3.5 Character Build Help

[Shardan]

ok. I am fairly noobish when it comes to 3.5 builds and am looking for some advice for myself and a friend for some character builds

I am not looking for Min/max and do not want any wierd monstrosities involving half dragon, half troll etc. I am looking for workable, survivable, fun builds.

what I am looking for is a copycat, basically. kind of like a Final Fantasy style Blue mage. If not through actual copying, an illusion based one might do. Changeling or some other shape shifter race perhaps.

If this one is not feasible, I was looking at drunken master, but using a dwarven fighter instead of a monk.

My friend is looking to be a wizard/sorcerer type. He liked the idea of candle caster, but isn't sure if its worth what the XP cost would be for the candle making. Advice towards that or suggestions for another fun, quirky, arcane bag of tricks would be appreciated.

[Zeb]

Cityscape's base class Factotum makes a decent copy cat.

Combine with the Changeling race from Races of Destiny you can be what you want.

I like to prestige into Complete Scoundrel's Master of masks but that's personal preference.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Factotum (Dungeonscape) and Chameleon (Races of Destiny) sound like your cup of tea. The Factotum can use Inspiration points to emulate a number of lesser abilities, including arcane spellcasting, sneak attack and turn undead, all the way up to emulating the (Ex) abilities of any class up to 15th level. The Chameleon can basically completely change up its routine, grabbing arcane or divine spellcasting to 6th level, or roguish skill bonuses, or martial prowess (as always, the spells are the best option), plus two free feats that you can change around every day to suit whatever style you're going for at the time, plus ability score adjustments that you can re-adjust, plus the ability to emulate a number of class features (including evasion, sneak attack, and smite evil).

[Namfuak]

Your friend could be a straight Wizard/Sorcerer 20 and survive just fine, so long as he puts some thought into his options. The strategy would be slightly different (Wizards are going to want to try to memorize a bunch of useful spells, prepare ones that get used a lot, and use scribe scroll/unprepared slots to use utility spells when they are needed, while sorcerers are going to want to keep a good number of scrolls on their person and decide what spells are going to be used frequently and try to avoid overlap). If he wants to do something that a straight wizard/sorcerer can't do for some reason, he should look for prestige classes that lose as little spellcasting as possible. In the end, anything with 8/10, 9/10, or 10/10 spellcasting progression and relatively unobtrusive entry requirements will work for him. Complete Mage and Complete Arcane have some nice options, DMG 1 has Loremaster, Red Wizard, and Archmage, and of course other books have even more classes. I believe that the rule of thumb is that you should make a build that will end up with 9th level spells (17 levels of wizard or 18 levels of sorcerer) by level 20.

[thubby]

the archmage in the dmg can get reflective counterspells.

[Shardan]

ok LT. that sounds perfect. I don't have those books available right off hand, but I will look into it.
What suggestions do you have on specific build for that?

Namfuak: He's always a straight wizard/sorcerer. that's the issue. He was looking to break it up some, but realized the candle caster would be a bit restrictive and be a bit more of an XP sink than he really wants to be with his scrolls/candles since the entire prestige class is making candles(scrolls)

[Shardan]

I've done some hunting around and Factotum/chameleon is perfect.

I can't use doppleganger race, though. The RA is too high.

any other suggestions on races?

[Lonely Tylenol]

I've done some hunting around and Factotum/chameleon is perfect.

I can't use doppleganger race, though. The RA is too high.

any other suggestions on races?

Human has a race requirement of "Human or Doppelganger", so I'd go with Human.

[Yuki Akuma]

You could also be a Changeling, which have no LA.

They're from Eberron, not from Races of Destiny.