I haven't really followed Forgotten Realms much since 3.0 came out but starting a new campaign and I wanted to be an Eldritch Knight prestige character.
so I start doing the min maxing...
1. Fighter 4 and then mage 6 then all the way Eldritch knight but that means sacrificing lvl 9 spells for weapon specialization..
2. Fighter 2/rogue 3/wizard 5 then Eldricth knight..good skills and mix of feats but no lvl 8 or 9 spells
3. Ranger 2/wizard 8/eldritch knight...only 1 lvl 9 spell
4. paladin 3/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight ..great saves but alignment restricted and no high level spells
So i am totally conflicted although option 3 looks the best to me..
then I am looking through players guide to faerun 3.5 and notice the regional feat miltitia..all gives martial weapons prociency...so stuff the fighter class and start as wizard..
boom wizard 10/eldtricth knight 10..problem solved..
I don't know if Eric Mona put this feat in his Dragon article for regional Greyhawk feats but he should have given the Greyhawk wars...
I thought about Eldritch knight before but always balked at being lower powered on my spells..with this regional feat I have no worries..
You misssed the one that I had always used as a default model for Eldritch Knight- Ftr1/Wiz5, then go all the way in the PrC and pick up wizard levels again later. With Tenser's Transformation, Polymorph, Shapechange, etc., the need for more fighter levels is largely reduced.
Actually, I've seen gnome wizards with Con so high (and good HD rolls) that at about level 5 they had more hp than the fighter, so if you get that and use any shapechanging spells to take on the form of a combat-oriented creature (i.e., troll), you become an awesome melee brute without any multiclassing.