Gish help (seems to be popular lately)

[killianh]

So far I have the following build put together (spoilered due to wall of text)

Swashbuckler 3/ Wizard 4/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Exorcist 8
HD 8d10+4d4+8d8+80=202 from rolled
BAB 16\11\6\1 FORT +7 REF +5 WILL +14
STR 10 (12-2 race)
DEX 22 (14+2 race +6 item)
CON 18 (13+ 1 level -2 race +6 item)
INT 28 (16+4 level +2 race +6 item)
WIS 11
CHA 11

Feats (total 7 without bonus):
Arcane disciple: competition domain
Imp initiative
Split ray
Arcane thesis: enervation
Chain spell
Empower Spell
Knowledge devotion

Swashbuckler 3 grants:
D10s HD, +3 BAB +3 FORT +1 REF +1 WILL
Weapon Finesse for free
Grace +1: +1 to REF in light armor
Insightful strike: add INT to damage with light weapons

Elven Generalist Domain Wizard 4 (only 1st level for racial levels) Grants:
D4s HD, +2 BAB +1 FORT +1 REF +3 WILL
Arcane Spell casting
Gain Familiar
Scribe Scroll free
Generalist Wizardry: A 1st-level elf wizard begins play with one extra 1st-level spell in her spell book. At each new wizard level, she gains one extra spell of any spell level that she can cast. This represents the additional elven insight and experience with arcane magic. The elf wizard may also prepare one additional spell of her highest spell level each day. Unlike the specialist wizard ability, this spell may be of any school. This substitution feature replaces the standard wizard’s ability to specialize in a school of magic
Domain Wizard: Extra spell per level, must be from the chosen domain (Transmutation Domain, see page 57-58 of Unearthed arcana)

Abjurant Champion 5 grants:
D10s, +5 BAB, +1 FORT +1 REF +4 WILL
5 Caster Levels on wizard
Abjurant Armour: Add Abjurant Champion levels to any AC boosting Abjuration spell
Extend abjuration: Free Extend meta magic on all abjuration spells
Swift abjuration: free Quicken meta magic on up to 3rd level abjuration spells
Arcane Boost(Su):Beginning at 4th level, you gain the ability to burn arcane energy to empower your martial abilities. As a swift action, you can spend one of your uncast spells or spell slots to grant yourself one of the following insight bonuses for 1 round.
•Bonus on attack rolls equal to the spell's level.
•Bonus on weapon damage rolls equal to twice the spell's level.
•Bonus to AC equal to the spell's level.
•Bonus on saving throws equal to the spell's level.
•Resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic equal to 5xthespell's level
Martial Arcanist: Caster level equal to BAB unless otherwise higher.

Sacred Exorcist 8 grants:
D8s HD, +6 BAB +2 FORT +2 REF +6 WILL
8 Caster levels on Wizard
Exorcism (Su): As a full-round action, a sacred exorcist can force a possessing creature or spirit out of the body it inhabits. To exorcise a possessing creature, the exorcist makes a class level check (also adding her Charisma modifier, if any), against a DC of 10 + the possessing creature’s HD + its Charisma modifier (if any). If the exorcist’s result equals or exceeds the DC, she succeeds in forcing the possessor from the body, with the normal results based on its method of possession. A spirit so exorcised cannot attempt to possess the same victim for 24 hours.
Turn undead: as cleric
Resist Possession (Ex): Sacred exorcists of at least 2nd level receive a +4 sacred bonus on their saving throws against magic jar spells or similar abilities (including a ghost’s malevolence ability), and a +2 sacred bonus on dispel checks made to dispel such effects. They also get a +2 sacred bonus on their saving throws against all charm and compulsion spells and effects cast by evil outsiders or undead
Chosen Foe: +2 to Bluff, Intimidate, sense motive, spot, and caster level checks made to overcome SR against undead and evil outsiders
Detect evil at will
Consecrated person: As the spell consecrate in 20’radius at all times
Holy aura: As spell 1\day

Racial Stats
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Strength, –2 Constitution.
Humanoid (Elf)
Medium: As Medium creatures, gray elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Gray elf base land speed is 30 feet.
Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
Low-Light Vision: A gray elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
Weapon Proficiency: Gray elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A gray elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.

Items:
Headband of intelligence (+6 INT, 36k, head slot) Gloves of Dexterity (+6 DEX, 36k, hands) amulet of health (+6 CON, 36k, neck) feathered wings (60’ flight, 10k, slotless graft) Third eye conceal (all day mind blank, 120k, face) minor cloak of displacement (20% miss chance, 24k, shoulders) ring of freedom of movement (freedom of movement continuous, 40k, ring) Belt of battle (+2 init, 1 charge for move action, 2 for standard, 3 for full round, 12k, waist)



Problem is I have 362,000gp left to work with, and have no clue what to do. I know I need a weapon, not sure what to do about armour, and not sure about much else. Any help or ideas for how to solve my item problem or improve on the build would be helpful

EDIT: not all of the bonuses from my current items have been applied, nor has my spell base been added for boosts from self buffs

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

That's not a gish, it's a Wizard who happens to have Swashbuckler 3 and a decent BAB.

If you're going to have a familiar, get a hummingbird (+4 initiative, thrush stats in the DMG) and take the Elf Wizard 3 substitution level to double the bonus it gives you.

You would be much better off with two-handed Power Attack + Arcane Strike + Wraithstrike, and use Draconic Polymorph from the Draconomicon to take the form of a War Troll in MM3 for Str 39, Dex 16. You could just use an Elven Court Blade or a Spiked Chain and still benefit from Insightful Strike, but both of those will cost you a feat for proficiency. A Dex-based gish is viable, but you're lacking anything that would make it so. You need TWF, Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC), and the feat Otherworldly (PGtF) to (Draconic) Polymorph into a Kelvezu demon (MM2) which gives you sneak attack and adds poison to your weapons.

None of your feats are right. You didn't even take Combat Casting to qualify for Abjurant Champion. You left out Practiced Spellcaster, which can be added on after Martial Arcanist to make your caster level equal your character level. You didn't include Minor Shapeshift, which gives you a temporary HP cushion every round so you can survive better in melee. The only metamagic feats you need are Extend Spell and Persistent Spell, because a gish buffs himself and deals melee damage, he doesn't go around spamming offensive spells. The only offensive spells you should even know are powerful area effect crowd controls like Web, Black Tentacles, and Freezing Fog. I'm completely lost as to why you've taken Arcane Disciple: Competition, it doesn't give you the domain's power, only access to the spells it grants, and with Wis 11 you'll only be able to cast the 1st level spell from it.

Your items are way off. Per Magic Item Compendium page 234 you can add most of the effects you have to an existing item for no more than a separate item would cost. Get a Circlet of Rapid Casting with a +6 Int added, a Necklace of Adaptation with +6 Con added, etc. Your Feathered Wings graft will deal 1d3 Wis damage to you every day if you're good aligned, and you can just cast Overland Flight or Persistent Swift Fly every day for free. You can also cast Mind Blank every day, so no use in spending gold on that either. You can cast Persistent Displacement instead of getting it on an item, and Heart of Water (CM) can cover Freedom of Movement.

With Abjurant Champion you should be casting Persistent Shield and (Extended) Greater Luminous Armor (BoED) every day. Get a Rod of Bodily Restoration (MIC) to fix the sacrifice damage from GLA. You're using the cheese of Domain Wizard + Elven Generalist, but you didn't bother including any Incantatrix (PGtF) levels. Elf Paragon 1/ Fighter 1/ Wizard 2/ Elf Paragon 2/ Spellsword 1/ Incantatrix 4/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Eldritch Knight 4 is the gold standard Wizard-based gish build. Incantatrix lets you add Persistent Spell to your buffs after you've cast them for no increase to the level of the spell slot used, so you can persist spells like Draconic Polymorph, Bite of the Werebear, Greater/Superior Invisibility, Ray Deflection, and even Foresight.

I'm only scratching the surface here, there are plenty of gish handbooks around the web.

[killianh]

Most of that makes sense except for the situation I'm in in the game.

Polymorphing in all forms: Banned
Alt rules on items (the MiC thing) (we've had that get stupid with a druid before): Banned
Persist: Banned
Incantrix: Banned

The domain generalist was more or less so I didn't have to waste a memorization on dispel evil. Didn't feel like specializing and generalist looked nice since I had taken elf anyway.

I've been allowed to enter AbjC without the feat, and the wings got fluffed to a good only version. Main reason I tried to go DEX without the TWF or multiweapon tricks is due to the fact my tripper was banned for being able to attack to often (which was only 5 times on my turn, and up to 5 AoOs at level 19) Can't believe I forgot about practised spell caster! although I did put the draft of this together in the wee hours of the morning.

As for some of the items I chose...Mainly I took some rather obviously bad choices more or less because I'm trying to build something that doesn't get vetoed and I have more gold than a non wand\staff using wizard really needs

[killianh]

Also to clarify I'm aiming to be a more casting focused type of gish rather than a balanced or buff\smash\win type (the later would probably be vetoed)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It looks like your game isn't very optimization-friendly.

What level will this character be starting at?

You can still add multiple effects to one item per the sidebar on page 282 of the DMG. The most expensive item property is at the normal cost, and every other separate item property added to that one is 50% more expensive. You can also switch what spot an item occupies per the sidebar on page 288. Otherwise just get a Belt of Magnificense from Miniatures Handbook, it costs 200k and adds a +6 Enhancement to all of your stats.

Get Boots of Temporal Acceleration (MIC), and multiply its cost by the number of times/day you want it to be usable (DMG p285, table 7-33, charges per day section). Start combat by activating those (swift action), gaining two entire rounds. Round 1: Cast Shield (swift), cast Bite of the Werebear (standard), move toward an opponent; Round 2: Cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Wraithstrike (swift), cast Black Tentacles or similar (standard), move adjacent to an opponent. Your normal first round resumes, with only a swift action spent; activate Arcane Strike and full attack, with Wraithstrike still active. Be sure to have a few (Lesser) Metamagic Rods of Quicken as well, for spells like Web and Haste.

If your DM isn't very friendly toward characters who get a few more than the standard number of attacks (God forbid someone play a single-classed two-weapon-style Ranger with Swift Haste prepared) then you're better off using a two-handed weapon for more damage per hit. It also gets more mileage out of Arcane Strike and Power Attack. You could do a two-round sequence with Extended Wraithstrike and whatever else the first round, and then on the second round charge with Leap Attack and then cast a Quickened (Shaped) Whirling Blade to hit every opponent in the area (including the one you charged) with the same bonuses to attack and damage that you got for the charge attack. Note that a metamagic version of a spell still counts as the spell's original level for all purposes (lesser metamagic rods), unless you use Heighten Spell with it. Get a Spell Storing weapon and put a (Lesser Rod of) Maximized Vampiric Touch in it.

You don't need to have Dispel Evil or Dismissal prepared to qualify for Sacred Exorcist, you just need to have one of those in your spellbook and to be able to cast spells of that level. Once you hit the 4th level of that it meets that prerequisite for itself with its Dispel Evil spell-like ability. The only time you should consider Arcane Disciple on a gish is for the Destiny domain (RoD) for its 9th level spell, in which case you'll need Wis 19 to even use it. You can put that and any other domain spell on a custom Runestaff (MIC) to get around the 1/day limitation of Arcane Disciple or domain spells in general.

You may be better off playing a Batman character instead of a gish, if you don't plan on being a primary melee attacker.

[killianh]

From the basic sounds of it, my overtired attempt at a gish can work, but will need a stupid level of overhauling to pull off proper.

maybe Fighter 2/ Wizard 4/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Exorcist 3/eldritch knight 5 going human rather than elf (both for the feat and to not end up pulling cheese)?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Always be sure to use the Martial Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard) variant from UA p59.

The only reason to start Fighter 2/ Wizard 4 instead of Human or Elf Paragon 1/ Fighter 1/ Wizard 2/ Paragon 2 would be if you get the Dungeoncrasher ACF for Fighter and use Melf's Unicorn Arrow (PH2) to bull rush opponents into the ground. I don't think that would go over too well with your group, so Human Paragon it is. That gets a bonus general feat instead of a Fighter bonus feat, along with +2 to any stat and way better starting skills.

Consider going Human Paragon 1/ Fighter 1/ Wizard 2/ Human Paragon 2/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Paragnostic Apostle 2 or 4/ Eldritch Knight 6 or 4. With Mind Over Matter your Greater Luminous Armor will grant a +15 armor bonus. Spatial Awareness makes your Haste and Elation (BoED) spells grant an extra +10 ft. movement, though Elation isn't even worth casting without Persistent Spell. Backhanded Attack gives your Orb of Energy spells and many others a +1 DC. Mind Over Body is another decent choice for a self-buffer.

Another option would be Fighter 1/ Wizard 6/ Spellsword 5/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Ruathar or Sacred Exorcist 3 (or Dragonslayer 1/ Paragnostic Apostle 2). With that you could use Channel Spell from Spellsword to turn Cloudkill into an inescapable singe-target effect, which will deal 1d4 Con damage per round for ten rounds per caster level to whatever you hit. You can even use the Domain Power ACF at Wizard 5 to get a nice domain ability, Inquisition is among the top choices. If using Martial Wizard you can pick the Planning domain to get Extend Spell instead of the bonus Fighter feat. There's also the Spontaneous Divination ACF instead, which is wildly popular for good reason.

[killianh]

Any opinion on going havoc mage instead of using spellsword? instead of channelling you would get a spell and an attack on a full round action.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Any opinion on going havoc mage instead of using spellsword? instead of channelling you would get a spell and an attack on a full round action.

Havoc Mage loses both BAB and spellcasting, so it's extremely difficult to fit it into a gish build and still get 9ths and +16 BAB by 20th. I always forget that it even exists, there are just better options, like lesser rods of quicken and a Circlet of Rapid Casting.

[CigarPete]

Just a note, Wraithstrike and Arcane Boost both use a swift, so you can only have one up in a given round unless you are extending or persisting the wraithstrike, which is a very good way to get wraithstrike banned, IMO.

Arcane Strike is better all around than boost, get spell level to attack and a d4 for each spent spell, which will on average do more than boost, and if you are power attacking, the additional BAB can likely be shifted.

Greater Luminous Armor is also likely too much cheese, I know it is for my group.

Spellsword 5 is not a bad choice, but if you already have another non-casting level, it removes eldritch knight from consideration if you want access to 9ths. I think Elf Paragon 3/Wizard 3/Spellsword 5/Abj Champ 5/Sacred Exorcist 4 should get you 16 BAB and 9ths at 20th.

[Snowbluff]

Also to clarify I'm aiming to be a more casting focused type of gish rather than a balanced or buff\smash\win type (the later would probably be vetoed)

Swiftblade9 makes pretty good casting type gish. If you are taking Swashy3 in something that's supposed to focus on casting that's rather silly.

[killianh]

Swiftblade9 makes pretty good casting type gish. If you are taking Swashy3 in something that's supposed to focus on casting that's rather silly.

Swash 3 was for the ability to gain Int to damage as an untyped damage source.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I might be posting a bit of a revised version later on (so forgive thread necromancy if I'm late on the post)