Witch Invoker 12 Harrower 4, Invoke Patron

[Dogfax]

Hi Folks,
So I understand how multiclassing works, and that my witch who is 12 levels in Invoker (Archetype) and 4 levels in Harrower (Prestige), would only get the abilities of a 12th level witch (but spell casting as if she were 16th level witch ref the Harrower abilities).

So as a 12th level witch I would just be getting my second major hex. All fine so far.

If I look over into the Invoker archetype "invoke Patron" section it give a list of abilities based on level.

example:
Bridge: The invoker treats other creatures as if their damage reduction and spell resistance were 2 lower. This increases to 5 lower at 8th level and 10 lower at 16th level.

Now the sensible part of my brain is saying "well you are only a level 12 witch so you would use the "5 lower at 8th level" part of this.
But the Minmaxillon part of me says, "but it states 16th level, and you are 16th level. The rule here does not state 16th level witch"

So I take it this is implied/stated somewhere in the rules??

Thanks in advance.

[Lynceus]

The answers you're looking for are here:

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/73653/when-i-level-up-as-a-prestige -class-do-i-gain-the-bonus-of-both-my-core-class-a

If a prestige class advances the abilities of your core class or classes, it specifies which ones are advanced, for example, in this case, spellcasting. Other abilities of your core classes are not advanced. When a class states "at level x, you gain y ability", it's referring to levels in that class.

[avr]

Where it says "The invoker" it is telling you which level will apply here - the level of the class with the invoker archetype.

Anyway, class abilities use class level by default, and archetypes are packages of class abilities. No, I don't have an exact quote here.

[Dogfax]

Ok, thank you... I kind of expected that, but I thought it might be worth a go.

[Belafon]

CRB page 31 wrote:

Note that there are a number of effects and prerequisites that rely on a character’s level or Hit Dice. Such effects are always based on the total number of levels or Hit Dice a character possesses, not just those from one class. The exception to this is class abilities, most of which are based on the total number of class levels that a character possesses of that particular class.

[Derklord]

Because we had the same issue a couple weeks ago, copy pasted:

You have to patch it together a bit.
The term "level" is described in the "common terms" section thus: "There are three types of levels. Class level is the number of levels of a specific class possessed by a character. Character level is the sum of all of the levels possessed by a character in all of his classes. In addition, spells have a level associated with them numbered from 0 to 9." CRB pg. 12 So the word "level" can't be a stand-alone term, it must always mean "class level", "character level", or "spell level" (or subsections like "effective Druid level" or "caster level").
The respective ruletext in the classes section (what Belafon quoted) shows that "class level" is the norm for the word "level" in the text of a class feature, and that stuff based on character is unusual. As the class feature in question doesn't highlight it as diverging from the norm, it must mean "class level".