In my lowly opinion what is less of a headache and more versatile?, Artificer? possibly. Sorcerer? Maybe. But I was reading threw my Spell compendium book and such looking for spells I could use as a blaster and such and even though this class has alot of spells, its low on blasty type spells, But what spells it does have kicks butt and are very versatile
, im Talking about the Druid. But If you want blaster, I suggest Artificer or Druid. Both offer great versatility.
If you go Artificer, try a Warforged Artificer and hide behind a big shield, then take 2 lvls of rogue. Then grab 18 lvls of Artificer, that way you can make use of the wonderful Warforged components and your on watch all the time
. But the thing is that if your DM imposes level penalties, then go with Warforged Scout from MM3.
Go with Wand of Orb of Force, make a few of them and stick it in the wand sheath that Warforges enjoy. Then just hide behind a heavy metal shield (Incase your GM likes destroying things). There is a Barricade Shield (I think thats the name) from Magic Item Compendium.
Also metamagic up, as a orb of force thats maximized, twinned, repeat, empower, Admixture, can take down a TON! of bad guys with little to no difficulties, sense the orb of force doesnt require you to have a SR or Reflex for the bad guy
. Sense Artificers have metamagic spell trigger, you can boost up a orb of force to insane damage at the cost of additional charges.
You can also take your first lvl feat and put it into something besides Armor feat. There are some Warforged sub lvls that may help you out, I just cant remember where they are but they do grant you Dark vision and such which makes going on watch Tons easier. Also consider a Robe of the Artificer AKA Mage. Do something like that later to boost your saves, and the like. If you have a high Dex consider taking Crossbow Sniper and get the attachment for your hand later on
. Theres pretty good enchantments for a crossbow weilder. The Extra sneak attack from your Rogue 2 lvls may help too specially when you use your crossbow, and your spells, D6 may not look like alot but it is in the long run of things.