Level of spells granted through prestige class feature:

[lucmarin]

The PrC Frost Mage has the feature "Gain Knowledge"



Gain Knowledge (Ex): Beginning at 3rd level, the frost mage gains knowledge of the spell conjure ice beast I, if he does not already have it. Former wizards get to add this spell to their spellbooks for free, and former sorcerers and bards get to add this spell to their spells known, even if this takes them over their normal limit. For each two levels gained in the prestige class, he gains knowledge of the next higher level in the conjure ice beast spell progression (conjure ice beast II at 5th level, conjure ice beast III at 7th level, and conjure ice beast IV at 9th level). At 7th level, in addition to gaining conjure ice beast III, the frost mage gains animate snow as a spell known. At 9th level, in addition to gaining conjure ice beast IV, the frost mage gains frostfell as a spell known.

This class feature does not change the level of the spell. A frost mage still must have a spell slot of the appropriate level to prepare or cast a spell acquired through the gain knowledge ability.


Conjure Ice Beast 1-4 and Animate Snow do not appear on the Sorcerer spell list, as such I assume it's safe to say that a Sorcerer taking levels in Frost Mage would, for example, learn Animate Snow as a 6th level arcane spell.

However, the spell Frostfell is both an 8th level Druid spell and a 9th level Sorcerer spell. Could a Sorcerer taking levels of Frost Mage choose to learn Frostfell as an 8th level spell? Or would you be forced to learn it as a 9th level spell?

[NotASpiderSwarm]

RAI is probably that it comes in at the SorWiz level, just because it's intended as an Arcane PRC and therefore is drawing from that list. RAW, I think the player should choose the spell level(so 8). I don't have anything I can cite for that short of, like, Artificer crafting, but it feels like if the PRC doesn't specify, then pick the earliest level.

(the fact that it takes 10 levels and is a pretty meh spell anyways also encourages that thought)

[lucmarin]

That's about what I landed on, in game I'd probably just rule it as you take the arcane one if you're advancing in arcane.

The one thing that gives me pause is some similar abilities clarify that you can pick the lower level, like the Dread Necromancer's advanced learning ability:


Advanced Learning (Ex): At 4th level, a dread necromancer can add a new spell to her list, representing the result of personal study and experimentation. The spell must be a cleric or wizard spell of the necromancy school, and of a level no higher than that of the highest-level spell the dread necromancer already knows. Once a new spell is selected, it is added to that dread necromancer's spell list and can be cast just like any other spell she knows. If a spell is both a cleric spell and a wizard spell, use the lower of the two spell levels (when different) to determine what level the spell is for a dread necromancer. A dread necromancer gains an additional new spell at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level.

But I don't think there's a specific ruling on my original question.