Does practiced spellcaster work with a warlock's eldritch blast?

[FireLance]

There are complete arcane feats that reduce caster level (the mage killer ones). So if practised spellcaster doesn't affect a warlock positively, then do these ones affect as warlock negatively or not? Could one design a mage-killer warlock?

Recently I was asked a similar question by one of my players, namely whether the mage-killer feats reduced the initiator level for a character using maneuvers (from the Book of Nine Swords). My response was no by the letter of the rules, but yes by the spirit of the rules, and I would adopt the latter position in the games I run.

 

[wayne62682]

I could have sworn that there was a line in CA about Practiced Spellcaster specifically WORKING with the Warlock. Maybe I'm thinking of the "+1 arcane class level" bonus for some PrCs?

 

[Monkey Boy]

Would say a rogue 2/warlock 6 with practiced spellcaster have the eldritch blast of an 8th level warlock?

Put me in the no camp.

 

[starwed]

Put me in the no camp.

Is this because of the rules, or because you think it would be unbalanced?

It's pretty clear that it wouldn't work RAW, but as mentioned earlier the designer thought it should be allowed:

Q: Would Practiced Spellcaster allow for Blast damage progression?

A: I think it should, but I doubt that the language of the feat and eldritch blast description specifically allow it. (If eldritch blast were written in such a way that it dealt damage based on the warlock's caster level, it would be fine. But the damage is based on the warlock's class level. While those two things are almost always going to be the same, you have to take a pretty liberal interpretation to let Practiced Spellcaster work on eldritch blast.)

 

[Deset Gled]

It's pretty clear that it wouldn't work RAW, but as mentioned earlier the designer thought it should be allowed:

Wow. That is probably the best FAQ response I have ever seen from someone at WotC. I am particularly fond of the way he makes a clear differentiation between what his intent was, and what was actually published. Kudos to Rich Baker!