Early Access to AT

[Dethmunki]

I'm wanting to find a way to get into AT with the least amount of caster levels, mainly for the impromptu sneak attack. I was mainly wondering if the Shadowcaster trait would be sufficient to qualify for a second-level spell.

Benefit: Choose one spell with the shadow descriptor—from this point on, whenever you cast this spell, its effect manifest at +1 caster level.

Please tell me I'm wrong so I can move on.

[UnArcaneElection]

Increasing your effective caster level (no matter by how much) doesn't increase the level of a spell, so that won't work.

Until a few weeks ago, if you had an arcane spell-like ability, you could use this to qualify for the ability to cast second level spells. Sadly, this has been nerfed essentially out of existence, so no more early access to Arcane Trickster, or to Eldritch Knight (which is ALMOST hosed without early access, the exception being if you are the right kind of Orc Scarred Witch Doctor), or to Mystic Theurge (which is just totally hosed).

[Secret Wizard]

Fastest access possible to AT right now is 1 level Rogue (preferably Unchained), 1 level Snakebite Striker Brawler (preferably at level 1 for extra HP), and then 3 levels Wizard of any sort.

EK is much easier to access... Wizard VMC Battle Oracle can qualify at level 4.

[Dethmunki]

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Increasing your effective caster level (no matter by how much) doesn't increase the level of a spell, so that won't work.

Until a few weeks ago, if you had an arcane spell-like ability, you could use this to qualify for the ability to cast second level spells. Sadly, this has been nerfed essentially out of existence, so no more early access to Arcane Trickster, or to Eldritch Knight (which is ALMOST hosed without early access, the exception being if you are the right kind of Orc Scarred Witch Doctor), or to Mystic Theurge (which is just totally hosed).

Thanks. I was wondering about that too. So the only way would be a lvl 3 Sor/Wiz or lvl 4 Magus.

Or a Bard. But no thank you.

[Snowblind]

Secret Wizard wrote:

Fastest access possible to AT right now is 1 level Rogue (preferably Unchained), 1 level Snakebite Striker Brawler (preferably at level 1 for extra HP), and then 3 levels Wizard of any sort.

EK is much easier to access... Wizard VMC Battle Oracle can qualify at level 4.

I am confused. How does Wizard VMC help at all.

The oracle still can't cast level 3 arcane spells at level 4. They can't cast level 3 arcane spells *ever* without multiclassing.

[Secret Wizard]

It's the other way around, homeslice.

You are a 3rd level Wizard with VMC Battle Oracle to get Skill At Arms at level 3, qualifying for EK at 4.

[Snowblind]

Secret Wizard wrote:

It's the other way around, homeslice.

You are a 3rd level Wizard with VMC Battle Oracle to get Skill At Arms at level 3, qualifying for EK at 4.

You would need to wait for 5 levels of wizard so you could cast 3rd level arcane spells.

Still a neat trick, though.

[UnArcaneElection]

Actually, now that you mention Wizard VMC Battle Oracle, what else can you get? For instance, can you get Weapon Mastery and Maneuver Mastery at a useful time this way, or are they so delayed (after Skill at Arms) as to be useless?

If you aren't going for the above, Wizard VMC Metal Oracle also gets you Skill at Arms.

Thinking about something like this for Arcane Trickster, does Wizard (or Sorcerer) VMC anything get you the other class' Sneak Attack at a useful rate?

Dethmunki wrote:

Thanks. I was wondering about that too. So the only way would be a lvl 3 Sor/Wiz or lvl 4 Magus. {. . .}

You need 4 levels of Sorcerer (not sure why the spontaneous casting 9/9 classes all have this delay in access to new spells, but that's the way it is -- I guess inherited from D&D 3.5).