Low-Mid level Gish: How to Play

[Rethmar]

Working on an arcane gish build, just for fun.

Some melee class/wizard/abjurant champion, most likely.

At low to mid levels, what do they do in combat to be effective? They won't have the ability to quicken things yet, and spending a round at the beginning of combat to cast a buff seems like too much of a waste of time.

At low levels, (in combat) would I just rely on Arcane Strike?

(Aside from the nice low level swift action spells), etc.

Not looking for anything cheesy, just what people have learned while trying this out for themselves and the like.

[eggs]

If you have arcane strike at low levels, are you talking about Pathfinder?

With Wizard gishes, I mostly play like a normal control or buffer caster at low levels (just with a more active roll in the cleaning up blinded/stunned/nauseated enemies). With a reach weapon, combat reflexes and abrupt jaunt, control isn't hard to pull off either - especially with Crusader maneuvers in JPM builds.

Once the action economy of direct melee is sorted out around level 10, it gets much easier to take a more conventional approach to melee.

[Godskook]

The best thing to do at low-levels is to be a batman type wizard, slowly growing into your warrior capabilities.

Or play a duskblade, who has no 'maturity' point, unlike 'normal' gishes.

[Darth_Versity]

The problem is that gishes are generally not very fishy like at low levels. The only flesh out later. The only way around this is to have less spellcasting levels and more warrior levels to give you a chance in melee. That however limits your potential later and your still limited in armor choice due to arcane spell failure.

[LordBlades]

Depending on situation or party make-up I usually either play like a (somewhat weaker) batman wizard, secondary warrior (alter self goes a long way toward that, especially if you're one of the more exotic types and not humanoid, enlarge person, bull's str, shield etc. depending on time you have to prebuff, and/or wraithstrike&power attack, but that's kind of taxing on spell slots at low levels) or a combination of both.

[Roguenewb]

In an upcoming game I'm using a Battle Sorcerer/Swiftblade. He works okay at low levels 1-4, when he hits 6 it gets decent with arcane strike.

For generic consideration, I think the key to solid gishing, I think, is to use magic for mobility and buffs, and then use a (hopefully damage buffed) sword as your kill spell. Also, you can use some well chosen debuffs to make hits get in harder.

Also, for flavor, you can play a duskblade, but duskblades are basically barbarians. They just output damage, they can't do any control, problem solving or anything else like normal casters.

[Roguenewb]

In an upcoming game I'm using a Battle Sorcerer/Swiftblade. He works okay at low levels 1-4, when he hits 6 it gets decent with arcane strike.

For generic consideration, I think the key to solid gishing, I think, is to use magic for mobility and buffs, and then use a (hopefully damage buffed) sword as your kill spell. Also, you can use some well chosen debuffs to make hits get in harder.

Also, for flavor, you can play a duskblade, but duskblades are basically barbarians. They just output damage, they can't do any control, problem solving or anything else like normal casters.