Arcane Screwball

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I probably would have gone for flavor over absolute best ability combo, there are plenty of good illusion spells for rogueish characters, i would have just avioded picking transmute as a opposition school. If your more interested in Max power over concept i'd probably go elf, Dex bonus is good for a caster, plus night vision and favored class wizard, would work good with the class combo.

 

[Eltern]

Well as you can see from my ability to quickly change schools and races, I'm not completely set in my idea for a concept. Looking at transmutation, I realized I wanted those spells more, for a variety of reasons. I'm not stuck on anything other than the Arcane Trickster, into mischief and getting at those locked up valuables in ways people wouldn't expect.

Does anyone think that halfling would lend itself to the Trickster any better than the elf? Because the ability to find secret doors, longbow, and night vision are all very good things. :-D

Eltern

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Unless you want XP penalties, you wanna go Illusionist. If you go Illusionist you definitly want Spell Focus, and maybe Greater Spell Focus. This is almost a requirement for Illusions because of the double save. Illusions are quite powerfull, but the double save is a big weakness.

Rogue is a great choice because you can have different class levels in rogue and not take an XP hit. The DEX bonus is nice too. If you wanna play any other kind of mage than Illusionist, pick Halfling.

Spellcasting Prodigy. Bah, its good but not broken. The 'must take at first level' has stopped me from building a killer early-game combo many times. Its allowed in my group, one caster out of 3 or 4 has taken it. If you are gonna be an Illusionist though take it. You need every point added to saves you can get.

EDIT: The being small part of a Halfling is a very cool thing. The elf gets auto-search, which is nice but no big deal since party's go search-crazy anyway. Lack of movement is bad for the first few levels, but get some boots of Striding then give them away when you get Fly. A hafling Rogue can use a short bow, who cares that an elf does 1 point more damage? Drop a Fireball, NOONE cares. The best part of being small is that everyone else is so big. Sit in back, look innoculous and you will rarely be targeted. If the enemy gets smart and sends his archers after you, heh, good luck hitting a 3' skinny hafling hiding behind 300 lbs of armored half-orc. Oh, and for more mobility drop 5 points in Ride and take a riding dog.