[3.5] Arcane Caster options

[Dysart]

Hello all,

I'm currently signed up for a Roll20 group and after a little advice. It's been a while since my last arcane caster in 3.5 and looking at the party comp it seems like an Arcane would be useful:

Bard (stated buffer primary focus)
Cleric
Wood Elf Ranger (first time player)
Sword and Shield fighter

So I was wondering what my options are. As there's a bard playing a sorcerer is a no go (even though I love them... and yes I know Tier 2) due to the redundency of two charismatic characters.
By the looks of it a Intelligence based character would do well, so I was thinking Wizard or Artificer.
Any other suggestions? (No third party allowed sorry)

[Uncle Pine]

"Hi I'm Magellan, a travelling mage. I notice your group has no Wizard."

I say roll an easy bake god wizard and try to not steal the spotlight too much. You'll enjoy it, others will enjoy it and everyone will get to accomplish things.

EDIT: To clarify: you have a new player who's approaching the game for the first time and playing a Ranger (hopefully melee) and a sword 'n' board Fighter (thus probably unoptimized), so they'll need all the support you can give them. God Wizards excel at making others feel powerful by controlling the battle behind the scene through buffs, debuffs and crowd control spells (read: providing the rest of the party a bunch of helpless targets they can smash to their hearts' content), making them an egregious tool if you want to maximize the chances of turning a first timer into an usual.

[Dysart]

"Hi I'm Magellan, a travelling mage. I notice your group has no Wizard."

I say roll an easy bake god wizard and try to not steal the spotlight too much. You'll enjoy it, others will enjoy it and everyone will get to accomplish things.

I think you're right, I have a track record of avoiding Wizards like the plague in all games any playing every vairent under the sun to avoid playing a straight up wizard.
Time to bite the bullet and go vanilla!

[NevinPL]

What's your definition of a 3rd party (source) ?

[RedMage125]

What's your definition of a 3rd party (source) ?

Usually means anything published by a company other than WotC.

Green Ronin, Mongoose, and AEG are prime examples.