Prestige-Class Levels, Character Levels, and "Level" in General

[Cold Pastoral]

Where are the rules for the definitions of prestige-class levels, character levels, "level," and so on and so forth?

I see these interchange on prestige-class abilities a lot and would just like to find some rules on when to add my prestige-class levels in, or when it's my entire character's level, etcetera.

Thanks for the help.

[IkeDoe]

Cold Pastoral wrote:

Where are the rules for the definitions of prestige-class levels, character levels, "level," and so on and so forth?

I see these interchange on prestige-class abilities a lot and would just like to find some rules on when to add my prestige-class levels in, or when it's my entire character's level, etcetera.

Thanks for the help.

Iirc just at the beginning of the Classes Chapter and the Prestige Classes Chapter there are a few definitions.

IIRC:
Total character's level (add all your class and prestige class level) is usually called "Character's level"
In the definition of a class or prestige class, "level" is the same as "class level" or "prestige level" for that Class or PrC (prestige Class).
When you find things like "wizard level" it means your level in the "Wizard" class.
Note tha "Caster Level" and "class level" are two different things. You only get Caster Levels (CL) when you are told so.
Most special abilities of Sorcerers and Wizards scale with class level, not CL.
However the regular spells usually scale with your CL.

[Cold Pastoral]

IkeDoe wrote:

Iirc just at the beginning of the Classes Chapter and the Prestige Classes Chapter there are a few definitions.

IIRC:
Total character's level (add all your class and prestige class level) is usually called "Character's level"
In the definition of a class or prestige class, "level" is the same as "class level" or "prestige level" for that Class or PrC (prestige Class).
When you find things like "wizard level" it means your level in the "Wizard" class.
Note tha "Caster Level" and "class level" are two different things. You only get Caster Levels (CL) when you are told so.
Most special abilities of Sorcerers and Wizards scale with class level, not CL.
However the regular spells usually scale with your CL.

<3 Thanks, mang.

[Elven_Blades]

Quote:

Most special abilities of Sorcerers and Wizards scale with class level, not CL.

However the regular spells usually scale with your CL.

I don't think this is very clear the way you have it written... Using the CL abbreviation when discussing character level, caster level, and class level... Yuck

Character level - the sum of all your levels in various classes.

Caster level - the sum of levels in a specific class that grant spell casting ability. I believe ( and if I'm wrong on this, please let me know where I can find appropriate information ) that caster levels don't stack for purposes regarding how much damage a spell will do, duration, range, spells/day, spells known, and other thing based on caster level. The exception to this would be spell casting based Prestige Classes. They specifically say, in the spells per day column of the advancement table, "+1 level of existing class". Additionally, under Class features, it reads (paraphrasing here) new spells per day and spells known, and increased effective level of spell casting, but no other abilities of the base class. So this basically applies to damage, range, spell resistance checks, ect.

Based on this, i would say spells advance with your caster level, not based on character level, as i think is being indicated above... But again, I could just be thrown off with too many things here that could be abbreviated with a "CL"

Hope this clarifies any possible confusion. :-)

[Elven_Blades]

I just found this interesting FAQ on the arcane archer srd, but it applies to all spell casting prestige classes.

Wizards do not gain new spells known when they gain a level in a prestige class, they must Spend time and gold to add new spells to their book (as per the rules on adding additional spells other than when the wizard gains a level). They do still gain an increases in spells prepared per day. However, spontaneous casters that inherently know their spells( such as sorcerer ) do gain new spells known.

Check it out, under Spells per Day

[YuenglingDragon]

Elven_Blades wrote:

I just found this interesting FAQ on the arcane archer srd, but it applies to all spell casting prestige classes.

Wizards do not gain new spells known when they gain a level in a prestige class, they must Spend time and gold to add new spells to their book (as per the rules on adding additional spells other than when the wizard gains a level). They do still gain an increases in spells prepared per day. However, spontaneous casters that inherently know their spells( such as sorcerer ) do gain new spells known.

Check it out, under Spells per Day

I don't understand the purpose of that ruling. What's unbalancing about a prepared caster learning new spells? Is a Wizard/EK suddenly unable to study and research?

[Elven_Blades]

I don't think it is saying that the wizard suddenly loses the ability to research spells. Rather, since the eldritch knight is spending more time on martial training in his down time, rather than just spending all day in the magic library, he doesn't have has as much time to study the new spells typically gained for free at a new level. The spells gained for free essentially represent all that time researching at said library.

Besides, I think most GMs would let that one slide, it does seem a rather silly and unfair rule.

[Morgen]

Technically that's about how it was worded in 3.5 as well, that rule was simply ignored or overlooked by almost everyone. All that it's saying is you don't get your 2 freebie spells when you gain a level of Wizard as your not gaining a level of Wizard, just like your not gaining bonus feats or familiar progression and the like.

For groups that even notice this rule it's less of a penalty in Pathfinder given the lower cost of scribing into a spell book. It depends on your game of course. If your finding scrolls and enemy spell books and the like it's not going to be missed as much as it is in some games where you don't get much more then your freebies.

[Gambit]

All this level talk reminds me of....link

[Elven_Blades]

Gambit wrote:

All this level talk reminds me of....link

+500 xp for providing that link, congratulation, you leveled. =)