Arcane Gish Chassis (3.5e Optimized Character Build)

Introduction

It always bothered me that when creating a gish, I had to give up some spellcasting to get the martial options. While creating an other build, I realised, that there is a no-compromise option for starting of an Arcane gish by going on the following path.

References

Classes

• Dragon Compendium, Volume 1 - Sha'ir
• Complete Divine - Geomancer
• Draconomicon - Dragon Slayer

Feats

One of the following:

• Savage Tide - Academy Graduate
• Forgotten Realms or Eberron Campaign Setting - Education

Game Rule Components

Casting divine

Geomancer calls for second level arcane and divine spellcasting. Well, you can do both casting, if your Diplomacy is just high enough. To cast second level spells, you need to succeed on a roll with the following DC:

Base DC	20
Sha'ir level	- 4
Spell level	+4
Divine spell	+6
Total	26

This is pretty straightforward, as at level 4 (your last Sha'ir level) your maxed out Diplomacy should be +7 and your charisma bonus at least +3.

Progression

Required Attributes

Attribute	Value	Bonus
Intelligence	12	+1
Charisma	12	+1

Obviously, don't start a caster with a primary casting stat of 12, but purely to make the build work, this is all we need, the rest is up to you.

Race (Templates):

You can choose 3e Race::any race. With a race that provides a bonus skill point per level, you can even reduce your Int to 10.

Arcane Gish Chassis

ECL	Class level	BAB	Saving Throws			Feats	Class Features	AC	Base Spells per Day
			Fort	Ref	Will				0	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th	7^th	8^th	9^th
1^st	Sha'ir 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Academy graduate (Diplomacy, Knowledge (Nature) & Any Skill)	Summon Gen familiar	20	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2^nd	Sha'ir 2	+1	+0	+0	+3			20	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3^rd	Sha'ir 3	+1	+1	+1	+3	Dodge	Recognize genie works	20	5	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4^th	Sha'ir 4	+2	+1	+1	+4			20	5	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5^th	Geomancer 1	+2	+3	+1	+6		Drift 1, Spell versatility 0	20	5	4	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6^th	Geomancer 2	+3	+4	+1	+7	Iron will	Drift 1, Spell versatility 1	20	5	4	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7^th	Geomancer 3	+4	+4	+2	+7		Drift 2, Spell versatility 2	20	5	5	4	3	1	—	—	—	—	—
8^th	Geomancer 4	+5	+5	+2	+8		Drift 2, Spell versatility 3	20	5	5	4	4	3	—	—	—	—	—
9^th	Dragon Slayer 1	+6/+1	+7	+2	+10	Free feat	Aura of Courage, Damage Bonus, Proficiency with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with shields and tower shields	20	5	5	5	4	3	1	—	—	—	—

So that makes it a 3e Final Class Progression::Sha'ir 4 / Geomancer 4 / Dragon Slayer 1.
Skills to be vary for: you need Knowledge (Arcane) 6 and Knowledge (Nature) 6 for Geomancer. That's why we need the feat to give us Knowledge Nature as a class skill.
For Dragon Slayer, you need a Tumble of 2. It should be manageable.

Sha'ir?

So what is a Sha'ir? It is basically a generalist wizard, that doesn't have a spellbook, and can retrieve with some effort any sorcerer/wizard spells of any level he has access to. It's a bit more complicated than that, Go read the handbook.

Highlights

With this base, a 20/20 caster becomes a possibility even while reaching out to the sweet-sweet gish options. Well done, you are now an 3e Summary::Arcane Cleric: Same BAB at level 9, full arcane casting, proficiency with all the fighter weapons and armour.

Way forward

What ever your original idea was, you can craft it onto this base:

• Get the Abjurant champion package (Spellsword 1 / Abjurant Champion 5), for a single feat (Combat Casting).
• Dip into Sacred Exorcist, and hop over to Prestige Paladin, to become a Arcane Paladin with divine metamagic.

Or whatever else you want. I decided to cast spells in full armour: Armoured Dwarven Gish.

Munchkin size me

If you don't like the three feat tax of the build, get some flaws, and it's just a single feat tax. Or get Iron Will from Otyugh Hole for 3000 gp, and it was basically free.

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