D&D FAQ gets it wrong?

[RigaMortus2]

No I'm saying that you look at intent by what you can do with core rules only.

But since none of us here are the actual designers, who are we to determine what the "intent" is? This is the RULES forum after all, not the INTENT forum. We look at the Rules as Written and go from there. It is not up to us to decide "oh, well they probably mean this..." when reading ambiguous rules. At least, not on the rules forum. That is alright to do in your own home campaign of course.

Caster level should be spellcaster level of PrC's and item creation.

And I should own a monkey that craps gold out of it's butt, but that doesn't make it so now, does it?

 

[dvvega]

Posting the Feat text again with extra to make it clear.

I have access to Complete Divine and Complete Arcane printings of the feat

Practice Spellcaster [General]
Prerequisites: Spellcraft 4 ranks
Choose one of your spellcasting classes. The spells you cast from this class have +4 Caster Level (up to your number of HD). <snip stuff about benefitting later>
The feat does not affect your spells per day or spells known. It increases your caster level only which would help you penetrate spell resistance and increase the duration and other effects of your spells.

The problem here is that people are arguing based on taking either of the two paragraphs into account and not the whole.

The first paragraph introduces the direct effect of the feat. Your spells get +4 caster level.

The second paragraph continues describing the topic and the limitations on the topic. I do not read that as offering a carte blanche +4 to caster level. I do see how people can read that second paragraph and think to themselves that it gives a +4 to caster level in general however then the first paragraph would be wasted text since +4 Caster level would affect all your spells anyway.

If this truly did give you +4 caster level, a Wizard 1/Fighter 4 is a 5th level arcane caster and thus could qualify for Acolyte of the Skin or Blood Magus since the only difficult requirement is the caster level. I don't see that as a valid intention of the feat.

 

[Rystil Arden]

But since none of us here are the actual designers, who are we to determine what the "intent" is? This is the RULES forum after all, not the INTENT forum. We look at the Rules as Written and go from there. It is not up to us to decide "oh, well they probably mean this..." when reading ambiguous rules. At least, not on the rules forum. That is alright to do in your own home campaign of course.



And I should own a monkey that craps gold out of it's butt, but that doesn't make it so now, does it?

Actually, I'm going to disagree with you here while still sort of agreeing with you:

I think it is perfectly fair to look for intent on ambiguous rules or weirdly-worded rules that seem to have a clear opposite intent, even in this forum.

However, I think it is not helpful to try to create a seemingly-arbitrary intent for a rule that is unambiguously clear, which is what wildstarsreach is doing, as far as I can tell.

As Hypersmurf mentioned above

I think that the intent is Caster Level... based on the fact that it says "Caster Level"

 

[Rystil Arden]

Posting the Feat text again with extra to make it clear.

I have access to Complete Divine and Complete Arcane printings of the feat



The problem here is that people are arguing based on taking either of the two paragraphs into account and not the whole.

The first paragraph introduces the direct effect of the feat. Your spells get +4 caster level.

The second paragraph continues describing the topic and the limitations on the topic. I do not read that as offering a carte blanche +4 to caster level. I do see how people can read that second paragraph and think to themselves that it gives a +4 to caster level in general however then the first paragraph would be wasted text since +4 Caster level would affect all your spells anyway.

If this truly did give you +4 caster level, a Wizard 1/Fighter 4 is a 5th level arcane caster and thus could qualify for Acolyte of the Skin or Blood Magus since the only difficult requirement is the caster level. I don't see that as a valid intention of the feat.

I am staring at the text right now as I type this, and I promise you that what you just typed does not appear in Complete Arcane. Are you using the earlier text from Complete Divine and conveniently ignoring Complete Arcane?

 

[RigaMortus2]

I am staring at the text right now as I type this, and I promise you that what you just typed does not appear in Complete Arcane. Are you using the earlier text from Complete Divine and conveniently ignoring Complete Arcane?

I am looking at Complete Divine and it is the same as Complete Arcane. I wonder if he has a book printed in a different language?

PRACTICED SPELLCASTER [General]
Prerequisite: Spellcraft 4 ranks
Benefit: Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by +4. This can't increase your caster level beyond your HD.

FWIW I have 1st printing May 2004 Complete Divine. Perhaps he may even have a later printing?

 

[dvvega]

I've got Complete Arcane, page 82, it states as I typed barring the <snipped> part which has an example of how a multi-classed character gets a casting level equivalent to their character level.

It is from the First Printing, November 2004.

And it is in English.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I've got Complete Arcane, page 82, it states as I typed barring the <snipped> part which has an example of how a multi-classed character gets a casting level equivalent to their character level.

It is from the First Printing, November 2004.

And it is in English.

I have the First Printing Complete Arcane, November 2004, and on page 82 it does not say what you typed. I'm pretty sure you're not lying, since it is so easy for anyone to call you on it if it was a bluff, which leads me to be incredibly confused as to what is going on here

 

[dvvega]

Hmm ... checking again ... I see what happened ... I was reading Complete Divine then reading Complete Arcane then ... and it got mixed up They were both open on my desk and I was scanning them and mixing up which was which and ... yeah

I do own physical copies of both books so yeah I'm not like lying or reading an illegal electronic version or anything.

Now that I read the Complete Arcane version on its own with the right paragraphs in place ... it does indeed increase your caster level and all my arguments can now be ignored

However I think I personally prefer the original text of the feat because of the example of the Wiz 1/Ftr 4 qualifying for PrCs.

 

[RigaMortus2]

well never mind then ;p

 

[RigaMortus2]

Hmm ... checking again ... I see what happened ... I was reading Complete Divine then reading Complete Arcane then ... and it got mixed up They were both open on my desk and I was scanning them and mixing up which was which and ... yeah

I do own physical copies of both books so yeah I'm not like lying or reading an illegal electronic version or anything.

Now that I read the Complete Arcane version on its own with the right paragraphs in place ... it does indeed increase your caster level and all my arguments can now be ignored

However I think I personally prefer the original text of the feat because of the example of the Wiz 1/Ftr 4 qualifying for PrCs.

But Complete Divine and Complete Arcane have just about the same wording on the feat.

Complete Divine: Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by +4. This can't increase your caster level beyond your HD.

Complete Arcane: Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4. This benefit can't increase your caster level higher than your Hit Dice.