Pathfinder Prestige Class Scaling

[Fayd]

Hello Playground,

As I prep for a game in the fall, I want to check on a few things that I THINK I know the answer to, but I feel like I should verify:
1. Assassin's True Death power says it scales with the "assassin's level." I assume this means their level in Assassin, not overal character level. However, it is unclear because other powers (like Death Attack) explicitly state that they scale with the assassin class level (And thus by one of the canons of tule construction, it should be overal character level, but that feels a touch... high.)
2. The same goes for Shadowdancer, where some of their spell like powers say that they scale with the "shadowdancer's level"
3. Any random tips for someone DMing Pathfinder for the first time? (I'm familiar with DMing in general, just not in Pathfinder)

[Yanisa]

1+2 From Multiclassing (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancement#TOC-Multiclassing)

Note that there are a number of effects and prerequisites that rely on a character's level or Hit Dice. Such effects are always based on the total number of levels or Hit Dice a character possesses, not just those from one class. The exception to this is class abilities, most of which are based on the total number of class levels that a character possesses of that particular class.
So the Assassin's True Death power only scales with assassins levels, and same goes for shadowdancer and their abilities.

And yeah, there are a lot of cases where class abilities only say "levels" or even "class levels" without calling out the class itself. But they only scale with that class, unless noted otherwise.


As for for 3, I am not great with tips, but there is a minor one:
If you already played 3.5, remember and beware pathfinder has a lot of little changed rules. The general rules are mostly the same except big chances most people know, but there are minor changes. For example: Uncanny Dodge now makes you immune to flat footed, rather then preventing you loose your dexterity to AC (So effects that require you to be flat footed don't work when you got uncanny dodge). Don't get too hang up on the 3.5 rules, especially if you have players who only played Pathfinder.

[Fayd]

Actually, a quick question for my setting as well:
The setting is fairly high magic, all things considered, but I don't want there to be a ton of high level characters running amok. What would be good "soft caps" for NPCs? Exceptions will happen, of course, and I assume it will be immediately before major game changing magics come into play.

[Shinken]

Actually, a quick question for my setting as well:
The setting is fairly high magic, all things considered, but I don't want there to be a ton of high level characters running amok. What would be good "soft caps" for NPCs? Exceptions will happen, of course, and I assume it will be immediately before major game changing magics come into play.

This article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040712a) should help.

[Fayd]

That is very helpful. Thank you.