Manifester Level = Caster Level?

[Kevingway]

Trying to determine what benefits I'd get for playing a Battlesmith with preexisting manifester levels. Would these manifester levels be added onto the Battlesmith's class level * 3 for determining effective caster level, as it says that this effect stacks with preexisting caster levels the character may have?

For some reason, I remember people saying that items that increase your caster level also increase your manifester level, and the transparency rules corroborate this, but does transparency really flat-out let ML count as CL for these purposes? Having a hard time determining that.

[Divide by Zero]

Here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#combiningPsionicAndMagic alEffects) are the default rules for transparency. Nothing about caster level at all.

[Kevingway]

Here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#combiningPsionicAndMagic alEffects) are the default rules for transparency. Nothing about caster level at all.

I've looked at them. The reason I ask is due to people discussing magic items affecting manifester level, these magic items increasing caster level. It would make sense with the clause mentioning that magic items that would affect psionics do affect psionics, I suppose, but I'm wondering how it all works without the item factor, if at all.

[Psyren]

Class features are not transparent. If they were, you could have psions getting into archmage and all kinds of other shenanigans.

[Kevingway]

Actually, I know why I'm confused.

I think I've seen somebody explain that psionic classes interact with prestige classes in the same way that warlocks do, citing that, universally, the entire Psionic subsystem is a spell-like ability. I'm not sure if this is simply due to monster manual entries or because that's explained somewhere else (I tried searching XPH to no avail), but would this maybe clear things up a little?

I'm quite unfamiliar with warlocks and how their abilities are determined, but I've heard of psionic advancements in specific prestige classes as warlocks get. Really not sure about it, though. I'm not sure, otherwise, why I feel the way I do

Edit: What I did find in the XPH is that Psionics are "magical," but I'm not sure if that's enough to say that a manifester level could count as a caster level for the purpose of a scaling prestige class effect.

[Forrestfire]

The entire psionics system is a Psi-like Ability, not a Spell-like Ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#psiLikeAbilities).

Even if it was, though, Warlocks work with arcane casting PrCs specifically because they are noted to, not because of an inherent part of SLA rules.