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Dear Players,

A short Dissertation on the Magical Knack trait by your humble GM.

Nick wrote:
Just wanted to check my thinking on the Magical Knack trait.
It says it increases Caster Level by 2 so long as your total caster level does not exceed your HD.

No, The Magical Knack trait does not say that.

It says your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus. This means that for spells that have variables linked to caster level, such as duration, that variable is increased. For instance a Wizard 2, Rogue 11 would have four hours of Mage Armour with that trait.

You can check the Caster Level entry in the Magic section of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. It is also available online here.

In the event that a class feature or other special ability provides an adjustment to your caster level, that adjustment applies not only to effects based on caster level (such as range, duration, and damage dealt), but also to your caster level check to overcome your target's spell resistance and to the caster level used in dispel checks (both the dispel check and the DC of the check).

This trait does not allow you to enter a Prestige Class based on CL requirement two levels early either.

Still, this is clearly an overpowered trait, especially since a trait is only meant to be a "half-feat". Most traits are about a +1 here and there for a skill check or so. Others do not seem to think so according to this post on the Paizo boards. Sadly neither Jason Bulmahn nor any other official Paizo member of staff has piped in on this particular discussion.

An easy way to break this trait - apart from mis-reading it - is to play a monster as a character, which is not officially supported in Pathfinder RPG by the way. A 2HD monster getting into a spellcasting class with this trait would get his CL related variables two points ahead of his class. Assuming that the LA (or GM defined equivalent) is not judged assuming Magical Knack, there would be a balance problem. Then again, if one wants to play monsters as PC, one only needs to play 4e.

So my fighter 1/wizard 6/EK 10 is a CL 15, HD 17 character. So with Magical Knack this would increase the CL to 17 with HD 17... (so can get 9th level spells).

With the "Magical Knack" trait, your Eldricht Knight would still be CL15 and would not gain extra spells or be able to cast higher spells.
Ironically, should he try to cast a LV 9 spell from a scroll, from what I have understood, the modifier on the CL check roll to cast it would have an additional +2, i.e. it would be as if the PC is of high level enough to cast without being so!
Note that it would be impossible to miss the CL check on a 9th level spell:
DC = 17 (CL to cast LV9 spells) + 1 = 18. An LV17 Eldricht Knight with a CL of 15 rolling a 1 still casts: 1 (icosahedron roll) + 15 (CL) + 2 (Magical Knack trait) = 18.
Only scrolls created by a Bard, of a shared spell on the Wizard/Sorcerer list, thus requiring a higher CL for the creator could potentially go wrong for an LV17 Fighter 1/Wizard 6/Eldricht Knight 10 with the Magical Knack trait.

Still this is a very powerful trait and like the old 3.5 Natural spell druidic feat it sounds like it is a must-have for multi-classed PC or PC with a spellcasting PrC. Because most of them carry a one or more spellcasting level loss (either due to requirements or actually missing spellcasting level progression).

The Witchwar Legacy.

I have begun reading the adventure. Greg A. Vaughan is a great author; he has managed to design a cold environment adventure where monsters have perfectly valid reasons to have... Fire resistance.
Be they Half-Fiendish creatures, or cursed creatures with the Cold subtype the monsters are not always afraid of heat. Thus, a Fireball throwing, Burning Hand waving or Aganazzar's Scorcher zapping magic user would still have problems hurting (beyond SR) these lovely monsters.
Yes, I know, Aganazzar is a "Forgotten Realms" mage from back in the days, but I miss my Bigby, Mordenkainen, Evard, Otiluke and other named spells too.

As mentioned to Andrew at the Big Meet, assume that your party has been adventuring for a while, even across the planes or in other worlds if you can come up with an interesting story. The party could have had tea with Rary the Traitor, one of you could have tried to hump the Simbul, you may have met with the Nameless One in Sigil or served under the order of a high-level mule in another timeline. Anyway, as long as you have not brought back any non-Pathfinder RPG item with you, you can invent whatever you want for your party history and PC background.
What I will certainly not accept is: "Six LV17 adventurers walk into a tavern in Whitethrone and read a notice on the door about retrieving a potent artefact".

I forgot to say:
You can use Pathfinder Companion: Adventurer's Armory if you want. This is a very-low level book after all, and at yours the one-shot alchemical items become very affordable. Try not to abuse whatever you find there. I think Simon wants to use some items from there to adapt the appearance of his Barbarian.

I now need to revise the entrance to Jorgenfist for Wednesday's game.

Laurent,