Archmage: how many would play it by the book? [3.5]

[TuggyNE]

As recently uncovered, and documented in Dysfunctional Rules, the Archmage PrC does not advance caster level, despite advancing spellcasting otherwise. This means, among other unfortunate things, that a Wizard 15/Archmage 5 with Spell Power taken 5 times is very nearly strictly inferior to a Wizard 20. (They have Will +2 and Search as a class skill, in exchange for losing five fifth-level slots. That's it.)

For curiosity's sake, then, has anyone ever, or would anyone, actually follow this rule in their own games, as opposed to just sticking in the missing caster level increase clause?

[jedipilot24]

As recently uncovered, and documented in Dysfunctional Rules, the Archmage PrC does not advance caster level, despite advancing spellcasting otherwise. This means, among other unfortunate things, that a Wizard 15/Archmage 5 with Spell Power taken 5 times is very nearly strictly inferior to a Wizard 20. (They have Will +2 and Search as a class skill, in exchange for losing five fifth-level slots. That's it.)

For curiosity's sake, then, has anyone ever, or would anyone, actually follow this rule in their own games, as opposed to just sticking in the missing caster level increase clause?

No. The omission is an oversight due to bad editing as a premade NPC in DMG II that uses the Archmage PrC has it advancing caster level.
Otherwise Practiced Spellcaster would be a feat tax for anyone entering Archmage.

[hamishspence]

There's a lot of premade NPCs for which Table makes more sense than the text (Rainbow Servant springs to mind). Unfortunately, Text Trumps Table and those NPCs are, by RAW, in error.

[Eldan]

It doesn't advance caster level? Huh. I never noticed. No, in that case, I probably wouldn't use it.

[Melcar]

In our game, we use the 3.0 version of the archmage PrC as it is in FRCS.