Illusion Specialist Wizard needs some crowd control spell suggestions.

[Rygel]

Hi,

I'm playing a Gnomish Illusionist in a D&D 3.5 campaign set in the city of Ptolus, starting from level 1. I chose this character, because my party needed an arcane caster and I wanted to go with a subtler more "control" based caster, instead of a Evoker style blaster who deals damage through his spells (let our Goliath Warblade or Human Knight smash things with their primitive weapons, while I concentrate on more important things like destroying the laws of physics and reality).

I plan on getting the mindbender PrC at lvl 6 (for Telepathy, primarily for roleplaying purposes), and then focusing on becoming a Shadowcraft Mage. Currently I chose Evocation and Necromancy as my forbidden schools. (I can't pick Enchantment due to the fact that I need to be able to cast Charm Person to qualify for Mindbender). In our first play session I found out that using Magic to influence the Mind of someone (Aka: Mind-affecting, such as but not limited to: Daze, Sleep, Charm Person, Color Spray spells on someone within the City) is illegal, and highly punishable if caught doing it. So a large portion of my 'encounter control' has just been made illegal. So I'm relegated to spells like Caltrops, Grease, Wall of Smoke, Sticky Floor until I gain more levels. My question is, should I drop a different school to regain the use of something like Evocation (and get spells like, Flare, Bigby's Tripping Hand, Bigby's Warding Hand.. and the like). Or should I just suck it up and try to become creative with my Silent/Minor Image spells, and be a cross-bow monkey for the first few levels? (Or risk using the illegal spells in hopes that they won't get reported as so far we've essentially been dealing with criminal elements that won't necessarily alert the authorities of my Mind-Altering magic uses).

Any other suggestions on how to make my illusionist helpful at these low levels would be appreciated as well. (I'm not gonna be much of a buffer, with the exception of maybe haste and the like, it's just not in my character's style/feel).

[Kelb_Panthera]

Who cares if it's illegal, just don't get caught. Who's going to know you dazed a guy or put him to sleep after the warblade CdG's him? What common rabble is going to out you as a user of such magics when you can turn their mind to mush (they don't know what you can and can't do)? The only one you've mentioned that poses a potential problem is color spray and even then you can just say it's a blasting spell, given how it looks, and just not worry about it since 95% of those who witness the effect will have no ranks in spellcraft and next to no chance of correctly identifying what you actually did.

The key to playing a low-level enchanter/illusionist is subtlety and solid social skill modifiers. If you're doing it right, no one will be certain you're doing anything at all.

[Gnorman]

All told, I think you've dropped the right two schools for the kind of character you want to create; you definitely won't miss Evocation as a Shadowcraft Mage. And you've still got heavy hitters like Conjuration and Transmutation to fall back on for situations where your preferred schtick is risky or inconvenient.

[Malroth]

Still spell and silent spell and possibly invisible spell will be your friend, if they don't see anything how can they know you broke any laws and dead bandits aren't going to be telling anybody they were charmed before the were smashed by the warblade.