This is very much a work in progress and is more an exersize in making a class that allows for a caster that slings a lot of spells but at the exclusion of their higher level spells and to make it balanced. I'm thinking about having it grant one normal caster level at 3rd.
Remember this is a work in progress.
Focused Caster
Some practitioners of the arcane arts prefer quantity over quality. A Focused Caster is an arcane spell caster, such as a bard, sorcerer or wizard, who chooses to focus their training on casting more spells in a day rather than casting more powerful spells.
HD: d4
Requirements: Arcane Caster Level 10+
Extra Spells Per Day: These spells work just like as if they were given from the base class and must be selected from that spell list and prepared as if they were from that class. Lower level spells may be used in higher level spell slots. These do not actually allow a caster to cast spells of any higher level than their caster level would allow. If a caster cannot cast spells of the level provided by this class they still have access to the spell slots and may use them for lower level spells. If the caster advances further later on to be able to cast those higher level spells then those slots are still open for them. For example: A wizard 10/Focused Caster 5 would be able to cast spells up to 5th level as per his caster level. He could still use the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level slots provided by this class, but he could only memorize 5th level spells in them. If he were to add another level of wizard he would then be able to fill the higher level slots with 6th level spells.
Level Extra Spells Per Day 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 1st 4 2 2 1 - - - - - - 2nd 8 4 4 2 2 1 - - - - 3rd 8 4 4 4 4 2 2 1 - - 4th 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 2 2 1 5th 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 2
The concept is potentially balanceable in non-Epic, though there may be some metamagic effects that unbalance it somewhat (I'm not sure).
It blows game balance wide open in epic play, by providing lots and lots of extra spells and as many highly powerful spells as usual. Take Practiced Spellcaster, and you don't even suffer from caster level loss...