Gish Sorceror! Oh god what do I do?!

[KatfishKaos]

I just joined a campaign where you play as a Fey'ri, stats are 18, 17, 16, 14, 14, 12. Starting level 14 (thats including the LA). So... I had a few questions, is there any way that I can wear full plate? Its not stupidly important to the background, but I'd prefer... Other then that! Have a field day guys! Lets put a cap on the uber cheese, but if you guys have any good builds, or tips for making a gish Sorceror i'd love to hear about it!


P.S. It doesn't have to be a sorceror, just the idea of a full plate wearing warrior that is capable of casting awesome amounts of magic!

[Superglucose]

True Strike, Feather Fall, Benign Transposition, Blindness/Deafness, Lesser Celerity, Critical Strike, Daggerspell Strike, Darkness, Delusions of Grandeur, Dimension Hop, Dimension Leap, Lesser Energy Surge, Scintillating Scales, Slide, Greater Slide, Sonic Weapon.

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"What are 2nd level sorceror spells that do not have somatic components and would be of some use to a melee character?"

I'm not really up on my gish builds, but the trick (from what I understand) is that you want spells that do not have somatic components: i.e. you can cast them and ignore arcane spell failure (which only applies to spells with somatic components), but which also give you boosts to combat. True Strike, for instance (+20 on your next attack). Swift cast spells are nice as well.

[Gnaritas]

Is this 3.5?

Remember that if you are not proficient with the armor, you get the ACP to attack rolls and a lot of skills.

There is the Battlesorcerer variant in Unearthed Arcana i believe, but it only allows Light Armor if i recall correctly.

There is the Warmage in Complete Mage that allows Medium Armor at level 8.
A Mithral Fullplate is medium armor...

There is the option to use Still Spell on all your spells.....

There is also the option of taking the Spontaneous Divine Caster from UA, but then you are no longer a Sorcerer, but a Cleric....in Full Plate though...

You could take the sacred spell Greater Luminous Armor, which is a magical shining Full Plate.

[Soonerdj]

P.S. It doesn't have to be a sorceror, just the idea of a full plate wearing warrior that is capable of casting awesome amounts of magic!

Like a Cleric?

Or do you mean arcane only? You could use a Duskblade with a mithral Full Plate and a Heavy Shield and have no spell failure chance.

[Melamoto]

Take the Battle Sorcerer alternate class feature, then take the Battle Caster feat (CArc), to allow you to cast in Medium Armor. Make your Full Plate Mithral, and it counts as Medium Armor.

[KellKheraptis]

Spellsword dip lowers ASF by either 10 or 15%. Spellthief dip opens up the avenue for Master Spellthief allowing you to cast in light armor. And then there's always the grand daddy of 'em all when it comes to sorc gishes : the Swiftblade. Also, have you thought about going Divine Power gish? While it's frowned upon, any caster with Polymorph and at least 14 HD can become a Planetar, and abuse their 17th level Cleric casting (not to mention they have nice stats anyhow), and even if that isn't allowed, picking up Arcane Disciple (<one with DP>) wouldn't be too hard. I'd do it on a Wizard base, but that's just me. Endarire might swing through and show you his Hood build that gets 9th's while also being an absolute melee terror. Once of my fav's (and I'm still working on that Handbook conversion! And a 20/20 version of the Trancer).

[Seffbasilisk]

If going Sorcerer, I HIGHLY recommend Wings of Cover. Look them up. Yes. It's that good.

[KatfishKaos]

Due to looking around and such this is what I have so far....

2 Fey'ri / 2 Paladin / 4 Battlecaster Sorceror / 6 Swiftblade

Level 1; Dodge
Level 3; Mobility
Level 6; Battle Caster
Level 9; Power Attack
Level 12; Improved Bullrush

Oh god, is there some way I can get Shock Trooper and Leap Attack? I'm just not going to be viable at this rate.

[KellKheraptis]

Ok, found the build skeleton :
Lion Totem Barb 1/Cloistered Cleric 1/Martial Wizard 4/Ruathar 3/Abjurant Champion 5/Spellsword 1/Eldritch Knight 5
Feats : 1st-Battle Jump, 2nd (Travel Devotion, Knowledge Devotion, Time Domain), 3rd-Power Attack, Sudden Shift, 6th-Leap of the Heavens, 9th-Combat Casting, 12th-Arcane Strike, 15th-Cleave, 18th-Leap Attack

The original I believe was normal cleric, though I would imagine if the DM isn't doing partial BAB, cloistered would work better. I'd also see about getting Leap Attack in there sooner, since you're all about crashing down from above. Race for this would be a Dragonborn fire elf, non-evil and non-lawful.

[Pluto]

Due to looking around and such this is what I have so far....

1. If you're going Paladin, you might check out the Book of Exalted Deeds' Greater Luminous Armor spell. It's summoned Full Plate without the ASF. That might let you drop the Battlecaster feat and the Battle Sorcerer variant (which isn't bad on its own, but which is terrible if you use it while multi/prestige-classing heavily).

2. Don't bother with Shock Trooper. Just learn the Wraithstrike Spell (SpC, CAdv). Same overall effect, lower investment.

3. Drop dodge. Take Expeditious Dodge from Races of the Wild. It's better for the AC, easier to track and easier to remember.

4. Do you even qualify for Swiftblade? Where's your Haste coming from?

5. Not every Sorcerer gish needs Paladin. Or Swiftblade. If you're getting too tangled up in those to make a character you think will be viable, drop them. Both the Sorcadin and the Swiftblade have considerably slower spell advancement than other gishes. Combining them is dooming you to disappointment.

[Iku Rex]

Books available?

Where is the Fey'ri you're using from? What's the LA?

What kind of campaign is it? Evil?

[Eldariel]

Fey'ri are Planetouched and thus would be allowed to have Lesser Fey'ri for the type change into Humanoid (Planetouched). That seems like a good plan especially since their abilities are mostly redundant with magic, and you aren't taking advantage of their stats (+2 Int and Dex, -2 Con).

Anyways, standard Sorcadin should work for what you want:
Paladin 2/Sorcerer 4/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/X 8 (I like Sacred Exorcist, but you may need to argue it into "Phantom Master" or something if you aren't good)

Spellsword 1 gets you -10% to Arcane Spell Failure. Mithril Fullplate has 25% ASF; make it Feycraft [DMGII] (it's very flavorful for you anyways) to reduce it to 20%, and Twilight [MiC] for 10%, giving you no ASF Fullplate.

[fryplink]

P.S. It doesn't have to be a sorceror, just the idea of a full plate wearing warrior that is capable of casting awesome amounts of magic!

straight duskblade? mithril fullplate once you get medium armored caster as a class feature?

[Tinydwarfman]

straight duskblade? mithril fullplate once you get medium armored caster as a class feature?

Indeed, duskblade is quite a good gish-in-a-box, but doesn't mithril just reduce ACF by 10%? duskblade ability just says medium armor, not medium ACF.

[lsfreak]

Indeed, duskblade is quite a good gish-in-a-box, but doesn't mithril just reduce ACF by 10%? duskblade ability just says medium armor, not medium ACF.

Mithril knocks the armor category down by one, making mithril full plate medium armor for all purposes.

[Harperfan7]

Bladesinger, Spellsword, Eldritch Knight, Warmage, Duskblade

Take your pick.

[Tinydwarfman]

Mithril knocks the armor category down by one, making mithril full plate medium armor for all purposes.

Ah, thank you, I did not know that.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Due to looking around and such this is what I have so far....

2 Fey'ri / 2 Paladin / 4 Battlecaster Sorceror / 6 Swiftblade

Level 1; Dodge
Level 3; Mobility
Level 6; Battle Caster
Level 9; Power Attack
Level 12; Improved Bullrush

Oh god, is there some way I can get Shock Trooper and Leap Attack? I'm just not going to be viable at this rate.

there is zero reason to use Battlecaster Sorcerer. A much more viable option would be

2Pal/4Sorc/1SpellSword/5 Abjurant Champion

Then simply use:

Twilight Mithral Faycrafted Full Plate

Tadaa! Instant 0% ACF! without boning your Spells Known list.

[Vizzerdrix]

Bladesinger, Spellsword, Eldritch Knight, Warmage, Duskblade

Take your pick.

You left off Abjurant Champion. No Gish is complete without it.

[Coidzor]

Meaning if you can ignore ASF for medium armor, you can ignore it for mithril fullplate.

[Gnaritas]

You left off Abjurant Champion. No Gish is complete without it.

Agreed, however the Abjurant Champion is little less appealing to a Gish in Full plate...at least assuming the DM allows Mage Armor for the Champion's ability.
Still a very very good PRC for the build.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Check out the spells Luminous Armor and Greater Luminous Armor in BoED. They summon a dazzling suit of full plate which shines so brightly that opponents suffer a significant penalty to hit you. It doesn't restrict your movement in any way so you can cast spells freely with it active. Get an Eternal Wand of Lesser Restoration from the MIC (it's an arcane spell via Arcane Disciple: Renewal) to make up the Strength sacrifice required to cast it. If you're going with Sorcerer, pick up Arcane Preparation (CA) so you can prepare spells if desired, which allows you to cast Sanctified spells.

Paladin 2/ Battle Sorcerer 4 doesn't qualify for Swiftblade, you have to be able to cast Haste first.

Definitely push for making your character a Lesser Planetouched as per Player's Guide to Faerun page 191. You'd be a Humanoid rather than Outsider, but with no level adjustment. Also note that Fey'ri were updated to 3.5, you can have a +2 LA with none of the 'demonic abilities', or you can pick one from DR 10/Magic, Dimension Door, or Enervation, which puts you at a +3 LA. Don't even bother with any of those, just go with the lesser version for no LA. Get the feat Improved Flight from Races of the Wild to put your maneuverability up to average.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Agreed, however the Abjurant Champion is little less appealing to a Gish in Full plate...at least assuming the DM allows Mage Armor for the Champion's ability.
Still a very very good PRC for the build.

AbChamp still is full BAB and full spellcasting progression, plus auto-quicken up to 3rd level Abjuration spells. I've always been tempted to try and mix it with some of the 'promote class abilities' classes to see if I can get Greater Dispel Magic auto-quickened...

[Vizzerdrix]

Agreed, however the Abjurant Champion is little less appealing to a Gish in Full plate...at least assuming the DM allows Mage Armor for the Champion's ability.
Still a very very good PRC for the build.

It's still damn good even if mage armor isn't allowed to work with it. getting a +9 shield bonus that lets you fight with a two handed weapon, blocks magic missile (and at higher levels, Fell Drain magic missiles) and costs you nothing is still a good deal. Throw on a Protection from X spell for another +7 (It's no stretch that the class should effect the Prot X spells as they are the only other AC boosting Abjuration spells).

[Gnaritas]

Agreed, however the Abjurant Champion is little less appealing to a Gish in Full plate...at least assuming the DM allows Mage Armor for the Champion's ability.
Still a very very good PRC for the build.

Like i said, it seems we all agree.....

[Thurbane]

Wizards and Sorcerers get the ability to cast in light armor with no ASF via a dip in the Urban Savant PrC (Cty). If you then take the Battle Caster feat (CA), you can cast in medium armor with no ASF. Mithril full plate = medium armor.