Caster Level for Crafter

[Green Monster]

Hi, so I made a Mystic Theurge Master Alchemist (cleric/wizard) to try out pretty much all the crafting available. My question is, should I make the caster levels 30 wiz and 18 cleric or 28 wiz and 20 cleric? If I get 20 Cleric CL I will be able to make CL 20 elixirs of Magic Vestment which will give +5 armor AC when applied to armor and +5 shield AC when applied to shield, duration 20 hours. But obviously would not be able to make any CL 30 elixirs of any kind and the Magic Vestment would be easily dispelled by bosses that dispell. If I get CL 30 wiz then I can't make magic vestment elixirs that do better than +4, which most people have anyway, but at least all my wiz elixirs can be CL 30.

Advice?

Thanks!

[Kitunenotsume]

Due to limitations imposed on a variety of specific spells, you cannot create an Elixir of Magic vestment higher than CL 16. If your intention is to produce these elixirs, a CL of 20 will be no more useful to you. A more potent combination would be a Druid/Wizard MT, which would not be bound by these spell limitations to the same degree, as Tortoise Shell and Owl's Insight are not similarly capped.

The iprp_spells is used to determine the minimum caster level, in case you try to make a CL 1 regeneration elixir it will take the value listed in the 2da. The desired CL can also be higher than what is allowed, which is 15 for self spells, there are also specific caps for key spells like GMW (19), Magic vestment (16), foundation of stone (12), divine power (12).

I unfortunately do not have an exhaustive list of the capped spells, beyond what has been cited to me.

[Green Monster]

Due to limitations imposed on a variety of specific spells, you cannot create an Elixir of Magic vestment higher than CL 16. If your intention is to produce these elixirs, a CL of 20 will be no more useful to you. A more potent combination would be a Druid/Wizard MT, which would not be bound by these spell limitations to the same degree, as Tortoise Shell and Owl's Insight are not similarly capped.

The iprp_spells is used to determine the minimum caster level, in case you try to make a CL 1 regeneration elixir it will take the value listed in the 2da. The desired CL can also be higher than what is allowed, which is 15 for self spells, there are also specific caps for key spells like GMW (19), Magic vestment (16), foundation of stone (12), divine power (12).

I unfortunately do not have an exhaustive list of the capped spells, beyond what has been cited to me.

Welp! That answers that! Magic Vestment is literally the only reason I considered CL 20 cleric. Thank you so much for the info! 30 wiz it is.

As to Druid/Wizard, yeah, I know mechanically that would be better because I could make those fire and frost weapon elixirs and tortoise shell, but druid/wiz didn't fit the character I had in mind. I just couldn't think of what kind of character would be both of those. I experimented with shaman/sorc and fs/sorc, but couldn't get enough feats and skill points in any way but the way I have done.

[Louvaine]

Spirit Shaman/Sorcerer can acquire all the spells you might need while also doubling down on CHA, rather than having to split between INT/WIS.

[Green Monster]

Spirit Shaman/Sorcerer can acquire all the spells you might need while also doubling down on CHA, rather than having to split between INT/WIS.

Yeah, I thought so too but spells per day on shaman are wisdom and spell dc is charisma.

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title=Spirit_Shaman

So I would have had to split between wis and charisma. FS is the other way around so that would have worked, but I needed wizard's bonus feats to get all the feats I wanted and that int based divine caster class is not currently available.

[Louvaine]

Nonsense. Get 16 base WIS (Aasimar is OP for this multiclassing, but you get XP penalty) and top it up with +4 WIS amulet. If you need help getting it, I'm happy to help via quest or appraisal.

[Green Monster]

Nonsense. Get 16 base WIS (Aasimar is OP for this multiclassing, but you get XP penalty) and top it up with +4 WIS amulet. If you need help getting it, I'm happy to help via quest or appraisal.

Thanks for the offer but I'd already built my cleric/wiz/alchemist/theurge when I started this thread. I was just asking if going cl 20 cleric was worth it (it's not). At lvl 24 right now. Besides, with shaman and sorc I can't get enough skill points for pumping up alchemy AND concentration AND survival AND cooking AND agriculture AND spellcraft. With Wiz/Cleric I can because I'm maxing out my Intelligence. Not to mention that I'll be making scrolls, potions, elixirs, and wands. Wiz getting scribe scroll for free and a bonus feat at lvl 5 is mad helpful.

Spirit Shaman / Sorc would be a great build if all I wanted was to make elixirs. I'm making everything. Maybe when I get this one to 30 I'll start a shaman or druid alchemist build for flame weapon and turtle shell. But I have my hands full for now.

[Kitunenotsume]

I can't get enough skill points for pumping up alchemy AND concentration AND survival AND cooking AND agriculture AND spellcraft. With Wiz/Cleric I can because I'm maxing out my Intelligence. Not to mention that I'll be making scrolls, potions, elixirs, and wands. Wiz getting scribe scroll for free and a bonus feat at lvl 5 is mad helpful.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I highly doubt you need to max Cooking or Agriculture - so you can definitely save some skill-points.
The highest Agriculture DC I can see in the herbs 2da is 12, and it seems that there are very few instances where an agriculture DC would need a farmer to be high-to-epic level and still be plausibly common farmwork without falling under some other skill. (If you want to rear a dragon - I doubt it's Agriculture)
As well, despite having unashamedly done so myself, I am quite confident that the max cooking DC needs nowhere near 33 ranks (though my own interests here are RP based rather than mechanical, as I did it immediately after the option in ToT).

It is also entirely possible to grab Scribe-Scroll for free on a cleric by taking the Rune domain, but you've already said you are well past that point.

[Green Monster]

I can't get enough skill points for pumping up alchemy AND concentration AND survival AND cooking AND agriculture AND spellcraft. With Wiz/Cleric I can because I'm maxing out my Intelligence. Not to mention that I'll be making scrolls, potions, elixirs, and wands. Wiz getting scribe scroll for free and a bonus feat at lvl 5 is mad helpful.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I highly doubt you need to max Cooking or Agriculture - so you can definitely save some skill-points.
The highest Agriculture DC I can see in the herbs 2da is 12, and it seems that there are very few instances where an agriculture DC would need a farmer to be high-to-epic level and still be plausibly common farmwork without falling under some other skill. (If you want to rear a dragon - I doubt it's Agriculture)
As well, despite having unashamedly done so myself, I am quite confident that the max cooking DC needs nowhere near 33 ranks (though my own interests here are RP based rather than mechanical, as I did it immediately after the option in ToT).

It is also entirely possible to grab Scribe-Scroll for free on a cleric by taking the Rune domain, but you've already said you are well past that point.

Thanks for the tip. My cooking is at 30 including synergy and ability bonuses. I assume that's enough. I'll bring my agriculture up to around 11.