Can I get Combat Casting as a bonus feat in one level or less?

Question

I need Combat Casting as a prerequisite for another feat.

I really do not want to waste a precious feat slot on this terrible feat, particularly since I should have enormous Constitution.

Therefore, I want to get it as a bonus feat. The best I can find for this is becoming a 2nd-level duskblade, but two levels is a lot to pay—even more than a feat slot. The other benefits of the duskblade class simply don’t do enough for me to justify that investment.

So I want an alternative. Some possible answers:

• A base class that gets Combat Casting at 1st.

• An alternate class feature, substitution level, variant, or other option for a 3rd-level barbarian or druid, or 2nd-level cleric or wu jen (I’m planning on two levels of barbarian or druidic avenger, and a level each of cleric and wu jen, so one more level of any of these is better than fine for me).

• A prestige class that gets Combat Casting at 1st (though the prerequisites are likely to ruin this as an efficient answer, and my character per se is only 6th level and thus has very limited access to prestige classes, I’d be interested in knowing).

• A magic item that grants Combat Casting (this need not be limited to something affordable for a 6th-level character, though obviously my immediate problem is best solved by something that is).

• Since this is for a feat and I’ll always need Combat Casting to use it, spells, powers, etc. etc. probably will not work—but if there are such options that can legitimately offer 100% uptime, I’d be interested (my character is going to be permanently enraged and probably unable to use these, but I’d still be interested).

• I might be convinced by two levels in something else that’s a stronger dip than duskblade. Not my preferred solution, but certainly better than nothing.

• Any of the above that explicitly counts as Combat Casting for the purpose of meeting a feat’s prerequisites.

Non-epic Wizards of the Coast-published 3.5e material, as well as Dragon or Dungeon magazine is acceptable. I want something that just says “you get the Combat Casting feat,” or “you count as having the Combat Casting feat for prerequisites.” Shenanigans to get extra feat slots (Elder Evils, DCFS, whatever) are not acceptable. Likewise, various suggestions that maybe with DM approval you could get a custom feature that might include Combat Casting—for example, the suggestion about feat-granting magic items from Arms & Eqiupment Guide—aren’t in-bounds for this question. And similar bonuses or whatever are of zero interest unless they explicitly count as Combat Casting for prerequisites.

Answer 1

A Loremaster with an intelligence bonus of +7 or better can learn "Any one feat" at level 1 via the Applicable knowledge secret.

(I don't expect this to be useful for your build, unfortunately.)

Answer 2

This is ridiculous, but I have a solution, of sorts.

The reason for two levels of barbarian or druidic avenger was for the sake of rage, because Chaos Rage only gives me up to 4 levels’ worth of it to play with, so as a 6th-level character I needed at least two levels of a class that actually has rage.

But barbarian and druidic avenger aren’t the only classes that get rage. And one such other class is the monk, with the raging monk variant from Dragon vol. 310. Of course, no monk variant gets Combat Casting as a bonus feat, so that doesn’t especially help—but the illuminated monk substitution level from Dragon vol. 340 gets a bonus Skill Focus feat in any skill instead of the regular monk bonus feat.

And that is valuable because the marshal from Miniatures Handbook gets Skill Focus (Diplomacy) at 1st level—unless you already have it. Then, in an almost-unprecedented feature, it says you get any feat you qualify for instead. That can be Combat Casting.

So, since I can take raging monk “for free,” replacing the second level of barbarian or druid, marshal becomes my one-level source of Combat Casting. And that solves that, absurdly.

Answer 3

The shadowspy from complete champion (p.105) gets bonus feats every other level starting at 2nd, but it requires some divine casting prerequisites. Combat casting is on the list, though.

Another option is mirror move, which can grant it but only for a limited time which can of course cause problems as a prereq, and I don't know if you count a web thing as published, but it's at least official.

Good luck!