Min/Max Boards

Your interpretation would also imply that Dragonborn with 6 or more HD would be able to fly up to their move speed as a free action. This is clearly absurd.

The proper interpretation is that you can sprout wings as a free action. You can then use those wings to glide/fly as part of a move action (as normal for someone with those movement types).

For what it's worth, though, Warblades already have plenty of ways to get a psuedo-pounce, such as Pouncing Charge and Quicksilver Motion. Then there's always spending a feat on Travel Devotion or dipping Barbarian.

Not relevant at your level, but look into the Summon Elemental feat once you're able to cast 4th level spells. It lets you summon small elementals at will provided you have a summoning spell of 4th level or higher remaining. These don't last long (4-9 rounds) and are pretty worthless in combat, but they are excellent short range scouts. Who cares if your disposable minions get hit by the ambushing archers?

I'm particularly fond of earth elementals, as their earth glide ability lets them see what's in a room without you having to open the door.

You can take Favored more than once. Also, one of the prerequisites is an Intelligence-based skill, so this should work:

Quote from: Ravenloft Legacy of Blood page 92

Laborious Training [General]
Your selfless dedication to study and the long hours you have spent training for your craft have given you an increased capacity for learning.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Knowledge (any one) 5 ranks.
Benefit: Your maximum rank in any Intelligence- based skill equals 5 + your character level.
Normal: A character’s maximum rank in any skill equals 3 + character level.

EDIT: looking it over, I cannot find where the Favored feat gives you an extra rank. Could someone point it out for me? Found it, you actually need the Primary Contact feat, which makes it twice as feat-costly to use as early entry.

Even then, you can't enter before level 9, bringing your spellcasting in line with a wizard. Your build would look like Bard 1 / Wizard 5 / X 2 / Sublime Chord 10 / Y 2. I suppose the two spare levels are useful for theurging, but it's still not groundbreaking.

The problem with Sublime Chord as an accelerated casting PrC is that unless you find a way to break the skill rank cap, you can't enter it before level 11. At that point it overwrites your casting progression and effectively puts you 1 level behind a sorcerer. It still buys you a few levels of overwritten CL loss, but you won't be casting spells earlier than the party wizard.

I'd try to build Nodwick, although I'm not quite sure how to go about that in 3.5. Commoner 20 would be the most logical chassis to build off, but I'm not sure how to get his encumbrance up without increasing his strength  .

Well, BardBlades are pretty awesome for TWFing. You said you don't want a cookie cutter build, so here's a modified version. It does rely on your DM agreeing that you can dual wield unarmed strike, though. How the build progresses depends on whether you're allowed to take flaws or not.

Without Flaws:
NG Human Bard 3 / Warblade 5 / Fist of the Forest (CC) 3 / Warblade 6-14 (Bard 3 / Warblade 14 / Fist of the Forest 3)
H Power Attack
1 Improved Unarmed Strike
3 Two Weapon Fighting
6 Superior Unarmed Strike
WB Great Fortitude
9 Song of the White Raven
12 Words of Creation (BoED)
15 Improved TWF
18 Greater TWF

With Flaws:
NG Human Bard 2/ Warblade 1 / Bard 3 / Warblade 2-5 / Fist of the Forest (CC) 3 / Warblade 6-14 (Bard 3 / Warblade 14 / Fist of the Forest 3)
F Power Attack
F Improved Unarmed Strike
H Two Weapon Fighting
1 Words of Creation (BoED)
3 Song of the White Raven
6 Superior Unarmed Strike
WB Great Fortitude
9 Improved TWF
12 Greater TWF
15 [Free]
18 [Free]

Useful Equipment:
Amulet of Mighty Fists
Vest of Legends
Masterwork Mandolin

Useful Buffs (Get your party Wizard to cast these, buy them a pearl of power or two if necessary)
Greater Mighty Wallop (RotD)
Haste

As you can see, this build is horrendously feat starved. Being able to take 2 flaws would be necessary for it to be realistically playable. It's also MAD as anything. That said, it should put out some impressive numbers, while not being game-breakingly powerful. Inspire Courage will give you and your allies +10 to attack and +8 to damage for at least 6 rounds, 3 times per day. With IC and Greater Mighty Wallop, your Unarmed Strikes do up to 12d8 + Str + 8. If you use both Raging Mongoose and Time Stands Still, you get 22 of those on a full attack (+2 if Hasted). The +10 from IC should ensure that most of those hit, too.

This build also qualifies for Bloodclaw Master. This PrC would fit perfectly with the animalistic fluff of a Fist of the Forest. If you're willing to bend the 2 Base classes + 1 PrC rule, it would be well worth considering.

I thought about including Dragonfire Inspiration, but this build is just too hard up for feats. If you're taking flaws, you could play as a Silverbrow Human and fit it in, but by the time you'd have room most CR-appropriate enemies will have fire resistance. Since you can't take more than 2 flaws you can't take Dragontouched and Draconic Heritage to turn that into a more useful energy type. That said, the attack bonus is probably more useful to you anyway, so I'd be surprised if it was worth the hassle.

You've mentioned that your friends typically min/max, but just to be clear, roughly what power level do they tend to play at? Can you describe what you think they will want to play as?

In any event, 'Support' to me screams Bard. Or, in your case, Bardsader. This won't be as powerful as a well played Wizard/Crusader/JPM, but you will be able to contribute in combat. If you were allowed 2 prestige classes, I'd suggest Bard 7/Crusader 2/JPM 1/Sublime Chord 1/JPM 2->10. This would get you essentially sorcerer spell casting (with level 9 spells, but one level behind the sorcerer), level 8 maneuvers, and up to +9-14d6 sonic damage inspire courage (depending on how much you optimise).

As you can only have one prestige class, you may want to look at a basic Bardsader: Bard 4/Crusader 16. Take Dragontouched, Dragonfire Inspiration, Draconic Heritage (Battle or Pyroclastic), Words of  Creation, Song of the White Raven, Extra Granted Maneuver, and another feat of your choice. Also, make sure that you play a masterwork mandolin and wear a Vest of Legends. The first round of any given combat will probably consist of you using a swift action to inspire courage (with Dragonfire Inspiration and Words of Creation) to give everyone in your party +9-10d6 sonic damage (albeit at the cost of taking 3d4 nonlethal yourself), stopping the song as a free action, then using your standard action to inspire courage (with Words of creation) giving them a +9-10 morale bonus to their attack and damage rolls (taking another 3d4 nonlethal damage), and finally using your move action to find an advantageous position. In subsequent rounds, you can go to town with the standard Crusader maneuvers. They'll probably outshine you in combat, but you'll know that it was largely because of your buffs.

Check with your DM about how they want to handle Diplomacy - it's pretty much broken by RAW. With only minor optimisation (getting an 18 in your main stat and putting points into a few synergistic skills that you'd probably want anyway) you can get a 50% change to turn an NPC from hostile to indifferent or from unfriendly to friendly ... at level 2. Most DMs houserule it one way or another to make it work the way one would expect it to.

That said, here's a basic build. I've left most of the DFI tricks until later in the build because at lower levels the bonus to the attack role can be more useful (particularly as the rogues may not have gotten weapon finesse online yet). At higher levels you're basically a sorcerer with bard tricks and buffs, but you have fewer spells known and are a spell level behind. Still, it should help to make up for Zoidberg. Bluff and diplomacy optimisation has been limited to picking skills for Synergy and grabbing a few useful items.

CG Silverbrow Human Bard 8, Warblade 1, Virtuoso 10, Sublime Chord 1

Order:
Bard 1-7, Virtuoso 1, Warblade 1, Bard 8, Sublime Chord 1, Virtuoso 2-10

Stats:
Minimum: Int 15 (I've assumed 16), Cha 15.
Pump Cha as high as possible, keep a reasonable Wis and Con, try to avoid a negative Dex, dump Str.

ACF:
1) Healing Hymn (CC) - Lose Fascinate (which you'll get back from Virtuoso 1), use a daily use of bardic music to add your Perform ranks to any Conjuration(healing) spells cast by your allies.

Feats:
H DFI
1 Melodic Casting
3 Song of the Heart
6 Words of Creation
9 Dragontouched
12 Draconic Heritage (Battle or Pyroclastic if you can get permission, copper, silver, or bronze otherwise)
15
18

Skills:

Maneuvers Known:
Leading the Charge (Stance, White Raven 1) - Allies gain a minor bonus on a charge
Wall of Blades (Counter, Iron Heart 2) - Make an attack roll to replace your AC
Iron Heart Surge (Iron Heart 3) - Remove any condition
White Raven Tactics (Boost, White Raven 3) - Change one ally's initiative, allowing them to act twice in a round

Items:
Along with the Big 6, try to get a Vest of Legends (+5 Bard levels for the purpose of bardic music) and a Circlet of Persuasion (+3 competence bonus to Cha based checks).

Notes:
Play a Mandolin (Complete Adventurer), as it increases your DFI or attack bonus by +1. Don't use DFI on things that are resistant to fire . As for social skills, you get +6 in synergy bonuses to Diplomacy (from Bluff, Sense Motive, and Knowledge Nobility), so you can befriend pretty much anyone. With a high Cha and (generally) full ranks in Bluff you'll be able to lie convincingly. If you also pick up Glibness as a spell known (or stock up on scrolls/wands of it) you'll be able to lie so convincingly that they'll believe you over the paladin . Intimidate is less likely to be useful, though, but it may be useful on occasion.

You could also be a regular Human. This will force you to take Dragontouched at first level (bumping Melodic Casting to 3rd and Song of the Heart to 9th), but it will give you one extra skill point per level. This will help if your DM is unhappy with you playing a Human that is descended from a dragon, and is probably better anyway.

This build does use quite a few books, though: (PHB, DMG, CAdv, CArc, CC, CM, ToB, DMag, RotD, Drac, BoED). If you need to cut this back, you could drop Warblade (ToB), Healing Hymn (CC), or battle or pyroclastic Dragon (RotD + Drac).

Wounding costs +2 and makes your weapon do 1 Con damage on a hit. It's not multiplied on a crit, but with the sheer number of attacks you'll be putting out it can really add up.

[Edit]: I'm assuming that BoED is banned in your campaign. If not, you really should find a way to fit Words of Creation in. It will double your DFI bonus at the cost of taking 3d4 nonlethal damage (which should be pretty negligible).

If in doubt ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ohk5Swy-04