Feat Question

[Yogibear41]

If I am a Wizard4/Fighter 1 with the Practiced Spell Caster feat, then gain enough experience to level up to level 6, choose another fighter level becoming wizard4/fighter2 Can I take Craft Magic Arms and Armor as my 6th level feat, since my caster level is 6th by virtue of the Practiced Spell Caster feat, or do I need to be 5th level in the actual wizard class to qualify for the feat?

By the same principal, could a 3rd level wizard, who took a feat at 1st level that raises his caster level by 1 for a particular spell(s), say via spell thematics, and also had the specialized trait increasing his caster level for a certain school of magic by another +1, thereby giving himself a Caster level of 5 for a select few spells, be able to choose Craft Magic Arms and Armor as his 3rd level feat?

[Chronos]

The answer to the first is yes: The crafting feat requires a certain caster level, and you have that caster level.

The answer to the second is more complicated, and depends on the precise wording of what you have that's increasing your caster level. Some things increase your caster level, while others increase the caster level for spells you cast. The two are almost always equivalent, since you usually only care about caster level for purposes of casting spells, but this is one case where they're different.

[ace rooster]

The answer to the first is yes: The crafting feat requires a certain caster level, and you have that caster level.

The answer to the second is more complicated, and depends on the precise wording of what you have that's increasing your caster level. Some things increase your caster level, while others increase the caster level for spells you cast. The two are almost always equivalent, since you usually only care about caster level for purposes of casting spells, but this is one case where they're different.

Practiced spellcaster is one of the methods that increases your caster level "for the purpose of spells", so the answer is no. Things that actually increase your caster level are quite rare, with Ioun stones being the only core+completes way I am aware of (and this is probably an oversight from not having full descriptions of each ioun stone).

Edit: Flat wrong. I really should double check these things :smallredface:.

[Yogibear41]

Practiced spellcaster is one of the methods that increases your caster level "for the purpose of spells", so the answer is no. Things that actually increase your caster level are quite rare, with Ioun stones being the only core+completes way I am aware of (and this is probably an oversight from not having full descriptions of each ioun stone).

That is not what the feat says, it says "your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4"

[atemu1234]

The answer is yes to both, though the second is fairly cheesy and may not fly by some DMs.

[Renen]

Id agree with Chronos. Definite yes to 1st, but the school CL increasers usually say something like "treat your CL as one higher for the purpose of". So probably a no if thats the case.

[ace rooster]

That is not what the feat says, it says "your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4"

Sincerest apologies, upon checking I see that you are quite right. Which means that my eldritch knight crafter that was disallowed for that reason worked fine. :smallfrown:

[Fouredged Sword]

It depends on the wording for the second.

"You cast spells with X descriptor at +1 CL" raises your CL.

"When you cast spells with X descriptor, treat your CL as one higher" doesn't raise your CL, you can just fake it when casting those spells.