3.5 ways to gain arcane casting?

[jdizzlean]

other then the slew of 1st lvl arcane casting feats that grant you so many spells/day as 1st lvl spells, are there ways to gain arcane casting ability either from race, template, feat or otherwise? Specifically at least up to lvl 3 spells.

if you were to take the dragontouched/blooded feats which grant you the ability to use your char level as your sorc lvl for feats, is there anything you can build off of from that?

[Piggy Knowles]

Magical Training from Player’s Guide to Faerûn gives you the ability to cast three cantrips as a sorcerer or wizard (your choice). Theoretically with enough feats and a healthy cheese tolerance, you could chain that up to 9ths with Heighten Spell, Sanctum Spell, Versatile Spellcaster and Extra Spell Slot.

[jdizzlean]

does applying metamagic to something count as casting it of a certain level? sure you're increasing the spell level in terms of slots, but does that mean that you're actually casting a 3rd lvl spell for example, or simply a 1st that is effectively a 3rd slot?

i hate greyness.

[Falontani]

does applying metamagic to something count as casting it of a certain level? sure you're increasing the spell level in terms of slots, but does that mean that you're actually casting a 3rd lvl spell for example, or simply a 1st that is effectively a 3rd slot?

i hate greyness.

Normally, no; however Heighten Spell DOES make it a higher level spell

[Rebel7284]

There are a number of races/templates that give casting.

Some of the best off the top of my head:
Gloura casts as a 7th level bard for 7HD and 2LA.
Monster of Legend (LA +7 in some update) can cast as a 5th level cleric.
Silph from MM2 has somewhat awkward wording about any extra HD stacking with their casting for a handful of HD/LA
(Hatchling) phaerimm also cast as sorcerers of their HD for +2 LA.
Sharn, for a total of 9 HD+LA cast as a level 6 sorcerer and a level 6 favored soul and get two actions to do both.
Most young-ish dragons are also playable and steel and tome dragons are okay, especially after Loredrake.

[daremetoidareyo]

Southern magician can be used to turn your third-level Divine slots into Arcane ones

[WhamBamSam]

The higher order ability of Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment) lets you cast a spell (as a spell, not a SLA or whatever) off a domain of your choice 1/day for which you have a high enough character level and sufficient Wis score. RAI is probably that the spells are divine as they require Wis and come off of domains, RAW they aren't arcane or divine, but with Southern Magician you can make them either.

Sword of the Arcane Order can let you cast Wizard spells out of Paladin or Ranger slots. Whether they're arcane or not is a matter of some debate, but that's probably the least cheesy reading.

[Goaty14]

Rakshasa grants sorcerer casting. High-level good outsiders have cleric casting.

[ShurikVch]

Juvenile Phaerimm - 6 HD, LA +3, SLAs of spells from 6th-level Sorcerer

[Calthropstu]

As I recall, numerous races may cast as sorcerers. Demons/devils in particular do so. Dragons as well. But those have already been mentioned by others.

Lillends cast as bards iirc. Couatls cast as sorcerers. Pixies get irresistable dance which may qualify you. Genasi also cast as sorcerers. Illithid get spell like powers. Some undead get spells. Nightmares get spell like abilities.
All of these, however, would be quite expensive to make pcs.

[Nifft]

Sylph is an elemental from MM2 with 3 HD and 7th level Sorcerer casting.

One of my favorite lesser planar binding targets, cross your fingers and hope for a Sylph Sorcerer 3.

[InterstellarPro]

From the SRD:

Aranea - 3rd level sorcerer, 3HD +4 LA
Couatl - 7th level sorcerer, 7HD +7LA
Drider - 6th level cleric, wizard, or sorcerer, 6HD +4LA
Formian Queen - 17th level sorcerer, 20HD LA-- (not typically playable)
Lillend - 6th level bard, 7HD +6 LA
Dark Naga - 7th level sorcerer, 9HD LA-- (not typically playable)
Guardian Naga - 9th level sorcerer, 11HD LA-- (not typically playable)
Spirit Naga - 7th level sorcerer, 9HD LA-- (not typically playable)
Water Naga - 7th level sorcerer, 7HD LA-- (not typically playable)
Rakshasa - 7th level sorcerer, 7HD LA +7

[Shalist]

Black ethergaunts (http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/block/Ethergaunt,_Black)give 17th level wizard casting for just +4 LA (RHD can always be level-drained away in your backstory). They also bring plenty of other perks to the table, like +21 int, a bunch of bonus feats, 'immunity to magic' (arcane 6th and lower), 40' blindsense, and more.

Also note that phaerimm 'cast spells as SLAs' explicitly ignoring several costs (material components, exp, etc.).