Snake01's page

1st: ask him to provide evidence to this scaling rule.

2nd: next ask as to HOW it scales? there are no more spells beyond 9th level. and not all casters gain spells the same level. sorcerer gain 2nd level spells only at 4th level, and 3rd at 6th while magus need to wait even later for his 3rd level.

Again, in pathfinder rules MUST be stated to have effect. if this so called 'scaling after level 20' is a real rule it should have be mentioned somewhere in the rules. ask for him to show you where he found it.

The scaling thing after level 20 is actually a thing quote "For example, a 21st-level wizard gains a single 10th-level spell slot..." And so on.

So yeah my DM has proven the point that scaling after lvl 20 exists, still maxing out scorching ray after lvl 23 is still not right.

sample wizard npc from aonprd

Or show him any official pregen character.

Is your GM new to PF (and any similar TRPG)?

My GM played pathfinder as a witch before as far as i know a while back. Which confuses me even more that they played a spell Casting class and played it like that.

caster level is not spell level. spell level range from 0 (cantrips) to (normally) 9th level.

caster level is how 'professional' the caster is while spell level is more like what complex tools he mastered using.

if caster level was equal to spell level then spells talking about maximum caster level over 9 shouldn't even be (at least not common, as raising caster level is HARD and limited). yet fireball talk about maximum 10 dice for caster level 10. ask your GM how does that work? show him higher level spells that talk about even higher caster level (delayed blast fireball, heal, Horrid Wilting etc)

As I said in number 2. with scorching ray my DM states that you still scale up after lvl 20 in caster level even if you can cast Lvl 9 spells at max..

Hello, I am playing a Lvl 4 Wizard in the Hells vengeance campaign right now and it's been incredibly fun so far but the last few sessions I had a discussion with my group how caster level works, I showed them the ruling "A spell’s power often depends on its caster level, which for most spellcasting characters is equal to her class level in the class she’s using to cast the spell." Which in my logic states that if I am a level 4 Wizard I would have caster level 4. My DM statet though that the caster level is equal to my highest spell level that I can cast which means 2 at the moment. It's not to bad now that my scaling is so low but it will be in the future.. so I created this thread for some advice to tackle this problem.

Here is what I already tried.

1. Showing them the RAW rules as stated above.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic/#TOC-Caster-Level they stated I was a tiefling level 4 and wizard caster level 2.

2. I showed a spell like scorching ray which states "You may fire one ray, plus one additional ray for every four levels beyond 3rd (to a maximum of three rays at 11th level)." And there are only spells till 9th Level so max caster level would be 9 In their logic. But they stated that the scaling still continues after lvl20.

Things I will try.

1. Showing them the Ranger or other non full caster class in which it states "Through 3rd level, a ranger has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is equal to his ranger level – 3."

2. Showing them the rules of scroll scribe rules and the scroll table there. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/scrolls

3. Showing them the magical knack trait which would be pretty good with the DMs ruling
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/magic-traits/magical-knack/

I already thank all of you the community who are here to help with all kinds of Problems if you read this have a nice day/night

If that's not enough, tell them to look at some context clues. Let's look at fireball for an example.

A fireball spell generates a searing explosion of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d6)

With this misinterpretation, this means that the maximum damage on fireball would be literally impossible to attain, and considering it's one of (if not the) most iconic spells in the entire game, it's rather unlikely a misprint such as this would've survived past the cessation of content for the game.

Yeah I used scorching ray as an example because it says "(to a maximum of three rays at 11th level)" but the DM just told me, "yeah after lvl 20 the caster lvl still rises as if you would get higher spell slots then 9.

Idk if anyone else still reads this post but, I have the same problem in my group with the caster level, that my DM says my effective caster level as Magus is not my caster level.
They tell me that my caster level is only as high as the highest level of spells I can cast means at Lvl 4 I am caster Lvl 2 in their world. I tried to show them this thread and tell them they are probably not right, but they still rule it that way can anybody tell me what I could do or should i probably just take it as the dm tells me even if it means I am a pretty weak Magus.