Ultimate Magus. Metamagic/Expanded Spell Knowledge advice/Feat order of operations?

[Whammydill]

I'm going to be running an Ultimate Magus in an upcoming game.

I'm going with 1 Beguiler/4 Wizard/10 Ultimate Magus/5 Archmage to make it as SAD as possible. This game will start at level 15. I will be a Focused Specialist Conjurer, banning Evocation, Illusion, and Enchantment. I will also be taking Abrupt Jaunt ACF.

I read the Ultimate Magus guide on the BG website and it wasn't exactly complete, so I'm wondering what are good choices for Expanded spell knowledge? I'm sure it will be something unavailable to the beguiler (duh,) that you would also use a lot.

Featwise, barring the feats eaten up by Archmage requirements what are good metamagics to take? I'm planning on:

1 Beguiler/3 Conjurer/1 Master Specialist/10 Ultimate Magus/5 Archmage

Human: Able Learner so I can skill monkey.
1st: Empower Spell
3rd: Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler
5th: Bonus Feat: Skill Focus: Spell Craft
6th: Spell Focus: Conjuration (?)
9th: Spell Focus: Necromancy
10th: Bonus feat: Split Ray
12th: Sculpt Spell (I'm thinking Master of Shaping isn't good enough to replace it)
14th: Bonus Feat: Chain Spell (Arcane Reach shenanigans)
15th: Quicken Spell
18th: Craft Wondrous Item (?)

Any thoughts?

[Ithandor]

As one of your early feats, I would strongly recommend Practiced Spellcaster (Beguiler).

The reason is as follows: this allows you to enter UM with Wizard CL 4th, Beguiler CL 5th. You can then (mostly) progress your wizard casting. At 15th level you would then cast spells as a 13th level Wizard, 8th level Beguiler (ultimately getting you 9th level Wizard spells), instead of 11th level Wizard, 11th level Beguiler.

[Whammydill]

Hmm yes, how did I forget that. I made the build on the assumption of taking it and I didn't even list it...editing original post, thanks.

[Ithandor]

Hmm yes, how did I forget that. I made the build on the assumption of taking it and I didn't even list it...editing original post, thanks.

Which I should have guessed, seeing as you go for Archmage :smallbiggrin:

[Enterti]

I would strongly recommend getting persistent spell and a meta magic reducer so you can get free persists.

[sreservoir]

bab loss aside (which you probably don't care about, seeing as you only end up with +9 anyway), wizard 3/master specialist 1 is superior to wizard 4, and saves a feat slot. with that feat slot, you could even take versatile spellcaster at 1 or 3, and go beguiler 1/wizard 2/master specialist 2, which is superior to beguiler 1/wizard 4 in every imaginable way.

[Whammydill]

Nice Sreservoir, that does save me a valuable feat.

I kind of promised I wouldn't go persistent route so I'm staying away from that.

Editing original build.

[blazingshadow]

you forgot to update the feats. now i have a question. wouldn't it be better to take spell focus enchantment or illusion instead of necromancy?

[Jheska]

Or shadow weave magic for all three if the book is allowed and you either get 15 wis or just worship the right deity.

[Infernalbargain]

For the expanded knowledge, there's a few odd balls that are surprisingly helpful. Big one that comes to mind is mnemonic enhancer. This allows you to trade a 4th level beguiler slot for more wizard slots.

@persist: you will need to find two metamagic reducers. There is easy metamagic, practical metamagic might work. I'm AFB so there might be a wonky clause in there.

[sreservoir]

Nice Sreservoir, that does save me a valuable feat.

I kind of promised I wouldn't go persistent route so I'm staying away from that.

Editing original build.

mind, if you don't early entry, you'll need to go beguiler 1/wizard 3/master specialist 1 instead, which loses you one point of BAB, but not much else. well, perhaps a negligible amount out of your WBL due to loss of expanded spellbook, but that was errata'd into being useless anyway.

[Whammydill]

I see what you mean. All I'm really after is that free Skill Focus: Spellcraft anyway.

Blazingshadow: The character is a Focused specialist and has banned Enchantment, Evocation and Illusion. So, despite being able to cast them as a beguiler, I can't warrant spending a feat on those spell focuses.

[sreservoir]

isn't necromancy vs enemies mostly attack-roll debuffs or otherwise no save? perhaps SF (transmutation)?

[sreservoir]

seems it would be more useful to practiced spellcaster (beguiler) or a spell focus at 1st instead of empower, because you won't be able to empower at 1st; you'll need to wait until at least 6th with your spell progression.

extend is very nice, even if you don't bother to persist.

[Whammydill]

Since I'm starting at 15, I wasn't too concerned with placement of feats below that level. However for pure build purposes you are probably right. If this were being played from level 1 I would probably get more stuff out of the way early so it hurts less later.

My spell focus choices are pretty much up in the air. Though I think I'd feel guilty not taking spell focus Conjuration being a "Focused Specialist Conjurer," but that's just me.

Another thing I was considering, but probably won't do (to be nice to the DM) is work in a level of Mindbender for telepathy and take Mindsight somewhere.

[sreservoir]

you can reasonably drop a level of archmage, or two, or three. there aren't that many great high arcana, really.

[erikun]

Extend Spell might be good for a conjurer; I'm not sure. Having your summons around twice as long sounds good, but most summons will likely end once the creature is dead or has expended their useful SLAs. Extended area-of-effects could still be useful.

Similarly, how many rays will you be using for Split Ray? And why Spell Focus: Necromancy? Are you planning on using Empower all that much?

Augment Summoning (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#augmentSummoning) would probably be useful if you plan on summoning a large number of creatures.

Summon Elemental reserve feat from Complete Mage is a very good (and cheesy) option.

As for Expanded Knowledge, look at low-level spells you can use repeatedly and get a lot of use out of. Fly (Wiz 3), Silence (Clr/Brd 2), and Invisibility (Wiz/Brd 2) have tons of applications when you can use them anytime. Some of the illusions, such as Silent Image (Wiz/Brd 1) and Minor Image (Wiz/Brd 2) can have a lot of creative use.

[Whammydill]

Rays will be used quite a bit. Enervation, Exhaustion, Enfeeblement, Clumsiness....etc.

About the only summoning I will be doing is in accordance with the Robe of Mysterious Summons from the Magic Item Compendium so as to have them instantly in the mix. I don't see myself getting mileage out of Extend or Augment summoning.

Empower is just my best choice for a prerequisiteless metamagic so I can get the ones that require any other metamagic.

I considered reserve elemental but decided against it. If I have too much cheese I start becoming bored with a character. I want dynamic and optimized sure, but I think the reserve elemental will put it into "too much cheese for me" area which is also why I probably won't mindbender/mindsight.

I want to reserve my expanded spell knowledge to things that are not already in the beguiler list. I can't get silence as a wizard I don't think. Fly isn't a bad choice. I was thinking Backbiter for 1st level, Bone-fiddle for 2nd level....still pondering. As far as I know, I can't utilize anything out of Enchantment, Evocation, or Illusion for Expanded Spell Knowledge, because I can't first have them in my book as a wizard since those are banned. Otherwise I'd cheese in some of the few good evocations.

I'll probably keep Spell Focus Conjuration, but I'm back and forth on Necromancy vs. Transmutation.

[Whammydill]

Seems I've run into a snag when putting this on paper, level by level. I want to go something like

1: Beguiler 1
2: Conjurer 1
3: Conjurer 2
4: Conjurer 3
5: Master Specialist 1
6-15:Ultimate Magus 1-10
16-20: Archmage 1-5

I want to keep Able Learner but I don't think it will be possible. Right now I have

Human: Able Learner
1st: Empower Spell
3rd: Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler
5th: Bonus: Skill Focus - Spellcraft
6th: Spell Focus Conjuration

This doesn't work because I need Spell Focus: Conjuration to qualify for Master Specialist so I need to take it before 5th Level. Question is; can I take Practiced Spellcaster at 6th and still get the level progression I want?

Like:
Human: Able Learner
1st: Empower Spell
3rd: Spell Focus: Conjuration
5th: Bonus: Skill Focus - Spellcraft
6th: Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler.

Will that raise my Beguiler caster level to higher than my Wizard caster level so that the increase that Ultimate Magus 1 gives, which is being taken that same level, applies to Wizard and not Beguiler? Or do I have to take it before 6th level?

[sreservoir]

drop empower; it's basically useless to you until 6.

[blazingshadow]

that is what i was telling you from my last post. you didn't update your feats when you added master specialist. you are starting at level 15 right? trade empower with spell focus. you don't need empower that early anyways

ps: dimension door is a good spell to switch into the beguiler side