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Diovid
2011-01-13, 05:14 AM
I want to play a Gnome using illusions a lot but I also want to try out the Bard for a change. Reading through the Gnome Paragon entry, I found the following:

Spells per Day

At 2nd and 3rd level, a gnome paragon gains new spells per day and spells known as if he had also gained a level in bard. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bard class features, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of gnome paragon to his level in bard, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If a gnome paragon has no levels in bard, this class feature has no effect.
And this:

Illusion Aptitude (Ex)

A gnome paragon may add his class level to his caster level to determine the effects of any illusion spells he casts, including those gained as innate abilities of the gnome race. This bonus stacks with the extra spellcasting levels gained from the gnome paragon's spells per day entry (see above).

For example, a 2nd-level wizard/3rd-level gnome paragon's caster level is 2nd for most wizard spells but 5th for wizard spells of the illusion school (and 4th for his innate spell-like abilities dancing lights, ghost sound, and prestidigitation). A 3rd-level bard/2nd-level gnome paragon's caster level is 4th for most bard spells but 6th for bard spells of the illusion school.

This increased caster level affects only spells that the character can cast; it does not give him access to higher-level spells or more spells per day.
Now, I wandered if by 'Bard' the actual Bard base class is meant or if the Prestige Bard would also count as 'Bard'. In the second case, you could have some fun with a Sorceror 2 / Gnome Paragon 3 / Prestige Bard x, using high level Illusion spells.

Coidzor
2011-01-13, 05:23 AM
Rereading it, it's referring to the casting progression of the bard base class, since PrC bard only progresses another class's casting.

So it becomes a bit problematic with PrC bard because it's an every other level advancement of casting progression. So this is where the DM would have to make a judgment call.

Personally, I'd allow it to count as 2/3 casting progression, since it seems like less of a headache than referring to the PrC bard's table.

Cog
2011-01-13, 01:05 PM
Now, I wandered if by 'Bard' the actual Bard base class is meant or if the Prestige Bard would also count as 'Bard'. In the second case, you could have some fun with a Sorceror 2 / Gnome Paragon 3 / Prestige Bard x, using high level Illusion spells.

They're separate sets of alternate rules, so they don't automatically combine. A lenient DM might easily allow it... but I don't see how you could justify taking it before you have any of the PrC bard for it to advance.