If I am creating a custom magic item in Pathfinder which uses certain spell effects, is it required that all of the spells use the same CL, and should therefore be priced accordingly in a custom item?
It is explicitly the case for staves, as the rules say:
The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells.
And the general rules for reading a magic item entry say:
Caster Level (CL): The next item in a notational entry gives the caster level of the item, indicating its relative power. The caster level determines the item’s saving throw bonus, as well as range or other level-dependent aspects of the powers of the item (if variable). It also determines the level that must be contended with should the item come under the effect of a dispel magic spell or similar situation.
This makes no provision for an item having multiple abilities used at different caster levels. I cannot find examples of any magic item that casts multiple spells doing so at different CLs.
From this, should I infer that if I am creating a magic item which can provide multiple spell effects, even if the caster level does not actually change the spell effect at all, each effect must be considered to be cast at the same caster level, which would be at minimum the required CL for the highest level spell effect? And therefore, should they be priced as if cast at that CL?
In this case I assume this is only called out explicitly for staves because they are the category of item intended by default to produce multiple different spell effects and it serves as a reminder that the general rule (one item, one CL) still applies.