|
I would avoid vital strike, as being a Magus relies on lots of Spell Combat, which is a full attack. Your feats are solid enough, can't go wrong with Weapon Focus when you are using literally the same weapon for 90% of your career, Toughness is a good feat for the d8 hit die magus, and combat casting will make sure its really hard for you to fail a concentration check, ever, with your later class bonuses.
Extra arcane pool is always nice, since at the higher levels the smaller arcane pool can really bite you. And you get the +2 from Extra Arcane Pool. Your pool and the Blade's pool are separate things. For example, basic magus abilities rely on YOUR pool. Some Black Blade abilities use ITS pool, and some can use either. Eventually you can siphon points from your blades to yours, though. Extra Arcana is a must-have, to make up for your lost one.
Might I suggest a different weapon, however? Most magi tend to go for weapons with high crit ranges, such as the rapier or scimitar. Also, Magi are a bit light on feats, so I would avoid spending a proficiency feat for something as mundane as a bastard sword. The katana is pretty much a bastard sword of the scimitar, so I would recommend that.
Well I think you're getting less value out of your feats with Toughness. I assume this means you're human? I might look to the players guide for more apt advice:
"Suggested skills include Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge(dungeoneering), and Spellcraft."
Make sure you've got at least something in those skills. At first level I'd probably look at this setup:
1 Combat Casting, Extra Traits
Trait 1: +2 concentration
Trait 2: magic lineage (shocking grasp)
Trait 3: Inspire by Greatness (Shocking Grasp)
Trait 4: any skill your party lacks as a filler, or +2 initiative
3 Craft Wonderous Item (Pearls of power, level 1)
5 Elemental Spell, Intensified Spell
6 Arcana: Arcane Accuracy
7 Spell Blending: Heroism, Arcana: Touch of Fatigue/See Invisibility
That's just my opinion though. What sets a magus apart is spell blending, and you need to be able to do that as often as possible (after combat you reload to a full set of level 1 spells again) in as many ways as possible (elemental spells to change damage types for some).
Make sure you skill up Fly as soon as possible. Get Eschew Materials so you can becomes an air elemental around level 11 and still spell blend. I'd recommend piercing spell at 11th also. Any feat will do in your 9th slot. Look to spell blending for your arcanas, there are so many powerful spells you just can't take it enough.
In that case, dervish dance is ungodly good.
|
|
Another fun exotic weapon is the whip. Normal crit (20/x2), but 15 foot reach. Fun fun fun.
Lastoth is correct, Toughness' value varies on your campaign greatly. I took it for my Black Blade magus in Society, and he enjoys the extra hit points. My tiefling Dervish Dancer magus, however, has a tiefling-only feat that gives him natural armor. Lunge is another feat you could look at. As simple as it is to make concentration checks, avoiding them is always good by staying out of reach.
|
|
Nonono, Metamagics are KEY. Standard optimization cheese is Intensified Shocking Grasp with Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp). Up to 10d6 electric damage as a 1st level spell. Some other ones are Elemental, and of course Maximized. At 10th level: 60+sword damage as a 4th level spell, 120 if it crits, which you should have Keen up through Arcane Pool. Also, you should get more than one pearl of power.
I think Lastoth meant Spell Recall as the feature which sets Magi apart. I don't even look at archetypes that give that up.
at lvl 8 you get a bonus on consentration checks the one your are gooing to be making is lvl 1 on insefied shocking grasp with the trait magical liniage this is stil lvl 1
so your check wil DC17 lets say you got 18 INT you have a +11 on the check considering you can do another +4 to take a -4 on attack you could do a +15 on a DC 17 at lvl 8 it wil even be made more easy
combat casting is nice if you want to be an arcane mark casting magus!!
i would defenetly be taking extra arcane pool and extra arcana is also a verry interesting choice
wand wielder is awsome with craft wand
making CL5 shocking grasp wands and shocking grasp EVERY full round you get is pritty powerfull metamagicing your memorized spells for even more damage :-)
I am playing an Elf though, so I dont have the extra feat from Human...I was considering picking up Blind Fight as my bonus feat, so I dont know that I would prepare See Invisibility.
This is actually my suggestion, but not for the reason you stated.
If you qualify for it (you do), and if you've got a reliable way to get concealment (you do), Moonlight Stalker is incredibly good value. The +2 to attack and damage really helps to offset the penalties for spell combat quite well. Blind fight is the first prerequisite for MS (combat expertise is the other).
It basically amounts to Weapon focus, greater weapon focus, and weapon specialization, only it stacks with those feats and you also get the benefits of its prerequisites which are pretty good: Blind Fight, which is a very solid feat in its own right, and Combat Expertise, which again is a solid feat in its own right.
Just use stealth, fight in darkness, drop obscuring mist, cast blur, vanish, (greater) invisibility, etc. and you'll have +2 to attack and damage. Note that with darkness and mists, they'd have concealment from you as well, but you'd get to reroll miss chances due to blind fight, while your enemy likely will not. Later on, you can either continue casting stuff like blur regularly or just invest in a lesser cloak of displacement to have the effect 'always on' (you'll still probably want a cloak of resistance though, so don't forget you can pay the cost of the first enchant plus 1.5 times the cost of the second to add both to the same cloak).
---
Aside from that, I'd scrap all 3 of the feats you already decided on.
As mentioned, you're already past the sweet spot for combat casting. Soon enough, its going to be a pretty much useless feat for you. If you're really worried about casting defensively, buy some gloves of elvenkind. Alternatively, cast enlarge person, etc. to get reach so you don't provoke when you cast, and also just cast before you move + spellstrike whenever possible.
Toughness is okay, but not really necessary IMO for a Magus because you've got some of the best defensive spells in the game on your list (vanish, blur, invisibility, mirror image, displacement, greater invisibility, etc.). A decent AC plus mirror image will almost always be all you need to survive a HP attrition race. Plus, again, you've missed the sweet spot for toughness (level 1). Its a fine feat, but you don't need it anymore IMO.
Weapon focus is a fine feat too (especially if you swap to an 18-20 threat range weapon as detailed above), but I'd get Moonlight Stalker first. If you've got an extra feat later, WF is always welcome.
---
My suggestion for your feats up to 7th level:
Blindfight, Combat Expertise, Moonlight Stalker, and then probably Extra Arcana/Extra Arcane Pool (depending on what you need/want) and finally Intensify Spell (if you go with shocking grasp as your go to spell, plus you're right at the level most people grab this at) OR Rime Spell (if you go with frostbite instead).
If you decide to go dervish dancer, you'll need to fit Weapon Finesse and Dervish Dance in instead of the last two. I prefer strength builds myself though (doesn't cost 2 feats and you can make MUCH better use of monstrous physique/transmutation type spells).
I think Lastoth meant Spell Recall as the feature which sets Magi apart. I don't even look at archetypes that give that up.
What I meant was spellstrike and spell combat. Spell recall is nice for people who don't have a slew of pearls of power to reload after every fight. I make sure my level 1 spells are my main resource because levels 2+ are too expensive to use pearls for.
Spell recall is only used when I've got a haste/fly that really needs to be relearned for the party to continue. High levels spells I don't use as much of but provide critical utility to the group to deal with encounters that would otherwise cost more resources to deal with.
here is my lvl 5 magus
Male Human Blade bound magus 5
CG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +5
Defense
AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 17 (+1 Dex)
hp 44 (5d10+10+5)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +4
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Attacks: scimitar +11/ 1d6+9(18-20 x2)
spell combat with spellstrike: Shocking grasp +9/+9 5d6+1d6+5 (18-20/x2)/1d6+5(18-20/x2)
--------------------
--------------------
Statistics (+2 to two ability scores Alt racial dual talented 20 point buy)
--------------------
Str 20, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 7
Base Atk +3; CMB +8; CMD 19
Feats weapon Focus Scimitar, extra arcane pool, combat casting, intensified spell
Traits Family Ties(campaign), Magical Lineage
Languages: Common Giant Orc Infernal Sylvan
Equipment:
• +1 chain shirt (1250g)
• +2 scimitar Black blade
• Belt of giant Str +2 (4000g)
• 3 pearls of power (3000g)
• 6 potions of cure light wounds (300g)
• 1 potions of cure moderate wounds (300g)
• Explorer gear worth (75g)
• Wand of vanish (750g)
• Wand of shield (750g)
10425 of 10500
--------------------
spells known:
LVL1: Color Spray, Enlarge person, frostbite, grease, obscuring mist, reduce person, shield, Shocking grasp, true strike, unerring weapon, Vanish
LVL2: Bear’s endurance, frigid touch, Mirror image, web
Spells prepared:
lvl0: Detect magic, Ghost sound, Arcane mark , Read magic
lvl1: Shocking grasp X3, True strike, Vanish,
lvl2: Bear's endurance, Frigid touch, Mirror image
So, can Magic Lineage make Metamagic spells drop it to where I dont have to spend an higher spell slot, for example Intensified Spell? Are there any rules on it always costing at least one higher spell slot? Also, if I use it, doesnt it cause the spell casting time to become like...a full round or something like that?
Yes, it can. Its a very common tactic for Magi to take Magical Lineage or Wayang Spellhunter as one of their traits to apply to either Shocking Grasp or Frostbite and then add intensify or rime respectively such that the spell level stays as a 1st level spell. You then fuel the continued use of that spell with cheap 1st level pearls of power. You can NOT however, reduce the level of a spell below its normal level (i.e. taking a +0 level adjustment metamagic and applying it to a 1st level spell does not make it a cantrip).
Now, in your case, since you're playing in Carrion Crown, I'd strongly advise you to go with shocking grasp rather than frostbite out of those two.
Man, now I am kinda torn...I really like the thought of playing an more melee centric Magus, because initially I was wanting to play a Transumtation Specialized Wizard, and try to melee, but someone pretty much just said to play a Magus, and yeah...I think I might go with this build then. It would end up being more to my liking I think...
Always glad to help. Anyway, if you're interested in mostly melee plus transmutation, the magus does it pretty darn well, especially the Str builds. They do tend to be somewhat more optimized using frostbite as their 'go to' spell (since you're aiming to get lots of natural attacks and you can easily end up applying multiple "charges" of things like frostbite and chill touch per round), but again, due to the campaign, I'd advise using your trait bonus on SG, and perhaps still also using chill touch and/or frostbite when its appropriate (they're still perfectly useful without rime/other metamagic).
And there's nothing wrong with still using your blackblade while transmuted if you're not worried about full blown optimization (combining the manufactured plus natural attacks means the naturals end up as secondaries for -5 to attack and +1/2 strength damage, but its still viable...and you can always choose not to use the BB on occasion while transmuted if you get enough primary natural attacks and just want to rip things up that way.
Happy Hunting!
I dont know if I should get Extra Arcana Pool, or pick up the Moonlight Stalker Feint. Im not sure how often I would end up using my points in my Arcana Pool honestly.
I'm not sure how much use you'll get out of the feint. It denies the target their dex but its only for the next attack YOU make against the target. Also, your swift actions are pretty valuable as a magus, you've already got enough things competing for them.
As for the pool points, I'd wait and see how you use them in play before deciding whether or not you need extra arcane pool. Its a good feat, and situationally great, but some folks just don't use their arcane points all that much. See how things go for you. That said, if you get the arcane accuracy arcana (or hold out for accurate strike at 9), chances are that you'll want as many pool points as you can get to make use of those accuracy boosts on as many full attacks as possible. Not to mention you've still got spell recall, which is awesome, but can eat points in a hurry.
Some of the stuff for the Magus seems weird. Like, Knowledge Pool. So, I can gain spells I dont know for my spellbook? I mean, if I prepared it, do I know it, and can write it down into my spellbook, even though I technically havent paid for it?
Technically yes. By RAW its kind of a loophole, and it allows you to use unspent points before you rest to prepare spells you don't have in your spellbook. If you choose, you could technically then scribe those spells from memory into your book for later use. Most GMs I know would throw a book at me if I tried that though ;-)
Still, its a situationally useful option even if you don't take advantage of that loophole (and by all means, if your GM is cool with it, use it whenever you've got downtime). If you know what you're getting into in the next day or so, and that one spell you don't know would be just perfect, well...might as well get temporary access to it.
Magus is beast so it shouldn't be hard to think of a build for it.
your arcane pool you will be using to get more make your scimitar keen and add +1 to it !!!
you wil want to use it every fight!! also arcane accuracy!! that's 2 points per fight you could use.
I personally found that Arcane Strike isn't that great. Combat Casting loses its potency at later levels.
What kind of magus are you? I'm assuming a Strength magus because you didn't take Weapon Finesse. In that case, I recommend Power Attack. Have your magus use two hands on his weapon and it will make his attacks incredibly devastating, especially when you're getting bonuses from Moonlight Stalker.
Since you already decided on Combat Expertise, Improved Trip or Improved Disarm are not bad choices, especially if you take the combat maneuver arcana that adds your magus level instead of BAB to combat maneuvers.
Extra Arcana might be worth taking as you'll soon be getting good arcanas available to you.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If your magus is spellcombat/spellstrike he cannot use two hands on his weapon, that whole free action to let go free action to grab again shennanigans ins debunked by spell combat, he needs to have his non weapon hand free the whole time. no two hander weapon, now if he has a held charge from a previous round and he chooses to say, move, and then attack/spellstrike he can use two hands in that case, OR if hes out of spells, he can two hand... but he cant spell combat and two hand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A magus isn't always going to spell combat anyway. And he can still spellstrike with two hands. He's using a scimitar, so it's legit.
|
i took combAT casting, focused mind, blind fight, power attack, weapon focus, and arcane strike on my BB magus, and have no regrets
if you have to play all the levels, id reccommend it. if you can start at 6 or 8, it may be different, but i commonly swing for 6d6+20 2 handed, or 6d6+16 one handed and crit on 15s.
no regrets
