How to use Beholder Mage to level 10 without going into epic levels

[atemu1234]

Beholders have quite a few racial hit dice and a hefty LA. Yet beholder mage is supposed to be broken. Am I missing something very important here?

[torrasque666]

Be an Elan. You're an Abberation type. Alter Self is a level 2 spell, allowing for a wizard to take it at 3, and a sorcerer at 4. Alter Self allows you to become a Beholder, ignoring all racial hit die and LA. Proceed to put out central eye to take levels in Beholder Mage. Proceed to do so before each level up to continue advancement. Gain new level of spells at each level other than 10th. Break Game.

[Silva Stormrage]

As the poster above me mentioned you very rarely actually TAKE Beholder racial HD into account. You can either temporarily transform into one or buy 2 PAO scrolls and permanently transform yourself into one.

[Raven777]

Can you actually fill prerequisites with temporary effects like Alter Self? I doubt this actually works.

[torrasque666]

By RAW it works, as there is no specification of how long you need to have had the prereqs. Pathfinder introduced the 24 hour limit, something that I feel was a step in the right direction. I'd prefer a week at minimum, if not a whole year, especially as leveling up is slightly implied to happen between adventures. Kinda. Maybe.

[Nettlekid]

Be an Elan. You're an Abberation type. Alter Self is a level 2 spell, allowing for a wizard to take it at 3, and a sorcerer at 4. Alter Self allows you to become a Beholder, ignoring all racial hit die and LA. Proceed to put out central eye to take levels in Beholder Mage. Proceed to do so before each level up to continue advancement. Gain new level of spells at each level other than 10th. Break Game.

Close, but not quite.
First of all, Alter Self won't cut it, because Alter Self won't allow you to assume a form of more than 5 HD (that's racial HD), of which the Beholder has 11. Polymorph, or more reliably Polymorph Any Object (permanent if you play your cards right, like if you have 17 Int or are somehow Large) will do the job.

The sticking point is the prereq condition of the Beholder Mage, that you must put out your central antimagic eye. As the antimagic cone is a Su ability, Polymorph Any Object doesn't grant it. Usually Assume Supernatural Ability is used for this purpose. Once you've done all that, then you can take Beholder Mage (if your DM agrees that a polymorphed form counts as a "True Beholder.")

[torrasque666]

Bah. I got the basic principals of it down. And does it actually say that you must have been able to use the Antimagic Eye ability? Or just that you have to put it out? The eye still exists after all.

[Nettlekid]

Bah. I got the basic principals of it down. And does it actually say that you must have been able to use the Antimagic Eye ability? Or just that you have to put it out? The eye still exists after all.

It's not an antimagic eye if there's no antimagic.