My group is staring a new campaign and my Magus may end up as the only Arcane Caster (he might end up being the only caster), to that end I've decided to make my Magus focus on support spell casting as much as possible.
So far I'm going with Eldritch Heritage to get the Arcane Bond from the Sorcerer Bloodline for an additional spell. I plan to get Improved Eldritch Heritage to add metamagic on the fly.
I also went with the Staff Magus archetype, I like the defensive bonus, the add utility with Wizard Staffs, and the Trip line of feets from UC.
And finally I want to fit in the standard Intensify/Shocking Grasp for those times when I have to get up close and personal.
Please let me know exactly how crazy I am for trying this:
20 point buy
Human
Str:15 +1 at level 4
Dex:10
Con:12
Int:16
Wis:9
Cha:12+2=14 +1 at level 8
Traits
Magical Lineage
Reactionary
Feats
Archetype: Quarterstaff Master
Human: Weapon Focus
Level 1: Skill Focus
Level 3: Eldritch Heritage
Level 5: Combat Expertise
Magus 5: Improved Trip
Level 7: Intensify Spell
Level 9: Tripping Staff
Level 11: Improved Eldritch Heritage
Magus 11: Greater Trip
Any Suggestions are welcome.
Thank You.
If you don't want to go a full-caster, can I suggest going Summoner? They've got a much nicer array of support spells, and a buddy to contribute to the front line, or you can just summon.
I'd suggest the Hexcrafter archetype. You can combine it with your archetype. Yeah, you lose spell recall (and that's a great one for your character) but you gain hexes and curses. That means you gain versatility and debuffs.
I think it's much more useful for a magus to gain more arcana with the extra arcana feat than putting your feat slots in the tripping chain.
Unfortunately switching to Summoner is not an option available to me.
I can see the power of going the Hexcrafter route, but giving up Spell Recall seems like a lot, especially being the only caster in the group. What would you suggest for Extra Arcana in place of the trip feats?
I wouldn't say that they've got the worst support spell list, but it's definitely weak, and I don't know that a build focusing around being a supporter is going to really pan out well. Magi have a few nifty party buffs that they get at higher levels (Haste is always welcome to a martial party) but you have to get there first.
It's expensive, but you can expand your spell list a bit by taking Spell Blending, which grants you access to some of the buff spells on the Wizard list that the Magus doesn't get.
Re: Overall caster capability of the class. The Magus can make a decent back-up ranged arcane caster if he bothers to learn the spells, but that's not really the focus of the class. When you do need to use it though, you can be effective at it - getting a free Empowered with your arcana on an AoE spell can do a lot of damage when you need it.
Final concern is teleport, you get it way later than a wizard, and can use it way less often, realize your best travel spell out of the gate is mount, then phantom steed and you will be fine, just know your party isn't going to be crossing the world in 2 casts, and that travel will be a concern even at high levels.
Spell Dancer archetype (which admittedly requires you to be an Elf) ups your maneuverability greatly. The Spell Dance effect increases your base speed as you level (and grants you extra AC against AoOs); you gain the ability to cast Fly or Haste on yourself at 5th (limited; once per spell dance, for one round), and then Dimension Door (again, once per round) at 9th.
It does get rid of your additional armor training and the ability to enhance your weapon; it tends to couple better with the 'dervish' build magus rather than the standard 'tank' magus based on STR.
Sorry, thought you were talking about in-combat mobility. Misread your paragraph. I was offering up spell dancer as an option to staff magus entirely.
This class is not really great for support. I see you are going with a trip focus so I have three questions before I get into other things.
1. Will you be facing monsters or humanoids(medium sized)
2. What level do you expect the game to end at?
3. A bard is better at support, and decent in combat, so why not use a bard? It's tripping won't be any worse than the magus most likely since they have the same BAB and the bard can buff itself.
Well I am no magi expert, but if you are going caster focus I would definitely rethink the ability spread. I would suggest dropping the cha to 12(or less), str to 14, raise the dex to 12, put the rest into jacking int as high as possible.
S 14
D 12
Co 14
I 16, +2human, +1 at lv4, +1 at lv8
W 8
Ch 10
Or if you really want a 12 charisma
S 14
D 12
Co 12
I 16, +2human, +1 at lv4, +1 at lv8
W 9
Ch 12
I'm not sure on the point of the Charisma score if Improved Eldritch Heritage (Arcane bloodline) isn't gonna give you "extra spell known" since magus isn't a spontaneous caster class.
What would you suggest for Extra Arcana in place of the trip feats?
Spell Blending, the more the merrier. If you go the Hexcrafter way, then you will need some hexes like fly, slumber and ice tomb.
I just ran a magus very similar to this. I focused on Int as my primary stat and using my pool points for Arcane Accuracy.
I can't state enough how much I loved Hexcrafter, I ended up taking almost all of my arcana as Hexes. Healing is nice, Slumber and Fly are great, Speak with Animals at will...great utility.
I'll post more on it later if I have time...
you want to be the only caster and you only got 16 INT??
that seems Way to low!
drop charisma down so you can get at leased 17 INT and pump it to 18 at lvl 4 this is your main caster stat all your saves are comming from this stat!
if you are gooing to be the main caster i would defenetly say this is your MAIN stat!
Pearl's of powere are verry good to you! and ofcourse the arcana to get spels from the wizard spels list
Okay,
I have actually listened to a lot of the advice on this thread, sort of. The tripping theme is gone, and the focus is now on casting encounter changing spells (Color Spray, Black Tentacles, Wall Spells). Then wading into the fray With his staff, Shocking when necessary.
Let's try this again:
20 point buy
Human
Str:15 +1 at level 4
Dex:12
Con:13 +1 at level 8
Int:14+2=16
Wis:10
Cha:13
Traits
Magical Lineage
Focused Mind
Feats
Archetype: Quarterstaff Master
Human: Toughness
Level 1: Skill Focus
Level 3: Eldritch Heritage
Level 5:
Magus 5: Arcane Strike
Level 7: Intensify Spell
Level 9:
Level 11:
Magus 11: Craft Staff
Any Suggestions are welcome.
Thank You.
What's Eldritch Heritage for?
Arcane Bond (Sorcerer Bloodline)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Magic-focused-Magus
I believe they are called wizards...
|
Arcane Bond (Sorcerer Bloodline)
And what good is that going to do you? You should probably read it again.
Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. Once per day, your bonded item allows you to cast any one of your spells known (unlike a wizard’s bonded item, which allows him to cast any one spell in his spellbook). This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.
The only thing that bloodline can give you is a familiar and you can get one of those with an arcana.
elemental spell spell perfection empower spell
just a few tips working to spell perfection is a bigg deal as a magus!
What specific thing do you hope to achieve from Eldritch heritage (arcane bloodline)?
Hope it's not the familiar because there's a magus arcana for that.
If it's for the once per day ability item bond ability, doesn't seem all that worth it since pearls of power, spell recall, and improved spell recall seems much more economical vs 3 feats and Cha 13.
The metamagic thing on the fly...seems iffy.
Metamagic Adept (Ex): At 3rd level, you can apply any one metamagic feat you know to a spell you are about to cast without increasing the casting time. You must still expend a higher-level spell slot to cast this spell. You can use this ability once per day at 3rd level and one additional time per day for every four sorcerer levels you possess beyond 3rd, up to five times per day at 19th level. At 20th level, this ability is replaced by arcane apotheosis.
How does that work? Does the magus have to keep a spell slot empty? Or does it replace an unexpended prepared spell?
If you're mostly wanting to apply metamagic feats to shocking grasp, Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell would be easier.
|
|
What specific thing do you hope to achieve from Eldritch heritage (arcane bloodline)?
Hope it's not the familiar because there's a magus arcana for that.
If it's for the once per day ability item bond ability, doesn't seem all that worth it since pearls of power, spell recall, and improved spell recall seems much more economical vs 3 feats and Cha 13.
The metamagic thing on the fly...seems iffy.
Metamagic Adept (Ex): At 3rd level, you can apply any one metamagic feat you know to a spell you are about to cast without increasing the casting time. You must still expend a higher-level spell slot to cast this spell. You can use this ability once per day at 3rd level and one additional time per day for every four sorcerer levels you possess beyond 3rd, up to five times per day at 19th level. At 20th level, this ability is replaced by arcane apotheosis.How does that work? Does the magus have to keep a spell slot empty? Or does it replace an unexpended prepared spell?
More to the point the only thing that ability does is prevent increasing the casting time which only affects spontaneous casters.
This ability literally does nothing for a prepared caster like a magus.
Just remember true strike+trip= stuff on the ground.