Spells: Difference between revisions

The total amount of spell slots a spellcaster would get is dependent upon their '''Effective Spellcaster Level (ESL).''' For full spellcasters ({{Class|Bard}}s, {{Class|Cleric}}s, {{Class|Druid}}s, {{Class|Sorcerer}}s, and {{Class|Wizard}}s) this is exactly their class level (A level 5 wizard has an Effective Spellcaster Level of 5); "Half-spellcasters" ({{Class|Ranger}}s and {{Class|Paladin}}s), are not considered spellcasters until class level 2, at which point their '''ESL'''  is their class level halved. "One-third-spellcasters"  ({{Class|Arcane Trickster}}s and {{Class|Eldritch Knight}}s) are all subclasses that can only be taken at class level three, their '''ESL'''  is their class level divided by three. For the purpose of determining Spell Slot Distribution the '''ESL''' is '''rounded up''' when no multiclassing is involved.

When Multiclassing spellcasting classes, the character's '''ESL''' is instead the '''ESL''' of every individual spellcasting class that the character has, each rounded down, and then summed up. As an example, a level 1 cleric/level 3 paladin/level 3 ranger character would have an '''ESL''' of 3, because:<syntaxhighlight>

</syntaxhighlight>Because of the differing rounding between non-multiclass and multiclass characters, a peculiar edge case exists when a "partial spellcaster" multiclasses into another "partial spellcaster" class. To illustrate this consider a level 3 paladin that picks up a level of ranger. Both of these classes are "half-spellcasters". A level 3 pure paladin has an '''ESL''' of 2, due to the rounding up, but by multiclassing into another "half-spellcasters" class, the rule now requires rounding down. One may assume this character would lose an '''ESL''' by leveling up. However, as mentioned earlier, "partial spellcasters" classes are not considered spellcasters until they get to '''ESL''' 1 without rounding. So a level 3 paladin/level 1 ranger still has an '''ESL''' of 2. In short, due to how the rule is written, '''a character will never lose ESL by leveling up''', no matter what.  

 

Once the '''Effective Spellcaster Level''' is known, one can consult the appended table to find out their character's spell slot distribution.