Optimizing for Free Spells Known

[jeek]

Grey Elf Wizard with (Races of the Wild) Elf Wizard Substitution Levels

L1 Feat: Collegiate Wizard (Complete Arcane)
L3 Feat: Touchstone: City of the Dead (Sandstorm)
5 Levels of Wizard gets you 27 free spells, then a level of Sand Shaper (Sandstorm) gets you a ton more....

Where do I go from here?

[Doc Roc]

Pick up apprentice(spellcaster) from DMG II. It's a feat, a lil hard to find, it's under apprenticeships in the Table of Contents. It'll net you some cool and fun stuff.

[jeek]

Pick up apprentice(spellcaster) from DMG II. It's a feat, a lil hard to find, it's under apprenticeships in the Table of Contents. It'll net you some cool and fun stuff.

Nifty feat which would help except that it's mutually exclusive with Collegiate Wizard. Both are L1-only feats, and a Grey Elf only gets one level 1 feat.

[JeenLeen]

Not sure if this will work RAW. Almost impossible to do in game.

Start as Human. At level 2, die and get reincarnated as an elf. This could be expensive and time-consuming and requires extra leveling, money, and a friendly high-level druid.
There is the level 5 version of Reincarnate from Spell Compendium that doesn't make you lose a level if it's done in 1 rd of death.

I don't believe you lose anything but racial mods to physical stats by Reincarnate, so you'd keep the bonus feat and can take the elven wizard level subs for future levels. Or retrain (PHBII) for elven ACF?

[Gralamin]

Nifty feat which would help except that it's mutually exclusive with Collegiate Wizard. Both are L1-only feats, and a Grey Elf only gets one level 1 feat.

Use flaws to get it. Use a Ritual from Savage Species to become a Grey Elf... There are ways to do it.

[jeek]

Use flaws to get it. Use a Ritual from Savage Species to become a Grey Elf... There are ways to do it.

Flaws are not an option, and 3.0 stuff that hasn't been reprinted in 3.5 is not an option.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You could also get Spontaneous Divination at Wizard 5, then learn the entire Divination school for free via RP. Go to a library or organization or individual which will let you copy a spell for the standard (spell level x 50 gp) fee, spend a day reading and learning a divination spell, pretend to fail the Spellcraft check to learn it and don't copy it into your spellbook, and don't pay the fee for the spells you don't actually copy from them. The spells are added to your spells known, you can't prepare them if they're not in your spellbook but Spontaneous Divination gets around that. You could even do this with spells from other schools, and then cast Secret Page to put them into your spellbook after you leave the establishment you've been scamming. Next thing you know, the wizards' colleges will form a version of the RIAA to stop the spell piracy schemes...