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I am trying to build a Human Wizard 3/Rainbow Servant 10/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7, but for this I need to be able to cast 3rd level Arcane spells at level 3. What combination of feats should I use for that? I've looked at Sanctum Spell, but that one screws you over the moment you step out of Sanctum at level 4. Is it possible to pull this off without Sanctum Spell?

Thomas Jacobs
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Mostly taken from this answer, but I’ve stripped out the references to things that won’t help you.

By the way, I strongly recommend that all DMs ban all of these tricks, and furthermore ban the build that you’re proposing, should you find some other way to accomplish it.

Improved Sigil (Krau) Illumian: race and 1 feat (Races of Destiny)

An illumian can take Improved Sigil (Krau) to apply a free Heighten Spell to a number of spells. Just take it at 3rd level, pick a 2nd-level spell, and you’re good to go.

Precocious Apprentice allows you to cast a single 2nd-level arcane spell, if you wanted to try to do this as a Wizard 1 rather than Wizard 3. Requires flaws though.

Earth Spell: 3 feats (Races of Stone)

Earth Spell requires Heighten Spell and Earth Sense, basically allowing you to have a free extra level when using Heighten Spell. Heighten 1st-level spell to 2nd-level with it, and you get a 3nd-level spell. Three feats that early requires being human, or flaws.

Precocious Apprentice doesn’t help here because you can’t prepare your heightened 1st-level spell in the Precocious Apprentice spell slot; you can only prepare the chosen spell.

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KRyan
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  • Why are you recommending that GM's ban the tricks? Cleric and Wizard casting at ECL 13 is not even overpowered, a level 13 cleric or a level 13 wizard is nearly as good, and a basic IotSV is better. Not even mentioning crazy stuff like Dweomerkeeper or Incantatrix. – user2754 Jul 01 '14 at 13:19
  • @JackLesnie since (according to WotC's rules on primary sources) text has precedence over tables, Rainbow Servant is a full casting class, not losing 4 CLs like the table suggests. – Zachiel Jul 01 '14 at 13:57
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    @JackLesnie Better-than-wizard spellcasting should always be banned. You seem to think that a single-classed wizard should be the baseline, when it's actually one of the very-most powerful builds in the game. The game breaks down and falls apart under this much optimization. – KRyan Jul 01 '14 at 13:57
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    I don't think he seems to think that (rather, that he thinks that it's weaker than something allowed, not than something on the baseline) but this is not the place to talk about it. If somebody is interested in expanding the conversation, let's open a chat. – Zachiel Jul 01 '14 at 14:02
  • Well, it's more just that Wizard 13 is already crazytown. Wizard + cleric spells 13 is like a nuclear country with 20 nukes compared to a nuclear country with 10 (wizard 13). They're both nuclear armed - cities are going to be gone if they go to war - is the difference truly worth banning? Especially since the only times i've seen someone go rainbow servant was to make an interesting character mechanically rather than for min/max purposes. – user2754 Jul 01 '14 at 14:03
  • You could make an argument that someone using early entry tricks is likely to also min/max his spell selection and is therefore a risk for optimized play in a possibly unoptimized group, which causes problems, I guess. But Wizard 13 is literally enough to break settings in half. I've HAD my own settings broken in half by it. It doesn't need cleric spells to break the setting - so... what's the fundamental difference? – user2754 Jul 01 '14 at 14:05
  • @JackLesnie I think it might be an issue of the other folks at the table having nothing to do--unless they're also playing over-optimized Tier 1s. – Hey I Can Chan Jul 01 '14 at 14:39
  • @HeyICanChan. How is Wizard 3/Rainbow Servant 10 noticeably more optimized than Wizard 13? If you're banning the former, but not the latter, why? That's my question. – user2754 Jul 01 '14 at 14:42
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    @JackLesnie If the Wiz13 can grab cleric spells too it virtually obviates another Tier 1. To play in the same game as that guy, the other PCs must make with wacky tricks, too, so they've that kind of versatility. That's an unreasonably high bar. Honestly, I don't object to the trick (Wiz13 who can prepare Clr spells? Whatever); I object to everyone at the table not being able to grab as much screen time as that dude inevitably will because he's chosen an option that occupies, like, at least 20% of the game's word count. – Hey I Can Chan Jul 01 '14 at 14:52
  • @HeyICanChan. Why? There's nothing in Cleric spells that a Wizard can't have in one form or another. The only thing that isn't wandable or overlaps is Cleric's great party melee buffs - and party melee buffs is rarely if ever something that unbalances groups. Same number of actions, same number of spell slots, roughly same capability for game-breaking spells...? – user2754 Jul 01 '14 at 14:56
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    @Jack Lesnie. The main weakness of Wizard class is that he has to PREPARE his spells and if he misses with his daily spell repertoire, he becomes far less potent. By giving a character nearly as much Cleric levels as he has Wizard levels, he is able to prepare for far more situations, or prepare so much for one that he knows about, that it would be overkill. It's just too much of versatility/power in one hands, which will most likely put the rest of the party in his shadow since he will just solve EVERYTHING by magic. Not too nice of a move in a team game – Baka-Mastermind Jul 01 '14 at 20:38
  • Hey guys, you can talk to me instead of about me and gist at my goals :). I'm not trying to become the guy who casts three times and the fight's over: I'm going for being the one who supports the party with a mix of buffs, defensive and offensive spells and some utility. And I am aware that while a Rainbow Mage has a LOT of spells, you only have 4+int bonus spells per level if you're high enough. Your PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER is kind of limited by that. – Thomas Jacobs Jul 02 '14 at 12:53
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    @ThomasJacobs You are badly underestimating the power level of this character, I think, but that's neither here nor there. Ultimately, this answer has my name on it and I am not going to put my name to a description of how to accomplish these things without a warning to readers that I think it's a really bad idea to allow it. Answers here are not just for the person asking them, but for all future readers who have the same question, too. That's also why we don't allow (even clear, answerable) questions that are too specific to one person and won't ever be useful to anyone else. – KRyan Jul 02 '14 at 13:32