A wizard in melee?

[Cameron]

For a Wizard to go melee, you need one thing: Arcane Strike. End of story.

 

[Felon]

IIRC, in Complete Mage there's four spells that interact to create very nice defensive powers and last for 1/hour level. I think they're called 'Heart of Fire/Earth/Water/Air'.

Yep, Earth and Fire are the two good ones (respectively, 4th and 5th level). Heart of earth in particular is great, as it trumps both false life for temporary HP and incorporates stoneskin's defense without the 250 gp cost (albeit only for one fight).

In general, transmutation is the key school for mages who want to buff themselves into warriors. Of course, one should avoid the trap of building a mage that has to spend more than a round or two buffing up. In fact, if you do need to buff, consider a spell like arcane eye to scout out ahead so that you can control when the battle begins.

Complete Mage is a great book for a lot of reasons, including that it actually discusses the various arcane archetypes in detail, including the arcane warrior. It gives lots of recommendations on spells and feats and PrC's.

My personal favorite PrC for this is the havoc mage from the minis handbook. As a full-round action, you can both cast a spell and make an attack.

 

[Felon]

Balor nimbus is an option for grappling. 2nd level spell that deals 6D6 in a grapple.

Then there's Body of the Sun, which is a 1st-level spell that does 1d4/level damage to a 10 foot area around you. Not a lot of damage, but it's persistent.

 

[Darklone]

For a Wizard to go melee, you need one thing: Arcane Strike. End of story.

Arcane Strike gets better with high BAB, so you should think about EK levels.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Actually, you need Arcane Strike, and lots of natural attacks.
Like 2 claws (3 with haste), 10 tentacles, bite, rend, grapple (then rake), extra pair of limbs to claw with some more...

 

[Thanee]

Alternatives to polymorph, not alternatives to polymorph into!

Oops!

Well, just use Enlarge Person, Bull's Strength, Dragonskin and then some liberal application of the Disguise skill?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

Actually, you need Arcane Strike, and lots of natural attacks.
Like 2 claws (3 with haste), 10 tentacles, bite, rend, grapple (then rake), extra pair of limbs to claw with some more...

Draconic Heritage and claws to cast a touch spell (if you don't have iterative attacks yet) plus claw attack.

 

[Mort]

Actually, you need Arcane Strike, and lots of natural attacks.
Like 2 claws (3 with haste), 10 tentacles, bite, rend, grapple (then rake), extra pair of limbs to claw with some more...

Arcane strike adds the to hit bonus and damage bonus to a single melee weapon - you should only apply it to one of the limbs used for natural attacks.

The feat is good as a backup - but a wizard will burn through a lot of spells very quickly with it. Also if you burn lots of high level spells for this feat - you nead to rethink your spell selection, high level spells should be better than this feat (for the most part).

 

[Patlin]

And don't forget Polymorph (or the newer 'version' Trollshape (...one of them, anyways...)).

Trollshape? You mean that spell that let's you turn your familiar into a killing machine?

I'm not really interested in targetting myself with it, though....

 

[dirkformica]

Arcane strike adds the to hit bonus and damage bonus to a single melee weapon - you should only apply it to one of the limbs used for natural attacks.

The feat is good as a backup - but a wizard will burn through a lot of spells very quickly with it. Also if you burn lots of high level spells for this feat - you nead to rethink your spell selection, high level spells should be better than this feat (for the most part).

Actually, doesn't it specify "you channel arcane energy into a melee weapon, your unarmed strike, or natural weapons?" That seems to indicate all natural weapons, or at least more than one. Even if it was limited, it's a free action to use, so you can choose to burn a ton of slots by infusing multiple weapons with Arcane Strike.

Useful in theurge or better yet Ultimate Magus builds. Also very nice when combined with Power Attack (which you can get for free without pre-reqs briefly with the Bite of the Weretiger/bear spells from Spell Compendium.) That +16 to Str along with a subsequent swift Wraithstrike means you can power attack most, if not all, of your BaB away and still reliably hit most things. Figure the classic 12 headed hydra polymorph (or better yet, Draconic Polymorph from Drac) + Bite of the Werebear + Wraithstrike + Arcane Strike a 5th level spell for 24d8 + 216 + 60d4 + Power Attack (figure +6 for a 12th level Wizard) = about 480 damage average. Of course that's probably monstrous overkill, even with the whole Huge reach of the Hydra. Still, not too shabby for the cost of two 5th level spells, a 2nd level spell and a feat.

(edit: forgot that for Wizards Bite of the Werebear is 7th, so that's a little more expensive spellwise, although Weretiger at 6th isn't that huge of a downgrade for 12 str instead of 16. Also forgot to factor in the cost of the Werebear/tiger spell, and possibly using Contingency to trigger the Poly/Bite combo. Still, a pretty decent way to become a pretty badass melee fighter for a little while.)