Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Violet Typhoon 06-23-07, 01:08 AM	I just noticed something while looking through Complete Arcane. The decription for the Wild Mage's Wild Magic ability says that the character's caster level is reduced by 3. The description for the Practiced Spellcaster feat gives you a +4 bonus to your caster level for a certain class, but your caster level cannot exceed your HD. If you put the two together, the bonus from the feat would fill up the deficit from Wild Mage, since it would replace the missing caster levels and still not exceed HD. This takes away any weakness from the Wild Magic Ability, essentially giving the character a free 1d6 extra caster levels for every spell she casts! It seems like this should work, though I suspect there may be errata on either the feat, class ability, or both. The only thing that makes me think this combo wouldn't work is the line "reduces caster level by 3 for all spells cast from now on" (emphasis mine). Would a caster level "for a spell" be different from a caster level for the character as a whole, and would that prevent Practiced Spellcaster from functioning? Or did I just find a way to get a free caster level boost? Has anyone else noticed or done this before?
runestar 06-23-07, 01:12 AM	Sadly,:( How does Practiced Spellcaster interact with the wild magic class feature of the wild mage (from Complete Arcane)? The –3 penalty and +1d6 bonus to the wild mage’s caster level are applied as a single step in the process of determining the wild mage’s caster level. Since Practiced Spellcaster’s bonus is always applied when it is most beneficial to the character (see previous answer), a wild mage with Practiced Spellcaster would typically apply the wild magic class feature first (subtracting 3 and adding 1d6 to her caster level) and then add the Practiced Spellcaster benefit, up to a maximum value equal to her character level. For example, if a 5th-level wizard/4th-level wild mage with Practiced Spellcaster rolled a 1 on the 1d6 bonus to her caster level, her caster level for that spell would be 9th (base 9th, –3 from wild magic penalty, +1 from wild magic bonus, +4 from Practiced Spellcaster up to a maximum equal to her character level). If she rolled a 6, her caster level would be 12th (base 9th, –3 from wild magic penalty, +6 from wild magic bonus; the Practiced Spellcaster bonus would not apply since it would increase her caster level above her character level). On the other hand, imagine a wild mage whose caster level (before applying the effects of the wild magic class feature) is less than her character level, such as a wild mage with levels of rogue or other non-spellcasting class. She might well choose to apply the Practiced Spellcaster bonus first, before applying the wild magic modifiers. A rogue 4/wizard 5/wild mage 4 would have a base caster level of 9th before any other modifiers are applied. Adding Practiced Spellcaster’s bonus would increase this to 13th, at which point the penalty and bonus from wild magic would be applied. The Sage recommends that players averse to frequently recalculating caster level avoid playing a character with this combination, as it is likely to cause headaches.
Violet Typhoon 06-23-07, 01:33 AM	Ah, so it's still useful, just not quite as useful as I thought. Still, never having to worry about lowering your caster level because of Wild Magic is nothing to sneeze at. A pretty good combo, in my opinion. Thanks runestar!