So, my group is in dire need of a skillmonkey and an arcane caster and its up to me to play one. First thing that came to me was an Arcane Trickster, but I have never played any rogue-ish type before and because of that I'm a bit lost. Can you guys help me out?
Ability scores are: 16, 16, 14, 14, 14, 12
Starting Character level: 12
Books avaiable: Core Books, CDiv, CW, CAdv, CArc, BoED, 3.0 Class Suplements (Masters of the Wild, Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, Tome and Blood, Song and Silence), Magic of Faerun, Draconomicon.
PS: All classes from the Complete series are NOT allowed. Only core classes are avaiable (from PHB).
PS2: Feats from PHB2 are about to become avaiable once I finish translating them to portuguese. So they can be mentioned.
Main focus: skillmoneyness and surviviability. Combat prowess is NOT the main goal, but I'd like to be usefull in combat. NOT looking for a heavey sneak attack build.
1. Should I go Rogue 3/Wizard 5/AT 4? Is there any other viable option using only the books I mentioned above?
2. Should I make a specialist wizard? If so, what school should I specialize in and what schools should I drop?
3. What feats should I pick? (Feats from PHB2, Complete Champion, Complete Mage, Complete Scoundrel, Book of Exalted Deeds can be mentioned).
4. What skills should I max out?
5. What magic gear should I get?
6. What spells should I choose? What criteria should I follow? Spell synergy, spell combos are appreciated for both combat or better use of skills.
7. Combat tactis?
Thanks in advance and sorry for my english!
I want to say just go for Beguiler which is in the PHB2. Apparently that is not an option. 
Too bad because it sounds like it would fit what you need almost perfectly!
Sorry but I am not going to be a lot more help after that. I think your ability scores are absurd being equivalent to PB 42 if those are starting scores but at least 36 if the include level boosts which may not be going in the best places. As for what to do with your ability scores little thought is needed: you put 16s into DEX and INT and it really doesn't matter what you do with the rest because they are all still very high and basically the same although I would probably put the next highest score into CON. When it comes to book availability I am scared off by all of the 3.0 works which I believe does include BoED.
StevenO wrote:
The closest you've got to a skill monkey/arcane caster in the PHB is the bard; the absence of Complete Mage from your list of usable sources means no Melodic Casting feat (to stop your music from getting in the way of your spellcasting), though having the Book of Exalted Deeds does mean you can take Words of Creation (taking nonlethal damage to double the bonuses for many bardic music effects, amongst other things).
As I said, it's about the closest you'll get to the beguiler from a PHB class, though I'm not sure from the description you gave if you're allowed to use non-core prestige classes.
Slagger_the_Chuul wrote:
Zorza wrote: