Magical Knack doesn't bump Arcane Strike, does it?

[Mercurial]

Seems like it shouldn't but sounds like it does.

Arcane Strike
Prerequisite: Ability to cast arcane spells.
Benefit: As a swift action, you can imbue your weapons with a fraction of your power. For 1 round, your weapons deal +1 damage and are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. For every five caster levels you possess, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

Magical Knack
Benefit: Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t increase your caster level higher than your current Hit Dice.

[spalding]

Why wouldn't it?

[CountMRVHS]

Sounds like it does to me, too.

Doubt it was intended that way, but is it that imbalancing? You get a +1 damage a couple levels earlier.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

It does, both RAW and RAI, I'm almost certain. The people who wrote and approved that trait had to know that there's a lot of spells and abilities that are affected by caster level. If they didn't want it to affect certain things, they would have said so.

[Archaeik]

Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:

It does, both RAW and RAI, I'm almost certain. The people who wrote and approved that trait had to know that there's a lot of spells and abilities that are affected by caster level. If they didn't want it to affect certain things, they would have said so.

I'm not as confident about that as you, but in a perfect world that should be true.

But let's be clear about what this trait does...

Quote:

Benefit: Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t increase your caster level higher than your current Hit Dice.

You can't get the additional +1 from Arcane Strike w/o actually having the character levels to do so... (no +2 at level 3 or +5 at 18, you still need to be 5 or 20 respectively)

[Hawktitan]

Sure it would, but it would only come into play when multiclassing or going into a PrC, so not imbalancing at all.

[Trayce]

or a class that doesn't gain a caster level every level, like a ranger <.<

Not unbalancing though, IMO. The trait is pretty circumstantial.

[Ashiel]

Mercurial wrote:

Seems like it shouldn't but sounds like it does.

Arcane Strike
Prerequisite: Ability to cast arcane spells.
Benefit: As a swift action, you can imbue your weapons with a fraction of your power. For 1 round, your weapons deal +1 damage and are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. For every five caster levels you possess, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

Magical Knack
Benefit: Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t increase your caster level higher than your current Hit Dice.

Reminds me of the sorceress NPC I have in my current tabletop campaign. She's a sorcerer 1 (draconic, blue dragon)/warrior 5, and took the Extra Traits feat and grabbed Magical Knack. She delivers 3d6+3 shocking grasps through a 1d4+3 claw attack. She has thus far survived two encounters with the PCs, and severely wounded one each each fight. She's about CR 2.

But yeah, it works with Magical Knack. So do ioun stones and magic items boosting caster level.