Swashbuckler/Warmage Build help

[keeper2161]

Nothing set in stone but so far I want three levels in swashbuckler and five levels in warmage. The weapon I'll use is a rapier. The stats I'll focus on is INT DEX and CON in that order. I would like to be tiefling but I'm open to suggestion. I like the fluff of these two classes I would like to keep these classes. The theme I'm going for extra damage through INT. The warmage's Warmage Edge and the swashbuckler's Insightful Strike both add their INT bonus to there spells and melee respectfully. I'm open to suggestion to make it more versatile then just a damage dealer as the warmage spell list is simply damage dealing spells. I haven't put much thought into this build but this is want I have so far. I want to be gish. Swashbuckler 3/ Warmage 5+ I don't know the feat so any suggestions to be appreciated. I don't want the build to go father 15 but I don't think this character will go beyond level 12. Any level dips suggestions are also appreciated. Thank you to anyone the posts.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I want to be gish.

That's sort of the opposite of a gish. A true gish gets as much spellcasting and BAB as possible while losing as little of each as possible, and his spellcasting is there for buffing, not for dealing damage.

Adding your Int bonus to weapon damage from Swashbuckler 3 is going to be such a small bonus relative to how much damage per hit you should be dealing that it's going to be a waste of three levels. You're going to be dealing something like 1d8+5 with that rapier, whereas a true gish at 8th level will be dealing something in the neighborhood of 2d6+20, using two-handed power attack along with wraithstrike to be sure he still hits.

Warmage has no synergy with Swashbuckler, other than wanting a high Int score. Dealing damage with spells limits the amount of damage you can deal per day, whereas dealing damage with weapons allows you to do so as often as you want. Throwing three Swashbuckler levels onto a Warmage will only make you worse at being a Warmage, while giving you pitifully weak melee attacks to supplement your reduced number of spells. The Warmage spell list lacks any of the buffs necessary to make a competent Gish.

Here's a gish handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8786). If you want to use your Int score for damage, cast the spell Thunderlance from Spell Compendium.