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<blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5412307" data-attributes="member: 78958">Basically, the reason for the &quot;don't lose caster levels&quot; optimization commandment is that spellcasting scales so nicely with level. In fact (as has been stated time and again), spellcasters increase in power on a more or less geometric scale.A second level spell isn't just a first level spell +1. It's something no first level spell can accomplish. You can't Glitterdust people or hide in a Rope Trick at 1st level. When, at 3rd/4th level, you suddenly can, that's a huge BUMP in power and versatility. Casters get this BUMP with every new spell level they obtain. Only rarely can anything else match this.By comparison, noncasters mostly get &quot;same, but a little better&quot; stuff every level. A 3rd/4th level Rogue does more sneak attack, not a totally different, more powerful, and more versatile kind of sneak attack. Getting more sneak attack is good, obviously. It just doesn't give you any capability you didn't have before. Also, at your new level, the monsters you meet are bound to be tougher, so you need that extra SA die just to keep up.For this reason, &quot;don't lose SA dice&quot; is not an optimization commandment. The same goes for BAB, saves, etc. I'd be hard pressed to come up with something similar for noncasters, in fact.&quot;Make sure you can always do your job, but don't lose too much versatility in concentrating on doing it&quot; might be it. This may seem much, much more general than &quot;don't lose spellcasting levels&quot;, but it really isn't. Because a level of spellcasting does exactly that.BTW, the analogue with ToB classes would probably be &quot;don't lose initiator levels&quot;. But even ToB maneuvers aren't so good that you wouldn't want to mix in some non-sublime class levels.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Empirate, post: 5412307, member: 78958"] Basically, the reason for the "don't lose caster levels" optimization commandment is that spellcasting scales so nicely with level. In fact (as has been stated time and again), spellcasters increase in power on a more or less geometric scale. A second level spell isn't just a first level spell +1. It's something no first level spell can accomplish. You can't Glitterdust people or hide in a Rope Trick at 1st level. When, at 3rd/4th level, you suddenly can, that's a huge BUMP in power and versatility. Casters get this BUMP with every new spell level they obtain. Only rarely can anything else match this. By comparison, noncasters mostly get "same, but a little better" stuff every level. A 3rd/4th level Rogue does [I]more [/I]sneak attack, not [I]a totally different, more powerful, and more versatile kind[/I] of sneak attack. Getting more sneak attack is good, obviously. It just doesn't give you any capability you didn't have before. Also, at your new level, the monsters you meet are bound to be tougher, so you need that extra SA die just to keep up. For this reason, "don't lose SA dice" is not an optimization commandment. The same goes for BAB, saves, etc. I'd be hard pressed to come up with something similar for noncasters, in fact. "Make sure you can always do your job, but don't lose too much versatility in concentrating on doing it" might be it. This may [I]seem [/I]much, much more general than "don't lose spellcasting levels", but it really [I]isn't[/I]. Because a level of spellcasting does exactly that. BTW, the analogue with ToB classes would probably be "don't lose initiator levels". But even ToB maneuvers aren't so good that you wouldn't want to mix in some non-sublime class levels. [/QUOTE]

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