Like people said, several builds like WS Ranger get a strong enough progression that you don't want to deviate from it much.

Also if the DM uses a lot of monsters/classes that have anti-caster abilities (like Magebane weapons, Arcane Hunter favored enemy, various monsters that hurt or screw over casters beyond what they do to noncasters), having a few low level spells might be more of a drawback than a positive.

If the DM provides substantial wealth and easy access to purchase magic items, then a simple UMD investment can grant access to the same low level magic effects that a few CL would've granted anyway, and mathematically the non-caster class features you can obtain might genuinely be better or more valuable than some 1st level magic.

Those are the main mechanical/logical reasons I can think of. Obviously if you want to RP someone who uses no magic, that settles it anyway.

Quote Originally Posted by Doctor Despair View Post
I'm not sure a limited number of 1st-level ranger slots are worth more than the free fighter feat you can get from Champion of the Wild.
Wand use alone is worth more than 1 bonus feat.
And a single prepared Healthful Rest will heal a crazy amount of hp for a WS Ranger/MoMF build. By level 10, it's providing potentially up to 60 extra healing per day (in practice it'll be less b/c optimizing healing won't be your main concern w/ when to change forms), and it just keeps scaling up the higher you go.