Shadowcraft Mage build advice

[Myrddin0001]

so I'm building a ScM for an upcoming game and I've been burning through all the Illusion and ScM related handbooks and materials. Just looking for general advice on my build.

1) Whisper Gnome (trading bonus to AC vs Giants for +1 to Illusions) Wizard 1 (focused specialist: Illusion, banned schools: evo, necro, ench), Shadow Shaper variant (hide as class skill, replaces feats), Chain of Disbelief variant (no +4 to “point it out”, replaces familiar), gnome illusionist substitution level 1 (take -1 to CL to Trans school), feats: spell focus (chr), heighten spell (flaw: insomniac), greater spell focus (flaw: light sensitive)
2) Wizard 2
3) Wizard 3, feat: earth sense (chr)
4) Wizard 4
5) Shadowcrafter 1
6) Shadowcrafter 2, feat: earth spell (chr)
7) Shadowcraft Mage 1
8) Shadowcraft Mage 2
9) Shadowcraft Mage 3, feat: enhanced shadow reality (chr)
10) Shadowcraft Mage 4
11) Shadowcraft Mage 5
12) Shadowcrafter 3, feat: spell mastery (chr)
13) Shadowcrafter 4
14) Shadowcrafter 5
15) Shadowcrafter 6, feat: signature spell (silent image) (chr)
16) Shadowcrafter 7
17) Shadowcrafter 8
18) Shadowcrafter 9, feat: invisible spell
19) Shadowcrafter 10
20) Wizard 5, gnome substitution level 5

[Xervous]

Shadowcrafter is a 7 level class, you don't need anything beyond the +20% to shadow conj. and shadow evoc. That's why you're here in the first place.

Obtain iron will through Otyugh hole, lose that 5th level of wizard, then go 4 levels of incantatrix. Congratulations, you now have persist stupidity. Though you may want to step down from being a focused specialist to accommodate the loss of another school.

[Eslin]

I'd advise keeping the fifth wizard level and taking spontaneous divination - you're only going to have access to 4-5 spell schools (likely illusion, divination, transmutation and conjuration, though that last is less necessary than usual), so being able to spontaneously cast one of them is great.

It's not part of your theme, but it's incredibly useful anyway.

[Keld Denar]

If you take the 5th level of Wizard, you can swap Earth Sense and Earth Spell each down 3 levels to a previous feat slot, and then grab Heighten Spell at 5th as your bonus feat. Earth Spell + Heighten Spell is an early entry mechanism, and as long as you know a 1st or 2nd level Shadow spell (like Dark Way from SpC), you qualify for ScM 2 levels early. That means you can have Shadow Illusion, your primary trick, online as early as level 8 so that you can actually take advantage of it for most of your campaign, assuming you aren't starting higher than 10.

Otherwise, you can move Greater Spell Focus (not needed for ScM entry) to 6 and get Earth Spell and Earth Sense early and still pick up Spontaneous Divination as mentioned above. Being able to spontaneously cast 3.75 schools of magic is pretty sick.

I've never been a huge fan of the Spell Mastery + Signature Spell trick for a ScM. Especially if you are a Focused Specialist, you pretty much have 3 slots at each spell level dedicated to Shadow Illusion. The rest will be taken up by some utility like Anticipate Teleport or Greater Magic Weapon (for your party). Its just 2 feats spent to gain a slightly larger amount of versatility, but only slightly. You are better off spending those feats on doing other useful things. Also, when you spontaneously cast Silent Image and then apply Heighten Spell, you are applying MM to a spontaneously cast spell (just like a Sorcerer) and thus you have to spend a full round action on it. Not a huge problem, but can be kinda cramping if you plan to do it a lot.

Also, I'm a huge fan of Earth Dreamer for 5 levels on most ScM builds. You already have the prereqs out of the way (Earth Sense, Gnome, and some knowledge skills), and the ability to see through rock walls and earth glide is awesome and rather unique.

[Myrddin0001]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm going full in Shadowcrafter for the DR10/magic. I like the extra spells/day for being a focused caster and I dropped the schools that aren't really needed. I'm not interested in Incantatrix because I never use nor use metamagic shenanigans (other than the Heighten Spell gimmick of ScM), plus there aren't enough free levels to justify the class. Also it doesn't fit the flavor of the character.

[Xervous]

dr 10/magic practically disappears at higher levels. Any monster that has dr n/magic overcomes your dr then.

[Keld Denar]

Yea, DR 10/Magic might as well not exist at the level you'll get it. It is ridiculously low and equally easy to overcome. Its barely worth spending money on, much less something valuable like class levels.