Good morning :)
I'm putting together a really fantastic recurring foe for my party and I've got a mechanic that I'm struggling with. The villain is a customized Lamia Matriarch.
Now, the Lamia Matriarch comes with a selection of inherent racial SLA's which are officially at caster level 12 (her base Hit Die). Then she has a selection of 'Matriarch Spells' which essentially has her casting as a 6th level Sorcerer, except that she can learn spells from the Wizard or Cleric spell list (which are all considered arcane). Finally, I've added two levels of the Bard archetype Dawnflower Dervish (for mechanical purposes only, the Battle Dance ability has been re-flavored to represent something ancient and at least theoretically serpentine or supernaturally graceful).
As part of her rebuild, I had her take the feat Arcane Strike, but I'm trying to figure out which caster level to base its damage bonus off of - the CL 12 SLA's, the CL 6 Matriarch casting or the CL 2 that she gets from her Bard levels... or would one or more of those HD stack with each other?
While I'm at it, would the two additional Bard levels/HD increase the caster level of her racial SLA's by two as well?
Thanks in advance!
I believe that you use your highest caster level of your actual spells - not your spell-like abilities.
I believe that you use your highest caster level of your actual spells - not your spell-like abilities.
That's kind of where my confusion is coming in. I figured it wouldn't be at CL 12, but the Lamia Matriarch officially casts spells as a 6th level sorcerer, right down to how many she knows and the number per day that she can cast. So would Arcane Strike be considered at CL 2 (Bard), CL 6 (Sorcerer) or CL 8 (Bard + Sorcerer)?
And any idea on the other question, whether the additional HD from the Bard class levels would impact her SLA's?
Thanks again!
The critter is a 6th level arcane caster, and a 2nd. So you would get +2 for the 6th level, and +1 for the 2nd. But same bonus type, same source, no stacking. So you might as well ignore the 2 bard levels and jjst count the 6 levels of sorcerer.