For an experienced gamer, it is quite broken.
While they can't make permanent effects, they can do a lot of different things.
But Chaos Magic is a lot like Polymorph...
"I cast my spell" ... hmmm I'll add this component... that mod... this enhancer... minutes later... sometimes tens of minutes later and the spell is crafted and cast...
Pre-done spells work great, though sometimes require minor tweaking, but is much like standard spellcasting...
making something new up, takes a game break, where everyone rolls their eyes while the chaos mage builds a spell to end the encounter they just started...
This is almost as bad as the character pausing to cast polymorph... then flicking through books to find the creature they are turning into.
What I have done to counter this, is if they can't tell me what they are casting, allowing a brief pause, then they are considered to have hald their action and they can jump in when they have figured it out...
the same for polymorph ;-)
This stops the creativity on the spot, and makes them plan before casting, and not during casting. ;-)
Though if they have started casting, I simply have them casting over multiple rounds (reducing DC for chaos magic) and after being hit a couple of times they learn to cast when prepared...
Though the players found it frustrating that nearly any combat could be solved by the raw power of the chaos mage.
This is not too much different from the raw power of a psion.
Or the many different abilities of a Ghaele (which the player took as his next character)
Yes it can be played and overused, yes there are major flaws in the character in group dynamics, and yes it is overpowered for its level.
But is it more broken than other "legal" combinations. No.
If I was to play one again in my campaign, I would increase the DC for damage effects, or at least convince the player not to abuse them.
But for the other effects, like the ability to change somethings shape, I would look at having them as instantaneous effects and not duration for the reason stated in other treads about armour returning to the person it was "melted" off and things like that.
The ability to return an object back to its origional form after changing its composite, should be a harder thing to do and aligned more with Lawful or static magic unless its an enhancer, which would simply loose the enhancement.
I hope this is not to convoluted a response
