Arcane Gish options

[danielxcutter]

So Eldritch Knight, Abjurant Champion, Knight Phantom, and Jade Pheonix Mage are often recommended for arcane gishes on this board - are there any other options which you can hit the benchmark with and take it all the way?

[lylsyly]

Duskblade from PHB II, can be good to take all twenty levels in (although you are only getting up to 5th level spells), you get channeling, couple of other nice class features (such as SLA detect magic and read magic X/day).

Okay I said, now they will come to get me ;)

Pulling a Wizard into the Swiftblade PRC (web) can be good too. Handbook here (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=333.0).

Also, there is this. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?321715-The-Gish-Handbook) (Gish Handbook)

[Aetis]

Battle Sorcerer variant 19 and a level in class with good bab also hits +16 BAB and 9th level casting by lv 20.

[Flickerdart]

9 levels in Swiftblade (or 10 levels in Swiftblade if you don't want nines) are a pretty good option.

[A_S]

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?278101-3-5-Gish-Party!)'s an old thread of mine about putting together a party of unusual arcane gishes.

Level splits included:

Duskblade 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Warrior Skald 1/Sublime Chord 1/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 2/Legacy Champion 6
Bard 7/Crusader 1/Warblade 1/Druid 1/Sublime Chord 2/Fochlucan Lyrist 8
Ranger 1/Human Paragon 3/Wizard 2/Unseen Seer 8/Abjurant Champion 5

Might be worth taking a look at for ideas.

[Fouredged Sword]

I like Wizard 6 / Ruthar 3 / Abjurant Champion 4 / Initiate of the Seven Fold Veil 7

You lose no spellcasting levels and end up with decent BAB, great ability to throw down in melee, and some of the best defensive abilities you can ask for.

[Troacctid]

Complete list of arcane gish prestige classes sorted by BAB and HD (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1geywITbI4M-Up08SGD-rUHlnobR66aIgKqu7mILkmhU/edit#gid=691970088&fvid=1136630758)

I'll give a shout-out to Havoc Mage, an underappreciated gish class that just straight-up lets you cast any spell and make a weapon attack simultaneously, any number of times per day. It's not full casting or full BAB, so it often gets overlooked, but the ability it gives you is very nice.

[Flickerdart]

Complete list of arcane gish prestige classes sorted by BAB and HD (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1geywITbI4M-Up08SGD-rUHlnobR66aIgKqu7mILkmhU/edit#gid=691970088&fvid=1136630758)

I'll give a shout-out to Havoc Mage, an underappreciated gish class that just straight-up lets you cast any spell and make a weapon attack simultaneously, any number of times per day. It's not full casting or full BAB, so it often gets overlooked, but the ability it gives you is very nice.

Sadly, the deal is "as a full-round action make 1 attack and cast 1 spell" which is quite a bit inferior to the duskblade's "make a full attack and everyone you hit eats spell."

It also only goes up to 8ths, which is a shame, but not all gishes will even get nines. This may give the havoc mage a place in a swiftblade build.

[Troacctid]

Sadly, the deal is "as a full-round action make 1 attack and cast 1 spell" which is quite a bit inferior to the duskblade's "make a full attack and everyone you hit eats spell."
Duskblade is also a. melee attacks only, b. touch spells only, and c. only gets the spell on a hit. Havoc Mage works with any spell and any weapon, and gets the spell regardless of the result of the attack.

[Flickerdart]

Sure, but the duskblade gets a huge force multiplier out of his, and havoc mage basically gets an attack as a move action when he casts a spell. It's certainly an asset, but it's not really in the same ballpark.

[Troacctid]

Sure, if you take thirteen levels of Duskblade. Which means you're committed to channeling dinky little Duskblade spells like Shocking Grasp, Ghoul Touch, and Dispelling Touch. Meanwhile, the Havoc Mage is working with spells like Wall of Force, Greater Invisibility, Disintegrate, Mass Suggestion, Polymorph, Telekinesis, Dominate Person, and Resilient Sphere. So, like, I agree that they're not in the same class, but I think we disagree on which one is outclassing the other.

[Thurbane]

If you can wrangle the reqs, Hexer is decent (full casting, fall BAB, neat curses, and add 5 spells to your spell list).

Neanderthal Sorcerer 6/Ruathar 3/Dragonslayer 1/Hexer 10, for example., using Southern Magician to meet the Hexer casting reqs.

BAB +16, full casting, martial weapon and heavy armor proficiency, 5 bonus spells known, and hexing to boot.