I originally posted this in the product discussion, but I thought it might be found faster here. This is the link to the Original Post, although I have copied it below.
I have a question regarding the imp companion. The book states the following:
Class Level: This is the diabolist’s class level plus her highest caster level. This does not stack with class levels that grant an animal companion.This reads like the class level is actually figured into the level for the companion twice, as it is included in the "highest caster level". For example, say a character is wizard 5/diabolist 5. That means that his caster level for wizard spells is 10 due to the fact that it is increased with each diabolist level. So, taking the book literally would mean, that the imp was calculated as if his class level was 15. This gets problematic once the total passes 20, as the table does not go that high. A wizard 10/diabolist 10 would have an imp at class level 30 in theory.
I am assuming that by "highest caster level" the book actually means "highest caster level in other classes than diabolist". Then it would make sense.
Am I correct or have I overlooked something here?
My friend and I were discussing this same ability with the same sort of confusion. My friend took a look and noticed a different wording in the "Spells per day" class ability of the Diabolist as opposed to other Prestige Classes. It seems that the ability doesn't mention an increase in caster level along with the spells per day.
This seems to imply that while the Diabolist gets increased spells per day as if they had leveled up, their spells don't benefit from a higher caster level (and thus are less powerful). This would make it so the Imp's "Class Level" being Diabolist + highest caster level would actually be just right...
But that seems like a strange thing to do for an otherwise Caster PrC.
So I guess the question is, was the different wording in the "Spells per day" entry on purpose? or was it an accident?