Ultimate Magus lvl 9, need two feats.

[Phaederkiel]

my beguiler 1 / wizard 4 / UM 3 will soon gain another lvl.

there he will get a new feat, and will probably retrain an old one.

and I am not sure what I should give him.

My DM is fine with most cheese, we have a sort of fondue anyway.


The character is a focused specialist conjurer.


I have

Versatile spellcaster

Enlarge spell (the stinker which needs retraining. I took it as a prereq at lvl 1, but it is time to get rid of it)

Sculpt spell (which rocks to no end)

Practiced spellcaster: beguiler (which allowed me to get nearly full wizard spell progression, cannot trade away)

Metamagic school focus: conjuration (which is highly underrated, since I can apply it to the scrolls i make)

Sudden maximize (see above)

scribe scroll (which allows for the sculpted maximized spells scribed in my downtime)

and two flaws.

I cannot trade enlarge away against a non - metamagic feat (since even I think it would be cheesy to have sculpt and sudden maximize beeing each others prereqs).

So what do you think are the best feats I can take, at least one metamagic?

at the moment, the shortlist consist of

quicken
Imp Ini
chain spell
sudden empower
vatic gaze (my sense motiv isnt good, but this would be probably worth A LOT in the story)
Cloudy conjuration (although I oh so rarely use save or dies)


The only problem with taking quicken /chain is that I cannot use my beguiler slots on any wizard spells with them (via UMs class feature, which lets me burn spellslots for free metamagic) since I only have beguiler lvl 1 spells.

since my wizard list does all the heavy lifting, I would love to be able to spontaneously enhance lvl 2 wizard spells with other plus 1 metamagic than sculpt spell.

(or at next lvl with other plus 2; or with metamagicschoolfocus with other plus 2)

(and yes, I know that chained nerveskitter is a great weapon)



to reference, my spelllist:



anything fat gets prepared normally.

lvl1:

alarm
benign transposition
niystuls magic aura
hoard gullet
grease
lesser orb of acid
shield
Blockade
identify
nerveskitter
sleep

lvl2
Arcane turmoil
detect thoughts
elemental darts
baleful transposition
mirror image
obscure object
heroics
ice knife
blur
rope trick
web

lvl 3

Acid breath
stinking cloud
dispel magic
shrink item
major image
fly
Phantom steed
Unluck
Bands of steel

lvl 4

evards black tentacles
solid fog
celerity
dimension door
anticipate teleportation
Heart of earth

Orb of fire
Orb of lightning
Viscid glob
Locate creature
Friendly fire


lvl 5
Teleport
Cloudkill
Wall of stone
Dimension shuffle
Prying Eyes
Shadow evocation
Overland flight
Heart of fire

My banned schools are evocation, necromancy, enchantment (should have banned illusion instead)

my beguiler list has nerveskitter at lvl 1.

I am very unlikely to get spells exept by leveling up.


Has the playground any ideas?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Throw away enlarge in favor of quicken, extend, or empower. Quicken for later, Extend for buffs, empoower because you seem to love blasting. Truthfully, I'd ditch the sudden metamagic for the real deal and just burn spellslots.

Use Heroics (SpC) for Improved Init. Also, cloudy conjuration is freaking magical for on-demand concealment, as it appears in either your square or at the spell area. The -2 penalty is nice, as it's not just to saves, even though that is the big thing.

[Phaederkiel]

Hmm, heroics sounds good, but somehow I just know that my dm will make me sidequest for that component, if I am able to get it at all.

I rather think there will be no 15th lvl fighters about in our campaign.

Is there really nothing better than quicken? I feel a bit foolish to take somehing I nearly have no spells to use with for. Take note that I do have some good swift-action spells and Items with me anyway (blockade, mainly) and that I could only quicken some 0th-level-spells.

On the other hand, I do not know how effective chain spell is given that my list of spells is quite small (I were scarcely able to buy any scrolls). the best thing I can chain spell is probably nerveskitter, followed by benign transposition.

I will edit my spelllist into my first post.

[Hirax]

Hmm, heroics sounds good, but somehow I just know that my dm will make me sidequest for that component, if I am able to get it at all.

Dear lord. If I ever had a DM that was that way with worthless spell components, I'd just grab eschew materials.

[memnarch]

Forget about quicken/twin until you get to/near level 4 beguiler spells.

Swap out Enlarge with Extend.

Empower is a good choice if you decide to learn some Orb spells.

Silent and Still are decent choices since you would be able to decide if you needed a lack of somatic or verbal parts for casting without needing to prepare before hand.

If your DM is stingy with materials that would come from a spell component pouch usually (>1gp), eschew materials would be a good feat.

[Phaederkiel]

well, in this world there are no lvl 15 fighters, so it is only natural to make us quest for something difficult to obtain.

Not sticking to these kind of things is exactly why casters are deemed overpowered...


but back to the question: are there any good feats not on my shortlist anyone can recommend?

and are there spells besides shield and nerveskitter which would say take quicken / take chain spell on my current lvl?

[JeminiZero]

Apparently nobody has mentioned Versatile Spellcaster yet. Sacrifice 2 spontaneous slots to cast any spell you know 1 level higher. Normally, useful but not overpowering for an average spontanoues caster.

However, add in a prepared spell class, and a dual progression PrC and things quickly escalate. Consider that for a prepared spell class (when qualifying for PrCs), he is considered to know a spell as long as it is in his spellbook. In theory that lets you burn beguiler slots to spontaneously pull any spell in your spellbook out.

[Phaederkiel]

I already have that ...

is it so difficult to open that spoiler?

[JeminiZero]

is it so difficult to open that spoiler?

Sorry about that, didn't notice it I blame my phone's small screen. >_>

Uh.... Polymorph - Minor Shapeshift combo for temp HP?

Heart of Water for swift action FoM?

If you are the trap monkey, then Summon Elemental Reserve feat makes useful cannon fodder.