NOCTUMANCER early entry

[Wombles]

Hello,
Trying to optimize my way into Noctumancer early. The character is going to be a magic regulator (Extinguisher) working for the local government cracking down on non-licensed magic and magic items, dispelling and removing magic from items when their owners can't produce the proper paperwork and sending them a bill to get the item re-enchanted by a guild approved wizard (at twice the cost).

That said, I want to get into the class as soon as possible, and the biggest hurdle is "Able to cast 2nd-level mysteries"
So, does anyone know a way to to get "Able to cast 2nd-level mysteries" sooner than shadow caster 3?

Thank you.

[Troacctid]

It's much easier to get early entry on the wizard side. As long as your DM allows heighten tricks, there's probably a solid half-dozen ways to get in as a Wizard 1/Shadowcaster 3.

[Wombles]

Right, there are a million tricks on the arcane side, which is why I said the biggest hurdle is the shadow casting part, was hoping someone knew some esoteric feat chain, playable race, ect to help me jump over that and squeeze in even one level sooner, the DM tends to run games that stop at pretty early levels.

[Beni-Kujaku]

1st level mysteries are cast as spells. Eldritch Corruption (Heroes of Horror) allows you to heighten a spell as it is cast‚ without going through the hurdle of using spell slots. It costs Con damage‚ so you will probably never use it in real play‚ but it serves as a 1-feat-dual-early-entry for both sides of Noctumancer. If you are a Necropolitan‚ then moderate depravity is no problem.

[Wombles]

1st level mysteries are cast as spells. Eldritch Corruption (Heroes of Horror) allows you to heighten a spell as it is cast‚ without going through the hurdle of using spell slots. It costs Con damage‚ so you will probably never use it in real play‚ but it serves as a 1-feat-dual-early-entry for both sides of Noctumancer. If you are a Necropolitan‚ then moderate depravity is no problem.

Wow, that's an interesting path forward, not going to play this guy as an undead though, need to take a break from the good old d12 hd and endless immunities.
The Dm is pretty cool with making minor changes to things so I'll see if moderate taint can be replaced with something else.

[Paragon]

1st level mysteries are cast as spells. Eldritch Corruption (Heroes of Horror) allows you to heighten a spell as it is cast‚ without going through the hurdle of using spell slots. It costs Con damage‚ so you will probably never use it in real play‚ but it serves as a 1-feat-dual-early-entry for both sides of Noctumancer. If you are a Necropolitan‚ then moderate depravity is no problem.

What Eldritch Corruption allows you to do is to copy Heighten Spell up to a maximum of 2 levels above the initial spell. If your DM lets early entry with Heighten Spell fly then you're okay with either of those feats.

[Beni-Kujaku]

The point is that Eldritch corruption applies when casting the spell, which means it can be applied to mysteries, while regular Heighten cannot, since you don't prepare mysteries. It is, afaik, the only feat to do it (apply Heighten and not only reducing its cost).