I like what you made so far, did you look into improved critical?
A magus in my party has it and it's shocking. (Litteraly. If she gets a critical with a shocking grasp on her rapier, the shocking grasp is critical as well.)
I don't know the blackblade, but with a rapier it seem worth a feat to me.
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Well your idea is interesting but you have a few mechanical flaws you will need to address.
First, spell combat is a full attack option and requires you to have a free hand the entire time. So any round you decide to use this ability you can't use your quickdraw shield, I'd recommend skipping it.
Second is the adopted trait, doesn't let you take another feat as has been noted by everyone else so far.
Third you have tanked your will save at the exact same time will affecting spells become the most common. Never a good thing to do.
Fourth, Fiend Flayer at 5th level is a bad selection. You're doing non-standard CONSTITUTION damage to yourself for an extra arcane point or two that [b]can't be healed]/b] at your level except with normal healing. As low as your current HP's will be that's going to murder your HP's, Fort save and Con checks for no real benefit.
Quickdraw and Intensified spell are unnecessary (especially quickdraw, your a tiefling, get prehensile tail as a racial trait) and I'd recommend spending those feats on Extra Hexes instead. What's the point of being a hexcrafter if you aren't taking hexes?
My recommendation is dump the blackblade completely and focus on being a natural weapon tiefling Hexcrafter. Grab prehensile Tail & heritage claws and use adopted to get a bite attack from Half-orcs.Then at 4th level take Prehensile Hair hex for a 4th natural attack.
This gives you 4 natural attacks (3 primary, 1 secondary) and 10' reach. Every round you cast a touch spell from 10 ft away (no need for casting defensively if you aren't threatened) and use the hair to do the touch attack then 5ft step in and full attack with your claws and bite. (I recommend using frostbite or chill touch as your default spell). This will let you do up to 50pts of damage a round and either fatigue or strength drain your target to uselessness.
Best part you'll save a fortune in cash since you never need to buy a magic weapon (and a amulet of mighty fists is cheap at this level and boosts 4 weapons at this point)
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As a 1st level spell, consider reduce person.
As a Dervish Dancer, you'll get +2 AC, +2 to-hit, and +2 damage in exchange for your weapon dice moving down one step.I didn't even consider reduce person, thanks! I like this idea a lot.
First, spell combat is a full attack option and requires you to have a free hand the entire time. So any round you decide to use this ability you can't use your quickdraw shield, I'd recommend skipping it.This is actually something I wanted to confirm. As per the text on Quickdraw Shield: "If you have the Quick Draw feat, you may don or put away a quickdraw shield as a free action."
A full round action says that "it can't be coupled with a standard or a move action" But makes no mention of free actions, so I assumed they were allowed.I also understand that I should take advantages of hexes, and I'll likely move things around to include them.
Fiend Flayer is just another archetype that doesn't conflict with my others. I understand that the con damage is steep, but if I have the option of adding the archetype for free or not choosing it, I'd like to take it to add a small bit of versatility.The natural weapon build also sounds really tempting, but I'm not sure if I want to do that with this character.
I really appreciate the help so far!
It's not the action involved that matters, the specific text of Spell combat states you must have a free hand while doing it, using a quickdraw shield (drawing or sheathing) puts something in that hand. So no spellcombat if you put a shield (or wand or dagger or anything at all in that hand.
Since the archetype gives up nothing to have take it if you want, just understand all of it's abilities require you to take non-fixable con damage so you'll be out of commission for a while every time you use it.
Black blade will hurt you in the long run since at level 7 you will really want a spell storing weapon witch a black blade can't have.
Disagree. The black blade saves enough money to invest in pearls of power to the point that you can enter 3 fights a day at a full load of shocking grasp very quickly. The spell storing weapon is somewhat expensive (3k/6kgp minimum or enough to make 6 pearls, which is twice as many shocking grasps as the spell storing would give you a day assuming three fights) and detracts from enhancements which would cause more damage in the long run.
In summation, if you think black blade costs you anything you really need to consider what you're going to do with the extra money you have from party loot split to make your BB magus better.
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Black blade will hurt you in the long run since at level 7 you will really want a spell storing weapon witch a black blade can't have.Disagree. The black blade saves enough money to invest in pearls of power to the point that you can enter 3 fights a day at a full load of shocking grasp very quickly. The spell storing weapon is somewhat expensive (3k/6kgp minimum or enough to make 6 pearls, which is twice as many shocking grasps as the spell storing would give you a day assuming three fights) and detracts from enhancements which would cause more damage in the long run.
In summation, if you think black blade costs you anything you really need to consider what you're going to do with the extra money you have from party loot split to make your BB magus better.
Your argument is in accurate, it's not how many spells you can cast per day that matters, it's how many PER ROUND that matters. A well built Magus can drop 4-5 spells into a target on the first round of combat with spell storing weapons. That's usually a one round kill and you want to give that up to save a few handfuls of gold?
Anyway spamming nothing but shocking grasp all day is less then optimal choice past 10th level or so.
The spell storing weapon is there so you can do more then just be a BSF. Usually your Spell storing weapon is loaded down with either Blindness or Bestow Curse. Best choice is of course Blindness for that 50% miss chance against your whole party or Bestow Curse to drop a spellblight on your target if it's a caster. Nothing like hitting the BBEG with a Ritualistic Obsession to bump all his casting times up a step (usually to 1 full round to cast)AND make them need 2 free hands to cast now.
Drop one of these in your spell storing weapon and you can drop a massive amount of damage as well as negate your opponents ability to fight back which is your real job as a caster. Just splashing an extra couple of D6's around isn't that effective at mid to high levels.
Your argument is in accurate, it's not how many spells you can cast per day that matters, it's how many PER ROUND that matters. A well built Magus can drop 4-5 spells into a target on the first round of combat with spell storing weapons. That's usually a one round kill and you want to give that up to save a few handfuls of gold?
Anyway spamming nothing but shocking grasp all day is less then optimal choice past 10th level or so.
The spell storing weapon is there so you can do more then just be a BSF. Usually your Spell storing weapon is loaded down with either Blindness or Bestow Curse. Best choice is of course Blindness for that 50% miss chance against your whole party or Bestow Curse to drop a spellblight on your target if it's a caster. Nothing like hitting the BBEG with a Ritualistic Obsession to bump all his casting times up a step (usually to 1 full round to cast)AND make them need 2 free hands to cast now.Drop one of these in your spell storing weapon and you can drop a massive amount of damage as well as negate your opponents ability to fight back which is your real job as a caster. Just splashing an extra couple of D6's around isn't that effective at mid to...
I think I'm missing something, but how on earth can a magus drop 4-5 spells in one round?
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I think I'm missing something, but how on earth can a magus drop 4-5 spells in one round?Your argument is in accurate, it's not how many spells you can cast per day that matters, it's how many PER ROUND that matters. A well built Magus can drop 4-5 spells into a target on the first round of combat with spell storing weapons. That's usually a one round kill and you want to give that up to save a few handfuls of gold?
Anyway spamming nothing but shocking grasp all day is less then optimal choice past 10th level or so.
The spell storing weapon is there so you can do more then just be a BSF. Usually your Spell storing weapon is loaded down with either Blindness or Bestow Curse. Best choice is of course Blindness for that 50% miss chance against your whole party or Bestow Curse to drop a spellblight on your target if it's a caster. Nothing like hitting the BBEG with a Ritualistic Obsession to bump all his casting times up a step (usually to 1 full round to cast)AND make them need 2 free hands to cast now.Drop one of these in your spell storing weapon and you can drop a massive amount of damage as well as negate your opponents ability to fight back which is your real job as a caster. Just splashing an extra couple of D6's around isn't that effective at mid to...
Pretty easily at higher levels but it does take some prep.
A perfect rotation involves 2 spell storing items (an AoMF and a weapon with the enchant as well) and the Hexcrafter Archetype to give you prehensile hair (or anything that gives you a natural attack). Finally either a quickened spell or the Forceful Strike spell.Now with this setup and knowing you are going into a fight you can pre-cast a touch spell and hold the charge and activate your hair.
Fight starts and opponent gets in melee range you spellcombat/spellstrike and hit the target with your hair releasing the held charge, you then release the spell from your AoMF for a second spell that round. THEN you hit with your weapon releasing the spell stored in it THEN you 5ft back cast your touch spell with spell combat and hit with your hair again releasing that spell and THEN you either cast your quickened spell or just cast forceful strike attached to the last hair attack.
That's how you drop 5 spells on your target in one round and if you just use shocking grasps (not the best choice but good enough) you can hit a target for at least 50D6 damage at the beginning of a fight at 10th level or so.
It's a brutal move and a little resource intense but very effective.
It only costs you about 13000GP and 3ish arcane pool points.
Pretty easily at higher levels but it does take some prep.
A perfect rotation involves 2 spell storing items (an AoMF and a weapon with the enchant as well) and the Hexcrafter Archetype to give you prehensile hair (or anything that gives you a natural attack). Finally either a quickened spell or the Forceful Strike spell.Now with this setup and knowing you are going into a fight you can pre-cast a touch spell and hold the charge and activate your hair.
Fight starts and opponent gets in melee range you spellcombat/spellstrike and hit the target with your hair releasing the held charge,...
That's outstanding!
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First the rules for touch spells specifically state you can hold a charge for as long as you want as long as you don't touch anything other then your weapon (magus only for the weapon) so go ahead and keep a spell prepped to cast.
In most cases, if you don't discharge a touch spell on the round you cast it, you can hold the charge (postpone the discharge of the spell) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round until the spell is discharged. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates.
Second you are using the arcane pool points to recover the spells you just unloaded on the BBEG and put them back into your spell storing items/memory after every fight.
Since this is your big one hit combo you want to have it ready all the time so using your arcane pool to keep the spells available is important.|
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First the rules for touch spells specifically state you can hold a charge for as long as you want as long as you don't touch anything other then your weapon (magus only for the weapon) so go ahead and keep a spell prepped to cast.
In most cases, if you don't discharge a touch spell on the round you cast it, you can hold the charge (postpone the discharge of the spell) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round until the spell is discharged. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates.
Second you are using the arcane pool points to recover the spells you just unloaded on the BBEG and put them back into your spell storing items/memory after every fight.
Since this is your big one hit combo you want to have it ready all the time so using your arcane pool to keep the spells available is important.Awesome! I didn't know that, that's really sweet. What level do you really think this could be pulled off at? 7-8?
Also, how is a hexcrafter getting spell recall? Wouldn't pearls of power be easier? (at least for 1st level slots)
Hexcrafters do get spell recall, it's just delayed until 11th level (instead of improved spell recall). Before then you are usually using Pearls of Power but it can get expensive. You're burning at least 2 pearls every time you do this and that's 2grand a pop. An average adventuring day will see this be used 4-5 times. By the time you can afford 10grand in pearls you should have spell recall by then.
Technically this trick can be pulled off at 1st level if you have the cash for it but it is prohibitively expensive (Tiefling with a Rod of Quicken spell, lesser and 2 spell storing items can do it but it costs you over 40grand). Honestly I'd expect you to start putting this trick together around 5th-6th level.
Yeah, spell storing items which allow you to nova all your junk in one round just never appealed to me. I don't have a problem with not dealing enough damage on a nova round. To me the magus suffers more from a longevity problem, and BB can help resolve that with more pearls of power (which you spent your extra gold on).
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Yeah, spell storing items which allow you to nova all your junk in one round just never appealed to me. I don't have a problem with not dealing enough damage on a nova round. To me the magus suffers more from a longevity problem, and BB can help resolve that with more pearls of power (which you spent your extra gold on).
I can definitely understand that feeling, any fight that is over in one players turn leaving everyone else with nothing to do are boring no matter how effective they are.
For longevity however I find them extremely efficient. Instead of spending 5-10 rounds casting and fighting you effectively just cast 1 spell, end the fight and move on to the next one. A handful of pearls or arcane points per fight is soo much more efficient then needing to buff and cast 4-5 attack spells to defeat the same opponent. With a decent focus you'd have to go through a dozen different fights a day before your magus would begin worrying about resources.Effective but so very boring.