Spellcaster in Melee Question

[Macabros]

Is there any class already built that can both cast spells and wade into combat and make heads roll?

I am not talking about the Druid which has to shapeshift to gain that benefit and I was not really looking at the Warmage who's spell list is just not open enough for my liking.

Or is there a build that can give this? I always thought there was feats that grant armor profs to spellcasters while reducing those spellcasters failure change.

[Scow2]

The Cleric is your best friend here!

You can also go with the A-Game Paladin build.

[Norin]

Cleric, wizard, druid, archivist, bard, duskblade, etc and a boatload of PrC's.

Search for "gish hadbook" to get you started.

[S_Grey]

If you want to wear armor and cast spells, my favorite has always been a dip into runecaster from races of stone, requires dwarf though.

Abjurant champion from complete mage is a great choice.

If it's a base class you're after, duskblade may be what you want from the players handbook II.

Warlock with the eldrich glaive variant can also do some spell-like stuff while whacking fools for tons of damage.

[Macabros]

I will look into those classes you suggested.

I know Wizards and the like can blow a few spell slots and go into melee but I was meaning without having to go through a few spell slots to buff yourself. Especially since if you do that into a anti-magic field they have no effect or anything, a dispel would render them useless.

But I get the idea.

[gorfnab]

Bards can also make great gishes if built correctly.
Here are some handbooks that may be of use to you
Bard (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8284) Handbooks (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9830.0)
Duskblade Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=525.0)
Gish Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8786)

[Diarmuid]

Duskblades would seem to fit this bill as well .

[Chronos]

There are ways to have your buffs up all day so you don't need to take any combat actions to cast them, and there are also ways to protect against dispels.

Take my current cleric, for instance. He's got something like a dozen spells up for the whole day or very close to it. His caster level is too high for a normal Dispel Magic to do anything at all to him. He's got a Ring of Counterspells storing a Greater Dispel Magic. Now, he could still be seriously hampered by two or more GDMs, or by one of the other more obscure high-level dispels, but even then, he's likely to retain over half of the buffs that are cast on himself, plus the buffs that he cast on his weapon, armor, and shield.

Net effect is, he's not invulnerable. But there's less he has to worry about than a fighter does: Any number of Will save spells will hurt the fighter a lot more than a dispel will hurt him.

[LordConcrete]

I think that any spellcaster can perform in melee with enough buffs.
Though they'll probably still work better at a range.

Polymorph is your friend.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Assuming you have a problem with ranger or paladin, duskblade is a strait-up gish in a can. There's also the hexblade but you probably don't want him for the same reason you don't want the two from core.

Duskblade is in player's handbook 2 and hexblade is in complete warrior.

[Taveena]

Hexblade isn't terrible with the fix, honestly! With the Hexbands you can build a rather impressive build based around Charisma.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Personally, I like hexblade for getting into a gish PrC with good features independent of casting and advances spellcasting when I'm not in the mood for a serious spellcaster, greenstar adept for example.

[Emperor Tippy]

Psion does it best but pretty much any of the full casters can melee quite well if they feel like it.

[Eldariel]

Swiftblade (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327) can get the benefits of Haste in AMFs (on level 6, 'Fortified Hustle'). That makes it one of the more frightening non-magical combatants with vast buffs that others don't have access to including great miss chance (most ways to negate miss chance involve magic) & extra attack. Normal build for this is simple Wizard 6/Swiftblade 9/Abjurant Champion 5. By level 20 you only lose 3 BAB total so you're quite competitive with warriors higher up (obviously early on the 3 BAB will hurt a lot more).

Other good options are the Tome of Battle caster/warrior prestige classes, particularly Ruby Knight Vindicator. Cleric 4/Crusader 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator only loses 1 BAB and gets good maneuver progression which will avail you well in melee. Jade Phoenix Mage is kinda worse due to stricter entry requirements and worse martial schools available but it works to a degree too.

Also, the mentioned Duskblade is decent from level 1 (good BAB & HD, heavy armor) though it never truly matches e.g. Barbarian in melee while the other mentioned options have some tricks Barb does not later on at least giving one a run for their money.

Cleric 4/Ordained Champion 5/Fist of Raziel-or-equivalent 10 is a good Divine version of the Duskblade. Much like Duskblade, it's basically an NPC Warrior (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/warrior.htm) in Dead Magic areas which is still much better than most casters, but not that amazing compared to actual warriors.

Finally, there's always Cleric with Initiate of Mystra (Player's Guide to Faerun) who can, with Caster Level check, use magic in Antimagic Fields or even Dead Magic Zones. This usually leads to him casting Antimagic Field himself and buffing up inside it and walking around very resilient to magic just killing people. Tippy loves to do this with any caster using Selective Spell [Shining South] to make Antimagic Field not affect yourself. This, of course, doesn't work as well against opposing Antimagic Fields as Initiate of Mystra but is a far lesser investment.

[Ruethgar]

Stalwart Battle Sorcerers work bit it is not recommended most of the time. A mystic ranger could work if you wanted more spell casting. The glaive lock was mentioned, but the claw lock can get a lot more damage output with beast claws and rapid strike.

[Story]

I think that any spellcaster can perform in melee with enough buffs.
Though they'll probably still work better at a range.

Polymorph is your friend.

Or Persisted Draconic Polymorph if you can get it.

[ben-zayb]

You said you don't like Warmage, but how about the Dread Necromancer? It has decent Touch spells, additional undead meat shields, as well as tanking capabilities of its own.

[Lord Haart]

I believe this thread means more Psychic Warrior.


Generally, THE spellcaster that fights bloody well and can wear armor if he likes in 3.5 is the cleric, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. About the only problem he has in this niche is misleading fluff that doesn't quite associate him with warrior mages of our fantasies (well, that and the fact that it makes an even better full spellcaster; psychologically, it's more attractive in a way to buy the second-fastest sport car on Earth knowing it will forever remain a car than to buy the fastest sport car on Earth which can transform into an airplane, knowing that you'd have to struggle daily with an urge to just fly everywhere). Cleric was also made back in days when very idea of a gish who's more competent and/or synergystic than "Wizard 3/Fighter x/Eldritch knight 10/Fighter y" was perceived as a game-breaker waiting to happen. Later, when Wizards somewhat wisened up (about halfway to the stunning realisation that the true and only source of imbalance is in-combat flight — realisation that reighed supreme during most of 4e), there were made a lot of gish PrC and even a few gish-in-a-can prestige classes; Psychic Warrior being the one whose magic (well, psionics) supplement his combat, serving as his weapon, his buffer and his healer, while Duskblade's magic is mostly a Sneak Attack on steroids, being his main mode of attacking while taking little care of the rest (that said, any caster's "little care" is still worth whole levels of low-tier classes' features).