Gish spell selection?

[zeek0]

Hello all, I'm looking for some of your expertise:

I am putting together my spell list for a Swiftblade (PrC) I plan to play. The base class will be a sorcerer with the Battle UA variant so I get armor and martial weapons for free.

My spell selection may seem a bit underpowered, but I chose spells that focused on mobility, teleportation, and battlefield control because they fit with my concept and are enjoyable. My character chooses to use spells that are more in connection with reality, a kind of anti-solipsism if you will. I would not like to use any spells that enchant or directly debuff a creature.

Here's what I have so far:
1) Nerveskitter
Shield
Grease
Expeditious Retreat
2) Baleful Transposition
Wraithstrike
Cat’s Grace
Dimension Hop
3) HASTE
Sleet Storm
Magic Weapon, Greater
4) Translocation Trick
Secure Shelter
Dimension Door
5) Wall of Force
Dimension Jumper
Freezing Fog
6) Contingency
Tactical Teleportation
7) Phase Door
8) Discern Location

Thanks for taking a look!

[ZamielVanWeber]

Polymorph is a great spell in general, giving you the ability to manipulate your AC, shuffle around features, and making you less dependent on physical stats.

Also, secure shelter is not a good sorcerer spell due to its limited nature. You would be better off with a wand of Rope Trick.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Battle Sorcerer is not worth it, you take the drawbacks for your entire career but the benefits are both short-lived and extremely mediocre. Make it a +0 LA Aasimar (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (you can delay spending a level on the other benefits indefinitely (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a)) and the Outsider creature type (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#outsiderType) gets you proficiency in all martial weapons, whereas Battle Sorcerer only gives you proficiency with one martial weapon. Casting in light armor is overrated, it will give you nothing better than you would get from Mage Armor and later (Greater) Luminous Armor is better anyway, and your armor doesn't resize when you use your best buff: Polymorph. Don't use Battle Sorcerer!

Use this trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267805#4) and it makes your spell selection decisions extremely easy. Put spells you'll only cast once or a few times each day (Mage Armor, Rope Trick, Greater Magic Weapon, etc.) on that, and spend your spells known on spells that you'll want to cast multiple times per encounter.

[herrhauptmann]

Battle Sorcerer is not worth it, you take the drawbacks for your entire career but the benefits are both short-lived and extremely mediocre. Make it a +0 LA Aasimar (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (you can delay spending a level on the other benefits indefinitely (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a)) and the Outsider creature type (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#outsiderType) gets you proficiency in all martial weapons, whereas Battle Sorcerer only gives you proficiency with one martial weapon. Casting in light armor is overrated, it will give you nothing better than you would get from Mage Armor and later (Greater) Luminous Armor is better anyway, and your armor doesn't resize when you use your best buff: Polymorph. Don't use Battle Sorcerer!

I'm always unconvinced taht a planetouched can get that weapon proficiency without a level of racial hit die. Ask the DM, he/she might go my route, or Biffoniacus'.

He's right on the martial sorc thing though. Even a one level dip into fighter would better than that thing.

Really, all you need is a +1 mithral chainshirt (0 acp and 0 asf) to carry your other defensive enchantments. Use your spells to keep yourself intact after that.

Luminous armor of course only works if you find a way (as a sorc) to prepare spells.

Wildling clasp or 'wild' armor will let your physical armor resize.

For your spells: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212289 This homebrew has most of the best spells for a gish.

[Rebel7284]

There are a bunch of ways of getting that martial weapon proficiency that doesn't cost you so many spells.

1. Aasimar has been mentioned.
2. Neraphim
3. Elf (Star Elf has bonus to Charisma) or any other race with bonus weapons.
4. Militia (regional feat)
5. Whatever regional feat gives you outsider type.
6. Take weapon proficiency as a feat.

As far as the spells themselves are concerned, Expeditious Retreat does not stack with Haste. I can see it being sort of flavorful early on, but you should be swapping it out the moment you get Haste.

As far as spells to consider:
Wings of Cover. Amazing spell.

[Venger]

Really, all you need is a +1 mithral chainshirt (0 acp and 0 asf) to carry your other defensive enchantments. Use your spells to keep yourself intact after that.

mithral chain shirt has a baseline ASF of 10%. you need to put the "twilight" property from BoED (a +1 enhancement) on it first to get it to 0.

OP, as far as getting martial weapon proficiency for swiftblade, dip RotW's ruathar for a few levels. it'll give you a few class features (so is +1 on sorcerer already) and beefs up your base attack and grants more skills to boot (plus being full casting) it's much better than battle sorcerer, as has already been mentioned.

as far as spells go, check out "dimension shuffle" and "dimension jumper" since you seem to like teleportation spells.

nerveskitter, cat's grace, and wraithstrike are all better in wand form. you won't be casting them enough to justify their inclusion. your spell list doesn't seem to include any method for you to fly. do you have a magic item that takes care of that for you?

[zeek0]

Thanks all, I appreciate the comments. I'll definitely try to switch out Battle Sorcerer for something else. Oh, and is there a particular reason I would need to Fly?

[Rebel7284]

The world is 3D, being able to navigate it as such can solve a lot of encounters. With that said, you don't necessarily need flight per-say. You can get away with something more flexible like Alter Self and get a few scrolls of Fly in case your whole party needs to fly somewhere.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Neraph is another +0 outsider (from Planar Handbook) that can work for gishing; I find that DM's are less likely to object to it than to the +0 Aasimar.