Best use of spells known?

[WarKitty]

As a spontaneous caster, especially a low-level one, what's the best way to maximize the utility of your spells? I've got a nice chunk of spells/day thanks to maxed charisma, but still only 2 spells known...

[Diachronos]

Which class and edition is this?

[WarKitty]

Which class and edition is this?

3.5 bard-ish. Taking a 1-level dip in sorc under agreement to pick only bard spells (as my second level), then progressing from there. 20 cha gives me a lot of spells/day, so I'd like a few spells that get decent mileage.

[eggynack]

Picking good spells known is a thing dependent on a few separate factors. You want your spells to be versatile, because if your spells only really do one thing each, that's a pretty short list of things you can do, even if those things are powerful. Consider something like stone shape, capable of making walls, stairs, spikes, and anything else you can imagine. You want your spells to be spammable, because being able to spam spells is your big skill over a wizard. For this, it may be better to consider spells that are not spammable. Consider something like an hours/level spell, taking up one spell/day, and one spell known, which creates something of an imbalance in how your magic operates. Primal instinct is a great spell on a druid, but it is not nearly as good on a sorcerer.

You want your spells to scale effectively, because even low level slots can help at high levels if you pick them right. Consider sleep, capping in HD and thus quickly becoming useless. Then, compare it to color spray, still somewhat ineffectual against high HD opponents, but with a reasonable impact. Then, compare both to grease, crushing high level and low level enemies alike with ease. Finally, you want your spells to be powerful, because that's just always important. I don't think I need to provide much in the way of examples for that one. It's pretty insanely difficult to fit all of those things into all of your slots, but as long as you're striving to hit the mark, you should be fine. As a final example, consider silent image. It can do things in just about any situation. It can be spammed everywhere that exists. It scales all the way until folks start carting around true seeing effects. It's crazy powerful. Basically, the perfect spell. Seek out the silent images of this world, or the alter selfs, or occasionally, the summon monsters, and you should be fine.