Are monsters with caster levels dysfunctional, RAW?

[H_H_F_F]

A celestial charger is a unicorn with 7 levels of cleric. It also lacks hands, which means it can't use somatic components, and doesn't have any feat, special ability or special attack to fix that.

I thought that this would be addressed by the blurb about "spellcasting creatures" in page 315, saying that monsters with no hands can move their body to do somatic. However, it was pointed out to me by Beni_Kujaku that the rules compendium clarifies that rule, saying that a spellcasting creature is a creature that can cast spells as a member of a class, but isn't actually a member of the class.

So, by RAW, is the Celestial Charger a dumb idiot that prepares spells they can't cast? Or is there another rule making it functional?


(Again, just asking about RAW here. No need to tell me "Celestial Chargers can obviously cast their spells." I know that.)

[Thurbane]

I would say RAW, it's another dysfunctional stat block.

One of it's feats should probably be Surrogate Spellcasting.

[Biggus]

I thought that this would be addressed by the blurb about "spellcasting creatures" in page 315, saying that monsters with no hands can move their body to do somatic. However, it was pointed out to me by Beni_Kujaku that the rules compendium clarifies that rule, saying that a spellcasting creature is a creature that can cast spells as a member of a class, but isn't actually a member of the class.


The only possible sense I can make of it is that the RC didn't clarify the rules but changed them. But reading the rest of the paragraph in MM p.315, it seems pretty clear that what the RC says is what was meant originally. So it looks like a case of the writers not understanding or forgetting their own rules.

[sreservoir]

Seems to me like MM 315 lists an ambiguous rule, while the author of the celestial charger statblock probably thought that it should Just Work (these two things can easily be independent).

Meanwhile in SS, whoever wrote Surrogate Spell figured that it doesn't normally work, taking Natural Spell/wild shape's rationale as a reference. This was, frankly, a bad idea that unnecessarily privileges the humanoid body plan's ability to cast spells and I would not factor in its existence as a feat tax on creatures that weren't written with it in mind.

RC 137 doesn't seem intended to change anything, the but the text has a kind of funny history:


A spellcasting creature is not actually a member of a class unless its entry says so, and it does not gain any class abilities. For example, a creature that casts arcane spells as a sorcerer cannot acquire a familiar. A creature with access to cleric spells must prepare them in the normal manner and receives domain spells if noted, but it does not receive domain granted powers unless it has at least one level in the cleric class.

A spellcasting creature is not actually a member of a class unless its entry says so, and it does not gain any class abilities. A creature with access to cleric spells must prepare them in the normal manner and receives domain spells if noted, but it does not receive domain granted powers unless it has at least one level in the cleric class.

A spellcasting creature isn’t actually a member of a class and doesn’t gain any class features unless its description says otherwise.

In the course of editing the text down, the way RC has the text arranged no longer seems to admit that a spellcasting creature might actually be a member of a class (because its description says it is), but it's not ... really contradicting it either, the celestial charger still fits its definition (provided that a cleric casts just as a cleric and that the celestial charger is a creature). It just happens to get all its spellcasting from its class levels.

I'd chalk this down to "RC editing was a hack job"—this isn't the only place where somewhere between Core and RC some text got moved around or deleted that doesn't technically change the meaning but changes the obvious interpretation.

[Darg]

Sometimes a creature can cast arcane or divine spells just as a member of a spellcasting class can (and can activate magic items accordingly). Such creatures are subject to the same spellcasting rules that characters are, except as follows.

A spellcasting creature that lacks hands or arms can provide any somatic component a spell might require by moving its body. Such a creature also does need material components for its spells. The creature can cast the spell by either touching the required component (but not if the component is in another creature’s possession) or having the required component on its person. Sometimes spellcasting creatures utilize the Eschew Materials feat to avoid fussing with noncostly components.

A spellcasting creature is not actually a member of a class unless its entry says so, and it does not gain any class abilities. A creature with access to cleric spells must prepare them in the normal manner and receives domain spells if noted, but it does not receive domain granted powers unless it has at least one level in the cleric class.

I mean, the entry says it's a cleric and the MM does not specify that creatures from the MM must not be a spellcasting class to benefit from the no somatic exemption. As far as I can tell, the RC doesn't conflict with this either. Honestly, it seems to be more stat block entry fiat than it is a mistake. Sure, the RC could be overwriting the how the MM has been doing things as it is a later source, but I don't think you can apply the new rule for creatures designed with the old one in mind.

Edit: Ninja'd with a more in depth analysis.