Practiced Spellcaster

[Vault756]

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For reference.

Practiced Spellcaster gives you a bonus to caster level of +4 but only up to your HD. So if I'm a 3rd level Wizard and 4th level Fighter my caster level would be at 7, same as my hit dice. If I then gain some effect that increases my caster level by 1 what is my caster level at now? Is it at 8 or is it still at 7 since the bonus from Practiced Spellcaster can't exceed my HD.

The reason I'm asking is I'm working on an Ultimate Magus build and I'm trying to get every level to apply to Wizard but the Arcane Spell Power bonuses are potentially mucking up my math.

[Gullintanni]

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For reference.

Practiced Spellcaster gives you a bonus to caster level of +4 but only up to your HD. So if I'm a 3rd level Wizard and 4th level Fighter my caster level would be at 7, same as my hit dice. If I then gain some effect that increases my caster level by 1 what is my caster level at now? Is it at 8 or is it still at 7 since the bonus from Practiced Spellcaster can't exceed my HD.

The reason I'm asking is I'm working on an Ultimate Magus build and I'm trying to get every level to apply to Wizard but the Arcane Spell Power bonuses are potentially mucking up my math.

In general, you apply effects and abilities in the order that's most beneficial to you. In this case, Practiced Spellcaster applies first, and increases your caster level to your HD cap, and then you can add additional bonuses above and beyond.

[Jervis]

{scrub the post, scrub the quote}

For reference.

Practiced Spellcaster gives you a bonus to caster level of +4 but only up to your HD. So if I'm a 3rd level Wizard and 4th level Fighter my caster level would be at 7, same as my hit dice. If I then gain some effect that increases my caster level by 1 what is my caster level at now? Is it at 8 or is it still at 7 since the bonus from Practiced Spellcaster can't exceed my HD.

The reason I'm asking is I'm working on an Ultimate Magus build and I'm trying to get every level to apply to Wizard but the Arcane Spell Power bonuses are potentially mucking up my math.

You generally apply bonuses in whatever order you want, or what would be most beneficial. There’s no hard rule to what order bonuses need to be applied in. So generally you would apply PS first before anything else that would boost it higher. You have to apply bonus in the same order though so no tricks like spell gifted trait first for all other schools and second with conjuration to dodge it’s downside.

Edit: Curse you ninjas!

[Biggus]

In the main 3.5 FAQ (p.43) there are some questions about Practised Spellcaster. None of them are exactly the same as your question, but they may be helpful:


Does the bonus to caster level from the Practiced Spellcaster feat (from CAr and CD) apply before or after other caster level bonuses (such as those from the Good or Healing domains)?
The bonus from Practiced Spellcaster applies whenever it would be most beneficial to the caster. A 4th-level cleric/4thlevel fighter with the Healing domain and Practiced Spellcaster would cast Conjuration (Healing) spells as a 9th-level caster (base caster level 4th, +4 from Practiced Spellcaster, +1 from the Healing domain). A 4th-level cleric/4th-level rogue with Practiced Spellcaster who activates a bead of karma (from a strand of prayer beads) would cast her spells as a 12th-level caster (base 4, +4 from Practiced Spellcaster, +4 from bead of karma).


How does Practiced Spellcaster interact with the wild magic class feature of the wild mage (from CAr)?
The –3 penalty and +1d6 bonus to the wild mage’s caster level are applied as a single step in the process of determining the wild mage’s caster level. Since Practiced Spellcaster’s bonus is always applied when it is most beneficial to the character (see previous answer), a wild mage with Practiced Spellcaster would typically apply the wild magic class feature first (subtracting 3 and adding 1d6 to her caster level) and then add the Practiced Spellcaster benefit, up to a maximum value equal to her character level.

For example, if a 5th-level wizard/4th-level wild mage with Practiced Spellcaster rolled a 1 on the 1d6 bonus to her caster level, her caster level for that spell would be 9th (base 9th, –3 from wild magic penalty, +1 from wild magic bonus, +4 from Practiced Spellcaster up to a maximum equal to her character level). If she rolled a 6, her caster level would be 12th (base 9th, –3 from wild magic penalty, +6 from wild magic bonus; the Practiced Spellcaster bonus would not apply since it would increase her caster level above her character level).

On the other hand, imagine a wild mage whose caster level (before applying the effects of the wild magic class feature) is less than her character level, such as a wild mage with levels of rogue or other non-spellcasting class. She might well choose to apply the Practiced Spellcaster bonus first, before applying the wild magic modifiers. A rogue 4/wizard 5/wild mage 4 would
have a base caster level of 9th before any other modifiers are applied. Adding Practiced Spellcaster’s bonus would increase this to 13th, at which point the penalty and bonus from wild
magic would be applied. The Sage recommends that players averse to frequently recalculating caster level avoid playing a character with this combination, as it is likely to cause headaches.


I have a sorcerer 1/wizard 3 with the Practiced Spellcaster feat affecting his sorcerer spells, which gives him a sorcerer caster level of 4. He gains a level in ultimate magnus. Which class counts as the lowest level arcane class for purposes of the +1 spellcasting bonus?
The ultimate magnus allows you to add a caster level and spells known to your class with the lowest caster level. In this example, your wizard caster level would be 3 and your sorcerer level would be 4, so you would add the bonus to your wizard class.

As they're from the FAQ they're not strictly rules, but the quote about generally applying effects in the most beneficial order is also from the FAQ, so depends on the DM what's considered official I guess.

[Darg]

Arcane spell power does not increase the caster level of a class, but rather the effective caster level of arcane spells you cast. As such it has no bearing on what class gains spellcasting progression.

If you want the progression increases to apply to wizard at 1st, 4th, and 7th levels you need start as a wizard 3/sorcerer 2. 1st level with practiced spellcaster your levels are 4/6. 7/8 at 4th. Then 10/10 at 7th. Grab practiced spellcaster (wizard) at CL 15 and your levels are 15/13. If you start with a spread of 4/1 it makes wizard tied at 4th level putting it ahead by 7th level so the level increase goes to sorcerer ending up at 15/13 also.