Gish Sorcerer build help spells or other sugestions

[xshot40]

So Im building a Gish thats all sorcerer in 3.5
race
human
class:
Battle sorcerer from unearthed arcana for 1d8 hit die, medium bab, and one martial weapon
costs 1 spell slot of each level and one spell known each level
alternative features:
Stalwart sorcerer from complete mage for +2 hp every level, and another martial weapon and weapon specialization
costs 1 spell known of highest known
spell shield from dungeonscape as it lets me burn spell slots to absorb more damage
costs familiar
Feats
spell rehearsal because ill only know a few spells so the bonus will come into effect much more often than it would for others
combat casting because in melee a lot

looking for advice on spells to take and prestige classes other than abjurant champion because thats a given also any other advice or thoughts you might have

[Gruftzwerg]

Feats:

The Spell Rehearsal feat is not a good choice for a gish character. A gish focuses on buff spells, while the feat focuses spells targeted at enemies (those spells are typically avoided by gish).

Combat Casting is not worth the feat, since its value diminishes hard on later levels. (unless you need it for a PRC or only need an early game build)

Imho as Sorcerer your feats are mostly determined by the PRC(s?) you want to enter.
There are many many options to chose from. The question is, what your build wants to specialize in?
- Do you want your buffs to last all day long? (24h duration with a build focused on Persisted Spell)
- Do you wanna specialize in form changing spells?
- Or maybe you aim for action economy? (quickening spells, many swift action spells in general, maybe Persisted Arcane Spellsurge?)
- Do you want (persisted) Divine Power (a cleric spell, thus harder to get as Sorcerer)?

You should specify what you are looking for. And we need to know how "optimized" it should be. We can easily tailor something that might/will be to much for your DM handle. So.. there is that problem..^^
Telling us what your teammates are intending to play might give us insight about the power scale at your table.

[MultitudeMan]

Have you seen The Gish Handbook (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?321715-The-Gish-Handbook)? Lots of good feat and PrC recommendations there, though some will depend on the spells you select, and as Gruftzwerg points out, you need to consider the power level at the table.

[Paragon]

So Im building a Gish thats all sorcerer in 3.5, looking for advice on spells to take and prestige classes other than abjurant champion because thats a given also any other advice or thoughts you might have

Hey there.
I've recently built a Gish sorcerer build (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bQFPTifpuI2YQvv_lR3LYdvIRK1vJSpNrR8sigDDve0/edit?usp=sharing) and here is the 1 - 20 build.
It holds a few things you might find really interesting.
1) The Stalwart Sorcerer Trick (explained in Notes)
2) Spelldancer : this PrC allows you to persist buffs which, as suggested above, are the gish's bread & butter.
3) the feat Divine Sorcery (Dragon Magazine) to get access to the the infamous Divine Power

Finally I opted to get into Binder because I wanted to bind Paimon and have a real "Dancing" feeling to this char but you're free to ignore this ofc.

[Morphic tide]

You might get some good value out of Crusader or Warblade to qualify for Jade Phoenix Mage, letting you skip out on more of the standards by having some Initiating to cover combat needs. Battle Sorcerer 4/Crusader 1 qualifies for Spellsword (requires +4 BAB, 2nd level spells, 6 ranks Knowledge: Arcana, defeating somebody without any spellcasting, and proficiency with all Simple and Martial weapons and all armor), which is quite useful here because it reduces Arcane Spell Failure, gives Bonus Feats that work for Metamagic or Fighter applications, and at 4th level you can spend a Move action to load a spell into your melee weapon of choice.

Oh, and there's not a single restriction on what spell you can load, though it only affects the target hit. Any spell you can cast, you can burn the appropriate slot as a Move Action to put it in. This means you can load an Empowered Fireball, or whatever pile-of-d6-Evocation you like, in lieu of a Full Attack, completely ignoring that normally you'd have to spend a Full Round Action to cast a metamagic'd spell. A sane DM would correct the apparent bypass of material components (being as how you don't actually cast the spell, so there's a bit of a blank), but entirely as intended it's still a very good take for the point of BAB you need to qualify for Abjurant Champion, and may actually be worth the two lost caster levels to get it (at 2nd and 4th, the first level costs no casting).

Arcane Fusion and its Greater version are a must, they let you cast two spells on one Standard Action (1st and 4th or lower for a 5th-level slot, 4th or lower and 7th or lower for an 8th level slot), which is pretty important to a Gish by making buff routines a whole lot easier to work with. Of note, you cannot metamagic reduce to apply Persistent Spell, as Arcane Fusion itself is Instantaneous and thus an invalid target. By the way it's written, it does seem you can apply the likes of Empower once to have it work on both, which may prove worthwhile for the 5th-level version.

If you want to play a Gish, I'd suggest against Spell Rehearsal because it's mainly intended for round after round of Evocations and you can't make attacks in between.

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I am always a big fan of a few metamagic feats at higher levels, a quicken spell at level 18, you can sling out a quick buff and still attack that round. Quicken spell pairs nicely with still spell, making melee casting easier.

Eldritch Knight is good for a few levels, since you can increase your BaB along with full casting.

If you wanna go Metamagic, Incantatrix works wonders, especially for getting more of them. And if you can't stay for 10 levels, at level 5, the ability to apply metamagic to spell trigger items is amazing, especially because you should have plenty of those as a Gish

I recommend picking a good, spam-able, attacking spell, and taking arcane thesis, practical metamagic, and picking out some metamagic to give it, since this combo arguably decreases the level of +2 to +0. I like an empowered fireball, you can get the equivalent of 12d6 fire damage at level 6 (+2 CL from thesis makes 8d6, +4d6 damage again with empower)

A "Bloodstone" Weapon, ideally a reach weapon, can get you around 15d6 temporary hp at level 20. Vampiric touch should be a staple for any good surprise round. Even at lower levels, with arcane thesis, you can get approximately 6d6 worth of temp hp at 6th level (+2cl thesis makes 4d6, +2d6 from the free empower). That can almost double your hp.

A good option is to dip 4 levels in a melee prestige (or just fighter) and take practiced spellcaster, which will earn you back 4 CL, but you miss out on spell progression, but that shouldn't matter as much, especially if you're going to higher levels.

[Seward]

With that setup.

Whirling blade, and eventually feat support for quicken and/or twin spell. Plus all the metamagic time and level reducing stuff.

it's a fair balance between doing physical damage, area damage and range.

Becoming a scorching ray specialist can be pretty effective at single target damage that can scale well into the teens with good feat support, but it's actually easier to do as wizard because you don't need fighter feats, you need metamagic feats to make it work. Any damage spell with a save is problematic for a gish, as you tend to spend attribute points elsewhere than cranking your spellcasting stat to max possible. Whirling blade does benefit from a higher casting stat, but works fine with a moderate one (as high as your best physical stat, or a bit higher) and benefits from all your fighter feats.