Quote Originally Posted by Postumus View Post
If building a caster to use heavy armor, and these days why wouldn't you, I find going 19/1 Wiz/Art is a better way to go since I won't be able to use evasion anyway. This split gives you higher DCs, more SPs, and another pet you can use situationally to open things if you don't want to put enhancement points into the skeletal knight.
Wizard level does not affect spell DCs directly. DCs are based on the level of the spell itself, or when you are using Heighten the DC is based on the level of the highest spell you can cast. Wizard 18 or 19 won't make a difference since the maximum level of spells both can cast is level 9 spells. OTOH Spell Penetration is based on class levels so you do get an extra point of that for adding another Wizard level, and if you do take the skellie pet it gets another level too.

Fighter 1 saves you a feat because it grants Heavy Armor Proficiency innately, and adds a free bonus Feat - albeit not a particularly useful one since it is from the "Martial" list. Dodge seems to be the most useful choice to me.

Another choice would be Wizard 18/Artificer 1/Cleric 1. Cleric also grants Heavy Armor Proficiency, and it also unlocks the Heal skill so you can take more ranks. More Negative spellpower is always nice to have. However that's really only an issue for a 32+ point build with tomes as otherwise you won't have enough skill points to invest in it anyway.

For hilarity you could go Wizard 18 / Artificer 1 / Barbarian 1. +10% movement speed is nice on any build. However you do need to spend a feat on Heavy Armor, like the 19/1 version.