EK is great if you are going for more sword than spells. Yes, you get 9/10 spellcasting, but the capstone ability is off of critical hits...which means you gotta hit something.
Wizard can combine well, Sorcerer can combine well for the spells side.
Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Fighter, heck...even Barbarian can work fantastically...what really matters is what you want to do.
If you ask 10 people on here to build the ultimate gish...you will get 12 builds.
So, other than being an optimized gish, what do you want to do?
If you're interested in battlefield control, and not a purely damage-gish build, you should take a look at Rage Prophet, built out of two levels of Barbarian and the remainder in Oracle of the Heavens. Make sure to take the curse of lame legs so that there are no penalties when exiting your rage.
The stacking of ability scores in the DC's on the spells is very powerful, and the synergy of the class features (Barbarian/Oracle) is also great. Take a look at it, it's my favourite Prestige Class.
Paladin 2/Sorcerer X/(possibly) eldritch knight X with a focus on Charisma is absolutely the best combo I've seen.
I got a character whose saves are so high he auto-passes CR-appropriate saves except for a natural 1. He even gets huge bonuses to his attack rolls when smiting (great for those melee/range spells) and is capable of healing himself small amounts of HP as a swift action.
Martial character/spellcaster/EK is better than just Martial character/spellcaster IMHO.
Without EK levels you will have a low Caster Level and BAB, you won't get a few nice things, that's true, but the Prestige Class does it better than multiclassing imo.
For a melee Fighter/Wizard I prefer Fighter 4/Wizard 6/EK 10 which gives you a BAB of 17 and a caster level of 15 (8th level spells). Yes you are giving up 9th level spells, but if you really wanted to concentrate on casting spells, you should just play a strait wizard. If you want to fight AND cast spells, you need to take some Figher (or other combat class) levels.
I usually suggest taking Fighter at 1st level. More HPs are good at 1st level and you are a melee Fighter. Then Wizard twice, then another level of Fighter to shore up your melee skills (1d10 HP, +1 BAB and 1 combat feat). Then 3 levels of Wizard to get you into EK. EK to level 17 where you get your Spell Critical Capstone ability (3 levels before base classes get their capstones). Then either Wizard/Fighter 2 or Fighter/Wizard/Fighter, either way you get your 4th attack at 19th level (if you play that high).
This again assume that you are running up to fight and not just sitting back and casting, because, again, if you are going to sit back and cast, why didn't you just make a strait Wizard?
If I am correct, ray spells can also trigger the spell critical. Trying to do it with weapons seems a waste.
Throw a contagious flame with improved critical (ray), and if it crits, throw another free contagious flame at the same target.
How many rays are you going to be able to cast? Plus even with improved crit you are only getting a crit 10% of the time, and that assumes you always confirm. With a scimitar or rapier and improved crit you threaten a crit 30% of the time and can get up to 5 attacks a round.
I'm particularly fond of Still spell for the Eldritch Knight -- after all you have plenty to do with your swift actions -- why spend two more feats and the action to do something you can do with one feat and no swift action?
As for action economy -- If it's a round I want to cast a quickened spell on I don't use arcane strike -- if I critical on said round I use a different spell then the one I was going to cast (the one I had prepared with quicken spell), probably of higher level. If I don't critical then I use the spell I have ready with the quicken spell feat.
If I'm not planning on quickening a spell that round I use arcane strike -- if I critical I just be glad that the extra damage from arcane strike is multiplied on the critical hit.
As for class combinations I like:
Witch/fighter -- I like having heal, I like having righteous might and I like having means to do stuff on a regular basis that isn't a spell and helps me hit more often.
Wizard/fighter -- The wizard bonus feats are nice and the spell list is good.
Bard/Dragon Disciple -- the bonuses have good synergy -- the buffs help with hitting. Light armor is nice if not perfect (though you might want to grab armor training as a trait so you can use a mithral breastplate with no penalty) and the shield use and natural armor help with your AC (of course). Several of the bard spells have good combat applications too.
Witch(or wizard) / Ranger -- it sounds odd I know but a few levels in ranger can get you bonus feats without needing to have great scores (it's a nice way to pick up precise shot for rays) and gives better saves/skills than the fighter. Some of the Archtypes work really well with this.
For eldritch knights I like having Familiars -- their HP doesn't suffer as much as it would for a normal caster, they get your better BAB and can be used as squires to hand you scrolls, potions, wands and the like without eating up your actions.
Witch works well with either the transformation patron or the one with divine favor and righteous might.
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Fighter type/witch/ek is actually quite fun. It's almost like the fighter/cleric/wizard of old. Really versatile.
As far as what fighter type to pick, unless one is a sorcerer, any of the fighty classes works fine. For sorcerers, paladin obviously has the best synergy.
If you wanna make a gish, EK is a must. Even if you using it as a filler class for the dragon disciple or arcan archer. Course if you not doing those two types of gish, then EK is pretty much the only game in town.
As for needing 4 levels of fighter...umm no and NO. Your giving up spell progression for +1 to hit and on average 4 hit points and some pretty minor class abilities. Hell I would almost say that you should for a generic gish do fighty 1/caster 5/EK 10/caster 3/fighty 1. That is to say get EK ASAP. Then get the last level of fighty for the 4th attack.
I really want to try playing a witch/ek. However, I just can't figure out in practice how you get to high level as a semi-front line class without the defenses you get from sorceror/wizard spells - i.e. shield and mirror image.
I am currently playing a Paladin2/Sorcerer6/Eldritch Knight 7 near the end of one of the adventure paths. At this level, I don't need shield/mirror image/swift lay on hands from paladin. However, along the way, those spells/abilities were very helpful.
As far as I can tell, the witch has no defensive spells on their base list. Do you play the witch as a flying archer? Or the arcane armor training path (which I did with my current EK, and later abandoned around 14th level)? I used the shield spell to compensate for not using a shield and mirror image to compensate for other deficiencies (lower HP for one than front line classes).
The strength patron witch has an extremely offensive buff spell list (heroism, greater heroism, transformation, divine favor, and divine power). Are cures, divine favor/power and hexes worth losing the flexibility of the standard wizard list and wizard specialization bonuses (extra spell per level mainly)?
*Sigh*
Shield as a spell isn't needed when you are casting in full plate with any sort of shield you want to use -- or just the full plate alone.
Still spell -- trust me on this -- even if you don't use a shield you still get plenty of AC to go with the few defensive spells you do get -- also keeping all of your HP isn't quite as much of a worry when you get the healing spells too.
Honestly though I would have a slight tweak on the normal build if you have access to the pathfinder companion: Seeker of Secrets.
Witch 5/Fighter 1/ EK x/ Pathfinder savant 2~4ish/EK x/ fighter 0~1
Get yourself some of the spells you feel you are lacking.
Just remember that at most levels mirror image isn't really going to help you... past level 13 true seeing becomes rather common (which means mirror image loses completely).
Don't worry to hard on getting a good Dex. In full plate it doesn't matter as much and with the ray spells you have (I would suggest reach spell is a good choice for a metamagic feat) and BAB you do have you don't really need that much Dex.
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I notice there are no suggestions to use Chavilier... spotted a few other APG suggestions but none from the Chavilier
Well cavalier can be okay if you have a teamwork feat that you like. Actually they are great if there is a teamwork feat you like as you can give it to everyone else in the party to make sure you can use it...well once per day anyways.
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I really want to try playing a witch/ek. However, I just can't figure out in practice how you get to high level as a semi-front line class without the defenses you get from sorceror/wizard spells - i.e. shield and mirror image.
If you really want mirror image, there is a patron that grants that. However, you don't need it as much when you have healing spells and vampiric touch. Just block with your face.
I've seen some EK's have success with the American football 'quarterback' approach---they use reach weapons with enlarge and often lunge and pack the squares in front of them with summoned monsters and other melees who try to dance appropriately to trade off giving soft cover to the EK's opponents vs keeping the lines adequately tight to discourage any melee focus fire on them. Abraham's approach of just eating the still spell on a lot of your spell preps and going the full plate without any arcane armor training or the like works nicely also, and really reduces the pressure on your swift actions. You could go the QB route and use your healing occasionally to prevent the designated victim from dying every now and then (very very situational until you get heal, which is pretty much the only generally useful combat heal in pathfinder or any of the 3.x editions). The problem with the QB though is there's no reach weapon I'm aware of with a good crit range, which makes it harder to get spell critical going (usually want a falchion or the like to make that work), so you'd have to settle for only 15' range. 25' reach is a lot nicer---it's like having a nicely protected pocket to lay the smackdown with your polearm of choice.
The EK in my campaign uses reach weapons successfully, he can also polymorph in dire animals, dealing ridiculous ammounts of damage per round.
I'm currently in a campaign where I am playing a Fighter 1/Wizard (Diviner-foresight subschool) 5/Eldritch Knight 10, and it is awesome.
The rest of the party is Fighter (2hander archetype) 16, Monk (of the 4winds archetype) 16, Cleric (Freedom and Fate domains) 16, and Wizard (Necromancer - Life subschool) 16.
I cannot hit as hard as the fighter or the monk.
My MAD prevented me from jacking my intelligence like the pure wizard, so my saves are not that tough to beat and beating SR is by no means guaranteed.
But man, is it ever a fun build. Just as Umbral Reaver suggested previously up-thread, I am getting So. Much. Mileage. out of scorching ray and contagious flame. Improved Critical (Ray) affords that 10% crit chance, and Critical Focus grants a +4 to confirm on them, which are ranged touch attacks. If I'm too far away to be swinging my elven curve blade, I toss out a stilled scorching ray. 3 attack rolls, 3 chances to crit, 1 standard action. If one of them crits, I still have that swift action to burn on spell critical and do it again.
We threw down against 4 giants last time and in one round in particular, I was adjacent to one of the giants. I swung with my sword, intending to full attack but the initial attack was a crit. I then burned my swift action to cast a stilled contagious flame, one ray of which also critted. At this point, I forfeited my remaining iterative attacks to cast a stilled scorching ray, which also crit but I was out of actions to burn on more uses of spell critical =(
I made 8 attack rolls that round, and 7 of them were ranged touch attacks. And with sickening critical, I debuffed 2 of the four giants (too bad sickened + sickend does not = nauseated) while laying down a satisfying amount of damage.
It. Was. Awesome.
And I cannot wait to walk up to the BBEG, hit him with my sword, sicken him, and then pop him with a dimensional anchor so he can't get away.
I'm pretty sure that this build wouldn't be nearly as fun if we didn't start the campaign at level 15 (low levels of Eldritch Knight do not seem to shine on paper), but it is of fun now. And effective.
Highly recommended if you play to the EK's strengths - and focusing on spells that allow for attack rolls and the critical feats is proving to be very rewarding in my experience.
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For my mileage, Pally 5/Sorc 2/Arcane Archer X does the trick best. Awesome spells, arcane archer is actually pretty good, 3d6 healings on self as swift action, and the ability to wand lots of great spells. Not the highest of caster level, but some nice buffs can be had, and you'll never feel underpowered. Far better a fighting type; and having saves go through the roof is a nice bonus. Go halfling, Dex and Cha bonuses.
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For my mileage, Pally 5/Sorc 2/Arcane Archer X does the trick best. Awesome spells, arcane archer is actually pretty good, 3d6 healings on self as swift action, and the ability to wand lots of great spells. Not the highest of caster level, but some nice buffs can be had, and you'll never feel underpowered. Far better a fighting type; and having saves go through the roof is a nice bonus. Go halfling, Dex and Cha bonuses.
Str: 13 (7)
Int: 7 (-4)
Wis: 7 (-4)
Dex: 18
Con: 11
Chr: 18
Feats: point blank, precise, rapid, deadly aim, multishot (standard archer fare).
You can argue Pal 3 / Fighter 2 to get feats online faster; better short term, worse long term.
My point is that they just released an errata for the core rulebook. If this was intended as an official errata, it would be in the book. If you, the GM, want to allow it, then it's your game; but it's not RAW.
It keeps getting overlooked -- JJ has specifically stated that it is errata -- just one they keep missing when they go to put in the new errata.
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If I'm too far away to be swinging my elven curve blade, I toss out a stilled scorching ray.
ECB is a two-handed weapon. Not sure you can use with that build and still cast spells. Mine uses a single scimitar.
ahhh, never mind. you said stilled spell. either way, i prefer the scimitar and not waste the feat on still spell.
If I'm too far away to be swinging my elven curve blade, I toss out a stilled scorching ray.ECB is a two-handed weapon. Not sure you can use with that build and still cast spells. Mine uses a single scimitar.
ahhh, never mind. you said stilled spell. either way, i prefer the scimitar and not waste the feat on still spell.
Yours only works if 3.5 material is available.
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Well my prefered 3.5 gish was fighter 1/wizard 6/spellsword 5/abjurant champion 5/EK 3. This only gave me BAB 17 and CL 16...but spell channel from spellsword was just a lot of fun. Course you kinda suck til about level 11+ so it's a really rough 1-20 build. And you kinda still suck at high levels due to lack of higer level spells unless you resort to things like spell channeling solid fog spells or AMF.
For generic PF only gish, I do fighter 1/wizard 5/EK 10/wizard 3/fighter 1. The reason I take my last level as a fighter is that it gives me 16 BAB at that level...which means I can use the fighter bonus feat to get one of those nice tasty 16 BAB req feats.
Well mithril studded leather is 5% ASF without arcane armor training. That's what I generally use for my PF gish character. In 3.5 games, I used mithril breastplates.
From the PRD:
Items not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of mithral.
I don't think Studded Leather can benefit from Mithral :(
Now for the final capstone - is Arcane Armour training/mastery worth it or just go with Still Spell?
I prefer just going with Still Spell if you're going with Eldritch Knight, simply due to the action economy. If you don't have stilled spells prepared, you can't full attack and use your spell critical capstone ability as reliably. Arcane Armor Training/Mastery takes a swift action to use, Spell Critical take a swift action to use.
With Still Spell, you don't have to worry about ASF at all in this regard.
YMMV
Now for the final capstone - is Arcane Armour training/mastery worth it or just go with Still Spell?
For a prepared caster still spell is the better choice.
AAT/M:
Two feats
Eats up a Swift action
Doesn't help beyond 20%
Doesn't free up your hands
Still spell
One feat
Eats up a spell level -- for most spells
Doesn't need to be used on all day buffs
Eliminates ASF
Allows free use of the hands
Doesn't need a swift action
For a sorcerer AAT/M might be the better choice.