Some Advice on Building a Wizard

[Corwin of Amber]

Thanks for shattering my hopes and dreams Persiflage. Is there a feat that stacks with practiced spellcaster to get 1 more level?

Also, if I can find a PrC with an easy pre req for my 5th level, and advance wizard spellcasting, would I be able to have the CL one lower than 4 levels of wizard? I'm thinking not, but I'm not sure how multiple PrCs with "+1 level of existing spellcasting" stack with each other.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Dragon mag = Dragon Magazine. Which sometimes also means it's in Dragon Compendium v.1 Not Dragon Magic.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

Is it possible to get a class with spell power for beguiler that raises wizard spells?

Or, If I stop UM at 6th, get 3 more levels of Wizard, take 1 level of Archmage, can I apply the Spell Power high arcana to Beguiler?

I have also heard of a feat called Unlocked Potential that allows +3 max ranks in a selected skill. If I could find a source to cite for this, I could use it to take UM one level earlier and then my Wizard level will only be 3 upon entering the class. This would make all of the lower level class increases Wizard levels (with practiced spellcaster). Essentially, I'm trying to trade 2 feat slots and 1 rather useless Beguiler level (only gets +1 level 3 & 4 spell slot) for a Wizard level.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

So, after thinking the elf wizard level was amazing, I realized that it doesn't give you +1 spell slot AND + 1 spells known per level. I'm wondering inf specialization might me the right choice for me, since my DM usually like prolonged encounters that tax spellcasters. Unless there's some way to get more spells as a generalist (besides domain wizard)?

 

[Malachei]

You could go Illumian with the Krau sigil. Together with one instance of Practiced Spellcaster, this transforms UM into a 10/10 spellcasting class.

I'd still consider going Incantatrix, though. UM, IMO, is a late-blooming build.

If you go UM, consider taking 3 levels of Incantatrix for sweet metamagic effect.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

You could go Illumian with the Krau sigil. Together with one instance of Practiced Spellcaster, this transforms UM into a 10/10 spellcasting class.

I'd still consider going Incantatrix, though. UM, IMO, is a late-blooming build.

If you go UM, consider taking 3 levels of Incantatrix for sweet metamagic effect.

This can work really well with Karu, and I never really liked elves anyway.

I did consider Incantrix, but that seemed like a class that would annoy my DM, we tend to not break things too much, but I'll certainly talk it over with him. It was one of my fist choices for PrC before I started this thread, it's just that UM looked so cool, from a story perspective.

Based on the wording of the rules for Illumian sigils, it seems to work like this:
For a class that goes Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/X 15 I would get my 1st sigil at beguiler level 1 and my second at wizard level 2 or EL 3, right? Although, even if I don't get a 2nd one, it's still all good. If i do infact get a 2nd one, VaulKaru would be amazing with my Beguiler slots.

 

[Malachei]

The main benefit from Illumian is that your Krau sigil improves all caster levels, and the bonus increases to +2, once you reach 2nd level.

Maybe point out to your DM that if WOTC had considered Incantatrix to be a serious balance issue, they probably would not have designed Dweomerkeeper. It is interesting to note that the errata nerf only applies to instant metamagic, not to metamagic effect. This came as a surprise, but means Incantatrixes really deserve all the love they get.

That said, WOTC do many things people don't understand.

 

[Corwin of Amber]

The main benefit from Illumian is that your Krau sigil improves all caster levels, and the bonus increases to +2, once you reach 2nd level.

Well, my goal is to increase my Beguiler caster level on the Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/X 15 build so that it's at least 2 higher than my Wizard caster level so that UM becomes a 10/10 wizard progression and a 7/10 Beguiler progression.

I'm not sure how the math works for this since Karu wouldn't increase the caster level difference.

Another alternative would be to somehow get 8 ranks in spellcraft at level 4 (basically some way to increase the maximum ranks I can take in a skill). This would result in me entering the class at Beguiler 1/Wizard 3 and with practiced spellcaster my Beguiler CL would be 5 (well, 4 but the next wizard only level would allow beguiler CL to increase by 1, too).

 

[Malachei]

See Races of Destiny: as the Krau sigil's modifier applies up to "maximum value equal to the Illumian's character level", the math works.

And if you specialize (Beguiler spell list invites you to drop enchantment and illusion as wizard), consider taking a level of master specialist before entering UM, which gives you Skill Focus: Spellcraft (entry requirement for Archmage).

 

[Corwin of Amber]

See Races of Destiny: as the Krau sigil's modifier applies up to "maximum value equal to the Illumian's character level", the math works.

And if you specialize (Beguiler spell list invites you to drop enchantment and illusion as wizard), consider taking a level of master specialist before entering UM, which gives you Skill Focus: Spellcraft (entry requirement for Archmage).

Ah, I get it now, sinc you only ever have 1 level of beguiler that isn't accomanied by the UM Beguiler & Wizard combined level increaase, when the bonus is +2, the max HD cap only allows it to add 1 to your Wizard level while it adds 2 to your Beguiler level.

Thank you, this is just what I needed.