You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm On A Horse: 9th level spells with Rage Mage

[Flickerdart]

Ever since I saw the Mounted Fury feat (which lets you share Rage with your mount) I've been trying to find a way to use it. And what better way to do so than by stapling a caster to the top of the raging mount? The problem with this is not only the mediocrity of Rage Mage, but the fact that it doesn't even support divine casters, which means no Druids with their awesome dinosaur pets.
Turns out there's also a PrC to turn a wild cohort into an acceptable mount, and it's full casting. Surely this is good for our Rage Mage! This is what I've come up with (unfortunately only workable with fractional BAB):

Barbarian 1
Bard 1
Wizard 3
Rage Mage 5
Sublime Chord 1
Silverwood Arcanist 5
Rage Mage 3
Sublime Chord 1 (or any other casting advancement level)

Wizard 3/Rage Mage 5 gives us the 3rd level spells necessary for Sublime Chord, after which we only lose one spell level (Rage Mage 7). We get one precious 9th level spell anyway, and in addition we rake in 3 uses of Rage per day which we can share with our mount, -10% ASF, free quicken spell once per rage, sharing spells with the mount, handling it as a free action, +2 DC on most our spells, and some kind of bardic music stuff with two whole uses.

The problems here are that we don't reach Rage Mage entry (+4 BAB, 2nd level spells) by 5th level without fractional BAB. After that it's smooth sailing. A 3/4 BAB progression full arcane caster would get us there, as would early entry shenanigans such as Precocious Apprentice which I want to avoid. Also, a better 20th level would be nice - while a CL increase is nice, we cast most spells with a CL of 20 due to Rage Mage already, and have only two Bardic Music uses and scant Perform ranks. Something Abjurant Champion-y would be nice - we only have 12.75 BAB even with fractionals, which is a little on the poor side.

tl;dr - Ride a horse, rage, buff horse, horse murders your enemies.

[Zaq]

Spell Rage gives you (and your mount) the ability to cast spells in a rage, but you need to have spells to cast in the first place. This is a cool build, but I think that the Mounted Fury part is lost unless we get our mount the ability to cast while we're both raging. How can we get spells on a mount?

I can think of two ways, neither of which is phenomenal. First, we could make our familiar our mount (via Polymorph, Improved Familiar, or whatever), then give it spells with Spell-Linked Familiar and/or Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability. That would render Silverwood Arcanist unnecessary (since we're using a familiar rather than a wild cohort), but it's an option. The second option is to use a mount that has spells in the first place, which generally means Planar Binding (or Planar Ally). I don't know how we'd optimize that for the purposes of Rage Mage.

I like the concept, though. Let's keep going.

EDIT: Oh, and it's a damn shame that Rage Mage specifies arcane spells, because Champion of Gwynharwyf would be pretty appropriate. Any way around that? Geomancer would take up too many levels, I think.

[Flickerdart]

"An Awakened animal can't serve as an animal companion, familiar or special mount." There is no mention of wild cohort. So we could just give it a level of a casting class and some scrolls or wands, I suppose.

I don't think there's any way to get divine casting for both Rage Mage and Sublime Chord, nor arcane casting on the Champion of Gwynharwyf. Some shenanigans with Alternative Source Spell or Southern Magician could work to get into the PrCs, but not to advance their casting. You can't really sneak Champion of Gwynharwyf anywhere though (since you can only get it at 7th and need full BAB for that).

Champion of Gwynharwyf can cast its spells while raging, though. But they're only 4th level and from a limited list. I suppose you can use Apostle of Peace if you manage to extend that benefit, using your mount to stay true to your vows while rampaging to your heart's content.

Edit: There's no reason that using a Polymorphed familiar means you can't use Silverwood Arcanist. You can always fight in a formation with your Wild Cohort and yourself for thrice the spells.

[flabort]

The easy way to do this would be, of course, through gestalt. But, that's a bit of a cop out, and so not what we are looking for.

Otherwise, I've got nothing new to add. Others may, but I don't.

[Zaq]

Edit: There's no reason that using a Polymorphed familiar means you can't use Silverwood Arcanist. You can always fight in a formation with your Wild Cohort and yourself for thrice the spells.

Well, what I'm saying is that without shenanigans, you can't ride both your polymorphed familiar and your wild cohort at the same time, so only one of them can benefit from Spell Rage at once.

[Flickerdart]

Well, what I'm saying is that without shenanigans, you can't ride both your polymorphed familiar and your wild cohort at the same time, so only one of them can benefit from Spell Rage at once.
What if the wild cohort took Mounted Fury? Then he could ride the familiar and share the shared spell rage. But that's probably shenanigans.

[Waker]

I don't have much to add to this silly problem except mentioning an ACF from Dragon 338. It details a Barbarian alt called "Horselord" where you get Battle Ecstasy in place of Rage and an animal companion.

[Zaq]

What if the wild cohort took Mounted Fury? Then he could ride the familiar and share the shared spell rage. But that's probably shenanigans.

He gets the spell rage. He just doesn't have any spells that he can use while in the spell rage.

Also, I think that Mounted Fury requires the ability to rage in order to take it, so that might be difficult.