Paragnostic Apostle and the Pillar of Fire

[Inevitability]

The Pillar of Fire (Mysteries of the Moonsea page 115) is a magical location that grants 5 castings of Fireball as a SLA that stick around until used. The pillar has a cost-equivalency of 4000 GP, which by typical WBL guidelines becomes accessible sometime during level 3.

It's not as good as being a lesser Aasimar, of course, but might race-locked builds appreciate this as a way of abandoning their casting class and getting into Paragnostic Apostle during low levels? Or is there a magical location that does the same job better?

[Troacctid]

Well, you could use a touchstone. Healing Waters of Abu-Ima gives you a 3rd-level SLA.

[Anthrowhale]

WBL guidelines have you spending less than half on any one item, so the fireball approach plausibly comes online just before 5th level, enough to a give something like Wizard 4/Paragnostic Apostle <n>.

The Healing Waters approach seems to require taking a feat at 3rd level, and I believe you must commit to class before feat, so it seems to allow for Wizard 3/Paragnostic Apostle<n>.

And then the Lesser Aasimar can manage Wizard 2/Paragnostic Apostle<n> since they are only limited by skill ranks.

[RSGA]

If you can get an arbitrary feat at 2nd or are being given extra gold from some source, you can take the Touchstone feat for a final total of 500 gp (250 gp item, 250 ritual materials) and 10 xp. Not too sure it would help in this particular case, but figured that should be mentioned.

[Zarvistic]

Another alternative is Lesser Dhin from Dragon 350, gets Wind Wall and some other SLAs.

[Inevitability]

WBL guidelines have you spending less than half on any one item, so the fireball approach plausibly comes online just before 5th level, enough to a give something like Wizard 4/Paragnostic Apostle <n>.

The Healing Waters approach seems to require taking a feat at 3rd level, and I believe you must commit to class before feat, so it seems to allow for Wizard 3/Paragnostic Apostle<n>.

And then the Lesser Aasimar can manage Wizard 2/Paragnostic Apostle<n> since they are only limited by skill ranks.

Ah right, forgot about the WBL guidelines for single expensive items.

In that case I guess this is mostly useful for qualifying on anything that's not a full caster, rather than entering early.