I am making an arcane/divine multiclass to later prestige as a mystic theurge. I have 'practices spellcaster' twice, as to have full caster level in both spellcaster classes. My question is if there is something similar I could do so I could advance spells known like my full character level. Or is that an unavoidable drawback with the arcane/divine multiclass-prestigeclass? When I get to lvl 7, I could get the first level of mystic theurge, but is counted as lvl 4 of his both base classes when determining spells known & per level. If there was something to make it Count that as lvl 7 as well, it would truly be super
[RPG] Multiclassed spellcaster, full spell knowledge
dnd-3.5eprestige-class
Related Solutions
RAW: Ambiguous
The rules are not clear on what, exactly, constitutes an “arcane spellcasting class” or a “divine spellcasting class,” probably because initially it was obvious. By default, assassins, bards, sorcerers, and wizards were the arcane spellcasting classes, blackguards, clerics, druids, and paladins were the divine spellcasting classes. There was no ambiguity: the former are the classes that cast arcane spells, and the latter are the classes that cast divine spells. Easy.
Then they printed things like Alternate Source Spell, Rainbow Servant, Sha’ir, and Southern Magician, which introduced ambiguity that hadn’t existed before. In these cases, you have spell slots from one class being used for either arcane or divine spells.
Does this new feature suddenly make the class into an “arcane spellcasting class” or “divine spellcasting class” where it wasn’t before? There hadn’t ever been a strict definition before, and they didn’t print one at this point, either. Some of these effects seem to try to include wording that prevents this kind of thing, but much of those rules are also unclear. For instance, consider this from Southern Magician: “The actual source of the spell's power doesn't change,” which Customer Service interpreted as preventing entry to mystic theurge. But it doesn’t really say that, does it? It says something about power source, which is unclear.
Unfortunately, there’s no direct, rules-as-written, “as it says on page xyz of Complete Shenanigans” kind of answer to this question.
Recommendation: Never
RAW is ambiguous, but what’s going to work well in-game is not: never, under any circumstances, should one be allowed to advance wizard spellcasting faster than the wizard does. That should never, ever happen in any game, and if you’re going to allow it you might as well allow Pun-pun.
Allowing these sorts of tricks to qualify for mystic theurge, and other prestige classes and feats that require one type of spellcasting or the other, is pretty clearly legal, RAW, and also usually far less troublesome. The only exception I’d be likely to make is the dweormerkeeper from Complete Divine’s web enhancement, but then I’d probably just ban that class outright.
Even allowing a divine-only prestige class to progress wizard spellcasting is almost-always not a problem. It’s the double-progression that should never, ever happen.
This class is fairly powerful; it’s definitely an attempt to make a theurge actually keep up with the power of the (very powerful) expected entry classes. In particular, Perfect Inscription is quite dubious; it could potentially step on the toes of much-weaker classes, though I believe the increase in spell level will prevent that most of the time.
I’m going to include a few author’s notes/comments in the middle of this, by dropping out of the quote box. If they’re getting in your way, you can use the Edit History to see the version of this before I added them.
Artifex Goetia
Knowledge is power. Knowledge is magic, and ritual, and prayer, and power. As an artifex goetia, you have that fundamental knowledge: power is power. Form is of little concern, so long as you can command it. You’ll study dark grimoires, tomes of forbidden magic, artifacts locked away, deemed too dangerous for mortal minds. You’ll call upon the ancient ones, gods of mystery and eternity, and through the rites that bind and the lines that find, you will have them to do your bidding.
You may lay this power at the feet of your own divine patron, or claim it for yourself. The deeds wrought with this power may be great and they may be terrible. But all will be written down in your book, bound within its pages, to be read out and called upon at your need.
The fluff is pretty simple and straightforward, with a slight reference to Order of the Stick’s Xykon. It’s a little grimdark, but then the archivist is too, what with being from Heroes of Horror and having a class feature called Dark Knowledge. I explicitly and intentionally allowed the artifex to use these dark powers for the purposes of good, however.
By the way, the name is a reference to Ars Goetia, a section of The Lesser Key of Solomon, probably the most well-known occult book. It describes, or alleges to describe, how to summon and negotiate with 72 demons; these demons actually provided the names for the overwhelming majority of the vestiges from Tome of Magic, and Aleister Crowley’s edition provides the seals for all of the WotC-published vestiges (some of the online/Dragon vestiges use original seals).
Becoming an Artifex Goetia
To become an artifex goetia, you must be so adept at the arcane and sacred sigils that all magic can be reduced, for you, to diagrams and text, trapped inside a book.
Prerequisites:
- Ability to cast 1st-level arcane spells from a spellbook.
- Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells from a prayerbook.
- Ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
- Knowledge (arcana) 7 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
- Knowledge Devotion feat, Scribe Scroll feat
I was torn on requiring Knowledge Devotion (and thus the Dark Knowledge (devotion) feature, below), since it’s a somewhat annoying to have yet another requirement on an already-difficult entry, plus it makes the class dependent on Complete Champion. I may come back to this and add an adaptation that doesn’s require it, especially if requested.
Otherwise, this is following the cue of the ultimate magus in allowing entry with only 1 level on one side. Unlike the ultimate magus, in this case it can be either side. So archivist 3/wizard 1 or archivist 1/wizard 3 is the expected entry.
Class Features of an Artifex Goetia
Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special Spellcasting 1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Dark knowledge (devotion), read magic, secret page +1 level of both 2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Familiar book +1 level of lower-level 3rd +1 +1 +1 +3 Lore mastery +1 level of both 4th +2 +1 +1 +4 +1 level of both 5th +2 +1 +2 +4 Incorruptible study +1 level of both 6th +3 +2 +2 +5 Dark knowledge (vulnerability) +1 level of both 7th +3 +2 +2 +5 +1 level of both 8th +4 +2 +2 +6 Bonus feat +1 level of both 9th +4 +3 +3 +6 +1 level of both 10th +5 +3 +3 +7 Perfect inscription +1 level of both Weapon and Armor Proficiency—You gain no new proficiency in any weapons or armor.
Spellcasting—At each level except 2nd, your spellcasting improves as if you had gained a level in any class that casts arcane spells from a spellbook, and also gained a level in any class that casts divine spells from a prayerbook. Thus, your caster level and spells per day for these classes increase, and you may scribe any free spells that class would have gained. You do not, however, gain any other benefit that a level in either of these classes would have gained. If you have more than one class that casts arcane spells from a spellbook, or more than one class that casts divine spells from a prayerbook, you must choose one for each category.
At 2nd level, however, you gain these benefits from only one category, arcane or divine. If you can cast higher-level arcane spells than you can divine spells, your divine spellcasting improves as above. If you cast higher-level divine spells than arcane spells, your arcane spellcasting improves as above. If your highest spell levels are the same for both arcane and divine spellcasting, your spellcasting in the class with the lowest caster level improves as above. If the caster levels are equal too, then you may choose arcane or divine.
Again, another cue from the ultimate magus, on losing another level in-class. I made the rules for judging “lowest level” a harder to dodge, because I think this class is a bit more powerful than ultimate magus. I don’t lose more levels, though, because without the tricks that let you control which side ultimate magus advances, losing more levels would be very painful.
Dark Knowledge—Your class level stacks with archivist class levels for the purpose of the number of times per day you may use Dark Knowledge. If you have no archivist levels, simply use your class level for this purpose (i.e. 3/day + 1/day for every three class levels).
Devotion—You share your devotion to knowledge with an ally, allowing that ally to better understand their foes’ intentions. One ally gains your bonuses from Knowledge Devotion for the affected creatures for one round. If you succeed on the check by 10 or more, you may grant these bonuses to two allies, or you may grant them to one ally for two rounds. If you succeed on the check for 20 or more, you may grant the bonus to three allies, or to one ally for three rounds, or to one ally for two rounds and to two other allies for one round.
Vulnerability—You indicate the vulnerabilities of your foes, allowing your allies to ignore some of their defenses. Your allies within 60 ft. treat all saving throw DCs as being having a +1 bonus when affecting the identified creatures, and they ignore any damage reduction, regeneration, or spell resistance the target may have had (but not the spell immunity of, for example, golems). These benefits last for three rounds.
Read Magic Su—You are continuously under the effects of read magic, allowing you to always read magic spells.
Secret Page—You may prepare the secret page spell, as a 3rd-level spell, without needing to have it written down ahead of time. This works the same as a wizard preparing the read magic spell. You may do so with any class you have capable of preparing 3rd-level spells.
Familiar Book—Using magic similar to that which binds a familiar, you can craft special books similar to a prayerbook or spellbook. To do so, you need a spellbook or prayerbook, plus 6,000 gp worth of other materials. The process takes seven days, working eight hours a day, and requires the expenditure of a prepared secret page spell each day you work on the book. The seven days need not be consecutive. This is an item-creation process.
The familiar book becomes an intelligent item that actively protects the spells you have found and scribed within it. It contains any spells that the book you started with contained, and you can scribe arcane or divine spells within the familiar book. It counts as both a prayerbook and a spellbook for any effect that cares. See The Artifex Goetia’s Familiar Book, below, for more information.
You may create multiple familiar books, and you may create a familiar book even if you already have a familiar.
Lore Mastery Ex—At 3rd level, you gain a +2 bonus to Decipher Script checks and to the checks of any one Knowledge skill. These bonuses do not stack with any bonuses due to the Lore Mastery feature of other classes; instead, choose a new Knowledge skill to apply the bonus to.
Incorruptible Study—As a 5th-level artifex goetia, you are never trigger the effects of magic, curses, and so on that are triggered by reading. Thus, for example, you are immune to the effects of a glyph of warding, sepia snake sigil, or symbol of insanity. You do not trigger explosive runes, but if someone else does while you are within range, you are damaged by the blast. You furthermore are never corrupted, tainted, or driven mad by what you read or learn; knowledge can never hurt you.
Bonus Feat—At 8th level, you gain a bonus feat. This feat may be any one that an archivist or wizard could have chosen as a bonus feat.
Perfect Inscription—You may write down any sort of magic you come across, no matter how unusual, and then prepare it as a spell.
If the magic is a spell that you could normally scribe, you scribe it as normal and this class feature has no effect.
If the magic is a spell that you couldn’t normally scribe (including divine spells you could scribe as arcane or arcane spells you could scribe as divine), but is still arcane or divine in origin, you scribe it as an arcane or divine spell, as appropriate. If it is neither arcane nor divine, you can scribe it such that it may be prepared by either your arcane spellcasting class or your divine spellcasting class.
If the magic is not a spell, but is divided into levels like spells (e.g. infusions, maneuvers, mysteries, vestiges), you may treat it as a spell that is neither arcane nor divine.
The magic’s spell level, regardless of whether or not it is actually a spell, is its level for the class you are getting it from, plus 10 − the highest level of magic that class is capable of. Thus, a 3rd-level bard spell (assuming you are not a bard) would count as a 7th-level spell for you (bards have a maximum of 6th-level spells, so 10 − 6 is 4, plus 3 for a 3rd-level spell).
You use the caster level of the spellcasting class in whose spell slot you have prepared the magic as the level (meldshaping level, effective binder level, initiator level, etc.) used for the effect.
In all cases, there are two ways of scribing: from a source in which the spell has been transcribed, like a scroll, or from a practitioner who can use the magic in question, who must work with you during the scribing process. Many magics cannot be written down, however, leaving only the latter option.
Particular forms of magic have special rules, as follows:
Expanded Psionics Handbook
- When you “cast” psionic powers from a spell slot higher than the minimum you need, it is augmented by 2 power points for every spell level higher than the minimum.
Tome of Magic
Vestige pacts prepared as spells may be “cast” by going through the usual pact-making process. They only last for 10 minutes per level once the ritual is complete, however, and you may have only one pact prepared at a time.
You do not ever treat mysteries as spell-like or supernatural abilities; you always cast them as spells.
You do not gain any free or bonus ranks in Truenaming, so most utterances are of minimal use to you unless you specifically take ranks in it.
Tome of Battle
- Martial maneuvers you prepare are “cast” as if the prepared maneuver were a martial script of the maneuver. You may prepare multiple copies of the same maneuver, but you cannot activate it more than once in the same encounter.
Magic of Incarnum
- When you prepare a soulmeld as a spell, you must choose which chakra it is prepared for. Merely preparing it causes it to occupy that chakra, just the same as if you had shaped (but not bound) a soulmeld there. This means you cannot prepare two soulmelds for the same chakra, though you may prepare multiple copies of the same soulmeld.
- Casting the soulmeld causes it to be shaped to its chakra, granting its basic effect and allowing you to invest essentia in it, for 1 minute.
- The soulmeld can be bound to its chakra for the same minute so long as it is cast from a spell slot of sufficient level, as follows: 2nd: Crown, 3rd: Hands or Feet, 5th: Arms, Brow, or Shoulders, 7th: Throat or Waist, 9th: Heart. You cannot bind it if you have a magic item in that slot.
This feature concerns me. It gives you access to a ton of effects, and potentially allows you to render other classes, already weaker than archivist or wizard, fairly pointless as you get to steal their few unique tricks. Still, the large increase in effective spell level, and various other limitations, will hopefully make this a much more difficult feature to use, one that sees more application on a fluff level than power level.
The Artifex Goetia’s Familiar Book
A familiar book is an intelligent item. It behaves as a blessed book for the purposes of inscribing spells within. It has HP equal to its master, hardness equal to 5× its master’s artifex goetia class level, and resistance to all energy damage equal to 3× its master’s artifex goetia class level. It also gains more benefits based on its master’s artifex goetia class level.
Level Int Wis Communication Capabilities Senses 2nd 13 13 Empathy¹ Secret page 60 ft. vision and hearing 3rd 13 13 Empathy¹ 60 ft. vision and hearing 4th 14 14 Speech² Remote viewing 120 ft. vision and hearing 5th 15 15 Speech² 60 ft. darkvision and hearing 6th 16 16 Speech² Shared notes 60 ft. darkvision and hearing 7th 16 16 Speech² 60 ft. darkvision and hearing 8th 17 17 Speech, telepathy³ Indestructable 120 ft. darkvision and hearing 9th 18 18 Speech, telepathy³ ⁴ 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense, and hearing 10th 19 19 Speech, telepathy³ ⁴ Return 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense, and hearing
The possessor feels urges and sometimes emotions from the item that encourage or discourage certain courses of action.
Like a character, an intelligent item speaks Common plus one language per point of Intelligence bonus, and can read any languages it can speak. It can communicate telepathically with its master.
The item can use either communication mode at will, with language use as any speaking item. It can communicate telepathically with the wielder.
The item can read all languages as well as use read magic.
This stuff comes straight from the intelligent item rules, aside from the capabilities.
Secret Page Su—The familiar book automatically uses secret page, as the spell, to hide the magic contained within it from anyone but its master.
Remote Viewing Su—The familiar book’s master may, at will, concentrate and view the book’s surroundings, seeing whatever the book can sense. This may be done at any range, and for as long as the master continues to concentrate, provided the master and the book are on the same plane. This is a scrying effect.
Shared Notes Su—Using any of his familiar books, the master may prepare any spell inscribed in any other familiar book he has created that still exists. For each spell not in the familiar books he has before him, however, spell preparation takes an additional 10 minutes per level of the spell.
This seems kind of awkward; I’m considering changing it so that you have only one familiar book, but it has infinite pages. Thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Indestructable—At this point, a familiar book is astoundingly difficult to destroy. Only effects capable of destroying a major artifact can destroy the familiar book.
This... is not as great a description as I’d like it to be. The description of major artifacts says that each major artifact should have a single, specific way to destroy it; the familiar book does not. That said, certain powerful spells do give ways to destroy artifacts, which is what I’m going for here. It would take a lot to get a 17th-level wizard to cast disjunction on the book, particularly considering the tempting possibility that one could convince the book to allow him to use the power contained therein.
Return Su—At will, as a standard action, the familiar book’s master may call it to him. This is a Conjuration (calling) effect, and works at any disatance and even across planes.
This book is way too important to allow it to be trivially taken. Calling effects can be blocked, but at least this requires that someone who steals the book get it to a location that blocks them before the wizard notices it missing.
Best Answer
There is nothing similar to Practiced Spellcaster for spells known/per day and highest spell level. Such a feat would probably be overpowered.
There are ways to enter mystic theurge without three levels burned on each side, i.e. before 6th level. Normally I am strongly opposed to such “early entry” tricks, but in the case of the mystic theurge, they are largely necessary as the mystic theurge is nothing but a trap without them.
You’ll definitely need one level of each class, obviously, so you have something to progress, and you’ll never get that back, unfortunately. So even if you could enter mystic theurge earlier, spending a level on each class is necessary to actually benefit from the class. Also note that if you expect your campaign to reach levels more than 10 above whenever you get to into mystic theurge, you’re not going to be able to continue progressing both classes,1 which is a big ouch. If you expect your campaign to go much beyond there, I strongly recommend against mystic theurge unless your DM houserules you to be able to take more than 10 levels of mystic theurge (and ignores the atrocious epic mystic theurge progression).
For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume you are going for an archivist/wizard/mystic theurge, as this is the best choice available. I assume you take the archivist level(s) first then wizard levels, and that you favor wizard over archivist. In most cases, archivist and wizard could be swapped for any other divine and arcane spellcasting classes, respectively, and order and number of levels is flexible so long as you have one of each and the totals are the same. I’ll note any exceptions.
Meeting mystic theurge spellcasting requirements at ECL 2
Note that, due to the skill rank requirements on mystic theurge, all of these are fail to get you into the class. These are ways to get the necessary spellcasting by ECL 2, but without some way of dodging the skill rank requirements, that doesn’t actually get you in. Cheesing the skill rank requirements is a lot harder, and requires much more dubious assumptions (e.g. a high-level bard willing to help you out).
Improved Sigil (Krau) Illumian: race and 1 feat, ambiguity (Races of Destiny)
An illumian can take Improved Sigil (Krau) to apply a free Heighten Spell to a number of spells. The idea is to get 1st-level spells on each side, and use Krau to make a spell on each side 2nd-level and thus qualify for mystic theurge.
There’s a rule ambiguity here about whether or not being able to cast 1st-level spells from a new class qualifies as a “new level of spells” when you could already cast 1st-level spells. If yes, you can take it at 1st level, e.g. archivist 1, and then take another class, e.g. archivist 1/wizard 1, and switch your chosen spells to be one archivist spell and one wizard spell. Then you qualify for mystic theurge.
If not, you have to take Improved Sigil (Krau) at ECL 3, e.g. archivist 1/wizard 2, so you can pick spells from each from the get-go. Which is the best you can do without skill rank shenanigans, so no huge loss unless you are really trying to cheese to the hilt.
Precocious Apprentice & Southern Magician: 2 feats, dubious rules (Complete Arcane, Races of Faerûn)
Setting-specific, and within that setting, specific to Mulan humans, which may or may not be problematic depending on whether or not you are playing in the Forgotten Realms.
This approach requires that you take the arcane spellcasting level first.
Precocious Apprentice allows you to cast a single 2nd-level arcane spell. Southern Magician allows you to cast an arcane spell “like” a divine spell (and vice versa), but whether that’s good enough to qualify for mystic theurge is unclear. For what it’s worth, Wizards Customer Service says no.
Note that this, if it works, allows a wizard to qualify for mystic theurge without any divine spellcasting levels at all. This either means the benefit of mystic theurge is wasted, or you get to advance wizard twice as fast as it’s also a divine spellcasting class. Even if your DM is crazy enough to let you, I cannot recommend against that strongly enough.
Sanctum Spell: 2 feats, rather difficult timing requirements (Complete Arcane)
You must either be human or some other bonus-feat-granting race, or be playing in a campaign with the Flaws variant from Unearthed Arcana, if you want to get enough feats in time to do this optimally.
Sanctum Spell requires one metamagic feat, any metamagic feat. Once you have that, you can take Sanctum Spell, which is basically a free single-level Heighten Spell effect if the spell is cast within your sanctum. This means that in order to go from e.g. archivist 1/wizard 1 to archivist 1/wizard 1/mystic theurge 1, and again for getting archivist 1/wizard 1/mystic theurge 2, you have to be in your sanctum during level-up, or get your DM to agree to it based on your potential to cast 2nd-level spells. Good luck.
Earth Spell: 3 feats (Races of Stone)
Earth Spell requires Heighten Spell and Earth Sense, basically allowing you to have a free extra level when using Heighten Spell. Heighten a cantrip and an orison with it, and you get 2nd-level spells on each side. Three feats that early requires Flaws or shenanigans beyond the scope of this answer.
That said, this pretty much just works, which is a big advantage over the previous answers.
Meeting all mystic theurge requirements at ECL 3
This is far easier because it gives us another feat to play with, a feat that can be taken after you have both types of spellcasting, and it also allows us to get the necessary skill ranks to trivially meet the mystic theurge’s requirements.
Improved Sigil (Krau) Illumian: race and 1 feat (Races of Destiny)
Just mentioning this again: if the rules are interpreted against us (which strikes me as the more likely interpretation), Improved Sigil (Krau) becomes an ECL 4 trick rather than ECL 3. Still a good option.
Precocious Apprentice & Alternate Source Spell: 2 feats (Complete Arcane, Dragon vol. 325)
This approach requires that the arcane spellcasting class come first.
Precocious Apprentice gives you a 2nd-level arcane spell, Alternate Source Spell makes it divine. Note that the wording of Alternate Source Spell is far more amenable to this use than Southern Magician, it just requires that you can already cast divine spells. So you go e.g. wizard 2/archivist 1 so you can take it, and use it on your Precocious Apprentice spell.
Still runs into the typical arguments revolving around using Precocious Apprentice this way.
Meeting all mystic theurge requirements at ECL 4
This is easy, because it means you have three levels on one side, and thus native access to 2nd-level spells.
Alternate Source Spell: 1 feat (Dragon vol. 325)
As, e.g., archivist 1/wizard 3, Alternate Source Spell allows your 2nd-level arcane spells to be 2nd-level divine spells, and now mystic theurge can advance both archivist and wizard.
Southern Magician: 1 feat, rules ambiguity (Races of Faerûn)
Compared to Alternate Source Spell, this has the advantage of not being from Dragon, but the disadvantage of having rules that confuse whether or not it actually works, as well as awkward setting requirements. Otherwise, it works pretty much the same way.
Honorable Mention: Early entry to arcane hierophant (Races of the Wild)
Arcane hierophant is a prestige class that advances both druid and an arcane spellcasting class. This is a big deal because between it and mystic theurge, you have 20 levels of dual-progression, answering the big “what now?” question that usually happens when you finish mystic theurge.
The same tricks as above for meeting the arcane hierophant’s spellcasting requirements still work, and taking a single level of druid gets you the Animal Companion, but the Trackless Step requirement is trickier. The easiest way to get it is by being one of the bamboo spirit folk from Oriental Adventures.
Other Honorable Mention: Early entry to Fochlucan lyrist (Complete Adventurer)
Fochlucan lyrist requires a large number of skills, 1st-level arcane and 1st-level divine spells, bardic knowledge, and most vexingly, evasion and knowledge of the Druidic language. It progresses both arcane and divine spellcasting on 10 out of 10 levels.
Bardic knowledge as such only comes from the bard class, and since Fochlucan lyrist requires 1st-level spells, that would mean two levels in bard. A level of cloistered cleric, however, arguably satisfies that requirement, since its lore feature is equivalent to bardic knowledge. Ask your DM on that one. Alternatively, divine bard could allow you to use bard as your divine side, which might be nice so you can be closer to Charisma-only (using sha’ir or sorcerer as your arcane side). Note that divine bard requires a little commitment to Wisdom, up to 16 in order to cast 6th-level divine bard spells.
Evasion is simultaneously easier and harder: you can buy it. A ring of evasion is 25,000 gp, not really a viable investment until 10th level or so, but it does get you into the class. Per the Dungeon Master’s Guide, once you take your first class level, you no longer need to meet the requirements: if you lose or sell the ring, you not only keep your Fochlucan lyrist class features, you also keep your right to continue taking levels in it. Check with your DM first. If you want it a little more permanently, or before you can afford 25,000 gp, you could take Shape Soulmeld (impulse boots) and Open Least Chakra (feet), both from Magic of Incarnum, which gets you both uncanny dodge and evasion. Unfortunately, Open Least Chakra still requires 6th level. Beyond these, divine oracle from Complete Divine offers evasion-even-in-armor at 2nd and progresses one class’s spellcasting, anyway (oddly enough, despite the name, it can progress arcane spellcasting).
Finally, knowing Druidic is trivial if your other half is druid, but otherwise you will have quite a few difficulties. See here for some ideas on how to tackle that.