Sorc human favored class option

[Deadbear]

I couldn't find anything about the very specific question I have for this...

A friend of mine is making a human sorc/dragon desciple. His level progression that he's planning is to go 10 sorc, then 5 dd, then another 5 sorc, so by 20th level, his caster level is 18, max spell castible would be an 8th. All fine and dandy. Now, the problem comes that he feels that using the human favored class option for gaining the extra known spell per sorc level will give him a higher level bonus spells instead of bonus spells based off his actual sorc level.

His argument is that while he wont gain bonus spells for the 5 DD levels, when he comes back to sorc at level 16, since his effective caster level would be 14, he would gain bonus spells off of that and not his actual sorc level (which would be 11) since the wording in the APG says it goes off your caster level (you gain one spell known at the level below your highest level of spell you can cast) and because the DD says it that you gain an effective level in your previous casting class for determining your effective caster level and spells known.

My argument is that it's your favored class ability, so it would actually be a bonus spell based off your sorc level's spell known chart for level 11, because DD is not the favored class, sorc is, so it runs off your sorc level, not your combined level, as his ecl would be.

[DRAKKHENKC]

I think your player has it correct - the wording of the alternate favored class options states it clearly and makes no exception for increases to caster levels from prestige classes.

[Tanis]

+1.

Under DD: At the indicated levels, a dragon disciple gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class.

[Cold Napalm]

Umm why does a sorcer 15/DD 5 have 8th level as the highest spell they can cast? That should give you 9th level spells.

[Ender_rpm]

Cold Napalm wrote:

Umm why does a sorcer 15/DD 5 have 8th level as the highest spell they can cast? That should give you 9th level spells.

Sorc?

[Oterisk]

Ender_rpm wrote:

Cold Napalm wrote:

Umm why does a sorcer 15/DD 5 have 8th level as the highest spell they can cast? That should give you 9th level spells.

Sorc?

No, Cold Napalm has it right. A 15/5 model would only lose 2 levels of casting, and they would end up with 9th level spells at level 20.

Although I would probably go with a 12/8 model myself. He is probably thinking that he would want the Form of the Dragon II spell for free, but I just get and use Form of the Dragon III and get the bonuses to Int and Con by going a little deeper in the PrC.

3 more levels of DD would give him approximately 7-8 more hp. He could use his favored class bonus as a human sorcerer to get 7-8 more spells available, with the ability to choose FotD III at level 20. But let him do whatever he wants, I just don't think it is worth it.

Edit: fixing my math