Casting spells at a lower CL?

[sentaiexpress]

I just don't get why someone would intentionally cast spells at a lower CL. Am I just missing something totally obvious here?

[Turin the Mad]

Deception, especially by villains that are not laying all of their project image cards on the table right away.

Baiting the bad guys, such as using a lower-CL illusion on the outermost layer covering your nastier goodies waiting for overconfident bad guys to step into a trap.

You're not getting paid to use a higher CL (q.v., every NPC caster hired to cast certain spells, especially for item creation).

[Jeraa]

You want your fireball spell to kill the weak mooks, but not do as much damage to your allies that are also in the blast zone. So you cast at a lower level to deal enough damage to kill the enemy, while minimizing damage to allies.

There aren't many times you will want to cast at a lower caster level. The rules just give you the option to do so if you want.

When making magic items, you use a lower caster level to save money.

[sentaiexpress]

Thanks for the help I think I get it now

[My Self]

Making sure your Extended (via metamagic rods) Aroden's Spellbane set to block Aroden's Spellbane doesn't stop you from casting it again the next day. Note that to cast it, you will need a CL of 17, for an extended time of 34 hours, which will definitely interfere with your next casting of it.

[Finlanderboy]

I had a buddy that had green slim on him. My knowledge check the dm told me i would need ot 5 points of fire damage to it.

I burning hands at a 3rd cl vs fifth(i am orc bloodline and +1 dmg per die) To make sure I killed it and did the least amaount of damage to him.