I can't believe i'm really asking this question.....

[AGGEMAM]

I'm pretty sure I'm right about the not increasing caster level. Let me check.

EDIT: It does appear I recalled wrong. Anything in the FAQ?

 

[Li Shenron]

How are you going to cast a spell if your caster level is less than the minimum required to cast that spell?

I just think the many writers at WotC are not well coordinated with each other's work.

 

[Gaiden]

Perhaps the designers were simply sure to include the +1 CL/level for classes that were not designed as pure casters and the +1 CL/level was just assumed for pure casters.

What do I mean: for Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, etc. (your 2E multiclasses - rogue/mage, fighter/mage, respectively), it was necessary to include the +1 CL/level because it would not be immediately obvious that that was or should be the case.

On the other hand, pure caster PrC's are merely an extension (a focused externsion, at least theoretically) of the original, so the +1 CL/level is just assumed.

I am not trying to say that any of this is obvious or that it shouldn't have all been written, but to me it makes sense and is simple to intuit.

 

[cordell]

I remember studying this a long time ago.

If I recall, the PrC classes where you don't get +1 caster level for *every* level have extra words to specify when. This would be true for the Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight that you mentioned.

Unfortunately, I don't have any books with me as I am traveling far from home right now...

For what it's worth, if they did leave out the wording, I would beleive it is unintentional. I don't see how it's really playable if you have casters with effectively 10 levels of caster level casting a 9th level spell.

 

[Egres]

Well, Hypersmurf already pointed out that there is the Ur-Priest PrC that can cast 9th level spells with a caster level of 11(!).

And there are also monsters that have a low caster level but can use spell-like abilities that replicate high level spells.

In other words, casting high level spells without a high caster level doesn't seem to be so "outside" the D&D game mechanics.

 

[AGGEMAM]

The only PrC I could find in the SRD that doesn't grant caster level progression but only spells per day is Archmage. All other PrC have expressly written in the description that it does.

Please note that the description from the 3.0 Archmage actually had that written into the description, so it seems it's not a copy-paste problem as some have suggested.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

The only PrC I could find in the SRD that doesn't grant caster level progression but only spells per day is Archmage.

Which is pretty ridiculous, if you think about it.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Which is pretty ridiculous, if you think about it.

Why?

Heirophant grants caster levels but not spells progression, why is the opposite so unheard of.

 

[shilsen]

Hmm? I already pasted the line from Arcane Trickster that does: "... except for an increased effective level of spellcasting."

-Hyp.

Whoops! I meant Archmage.

 

[noeuphoria]

If the archmage doesn't grant caster progression, than the spell power ability is nigh-useless - "whoo hoo, I raise my effective caster level by one.... which makes me even since I didn't go up for archmage...except I gave up a 5th level spell."