Archery Swiftblade

[Kazyan]

So I pulled a massive stupid with my Binder (I'll walk through the ominous magic circles that are currently hurting me and grab the evil artifact; this is great plan) and now I have the dead and need to make a new character. I'm considering a Swiftblade using archery.

I know archery usually has lots of problems, but we have two melee damage dealers and need some ranged support. Is this viable? This character will be level 9 to start with. I'm not sure if I should blow most of my WBL on an Energy Bow at the moment.

Tentative build is a Gray Elf Wizard 6 (Martial variant and Elven Wizard substitution levels 1 and 3)/Swiftblade 3.

Feats:
W1 Expeditious Dodge
1 Mobility
3 Acidic Splatter*
W5 Point Blank Shot?
6 Practiced Spellcaster (Wizard)
9 Minor Shapeshift
Flaw (Unreactive) Arcane Strike

Also, how much gold should I spend on buying new spells for my spellbook?

*In case I end up captured, tied up, and with no apparent escape. That happens surprisingly often in D&D. Reserve feats are supernatural, so I can use them even when tied up. Also, running out of ammo or losing my weapon would suck.

[Snowbluff]

I would spent enough for 2 spells of each level.

If you can, I would wait a level or two for energy bow... wait. No, blow the money. You're a full caster. Fill in the lost items with hour/level spells.

I would pick up rapid shot to go with your Haste.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you can free up a feat slot for Knowledge Devotion, that should go great on this build-- all knowledges as class skills + int focus + many attacks/round = good times for all.

If you can afford an energy bow, absolutely go for it, because it just solves so many archery problems. I think you may run afoul of the "no more than 50% of your gold on a single item" rule, though.

[Flickerdart]

If you're afraid of being captured, I'd recommend spending the extra gold to get some spells tattooed on yourself or your allies in a hard to see place, rather than adding them to your book. Being able to prepare at least something when the enemy thinks they've got you powerless can be a great trump card.

[Kazyan]

Hour per level spells: I'm definitely going to use Shadow Conjuration -> Create Magic Tattoo, but what else do you recommend in that department? As a generalist with Arcane Strike and two reserve feats to power, I'm only going to have so many slots.

Knowledge Devotion: I considered it, but I preferred to spend points on Spot, Listen, and Craft (Drawing) for Create Magic Tattoo, leaving little for Knowledge Devotion. I'll pick it up at level 12, though. What? I like having +21 to Listen.

Tattoos vs. capture: I'll look into the tattooed spellbook stuff in Complete Arcane. Should be great flavor to have Haste literally written in one's own skin.