Rule location?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Okay, I know that the section on prestige classes is a bit poorly written. It's missing the line on multiclass XP penalties, and the spellcasting PrCs don't get any new spells known, but I was hoping that someone could point out a certain rule I'm missing. Where, exactly, does it say that a character increases in caster level when he gains a level in a prestige class that grants improved spellcasting ability, but not when gaining a level in the same PrC that doesn't grant an improvement in spellcasting at that particular level?

 

[cmanos]

in the table that is associated with the PrC it will tell you when a PrC gets a new spellcasting level. A lot of them will state "+1 level of existing spellcasting class" If you don't get this at the level you just achieved, you do not gte any new spells per day or a higher Spellcaster level.

i.e. Argent Savant 1 does not gain any caster levels. A L1 Argent Savant would not gain any effective Caster Levels or Spells per day.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

That's not exactly what I'm asking.

Why do you think that the Argent Savant gets an improved caster level at all, even on levels where he gains extra spells per day? I'm looking for the rule that provides that key bit of information. Otherwise, by the RAW, no prestige class allows the caster to improve his caster level even if he gains extra spells per day.

(edit)

Hmm...I think I have found my answer. In some of the PrCs, they mention that you gain an extra caster level in the section on extra spells per day, in the description of that class ability. However, the Archmage doesn't have that line, and that's the PrC I was looking at when I came up with the question. I flipped to the front of the section to look for a general rule on improving caster level, but there is none.

So it seems that the rule is included in the descriptive text of each class. Of course, the omission from the Archmage means that the Archmage doesn't gain caster levels when he gets extra spellcasting levels.

Had they defined "spellcasting level" somewhere, this wouldn't be a problem. I notice that the FAQ seems to think that "spellcasting" has been defined and includes extra spells known, which isn't true (actually, I'm pretty sure I caused that FAQ entry to be added, since it matches an email conversation I had with CustServ a while back). Rather than add errata that defines these things broadly and generally, they rely on patch-up rules. How odd.

 

[Thanee]

"+1 level of existing class" means +1 caster level, +1 level in spells per day and spells known, plus effects associated with that (wizard's freebie spells, sorcerer's spell swapping, etc).

It nowhere really says so, I think, especially some of the PrC do not even list all benefits.

Maybe the FAQ has it complete in one place.

Bye
Thanee