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Was about to spend 30k on Orange Ioun Stone that says it adds plus one castor level. Our GM felt that it only adds one level to your castor level, for spells being cast. For example a 9th level wizard now does 10 dice of damage.
So before spending my gold he said bring it to the message board.
My thought is that the stone would allow that same 9th level wizard to memorize the extra spells that a 10th level wizard could cast vs. a 9th.
(In this case an extra 4th and 5th level spell slot per day.)
And would count as a level higher for effects and spell duration,spell penetration, etc.
Which way should we go?
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Caster Level (CL): Caster level represents a creature's power and ability when casting spells. When a creature casts a spell, it often contains a number of variables, such as range or damage, that are based on the caster's level.
That's all your caster level is. You get +1d6 damage on your fireball, +1 on your dispel check with dispel magic, +10ft to the range of your Medium Range spells, +1 to the CMB of your black tentacles spell, +1 round to the duration of haste...
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A little de-rail, but I wonder why there is a "penalty" for loading an orange prism into a wayfinder. It results in a 1d4-2 roll everytime a spell is cast and that result (-1 to +2) is added to the +1 inherent to the ioun stone and applied to the caster's level. If the modified caster level is too low to cast the spell, it fizzles. However, even if you roll a '1' on the d4 and get a -1 result, added to the +1 inherent to the stone results in a modifier of 'zero'. Hence, no change to the caster level and no chance to fail the casting. What am I missing?
For reference...
Orange prism: Every time the bearer casts a spell, roll 1d4–2 and add this (and the +1 caster level granted by the normal power of the ioun stone) to his caster level. If this modified caster level is too low to cast the spell, the spell fails and is lost.
A little de-rail, but I wonder why there is a "penalty" for loading an orange prism into a wayfinder. It results in a 1d4-2 roll everytime a spell is cast and that result (-1 to +2) is added to the +1 inherent to the ioun stone and applied to the caster's level. If the modified caster level is too low to cast the spell, it fizzles. However, even if you roll a '1' on the d4 and get a -1 result, added to the +1 inherent to the stone results in a modifier of 'zero'. Hence, no change to the caster level and no chance to fail the casting. What am I missing?
For reference...
Orange prism: Every time the bearer casts a spell, roll 1d4–2 and add this (and the +1 caster level granted by the normal power of the ioun stone) to his caster level. If this modified caster level is too low to cast the spell, the spell fails and is lost.
It's meant to be a way to risk for an even greater reward, since it changes the +1 CL to a random roll for +0,1,2, or 3 CL (average 1.5). Better expected value, but of course more variance.
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I get that part, but why the language about fizzling? It appears that can't happen anyway
I think the easiest explanation is that no one checked the math or that there was a late edit in the developing cycle that prevented a reduction in CL; maybe it had been 1d6-3 or similar. The mechanic itself is somewhat similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage ability, which was a source of controversy because it didn't have the fizzle language, such that interpretation was dependent on how people read the general rule on Caster Level.
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I get that part, but why the language about fizzling? It appears that can't happen anyway
I suspect that it is more related to range than level needed to cast the spell. If you are casting the spell at a range where you reuire a higher CL than you have, but you get the 1 roll, you are casting at your normal CL, which may mean you are trying to cast a spell farther than your effective CL allows.
Example:
10th level caster. Medium range 200 feet
Ioun stone alone: 11th level caster. Medium range 210 feet
Resonance effect: 10-13th level caster:. Medium range 200-230 feet.
Casting spell at 210 feet. Only works if the d4 is 2 or higher.
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I get that part, but why the language about fizzling? It appears that can't happen anywayI suspect that it is more related to range than level needed to cast the spell. If you are casting the spell at a range where you reuire a higher CL than you have, but you get the 1 roll, you are casting at your normal CL, which may mean you are trying to cast a spell farther than your effective CL allows.
Example:
10th level caster. Medium range 200 feetIoun stone alone: 11th level caster. Medium range 210 feet
Resonance effect: 10-13th level caster:. Medium range 200-230 feet.
Casting spell at 210 feet. Only works if the d4 is 2 or higher.
Interesting idea. Caster Level is chosen at the time of casting time; this is usually just assumed to be a maximum, but can be as lower, to a minimum at which the caster can cast the spell. The mechanism of choosing a caster level is vague, and "choose" may be a bad description of it.
If the 10th level caster described above wants to cast a spell at a higher level than 10th using the ioun stone, is it a risk vs. reward kind of thing? If he wants to try at 13th level, but only gets a 3 on the die, does it fail? Or does he try to cast the spell at max, and gets whatever the die allows?