killer gnome build questions

[Zhepna]

Hi,

I try to build a killer gnome and I have 3 questions:

1)Is it possible to take the Gnome Illusionist Substitution Levels (races of the stone, p 149) without taking Illusionist level? I would like to be make
lvl 1 Gnome Illusionist Substitution Levels
lvl 2, 3 and 4 wizard
lvl 5 Gnome Illusionist Substitution Levels

2) If I do:
lvl 1 Gnome Illusionist Substitution
lvl 2 3 and 4 Illusionist
lvl 5 Gnome Illusionist Substitution
lvl 6 to 10 Shadowcrafter
do I continue to gain stuff given by the Illusionist_Variants even if I don't take levels in it anymore? By exemple, will I gain the following capacity:
At 10th level, the illusionist's illusions become infused with shadow stuff from the Plane of Shadows, making them more realistic and more likely to fool the senses. The save DCs of the illusionist's illusion spells increase by +1. This benefit stacks with similar bonuses, such as from Spell Focus.

at level 10 even my lvl 10 will be a level taking in Shadowcrafter

3) I would like to enter the shadowcrafter prestige class as soon as possible. I thought about using the Earth Spell metamagic to quality sooner than I should(from what I understand, I could take Shdowcrafter at lvl 6 with that) Am I right?

Thanks for the information and have a nice day.

[daremetoidareyo]

The gnome illusionist levels are substitution levels, meaning that they replace the wizard (illusion specialty) levels where indicated: 1, 5, & 10.

Shadowcrafter only advances spells known,spells per day, and caster level,

not

the class features, like the 10th level sub level or familiar advancement.

In order to get that 10th level ability, you need to take 5 more levels of wizard.