Building Gish, What spell casting class should I enter?

[AustontheGreat1]

Currently, I'm a level 2 swordsage, but we are about to get our third level and I going into a spell casting class in order to get into Jade Phoenix Mage.

But I'm having a little trouble deciding what to go into. I have kind of have it narrowed down to either Illusionist, or Beguiler. If I went wizard, I'd get more variety in my spells and I'd only have to take 3 levels before starting Phoenix Mage. But beguiler would Give me loads more skills and give me let me keep my light armor.

Anyway, I figured I'd ask for some opinions here before deciding. With your suggestions please include some explanations and reasons for your view.
Thank You.

[gbprime]

If you're okay with the beguiler's spell list, then go with that. More hit points, more skill points, more spells per day, and light armor.

[Cadian 9th]

Assuming complicated perma' hieghtening to 2nd level spell slots is out of the question, I would say that Beguiler is a big up over the Illusionist. If you can wait that 1 level, but Beguiler, as gbprime says, has the skills, the spell list, slightly better HP, and goes a bit better with your Light Armor focus. You may want to pick up Ascetic Psion or Carmendine Monk (Get a house ruling from your DM) for Int to Swordsage abilities. Such a feat would be super beneficial to your build.

But yeah, Beguiler is better all around. Make sure you retrain/were unarmed swordsage upon entering Beguiler, this lets you cast spells with your hands full and still fight properly.

[Godskook]

Just pointing out, that without shenanigans, you must be level 6 already before entering Jade Phoenix Mage, due to the 9 skill rank requirement. Given that, you're going to be spend 4 more levels not in JPM, and probably in one or the other casting class. That's enough to qualify as either, so you won't delay your progression any by going Beguiler.

Personally, I'd still go wizard, but I'm a big fanboy of the unrestricted spell list, so yeah.

[Cadian 9th]

Just pointing out, that without shenanigans, you must be level 6 already before entering Jade Phoenix Mage, due to the 9 skill rank requirement. Given that, you're going to be spend 4 more levels not in JPM, and probably in one or the other casting class. That's enough to qualify as either, so you won't delay your progression any by going Beguiler.

Personally, I'd still go wizard, but I'm a big fanboy of the unrestricted spell list, so yeah.

Ah, then I would say Beguiler. On the spell list of wizards, yeah, you do, but I can't see the character needing the spellcasting versatility to function as the primary caster when he seems to be a secondary caster/melee combatant.

[Dusk Eclipse]

The problem with beguiler is that it's spell list lacks many of the important Gish buffs, such as the wombat abilities line, polymorph or polymorph like spells (troll form for example), wraith strike, etc.

So I would go with wizard myself.

[Cadian 9th]

The problem with beguiler is that it's spell list lacks many of the important Gish buffs, such as the wombat abilities line, polymorph or polymorph like spells (troll form for example), wraith strike, etc.

So I would go with wizard myself.

Wombat line?

[Urpriest]

Wombat line?

Bull's Strength et al I believe. I've heard them referred to as the wombat spells before, but I don't think there's any reason besides it being a silly animal.

[Cadian 9th]

You're missing out on +2 attack and damage (+3 if you stop yourself from casting with two hands) if you go beguiler, I see. Bear's Endurance, maybe, but surely the party buffbot can cover you. The way I see it:

EDIT: Beguiler lacks the Ability buffs and the Polymorph line, but still has Mirror Image, Blur, See invisibility, Silent/Minor Image, Invisibility, Knock, Spider climb, Dispel Magic, Non-detection, Glibness, Hold Person, Slow, Haste, Suggestion, Zone of Silence. The wizard does have a few more spells, but the Beguiler covers the essentials at least.

Wizard:
-Requires unarmoured/money and feat investment, nulls AC bonus class feature.
-Gives Familiar, Bonus feat (Fighter/scribe scroll), Specialization and Focused Specialist, as well as the variants from UA, etc.
-Wide variety of spells, except if you specialize, in which case you lose 2, and if you go focused specialist, you lose another.

Beguiler:
-Gives bonuses synergising with High Ini from swordsage (bonus DCs, surprise casting)
-Synergises with Light Armor; gains profficiency with armors and weapons
-More skills per level, including Search, spot, listen, disable device, tumble. Tumble is excellent for Swordsages.
-Trapfinding, allowing him to be the back up Trapfinder
-More spells per day on a reduced spell list. Mainly, the beguiler spell list has Out of Combat spells and some Battle control illusion spells, which work pretty well with Swordsage. Swordasge wants to be spending his actions on maneuvers, mainly - especially since Jade Phoenix does both pretty well.

Overall, beguiler keeps skills, gives a surprise casting bonus, learns fewer spells and less versatility, while the Wizard can get abrupt jaunt (good use of immediate action, teleport around, or even into their face so you can do a full maneuver attack next turn/attack and run) or familiar, less spells per day but a much wider range to pick from. The wizard loses out in Skills and HD, but the versatility each day may make up for that.

Actually, Beguiler has the added bonus of knowing all her spells. That means that, yes, the spells are less wide ranging, but she can cast any of her, let's face it, quite wide arsenal at any time, while the wizard must pick and choose each day, limiting his versatility. From an ease of play perspective, Beguiler is a godsend.

[Godskook]

Wizard:
-Requires unarmoured/money and feat investment, nulls AC bonus class feature.
-Gives Familiar, Bonus feat (Fighter/scribe scroll), Specialization and Focused Specialist, as well as the variants from UA, etc.
-Wide variety of spells, except if you specialize, in which case you lose 2, and if you go focused specialist, you lose another.

-Familiar can be traded for Abrupt Jaunt on a conjurer, which is *INCREDIBLE* for staying alive
-Focused Specialist, banning Evocation, Enchantment and Necromancy still has 95% of the wizard buff spells, and is still a great gish spellcaster. However, due to the loss of generalist slots, I'd probably go regular specialist conjurer so I could cast transmutation spells quicker.
-FS puts you on par with beguiler slot-wise at almost all levels, with the exception that you get spell levels earlier(At 7th CL, the beguiler got his last 2nd level slot, but wizard is already casting 4th level spells)
-Shield and Greater Luminous Armor(good only, but he's a JPM, so yeah) means his AC is just fine at later levels. And then finish the build with Abjurant Champion and make the beguiler cry about AC.(Note that the shield spell is the only way to get a shield AC as a swordsage)

[Safety Sword]

Bull's Strength et al I believe. I've heard them referred to as the wombat spells before, but I don't think there's any reason besides it being a silly animal.

A silly animal that can crush the skull of a dingo between it's butt cheeks. Really. They defend their burrows by crawling in head first and plugging the gap with their butt.

Not sure if "Wombat's butt" is a D&D spell I'd want, but I guess it could find some uses in games where BoEF is in play

[Cadian 9th]

-Familiar can be traded for Abrupt Jaunt on a conjurer, which is *INCREDIBLE* for staying alive
-Focused Specialist, banning Evocation, Enchantment and Necromancy still has 95% of the wizard buff spells, and is still a great gish spellcaster. However, due to the loss of generalist slots, I'd probably go regular specialist conjurer so I could cast transmutation spells quicker.
-FS puts you on par with beguiler slot-wise at almost all levels, with the exception that you get spell levels earlier(At 7th CL, the beguiler got his last 2nd level slot, but wizard is already casting 4th level spells)
-Shield and Greater Luminous Armor(good only, but he's a JPM, so yeah) means his AC is just fine at later levels. And then finish the build with Abjurant Champion and make the beguiler cry about AC.(Note that the shield spell is the only way to get a shield AC as a swordsage)

I talked about Abrupt Jaunt. It is an epic ability, and works well with swordsage.

Focused specialist means that you have lost access to Streamers, Suggestion, Charm Monster, Power Word: Pain, Fatigue, etc, Bigby's line, Darkness, Flame blade, Touch of Idiocy, etc. Specialist means you lose access to schools of magic, reducing the draw card of wizard which is versatility. Furthermore, the OP doesn't need to be the versatile spellcaster in the group. What has he been doing before he is about to take the level, I presume he relies on the other members of the party to cast the spell on him. I think for the benefit of more skills, light armor, bigger HD, knowing all spells on his class list, good spells per day, good synergy with Swordsage, he can pass on loosing some of the crucial buffs so the player of the primary caster can do his job.

Paragonostic Apostle also increases Armor bonus by 2, which is nifty. Regardless, I hardly think that the lack of Shield and Mage armor is the deal breaker here. Potions of shield are just as good (Master Specialist can create potions of personal abjurations) and even then, you've got Light Armor, which is still good. Invest in Mithral/Leafweave armor and you've got yourself a +4/5/6 Armor bonus, and then the cleric/wizard can boost your AC after that.

Nothing wrong with asking the DM if you can have Shield on your spell list if it keeps you alive. I as a DM wouldn't mind, to be honest.