How to make and play a Gish

[Baby Gary]

Hi All,
I am going to DM an adventure soon and one of my players wants to play an arcane gish. I know how to make and play pure martial characters and pure casters, but not in between.

specs of campaign (as much as I can say, lol)
level: 1
ability scores: 28 pb
sources: all 3.5 and drag mag must be cleared case by case (also I can veto anything)
flaws: 2, but must be good and actually effect character (as sever or more than noncombatant and shaky, which is -2 to melee and ranged attacks respectively)
traits: 1

This player is rather new to the game and I would like this character to be a) competent, I don't know yet what the other players are, but I told them not to do that much optimization, we were in our previous game and it wasn't that fun, and b) relatively easy to play, so not a lot of odd mechanics or hard to understand things.

I am currently thinking of sorcadin into Abjurant Champion, using mage armor and shield for AC, also possibly trying to get my hands on Greater Luminous Armor, even though it is divine. The other thing I am thinking of is Duskblade.

So what should I do, with the build and playstyle?

Thanks
-Baby Gary

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Sorcadin should be fine, make it Paladin 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Exorcist 8 for the final build.

Luminous Armor is a sanctified spell, it's neither arcane nor divine, but you must be able to prepare spells to cast it. A Sorcerer can take the feat Arcane Preparation to be able to use sanctified spells.

I'd probably have him go Lesser Aasimar (PGtF, no level adjustment) Dragonborn of Bahamut (RotD) for total ability score adjustments of Dex -2, Con +2, Wis +2, Cha +2. With 28-pointbuy, I'd give him Str 16, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 16 after racial adjustments. Throw on the Spark/Magic-Blooded template in Dragon 306 p64 for an additional Wis -2, Cha +2 for no additional level adjustment. Use the Heart aspect to get a breath attack.

For flaws, I'd pick from Weak-Willed, No Time For Book Learning (Dragon 328 p93), Love of Nature (Dragon 324 p93), and Bravado (Dragon 328 p44).

He should start out taking the Paladin levels first, then the Sorcerer levels. He'll want Power Attack and Combat Reflexes at 1st level, along with Entangling Exhalation (RoTD). He'll need to take Combat Casting at 3rd or 6th level, and he'll want Practiced Spellcaster and Arcane Preparation for sure. Give him some decent medium armor and a glaive at 1st level.

When he starts gaining the Sorcerer levels he should continue wearing armor and only pick spells with no somatic components which don't suffer from arcane spell failure. For example:
1st: Benign Transposition, Power Word: Pain, True Strike, Feather Fall, Lesser Orb of (energy type), Swift Expeditious Retreat
2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Swift Fly, Escalating Enfeeblement, Sonic Weapon

Once he gets to Spellsword 1 he can replace his current armor with Mithral Breastplate, which will give him only a 5% chance of spell failure. At this point he'll want to start picking up must-have spells like Shield, Wraithstrike, Wings of Cover, Haste, Polymorph, etc. He should get a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend and a Rod of Bodily Restoration (MIC) before he starts casting Luminous Armor, don't even bother with Mage Armor. I'd probably pick up Arcane Preparation at 9th level, that way he'll have two Abjurant Champion levels to bonus both Shield and Luminous Armor.

As he gains levels of Abjurant Champion he should work on replacing low level spells that he only picked because they have no somatic components. The ones worth keeping are Benign Transposition and Blindness/Deafness. The others can be replaced with low-level buffs (Protection from Evil, Alter Self) and/or efficient crowd controls that can be used with a Circlet of Rapid Casting (MIC) (Web, Glitterdust, Wall of Smoke) and/or utility spells (Alarm, Rope Trick). Also be sure to pick up Blinding Breath (SC), which makes both Blindness/Deafness and partially Glitterdust redundant, and he should avoid redundant spells.

[Baby Gary]

For the paladin would he be better off with a regular paladin or a paladin of freedom?

also thanks for your ideas, that will really help.

edit:
what does sacred exorcist give to the build? they have full casting progression and 3/4 BAB, not spectacular, but still good. Am I missing anything?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

For the paladin would he be better off with a regular paladin or a paladin of freedom?

also thanks for your ideas, that will really help.

edit:
what does sacred exorcist give to the build? they have full casting progression and 3/4 BAB, not spectacular, but still good. Am I missing anything?

Regular Paladin or Paladin of Freedom would work equally well, it just depends on whether he wants to play a lawful or chaotic character.

Sacred Exorcist gives Turn Undead, which he can use to power divine feats like Law Devotion (another reason to go LG Paladin), Animal Devotion, Travel Devotion, Divine Might, etc. It's also the only class that can be used to bring this build to +16 BAB and 9th level spells by 20th level. Any alternatives will either fall short of getting +16 BAB, or they'll fall short of getting 9th level spells. Keep in mind that once Sacred Exorcist gives the Dispel Evil spell-like ability, he won't need to know Dismissal any more since it satisfies its own prerequisite.

[Mike Miller]

Duskblade is a gish-in-a-can option, so it is much simpler. If the multiclassing turns off your player from an in-character perspective, duskblade is an easy gish to play.

[Anthrowhale]

It's also the only class that can be used to bring this build to +16 BAB and 9th level spells by 20th level.

Halfling whistler (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061121a) and Unseen Seer are two good alternates which provide skill access.

[TotallyNotEvil]

Problem with Sorcadin is that this is tarting at level one.

You really want to do one at level 6 or so, minimum, otherwise leveling will be fairly painful.

You also need excellent stats (three 16s at least, for STR/CON/CHA).

If you can't at least get some kickass stats to make use of the more potent sorcerer casting and Divine Grace, I'd recommend going Duskblade.

It's not as fancy, but it works, and it works well.

[Kayden Prynn]

You may be happy with the sorcadin build proposed, but you did say low to mid optimization, in which case +16/9s is probably a little more than is necessary, especially for a new player. I would recommend Duskblade to keep things simpler. It's a gish in a can, it doesn't require multiclassing, and, as someone else said, sorcadin isn't ideal when starting from level 1.

Oh, or if your party is going really low-op, they could also just go straight hexblade.

[Kurald Galain]

This player is rather new to the game and I would like this character to be a) competent, I don't know yet what the other players are, but I told them not to do that much optimization, we were in our previous game and it wasn't that fun, and b) relatively easy to play, so not a lot of odd mechanics or hard to understand things.
For a new player, don't start him out with a combination of multiple prestige classes that'll pay off at some high level that your campaign may or may not reach. Give him either a Duskblade or a Magus and stick to that class.

[Gruftzwerg]

Clawlocks are imho the most simple to play gishes. The invocation buffs they can get mostly last 24h so they don't need to cast em at the start of the fight.
Sure the magical abilities are somewhat limited compared to regular "caster" classes but maybe that's the simplicity you are looking for.
You can find a high optimized clawlock build in my signature. Feel free to tune it down to your optimization lvl (a lot can be done by denying specific dmg increasing items to tune the dmg down).

Other than that I would suggest a gish in a can like Duskblade as others have suggested already.

[Rebel7284]

If you don't expect your campaign to go much beyond level 10, I think the best gish-in-a-can is Mystic Ranger from Dragon Magazine #336 page 105 combined with Sword of the Arcane Order feat.

You get:
- Full BAB
- Great skills
- Casting progression as fast as a sorcerer starting with Ranger spells, but soon getting Wizard spells.
- Option to also go Wildshape Ranger and get limited Wildshape too!

[Eldariel]

The big problem with playing Gish from level 1 is that unless you play Duskblade/Magus/etc. (thus gimping yourself down the line), you'll get to actually play your intended style only down the line. Arcane gishes generally really pick up around level 7-8 and start to really pull ahead compared to martials around ~10-11. There is, however, an exception to this. If your stats are good, a Wizard can fight from level 1 just fine. 28pb is pretty brutal, but it's doable. BAB isn't really important before level 6-7 by which point spells take over.

It's not necessarily easy to play but I'd suggest being a Conjurer, and picking Abrupt Jaunt. Put some stats into Strength. Let's see what we can do. 28pb is pretty low for a Gish but it's still not horrible. Lesser Tiefling (Player's Guide to Faerun) or Fire Elf (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#fireElf) are good races, but for PRC entry you need Human. You could go:
16 Str (10 points)
14 Dex (6 points)
14 Con (6 points)
14 Int (6 points)
8 Wis
8 Cha

With Lesser Tiefling/Fire Elf this would put you at 16 Str, 16 Dex, 12/14 Con, 16 Int, 8 Wis, 6 Cha. That would not be horrible. Human would have to go 14/14/14/16/8/8, probably. You do want at least 16 Int. Human could use feats like Knowledge Devotion (if your DM handwaves the requirement; otherwise pick it up on level 3), Combat Expertise/Improved Trip and company to help out. You should definitely pick up Militia [Player's Guide to Faerun] though the Elves get racial proficiencies. These stats are from level 1; down the line Polymorph would of course make that redundant. Anyways, reach weapon (Guisarme is the best, but Lance, Longbow & co. have their uses too), charges, in general attacks, use Enlarge Person and Mage Armor and particularly on Abrupt Jaunt for defense. That would work, particularly down the line but from level 1. Other spells like Fists of Stone, Benign Transposition, Blades of Blood, etc. could also be quite optimal (all in Spell Compendium). Could also prepare one Color Spray or Grease for actual offensive casting. Ban Evocation/Necromancy and Enchantment - you won't have slots for those anyways.

Down the line, Wizard 6/Eldritch Knight 2/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight -> Militia qualifies you so you're good to go. Early on, Wizard BAB is competitive and with your Con and Abrupt Jaunt (level 2 gives False Life also, a good reason not to ban Necromancy), you can easily be the most durable member of the party.