New campaign 3.5 with some limitations - character advice asked for.

[twoswords]

I am about to embark on a campaign taking place in the Iron Kingdoms. We are using the IK world, culture, healing limitations, and changes to base classes, but everything else will be 3.5 PHB only. I noticed that the game turns very deadly in a single crit or a bad hit combination.

I have done a lot of 3.5 characters overall, but never been restricted to the PHB alone. What would be the class that would give me access to the best survivability overall, yet not being pegged into an extreme archetype? My thought so far has gone to a rogue utilizing more social skills than anything else, but I am not fully sure yet.

I am asking for suggestions from the crowd and as reward I am offering up that smug feeling you get when you can point at someone and say "hah, I bet he didnt think of that."

[Tempest]

A bard with intelligent use of enchantment and illusion magic?

It's a tad hard to plan for something if you don't know what the campaign is going to be about, your social rogue for instance wouldn't survive all that long in a fight against a pack of minatours, but would do quite well in a social setting. What's your DM like? Has he told you anything about the campaign and what direction he's planning to take it in? Is it going to be 80% hack-and-slash, mostly puzzles or just a lot of RPing?

As for what PHB class would give you the best survivability overall, probably a wildshape druid or plain old cleric, but those are pretty obvious and I'm not entirely sure how the magic system works in Iron Kingdoms.

[sirpercival]

+1 cleric or druid.  Probably druid, though cleric allows for more different personality archetypes.

[twoswords]

A bard with intelligent use of enchantment and illusion magic?

It's a tad hard to plan for something if you don't know what the campaign is going to be about, your social rogue for instance wouldn't survive all that long in a fight against a pack of minatours, but would do quite well in a social setting. What's your DM like? Has he told you anything about the campaign and what direction he's planning to take it in? Is it going to be 80% hack-and-slash, mostly puzzles or just a lot of RPing?

As for what PhP class would give you the best survivability overall, probably a wildshape druid or plain old cleric, but those are pretty obvious and I'm not entirely sure how the magic system works in Iron Kingdoms.

The bard is the one class that is so changed in IK that it did not really seem feasible to play anymore. I have been told that there will be room for both combat as well as social interaction, so I would assume that it is not only combat going on.
The major change in Ik is that clerics can only safely heal a certain amount of points per day (a lvl 8 cleric can heal around 60-70 points) before both caster and receiver need to roll on a table to see if there are any ill effects from it. They can also only risk-free heal those close to their own alignment or their Gods alignment, and we have not been allowed to see each others characters as of yet, but we know there is at least one cleric. Death is also close to permanent. Very few clerics can or will revive a character from death, and there is likely to be a hefty price (monetary and ill effects) to pay for it.