Planeshifter/Divine Agent (MotP and ELH Spellcaster PrCs)

[reiella]

Okie, been reading through MotP and ELH and noticed something generally lacking wholesale throughout their spellcaster PrCs.

The simple inclusion of the text refering increased effective caster level (for Spell Resistance/Damage determination).

Where the PrCs in most other books write as

She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of tha tclass would have gained (improved chance of controlling or rebuking undead, metamagic or item creation feats, hit points beyond those he recieves from the prestige class and so on), except for an increased effective level of spellcasting.

while in MotP, and ELH it's written as

He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (improved chance of turning or rebuking undead, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on).

The difference appears universally throughout the books (without one of the SS/MotP/ELH PrCs having the text of increased effective level).

Lords of Darkness and SS have a similiar format to MotP and ELH, except they do mention "spells added to his spellbook, familiar abilities, and caster level accordingly.", but that is missing (unless me blind) in MotP and ELH.

Anycase, I'm inclined to believe that the PrCs in ELH and MotP are simply missing the statement about an increased level of spellcasting. But I'm curious if that's sound, or if it's intentional and a bit of a circumstance that all PrCs in those books behave in that manner.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I have to believe it's an oversight. If the effective caster levels don't increase, it renders those PrC's useless at higher levels. Caster level checks for dispel magic or to overcome SR would be impossible. So, I think it's an error in the PrC descriptions.

(Although the extensive ELH errata doesn't mention this, so maybe it was intentional? *boggle*)

 

[reiella]

I have to believe it's an oversight. If the effective caster levels don't increase, it renders those PrC's useless at higher levels. Caster level checks for dispel magic or to overcome SR would be impossible. So, I think it's an error in the PrC descriptions.

(Although the extensive ELH errata doesn't mention this, so maybe it was intentional? *boggle*)

I'm heavily inclined to agree, and due to the lack of other comments I think that to be the more universal case.

Of interesting note however, is I have found a book where it has instances where it explicitly mentions effective caster level and instances where it does not.

Book of Exalted Deeds.

Exalted Arcanist, Fist of Raziel, Lion of Talisid, Swanmay, Troubadour of Stars do not mention an increased effective caster level.

While Prophet of Erathaol, Sentinel of Bharrai, Skylord, and Stalker of Kharash (note, specific rule stacking for the last however) do mention it.

This still leaves me believing that it is simply an editing oversight and not intentional; however, at the same time, it leaves me less resolve and adamant about that, since it isn't simply a 'book-wide' issue.

 

[Joshua Randall]

We know that BoED was written by multiple people, so it could be a case where each was using an existing template (in the writing/editing sense, not the D&D sense), some of which contained the mention of effective caster level and some of which did not. This should've been caught and cleaned up during the quality assurance process, but obviously wasn't.

[Aside] I work for a multi-billion dollar professional services firms, yet I've seen proposals to clients go out with embarrassing grammar, spelling, and formatting mistakes. If it can happen here, it can certainly happen at Wizards of the Coast. [/Aside]

Regardless of the letter of the rules, I think the intent is clearly this: PrCs that allow the character to improve his spellcasting should also increase effective caster levels. And that's how I'm going to run 'em.