Is a multi-class fighter like this at all viable?

[PunkManiak]

I've never played D&D before, and am wanting to either get my own materials or find a local game group I can join.

The character I have in mind would be a frost elf, a primarily dexterity and strength based fighter, in all light leather armor, so I'll need to find a way to buff his AC and movement speed, with the primary weapons being a finesse greatsword of sorts, it's kind of difficult to explain, with secondary weapons being a hunter's knife and throwing knives, as a very minor skill he would also be drummer, able to gain a bit of money in towns from playing.

The biggest problems come in with the multi-classing I would like to do, I'd like to have him be able to sneak attack with the knife, (never the greatsword, because that would be ridiculous and dumb due to how long it is, so I would either intentionally forbid myself from ever using it for sneak attack, or build it into the character somehow.) because he's an exceptionally skilled Hunter. I'd want him to learn this around level 10

Lastly I kind of want him to be able to use Ice magic, (This would mostly be flavor and meant to illustrate that he's internally attuned to the ice and snow of his homeland.) I wouldn't be able to use any spells until like level 15 or 20, nothing very powerful and absolutely no attack spells, only minor buffs or debuffs on enemies, like being able to freeze his sword for a little bit of ice damage, or creating an occasional ice slick on the ground to make groups of enemies have a harder time in a fight, as well as being immune to most ice and cold attacks.

The big thing is he's supposed to be a chaotic good fighter, with a bit of inspiration from Jack Frost. Would a character like that be at all viable, would it be OP or just stupid and ridiculous.

[LibraryOgre]

I'd probably go with calling him a Ranger, with ice-specified spells, and swapping out Favored Enemy for Sneak Attack, and some cross-class skills in Perform. Assuming this is 3.x. Which I am.

[PunkManiak]

I don't know would a ranger be viable, it's the kind of character that's supposed to be in the thick of a fight, but instead of wearing heavy armor or the like he'd be dodging swaying and practically dancing past his opponents strikes. However, with his sword he would be a damage dealer of sorts, and will have sufficiently high constitution to be able to take damage, when he does get hit. Can a ranger be a party's primary damage dealer?

[Flickerdart]

Can a ranger be a party's primary damage dealer?
Yes. Well, sort of.

What you want is the Swift Hunter feat, which allows you to progress the Scout's Skirmish ability (extra damage and AC when you move before attacking) with levels of Ranger. Ranger will grant you the Two-Weapon Fighting feats, which let you dual-wield, and thus apply that damage twice. As long as you can move and full attack in the same round, that is!

A build I like is Barbarian 1/Ranger 1/Scout 4, followed by straight Ranger. The order is not important as long as Scout level 4 lands on your 6th level, so you can take Swift Hunter and Improved Skirmish at the same time. Trade out the Barbarian's fast movement for Pounce (using the Spirit Lion Totem variant from Complete Champion) and now you can full attack at the end of a charge.

Your character is the perfect hunter, able to stalk his prey with keen senses and great stealth, and then pounce upon it with lightning speed. Since Skirmish gives you extra AC as well as extra damage, you can wear light armor and still hang out in the thick of it with the big boys. If you are finding it difficult to move and attack every round, dip a level of Cleric and trade out a domain for Travel Devotion. You can use the Cleric spells for your ice magic.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The swift hunter build can be enhanced (magic-wise) by convincing your DM to allow the Mystic Ranger variant, which massively improves your spellcasting. If that does not give you quite enough ice magic, the Sword of the Arcane Order feat will allow you to cast wizard spells from your ranger slots. That does increase your reliance on ability scores - apart from STR, DEX, CON and WIS, you will also need INT - but that's mitigated by the fact that you probably don't need super-high save DCs, so you can get by with 15s in WIS and INT (13 with a +2 item both, or even 11 with a +4 item both).

[Ruethgar]

Moon Warded Ranger gets Wisdom to AC in Light and no armor at level 2 instead of a combat style and would fit with a Rise of the Guardians Jack Frost.

You should also be able to take Mystic Ranger with that(delaying the Wis to AC til level 3) and then have Create Water on your spell list and abuse the wording to create ice instead. Not very potent without significant investment, but certainly thematic.

Swordsage 2 can get you Wis to AC in Light armor ONLY and would not take much away from the already slow ranger casting. This would also allow you to get Assasin Stance for a little sneak attack ability.

The Elven courtblade or some such(I think from Races of the Wild) is essentially a finessable greatsword if you wanted that.

[Troacctid]

Another option would be to use Swordsage, and re-skin your Desert Wind maneuvers as Arctic Wind (cold instead of fire). That gives you basically everything you're looking for all in one class: you're nimble, you're agile, you're great at dodging, you have sneak attacks, you have stealth, you have ice powers, and you can hit like a truck with a greatsword when you need to.

[PunkManiak]

The thing is the kind of greatsword I have in mind isn't probably something the game has. It's not big thick and clunky, it would more closely resemble a pole-arm in some ways. The character I have in mind is going to be 6'6" or taller, and the sword would be like six-feet long. The handle wear he would place his hands would be like one and a half or two feet long, and the blade itself would be four feet long. It would have no hand guard on it, and the blade itself would be only a little thicker than a normal longsword, a little bit thicker then the handle itself, it'd be meant to be swung in wide sweeping strokes are lunging stabs. If you've ever played Dark Souls 2, and have seen the Ultra Greatsword, it'd look sort of like that but, much thinner and like a needle by comparison. It's not big or super thick, just ridiculously long.

[ATHATH]

Hm... I'm not good with Martials, so I can't help find a sword like that, but I can help with the Ice spells.

Frostburn has cold-themed spells, classes, monsters, and feats as its main focus, so you should probably check it out.

Don't forget that you can refluff spells to suit your concept. Mage Armor (or (Greater) Luminous Armor, if you're non-evil and don't mind some ability damage) could be made of magical ice instead of force, for example.

[Adrayll]

+1 to swordsage reflavored to ice. Probably the simplest and most elegant way to get the aesthetic that OP described. Just reflavor all the wind and sand stuff to ice and break for lunch early.

As to the finesseable greatsword, there's a pair of weapons in Races of the Wild, called the Elven Thinblade and Courtblade, which are respectively a longsword and greatsword in statline, but can have weapon finesse applied to them. As to one-handing a two handed weapon, only thing off the top of my head is monkeygripping a large-sized thinblade and calling it a greatsword. From a crunch perspective, it's less about how you describe your super cool elf sword, and more about know what it does with dice.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The thing is the kind of greatsword I have in mind isn't probably something the game has. It's not big thick and clunky, it would more closely resemble a pole-arm in some ways. The character I have in mind is going to be 6'6" or taller, and the sword would be like six-feet long. The handle wear he would place his hands would be like one and a half or two feet long, and the blade itself would be four feet long. It would have no hand guard on it, and the blade itself would be only a little thicker than a normal longsword, a little bit thicker then the handle itself, it'd be meant to be swung in wide sweeping strokes are lunging stabs. If you've ever played Dark Souls 2, and have seen the Ultra Greatsword, it'd look sort of like that but, much thinner and like a needle by comparison. It's not big or super thick, just ridiculously long.
That's pretty much a regular two-handed sword, minus the crossguard bit.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Zweihaender_im_historischen_Museum_Basel.JPG

Two-handers aren't that broad or heavy, around 2-3 kg typically. They do have some similarities with polearms, and very long grips. The crossguard is important to the fighting style (obviously all that stuff isn't there for no reason), but I suppose it's hardly required in D&D-style combat, so you can refluff that, and use the fighter's favourite 2d6 as normal. Your dexterity and finesse don't have to be reflected in the Weapon Finesse feat - it could also be reflected in Combat Reflexes.

[ATHATH]

Don't forget that there are Caster-Rogue Theurge-ish classes out there that you could probably qualify for with your Ranger spellcasting.

Don't forget Practiced Spellcaster to gain the CL that you'd miss out on because of your multiclassing.

[PunkManiak]

As to one-handing a two handed weapon, only thing off the top of my head is monkeygripping a large-sized thinblade and calling it a greatsword. From a crunch perspective, it's less about how you describe your super cool elf sword, and more about know what it does with dice.

It's really not meant to be one-handed, ever, it's my character's primary weapon, the other weapons, are ultimately just for utility, like ranged attacks or critical sneak attacks, but in real combat this will be his bread and butter, it's meant for quick slashing strikes, or piercing lunges. He will almost always be using this greatsword.

[Troacctid]

That sounds kind of like the jovar, from Planar Handbook. It's a giant sword with odd weighting similar to what you described, and basically functions as a Greatsword Plus, but it requires Exotic Weapon Proficiency.

[LudicSavant]

What about ice dance / song of the white raven Bards?

You want to be a drummer? Check.
Light armor? Good with finesse weapons? Durable in melee? Check.
You want powerful ice buff magic to supplement your main melee schtick? Check.
You want skill points and spells that make you a good hunter? Check.
Good with thrown weapons? Check.
You want a dance-like fighting style that's better than any Fighter? Check and check.

Get an icey dragonfire inspiration, get 9th level maneuvers and Song of the White Raven, get some lockdown dances, dredge up the good elemental bard abilities from splatbooks, and dance all over the corpses of any Fighter fool enough to think they're half the class you are in melee.

It's flavorful and optimized.

[Adrayll]

It's really not meant to be one-handed, ever, it's my character's primary weapon, the other weapons, are ultimately just for utility.

My mistake, misread the initial post. That said, if you're set on dex-based and finesse, look into the Elven Courtblade, or do like ExLibrisMortis said and just take a good ol' greatsword and eschew weapon finesse for some other flavorful feat.

[Ruethgar]

The Parry feat line is expensive, but works well in seeming more agile in combat and does rely on Combat Reflexes for a little Dex base.

[LudicSavant]

The thing is the kind of greatsword I have in mind isn't probably something the game has. It's not big thick and clunky, it would more closely resemble a pole-arm in some ways. The character I have in mind is going to be 6'6" or taller, and the sword would be like six-feet long. The handle wear he would place his hands would be like one and a half or two feet long, and the blade itself would be four feet long. It would have no hand guard on it, and the blade itself would be only a little thicker than a normal longsword, a little bit thicker then the handle itself, it'd be meant to be swung in wide sweeping strokes are lunging stabs. If you've ever played Dark Souls 2, and have seen the Ultra Greatsword, it'd look sort of like that but, much thinner and like a needle by comparison. It's not big or super thick, just ridiculously long.

Uhm... a 6-foot-long sword that's like a needle compared to Ultra Greatsword just sounds like... a regular sword, missing a crossguard.

A real life zweihander is about 6 feet long, thin, and maybe around 2-3 kilograms.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Battle_of_Kappel_detail.jpg

[Flickerdart]

What about ice dance / song of the white raven Bards?

Ooh yeah, Dragonfire Inspiration with a white dragon heritage would be a great fit for this. There's also a feat that lets you convert sneak attack dice to energy damage.

[PunkManiak]

What about ice dance / song of the white raven Bards?

You want to be a drummer? Check.
Light armor? Good with finesse weapons? Durable in melee? Check.
You want powerful ice buff magic to supplement your main melee schtick? Check.
You want skill points and spells that make you a good hunter? Check.
Good with thrown weapons? Check.
You want a dance-like fighting style that's better than any Fighter? Check and check.

Get an icey dragonfire inspiration, get 9th level maneuvers and Song of the White Raven, get some lockdown dances, dredge up the good elemental bard abilities from splatbooks, and dance all over the corpses of any Fighter fool enough to think they're half the class you are in melee.

It's flavorful and optimized.

Which class is this, I'm intrigued by it and swordsage, so I kind of want to look into it more, so I can make a choice.

[PunkManiak]

An additional question, would the race I have in mind be at all OP? It starts with a +2 to DEX and a +4 to CON, but a -2 to CHA. It's a race from 3.5e.

[DarkSoul]

As mentioned already, the Elven Courtblade matches the description of your 2h sword pretty closely. A thin blade, sharped all the way down one side, and 1/4 of the way from the tip back up the blade on the back side. It's a two-handed weapon that's usable with weapon finesse to use your dex modifier instead of strength on attack rolls. It also has the threat range of a scimitar, so making it keen or taking the improved critical feat for it gets deadly.

As far as the ice theme, everyone's made good suggestions so far. You could also look at duskblade into Abjurant Champion, or just a straight caster level or two. If you want to refluff your spells that's fine, but if the DM has an issue with it you can look at energy substitution (cold) for energy spells and Spell Thematics from the Player's Guide to Faerun and describe the changes mechanically.

[LudicSavant]

Which class is this, I'm intrigued by it and swordsage, so I kind of want to look into it more, so I can make a choice.

Bard, mixed with any ToB class (facilitated by the Song of the White Raven feat), and taking the many powerful melee and ice spells, feats, and items the Bard has strewn throughout splatbooks (Bards got a lot of significant power boosts in supplements).

[Troacctid]

An additional question, would the race I have in mind be at all OP? It starts with a +2 to DEX and a +4 to CON, but a -2 to CHA. It's a race from 3.5e.
Yes, those stat adjustments are well above par for a +0 LA race. Unless there's some other significant downside you haven't mentioned, it would be overpowered compared to the other races in 3.5e. Racial ability mods that sum to more than +0 are very rare, and +4 is almost unheard of—I think Lesser Aasimar is the only +4, and its bonuses are in relatively weak stats, and it's still widely considered overpowered. Your race is significantly better than Lesser Aasimar, even assuming it has no other racial abilities.


Which class is this, I'm intrigued by it and swordsage, so I kind of want to look into it more, so I can make a choice.
It would be a multiclass combination of Bard and either Crusader or Warblade, possibly including prestige classes as well.

Edit: Relevant feats:
-Dragonfire Inspiration: Inspire Courage adds +1d6 fire damage instead of +1 to attack and damage
-Draconic Heritage: Change the energy damage dealt by Dragonfire Inspiration.
-Song of the White Raven: Use Inspire Courage as a swift action and stack your Bard, Warblade, and Crusader levels together to determine its bonus.
-Snowflake Wardance: Spend a use of bardic music as a free action to add Charisma to attack rolls with melee weapons wielded in one hand, for a short duration.

You'll also want the Bladeweave spell to daze any opponent you hit in melee, and some other stuff I'm blanking on.

[PunkManiak]

I didn't mention that in addition to those stats and being immune to cold, he takes additional damage from fire and heat, I believe it's something of a critical weakness.

[Troacctid]

I didn't mention that in addition to those stats and being immune to cold, he takes additional damage from fire and heat, I believe it's something of a critical weakness.

Adding the cold subtype is a neutral to positive change for most characters. If anything it makes the race more powerful.

[PunkManiak]

Adding the cold subtype is a neutral to positive change for most characters. If anything it makes the race more powerful.

So it'd have to be modified in some other way otherwise it's OP? Any suggestions?

[LudicSavant]

It starts with a +2 to DEX and a +4 to CON, but a -2 to CHA. It's a race from 3.5e.

I cannot find this race in any 3.5e sourcebook.

[PunkManiak]

I cannot find this race in any 3.5e sourcebook.

It may have been someone's homebrew, I don't know.

I'd link it if I could, but look it up on the D&D wiki.

[LudicSavant]

It may have been someone's homebrew, I don't know.

I'd link it if I could, but look it up on the D&D wiki.

That is not from D&D 3.5e, it is homebrew.

[PunkManiak]

That is not from D&D 3.5e, it is homebrew.

Can you suggest any modifications I could make to avoid it being OP?

I'm thinking change the bonus to CON to +2. And changing it so they take double damage from fire and heat.

[LudicSavant]

Can you suggest any modifications I could make to avoid it being OP? Assuming you mean this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Elves,_Frost_%283.5e_Race%29) Frost Elf from D&D Wiki, it's already a weak race. I would recommend picking a stronger one.

[Ruethgar]

The cold subtype is a +1 level adjustment. The unbalanced stats are another +1. Almost no creatures without a level adjustment get boni in multiple physical stats without a deduction in the third, meaning that until that happens, it will be unbalanced and minimum LA +2 without any other racial abilities.

[PunkManiak]

Assuming you mean this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Elves,_Frost_%283.5e_Race%29) Frost Elf from D&D Wiki, it's already a weak race. I would recommend picking a stronger one.

I do, actually, how is it weak?

[Troacctid]

Can you suggest any modifications I could make to avoid it being OP?

I'm thinking change the bonus to CON to +2. And changing it so they take double damage from fire and heat.

+2 Dex, +2 Con, -2 Cha, -2 [Str, Wis, or Int] would be fair. Basically, make the total stat mods sum to +0 with no more than two points in either direction (so +2 or -2 to a stat is safe, but not +4 or -4), and you're PROBABLY okay in most cases. If the racial abilities are lackluster, you can sometimes go to +2 total, but be careful.

[PunkManiak]

The cold subtype is a +1 level adjustment. The unbalanced stats are another +1. Almost no creatures without a level adjustment get boni in multiple physical stats without a deduction in the third, meaning that until that happens, it will be unbalanced and minimum LA +2 without any other racial abilities.

Which is why I suggested reducing the CON bonus, to 2, maybe making the CHA penalty to 4, and increasing fire damage to double.

[LudicSavant]

I do, actually, how is it weak?

+1 level adjustment, nothing worthwhile in return.

[Ruethgar]

Which is why I suggested reducing the CON bonus, to 2, maybe making the CHA penalty to 4, and increasing fire damage to double.

Except that is still a bonus in 2 physical with no detriment to the third.

A Dragonblooded creature with the Draconic Aura: Frost Resist feat gets scaling frost resist for he and his party, it isn't immunity, but it is easier to work with than homebrewing a race.

There is also the shuffle trick. Get two scrolls of Familiar Form(3rd level wizard spell), a scroll of Elemental Familiar(again 3rd level wizard), and two familiars(Extra Familiar feat has no prerequisites). Elemental Familiar yourself if you don't mind the Int drop, or Elemental Familar your familiar and then take over their mind. This leaves you as an air or water elemental creature and can tag of Orglash via ritual. Technically no level adjustment or classes required, though obviously starting Wizard, Sorcerer, or UMD specialist helps and then Rebuild and Retrain away the class and the Extra Familiars to whatever you want.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Which is why I suggested reducing the CON bonus, to 2, maybe making the CHA penalty to 4, and increasing fire damage to double.
Don't change the fire damage thing; first of all, it's out of line with other [cold]-subtype creatures, and second, it's still a weakness that can be covered by one immunity.

If you want to play a snow elf, there's one in Frostburn, +2 dex/-2 cha and otherwise regular elf traits. You can also look at the Arctic template and UA's environmental racial variants.

[PunkManiak]

Don't change the fire damage thing; first of all, it's out of line with other [cold]-subtype creatures, and second, it's still a weakness that can be covered by one immunity.

If you want to play a snow elf, there's one in Frostburn, +2 dex/-2 cha and otherwise regular elf traits. You can also look at the Arctic template and UA's environmental racial variants.

I like your idea, I think I'll go with it, hopefully there's no level adjust.

[LudicSavant]

I do, actually, how is it weak?

Elaborating on my previous post:

Your initial comments referred to a Frost Elf race (which is not an official 3.5e race available in any 3.5e supplement), so people didn't know what you were talking about, and the information you gave them regarding the race was incomplete. Notably, you did not mention what is quite possibly the most important weakness the race has: It has a +1 LA. Other posters were evaluating its power assuming the benefits were free. I suspect those posts would have said something different if they were aware that they were talking about a race with LA.

Snow elves (from Frostburn) are generally better than regular PHB elves... unless you want to be a class that's reliant on Charisma, like a Bard, in which case you kinda just break even.

[PunkManiak]

Elaborating on my previous post:

Your initial comments referred to a Frost Elf race (which is not an official 3.5e race available in any 3.5e supplement), so people didn't know what you were talking about, and the information you gave them regarding the race was incomplete. Notably, you did not mention what is quite possibly the most important weakness the race has: It has a +1 LA. Other posters were evaluating its power assuming the benefits were free.

Snow elves (from Frostburn) are generally better than regular PHB elves... unless you want to be a class that's reliant on Charisma, like a Bard, in which case you kinda just break even.

I'm thinking that making it a multi-class bard and swordsage, like the other people were describing if I can do it right. I want to make the character a good warrior and hunter with some secondary spells and such for debuffing enemies.

[LudicSavant]

I'm thinking that making it a multi-class bard and swordsage, like the other people were describing if I can do it right. I want to make the character a good warrior and hunter with some secondary spells and such for debuffing enemies.

If you're looking for advice on a race to choose besides Frost Elf, I would be much better at making recommendations for you if I knew what exactly you wanted out of a race.

If all you want is something strong, here are some examples of higher tier LA 0 choices: Human (yep, the regular PHB human is one of the best races), Whisper Gnome, Strongheart Halfling, Deep Dwarf, Warforged, Lesser Aasimar, Lesser Tiefling, Elan.

If you have some specific flavor in mind (such as "I definitely want to be some variety of elf"), I could give more specific suggestions.

[PunkManiak]

If you're looking for advice on a race to choose besides Frost Elf, I would be much better at making recommendations for you if I knew what exactly you wanted out of a race.

If all you want is something strong, here are some examples of higher tier LA 0 choices: Human (yep, the regular PHB human is one of the best races), Whisper Gnome, Strongheart Halfling, Deep Dwarf, Warforged, Lesser Aasimar, Lesser Tiefling, Elan.

If you have some specific flavor in mind (such as "I definitely want to be some variety of elf"), I could give more specific suggestions.

Not really something I would want, the character I want pretty much must be a elf, ice subtype. It's an elf with some inspiration from the mythological figure of Jack Frost, so he pretty much will have to be a Frost Elf.

[LudicSavant]

Not really something I would want, the character I want pretty much must be a elf, ice subtype. It's an elf with some inspiration from the mythological figure of Jack Frost, so he pretty much will have to be a Frost Elf.

If the cold subtype is required, then LibrisMortis's suggestions don't work, because the Snow Elf and Arctic Elf races do not have the cold subtype.

[PunkManiak]

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Jack-Frost-147923896

This is basically, an idea of how he would look hair-style and skin color as well as build. So he pretty much has to be a Frost Elf.

[Troacctid]

I'm thinking that making it a multi-class bard and swordsage, like the other people were describing if I can do it right. I want to make the character a good warrior and hunter with some secondary spells and such for debuffing enemies.

The Bard version requires Warblade or Crusader, not Swordsage. Swordsages don't get White Raven maneuvers, and won't stack with Bard levels for Inspire Courage. You could theoretically get a White Raven maneuver from a feat, but in practice, you simply won't have enough feat slots to do so. Bards are very feat-hungry, especially if they're trying to gish.

[PunkManiak]

The Bard version requires Warblade or Crusader, not Swordsage. Swordsages don't get White Raven maneuvers, and won't stack with Bard levels for Inspire Courage. You could theoretically get a White Raven maneuver from a feat, but in practice, you simply won't have enough feat slots to do so. Bards are very feat-hungry, especially if they're trying to gish.

For this character the most important things are the greatsword, sneak attacks, and ranged ability with throwing knives, he's a hunter and survivalist from the tundra, the spells are mostly just for fluff maybe the occasional combat debuff on enemies and buffing my own weapon, the drumming is just for making cash when in cities. Which would be the best fit for those specifics? The skinning knife and throwing knives are for killing and hunting game. The greatsword is for real trouble like bears, snow tigers, or Giants.

[Zanos]

I would make a Mystic Ranger with the Sword of the Arcane Order feat to pick up some wizard ice spells. Gets d8 hd, wizard casting progression up to 10th level, and ranger spells. You can use some of the better wizard buffs on yourself like polymorph, alter self, greater magic weapon, shield, etc. to buff yourself for melee combat, and maybe use no save spells like solid fog, sleet storm, ice storm, or freezing fog on enemies.

Ability score arrangement is going to be hard. You want to do well in melee with a two handed weapon which will require high strength, and also be pretty agile which requires high dex, and being able to cast spells that are hard to resist will take int/wis. And you need constitution to not die. It's viable depending on what method you use to generate ability scores. I recommend getting the bare minimum int/wis to cast your spells and just using spells without saving throws and buffs, as I mentioned above.

I would recommend not taking dex all that high and using the Brutal Throw feat to add your strength score to your attack rolls with thrown weapons. At some point you can either dip a level into swordsage and pick up Assassins Stance for 2d6 sneak attack, or spend a feat on martial study to get it.

Drumming is handled pretty easily by just having any ranks in Perform(Whatever).
A good number of ranks in the Survival skill will handle surviving in most environments, surprisingly.

[PunkManiak]

I would make a Mystic Ranger with the Sword of the Arcane Order feat to pick up some wizard ice spells. Gets d8 hd, wizard casting progression up to 10th level, and ranger spells. You can use some of the better wizard buffs on yourself like polymorph, alter self, greater magic weapon, shield, etc. to buff yourself for melee combat, and maybe use no save spells like solid fog, sleet storm, ice storm, or freezing fog on enemies.

Ability score arrangement is going to be hard. You want to do well in melee with a two handed weapon which will require high strength, and also be pretty agile which requires high dex, and being able to cast spells that are hard to resist will take int/wis. And you need constitution to not die. It's viable depending on what method you use to generate ability scores. I recommend getting the bare minimum int/wis to cast your spells and just using spells without saving throws and buffs, as I mentioned above.

I would recommend not taking dex all that high and using the Brutal Throw feat to add your strength score to your attack rolls with thrown weapons. At some point you can either dip a level into swordsage and pick up Assassins Stance for 2d6 sneak attack, or spend a feat on martial study to get it.

Drumming is handled pretty easily by just having any ranks in Perform(Whatever).
A good number of ranks in the Survival skill will handle surviving in most environments, surprisingly.

I'm thinking a swordsage is what I'll be going for, fighting with a greatsword will be the preference, but it's going to be a finesse greatsword so STR won't be as big a deal, however since he will be in the thick of it, with fully armored warriors, having a high AC, movement speed, and probably the parry feat will be big priorities. The other weapons are mostly just for utility's sake and the occasional sneak attack critical. The spells are mostly just going to be fluff and to further illustrate his natural affinity for frost and cold.

[Thurbane]

There's also Daring Outlaw, as a Swashbuckler/Rogue.

Or to take a more convoluted path, Binder (to get Paimon)/Scout/anything that gives or boosts Sudden Strike/Knight of the Sacred Seal. If you do it right, you shouldn't lose too much BAB, and if you can grab a decent movement rate with items etc., once every 5 rounds (or every 4 with the right feat) Dance of Death will let you sudden strike a whole bunch of enemies. BUt I'm not sure that's really what you're looking for...

[Troacctid]

For this character the most important things are the greatsword, sneak attacks, and ranged ability with throwing knives, he's a hunter and survivalist from the tundra, the spells are mostly just for fluff maybe the occasional combat debuff on enemies and buffing my own weapon, the drumming is just for making cash when in cities. Which would be the best fit for those specifics? The skinning knife and throwing knives are for killing and hunting game. The greatsword is for real trouble like bears, snow tigers, or Giants.
I'd lean towards Swordsage, possibly with a dip in Wilderness Rogue to get the class skills you want. Swordsage pretty much does everything you're looking for all by itself, so it's a very elegant solution, except it doesn't have Survival or Perform as class skills. Wilderness Rogue is an efficient way to pick those up.


At some point you can either dip a level into swordsage and pick up Assassins Stance for 2d6 sneak attack, or spend a feat on martial study to get it.
That would be two levels--you can only select 1st level stances at Swordsage 1--or the Martial Stance feat.