Help with an Arcane build...

[Greenfield]

I threw a character together as a backup for our game, and am now thinking he might be more than a fill in.

Current build is a Human Wiz4/Beguiler1/Ultimate Magus4.

He specialized into Conjuration, giving up charm and illussion schools. (They're pretty much covered under Beguiler.) He also took the ACA of Abrupt Jaunt from PHB2, then took the feat "Obtain Familiar", since that familiar advances based on your over all caster level, not the specific Wizard level, which won't advance again under this build.

I've played the game with Practiced Spellcaster, to keep his Wizard level from falling behind, and have Craft Wondrous. After that, of course it's all meta-magics.

So far though he's been a guest character only, so a lot of that can change.

He's maxing Int all the way, of course, since both of his casting classes are Int driven.

Item wise he has the usual stuff, in terms of protection and stat buff. Add in a small Flying Carpet and a Hat of Anonymity (MIC), and he's the best Wiz you'll never remember meeting.

But I'm open to advice and suggestions. Being a semi-NPC, he's about bump two or three levels, so he'll have some maneuvering room.

 

[Wyvernhand]

Make him an Illumian with some combination of the Krau sigil. That gives another +2 bonus to CL that stacks with Practiced Spellcaster and allows him to stack all 10 UM levels onto wizard. Otherwise the last level that only advances one side has to go to beguiler. Plus, Illumians are really cool and fit the UM type well. If you don't want his power sigil on display, simply give him Suppress Sigil as a plot related bonus feat.

There are a few low level metamagic feats that are fun to trigger with UM. Sculpt Spell and Split Ray are two of my favorites. Look around. Maybe have some fun with Invisible Spell from Cityscape.

 

[Herzog]

Get yourself (a) ring(s) of Wizardry.
Maybe get Extend Spell to make those hour/lvl buffs last for an entire day at the cost of just one 1st lvl Beguiler spellslot.