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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4453244" data-attributes="member: 19675">Another quick-strike post here:1) Yes, I did screw up the math- twice.  First, I posted my second stage analysis based on the Beguiler with an uneven progression  instead of the balanced progression with the Sorc.  Second, I hadn't completed that analysis so it still had the Wiz stats from the previous analysis.CURSE YOU, CUT & PASTE!However, in either case, the UM builds still come out ahead in SPR based simply on their sheer number of spells.Issue of the Beguiler aside, the unbalanced progression will have 8th level spells.(BTW, a quick question (because I really don't know the answer): the UM's caster level boost...does it stack with Practiced Spellcaster?)Again, there really isn't a true consistency of quality within a spell level. If you look at the way powergamers rank spells, you'd see there are spells with potentially drastic differences in effect upon the game within a level.When you look across the levels, that variable spell quality means that a 9th level spell may not be as good as the top 8th level spells, and the worst 8th level spells may only be equivalent to one of 7th level.  Or worse.And the best 9th level spells may truly be worthy of bumping up a level.So this metric simply uses the Heritage Feat valuation- all questions of quality are eliminated.Yet more reasons why SPR isn't, should never be, and was never suggested to be a sole metric.Just to pull an item out of the stack, consider a UM with a Ring of Wizardry (4th level)- that's an additional 12 spells for an SPR boost of 48d6I kept that 2d6 in there despite its being a common factor because it puts it in units of a particular game mechanic anyone can understand rather than just a raw number.Again, you're missing the point.How do you quantitatively compare the value of an illusion spell to a stat-draining spell to a shapechanging spell to a polymorph spell to a buff spell to a damage spell with a save to a save-or-die spell?The answer: you can't until you find a common denominator.The problem is that by their nature, those spells don't have a common denominator that can be expressed in numbers...until filtered through something like Dragon's Breath.I'm not saying that a PC needs to just blast away.  I'm just saying that SPR lets us look under the hood in a different and quantitative way.Look at it this way.  All programs boil down to 0 and 1s eventually, but comparing the most current version of Microsoft Office to the original Sim City on a quantitative level is impossible...except by examining program size: how many bits of info does each program use?  That they use their bits differently is without question, and looking at bit size doesn't suggest that all programs should be like one or the other, it doesn't tell you which is better.  It just tells you which is bigger.  And a bigger program has potentially more power as well as potentially more errors.SPR doesn't tell you what path to go down.  It is an observation of the raw potential energy within the framework of a particular build.It doesn't address any other details of a build at all- a Wizard or Sorcerer with poor spell & feat selection could be worse than useless in the face of a UM run by a top player.For the record, I actually stayed away from the classic MT because WotC has not, AFAIK, supplied a Feat or ability that works for Divine spell slots the way the Heritage feats work for Arcane slots.We can extrapolate, yes, but I leave that to others.</blockquote>

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