Geometer or Paragnostic Apostle?

[IIzak]

So I'm building a wizard in a campaign we're running in the Undermountain, and I'm trying to figure out the actual direction I want to go. I really like the idea of the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, however I'm not really a fan of specialization, just kind of a personal choice, I don't have any good support behind it. So I was looking for other prestige classes to fill up the other levels around it. I've already settled on throwing Fatespinner 4 in there somewhere, and I was thinking i'd fill the other levels with either Geometer or Paragnostic Apostle. This is how the character is kinda looking right now:

Grey Elf Generalist wizard 1

Stats (Note: we got to roll 3d6 and 1d8 drop lowest for our scores)
Str: 8
Dex: 17
Con: 15
Int: 22
Wis: 12
Cha: 11

Feat: Collegiate Wizard

The progession I'd like to take for the Character is: Wizard 6/Geometer or Paragnostic Apostle 3/IotSV 7/Fatespinner 4.

I'm just having trouble figuring out which class would do more for me and so I thought I'd turn to the playground to help me decide which direction to take. I appreciate any help or insight you guys can offer.

[Zaq]

Well, what do you want to do? What kinds of feats were you hoping to get your hands on? What's the rest of the party look like? Do you want to be a buffer? A battlefield control specialist? Something else?

Both Geometer and Paragnostic Apostle have their strengths, but without knowing what you want out of the character, we can't really unequivocally put one above the other.

Honestly, Geometer mostly seems like flavor to me, unless your GM is totally in love with Explosive Runes and Symbol of [blah] spells, but the ability to fit any spell you want onto a single page in your spellbook is the nice part. It does require you to spend some skill points you probably wouldn't normally spend (who takes Disable Device on a Wizard?), but that just means you have a couple fewer Knowledges. Also, it can't be entered before your seventh level (so Wizard 6 / Geometer X). Paragnostic Apostle can be entered as your sixth level (Wizard 5 / Paragnostic Apostle X), which is kind of a mark in its favor, and it doesn't really require too much investment beyond what you were probably going to take anyway, because what's a Wizard going to spend all those skill points on after you take Concentration and Spellcraft? I think the single best class feature you get is Lore, even though it's not going to get much of a bonus if you're only spending a few levels in it. The Knowledge Is Power bonuses are mostly pretty small, but they can be useful if you like the kinds of spells that they focus on. Without knowing what kinds of spells you want this character to focus on, I can't say for sure whether the Knowledge Is Power bonuses will be worth the effort.

In a vacuum, I like Paragnostic Apostle better, because it costs less to enter and it offers Lore, which I always like to have handy. Plus, it has better skill points. That said, if you really like some particular aspect of Geometer (like the compact spellbook), I wouldn't say that Paragnostic Apostle is so much better that it would be an actively bad decision to take Geometer. At the end of the day, your real power in either case is going to come from your Wizardness, not your Geometerness or your Paragnostic Apostleness, so it's really just a matter of which small bonuses you feel are more appropriate for the character.

[Psyren]

As Zaq pointed out, PA gives you Lore which will grant much more out-of-combat/non-magical utility than the Geometer gets, plus some other nice features. Unless spellbook capacity is a real concern or you have a specific concept in mind, I'd go with PA.

[IIzak]

@Zaq I'm trying to go sort of a combination of Debuff and Battlefield control with this wizard, so far for my level 1 spells I've chosen:

Enlarge Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Mage Armor, Shield, Sleep, Color Spray, Ray of Clumsiness, Identify, Fist of Stone, Lesser Orb of Sound, and Idk what my last two spells are going to be, maybe some utility type stuff like alarm or mount or something? suggestions on those last two spells would be very welcomed.