Ultimate Magus Querries

[Myhair]

No, Wild Soul itself is not a sponteneous arcane casting class, nor it gives you independent spellcasting ability. Spontaneous Spells class feature of Wild Soul just gives you abilities to cast certain spells by sacrificing prepared arcane spells or spell slots. That is more like the class feature of cleric.

It looks like that the very definition of what makes a class sopntaneous is fulfilled by the Wild Soul PrC. It has its own spell list of which you need no memorization, unlike the cleric which needs to memorize, "You can sacrifice any prepared arcane spell (or, for a spontaneous caster, an arcane
spell slot) to cast a particular spell of the same spell level or
lower." So it allows you to give up a slot or prepared spell to cast spells from said list.
or maybe i just need help lol. actually this is coming about because of recent events in our game. i need to find the texts that support this in either direction so i can adjust accordingly. Where can i find the definition of a spontaneous caster?

 

[Shin Okada]

Where can i find the definition of a spontaneous caster?

You can't, I guess.

Because, in PHB, the word "spontaneous" is only used for cleric & Druid's Spontaneous Casting class feature.

But in later supplements, "spontaneous caster" is used to indicate someone who casts spells without preparation, including both sorcerer-like casters and characters with abilities similar to cleric or druid's. And "spontaneous spellcating class" is used to indicate spellcating classes which cast spells like Bard or Sorcerer. But IIRC there is no WotC book which clearly defined those two concepts.

But anyway, Wild Soul prestige class does not have it's own spell list nor independent spellcasting ability. Read the second paragraph of P.86. It clearly says,

These spells are not considered to be part of your class spell list, so this feature doesn't grant you the ability to activate spell trigger or spell completion items using these spells.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Of course there are ways to have effective CL higher than actual CL. My last Wizard was an evoker focused on lightning. Went into the Stormcaster PrC, which loses a level of spellcasting, but gets +2 to CL for lightning, sonic, air, and...some other spell types. So at CL 9, he had CL 10 if he was casting certain spells. Similarly, he had the Storm Bolt reserve feat, which also gives +1 CL on lightning spells...

There is also the DMG robe that gives +1 CL across the board, and the cheaper ring in MIC that does the same thing.

The important note is...effective CL boosts only affect spell parameters like damage, range, roll you need to beat SR, etc... Only +1 CL from a class that advances spells per day and spells known actually gives you more spells and access to higher level spell slots.

 

[Herzog]

I agree about the Wild Soul PrC not qualifying for the 'spontaneous caster' bit.

That said: You can, actually, be a spellcaster of a higher level than you have HD.

The Races of the Dragon Web Enhancement enables Kobolds to add an extra level of sorcerer in exchange for (in total) some money, 4 hp, and a feat.

So you can be a 6th lvl kobold sorcerer with 7th lvl sorcerer spellcasting....

I actually used that to make a Kobold Sorcerer Wizard Ultimate Magus.
At lvl 7, he is a sorcerer 1/Wizard 5/Ultimate Magus 1, casts spells as a 3rd lvl sorcerer with caster level 4, 5th lvl wizard at caster lvl 6, and has a spelllike ability of a first lvl sorcerer spell three times per day at caster lvl 7.

Confuses the hell out of one of my fellow players, who can't figure out what kind of class(es) I have. (Taking the Eidetic spellcaster ACF for the wizard, removing the need for a spellbook, didn't help him )

 

[Myhair]

Disappointing that there is no clear def for what defines a Spontaneous caster. Guys, thank you very much! If anyone has anything else to add to this thread please do. I'll look forward to chatting again

 

[pawsplay]

The bottom line is this: Ultimate Magus cannot benefit from caster level increases because Ultimate Magus has no casting ability. It only grants increases.