Quick question about Heighten Spell

[Nightshade19]

I just have a quick question, that's probably pretty open-shut, but after an hour of searching online I have yet to find anything that clearly answers it.

Many spells have an effect that scale with caster level, e.g. 1d6/CL fire damage, 1 round/CL duration. Does using Heighten Spell interact with these scalings in anyway? E.g. if I Heighten a spell, do I use an effect as if +1 CL? Part of me thinks this shouldn't be the case (despite wanting it to be), but in looking up the applications of Heighten Spell I've seen examples in which this appears to be happening. It could possibly be a mistake on the part of the example giver, but I've seen it more than once and have become unsure

[RoboEmperor]

I just have a quick question, that's probably pretty open-shut, but after an hour of searching online I have yet to find anything that clearly answers it.

Many spells have an effect that scale with caster level, e.g. 1d6/CL fire damage, 1 round/CL duration. Does using Heighten Spell interact with these scalings in anyway? E.g. if I Heighten a spell, do I use an effect as if +1 CL? Part of me thinks this shouldn't be the case (despite wanting it to be), but in looking up the applications of Heighten Spell I've seen examples in which this appears to be happening. It could possibly be a mistake on the part of the example giver, but I've seen it more than once and have become unsure

Spell Level and Caster level aren't related in anyway. If a Level 20 wizard casts fireball and a meteor swarm, both are CL20.

[Venger]

No.

Heighten spell boosts the spell level.

If you use it on a wizard casting fireball as a 3rd level spell and choose to heighten it by +1, the he casts it as a 4th level spell, which would makes its dc higher, for example.

The effects you're referring to are caster level, an unrelated mechanic.

[Nightshade19]

Thanks, I figured as much but I couldn't find anything explicitly on the topic and the seemingly erroneous examples I saw confused me.

Seeing as Heighten Spell won't offer an easy alternative, is there any particularly straight forward way to increase caster level? I'm trying to get a CL2 character to be able to cast Create Undead at a CL15 to grant access to mummified undead. I know Practiced Spellcaster gets me another +4, and if I can get to CL13 I can use Create Magic Tattoo to get up to 3 +1CL bonuses, but I'm not sure what else is really that viable beyond just houseruling that Ioun stones stack or something

[Venger]

Thanks, I figured as much but I couldn't find anything explicitly on the topic and the seemingly erroneous examples I saw confused me.

Seeing as Heighten Spell won't offer an easy alternative, is there any particularly straight forward way to increase caster level? I'm trying to get a CL2 character to be able to cast Create Undead at a CL15 to grant access to mummified undead. I know Practiced Spellcaster gets me another +4, and if I can get to CL13 I can use Create Magic Tattoo to get up to 3 +1CL bonuses, but I'm not sure what else is really that viable beyond just houseruling that Ioun stones stack or something

There are a huge variety of ways to increase caster level. Most are out of reach for a level 2 character.

Practiced spellcaster does not get you anything. It will only help replenish lost caster levels or bring your cl up to character level if you're a unique casting class such as ur-priest.

get a scroll of suffer the flesh and wipe yourself out for another +5

[RoboEmperor]

Thanks, I figured as much but I couldn't find anything explicitly on the topic and the seemingly erroneous examples I saw confused me.

Seeing as Heighten Spell won't offer an easy alternative, is there any particularly straight forward way to increase caster level? I'm trying to get a CL2 character to be able to cast Create Undead at a CL15 to grant access to mummified undead. I know Practiced Spellcaster gets me another +4, and if I can get to CL13 I can use Create Magic Tattoo to get up to 3 +1CL bonuses, but I'm not sure what else is really that viable beyond just houseruling that Ioun stones stack or something

The mummified undead will kill you without some way of controlling them.