Well, part of the balance of Dervish Dance is that you can't use Power Attack without 13 Str, so that houserule is part of what makes it more powerful.
Also, you still need 13 Str to qualify for Cleave.
I don't think it's a particularly powerful build, actually...
Low Con and Wis means his saves will be a problem at higher levels, low Str means he probably can't use armor without being encumbered, Cleave is pretty weak once you get iterative attacks and Critical Focus is okay, but not amazing.
I don't see anything problematic with it. Any 2-handed warrior will deal more damage. Tell your friends to stop whining.
You can tell them anything you want , if you aren't playing at the same optimization level as the group you might consider toning down the min/maxing.
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Your GM is being childish. There is not much I can say about game mechanics that will help you with an adversarial GM.
I'd suggest you talk to him an ask what he finds so OP on your character. Magus tends to look stronger than it actually is because of its spiky damage. It's a nice class, but far from OP.]
Your damage is great when using spells, but any devoted 2-handed warrior can still out-damage you more often than not. Your AC will be okay, but not incredibly high, your saves will are mostly okay because of your good Will & Fort save progression (but they might become a problem in the future).
Admitting to being a" bit of a number crunching min maxer" doesn't help. Your stats indicate it, your gm has filled in the blanks for you himself. Maybe if those 8s were 10s and the nine became an 11 he wouldn't treat you like a filthy power gamer?
Right, the DM could amend his free Power Attack to only be available to those that meet the feat prerequisites.
The main thing is that the Magus has some great nova potential. If you have just 1-2 encounters a day, it's easy to burst everything. If the days get longer, you'll have to be more careful with resource management.
Of course, you'll still perform better than your allies if they don't optimize at all. You should discuss the power level the group wants, since you could probably help them make their characters stronger, but they may want you to be more on their level. You could definitely even out your stats without making the build unviable.
Personally, I wouldn't use a front-liner character with d8 and 12 Con... What's the character's AC, BTW? I don't see how it can be too high, Int bonus or not.
Also, ask your GM why having 2 character is okay, but having a Magus is not.
Really, from what you tell us, it seems to me they are just whining without actually putting things in perspective. Someone probably heard Magi are OP and took that idea to the table without thinking.
With such a low strength/wis/cha I would go for stat draining creatures/spells, there are plenty of them. With so many low stats @ 11 and an obviously crippled will save you could go quite quickly from effective to dying/unable to move in 1 or 2 rounds if targeting a stat and dead/dying in 1 round with a failed will save.
Feeblemind would essentially stop you in your tracks, bestow curse would make even the lightest equipment a hindrance (encumbrance) and this is not mentioning the spells that turn you on your party or outright kill you.
Hope this helped.
I never like to see strength dumped, scimitar wielding, dervish dancing Magi in my games either. I would feel more so that way if I had house ruled everyone has Power Attack for some reason. That said there is nothing wrong with your character, he should about keep pace with other strong martials and only slightly outdo weak ones. It might be that your group has Fighters, Monks and Rogues rather than Barbarians, Rangers and Paladins; but that is not any one persons fault.
Oops, evenly balanced stat distribution to the rescue! Honestly, it's all the GM's fault? You accept no responsibility for the situation? Who is being childish? I don't think your gm is 100% at fault here. 50% maybe.
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Try having him look at a Magus who takes a single level of Gunslinger and is shoving their intensified empowered shocking grasps through a musket and THEN ask him if you are OP. :) (No, I do not play this build. I have a friend who does. And even their version is missing a lot of the tuning a completely OP version can manage. Because they DO like being liked.)
Personally, I'd say whoever is whining is the one being childish. This character is far from OP. Dumping stats is not cheating and has inherent consequences.
Why are there 2 of this thread?
Right, the DM could amend his free Power Attack to only be available to those that meet the feat prerequisites.
The main thing is that the Magus has some great nova potential. If you have just 1-2 encounters a day, it's easy to burst everything. If the days get longer, you'll have to be more careful with resource management.
Of course, you'll still perform better than your allies if they don't optimize at all. You should discuss the power level the group wants, since you could probably help them make their characters stronger, but they may want you to be more on their level. You could definitely even out your stats without making the build unviable.
This is how I feel but said in a nicer way.
Even more so at a table were self policing is the order of things and stat dumping to max things is frowned upon as bad form.
The obvious weak point is Strength damage. With 8 Strength, a simple Ray of Enfeeblement will cripple you even on a successful save - The best possible result for you would be 3 Strength damage, cutting your Light Load down to 16 lbs - Not enough for your clothing, sword, and spellbook.
You can use Muleback Cords to compensate, but they take up the Slot In Which Cloaks Of Resistance Go.
As a prepared caster, they can attack you before you have prepared your spells. Intelligent enemies spying on you will know your routine, they will know (or have heard) that you're the biggest threat, and even a first level Wizard can tell them about the nature of spell preparation.
With good Fort and Will and high Dex, use spells that don't allow a saving throw. Plenty of them exist, usually in Conjuration. And since you have a Dex focus and Kensai, don't rely on attack rolls getting through (or use Quickened True Strike prior to casting a touch spell).
Use monsters with SR, since Magi tend to use no-save spells like Shocking Grasp to deal damage.
Use urgency / time constraints to prevent the party from resting too often. Magi fall far behind other fighting characters when they run out of daily resources.
It could be an assumption but I doubt he put many resources into improving his saves and instead focused on offense (just by looking at his stat layout and build).
@ 11 your will save would be 6 and lets assume a +2 from cloak and no feats to improve that so 8.
Lets use feeblemind as an example:
A wizard of the same level (which an enemy would likely actually be higher) would have a DC of (10 + spell level (5) + modifier which is likely 24-26 at this point (7-8)
Thats 22-23 dc which means you need to roll a 14-15 or higher to not be useless in combat.
"Leadership" and "self policing" don't match... but you're right. There'll always be metagame consequences... Such as players being childish and whining about a perfectly okay character.
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Your AC isn't going to be that great, even with Int to AC. In order to use spell combat you have to be spellcasting in melee, which means either moving out of position with 5t steps or casting defensively to avoid AoOs and has the potential for wasted actions.
Since you have a STR of 8 I would willing self nerf power attack and not use it even though it is being given for free as it normally requires a 13 STR.
What arcana do you have?
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Oops, evenly balanced stat distribution to the rescue! Honestly, it's all the GM's fault? You accept no responsibility for the situation? Who is being childish?
Well, if the group as a whole has some sort of expectations of play style that breaks from the character creation rules it should be mentioned beforehand or civilly discussed as soon as a perceived issue become apparent.
Pretty sure bullying and badwrongfunning someone for their build is not only childish but repugnant, to say the least.
Well, if that's how his Entire group feels maybe he should adjust. Majority rules etc.
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That said, I made the magus recently, and almost all of our encounters since I brought the character in were 'once a day' encounters, which when I can use all my arcane points in 1 fight, makes me look OP. I've told people to give it time in actual days, but meh...
This is the problem. One encounter a day workday make classes that rely on limited resources shine. If your GM was using proper encounter design you would be much more pressured.
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Whining or not my thoughts on the matter are clear. Group fun>personal special snowflake\player self entitlement. Saddens me that the small minority of of player base that post here advocate such behavior to the detriment of tables full of casual gamers looking to have fun and not feel inferior because min maxing would hurt their fun flavor character concept.
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his ac without a haramaki or silken ceremonial is at minimum 20. Now by level 11 he may have some amount of AoNA or RoP. So i'd roughly estimate 23-25 which isn't terrible(27-29 if he found a way for mage armor.)
Depending on stats/items, a bladebound kensai can easily manage an AC in the 30's well before 11th level.
By 11th level, he should be wearing Bracers of Armor, removing the need for the Mage Armor spell.
Since a lot of your bonuses are activated abilities, simply pace yourself. For a start, you don't know how many fights you're going to be in, or how many enemies will pile into one major battle. But mainly, you'll give the rest of the party their chance to shine, and you can save your more powerful abilities to rescue them if they get into trouble. If the party lacks other spellcasters (if they're complaining about a Bladebound Kensai it sounds like they might), try opening combat with buffing and battlefield control, and wade into melee afterwards.
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Just wanna pitch in about AC:
Without trying hard...
Level 10:
Gear (2 wands, belt of dexterity +4, belt of intelligence +4)
int 22, dex 20 (or visa versa depending on preference)
6 (int) + 5 (dex) + 4 (mage armor) + 4 (shield) + 10 = 29 AC.
Do I dare need to throw in things like NA amulet and Ring of Deflection? People seems to think Kensai AC sucks. It doesn't.
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Just wanna pitch in about AC:
Without trying hard...Level 10:
Gear (2 wands, belt of dexterity +4, belt of intelligence +4)
int 22, dex 20 (or visa versa depending on preference)
6 (int) + 5 (dex) + 4 (mage armor) + 4 (shield) + 10 = 29 AC.Do I dare need to throw in things like NA amulet and Ring of Deflection? People seems to think Kensai AC sucks. It doesn't.
Kensai are comparable to monks in AC, with the shared benefit of having most of their bonuses applied to touch AC.
A well built kensai's weakest point is going to be his will save. Ironic, given that will is one of their "strong" saves.
Just wanna pitch in about AC:
Without trying hard...Level 10:
Gear (2 wands, belt of dexterity +4, belt of intelligence +4)
int 22, dex 20 (or visa versa depending on preference)
6 (int) + 5 (dex) + 4 (mage armor) + 4 (shield) + 10 = 29 AC.Do I dare need to throw in things like NA amulet and Ring of Deflection? People seems to think Kensai AC sucks. It doesn't.
You should try harder.
Shields can't be used with Dervish Dance and also deny your Int bonus to AC. And that belt & headband cost over half your WBL and 20 attribute points.
They refer to the Shield spell, but it depends on having time to buff, so it may or may not be there.
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Shields can't be used with Dervish Dance and also deny your Int bonus to AC. And that belt & headband cost over half your WBL and 20 attribute points.
Shield is a spell on the magus spell list.
A bladebound Kensai can afford the belt + headband. He's not spending WBL on weapons/armor. My PFS bladebound kensai had a +4 belt/+4 headband by 7th level while still affording a cloak and amulet.
Strength 8 power attack, eh?
A spell with 1min/level duration? I'm don't see how spending a limited resource for increased AC during 1, maybe 2 encounter is unbalanced. Especially considering that same resource could be used to get more of that spiky damage that fuels so much of a Magus' offense.