Ways to get 2nd level arcane spells faster

[pbdr]

This is for an existing character. He is a Warlock 5/ Beguiler 1 (soon to be 2) heading for the eldritch theurge class.

Without adding another class, is there a way to get 2nd level arcane spells faster to qualify for the class?

[Fouredged Sword]

Versatile spellcaster works, and Heighten Spell can be added to remove any RAW/RAI issues with your beguiler spells known issue.

You can spend 2 1st level spell slots to cast a 2nd level spell.

Also Heighten spell and Earth Spell works much the same way. You heighten a level 0 spell into a level 2 spell you can cast from a 1st level spell slot.

[Darrin]

This is for an existing character. He is a Warlock 5/ Beguiler 1 (soon to be 2) heading for the eldritch theurge class.

Without adding another class, is there a way to get 2nd level arcane spells faster to qualify for the class?

"Early Entry Tricks" tend to be controversial (as in we still argue endlessly about them whenever they are brought up). Essentially, it all boils down to "it works if your DM says it works".

But to answer your question... common methods to get 2nd level spells:

1) Precocious Apprentice (Complete Arcane). Gives you a 2nd level spell you can cast if you make a caster level check. There are a couple arguments about why this shouldn't work, but not everyone finds them entirely convincing.

2) Improved Sigil: Krau (Races of Destiny). Requires Illumian as a race. Since this prevents you from getting a human bonus feat, it's the equivalent of spending two feats as a human spellcaster.

3) Versatile Spellcaster (Races of the Dragon) + Heighten Spell. Requires spontaneous casting. The other concern is you have to "know" a 2nd level spell. Heighten fixes that by using a lower level spell you already know. By using Beguiler (or another class that automatically "knows" their entire spell list), you may be able to skip the Heighten part, but not everyone agrees that it should work that way. Instead of Heighten Spell, you may be able to use Arcane Disciple or one of the Bloodline feats (from Dragon Compendium) to "know" additional higher-level spells. Prepared casters can take advantage of this by taking the Alacritous Cogitation feat (Complete Mage).

3) Sanctum Spell (Complete Arcane) + {any metamagic feat}. A bit more ironclad from a rules-standpoint than Versatile Spellcaster, but creates some odd side-effects... for example, dropping 4th level spells into 3rd level potions, 5th-level spells into 4th-level wands, 3rd level spells into Glyph Seals (MIC), and so forth. If you can somehow wrangle acorn of far travel (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) onto your spell list, then you can put a tree in your sanctum and always get higher-level spells.

4) Earth Spell (Races of Stone) + Earth Sense + Heighten Spell. This requires 3 feats, but it essentially auto-heightens any heightened spell to one spell level higher. Not all that popular, since it's not possible to do this at 1st level unless you're using flaws. However, when combined with Versatile/Sanctum shenanigans, you can use this to get 3rd and 4th level spells out of a very shallow spellcaster dip.