Quartz
Hero
Hands down, Limited Wish is the first spell you should take. Beyond that, I like the force spells - Forcecage and Mage's Sword. Simulacrum is a great choice later on - create yourself an army of yourselves. Say you're all 14th level - how useful would it be to have 2 or 3 7th level copies of yourself or the cleric? Note that in 3.5 you can create a simulacrum of other people. And they're very good as diversions - which one does the enemy target?