Rogue / Magus Arcane Trickster?

[EsperMagic]

So I saw the Spire Defender archetype for the Magus which gives you Combat Expertise and Dodge at level one. So even with the oddity of how the armor proficiency works with the archetype I still have 0 ASF with the levels in rogue. If I'm a half elf then the drow magic alternate racial trait gives me Darkness as a SLA so I can enter Arcane Trickster a level early. The build will be a level 15 character with 20 point buy. So I figured max damage at level 15 is if I can spellstrike and sneak attack at the same time with an intensified shocking grasp is 10d6(Shocking grasp)+1d6(scimitar)+7d6(SA)=18d6 or 29d6 on a crit. But is this viable? Im not really looking to do the standard wizard build so I thought this might be a little more interesting. Rogue 3/Magus 2/AT 10

[Atarlost]

No. This is not viable. Arcane Trickster loses too much BAB to work in melee. Medium casting with poor BAB does not work. Unless you find a poor BAB summoner oriented PRC.

Just forget arcane trickster. You might be able to do rogue/magus multiclass and not be a complete waste of space if you mind the BAB breakpoints. Take them in multiples of 4 so you don't wind up with below medium BAB.

[LoneKnave]

Well, could work if you advance the AT levels with Evangelist.

Also some more possible BAB if you somehow combine slayer and vivisectionist alchemist levels instead of rogue maybe?

Vivisectionist is kindof a better choice than rogue anyway.

[Draco Bahamut]

I am bulding a similar build, but i am using the Card Caster archetype from The Harrow Handbook for ranged sneak attack fun. It will be for a NPC in my campaing so i don't need too much optimization, but i guess it's ok.

[Gregory Connolly]

You can go that way, or you can do trickster a few other non-standard ways as well.

Ninja 3/Skirnir 1/Arcane Trickster X is slightly faster and lets you use a shield at the cost of spell combat.

If you want you can go the natural attack build Rogue 3/Transmuter 1/Arcane Trickster X and polymorph yourself into something with lots of natural attacks for your sneak attack.

[Scott Wilhelm]

I'm working on an AT build, but mine is not intended for melee at all. When combat starts, he will disappear, but the party will know he hasn't gone far when the baddies start dropping 1 by 1.

The thing about those class-blending Prestige Classes is that you retard you development of class abilities from your base classes. To my mind, that means sacrificing base class abilities for more and better spells. If you want to wade into melee with magical buffs, just stick with Magus. As an Arcane Trickster, I'm going with Rogue/Wizard.

Magus seems a natural for Arcane Archer, though.

Another thought, if you want magical buffs and Precision Damage, consider dipping into Alchemist with the Vivisectionist Archetype.

[EsperMagic]

well to be fair I though AT's were medium BAB not 1/2 BAB so forget that concept. I like the class but outside of ranged touch attacks, it might just suck.