101 Unusual magus builds


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Has anyone come up with some cool magus tricks/builds, or maybe builds that weren't fully optimized but still worked?


Every class has a 'schtick.' That schtick is their key thing that makes the class really stand out. Magus is a class with a lot of schtick, but primarily I like to think of it as the enhanced crit range on spells. Spell Combat and Spellstrike are both obviously really cool Magus gimmicks, but mechanically, giving a damaging spell a really broad crit range is pretty brutal.

As such, "the build" for Magus' usually revolves around a scimitar as it is a martial weapon with a broad default crit range. From there the usual debate over optimization boils down to either Dervish Dance or Strength.

The Scimitar ends up being the very vast majority of Magus builds I see. To the point where I could fairly confidantly say that the scimitar is a natural extension of the Magus and that the few builds I've seen which don't use one can be dismissed as outliers.

So - if you want cool or interesting, the first step is to go without a scimitar.


I think I'm most interested in what spells, feats, and archetypes. The weapon is second thought at the moment.


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Snow_Tiger wrote:
I think I'm most interested in what spells, feats, and archetypes. The weapon is second thought at the moment.

Then you're already on the right track!

However, for anything that swings a weapon, the weapon tends to be a cornerstone of the feats/archetypes and the rest of the build.

Whips are an option to perform Spellstrike at range. I've seen some decent builds based around this concept but am up in the air about the results. Whips (with feats) and reach seem predominantly about attacks of opportunity to me and the Magus doesn't have much to really leverage an AoO. Whips also strike me as a cool maneuver weapon, but Magus just doesn't have enough goodies to really take advantage of both the whip feats and maneuver feats and make it all work. Of course there is truestrike. Regardless, a Whip-Magus sounds like an interesting build that I unfortunately haven't had the time to really try for myself. I wouldn't say that a Whip Magus HAS to be a Kensai, but the Archetype certainly helps the feat portion of the build come online much sooner.

Then there is unarmed. Something I've been toying with recently. Would be another 'subpar' build unfortunately, but thematically I think it's really neat. I wouldn't build this as a Kensai and instead would choose to go with the Brawling enchant on light armor. I haven't really managed to finish fleshing this build out but I think the options Magus provides could fulfill my Mystical Kung Fu itch better than Monk. There really is no mechanical benefit to going unarmed at all, but I like the flavor and mechanics better than Monk.

The problem with these weapons is the really terrible crit range. Not super necessary, but they will do much less damage overall than something like a scimitar.

As far as Archetypes go:

Black Blade is great for a "low magic" setting as you ensure yourself a weapon that will continue to upgrade despite a penny-pinching DM. Not good for Dervish Dance builds however since Agile isn't an option for inherent enchantment.

Kensai is the best option if you plan a build which requires a lot of weapon based feats. Getting proficiency and focus right off the bat really helps anything build off of a squirrelly weapon (specifically whips, but any exotic weapon falls in as well).

Hexcrafter is an amazing Archetype for opening up your options. Magi are really great Novas. The addition of Slumber and Ice Tomb hexes make the Magi class extremely versatile when blasting isn't a valid option.

At the end of the day, Magus is a pretty powerful class no matter what. If you have Shocking Grasp and Intensify Spell, you'll go a pretty long way regardless. Sure the difference between a finely tuned Magus build and a slapped together build might be pretty severe, but even a mediocre Magus build will have plenty to contribute to their party.


I've built a Xeph (Psionics race) Cabalist Bladebound Magus. I haven't played it as yet but with using the Xephyr dagger which is a Xeph special weapon, turns the whole class on its ear. It really doesn't get started until 6th level but really jumps from there.

I really like the xeph race. The Burst ability makes it nice with almost any class. Most generally with melee combatants. Plus, being a psionic race, allows you to pull from the psionic feat lists as well as the normal ones.

Love the Magus but at lower levels isn't all that effective. Once they get 4th or so, they really start to come into their own.

Shogahin


I would prefer Pfs legal stuff, as well as stuff that isn't all over the boards, if possible. Thanks for the ideas so far.

I understand that these new ideas I'm after will not be completely optimized.


Granted the Xeph is 3rd party but the Cabalist and the Bladebound are totally Paizo.

Scarab Sages

Shoga wrote:
Granted the Xeph is 3rd party but the Cabalist and the Bladebound are totally Paizo.

Cabalist isn't.


Snow Tiger,

Right now Im tossing around ideas for my next PFS character. For flavor and rp reasons im going bladebound. Im not sure if that will be the only archetype or if I will tack on Hexcrafter or Kensai.

With the Magus natural ability to "Nova" through Spell combat, I dont think they have to be optimized at all to be effective in combat. After that you can just focus on utility. I was trying to get some more input from others but seems my thread did not get any love.

Click here for my thread, to see what I was thinking.


I have kicked around a witch/magus or alchemist/magus (briefly was a witch/alch/magus) themed off the witcher games that looked like great fun to play but have yet to have a game to really play him in.Not the most optimal build but gave some neat tricks even more when I deviated further from the source character.


Death metal not-bard. Black blade for an electric guitar/ battleaxe. Hexcrafter since you won't have the crit range.

Unarmed. kensai for damage, or i'd prefer hexcrafter for hex strike. Between arcane pool and brawling armor, your unarmed strike will be more than fully enchanted. Focus on frigid touch, force punch, and other spells where crit fishing isn't so necessary.

Captain Ameroccult. Skirnir shield basher. If you have one or two heavy hitters in the party, greater bull rush's AoOs on a shield slam is great. True strike so it always works, ability to custom enchant the shield..

There's a great guide around with a polymorph natural attacker, and the defiler prehensile hair debuffer.

Scarab Sages

Here was my take on a Magus.


Bump?

Scarab Sages

I had an idea for a Madu-using Skirnir with Crane Style, but then Crane Wing got nerfed.


A Myrmidarch with a firearm can turn touch attacks into ranged touch attacks, I bet this could be good.

As for weapons other than scimitar, a strength build can use a rapier just as easily. I can see someone getting use out of a wand of True Strike, a nodachi, falchion, elven curve blade, or bardiche and Power Attack.

As for spell builds I usually see Frostbite builds and Shocking Grasp as the most common and that's it.

Sczarni

My favorite idea was to go Black Blade, then choose Dagger Pistol as your weapon. It is, after all, a light melee weapon. You now have a perfectly solid Magus who wields a gun.

Since crit-fishing is so intrinsic to a Magus, why not go with Butterfly's Sting and share those crits with your Scythe-wielding Cavalier buddy?


I just found another cool one: halfling magus myrmadarch using spellcombat at range with halfling slingstaff


Acid splash flame blade magus. Deals over a 100 damage a round using a cantrip

Requires levels in sorcerer and PRC magambyan arcanist.


How?

Scarab Sages

Assuming using a Kensai to increase the crit multiplier to x3 for the "scimitar". Then having max damage of the Flame Blade is the extra 30 damage. Empower. With a scorcerer, add 2 damage for fire, and 1 for acid splash.

So a crit will deal (3d6+36)1.5 fire and 2d3+2 acid. Then iteratives.


A gnome myrmidiarch who takes a level of sorcerer (crossblooded: protean, draconic) after 5th level can make their ranged weapon conductive, then fire a shot with both a spell (at +1 per dice of damage) and a tanglefoot bag attached to it.

Alternately a myrmidiarch of any race could take two levels of alchemist (grenadier) to attach any alchemical item they like to a shot.


Imbicatus wrote:
Shoga wrote:
Granted the Xeph is 3rd party but the Cabalist and the Bladebound are totally Paizo.
Cabalist isn't.

My mistake.. Was thinking it was.

Shogahin


@avr: I think I'm missing something, is there some racial feat or something that is good with your gnome myrmadarch sorcerer idea?

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

I've got a Staff Magus/Flowing Monk multiclass that's been pretty fun. It's MAD as hell, but combines a really nice reactive defense with buffing/support and still has the ability to nova when needed.


Kind of convoluted, but dip one level of Crossblooded Sorcerer with Draconic and Elemental:Cold bloodlines for the Arcana effects: +1damage per dice on cold spells and can turn any spell into a cold spell at will. Then, take Rime Spell.

For further hijinks, pick up the the spell Fiery Shuriken as a Magus Spell and use a metamagic trait to add Rime to it without increasing spell level. You now cast/throw cold, entangling Fiery Shuriken. Finally, take the Opening Volley feat.

By mid-levels, you can conjure a pack of Rime Shuriken and spray off a few to entangle everything nearby; the next round, you can attack any of your Shuriken targets with a +4ab bonus on that attack from the previous round ranged attack. In fact, any time you attack something that you launched a Shuriken at the previous or current round, you get a +4 attack bonus on top of the fact that your target has been pre-entangled for your convenience. Since Shuriken are a swift action to throw, you can score your +4 bonus from last round's Shuriken at the start of a full-attack action, and then throw another Shuriken as a swift action to grab another +4 bonus for your weaker iterative. Since Shuriken aren't a touch spell, you can also run around 'holding' them ready to use while casting other spells.


BadBird wrote:
For further hijinks, pick up the the spell Fiery Shuriken as a Magus Spell and use a metamagic trait to add Rime to it without increasing spell level. You now cast/throw cold, entangling Fiery Shuriken. Finally, take the Opening Volley feat.

This intrigues me. How did you get Fiery Shuriken as a Magus Spell - Spell Blending, Mystic Past Life? Or something else entirely?


Snow_Tiger wrote:
@avr: I think I'm missing something, is there some racial feat or something that is good with your gnome myrmadarch sorcerer idea?

Gnomes, and only gnomes, get a favored class benefit which allows them to use their arcane pool to make their weapon conductive.


Snow_Tiger wrote:
How?

Be half orc. Need false focus (it allows you to use an acid flask ingredient without paying for it. The acid splash increases the damage to two rounds. Extend metamagic feat to make it deal damage for 4 rounds. Magical lineage keeps it a level 0 spell. If you attack the same person 4 rounds in a row. You get 4 active castings of the spell at a time.

1 level of sorcerer.
Bloodlines orc and the one that allows you to change the acid to fire damage.

9 levels of magus. Favored class bonus to add 1 damage for fire spell. You need arcana that let's you use ranged touch spells with spell strike.

2 levels magambyan arcanist and select flameblade. You now add your favored class bonus damage to flameblade and acid splash. So your doing some pretty effective damage with casting a 0 level spell every turn.

Lantern Lodge

Straight up sword and shield Magus (probably Skirnir archetype), getting TWF, iTWF, gTWF, and all the feats needed for shield master and Bashing Finish. Only use spells for utility and buffing, and use a quickdraw shield and the feat quickdrawn to free action draw and put away your shield, allowing you to still cast and use spell combat.

To add insult to injury, buy a lot of weapons and shields, +1 spellstoring, and then grab the maximize magic and empower magic arcanas. Since those don't increase a spell's level, you can place a maximized intensified empowered shocking grasp into each of those weapons. With quickdraw, you can use a new weapon with every hit, and release a 60+5d6 shocking burst with every successful hit (so long as you have enough weapons and shields). A build like this can top out at around 2800 damage in a single round (given your GM allows you to take 30-40 free actions in that round :P)


I'm building a Str based half elf with Ancestral Arms: Net, and pick up Net Adept at level 3.

I don't think it will be all that strong, but I plan to pick up combat reflexes at level one and enlarge person to entangle medium to huge baddies that try to rush my friends. Since it's considered a melee weapon, it runs off of strength, and kinda works like a touch polearm. Then I use a snag net to damage and Arcane Strike, I can True Strike to trip them. With them entangled and prone, they have a -6 to hit and AC against melee attacks, which should help with the surround and beat down. It should help in the early to mid levels until I can get some heavier armor and some more feats and arcana.

Also, I'll pick up Craft wands and Wand Wielder because of the Half-elf's Arcane Training. Then with weapon wand, I can actually keep a net and a Kukri or something like that in each hand with wands in each weapon that I can do spell combat with either.

Lantern Lodge

Have you considered a trident?


It's iconic, I know, but it's really not that great of a weapon. It really should have a x3 crit on it, but what can you do?

The Net and Trident feat isn't bad either, and I'd probably pick that up later if I ever had enough Dex. It works with any one handed weapon though, so I could even do stuff like Rapier or Warhammer. I'd stay away from slashing weapons because Thematically they would cut up the net as much as the bad guy.

Sovereign Court

Other options beyond scimitar
Rapier for magus arcane trickster.
Aldori sword for kensai shadow dancer
Archer myrmidarch precursor to arcane archer
And I've wondered about a halfling dagoon magus lancer.


I just finished my second session with a Soul Forger Magus. Just advanced to level 2, but the focus of the character (and he's VERY focused in it) is to create and use a masterpiece of a sword. The Soul Forger already starts out with a masterwork weapon, which is the perfect base to be magically reforged into the ultimate weapon.

I was a human son of a wizard that was killed when I was young. I was then taken in by my father's business partner, a renowned elven weaponsmith.
I focused excessively on learning the weaponsmithing trade, and worked in the smithy since age 13. I have a high intelligence from lineage, and a high strength from working the forge. 18/15/16/17/11/11.

Traits/Drawbacks:
Meticulous (-2 on untrained skill checks)
Bladed Magic (+1 on checks for Craft Magic Arms and Armor)
Artisan - Craft(weapons) (+2 to Craft(Weapons) checks)
Tactician

Feats:
Toughness
Improved Initiative

at 1st level, I already had a +10 on Craft(Weapons), with an additional +1 if making masterwork items.

By the time I reach 5th level (the earliest I can take Craft Magic Arms and Armor), my check will be +25 when crafting magic weapons, and that's without taking skill focus or prodigy. With this, I can augment my Arcane Bonded Scimitar (started Masterwork) to a +1 Scimitar, and can then spend Arcane Pool point as a swift action at the start of combat to grant the sword an additional +2 enhancement points, that can be tailored to the battle. (either +3, or +2/keen, or +2/flaming, or +1/keen/flaming, or +1/flame burst, etc)

This is on top of being able to craft masterwork and magic arms and armor for the entire party up to +1 (+2 at level 6). This is going to work out very well, as the campaign is a limited market campaign, which I had no idea of when creating the character.


Cy the younger. Dwarven Magus with a hedgehog companion. Puts shocking grasp on it and throws it at people.


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I had the idea once for a Samsaran Magus with Mystic Past Life to get a couple cure spells and a couple buffs from Witch or Bard, and use a whip to heal/buff allies at range.


Katydid wrote:
This intrigues me. How did you get Fiery Shuriken as a Magus Spell - Spell Blending, Mystic Past Life? Or something else entirely?

Spell Blending is simple enough. In the end you're putting a lot of resources into getting Rime Shuriken, but spraying two-turn no-save entanglement all over a battlefield is a pretty great way to run control almost as an afterthought.

Liberty's Edge

I had a Magus in one of my games who used a Light Pick as his weapon of choice. His (in-character) brother was a Lore Warden Fighter dual-wielding kukris with Butterfly's Sting. Their builds had the nice side effect of making their stats fairly similar (high Dex and Int, decent Con and Wis, low Cha...), which helped with verisimilitude on the whole 'brothers' thing.

I think why that worked is pretty clear, but it was a Dex Magus without a scimitar, and a build combo other people could make good use of as well.

EDIT: Oh, and for the record, yes I know spells don't quadruple. Still nice for the weapon to, and if you're getting Crits fed to you anyway (and know it, so you can use spellstrike only on a crit), it's still very solid.

Lantern Lodge

Level 20 Kensai could be getting 6x damage on a critical with that :P

A flaming burst, shocking burst, icy burst, corrosive burst, +1 keen light pick could crit, dealing 6d4+4d6+20d10 damage (averages to 139 damage). Not bad, espescially since it's before spells, dexterity, and Power Attack.

Against a flat footed opponet, my magus with this weapon could deal:

6d4+4d6+20d10+6(weapon)+6(prayer)+48(dex)+30(dance of 1000 cuts)+84(intelligence)+24(power attack)= 337 damage average. A strength magus using a heavy pick with both hands and a polymorph spell could deal even more DMG. But yeah, critting = awesome.

Liberty's Edge

FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:
Level 20 Kensai could be getting 6x damage on a critical with that :P

He was indeed a Kensai. :)

And yeah, critting is great, especially on a Magus.


Bad Touch Magi

Human, you want several feats early

Traits:
Magical Lineage - Elemental Touch
Wayang Spellhunter - Chill Touch

Feats:
1 Human - Weapon Finesse
1 - Rime Spell
3 - Dervish Dance
5 Bonus - Two Weapon Fighting
5 - Extend Spell
7 - Extra Arcane Pool
9 - Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Dex>Int>Con>Wis>Str>Cha

Equipment:
Scimitar
Cestus

Basics:

Okay, so... At early levels, 1-2, you fight with a rapier or some other finesse weapon, and use rime'd chill touch as your go to attack spell. Level 3 is slightly clunky, you switch to scimitar and cestus, and still use chill touch as your go to. The uses per casting line up weirdly with your potential number of attacks, but you'll live.

Starting at level 4, this build gets fun. You'll start off with rime'd elemental touch, and use SC to cast it, then deliver it via your armed unarmed attack. You'll be adding dex to hit/damage with this attack, via Dervish Dance. Start with cold, then add in another casting, electric, next round. Your unarmed attack now does 1d4+dex+1d6 cold+1d6 elec plus entangle, fatigue, and staggers.

At 5 this build fully blossoms. You pick up two weapon fighting. Yes, you read that right, two weapon fighting. Save the laughter, you'll see why shortly. You also snag extend spell.

You prep elemental touch with extend spell. SC it as elec and deliver via armed unarmed attack, then again as either cold or acid, or both. maybe as fire too if you're feeling frisky and the battle will last a while. Once you have a sufficient number of debuff touches going, you SC cast a rime'd chill touch, and proceed to TWF in the following couple rounds.

Assuming a starting dex of 20, and a pair of +1 weapons. With elec, cold, acid elemental touch running...
Scimitar +3+5+1+2-2: +9 hit 1d6+5+1+2+1d6 +1str + entangle (2d6+8)
Unarmed Attack +3+5+1+2-2: +9 hit 1d4+5+1+2+1d6+1d6+1d6+1d6 +1str + entangle + stagger + sickened + fatigued (4d6+1d4+8)

The elemental touches last 10 rounds, so a good chunk of combat. The Chill touches last for 5 hits, so you'll need to recast every 3-4 rounds. Duration and efficiency increase with level.

Lower damage than shock magus, but the staying power and spell efficiency is pretty remarkable, and so many status effects it'll shut down almost anything. That is one bad touch!

Entangle 1/2 speed, cannot run/charge, -2 attacks, -4 dex, conc check to cast
Fatigue -2 Str/Dex, cannot run/charge
Sickened -2 attacks, -2 damage, -2 saves, -2 skills, -2 ability checks
Staggered move or standard

Oh, and 1 strength damage per hit too.

Anywho, it is just an unusual build I threw together. There are probably ways to improve it. I know TWF is weird, but making full use of multiple touches touch spells makes TWF a pretty solid option.

Scarab Sages

But Chill Touch isnt a [cold] spell, it deals negative energy damage; how did you get it to combine with Rime Spell? I think you meant Frostbite.


Timebomb wrote:
But Chill Touch isnt a [cold] spell, it deals negative energy damage; how did you get it to combine with Rime Spell? I think you meant Frostbite.

Haha... I did, yes.

I didn't have the build in front of me when I wrote it out here, and was going off memory. Frostbite instead of chill touch, that is correct. And then switch to rime elemental touch and regular chill touch later.


How do you add Elemental Touch to your spell list?

Lantern Lodge

Elemental Touch is already on the Magi's spell list (it was added with ultimate combat I believe). Though I'm not sure if it counts as a touch spell, so it might not be deliverable through spellstrike. I'd houserule it could though.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I have a wyrmscourged dwarf barbarian 1/magus 6 in Kingmaker. He wields a dwarven waraxe--one handed when spellstriking/spell combat, two-handed when raging and power attacking.

Traits: Berserker of the Society, Magical Lineage (shocking grasp).
1. Power Attack
3. Dodge
5. Arcane Strike
6. Intensify Spell (bonus magus spell)
7. I totally forgot his 7th level feat...maybe Combat Casting or Combat Reflexes.

He's a 25 point build, so 16, 14, 16, 14, 12, 6. I think. He spends a lot of time enlarged and raging, so Str 22, Dex 12, Con 18.

And he uses (failed) Diplomacy checks as aggro. :-P


FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:
Elemental Touch is already on the Magi's spell list (it was added with ultimate combat I believe). Though I'm not sure if it counts as a touch spell, so it might not be deliverable through spellstrike. I'd houserule it could though.

I just check the PFSRD and it had it as a magus spell. So much for using Paizo prd.


You can always do the Defiler Magus. You play as a Hexcrafter magus and take a 2 level dip into White-Haired Witch. You then abuse Rime spell, Cornugon Smash, the grab ability from your hair, and trip to pretty much debuff anyone within 15 ft of you.

Lantern Lodge

It's in the PRD, just not in the list of spells as found in Ultimate Magic. Elemental Touch came out after the magus was printed, and so it's found in the spell list index (under index) or in the ultimate combat spell lists.


K177Y C47 wrote:
You can always do the Defiler Magus. You play as a Hexcrafter magus and take a 2 level dip into White-Haired Witch. You then abuse Rime spell, Cornugon Smash, the grab ability from your hair, and trip to pretty much debuff anyone within 15 ft of you.

I'm doing this atm, but with only 1 level of WHW. I use the witch spells to cast enlarge person and the Enforcer feat via frostbite - Rimed frostbite grants fatigued/entangle/free intimidate to shaken/free grab to grapple using INT for hitting/damaging/CMB and this gets pretty easy when using Arcane Accuracy to double that INT bonus.

If you really want some extra debuff at the cost of damage output, start with a trip. After all that is piled on the monsters your granny can pretty much hit it with her Zimmer-frame!

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