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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uzagi_akimbo" data-source="post: 1636543" data-attributes="member: 15945">Sorry, I tend to disagree. for a multiclass catser, the primary penalty is lagging behind (often severly) with higher level spells and slots to use metamagiced spells in. In comparison an 8th level cleric/xxx 4th would have no access to Heal, Slay living, Raise Dead, Mass /Stat Buff, Stone Body, Banishment or even Flame Strike, which his 12th level counterpart would have. He would have less spells in the lower level slots, too - which means, he would run out of essential spells faster, requiring a rest to recover.For a wizard, he would miss out on Teleport, Wall of Force, Feeblemind, Firebrand, Geas, Magic Jar, Dominate Person, Anti Magic Field, True Seeing, Disintegrate and Permanency. Besides all the spells of the 8th level colleague simply bouncing of a Globe of Invulnerabilty....Call me weird, but I think that massive difference in casting power and  a severe, primary penalty. Getting on average a 20% longer spell duration and better chance to affect offensively through spending a feat in no way makes up for this . And assuming he was aimed at a combat build, he would just have used up a feat away from fighter builds. 1) He  can and spend two feats (the result of advancing 6 levels, unless he gets to spend a wizard bonus feat on spell penetration - usually this doesn't happen for clerics and druids) - at least one precious feat of which his purebreed colleague gets to spend on something useful to increase his efficency even more.2) Immaterial ? Well - even getting four more levels in duration, range and spell casting power is not even denting the loss incurred through not having the higher level spells. And _very_ few builds have four levels in an extraenous class and still claim efficency.3) See my reply to 1). At 15th level, a non-human mystic theurge has had the grand total of 6 feats to spend, a human has 7. Using one third of these up, simply to keep his chance of penetrating SR up to a single class caster, is a  major sacrifice. I never really met a caster who had too many feat too spend, but maybe I am missing an exotic build with a vast abundance of metamagic feats to pick at leisure.4) At higher levels, a purebreed caster always has the extra slots to use maximized, widened and empowered damage spells that the multiclass caster has not, even if he spends this feat (I have yet to see damage oriented caster build without  either the maximize or empowered feat ) . Which enables the singleclass caster to deal far more damage, without raising a sweat. of course, he also has access to spells with higher damage caps first, besides this.5) If 10' extra range become an issue of being within attack range yourself, I assume we are talking either very low-level characters or a defensively inept group (which should not be the measure for the usefulness of a feat, IMHO ). And given open, level ground (and an adequately buffed  opposition), I daresay that even at level 12+, "close" range will leave any caster within charge range of an NPC opposition, unless that  charge can be blocked through terrain or an ally. A 14th level caster's "close" range spell has only 60' range - and with spells like Longstrider, Expeditious Retreat, Fly, Haste or a coordinated Dimension Door, even an 18th level caster is within easy charge range - and likely toast ! 10' more or less at close range are a sad joke if you do the math, sorry. What keeps the enemy away from the casters is intelligent deploy and initiative, not superior range of spells. The question is not how many rounds/minutes or even extra hours are gained from the spell, but how big the relative increase gained through this feat is - which is very hard (except at very low levels, say with a cleric/fighter 2/4 ) to raise above 20 - 30%. While even two levels more in the purebred caster allows you the use of an Extended xxxx-spell., which gives you 100% duration increase.And in my experience , the Fighter/Cleric 4th/8th is useful mainly in campaigns  featuring not too many Dispel Magics, Globes of Invulnerability or Anti-Magic fields. Sorry to say, these are _very_ common in the campaigns I do play and master in. Besides the fact that the clerical buffs need to be cast and maintained before a battle, or said battle will be over. And in those situations, "Practised Spellcaster' does not help either - except by making the clerics spell slightly harder to Dispel. Maybe we play in very different campaigns when it comes to the degree magic does dominate a fight (IMCs, we have a massive dominance of fighter and divine caster types - arcane casters simply being too soft a target in most situations) , but I am still mystified by your position.</blockquote>

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