Best Warrior/Mage Combos

[Gnome]

6 levels of the battle sorcerer variant from UA, 1 level of fighter, and the rest Eldritch Knight. The advantage of using battle sorcerer in this build is that they have a medium BAB and can cast spells in light armor. Take the Battle Caster feat from Complete Arcane, and they can use medium armors, including mithril full plate with no chance of spell failure!

At 20th level, such a character would be able to cast 9th-level spells, and have a BAB of +18 in addition to being able to cast spells in mithril full plate.

The battle sorcerer variant is described here, but in a nutshell, they're the same as sorcerer, but 1 less spell slot and spell known for each level of spells (min 1) in exchange for d8 HD and medium BAB.

 

[Thanee]

Arcane/Melee really gets the shaft.

My DM thinks that my (pure spellcaster) sorceress is overpowered in melee.

Fear the almighty heavy mace!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Wish]

Human Ftr 1/Wizard6/Spellsword 1/Divine Oracle 2/Initiate of the 7fold Veil 7/Archmage 3

Skills required: Arcana (12 ranks), Nature (4 ranks), Spellcraft (max), Concentration (max), Religion (10 ranks)

Feats: 1st - Power Attack, Spell Focus Abjuration, Skill Focus Religion; 2nd - Scribe Scroll; 3rd - Skill Focus - Spellcraft; 6th - Quicken Spell, Arcane Disciple (War domain); 9th - Greater Spell Focus Abjuration; 12th - Arcane Strike; 15th - Spell Focus (anything); 18th - anything you like.

If you want to free up some feats, swap the Divine Oracle, Initiate, or Archmage levels out for more wizard, and you can drop the prereq feats.

You'll end up with a character who can wield a big weapon, Power Attacking with wraithstrike, with most of the cool cleric buffs 1/day each, quicken spell for putting up the buffs.

This build is viable from level 1. You start as a fighter, then spend some time as a wizard, up to around 8th level when you get spellsword and can use armor again.

With one round of prep (divine favor, quickened divine power), you can step into combat with approximately the following numbers, at around 12th level (we'll assume boots of speed as the only necessary gear): +31/+31/+26/+21 (2d6+6d4+15, 19-20/x2, average 37). If you use wraithstrike and power attack on top of that, you'll get +19/+19/+14/+9 incorporeal touch for an average of 61 damage per swing. Granted, you can't keep this up all day - wraithstike (or quickened spells) and arcane strike will burn up spells very quickly. But for a few rounds a day, you're incredibly effective.

 

[Azhrarn]

I'm liking the battle sorcerer variant (UA) and paladin combo going into Knight Phantom (Eb 5 Nations), as it would merely require Charisma and Strength. The other upside is the potential for heavy armor with the loss of one feat.
FYI the character will be 12th level and the campaign is set in Eberron, so I have some levels to play with and some feats to burn. I was considering going with monkey grip and enlage humanoid to be wielding some rediculously large sword just for the visual effect, but I suppose actually helping my party out would be better than leaving a good looking corpse.
I don't see the advantage of 1 lvl Spellsword in most builds with the chance to flat out negate light armor restrictions coming from so many PrCs. That coupled with specific materials means that you can have heavy armor and cast for one feat, so AC shouldn't be bad. With the battle sorc variant I'm combining d8 and d10, so HP should be decent. There is the possibility of using Dragon Prophesier and Prophesy's Artifex (both Magic o' Eberron feats) to get quickened True Strike out of a damaging staff each round after a 1 round start up time. His focus would be on supportive magic while simultaneously engaging in a physical beatdown, hence the need for faster magic and melee capability.
Thanks for all the feedback, I've got alot of things to think over before I roll on Sunday.

 

[interwyrm]

I have to put in my vote for Runesmith from Races of Stone. It's available to dwarves who prepare spells only, but it allows full casting while in platemail (it makes all spells have a material component - the rune - but removes the somatic component). It also lets other people cast a number of your spells for you equal to your con modifier. Finally, you get the ability to make one spell a spell-like ability useable twice per day, by sacrificing a spell slot one slot higher than the spell you're making into an ability. If it has a material component, you only need to pay 20x the cost... rather than the usual 100x cost for unlimited use magic items, or 50 for wands.


So I'd have to say go Dwarf Fighter1,Wizard4,Runesmith 5, Eldritch Knight 10.
For that you will get proficiency with all weapons and armor, the ability to cast spells in platemail and a towershield, spells cast as an 18th level wizard, and a bab of 15.

Actually... I'm inclined to think the runesmith is a bit broken.

 

[interwyrm]

Also... a fun build might be a martial class/sorcerer/dragon disciple

 

[Mistwell]

Here are some Gish's I have seen mentioned lately. I've never played a Gish (and probably never will):

Sorcerer 6/Knight Phantom 10/Eldrich Knight 4

(17 bab/9th level spells)

Battle Sorc 10/Knight Phantom 10

(17 bab/9th level spells)

Battle Sorcerer 8/Dragonslayer1/Spellsword1/Eldritch Knight10

(BAB +18 and Spellcasting Level 19)

Wiz 3/Human Paragon 3/Knight Phantom 2/Dragonslayer 1/Spellsword 1

Illumian Fighter 1/Wizard 2/Human Paragon 3/Spellsword 5/Eldritch Knight 5/Spellguard of Silverymoon 4

 

[Mistwell]

I have to put in my vote for Runesmith from Races of Stone. It's available to dwarves who prepare spells only, but it allows full casting while in platemail (it makes all spells have a material component - the rune - but removes the somatic component). It also lets other people cast a number of your spells for you equal to your con modifier. Finally, you get the ability to make one spell a spell-like ability useable twice per day, by sacrificing a spell slot one slot higher than the spell you're making into an ability. If it has a material component, you only need to pay 20x the cost... rather than the usual 100x cost for unlimited use magic items, or 50 for wands.


So I'd have to say go Dwarf Fighter1,Wizard4,Runesmith 5, Eldritch Knight 10.
For that you will get proficiency with all weapons and armor, the ability to cast spells in platemail and a towershield, spells cast as an 18th level wizard, and a bab of 15.

Actually... I'm inclined to think the runesmith is a bit broken.

Funny enough, I posted a Runesmith thread just today:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=533572

I am wondering if there is a flaw in this build that I am not noticing.

Runesmith 1 (from Races of Stone) grants the Rune Magic (Ex) ability. It allows the Runesmith to prepare his spells on a small tablet, removes the somatic componant from the casting, and adds the tablet as a material componant. "In all other ways, spells prepared in rune form are treated identically to spells prepared in the normal method."

Runesmith 3 grants the Share Runes (Ex) ability."[A] runesmith can prepare a limited number of rune-form arcane spells such that they can be activated (cast) by any character. The spell's castint time remains the same, and it is just as effective as a spell cast by the runesmith himself. The spell's level is in creased by two, much as if a metamagic feat had been applied to it." There are other details, such as the number of times you can do this/day is your Con modifier, and it uses your spell slot when you share the rune.

Incantatrix 2 (Player's Guide to Faerun) grants the Cooperative Metamagic (Su) ability. It allows the Incantatrix to "...apply any metamagic feat she possesses to a spell being cast by a willing allied spellcaster...modifies the spell during the casting...must make a Spellcraft check (DC 18 + [3 x modified spell level]) to succeed."

The Persistant Spell feat (Player's Guide to Faerun) changes any spell with a range of personal and a non-instantaneous duration into a 24 hour duration. It increases the spell level by 6.

Wraithstrike (Complete Adventurer) is a 2nd level Wizard spell with a Personal range and a 1 round duration that makes your melee attacks into melee touch attacks.

So, couldn't the Runesmith 3/Incantatrix 2 with the Persistant Spell feat make runes of Wraithstrike (using your 4th level spell slots, making enough to cover an average sized party fairly easily since Con is a useful stat for a spellcaster), give them to the other party members, have them use the rune while you use your Cooperative Metamagic ability, make a DC 48 spellcraft check (obviously not an easy check by manageable if built right), and turn the Wraithstrike durations into 24 hours?

This would of course work with many other spells for the rest of the party and yourself as well.

Plus you can wear armor while casting all your spells, making an okay Gish if combined with other common Gish build ideas.

Is there an easier way to do this and I am just overthinking things? Or is this a plausible optimized build that can buff the entire party with 24-hour powerful spells?

 

[Enamel_32]

Rage mage!

 

[interwyrm]

Funny enough, I posted a Runesmith thread just today:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=533572

I am wondering if there is a flaw in this build that I am not noticing.

Runesmith 1 (from Races of Stone) grants the Rune Magic (Ex) ability. It allows the Runesmith to prepare his spells on a small tablet, removes the somatic componant from the casting, and adds the tablet as a material componant. "In all other ways, spells prepared in rune form are treated identically to spells prepared in the normal method."

Runesmith 3 grants the Share Runes (Ex) ability."[A] runesmith can prepare a limited number of rune-form arcane spells such that they can be activated (cast) by any character. The spell's castint time remains the same, and it is just as effective as a spell cast by the runesmith himself. The spell's level is in creased by two, much as if a metamagic feat had been applied to it." There are other details, such as the number of times you can do this/day is your Con modifier, and it uses your spell slot when you share the rune.

Incantatrix 2 (Player's Guide to Faerun) grants the Cooperative Metamagic (Su) ability. It allows the Incantatrix to "...apply any metamagic feat she possesses to a spell being cast by a willing allied spellcaster...modifies the spell during the casting...must make a Spellcraft check (DC 18 + [3 x modified spell level]) to succeed."

The Persistant Spell feat (Player's Guide to Faerun) changes any spell with a range of personal and a non-instantaneous duration into a 24 hour duration. It increases the spell level by 6.

Wraithstrike (Complete Adventurer) is a 2nd level Wizard spell with a Personal range and a 1 round duration that makes your melee attacks into melee touch attacks.

So, couldn't the Runesmith 3/Incantatrix 2 with the Persistant Spell feat make runes of Wraithstrike (using your 4th level spell slots, making enough to cover an average sized party fairly easily since Con is a useful stat for a spellcaster), give them to the other party members, have them use the rune while you use your Cooperative Metamagic ability, make a DC 48 spellcraft check (obviously not an easy check by manageable if built right), and turn the Wraithstrike durations into 24 hours?

This would of course work with many other spells for the rest of the party and yourself as well.

Plus you can wear armor while casting all your spells, making an okay Gish if combined with other common Gish build ideas.

Is there an easier way to do this and I am just overthinking things? Or is this a plausible optimized build that can buff the entire party with 24-hour powerful spells?

Well... the spellcraft dc is really tough, and as I read the share spell, in the example, it says that activating the rune works as if the runesmith had cast it himself... so if wraithstrike is a personal spell (I don't know offhand) then I don't think it works. Also, since the cooperative metamagic depends on modifying the spell of another, and since share rune works as if you had cast it yourself, I don't think that trick works either.