RandomCasualty at [unixtime wrote:1149034047[/unixtime]]The hardest thing with Gishs in my experience is actually getting them off the ground. Sure, they're awesome at 20th level, but try playing one from 1st to 7th or so, and it's brutal.
I haven't gotten to play a decent gish in 3.5 yet, but my 1 fighter/5 wizard in 3.0 rocked the cazbah from level 1 on, I actually planned on taking Acolyte of the Skin just to tone him down some if we kept at that campaign. His schtick was mainly being an archer who the enemy could not hit due to his huge AC and avoidance capabilities (be it by running faster, alter selfed wings, or fly spell).
A Gish early on isn't that far off from a fighter in attack bonus or iterative attacks, so while they may feel slightly inferior to a normal caster, they shouldn't feel weak at all. If a gish is brutal to get off the ground, then so is a fighter.
In response to Book's observations.
1) if you are losing 4-6 buffs to a dispel then you are facing a caster with a much higher level than you. And he's using a 5th level slot too (i.e. if you have 4-6+ buffs running, then your caster level is high enough that dispel magic's +10 isn't gonna cut it). Be extremely happy that this caster who could easily TPK your group is instead wasting his time debuffing one character.
Go buy the DM a coke for being such a nice guy, after your party mops the floor with that EL +5 encounter.
I am basing my conclusions based on the assumption that the gish does not have 10+ buffs running and is only losing half of them, and that he is not a moron and actually took the practiced spellcaster feat (practically a pre-req for crafting your own items, which most gishes should want to do). If he is losing all his buffs to a targeted dispel, then he should do a little jig of joy that that is all he lost.
2) This is why it is important to build gishes that are not dependent upon Divine Power or Tenser's Transformation. Your walkabout stats should have decent HP still, along with a reasonable attack bonus and AC that is not ooze-like. This notion is the only reason to bother taking levels in crap like Eldritch Knight, which happens to be a staple of gish builds. If the gish is getting dropped in the surprise round (to a single standard action?!), then the wizard is dead, and the cleric is waning right there beside him.