Abjurant Champion / Spellcarved Soldier / Practiced Spellcaster interaction?

[HugeC]

Considering a warforged build something like this:

Wizard 2 (Practiced)
Fighter 2
Monk 2
Ranger 1
Abjurant Champion 5
Spellcarved Soldier 4
Enlightened Fist 4

So this guy would have +17 BAB at 20. Does the player get to choose what order his class features and feats are applied? To wit: Caster level = 17 from Abjurant Champion's level 5 ability, then +4 from Practiced Spellcaster (but no higher than hit dice) = 20, then +4 caster level from Spellcarved Soldier's Rune of the Archmage, for a final caster level of 24 (though spells known level is only 10).

The Abjurant Champion ability (if I recall correctly) says your caster level is either your BAB or your "actual" caster level (10), whichever is higher, which makes me think this could work, but I might be misinterpreting. Whaddya think, playground?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Depends on the wording of Abjurant Champion. If it proposes in either/or pick like you suggest, then he'd go either his BAB or 10+4+4 for 18, assuming that the Spellcarved Soldier class feature is worded such that he'd gain just a straight bonus to CL. Either way, he'd be better off going with the BAB route first, then smacking the Spellcarved bonus on, assuming AC does force you to choose which way to make CL, well, you're CL.

EDIT: Okay, so scratch all of that. The way it is worded from Martial Arcanist is such that you get the higher of your actual caster level and your base attack bonus. In this scenario, the bugger has a CL of 24.

[Cog]

Somewhere in the official FAQ (regarding a vulnerability-and-immunity question, I think) is the idea that you can apply your own abilities in whatever order you find most beneficial. If you go with that, then yes, you can get to 24.

[HugeC]

Ah yes, I think this must be the sentence you are referring to, Cog:


As a general guideline, whenever the rules don’t stipulate an order of operations for special effects (such as spells or special abilities), you should apply them in the order that’s most beneficial to the “controller” of the effect.

And after I re-read the Abjurant Champion's ability last night, I think I agree with you Thrice, seems like it works as I described above. Thanks for the clues, guys!