I've seen a few discussions of this item before. Imo a much better deal for the Eldritch knight though for 2 reasons:
1) You don't gimp your Fighter at all when you start with negative intelligence, as you are playing for the first two levels as a regular fighter. But as soon as you get it and spec into Eldritch knight you can have a spellcasting mod equal to a full wizard.
2) If you think further ahead and plan a build for the full game release, your Wizard will eventually want 20 INT, and will be gimped if you will continue having 18, while the Eldritch knight does not mind having 18 INT as much, which is in fact always better than the amount you would normally invest in INT on said class anyway.
