Do Levels of Classes that Grant Rogue Talent Stack?

[Navarion]

Hello, I'm looking at the shadowdancer and wondering if the shadowdancer levels stack with rogue levels for the caster level of Minor Magic, Major Magic and Dispelling Attack. It's not mentioned in either class entry. It seems like common sense but is there somewhere a rule for that?

[TriOmegaZero]

I believe there is a rule that when it says 'class name' level, it is based off of the levels in that class. So shadowdancer levels would not count towards caster level for those talents, nor would rogue levels count towards it if you took those talents as a shadowdancer.

If it had said 'character level', then they would stack. I count this as another design choice to make single classing better than multi or prestige classing.

Edit: I don't find any wording either way, so you can either interpret it as above, or just say it is based off of character level.

[Navarion]

There are a few problems with the rules. It says "the rogue's level". Now a rogue 10/paladin 2 is still a rogue, so it could mean either the character level or really just the class level.
If it's just the class level it becomes wonky with the Shadowdancer. Assume a Ranger 5/Shadowdancer 3 takes Minor Magic. Minor Magic says "the rogue's level". But the character doesn't have a single rogue level so the caster level would be 0.

There was a mistake like that in Star Wars Saga Edition. A prestige class granted a talent that gave you money on each level-up based on the level of the core class noble. If you didn't have noble levels you didn't get any money until they brought out an errata that made the prestige class levels count as noble levels for the purpose of talents that are granted by both classes.

[TriOmegaZero]

I totally agree. This is why I specify 'character level' on most of the class abilities I write, unless I specifically want it limited by class level. And CL for a SLA is not something I want limited.

[Laughing Goblin]

I believe that the RAW generally limit class abilities to class level, and abilities granted by feat to generally be character level. That said, there are notable exceptions (uncanny dodge being the big one).

However, as a house rule, if multiple classes grant access to the same ability (even if just a choice among multiple abilities), I have no issue with allowing them to stack, and have run it that way in the past.