[3.5] Optimizing Hexer Entry Via Archivist

[Thurbane]

So, say I want to have a Hobgolin gish with an Archivist base and into Hexer ASAP.

Hexer requires 10 ranks in Survival, Knowledge (arcana) and 8 ranks in Spellcraft. It also requires the ability to cast Lightning Bolt as a divine spell (which Archivist 5 can easily do with a scroll from an Adept).
Ideally, I would like to lose as few caster levels as possible, and have heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency. Any thoughts on entry route?

Assume the LA of the Hobgoblin in hand waved and there are no multiclassing XP penalties in play.

Hobgoblin, Archivist and Hexer are set, all else is flexible. Bonus points if you can squeeze some ToB in there.
Cheers - T

[Zaq]

Well, you can buy armor proficiency and weapon proficiency with feats. It's not generally a very efficient use of feats, but if you value lost feats as being less bad than lost caster levels, that is an option.

Survival can be obtained as a class skill by taking Apprentice (Woodsman), from DMG2. So really, with enough feat expenditure, you can get everything you want without losing caster levels. But the question is whether you can squeeze in enough feats to make it worthwhile. Flaws will make this much easier, of course. If you've got a taste for cheese, you can also buy feats with magical locations (the most famous of which being Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole, but there are others in a similar vein) and use the Dark Chaos Shuffle to turn them into whatever you want, expending only gold in the process.

If you'd rather dip into something and lose one caster level than blow all your feats, I don't know if there's a class that gets Survival AND heavy armor proficiency AND martial weapons. Ranger gets Survival, martial weapons, and light armor proficiency, so that would put you closer than an Archivist would have, but it's not all the way there. Barbarian gets Survival, martial weapons, and medium armor proficiency. A Cleric with the Travel domain gets Survival, simple weapons, and heavy armor proficiency, and if you grab the War domain, you can get a single martial weapon proficiency.

So yeah. Either burn a ton of feats, burn a couple caster levels, or burn a caster level and at least one feat, but I don't think you're going to get everything you're hoping for without sacrificing at least a little bit.

[Thurbane]

Thanks - probably going to go a 1 level martial dip (maybe Crusader) + the Apprentice (woodsman) feat.