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Use all level-up points to boost CHA and remember to use Eagle's Splendor to boost it even further.

Here are the skills and Feats you should take for this character. As both
Intimidate and Bluff are cross-class skills, the 5 points per level-up aren't quite enough to keep up. I'd keep the first two maxed and add points to
Intimidate as much as possible, and with extra points keep Diplomacy & Bluff about even. Once Spellcraft has reached six, it's enough to acquire the elemental feats so we'll have an extra skill point per level to add to the other skills from there on.

Skills : Concentration
Spellcraft (only up to 6)
Diplomacy
Intimidate
Bluff

Feats : 1 - Subvocal casting
3 - Spell Focus : Evocation
6 - Greater Spell Focus : Evocation
9 - Spirit of Flame
12 - Aegis of Rime
15 - Spell Focus : Necromancy
18 - Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
21 - Scion of Storms
24 - Spell Focus: Enchantment
27 - Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
30 - Aqua Mortis

This is fairly identical to the list for the Diplomat character in the
Melee party, so I wont' comment in it again.

Comments, strategies & notes:
  -----------------------------

During the early chapters this character is going to have to use a crossbow quite a bit, even if he's not going to hit much of anything with it. However, it's a property of being a spell caster that you start out extremely weak, but become a killing machine later on.

Spell selection:
  ----------------

Here's a list of spells to take for this character during the course of the game, in order of which you should pick them. 1st level:
Chromatic Orb (after level 7, stuns opponents for a long time)
Sleep (becomes useless fast, but helps the party through beginning)
Mage Armor (better than any armor found in the game for quite some time)
Burning Hands (to finish up trolls)
Ray of Enfeeblement (major STR penalty on tough monsters)
Magic Missile (to take down enemy's Mirror Images fast)
Grease (not very useful but we have to pick 7th) 2nd level:
Aganazzar's Scorcher (best damage in early game)
Cat's Grace (necessary buff for a long time to come)
Protection from Arrows (significant help as there are lots of archers)
Mirror Image (old faithful - run away during early game)
Luck (go read chapter "How lucky can you get?" if you really need to ask)
Gedlee's Electric Loop (if surrounded by monsters in HOF mode)
Eagle's Splendor (to free the slot from the wizard) 3rd level:
Fireball (can you say ouch?)
Ghost Armor (VERY much necessary buff for the decoy all through the game)
Slow (a great help against any monster group)
Skulltrap (unbelievable damage for a 3rd level spell and resistible)
Flame Arrow (like skulltrap but without splash damage)
Dire Charm (not very useful but we have to pick 6th)
Dispel Magic (same here) 4th level:
Stoneskin (almost total protection for everyone for a VERY long time)
Spirit Armor (in times when Mage Armor just isn't enough)
Emotion: Hope (great bonuses for a long time)
Emotion: Despair (makes the life miserable for enemies)
Fire Shield: Blue (protects from stray fireballs)
Malison (if needs to prepare for some other spell) 5th level:
Dominate Person (work against your enemies by using your enemies)
Sunfire (our tanks are mostly immune, so blast away)
Chaos (this spell helps the melee char)
Cone of Cold (against those stupid fire-immune monsters)
Lower Resistance (to beat super-tough monsters)
Hold Monster (not very useful but others are even worse) 6th level:
Mass Haste (probably the best buff spell in the whole game)
Disintegrate (big bad monster says POOF)
Acid Storm (sure as hell beats bugged Chain Lightning)
Shades (it finally starts giving good monsters by now)
Chain Lightning (bugged, but still better than the rest) 7th level:
Delayed Blast Fireball (ultimate mass-bombardment spell)
Mordenkainen's Sword (Guardian, anyone?)
Finger of Death (mage? what mage? oh you mean that corpse?)
Prismatic Spray (if surrounded by enemies, not very good)
Seven Eyes (any protection is good protection, I guess) 8th level:
Symbol of Hopelessness (hold it right there, folks)
Horrid Wilting (evasion you say? taste this!)
Mind Blank (makes Chaotic Commands obsolete for Clerics)
Power Word: Blind (if surrounded by enemies) 9th level:
Wail of the Banshee (tactical nuke that doesn't kill own - sweet)
Meteor Shower (Blasting with lots of points for style)
Aegis (quick emergency protection)
Mass Dominate (I'd prefer the Wail any time, but since we need a 4th..)

Alternate Character Choices:
  ----------------------------

Choosing a human would allow for a better coverage for the various talking skills, as one could add one (or two) level as a rogue to make both
Intimidate and Bluff class skills. Considering that Aasimar has +1 ECL penalty, the level-up speed wouldn't even be compromised. However, as the focus of the Arcane party is on blasting, the Aasimar's +2 CHA bonus brings a very nice +1 overall bonus to spell DCs - plus a few extra spells. IMHO, the various talking skills are nice, but not to the point that I'd like to make sacrifices in other areas to acquire them.

A bit more daring approach would be to rely on the destructive power of
Wail of the Banshee, allowing one to stop advancing as a Sorcerer already at level 20, after which one wouldn't get any new castings anyway. Extra levels could be taken as Fighter (for extra feats & plenty of Hit Points),
Monk (Evasion ability plus excellent base saves), Ranger (free dual-wielding) or even Barbarian (more hit points than Fighter, but would require dropping the Paladin level). However, I personally like to broaden the Sorcerers spell selection as much as possible, and extra duration on many of the buffs is nicer than some oddball bonus here and there, so JUPP doesn't promote this choice.

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4.4 - Utility infielder & buffer & debuffer & bombardier

Drow Rogue(1)/Diviner(29)
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NOTE: This character must be a male in order to avoid EXP penalties. Also,
I'd suggest neutral or evil alignment for one of the items.

As the fourth character in the JUPP's Arcane party, a utility infielder rounds up the party's roles that need to be filled. However, this character is by no means a filler character but a full-blown wizard as well, bringing the bombardier count to about three-and-a-half in a four-man party.
(The Cleric/Druid doesn't quite compare to arcane casters in power, but it's still positive contribution.)

Take the single rogue level to gain a boost in initial skill points and to transform many of the skills to use class skill caps instead of cross-class.

Starting statistics:
  --------------------
STR 11
DEX 20
CON 16
INT 20
WIS 8
CHA 5

If you don't want to min-max, use 9/18/12/20/12/9 instead.

Put all the level-up points into INT and wear the best +INT equipment you can find, the Xvimian Fang of Despair being the best of them. This gives a hefty boost into our spell casting abilities as well as rogue skills.

Here are the skills and Feats you should take for this character:

Skills : Concentration (keep maxed)
Spellcraft
Alchemy
Knowledge: Arcana
Search
Disable Device
Hide (initial points only)
Move Silently (initial points only)
Wilderness Lore (lowest priority)

Feats  : 1 - Subvocal Casting
2 - Spell Focus : Enchantment (Wiz extra)
3 - Greater Spell Focus : Enchantment
6 - Expertise
6 - Spell Focus: Transmutation (Wiz extra)
9 - Greater Spell Focus: Transmutation
11 - Combat Casting (Wiz extra)
12 - Spell Focus: Evocation
15 - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
16 - Spirit of Flame (Wiz extra)
18 - Spell Focus: Necromancy
21 - Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
21 - Aqua Mortis (Wiz extra)
24 - Lightning Reflexes
26 - Iron Will (Wiz extra)
27 - Aegis of Rime
30 - Dash

I suppose there's nothing special here. Subvocal casting is needed to keep this character churning out spells at all times, and Enchantment magic helps during the early chapters, especially when the Sorc is concentrating more on the directly damaging magic. A charm here and there works wonders.
Transmutation has two important spells - slow and disintegrate. Next, by taking Evocation and elemental feats, this character turns into a full- blooded blaster dropping fire and other elemental magics left and right. And finally, taking GSF: Necromancy is going to make the high-level Necromancy spells (Wail of the Banshee especially) almost impossible to resist. The rest is just filler feats, as there just aren't that many good ones. Taking
Expertise early on is not really necessary as this is not a high-AC character, but it certainly makes it much tougher for the enemies to hit him during the normal mode. Taking it later on would be rather pointless as it doesn't make a difference against HOF monsters.

Comments, strategies & notes:
  -----------------------------

This character is the ideal person to wield the Chain of Drakkas and Chain of Drakka's Fury once they're found. Fairly impressive armor classes can be obtained by keeping the buffs up - a perfect thing for a mage. Also, a shield could be worn by trading some of the less important feats for Armored Arcana to enhance AC even further.

Don't worry about having two wizards in the group - there are plenty of low-level scrolls and the decoy doesn't need many scrolls for his Illusionist levels until HOF mode or so. Both are also ECL races with mix-in classes, so the problem with having too high caster levels before the scrolls are found shouldn't exist for this group.

A Diviner specialist class was chosen as the Sorcerer already has very good access to Conjuration spells (all the various Armor spells) and the decoy learns them as well towards the end. Besides, this party is all about blasting, not summoning helpers and staying behind.

Spell selection:
  ----------------

Number in parentheses denotes take only up to this many, otherwise you can mix'n'match as much as you like.

1: Identify(0-3), Shield, Charm Person(0-3), Ray of Enfeeblement
2: Eagle's Splendor(0-2), Cat's Grace(0-2), Luck(0-2), Mirror Image
3: Dire Charm(0-3), Haste(0-2), Slow, Fireball(0-3)
4: Emotion: Hope(2-3), Emotion: Despair
5: Dominate Person(0-3), Chaos, Lower Resistance(0-2), Cone of Cold(0-3)
6: Disintegrate(1-2), Acid Storm