Which multiclass to choose for melee-damage-dealing mage when starting from Wizard 5 / Fighter 1

Question

RPG: DnD 3.5

Hi! I need advice on which classes to choose to multiclass in to make a super-high-damage-dealing melee character who also knows magic (currently, the char is Wizard 5/Fighter 1). I've been doing research on magic weilding classes in melee, but am still unsure about which to choose. Kind of torn between Eldrich Knight, Duskblade, and Spellsword.

My current character is a level 5 wizard with 1 fighter level. As a wizard, he is specializing in Transmutation (focusing on spells like Bull's Strength, Cat's grace, etc). The forbidden schools as a wizard are Necromancy (kind of sorry I chose that one as forbidden) and Abjuration.

I know that if I leave him as a Wizard, he'll be able to do more damage overall, but melee is too much fun, so I want to grow him to do damage in melee. I've read that Duskblade doesn't care about Wizard specialization, so I'd be able to use Duskblade's Necro spells. But with Eldrich Knight I could advance my spell casting levels and get cooler feats, it seems. I tried to google which one is better: eldrich knight or duskblade, but couldn't find comparison of the two.

So my question is: if my goal is to make a high-damage-dealing melee fighter who uses magic, should I choose Duskblade or Eldrich Knight (or something else) to multi-class in if I'm already a 5th lvl Transmutation Wizard & Fighter 1?

Current character stats:

Race: Elf

Wizard 5 (spec: Transmutation, forbidden: Necro & Abjur) /Fighter 1

• str:14
• dex:14
• con:10
• int:15
• wis:12
• cha:13

HP: 27 :(

Relevant spells: Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Magic Weapon, Shield Bearer, Cat's Grace (Lesser), Blur, Bull's Strength, Scintillating Sphere.

Feats: great fortitude, craft wonderous item, toughness, quicken spell, weapon focus: longsword.

Answer 1

The resource you're looking for is: The Gish Handbook. With your current build, additional levels of wizard are absolutely indicated, as finding spells to increase your melee combat abilities is far easier than taking levels of fighter.

The PrC you'd normally take at this level is Abjurant Champion, as per here, though you've made Abjuration as one of your forbidden schools (see if you can change that to evocation through some kind of retraining quest as per DMG2). You may also want to explore the swiftblade, though at present you don't qualify for it.

In your particular situation, assuming that you can't be permanently polymorphed into a dwarf for the notable runesmith, the eldritch knight is certainly not a horrible choice, and far better than additional levels of fighter. Use Eldritch knight to burn time until you can qualify for swiftblade, and then play with that class.

Answer 2

A Duskblade is a base class, which means you'd start anew with a new casting progression and it's always bad to lose spellcasting class levels to something else, whether it is to lose Wizard levels for Duskblade levels or the opposite.

The reason behind this is that higher level spells are always better than getting a lot more low level spells. Wizards start getting good melee buff spells such as polymorph and later polymorph any object and shapechange from Wiz7. Effectively, you've already lost something by getting that Fighter level (unless you couldn't get the requirements for Eldritch Knight by getting the competence elsewhere e.g. from the Militia regional feat from Player's Guide to Faerun).

Optimization-wise, friends who played both tell me Duskblades are a very solid class, almost overpowered during the early levels, but lose in power later, so despite losing two spellcaster levels your actual build might be the best among the given ones. If possible, follow with Abjurant Champion for the full BAB.