Heighten spell, beguiler and Shadowcraft mage

[Moggthegob]

Alright. The basic conundrum I am having is I am building a character for Living greyhawk( 28 point buy, specific rules 15 levels for those unfamiliar)
and my build is a gnome beguiler going mostly becus it fits. However, to qualify for Shadowcraft mage(Races of Stone) I need to be able to cast a 4th level shadow spell.

Beguilers have a 3rd level shadow spell on their list.

Can I use heighten spell to heighten the shadow spell I do have to 4th level in order to qualify for the prestige without doing a cheesy one level dip in anything else?

I would take mindbender 1(complete arcane) but I do not know If I will earn access by then. I was also interestedin Nightmare spinner but I was going to wait until after I was done with shadowcraft mage since I want to get through its 5th level as soon as possible and it doesnt have a full spell casting progression.

However, I wondered if to save a headache if I could just heighten the 3rd level spell and be done with it.

 

[Moorcrys]

My LG group is a big fan of taking Unseen Seer for a level to put knock advanced learning to fourth level spells... then take Shadow Conjuration. Unseen Seer is very easy to qualify for and gives you full spellcasting progression.

 

[Corsair]

The same trick can be done with Mindbender, another 1 level dip favorite.

 

[Nifft]

Dip is mildly cheesy.
Heighten Spell is mildly cheesy.

I'd allow either.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Moggthegob]

The point is I do not want to take 8 ranks in spot and stuff for Unseen Seer and I am unsure if I would get access to Mindbender. So my question is failing access to mindbender would I be able to get away from the problem with heighten which I was planning o ntaking anyway

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

The point is I do not want to take 8 ranks in spot and stuff for Unseen Seer and I am unsure if I would get access to Mindbender. So my question is failing access to mindbender would I be able to get away from the problem with heighten which I was planning o ntaking anyway

Shouldn't there be some kind of official "Living Greyhawk guide to grey-area rules cheese" that deals with this sort of thing? I don't believe that a Heightened spell is actually a spell of a higher level for the purposes of meeting prerequisites. A heightened 2nd level shadow spell is still a 2nd level spell, but it is being cast as though it were a higher-level spell, and counts as a higher level spell for the purposes of determining things like DC or whether it penetrates a globe of invulnerability.

 

[Mistwell]

I'm sure this is dealt with somewhere in this thread:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=655556

or this thread:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=290914