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A lot of people seem to endorse switching right after level 18. I think that in most situations this generally wouldn't be a good idea, but in your case you'd probably be OK. The problem is that those level 6 and 7 spells depend heavily on your experience level as a caster, not just your skills; even if you max out all your spellcasting skills, when you first get those level 7 spells you'll only be able to cast them at a very low level until you earn a couple more levels. If you switch to a hybrid class it counts you as being 4 levels lower and your casting ability drops even more. It does "stack" bishop levels in with your "main" spellcasting class, so switching to bishop does let you continue working on the power of your high-level spells, but it also causes your experience requirements to skyrocket so it'd be pretty slow going. In a full-size party, a level 19 bishop really isn't going to have much leveling opportunity unless you spend lots and lots of time building up experience after making it to the endgame.
However, in your case if you only have 4 party members you should have enough experience to go around that you could switch to bishop and still gain enough levels to make your level 7 mage spells worth it. At this point you could switch your mage basically anytime and be OK (if you switch now it'll take longer to get your level 7 spells, but you'll get alchemist/psionic spells through bishop faster). And I think it's pretty much OK to switch Priests just about anytime, although it depends on your party and playing style; priests' attack spells are almost universally disappointing, and their healing/support spells don't really need high power levels to be effective (especially the uppermost ones). so it doesn't matter so much if their power levels drop a bit from a switch. So have your priest fill up on any "must-have" spells, then go ahead and switch them ASAP.
[ 07-10-2005, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Random Passerby ]
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