Highest possible ratio of caster level to effective char level?

[moritheil]

What do you mean by 'listed problem'?

Holy Word and Word of Chaos won't kill someone who can't hear (though they can be banished); Blasphemy and Dictum have no such restriction.

-Hyp.

Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[gabrion]

Well a really cheesy way to do this uses the Ur Priest, but the DM would have to agree on what the rules about UP caster level mean. It says to determine CL you add your levels of Ur Priest to one half the levels gained in other spellcasting classes. If you can interpret this to mean that you add half the caster level in other classes, it leaves the door open to getting a really high Ur Priest CL.

The trick here is to take levels in many other spellcasting classes, taking the practiced spellcaster feat for all of them. Also, buy many Orange Ion Stones, since the CL increase stacks and applies to all of your casting classes. So with something like

Wizard 3/Sorcerer 1/Warmage 1/Wu Jen 1/Mindbender 1/Bard 1/Ur Priest 10/Sublime Chord 2

If buy 20 Orange Ioun Stones and have Practiced Spellcaster for all your classes, the caster levels should be:

Wizard-28
Sorcerer-25
Warmage-25
Wu Jen-25
Bard-27
Total-130

Divide this by two and add to the 10 levels of Ur Priest for CL 75, plus 4 for song of Arcane Might and 4 if you have practiced spellcaster for UP gives you CL 83 total.

All in all, you will be horrible at most everything, but I just wanted to give an idea for how to bump up CL.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I don't think the ioun stones stack with each other...

 

[gabrion]

Well I know some of them don't, since they give a named bonus, but I don't see anything that says a stone granting +1 caster level doesn't stack. Did I miss an errata or something?

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you can interpret this to mean that you add half the caster level in other classes...

It doesn't

For example, an Ur-Priest who was also a Rgr2 would add 1 to his Ur-Priest level to determine caster level. Even though he has no caster level as a ranger, he has gained two levels in a spellcasting class.

Similarly, an Ur-Priest who was also a Wiz5/Eldritch Knight1 would add 3 to his Ur-Priest level, since even though his caster level as a Wizard is only 5, he has gained 6 levels in spellcasting classes.

-Hyp.

 

[gabrion]

It doesn't

For example, an Ur-Priest who was also a Rgr2 would add 1 to his Ur-Priest level to determine caster level. Even though he has no caster level as a ranger, he has gained two levels in a spellcasting class.

Similarly, an Ur-Priest who was also a Wiz5/Eldritch Knight1 would add 3 to his Ur-Priest level, since even though his caster level as a Wizard is only 5, he has gained 6 levels in spellcasting classes.

-Hyp.

As I said in my post, I was working on a shaky way of optimizing this and while I think you are right in how the CL works for UP, I've seem many people who thought it should be a function of CL in other classes, instead of levels. In any case, if my idea doesn't work for you thats fine, I was just throwing it out there.

 

[Diirk]

If you worked it out your way, practised spellcrafter for the Ur-Priest would do nothing, as it doesn't raise CL above the total of your char levels

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you worked it out your way, practised spellcrafter for the Ur-Priest would do nothing, as it doesn't raise CL above the total of your char levels

Well, there's often debate as to how Practiced Spellcaster is applied. I agree that in the case of the Ur-Priest (especially in this case) it doesn't help.

But what about the PS Wiz5/Ftr2 who gets hit with a temporary -2 penalty to caster level? Is his caster level 7 or 5?

What about the PS Wiz5/Ftr2 with an orange ioun stone? Is his caster level 7 or 8?

Etc, etc.

Of course, if we assume stacking Ioun Stones and base Ur-Priest of caster level instead of level in spellcasting class - taking into account that PS has no effect - the caster level is 99, instead of 79 (or 83); he forgot to add the +20 from the ioun stones to his Ur-Priest caster level.

-Hyp.

 

[Darkness]

I'm curious as to what the maximum effective caster level for a Holy Word or Blasphemy spell can be, relative to a character's effective level.

If you use enough magic items from various WotC supplements, way beyond ludicrous.

 

[FireLance]

Let's see:
Cleric 15/Hierophant 5 with 5 x Spell Power (25)
Good Domain +1 (26)
Prayer Bead of Karma +4 (30)
Orange Ioun Stone +1 (31)
Divine Spell Power (Complete Divine) and a really good roll +4 (35)

Caster level 35 for Holy Word at 20th character level. What have I missed?