Pure Caster as Gish early levels

[magicalmagicman]

I want to go a Pure Caster (like sorcerer 20 with PrCs of course) but I want to be a gish at the early levels.

To clarify, early levels I am a gish (Up to level 5 minimum, hopefully upto level 10), later levels I am a pure caster.

So I need some tips on feats, spell selection, and equipment. I figure mage armor + shield combo should be enough AC early on, and you stack debuffs on top of that.

1 Flaw is allowed.

I was thinking about starting with mage armor, shield and flare at level 1 and grab grease and glitterdust later.

25 Point Buy
Human
STR 11
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 8
CHA 14

Should I burn 2 feats on weapon finesse + weapon proficiency Rapier? Because of my low str I probably will have to spend most of my gold on a shocking/flaming rapier at the start.

[Gildedragon]

Luminous armor is better than mage armor. If you can change human into athasian human you can instead get the psionic armor which rocks.
With low str you may consider some shadow hand abilities to give Dex to damage. Get a feycraft shortsword instead. Or elven thin blade (which iirc counts as shortsword for almost everything)

Edit: nvm, luminous armor on sorcerer ain't kosher

Also what are you using for your martial side of the gish?
Edit: nvm. Though for a sorcerer changing build focus is... Difficult. While you're gishing you probably have most spells boosting your gishiness, which means you will have to swap them out later on, ditto for feats. If you want to gish early on and then change into something else: wizard is probably better, as you can just research non gishy spells while you level up and then change what spells you are prepping

[magicalmagicman]

Luminous armor is better than mage armor. If you can change human into athasian human you can instead get the psionic armor which rocks.
With low str you may consider some shadow hand abilities to give Dex to damage. Get a feycraft shortsword instead. Or elven thin blade (which iirc counts as shortsword for almost everything)

Edit: nvm, luminous armor on sorcerer ain't kosher

Also what are you using for your martial side of the gish?

I chose human because of the feat bonus AND skill point bonus. I need to be able to max 4 skill points. Does athasian human do the samething?

What do you mean martial side?

[Gildedragon]

I chose human because of the feat bonus AND skill point bonus. I need to be able to max 4 skill points. Does athasian human do the samething?

What do you mean martial side?

Yes and more. It does have +1 LA though. But just for the armor alone it might be worth it.
Still... Gishing early blasting late... See my previous post. Gish is resource intensive. Sorcerers are resource limited.

[magicalmagicman]

Yes and more. It does have +1 LA though. But just for the armor alone it might be worth it.
Still... Gishing early blasting late... See my previous post. Gish is resource intensive. Sorcerers are resource limited.

+1 LA is unacceptable. Sorcerer's are already 1 level behind wizards. I'm going sorcerers because of a lot of noncombat reasons.

I'm not going blasting late. Late game I always go planar binding focused, which is powerful, which is why I have a lot of leeway. Doesn't matter what kind of spellcaster you are (blaster, BFC, gish) because planar binding will ensure you won't be useless. In this case though, I'm thinking getting buff and debuff spells will allow me to be both a gish and a BFC, at least in the early levels, after all once I hit level 8 polymorph is gonna make me too awesome to be weak/useless.

Feycraft is intriguing, so is the shadow stuff. Researching that right now. I'll probably go short swords.

[ATHATH]

Go for a Trap Expert Arcane Hunter Spiritual Connection Planar Shapechanging Mystic Ranger 2/Shooting Star Ranger Substitution Levels 2/Mystic Ranger X (that sounds complicated, but it's really just a bunch of ACF's that swap out stuff you don't need for minor bonuses (the Mystic Ranger part is important, though)), take the Sword of the Arcane Order feat and a level of Heartfire Fanner, then jump into Sublime Chord. You have Full BAB and access to the Ranger and Sorc/Wiz (after you take the SotAO feat) lists at low levels, then switch to being a Sorcerer+ after you start taking levels in Sublime Chord.