Dragon-themed gish

[Condé]

Hello, dear people of Giantitp.

Funnily enough, a thread titled "Dragonic themed sorcerer" came just before I post this one. It is like Dragon are popular or something.

I'll be concise this time. I want to make a gish character... With dragon flavor! I know the Gish Handbook (Great stuff) and already checked ALL classes that are Dragon-related. I mean, officials ones. (Races of the Dragons, Draconomicons, etc...) I checked the list of stuff, X to Y things, some Iron Chef (the Dragon Disciple edition for example) to get ideas, but hey are a bit too "cheesy" for my taste.




What I'm trying to achieve:
Build a melee with some breath weapon. (Being a dragonborn should help)

Some few rules, because we do not accept everything at my tables and I'm a bit picky:
- No too much dipping. One class or two into a PrC should be good
- No Dragon Shaman, no Dragonfire Adept (Already played one), no PHB2 (Bye-bye Duskblade)
- Most BAB possible
- Don't really care about the 9th spell benchmark.
- No cheese/dubious entry.

Any thought?

I mean, a Dragonborn fighter could fit the bill, but it is not really exciting...


---- Random things ----
Some other things, just because I like them:

Dragon Samurai was interesting until I noticed it was not even a Full BAB class... For some reasons. But one of the few to upgrade a dragon breath and not overlapping an existing one.

Initiate of the draconic Mysteries was looking good. But I don't really see for what it is... I mean... Unarmed strike? Sure, but why? 3/4 Bab, noupgrade for monk feature or sorcerer caster level so can't even think about entering as an ascetic mage.

Dragon Devotee or Hand of the Winged Masters, for a Swift hunter, maybe?


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BONUS QUESTION:

I know an almost complete list of all classes/prestige classes that gives or progress spellcasting exist. (Thanks Troacctid) BUT... Does a list of all prestige classes giving full BAB exist?

[Nihilarian]

There's probably quite a few spells that function as/give you a breath weapon. Being spells they could qualify for some fun stuff. One in particular lets you teleport somewhere into the area, combine that with shadow pounce for a gishy feel.

Also off the top of my head:
Diamond Dragon for the psionic gish
Draconic Soulmelds

[nedz]

Select a Dragonblood race, e.g. Silverbrow human
Use any old Sorcerer based Gish build — there are several around.
Take the 1st Dragonblood Sorcerer Substitution Level (RotD 107) — don't bother with the other levels, you'll probably be PrCing out anyway. This swaps your familiar for Draconic Heritage.
Take the Draconic Breath Feat (RotD or CArc).
Now you can swap out any spell slots for a 2d6/SL breath weapon.

[Gorthawar]

I've messed around with dragon devotee in a number of skirmish builds but they tend to involve a fair few dips.

A fairly straightforward one could be scout 1/paladin of freedom 4/ dragon devotee 4/unseen seer 7 and the use of travel devotion powered by turn undead to move and full attack. If you avoid losing any further Bab you end up with +16Bab and 6d6 skirmish and 8th level sorcerer casting.

With a lenient DM (alignment issues between paladin and stalker) you could take +2 scout levels and 2 levels of stalker of kharash to nab favorite enemy evil and swift hunter to ensure the skirmish damage against all evil opponents.

[pabelfly]

Select a Dragonblood race, e.g. Silverbrow human
Use any old Sorcerer based Gish build — there are several around.
Take the 1st Dragonblood Sorcerer Substitution Level (RotD 107) — don't bother with the other levels, you'll probably be PrCing out anyway. This swaps your familiar for Draconic Heritage.
Take the Draconic Breath Feat (RotD or CArc).
Now you can swap out any spell slots for a 2d6/SL breath weapon.

You can also use Stalwart Battle Sorcerer for this if you're after a simpler build stub. You lose a few spell slots but can still cast 9th-level spells, and in exchange, you get some of the gishy stuff you want - 3/4 BAB, equivalent of a D12 hit dice, casting in light armor without penalty, some weapon proficiencies and a free Weapon Focus. Add Abjurant Champion 5 to get over the 16 BAB benchmark.

[nedz]

You can also use Stalwart Battle Sorcerer for this if you're after a simpler build stub. You lose a few spell slots but can still cast 9th-level spells, and in exchange, you get some of the gishy stuff you want - 3/4 BAB, equivalent of a D12 hit dice, casting in light armor without penalty, some weapon proficiencies and a free Weapon Focus. Add Abjurant Champion 5 to get over the 16 BAB benchmark.

Yes you can do that, though the cost of both Stalwart and Battle ACFs may be too high.

I would normally aim for an Abjurant Champion or Jade Phoenix Mage build - depending on the table.

[Maat Mons]

What level range will you be playing in? A lot of gish builds don't actually become very gishy until close to level 10. Battle Sorcerer, on the other hand, is gishy out of the gate, but doesn't compare well to other types of gishes once those builds have managed to get going.

Do you specifically want to be an arcane caster? You could be a Cleric of a dragon deity. There's a dragon-themed ACF for Favored Soul, though it's not that good. There's also a dragon-themed ACF for Druid, which is also not that good.

[Condé]

I'm looking for something really original. I mean, yes, abjurant champion is good (Like, real good) but it is boring in a way that everyone know it is good... And almost anyone expect it in a gish build.

I'm at a point where I'm considering Dragon Disciple or Dragon samurai. Why ? Flavor, mostly.

Dragon disciple, you have a lot of useless feature, but at least you have some bonus spells. If you are a dragonborn, the breath is wasted (It sucks tho so no big deal) and Stalwart Battle Sorcerer is a possibility. Or just Battle Sorcerer, or no ACF. It won't really make a big difference since you are going to lose a lot of spellcasting anyway.

Dragon Samurai it does suck, but at least it boosts your Dragonborn breath weapon, and it is, to my knowledge, the only real way to boost your breath weapon without being a Dragon Disciple. (I guess it does.)

I really double-checked every dragon themed PrC... And it saddens to see how much of them are just bad or really boring. All classes on draconomicon are near to useless if you don't fight evil dragons. And ok, you are probably going to fight more Evil dragons than Good ones but geez... How much dragons are you going to fight anyway? Not that many to be really worth it.

I was looking for something like a Drow Judicator but for dragons. It is not a great class in anyway but it is full of flavor and interesting class features. You even have a spider pet. You can enter as an Arcane OR Divine spellcaster and you have full bab... And it is a Drow Specific Class... And you can't even have something like that for Dragons?!

The last PrC I considered was Vassal of Bahamut... Because Dragonborn of Bahamut into Vassal of Bahamut makes sense, right? But you know what. It comes out pretty late (Level 8) but that's not even the problem... YOU HAVE TO KILL A JUVENILE RED DRAGON (Cr10) so it's already pretty hard AND you have to pray for this to happen or to ask your DM kindly but that's not all... YOU HAVE TO KILL IT SINGLE-HANDLY. HOW? WHY? I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people here are going to tell me it's pretty easy, but how crazy is that?

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What level range will you be playing in? A lot of gish builds don't actually become very gishy until close to level 10. Battle Sorcerer, on the other hand, is gishy out of the gate, but doesn't compare well to other types of gishes once those builds have managed to get going.

Do you specifically want to be an arcane caster? You could be a Cleric of a dragon deity. There's a dragon-themed ACF for Favored Soul, though it's not that good. There's also a dragon-themed ACF for Druid, which is also not that good.

Yeah, I saw the Favored soul ACF. Problem is, everytime I see a Favored Soul, I try to convince myself it is better than it is... Then I think about for 2 minutes and can't figure out why I wouldn't make a Cleric instead.
I'm not a big fan of Divine Spellcasting because you just end up wanting to DMM Persist Divine Power and/or Righteous Might even if it is cheesy.

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Thanks eveyrone for you suggestions.

[Gruftzwerg]

Wyrm Wizard is a dragon themed PRC. While it doesn't have full progression, the main reason to dip into it is to get spells from other classes spell list onto you classes spell list (arcane or divine spells, both work). A good way to get access to Divine Power or Polymorph if you class lacks the spell. While the PRC might not be an obvious choice for a gish, it can still work very well (due to getting access to DP or Poly if you otherwise wouldn't have access to it).

____________________

I can only offer you some slightly dragon themed builds of mine if that still fits your requirement. But what they lack in the dragon theme, they make up in originality imho. Are Dragonwrought Kobold (they get the dragon type via a feat) enough dragon flavor for you? If yes have a look at my DWK builds here:

Hellfire Escalation Glaivelock: (see signature)
A tiny (almost diminutive) Kobold with a STR score of 1 (!) that can annihilate anything in melee range with his Eldritch Glaive.

Master of Dragonfire Flies (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?639300-Master-of-Dragonfire-Flies)
A Dragonfire Adept - Swarmshaper - Warshaper build. Sadly no fireflies as swarm, but you could fluff the locust swarm with their Imp. Draconic Wings (feat) into dragon fireflies or something like that^^
Become a terrifying swarm that eats anything and everything in its path. Yummy!

[Nihilarian]

You play a Favored Soul for the same reason you play a Sorcerer. You prefer the feel of spontaneous casting and you're not playing in a game where the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 is going to matter.

Dragon Samurai's breath weapon is 1/day. That's near useless. They barely have any other class features. They can deal +2d6 damage with their attacks, and this does not stack with ANY elemental damage they may already do.

Other options for dragon gishing
Just play a dragon
Dragon Wild Shape
Try to optimize the Desert Wind fire maneuvers?

[Condé]

You play a Favored Soul for the same reason you play a Sorcerer. You prefer the feel of spontaneous casting and you're not playing in a game where the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 is going to matter.

Dragon Samurai's breath weapon is 1/day. That's near useless. They barely have any other class features. They can deal +2d6 damage with their attacks, and this does not stack with ANY elemental damage they may already do.

Other options for dragon gishing
Just play a dragon
Dragon Wild Shape
Try to optimize the Desert Wind fire maneuvers?

Except, correct me if I'm wrong, as a Sorcerer you at least as few unique spells nobody else have. Like Wings of Cover. But I guess you're right. For some reason I still prefer the Sorcerer over the Favored Soul.

If I'm not mistaken, it says at the end of the Elemental Weapon feature, and I quote:

Elemental Weapon (Su): Starting at 4th level, a dragon samurai can endow a melee weapon with elemental energy while she wields it in battle. This energy is of the same type as her breath weapon. Causing a weapon or weapons to gain this feature is a free action. At 4th level, the melee weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of energy damage, and this extra damage increases to 2d6 at 9th level. This extra damage does stack with any energy damage the weapon may already deal.

So yeah, it is still not great, but it does stack with everything else.

[Nihilarian]

I actually misread the elemental weapon ability, fair enough

Still don't really feel it. There's way better ways to get breath weapons.

[Condé]

I actually misread the elemental weapon ability, fair enough

Still don't really feel it. There's way better ways to get breath weapons.

I can't blame you, I saw a thread where someone else said it wasn't stacking too. I don't know why, but people want this class to suck even more that it already does.

There is, of course, some ways to acquire a breath weapon but not many to improve it.

[pabelfly]

I'm looking for something really original.

If you want something really original, you could work with your DM on customizing a current class, or creating a custom class that suits your requirements in terms of flavour and power. Use current PrCs as a guide to create your own and then discuss it with your DM so they're okay with the power level of the PrC and the flavour against how it fits with their campaign.

[nedz]

Rather than focus on PrCs, maybe you could look at races/templates ?

Have you looked at playing a Spellscale ?

[Condé]

If you want something really original, you could work with your DM on customizing a current class, or creating a custom class that suits your requirements in terms of flavour and power. Use current PrCs as a guide to create your own and then discuss it with your DM so they're okay with the power level of the PrC and the flavour against how it fits with their campaign.

Actually, I have a lot of fun trying to FIND a nice combination of classes and my DM do not accept homebrew. (And, generally, I don't either)
But that is a great advice to give nontheless.


Rather than focus on PrCs, maybe you could look at races/templates ?

Have you looked at playing a Spellscale ?

I will be honest, I don't really see the appeal to play a spellscale. And, as for the templates, there is not many good LA+0 templates. Except if you consider Dragonborn as a template.

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It's hard not to try to go for Abjurant Champion / Jade Phoenix Mage because they are often recommanded (And for a reason).

On another note, for example, the Yathrinshee PrC seems nice, flavor-wise and all. It is generally seen has a terrible Prestige Class (Because of too many spellcaster level lost) but a least you can see what it is meant for. Sure, a straight wizard/cleric/ even dread Necro I suppose, would make a better necro / dead army focused character but at least you have something to work with.

The Stonelord Class has a gish-y vibe where you some kind of spell-like ability at every level except... ONE. PER. DAY. How sad is that? (And most of the features are pretty bad...)

Geomancer. Could grab a lot of different Natural Attacks. Yeah. Except you cannot have any of them before being 5 levels deep into the class. And, to add insult to injury you have to have 2nd level arcane AND divine and the class doesn't even improve both.

I'm considering something like Ranger into Nature's Warrior because why not.

I looked for Gish monk too. You really have two classes, Enlightened Fist and Sacred Fist. Enlightened could be fun with the Carmendine Monk feat and all. But the class is rather lacklusting. Sacred Fist has the same problem for me as the other Divine Classes. I think I don't really like Divine Spellcastes... I mean, Cleric and the likes. Druid and Rangers are fine.

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Btw, didn't have any answer for that but, do a list of full BAB class exist somewhere? (Not only base class)

[Gorthawar]

I understand you're not a fan of divine spellcasters but this build might tick some of your boxes anyway.

Dragonborn Paladin 4/Full Bab3/Divine Crusader 3/Swiftwing10

You'll have 2 breath weapons (Dragonborn+swiftwing) that I would use with maximise breath for a big hit at the beginning of combat, Turn undead to power animal devotion (easily re-fluffed as dragon devotion) which will give you wings or extra strength, a second ability from swiftwing to let you fly and last but not least charisma based spontaneous casting from two domains (Glory+1extra). And you don't see many swiftwing builds around. Downside is that the caster arrives pretty late to the party.

An arcane version could be Paladin 4/Crusader 1/Knight of the Weave 3/JPM10 but it would need re-fluffing of the JPM to be more dragoncentric.

Hope it helps a little.

[Nihilarian]

there's also the draconic grafts, including one that gives you a 6d8 breath weapon with the usual 1d4 cooldown. Personally I'd go with a breath weapon spell. They'll likely be able to utilize normal breath weapon options, and they're also spells so can be optimized as such.

i took a quick look and the earliest breath weapon spell i could find was "Palarandusk's Fire Breath" from city of splendors: waterdeep at wizard 2. Pretty weak. Dragon Breath from spell compendium is a wizard 4 spell and gives you one you can reuse every 1d4 rounds. And then there's Firestride Exhalation, which is a breath weapon that adds a teleport into it, also at wizard 4.

i also know there are a few breath weapon psionic powers if you'd prefer it that way.

[pabelfly]

How about a Paladin with a dragon mount? The Paladin takes the Dragon Steed feat and has full BAB, whilst the dragon can optimize breath weapons. Not sure whether you'd want the Paladin to optimize ranged attacks, like with a bow, or go in with mounted melee attacks and solely use the dragon's breath weapon for ranged work.

Your character can be small on a medium dragon, which gives you more mount options and is less restricted if you have to be in a confined space, but there's a certain charm of being a medium-size character on a large dragon which is hard to pass up.

I'd be interested in working on a build stub if the concept was of interest.

[Particle_Man]

If you want simple, what about wilder/diamond dragon or ardent/diamond dragon? Psionics are close to arcane magic (except you can wear armour) and you can get draconic features from the prestige class or some psionic powers if you don’t have them via race.

[SangoProduction]

Looks like you're looking for a 3.5 gish in specific. If you don't care for PF, or 3rd party in any way, then you can safely ignore the rest of the post.

But spheres of power is chock full of easily flavored stuff. For example, the Nature sphere offers the talent called Dragonlung, which gives an actual supernatural breath weapon that recharges every 1d4 rounds. But you can do much the same deal with the Destruction sphere's Sculpt Blast shape and your choice of blast types. You could even work with the DM to change the spell point cost for a 1d4 round cool down. (Kind of surprised there isn't one already written.)

For looking like a dragon, we'd go over to the Alteration sphere, where there's the Dragon Transformation talent. Which also has its own built in breath weapon. It's missing some features, but the idea with the (transformation) talents is that they are the base chassis upon which you place the other traits you're going for.
And you can get access to Dragon Transformation (semi-)permanently with either the Transformation or Eternal Transformation feats (found under the General Feats section of the wiki). There is no real benefit to Eternal over normal Transformation, other than going "Yeah, I just *am* this. It's not a secondary form." Well, aside from not being dispelled.

Similarly, much of the natural attack, and martial abilities like Pounce, are available in the Alteration sphere. But the Enhancement sphere is available to grant enchant-type buffs to your weapons for upwards of 10 minutes to 1 hour per caster level.

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For classes, if you want to lean heavily on the "magical claws" and what not, pick up Armorist. Full BAB, and low casting. But their class feature is basically "I have passively enchanted items (with enchants I can swap each day)." And with the Natural Materials Arsenal Trick, you can enchant your claw, bite, tail sweep, etc. Work with your DM to say "you can't enchant/summon real weapons, but can enchant your natural ones," without the Arsenal Trick.

The Mageknight class is similarly full BAB and serves the same roles. Speaking very generally, the primary difference is that the Mageknight gets relatively generic combat abilities, as opposed to the weapon enchantments. They can also be built as a bit of an anti-mage.

There are no other full BAB gish classes that I know of in Spheres. At least without getting into archetypes. ...Or any silly homebrew (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?570762-The-Draconic-Ascendant-Base-class-Spheres-of-Power-PEACH&p=23416394#post23416394) I made years ago.

[Akal Saris]

I had fun playing a bard entry into Talon of Tiamat in a game. Its breath weapons aren't very good, but you sure do get a bunch of them! :P

[Seward]

Hello, dear people of Giantitp.


What I'm trying to achieve:
Build a melee with some breath weapon. (Being a dragonborn should help)

Some few rules, because we do not accept everything at my tables and I'm a bit picky:
- No too much dipping. One class or two into a PrC should be good
- No Dragon Shaman, no Dragonfire Adept (Already played one), no PHB2 (Bye-bye Duskblade)
- Most BAB possible
- Don't really care about the 9th spell benchmark.
- No cheese/dubious entry.


---- Random things ----





Ok, this is a tough set of requirements, especially that full bab part. Most draconic PRCs give extra attributes at cost of bab.

For example, characters I've played.
Heavy Armor Dragon Disciple 2h-power attacker into epic levels with epic dragon disciple (in two different Neverwinter Nights CRPGs)

Light Infantry Unarmed, using every single Pathfinder trick to get str bonus added to your punch, that all stacked in egregious ways, to L10, built out to level 12. Not as impressive if ported to 3.5

Light Infantry Polymorph+Dimensional Dervish tricks, again Pathfinder. In 3.5 polymorph means you don't need a high strength chasse which makes this less attractive, as does the lack of teleporting about doing your full attack as she could do. Also 3.5 doesn't advance spellcasting with DD, also a big problem. She was the only one with a real breath weapon, with a pathfinder item that boosted her draconic levels to the point where it did more damage than her fireballs, 3/d. Her polymorph forms were also draconic themed (lizardman or kobold with draconic-color scales in humanoid form, a kind of draconic centaur with woman torso and draconic lower half in monstrous humanoid mode)

But....all of these are medium-low bab options, leaning heavily on egregiously high strength and non-bab ways of getting extra attacks (flurry for the unarmed guy, draconic claw-claw-bite as human, or polymorphed natural attacks). The Dragon Disciple was the closest to your ideal as he had 16 bab by level 20 (sorcerer1 with fullbab multiclass - fighter2 barbarian 7 if memory serves, halforc "the other half is dragon"). Between heavy armor, natural armor, melee-oriented feats and incredible strength (in a tabletop game also 24x7 flying) he did pretty well as heavy infantry.

But the dragon disciple gets only 1/day breath weapon and it's pretty weak (although decent save dc - 10+class+con mod). So I'd say it is a solid but boring melee option. You can build a decent 1-20 melee build with 10 levels of dragon disciple (I like beguiler as the 1 level - it is int-based so you get some skill points, all those extra L1 spell slots have great utility spells in out of combat when you take off armor and you can even be a decent trapfinder, keeping up disable device cross-class, with search being a DD class skill). Get called quick-release armor or a ring of arming or something to switch heavy armor/spellcasting modes if you go down this road.



Dragon Devotee or Hand of the Winged Masters, for a Swift hunter, maybe?

Strictly weaker AND lower bab than a dragon disciple, but less of an investment for draconic flavor. Still if you are ok with doing your energy damage via spells instead of breath weapon, there might be something here. Hand of winged master/swift hunter aren't something I can talk to but I was tinkering around something that might interest you.

I've got an oddball dragon devotee build, which was an attempt to translate my Pathfinder dex-based halfling tank into 3.5. With no equivalent of "dex to damage on a melee weapon" in 3.5 I switched to abusing low level ray spells to do enough damage to be taken serously (similar to a sword-and-board tank) with a combination of dexterity, size, arcane spells and draconic natural armor bonuses to keep AC quite high. With multiclassing saves are also pretty good. It goes something like this:

Attributes depend on point buy, but you are shooting for 6 strength, 19-20 dex, 14 con, 10 int (for required skill points, 12 is a lot easier), 8 wisdom, 12charisma. Wis can be low as multiclassing keeps will saves high, cha can be as low as 12 because a cloak+2 and the eventual dragon devotee bump of +2 cha keeps you in bonus spells through level 12 without effort or further stat bumps)

L1-2 urban barbarian 2 with skilled urban dweller swapping survival for tumble (for uncanny dodge, and a very rarely used 1/day immediate action rage-equivalent that doesn't penalize ac and raises str/dex. Since your offense is arcane spells after L3, this is an "break glass in emergency" option when you just need to hold the line against insane melee opposition for a few rounds). This gets you tumble 5 for fighting defensively, which you will do a lot. Tossing some points into jump/swim/climb to get to +0 isn't a terrible idea. Depending on int you may need to buy cross-class spellcraft points

L1 feat is shield spec, but if retraining is allowed, train it in at L4 and consider using Deadly Defense and splash weapons, to keep your damage weak but mildly relevant in baby levels. If you use starting cash on mage armor scrolls you have weight capacity for a fair splash weapon supply (lamp+oil for your first adventure, mostly acid with a few alch fire and holy water for next few. Without retrain, shield spec must be taken here, but it isn't terrible, a straight +1 to ac with no designate target stupidity the way 3.5 dodge works. This build is quite weak offensively in baby levels. Probably use a buckler+crossbow, your damage is low but your hit chance is decent.

L3 sorcerer, preferably Sonic Orb and Killgore's fire Bolt, practiced spellcaster. Your offense is no longer anemic, it's basically normal for a sword+board while your slots last. Which won't be long. So keep some splash weapons about. Fire bolt is medium range and probably gets the Halfling thrown weapon bonus (read the description, it is a thrown rock that explodes, basically). Sonic orb is what you use on everything that has fire resistance. Familiar = weasel for +2 reflex save (most multiclass won't help reflex in this build). Some extra scrolls aren't a terrible idea - if you can't get higher level versions of say sonic orb, consider a few scorching ray scrolls to tide you over. If you can get your hands on a wand of Sonic Orb3 or Killgore's bolt 5 consider saving up for it to help out on long days.

L4 fighter. L4 feat is active shield defense, which eliminates offense penalty for fighting defensively. Yes, you are using a mithril buckler. You can afford it by L4.

L5 is probably sorcerer2, to get enough skill points to qualify for dragon disciple, and just for the extra spell slot. You need Kn arcane8, and by level 9 it needs to rise to 9
L6 is dragon disciple, for natural armor boost, fort/will save and some much needed hitpoints and another spell slot. Pick your favorite defensive feat here, I went with a greyhawk regional feat that bumped AC+1 if fighting defensive, cover bonus boosted by +2. If you have int 13 by this point, combat expertise is your best choice, otherwise you won't get it till L11

Make friends with some elves before L7, do them a favor, because these levels are important
L7-9 Ruathar - boosts saves, adds skill points. Adds lowlight vision to your deep halfling's darkvision. Allows you to invest in some of spot/listen/hide/move silent to taste. Gives a free magic item that probably won't be that helpful (elven boots to match your size bonus to hide are decent to swap in when scouting). Make sure to take mage armor as your L3 arcane spell, scorching ray(2 rays at this level) as your L4 spell. L5 spells are to taste, but see invisible+reduce person would probably be my choices, although that depends on the magic mart, as see-inv is decent on scrolls. Keep in mind that any use of spell slots for anything but rays is going to be very rare so make it count. Magic missile isn't recommended, you need spells with attack rolls.

L9 feat is arcane thesis scorching ray. This gives you a triple-ray, keeping your damage relevant enough to not be ignorable. Metamagic rods of empower or preferably maximize are a good investment, they simulate a fighter's "full attack". Figuring out how to carry 5lb wands with a 6 strength is an exercise for the player (quiver of ehlonna or easy travel armor enchantment on thistledown padded armor are 2 options).

Ok, finally we get to Dragon Devotee. We go in 3 levels which gets us +2 charisma, +1 natural armor, +2 con, and a fighter bonus feat. Your attack mods are high enough now that this should be combat expertise, if you can swing the 13 int (buy a headband if you need to and or invest a stat bump at some point). You can add +8 to armor class for a -5 to hit, which shouldn't matter with your orb/ray spells at this point. You are hitting on a 2. You also get another sorcerer level at L10 (12 for scorching ray), which puts your CL=12 and gives you L3 sorcerer slots. Take empower spell as your L12 feat, so you can empower your scorching rays as your "full attack" without needing a rod. Take Greater Mage Armor or Dragonskin as your L6 spell (and the other as your L7 spell when you get that option eventually)

What next? Well, I only built to 15 and went for 3 levels of magical trickster, which gets you 4th level slots by 15, an extra metamagic feat (searing spell, which is +0 for your scorching rays), or maybe maximize if you haven't managed to find/buy/commission any maximize rods) and your L15 feat can be rapid metamagic to make your alpha strike decently impressive to draw fire after charging into the middle of your foes. Plus once-day you can cast any spell (metamagicked or otherwise) as a swift action. And some free skill tricks+good skill list.

In the baby levels your AC is in the 20s, steadily rising each level as you add basic gear (enchant shield, ring+1, longer duration consumables like barkskin etc) and low-mid 30s in mid levels (6-10ish). At 11 with combat expertise you jump into the mid 40s, at 12 (or 14) you can toss in dragonskin for another+5 (use barkskin potions for hard targets in earlier levels). This with no more investment than +2 mithril buckler and +2 vest of resistance with +2 dex/con/cha/headband item (and only con/dex going to +4-6 later). WBL should push that vest of resistance higher as you have cash, after L12 push to +5 and also after L12 if you don't have a magic-vestment donation from a cleric (and can't get a L3 pearl of power or don't have a cleric) push the basic enchant on the mithril buckler to +5, and start advancing the ring of protection enchantment. This will let you (with gloves dex6) get walking around AC of 40ish by 15, 45 when dragonskin is running, +8 when fighting defensively and saves at 20+ in all 3 categories, fort slightly higher if you pushed your con amulet to +6.

16-20 push for full casting prcs, or dips that give at least 2 cl per 3 if they give really good defensive bonuses, using your new arcane spells to help your defense keep up with near epic challenges (and providing maybe a bit more mobility than your spells probably give you now). Work in some of quicken, maximize and/or twin spell to further make your searing-spell scorching rays relevant enough to draw attention and attacks your way. Arcane fusion (to bring up dragonskin+toss in a sonic orb or fire bolt attack to draw attention) isn't terrible as a way to get fully buffed when you don't have time to prepare.

This character plays recklessly - but has the defensive stats to back it up. You don't need much bab, so the various +0 levels don't hurt you much, but your bab+dex+size gives quite high attack rolls for your touch attacks. It has fair draconic flavor (sorceror3, dragon disciple by 6, dragon devotee by 10) and if you pick gold or red dragon, all those fire spells make sense. You could fit in a burning hands spell for your last L1 just for a bit of flavor, or even blast of flame or dragon breath spell at L15ish if you want more of a "breath weapon". If you are willing to wait on a medium-range attack spell till level 6-7, you could go with burning hands at L3 to have your "breath weapon" early and just use the sonic orb as your go-to spell for fighting defensively. (your crossbow, fired one-handed, reloaded with buckler hand isn't meaningless below L5 at medium ranges, and isn't a lot worse than a normal melee switching to a backup bow till the fire bolt comes on line, and for intermediate ranges, your sonic orb matches a high strength thrown javelin in damage pretty well). Once you get L2 slots you can usually get through a typical adventuring day if you use some of your actions for low level arcane utility or even offense with scrolls, once you get L3 slots it takes a very long day to run you dry. Magic items that let you get sorcerer spell slots back are worth it (MIC has a couple items, and I think 3.5 has a pearl of power equivalent that is 1.5x as expensive in some splatbook or other)

It is a solid "tank role" with a lot of "tossing fire" that plays much more like a melee than an arcanist, in spite of a ranged weapon offense (most are short range, and you are expected to be in the thick of melee, just ignoring AOOs with high AC, or tumbling 5' out of full attack then shooting to tempt them to waste full attacks on you). You also have no real save weaknesses but you will still fail the occasional save without a solid investment in resistance items, and probably a reroll item or two.

If playing on Faerun or any campaign that allows it, Strongheart Halfling's feat is obviously better than Deep Halfling's darkvision (which an arcane caster can easily get via scroll if needed for scouting). Having active shield defense at L2 frees up that fighter level for something else, maybe sorcerer for faster spell progression.




BONUS QUESTION:

I know an almost complete list of all classes/prestige classes that gives or progress spellcasting exist. (Thanks Troacctid) BUT... Does a list of all prestige classes giving full BAB exist?

I'd be interested in this too. An awful lot of them are "lawful only divine types" that are basically alternate paladins.

--One more note on the above build. If you are starting at level 1, I don't recommend it unless you are sure you'll play well into the teens. It doesn't really come together before level 4 (unlike in Pathfinder where my tiny tank did damage like a raging 20 str halforc armed with a kukri for the first few levels, for 4 rounds a day at first level, about 10 rounds a day after that)

If you have enough point buy for your dex, con and cha, and can get int 13 by level 6, put any excess build points into wisdom for the save bonus and options on boosting perception type skills. I don't see a feat free for arcane disciple but it is possible to do this with plant domain if for some reason dragonskin is banned if you can scrape up 12 wisdom and a little extra will save, spot and listen are never a bad thing.