Book wrote:With the advent of the full slew of Swift Action buffs in recent releases, the Gish archetype has really blossomed ... and become much easier to implement. Prior to this, Gishes worked best when the primary arcanist would cast "stalling" spells (Solid Fog, Walls, etc.) to lead off a combat encounter. This gave the party a decent amount of time to self-buff and better position themselves to fight.
While it is true that the swift action spells have given the gish(and the mage) a big power-up, the gish build was always good, even with only Core BS.
It looked like this:
Elf or Human with Exotic weapon Prof(bastard sword)
Stats, in order: Str, Dex, cast stasting, but no bigger than 13-14), Con, Cha or Int, Wis
Equipment: Spellstoring weapon(3rd level), mithril buckler(best bonus you can afford, 5th level), animal buff equipment(Str, Dex, Con, casting stat)
Feats:
1st: Extend Spell,
3rd: fighting feat: Power Attack or Mounted Combat
6th:fighting feat: Two Weapon Fighting or Spirited Charge
9th: Quicken Spell
Familiar:Toad(+3 HPs)
Spells:
1st: Mage Armor
2nd: Mirror Image, False Life
3rd: Haste, Greater Magic Weapon, Blink, Circle of Protection from Evil
4th:Stoneskin, Greater Invisiblity, Polymorph
5th: Quickened True Strike, Quickened Magic MissileSo you started your life as an elf wth Mage Armor, and you bowed people. Mostly you wanted to cast a real mage spell like
Sleep or
Color Spray.
By 3rd level, you had
Mirror Image and
False Life, so you could mix it up in melee and not die, but you were wasting an action at the beginnng of every combat to cast
Mirror Image. At this level, you are a a better Tank than a Fighter as enemies hit your
Mirror Images and take HPs from your
Flase Life, but you do less damage. Like a fighter, you have 2 combats before you are useless(he needs a cleric to get more combats, you need Pearls of Power).
By 5th-6th level, you started to come into your own. You are 3 BAB behind your pal the fighter and you are starting to notice this. On the bright side, your weapon is now max enchanted with
Greater Magic Weapon, you can afford a Spellstoring Weapon(and after every combat you put another awesome spell into it, which is a debuffer or something simple like
Scorching Ray). In the race with the fighter, you now have supremecy: your Spellstoring Weapon means that your average damage per combat can now match him or you have the option of debuffing, and you still are a better tank. Tough combats have you casting
Blink and
Mirror Image, and days where you expect little action have you casting
Circle of Protection From Evil or
Haste as a party buff. The fighter is pickng up Leadership because he needs a full-time cleric to heal him.
At 7th-8th level, its game over: you spend your first round becoming a Troll most combats, and only do
Blink or
Mirror Image for very tough combats. The fighter is doing less damage per combat and you have the option iof debuffing. Now you pick up a second Spell Storing Weapon and either use it with Two Weapon Fighting or Spirited Charge). The fighter is short in the pants, and weeps during every combat.
At 9th-10th level, you cast Quickened spells every turn in combat. Some are a small as
True Strike or
Magic Missile[i/], but others are Color Spray. At this level, the fighter gets an Artifact Sword because he's been bitching for three levels, and he draws up to your power. At this point, you invest in some better enhancements for your weapon like Ghost Touch or "some elemental damage", or you round out the enhancement bonuses to stats that you've been collecting. It really doesn't matter.
At his level, the Fighter knows that the DM is lifting him up to sit in the big-boy chair during combat, and the gish is ten times as useful out of combat as he's got Teleport and Fabricate and Detect Thoughts and all kinds of crazy crap.
Later levels have the gish busting out craziness like Quickened Invisibility or Mirror images, and he stops being hit in combat by any non-spell effect (and most spell effects).
While at any point in this build the mage could have outdamaged the fighter with AoEs or outperformed him by using crap like solid fog, he has definitively outfought him at almost every point. I think the Fighter is a win at 2nd level only, and equal at 1st and 3rd level. 
