What's a good fighter/wizard build in 3.5 D&D?

BLACKSHAGG

Hello folks! I need some ideas, advice...help with a character I've been developing in a home brew Ravenloft campaign for 3.5 D&D. Here's the guy's stats:
Kneffari Esskur GC (Fighter 2/ Wizard 6)
STR-18/DEX-18/CON-15/INT-18/WIS-12/CHA-9

AC-18 (+1 studed leather, ASF-15%) Touch & Flat- 14 BAB(after STR mod)=+9 Melee Weapon At. Bonus= +12 Ranged & Touched At. Bonus=+9
Uses a +2 longsword of spellstoring as main weapon & has Weapon Focus, Longsword as a feat.

Fort-7/Will-6/Ref-6 HP: 46

Has the following feats:
Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Spring attack, WhirlWind attack, weapon Focus: Logsword & Meta Magic Feat: Extend Spell

So...that's the basic stuff. Becaus eof his high INT, he has a good # of spells to cast per day & his spell save DCs are okay. I built him as an offensive (I like to blow stuff up) spellcaster who can get into melee if the fighter heavy party I'm in is having trouble dropping monsters...or my spells aren't blowing stuff up as well as I'd like them to. With Spring attack & Whirlwind Attack, I can dash into combat, & damage a lot of enemies...even If they don't fall...softening them up for the heavier hitters. Most of mys spells are offensive, bu I do have some cool buffs like Displacement, Critical Strike & Sonic Weapon. My best trick so far is to be displaced, cast sonic weapon (that's +1d6 for 6 rounds), then cast critical stike (which doubles my crit range & gives me a +4 bonus to confim crit PLUS another 1d6 of damage), release the 5d6 shocking grasp stored in my sword. The damage is something like: 2d8+2d6+6 & if I make my touch attack for the shocking grasp, +5d6. That's 94 pts of damage if my roll maxes. Other than his HP of 46...I'd say Kneffari's fairly bad assed.

That's all good and well, but what I'd like to ask you guys & gals is where should I go from here? Should I keep gaining wizard levels? Should I get more fighter levels? A prestige class like Eldritch Knight or perhaps Spellsword (which I've been thinking a lot about)?
I really lik ethis character & want to build him the best way that I can. So if anyone has any advice please let me know.

Obryce

I'm not sure the ravenloft rules or even anything about the setting. So bare that in mind. You didn't include your race but judging by your feat count you are most likely human.
Spell sword is not a bad way to go. The reduced arcane spell failure can equal out to a bit more survivability. A d8 per lvl doesn't hurt either. The down fall is the lose of spell power in the long run.
The eldritch knight looks the way to go if you hope to maintain your offensive ability. The good base attack bonus helps your melee ability as well. You would still lack in the defensive front how ever.
A not so drastic dip is to drop three levels into your racial paragon class. They are in the unearthed arcana book. Adaptive learning a bonus feat and a +2 to a stat as well as 2 additional levels to your spell casting class helps
If you want to potentially piss off your dm/think really far out of the box there is the classic suicide reincarnation until you come back as a elf or half-elf then take blade singer levels trick. there is side affects of course but hey if your lucky they are minimal. 22% chance isn't bad right. Of course assuming you have some one around to use that spell in the first place.
In my full opinion you should drop all further levels into wizard. If your groups fighter heavy your buff spells/debuffs coupled with superior aoe and controller abilities is the best way you can help your group. You might take some survival feats tho such as toughness improved toughness and so on.

BLACKSHAGG

Thanks for the advice. I think figured this one out last week though. I'd thought that this would be the way: Fighter 2/Wizard 6/ THEN Spellsword for one level. You know, so I can get that -10% ro my ASF, the D8 HD, an increase in my BAB & another spellcasting level.
And THEN (here's the coolest part)...seeing as there's no exp penalties for PrCs...take all five levels of Abjurant Champion (it's in the Complete Mage). They get really cool buffs & both my BAB & spell levels increase. There's also the D10 HD which is nice. After this..well if I make it that far without dying...I dunno. There's no level cap on our campagin & everyone seems to love they pace. We've beenplaying together for years, I don't see them game falling off any time soon. I was thinking after Abjurant Champion, I'd actually go Eldritch Knight. It seemed like the next logical class to take. But now that you mention it, Human Paragon might be a pretty cool addition before Eldritch Knight just for the adaptive learning feat & the +2 ability points (for intelligence).

I posted this almost a week ago in three forums. You were the only person here that even bothered to respond & for that I salute you sir!

You know, all of the other characters in my party were either killed, imprisoned or had thier souls transported to another plane due to really REALLY bad draws from a Deck of Many Things. I just got lucky & survived. Next session they'll all be introducing new characters. If there's a straight Wizard or Sorceror (or even a Wu Jen) I may do something else. But this seems optimal for now. If I die I'm going to make a human monk 4/ wizard 4/ enlightened fist 1 & get all 'Kung Fu" on the party.

Obryce

I actually just started working on a monk today in a forgotten realms setting. I was thinking Human. The main goal is to use the ascetic knight feat. A monk/paladin seems pretty sensible to me. Absolutely hard core saves. Good offense and defense mix. No weapon required no armor required but yep gonna smash any baddy who steps up like he is the next contestant on get your beat down. A 3 level dip to get the divine grace and divine health. Take extra smiting and your set for pally sauce.
Kensai seems a good way to go for this build turning your body into a signature weapon why not. Plus your already locked down into so many codes of conducy by that point all you should have to do is pretty much confirm them with witnesses.
I'm thinking the monk/pally combo into a reaping mauler(complete warrior) could be interesting specially if your in forgotten realms and take the Jotunbrud regional feat. All the bonuses for being large sized with none of the negatives why not(cough including unarmed damage). Plus no intelligent person wants to fight a 7 foot tall monk specialized in grappling.
Nothing like walking into a room and telling the fighter his weapon doesn't matter...
Any thoughts for me?

BLACKSHAGG

Hah!

You're right about not wanting to fight a 7' monk specialized in grappling.

Let me see here...what I DO know about monks is you can't gain any more levels of monk (hence no more of the hardcore monk abilities) after you've multiclassed...with most classes (and pretty much all of the core classes like paladin). But with the asthetic knight feat you can achive this. So...yeah. go for it. I'd say. You'd have to be a monk for a while though (or flip/flop levels of monk & paladin after getting the ascetic knight feat). I found this build here that seems to bewaht you're looking for:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/6589-13-ascetic-paladin

Most other places I checked on the subject seem to think that this is a pretty good build.

Obryce

If your going to marry the wizard and fighter there seems to be only a few classes who do it well. The top choices are mostly prestige classes, like Bladesinger and eldritch knight. The few who seem to be of any use for first level might be warmage(Complete Arcane) or Hexblades (Complete Warrior) or Duskblade(Players Handbook 2). The first is more spell based. The last 2 are good Base Attack Bonus. Duskblade seems to be the most balanced of them. Duskblade is also my preferred of the three.
You should look as those as a starting point and try building on from there. Warmage with a few levels of ranger into eldritch knight seems to be popular. The arcane tank on d&d wiki seems popular.
I'm personally looking into the Duskblade as a good possible for my next character. A Sun elf Duskblade has a funny ring to it.

But hey what do I know. Check out what these people had to say. I've used most of these guys stuff before they know what they are doing.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/28229373/3.5_Arcane_Tank_build._Seeking_advice,_suggestions_and_questions_answered_:)