Spell Suggestions for Sorc/MastTransmogrifist

[SnowHeart]

Hey all. I'm just playing around with a character concept for a backup character in an Epic Level campaign. The character is a Sorcerer/Master Transmogrifist with a few levels in Warshaper and Abjurant Champion. I'm looking at his selection of spells and would appreciate any insights/thoughts/suggestions you might have. I'm tentatively figuring that a lot of defenses and attacks can be generated through the infinite variety ability so I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to take spells that just replicate powers that I could get through that.

To keep things managable, I'd just assume limit the books to PHB and SC, though the DM actually lets us use anything we can find. My current list is below, and I've italicized spells that I'm already leaning towards dumping, but I'm open to any thoughts. (If it's helpful, favored forms I'm leaning towards are: Cryo-hydra, Dark Tentacles, Red Dragon, Mind Flayer, Rat, War Troll, and Will o' Wisp.)

First
Blood Wind
Enlarge Person
Mage Armor
Shield
True Strike

Second
Alter Self
Balor Nimbus
Fearsome Grapple
Scintillating Scales
Wraithstrike

Third
Blink
Dragonskin
Haste
Spell Vulnerability

Fourth
Corporeal Instability
Dimension Door
Polymorph
Stoneskin

Fifth
Baleful Polymorph
Draconic Might
Draconic Polymorph
Vulnerability

Sixth
Disintigrate
Greater Dispel Magic
Superior Resistance

Seventh
Avasculate
Energy Immunity
Greater Teleport

Eighth
Invisibility, Superior
Polymorph Any Object

 

[Dandu]

Why no ninth level spells?

 

[SnowHeart]

It's painful, but the two levels of Warshaper and then the slower spell advancement of the Master Transmogrifist means, at the current level in the campaign, I still need one more level to get ninth level spells. Once I do, shapechange, obviously, but until then, this is what I'm looking at. I know a lot of people think that's the fatal flaw of Master Transmogrifist, so I'm aware of that debate.

 

[SnowHeart]

Well, given the lack of responses, I thought maybe I'd try a different way of asking the question... We'll see. C'mon guys and gals; you've always been helpful in the past! (Are the 4e forums really draining that much life out of here?)

With respect to the 1st and 2nd level spells, I decided to stick with what's there. Nothing else seemed to offer a big enough boost, and we have a knight in the party who regularly needs Enlarge Person cast on him and True Strike could come in handy with a particular tough opponent or wanting to get in a good alpha strike. Second level spells were either too obviously good to toss (wraithstrike, scintillating scales), too much part of the class (alter self), or seemed to offer a good bonus in the melee combat this character would be heading into.

That took me to third level. I compared Blink to Displacement and decided Displacement might be more in line of what I want. It gives the miss chance but doesn't penalize me, and won't be making this character so complicated my DM hates me. Spell vulnerability seemed useless, with the low DC on the save plus the fact that few of my spells involve getting past SR... dumped it for nondetection. I figure if I'm invisible but surrounded by mind flayers with detect thoughts, the invisibility won't do me any good (and this happens to us frequently in this campaign).

Fourth also got dumped. Corporeal Instability allowing a new save every round (with an average DC) just didn't seem worthwhile. The DR from stoneskin was also something I could get through infinite variety if I needed it. Dumped. Picked up dimensional anchor (both for offensive and defensive use, as we're running into a lot of maze-casting foes) and Voice of the Dragon to further enhance the character's already high bluff skill.

Fifth level I'm having trouble with and could really use some advice. I'm leaning towards dumping Vulnerability (reduces foes DR) and was thinking of taking Nightstalker's Transformation, but that has a potion of cat's grace as a material component and, even though I've taken feats to let me keep casting in a polymorphed shape, I'll lose access to the potions in most of those shapes, so the ability to cast the spell will be significantly impaired. So... I've no idea what to pick.

Sixth level I kept the same, and at 7th I kept Avasculate (it looks cool, I've never tried it, want something for damage) then switched the other two for Glass Strike and Synostodweomer. Thoughts? Other attractive alternatives were Force Cage, Reverse Gravity, and/or keeping Energy Immunity.

Eighth level is pretty much staying, unless someone can convince me to toss Superior Invisibility.