Apprentice level spellcasters

[sfgiants]

Hello, just a question regarding apprentice level spellcasters: if you are a 0 level spellcaster and a spell's duration is 10 minutes/level how long would it last? The easy answer is you can't cast the spell, but this makes an apprentice spellcaster useless. If you look at cure light wounds it is 1d8+1 per lvl of caster (obviously in this case 1d8 +0), but what about spider climb? or magic weapon? etc and etc.

PS: Yes, I am aware that you don't start with 1st lvl spells unless you have bonus spells...

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I would say use half the duration (5 rounds instead of 1 minute) with a minimum of 1 round duration.

 

[KingOfChaos]

For simplicity's sake, I would just treat the duration as if the character was first level.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I too would treat the caster level as 1. When the character level is supposed to be something else, the rules generally say so. For example, an apprentice level cleric turns undead using 0 as their level.

 

[Al]

Where possible, caster level I treat as one-half. So a 10 mins/level spell would last 5 minutes, and Burning Hands would do d4/2 damage (pathetic, but apprentice characters are generally stronger than single class 1st level characters in my experience). Where not possible, treat as 1 (for e.g. 1 round/level spells).

 

[mseds99]

one more vote for half

 

[sfgiants]

It all sounds good, but the burning hands idea. If you divide the damage by 2, your max damage is 2. If you cast ray of frost, your max damage is 3. Seems strange that a 0 lvl spell would inherently be better than a first lvl one, regardless of caster level.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Yes, but still Ray of Frost effects only 1 target and requires a ranged touch attack.

 

[sfgiants]

But ray of frost has no saving throw. Burning hands does for half. So while you could affect a couple opponents, that save (and not a tough one) will lower the damage...

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Still, burning hands has more potential damage than ray of frost, which still makes it balanced as a 1st level spell vs. a 0 level spell IMO