Quote Originally Posted by someonenoone11 View Post
You're forgetting the will save. It's like less than 50% chance to pass it at low levels so you don't get the extra standard action back half the time, and the Choker is an awful physical form. Bad stats, bad natural AC, small size, etc.

I'll defer to your judgement on eye rays since I haven't really read up on that trick.
Well, Alter Self doesn't alter your stats, you're a Wizard so you don't particularly care about your AC, small size is mostly a boon with the hit bonus for Rays and the Hide bonus in general, etc. For Alter Self it's very good, and e.g. Elan, Synad and Daelkyr Half-Blood exist as LA +0 Aberrations. Alter Self in particular has enough duration that you can reasonably expect to cast it out of combat (even Extended) and have it up for the encounter at the start so at worst you're doing normal and you get to supernova every time you can make the DC 19 Will-save. Given you have at least 13 Wis and at least 4 levels in a good Will-class, isn't all that bad; you're looking at +5 minimum (+3 with the penalty) though 14 Wis, Cloak of Resistance +1 [by the time you hit level 4 spells, Greater Resistance moods that part], and any potential generic bonuses make you fairly good at it soon enough. On level 7 you have 5 base, +1-+2 Wis, +3 Resistance for +9-+10. One-two PRCs (say Master Specialist and Divine Oracle) add +2 more each. Keen Intellect and you're looking at +18 or so (20 base Int with +2 item) giving you 100% chance of making the check. For Polymorph, yeah, 1 min/level is a bit pesky.

As for Beholders, the whole Eye Rays thing is a single ability so you get a ridiculous number of booms. And they're all free actions. You have 10 rays.