Arcane Build Help (3.5)

[SilentNight]

Hey guys, so I'm soon to start my first IRL game of D&D in almost four years, I'm going to be rounding out a party consisting of a melee ranger, a tank barbarian, a bard and a ranged fighter cleric. I'm thinking a wizard with a dip into rogue to cover trap finding would mesh best. Any suggestions for the build? The campaign starts at level 4, right now I'm thinking either rog1/wiz3 or rog2/wiz2 for evasion, going to focus mostly on buffs, utility and ranged damage, possibly heading towards the spellwarp sniper from complete scoundrel. I'm not quite sure what books we have available but mostly core would probably be the safe bet.

Thanks :smallsmile:

[Medic!]

If you haven't already, I'd take a look at the Beguiler from PHB2. You get trapfinding, light armor, proficiency with simple weapons, hand crossbows and short bows (among a few other non simples) for some ranged abilities. You get a few decent buffs, a lot of crowd control ability (depending on what kind of enemies you face the most) and some good out of combat utility. Beguiler 20 is also a pretty solid build. The downside is that you're restricted to pretty much (or exclusively? memory isn't so hot in my old age) enchantment and illusion schools for all your spells, and if you're up against a lot of undead you don't get near the bang for your buck. Also if I remember correctly the only damage you will be doing via spells at all is non-lethal.

Alternatively, if you want to play a wizard straight up and your party demands trapfinding, there are some ACFs (mostly in Dungeonscape?) that will get a barbarian or a ranger trapfinding I think. I do remember a hillarious mental image of the barbarian one finding traps and smashing them with an axe instead of disabling them.

[Godskook]

The build I love and use is:

Human
Rogue 1/Wizard 4, entering Unseen Seer and Daggerspell Mage

Feats:
Able Learner(Races of Destiny)
Weapon Finesse
TWF

ACFs:
-Abrupt Jaunt(PHBII)
-Fighter Feat variant for Improved Initiative(UA)

You can enter either at level 6, but Unseen Seer is easier.