Summed Caster Level

[Khorod]

With all this discussion of Mystic Theurges and bad class combos, I was wondering, for the sake of wondering, what people think of just summing up all caster levels?

That is to say, a Wiz 10/Cleric 10 is caster level 20 for purposes of spell effects, spell penetration, dispelling, and so on, but his spell table is as the individual classes, as are his potential bonus spells.

Aren't matters of caster level one of the primary issues, and doesn't this solve that?

(I understand that flavor-wise this might be strange, that's a discussion for later.)

 

[Spatzimaus]

It's just a bit abuseable in certain ways. Let's say I'm a level 19 Cleric. Instead of taking level 20 to slightly increase the number of spells I can cast each day, I take a level of Wizard, and then pay a lot of money to fill up my spellbook with all the utility spells I can.
So, I can cast Mage Armor that lasts all day, or a Shield that lasts for a while, or a 5-shot Magic Missile, or whatever. It may not seem like such a big deal, since you can already do most of this with Miracle, but it's something.
There are just quite a few level 1 spells that are still useful at high levels thanks to their scaling, and letting someone get full use out of splashing one class can get a bit out of hand.

Now, what we do IMC is let like classes combine. Cleric/Paladin, Druid/Ranger, Sorcerer/Bard, Psion/Psychic Warrior. Caster levels stack, spells per day/power points stack, spells known are just put on a common list. (Note: removed healing spells from Bards). The Psionic rules already have something similar; power points from Psions and Psychic Warriors go into a common pool, so we just took the concept a bit further.
To think of it another way: a Paladin is a lot like a Fighter/Cleric, right? So a Fighter/Paladin is just a Fighter/Cleric who's shifted more towards the Fighter side. A Paladin/Cleric should be like a Fighter/Cleric who's shifted more towards the Cleric side, but to do that their spellcasting abilities have to stack better than they do now.

 

[Khorod]

Hm... yes, well, your cleric is giving up some 9th level spell slots in exchange for a couple of dinkum wizard spells, which are basically limited times per day additions to his cleric spell list.

Sure, that's unfair to the 20th level wizard with the Intelligence of 11...

Of course, on top of that clerics can conduct spell research, and if they are someone who would find Mage Armor desireable, would not a 20th level caster be able to pray to their god that such a spell be granted? (In fact, that could be the flavor that justifies this in-game... the high level cleric calls upon his god to support his arcane dabbling, the mage discovers how to tap into the gods without them knowing, etc)

I'm a little confused by your House Rule... aren't you essentially arranging things so that both Caster Level and Caster Table Stack, and doesn't that mean it would be more unbalanced than my little notion?

And when I say Spell Table or Caster Table, I mean Spells per Day table.

 

[Chacal]

There were several aproaches to the problem in this thread :
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44575

Of course mine was the best one

Chacal