Paladin and Ranger Caster Level Inconsistencies

justfeelinathome

On my recent (ongoing) play through as a paladin I noticed that the classes caster level behaves weirdly: When casting a scaling spell like Armor of Faith or Draw upon Holy Might, the result is weaker than what I anticipated. On level 9 and 10 respectively AoF just gave 5% Resistances and a DuHM on Level 12 only increased my Stats by 2, while the one from the special ability gave me 4. I had comparable results in all 3 games, with the Ranger class as well and honestly don't remember this happening in the past.

Now, this made me wonder: Is this intentional, since these Classes unlock their casting at a later point? If so, I'll make a a feature request to add this to the class description, since it IS significant. If not, it goes into the bug section, since it's an inconsistency either way.

I'd really like to hear some opinions/knowledge on this matter before going to redmine.

TheArtisan

Spell power progression for rangers and paladins begin when they gain their first spell. So when they cast their priest spells they're casting them as though they are 7-8 levels behind. The innate begins its progression starting from actual level 1, which is why it's significantly stronger.

justfeelinathome

Artemius_I said:

Spell power progression for rangers and paladins begin when they gain their first spell. So when they cast their priest spells they're casting them as though they are 7-8 levels behind. The innate begins its progression starting from actual level 1, which is why it's significantly stronger.

Ah, that's also how I explained that to myself! Since Caster Level effectively caps at 20 anyway for most instances this will only proof a slight delay on my ascension to divine power. So probably not a recent change and just me misremembering?

jesterdesu

It's always been that way yes.

What I don't like is that goody goody paladins get level 4 spells but rangers only get up to level 3

JumboWheat01

jesterdesu said:

It's always been that way yes.

What I don't like is that goody goody paladins get level 4 spells but rangers only get up to level 3

It is one of those great mysteries of Dungeons & Dragons. Perhaps because Paladins got their powers through faith and the Gods and are trained to do so, while Rangers got theirs from "copying" what the druids were doing, rather than being trained in it.

jesterdesu

Yup I assumed similar to that. Still irks me though as level 4 spells are pretty cool

lroumen

Paladins are less powerful than rangers so they needed a boost .

Seriously, I never thought about caster levels like that. Good to know.

justfeelinathome

Makes me wonder, though, why a Bards caster level isn't one lower than his actual level - a level 3 bard shoots two magic missiles last time I checked. (Let's just keep that a secret lil' buff to a not so overpowered class)

Dee

justtravelinthrough said:

Makes me wonder, though, why a Bards caster level isn't one lower than his actual level - a level 3 bard shoots two magic missiles last time I checked. (Let's just keep that a secret lil' buff to a not so overpowered class)

Probably because the scaling happens in the spell, not the class. Paladins and Rangers have their own unique spell resources that handle their different caster levels appropriately; Bards, on the other hand, learn their spells in the same way that Mages do, and so they use the same resources when casting them.