Critique My Gish

[Xynphos]

This is my first time creating a gish, and I would appreciate some helpful criticism.

First for some background:

I was reading this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236983) and it got me thinking. Not only have I never made a gish but, I haven't played with a familiar either.

So far though, this is what I have in my attempt to a make a familiar master.

Human Battle Sorcerer 4/ Warblade 1/ Jade Phoenix Mage 2/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Jade Phoenix Mage 8

For Feats:
Extra Familiar(Flaw), Token Familiar(Flaw), Extra Familiar(Human), Extra Familiar(1), Improved Familiar(3), Extra Familiar(6), Extra Familiar(9)

With this I can net 6 familiars by level 9. I have no idea what to grab for the rest, but I am open to suggestions.

At the end of the build I would end up with 19 BAB, Casting 8th Level Sorcerer Spells at CL 20, and an IL of 15.

So, Playground, How do you suggest I improve my build?

Thanks in advance.

[Aegis013]

I don't think it's going to be optimal... but you will have a lot of familiars. I think doing other things with your feats would make you stronger, but it looks like it would be fun, and reasonably strong.

[Xynphos]

Fun is what I'm going for. ToB is probably my favorite supplement, and I always thought Sorcerers were cooler than wizards. And, if I have to, I can hit things myself.

Any suggestion's for the familiar's?

[Aegis013]

Dictum Mortuum has a handbook on it, I'm sure you can google it up. As I recall, things that can speak (therefore, activate wands) are really good. Like Imps or Eladrin Coure's. Small elementals work well too. These are all improved familiars though.

[Randomguy]

Take advantage of share spell. When you cast lightning ring once, you end up with seven. Polymorph gets you a platoon of sun giants or hydras. Although you need to be within 5 feet of each other, so you may need a set of ring gates for cross dimensional proximity. And you'd also need to cast lightning immunity for the lightning ring trick, or else you'd all fry each other.

I suggest you take obtain familiar over extra familiar at least once: that way you'd actually gain the benefits you're missing out on for your main one (since it gets its bonuses from prestige classes, too.) Also, I think the extra familiars you got could get the same benefits as your "obtain familiar" familiar rather than your class one, after you took the feat.

Hummingbirds give an initiative bonus, but I think they're from dragon mag so they're mainly used in hypothetical wizard builds.
I hear vipers are also useful, since their poison uses your HD to determine it's DC.
Owls and Hawks (and Huitzil, from dragon magic) are all decent scouts.
Some familiar oriented feats (not sure how good they are) are Bonded Familiar, Lurking Familiar, combat familiar and spell-linked familiar.
You could get a griffon as a mount using improved familiar. Taking mounted combat would improve make it a little tougher in combat.

But the handbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.ca/2011/08/familiars-handbook.html) can tell you better than I can.

By the way, I suggest starting with only a few familiars, then spending some feats or resources to make your familiars better and then getting the rest, so they'd have the benefits on arrival.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Personally, I'm a fan of pseudodragons for improved familiar for the sake of mindsight abuse. It also lets you get some weird dragons with Alter Self.

[Little Brother]

The gold standard is Paladin 2/Sorcerer 4/Spellblade 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Sacred Exorcist 8. It's that for a reason. 9th level spells>>>>>>>>8th level spells. There's not much of a difference between 16 and 19 BAB. If you REALLY want initiating, you could go Sorcerer 4/Crusader 2 instead, or Battle Sorcerer 4/Crusader 1/Spellblade 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Sacred Exorcist 8 with the second level of Crusader wherever you want it. Or, you could go Kobold Wyrm of War to take Tiger Claw maneuvers instead of some spells, with Adaptive Style.

One other thing the above build has is turning, so you can take Arcane Preparation, Southern Magician, Alternative Spell Source, and DMM.

Honestly, IMO familiars aren't that good. I like the Forlorn flaw, to be honest. Or you could nab the Hummingbird familiar, for the initiative boost.

I'd say your build would fit in with some TOB, fireball-slinging wizards and healing-focused clerics. If the characters are optimized a nd played smart, you'd be eating dust and basically be a core bard.

Just my 2CP.