If you could pick one spell...

[yugi24862]

Say you are some kind of melee class, warblade,barbarian,rogue or any toher non-caster. And then you get the ability to cast 1 spell once a day of each level, unlocking them at 1st,3rd,5th level as normal. Which would you pick and why?

Also, sorcercer/Wizard spells only.

[Scarlet-Devil]

Prestidigitation.

Edit: Also maybe Protection from Alignment.

[Eldan]

Prestidigitation, silent IMage, Invisibility, Suggestion, Scrying, Dominate Person, Mislead, Plane Shift, PaO, Mindrape.

That's mostly from the SRD, so I might have missed a few goodies.

[Tim Proctor]

Lvl 1 - Prestidigitation; does so much utility that is needed on all sorts of things. By far one of the best utility spells and since you're a melee users this type of utility spells is a great one.

Lvl 2 - Tenser's Flying Disk; see above.

Lvl 3 - Alter Fortune; saves your butt.

Lvl 4 - Trollshape (put the gear down and then pick it up), allows you to heal yourself between combat and/or in combat.

Lvl 5 - Shadow Conjuration; utility so much utility.

Lvl 6 - Antimagic Field; a necessary evil for a melee guy.

Lvl 7 - Limited Wish; utility.

Lvl 8 - Greater Shadow Conjuration; utility

Lvl 9 - Wish; utility.

Utility on all of them.

[ericgrau]

Can I swap out spells later like a sorcerer, or is it stuck forever?

1: enlarge person / sleep => feather fall
2: web => false life (wilderness heavy campaigns) or see invisibility (dungeon or invis heavy campaigns)
3: haste => greater magic weapon
4: solid fog (if many situations that stop web) or resilient sphere => dimension door
5: wall of force
6: repulsion
7: reverse gravity =?> statue (wilderness heavy campaigns) or spell turning (dungeon or spell heavy campaigns) or simply stay with reverse gravity
8: irresistible dance => mind blank or moment of prescience (wilderness heavy campaigns) or protection from spells (dungeon or spell heavy campaigns); maybe skip dance and go straight to one of these if foes are SR heavy
9: time stop (wall of force, reverse gravity, repulsion)

I know a lot of these are good wizard wizard spells, but really making foes into a confused mess and then having the melee clean up the stragglers is the best thing you can do for wizards or melee.

Since you can't cast 9 spells in one combat ideally I'd swap lower level ones for hour/level or 10 min/level buffs. Except in cases where multiple options are helpful.

[Menteith]

Level 0: Ghost Sound
Level 1: Silent Image
Level 2: Alter Self
Level 3: Dispel Magic
Level 4: Celerity
Level 5: Teleport
Level 6: Contingency
Level 7: Limited Wish
Level 8: Polymorph Any Object
Level 9: Shapechange

[eggs]

Depending on goals:
Benign Transposition/Alter Self/Heart of Water/Celerity/Teleport/True Seeing/Spell Turning/Mind Blank/Foresight if I were just trying to cover for the classes' vulnerabilities. Most are chosen just to say "no" to some variety of melee-disabler (battlefield control, grappling, illusions), with Celerity to be useful with the action economy and Alter Self to accommodate a variety of needs (mobility, defenses, extra attacks).

Or Silent Image/Alter Self/Magic Circle against Evil/Dimension Anchor/Teleport/Planar Binding/Limited Wish/Greater Planar Binding/Shapechange, if I wanted to play the same game as the big hitters. Most are chosen for being the most versatile spell effects available. Magic Circle and Dimension Anchor are mostly there to facilitate binding, but they aren't bad effects on their own.

[Amoren]

Hmmm... For a rogue mindset in mind...

0: Prestidigitation
1: Grease
2: Alter Self
3: Haste (?)
4: Greater Invisibility (Or polymorph, but everyone knows Polymorph is broken)
5: Overland Flight
6: True Seeing
7: Limited Wish
8: Mind Blank
9: Shape Change

[kitcik]

Level 0: Ghost Sound
Level 1: Silent Image
Level 2: Alter Self
Level 3: Dispel Magic
Level 4: Celerity
Level 5: Teleport
Level 6: Contingency
Level 7: Limited Wish
Level 8: Polymorph Any Object
Level 9: Shapechange

I second this list. Maybe Prestidigitation at 0, but this is basically my list as well.

[CTrees]

Level 0: Ghost Sound Prestidigitation
Level 1: Silent Image
Level 2: Alter Self
Level 3: Dispel Magic
Level 4: Celerity
Level 5: Teleport
Level 6: Contingency
Level 7: Limited Wish
Level 8: Polymorph Any Object
Level 9: Shapechange

Yep, this is my list, too.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

0: Prestidigitation, for reasons of versatility.
1: Ray of Flame, decent damage, catches stuff on fire, can CDG trolls.
2: Alter Self, versatility again.
3: Shrink Item, for anything ranging from useful tricks to shenanigans.
4: Polymorph, never cast it but get the Minor Shapeshift reserve feat.
5: Teleport, obvious reasons.
6: Superior Resistance, assuming a party caster won't buff you with it.
7: Limited Wish, versatility/utility.
8: Mind Blank, assuming a party caster won't buff you with it.
9: Iceberg, one of the best crowd controls in the game plus it destroys building, sinks ships, etc.