Houserule for Half-casters

[Closet_Skeleton]

I'm not sure if there's something like this in core but if Rangers and Paladins have a caster level equal to half their class level, and some Prestige classes boost previous spell casting only every other level. Would it be fair to let a Ranger 10/Dragon Slayer 4 (using an example of a prestige class that gets half spell casting enhancement) to cast spells as a 14th level Ranger as oppossed to a 12th level one?

[fireinthedust]

not really homebrew, but I'd say the +1 spellcasting class rule would treat ranger levels as normal. You might even have the rgr 10/dragon slayer4 cast spells as an 6th level character: 5 for the ten ranger levels, plus only 2 +1 spellcaster level thingies, divided by two (ie: only increasing spellcasting aspect of original class twice means, for a ranger, in four levels only going up once).

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking 6th level caster.

[KoDT69]

I would say that by the way it reads...
Ranger 10 = 5th caster level
Dragon Slayer 4 says +2 caster level by 4th
5 + 2 = 7th caster level
Bonuses from each class or PrC are calculated separately and added together. The Dragon Slayer PrC directly adds to the caster level, not the base character level. It seems also it was designed to leave the caster level for a half caster directly 1/2 of the total character level.

[Kyace]

So a half caster could take the right PrCs can end up with a higher caster level than a pure 20th level half caster?

[Closet_Skeleton]

not really homebrew

It is homebrew because I'm suggesting not doing it by RAW. By RAW a 10 Ranger/Dragonslayer 4 casts spells as a 12th level ranger and therefore has a caster level of 6. However a wizard 10/Dragonslayer 4 (not that this is neccesaraly possible) would have caster level 12.

I was suggesting that you allow a Ranger 10/Dragonslayer 4 to count as a 14th level Ranger (caster level 7th ) since the Dragonslayer class is supposed to up your spell casting by 1 for every 2 levels and the Ranger does the same thing. Since a Ranger/Paladin style caster gains less from "+1 of previous spellcasting class" then a Wizard does it wouldn't be overpowering to even it up a bit.

I was suggesting to only allow this for Prestige classes that give "+1 of previous spellcasting class" every other level. Not that anyone would want to be a Ranger/Hexblade/Mystic Theurge.

[Yakk]

Naw, just allow is strait.

A L 5 Wizard/L 2 Ranger/L 3 Rogue/L 10 Arcane Trickster could cast spells as a L 7 Wizard and L 20 Ranger. Or a L 15 Wizard and L 2 Ranger.

Pick which one seems more powerful. @_@

Paladins and Rangers and other half-caster classes might have caster levels equal to half of their class levels, but their spellcasting doesn't even advance as fast as that!

Compare a L 20 Ranger (3/3/3/3 spells) to a L 10 Wizard (4/4/3/3/2, plus 4 cantrips). Equal caster level: but the Wizard has an extra ring of spells, and more spells per day, and cantrips.

Or the L 10 cleric:
(4+1/4+1/3+1/3+1/2+1) plus 6 cantrips, and a wider selection of spells.

So adding +2 spellcasting levels on a hybrid class for every +1 spellcaster level works.

It would mean that an Eldrich-Knight like class would end up with higher level Ranger spells earlier than a pure Ranger: but that is pretty acceptable. In theory, the Ranger non-spell abilities should make up for the slower spell progression.

[Merlin the Tuna]

You might like Otto the Bugbear's homebrew, based on this. Check it out.

[Innis Cabal]

i agree, just keep it as it is, some things are for a good reason