Follow up to Q588 on Practised Spellcaster

[Frendle]

As a follow up to using Practised Spellcaster for Eldritch Theurge. How does your answer apply to Eldritch Blast?


A 3rd level Warlock 7th level Eldritch Theurge has an Eldritch Blast of 5d6.

The spell level of Eldritch Blast is 1/2 Class Level as stated in Complete Arcane,

An eldritch blast is the equivalent of a spell whose level is equal
to one-half the warlock’s class level (round down)

However the Class levels of Eldritch Theurge only adds Caster Levels to your invocations including Eldritch Blast.

From CMag
At each level, you gain new invocations
known and an increase in caster level as if you had also gained
a level in an invocation-using class to which you belonged
before adding the prestige class level. (This includes eldritchblast.)

It seems the intuitive answer is that the Spell level of Eldritch Blast for this build would be SL 5.

However, since Class Levels and Caster levels are not the same thing, a more exact reading would be that the Spell levels would be split.

For the Warlock portion it would be Spell Level 1 since Warlock gives 3 class levels to the eldritch blast.

And even if it's not explicitly stated would the Eldritch Theurge levels give 3 spell levels? (Leaving one off in the ether somewhere.)

Am I over thinking it?

The upshot of all this is, I want to apply Empower SLA to my Eldritch Blast. so if I take Practised Spellcaster, which seems to be necessary in order to use the feat with EB, can I do it by taking my Eldritch Theurge class and applying Practised Spellcaster to it.

I'd rather add it to ET than either the Warlock or Wizard classes so as to gain whatever minor advantage I could get from the +4 CL applying to both arcane spell levels gained and Invocations from the PrC.



Edit: Or…. Can I only apply Empowered SLA to the Warlock portion of the EB, thus 3d6 (Empowered 2d6) from, warlock and 3d6 (Normal) from ET. (Ick)



A 588

Practiced Spellcaster can apply to a prestige class, but it will only affect spells from that prestige class, not from other classes. (This is useful for prestige classes such as Assassin or Blackguard.) Only your Eldritch Theurge spells would gain the caster level boost. Since all you have are Wizard spells and Warlock invocations, this is quite useless.

Practiced Spellcaster does also increase the caster level for non-spell abilities, but since Fiendish Resilience and Damage Reduction don't scale with caster level and your caster level for supernatural abilities is already equal to your HD unless otherwise stated, this is also useless.

Incidentally, I believe there is some debate as to whether spellcasting-advancing prestige classes count as spellcasting classes in the first place. (Eldritch Theurge has a class feature called "Spellcasting" that gives you spells, so I am inclined to say it is probably a spellcasting class, but I can't find any rules to support or refute this conclusion.)

[torrasque666]

Eldritch Blast was eratta'd to be just equivalent to a 1st level spell I believe.

Yep:

Second paragraph of the Eldritch Blast abilitydescription:
Change “An eldritch blast is the equivalent of a spell
whose level is equal to one-half the warlock’s class
level (round down), with a minimum spell level of 1st
and a maximum of 9th when the warlock reaches 18th
level or higher” to “An eldritch blast is the equivalent
of a 1st-level spell. If you apply a blast shape or eldritch
essence invocation to your eldritch blast (see page 130),
your eldritch blast uses the level equivalent of the shape
or essence.”
Any other references to eldritch blast being something
other than the equivalent of a 1st-level spell should be
disregarded.
Any other references claiming that eldritch blast is not
an invocation should be disregarded.
A warlock can use eldritch blast at will.

Also, given a reading of Practiced Spellcaster and how it notes "Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4" combined with ET's " At each level, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class (but not an invocation-using class) to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level." seems to indicate that ET does not have its own Caster Level, and is thus not a valid target for the feat.


EDIT: As to your question about Empower SLA: The SLA is Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Blast doesn't end up split into levels or classes. To Empower SLA just Eldritch Blast, you only need CL 6. any shapes/essences that change the spell level would increase the necessary CL as well.

[Frendle]

Thanks, that ties it up nicely. Now my DM will like me again. ;)

[Janthkin]

Please note that the change to Eldritch Blast means that it is easily negatable by Minor Globes, unless you apply a higher-level Essence or Shape. Plan accordingly!