How can you get an effective warrior/ arcane spellcaster build in this game?

the armor restrictions basically make it imposible to have a decent tank who can cast.

Not that this is a build that I like, Krunchy, but I'd say that you should "armor" yourself with normal magely stuff, i.e. amulets, bracers, robes, etc., and with various spell-based protections, Mage Armor, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Fire Shield, etc.


I've never been fond of arcane spellswords because it's an awful lot of work (i.e. casting) to get a spellsword sufficiently buffed to safely send him into battle. And one Dispel Magic casting and poof! ... it's all gone.

There is an armor that has 0% failure on arcane spells but it comes much later in the game.

An alternative is to take the feat which reduces casting failure. AFAIK you can get it up to 15% allowing you to use a shield and wear basic leather armor. Combined with very good dexterity +4 deep gnome AC and rings, bracers etc you can make a good spellsword without any spell buffs.

A spellsword to me seems like a melee character who has mage levels primarily for defensive buffs (and maybe sunfire). Try a drow mage with fighter, barbarian, paladin, or rogue levels attatched. Use mage robes or that nice 0% casting failure armor, and be sure to prebuff with such spells as shield, Tenser's, fireshields, stoneskin, mirror image, etc.

Two spellsword-type characters that I use are the deep gnome decoy and the drow ranger/paladin/rogue/mage.