but some is better than none, IMHO...and that was before I hit on the Sacred Healing + Extra Turning combo.

I know Fast Healing 3 for 5 rounds doesn't sound like much of a gain for 2 Feats, compared to 2-17 for one of his Cure Lights (avg. 13.5), but spread out over the party and NPCs that needed healing? That was 315hp of healing...and we had no-shows for the evening! And that's still just a drop in the bucket compared to what it would be if every bit of that 60' burst been filled. And I still had a whole bunch of Turns to burn...

In other news, the DM decided to use the 3.5 durations. Oh well!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The more I use that Sacred Healing, the more I like it.

The party just rescued a huge number of slaves after defeating their guards (who surrendered to us mid-battle but post-asswhuppin')- a couple of those healing bursts had everyone running out of there much happier than before, and all without my PC having expended a single actual healing spell!

I still have some things I have to think through with this PC- appropriate spell & Feat selection is proving challenging- but so far, he's a keeper!

I'm enjoying this enough that I'm considering a future cleric built around various Divine feats & Extra turning...

 

[Tal_Akaan]

I didn't read every post so if this has been gone over just skip it.

I played a Favored Soul / Sorcerer / Geomancer in a recent game. while obviously not the same build similar enough. The best suggestion i can give you is the touch spells are your best friend. the fact that you are casting lower level spells than a character of your level would cast, using your better BAB with touch spells is great.

so there you go there are my words of wisdom...

...Touch Spells.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm taking a look at those, but as yet, my PC doesn't have a lot of actual damage spells. His Dex and Str are both pretty low, so he doesn't have much in the way of combat bonuses.

Instead, he's kind of an ultra-buffer, so he doesn't have to worry about hitting opponents...or their saves or SR! The warriors are loving their Extended Bull's Strengths and Expansions, for instance...and for the upcoming struggle vs. some Salamanders, I'm thinking an Extended Mass Resistance may prove to be the spell that keeps us all very happy.