Hey everyone, thought I would share my newest build and put it out there. It mostly follows the tried-and-tested formulas, but I have made a few changes just to round the character out. He is picking up a little bit of 3rd party stuff - the GM is allowing pretty much anything on the SRD, but I have tried to keep such choices to a minimum.
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Elf Magus, level 1, 20 point buy
10, 18, 12, 17, 8, 10
Okay, I know charisma is the better choice to generally loose here, but I chose to use this setup for a couple of reasons:
1) RP. The idea of this guy is that he is unhealthily curious, and a poor Wis score reflects this.
2) The rest of the party are all using Cha as a dump stat - SOMEONE has to be the face-guy.
Lastly, I don't want to min-max this guy too much - RP is important to me, and I'd rather not have to play someone who has 7 in both Wis and Cha...
Feat:
Weapon finesse
Traits:
Reactionary, Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp)
He is going to be going the Dervish Dance route, and simply using his backup short sword until he hits level 3 and picks up the feat.
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Feat plan:
3rd - Dervish Dance
5th - Weapon Focus: Scimitar
5th - Craft Wonderous Item
7th - Intensify Spell
9th - Spell Penetration
11th - Improved Critical - Scimitar
11th - Greater Spell Penetration
13th - Critical Focus
15th: - Sickening Critical
17th: - Accurate Critical (3pp)
17th: -
19th: -
Arcana plan:
3rd: Arcane Accuracy
6th: Empowered Magic
6th: Wave of Mutilation(3pp)
9th: Spell Blending
12th: Critical Strike
12th: Maximized Magic
15th: Quickened Magic
18th: Extemporaneous Metamagic (+3, so maximize!) (3pp)
18th: Piercing Strike (3pp)
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Thoughts? I took the item crafting feat so that we can have access to plenty of decent magical gear early on, and it really only replaced Arcane Strike - which to me, is pretty much only used on mooks, which the little extra damage is not all that necessary against.
Oh hey, I totally forgot about the counting half my level as fighter level - though I would probably be far better served by taking Greater Weapon Focus. Most of my damage comes from my spell combat after all, and that 3/4 BAB really hurts.
I took reactionary because going first in combat is such a useful thing, though Clever Wordplay sounds like an incredibly useful thing to have
Not a fan of your Arcana choices or really your feat choices.
I would make sure to pick up feats like Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell (Shocking Grasp) so you can cast it spontaneously and not have to prepare it anymore.
This is especially effective with the magus as you get spell recall which means you can prepare any old spell (let's say a utility spell) and at the toss of a hat change it in for a Shocking Grasp, then later on use Spell Recall to just get the spell back. If done correctly, this turns your Arcane Pool into 15d6 bursts of damage.
Remember to actually pick up Empowered Spell and Quicken Spell as the Arcanas for them are very weak choices as they can only be used once a day. Elemental Spell is also a good choice.
You will also want to nab Spell Perfection at 15th on Shocking Grasp, so at the cost of a 1st level spell (really just an arcane point) you can cast shocking grasp as part of spell combat and not lose out on the spell slot.
I would also recommend checking out the Dimensional Dervish feat chain.
Not a fan of your Arcana choices or really your feat choices.
I would make sure to pick up feats like Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell (Shocking Grasp) so you can cast it spontaneously and not have to prepare it anymore.
This is especially effective with the magus as you get spell recall which means you can prepare any old spell (let's say a utility spell) and at the toss of a hat change it in for a Shocking Grasp, then later on use Spell Recall to just get the spell back. If done correctly, this turns your Arcane Pool into 15d6 bursts of damage.
Remember to actually pick up Empowered Spell and Quicken Spell as the Arcanas for them are very weak choices as they can only be used once a day. Elemental Spell is also a good choice.
You will also want to nab Spell Perfection at 15th on Shocking Grasp, so at the cost of a 1st level spell (really just an arcane point) you can cast shocking grasp as part of spell combat and not lose out on the spell slot.
I would also recommend checking out the Dimensional Dervish feat chain.
Where are you getting the 15d6 of damage from? Closest I can tell is from incorrectly stacking Empowered Spell and Intensify Spell - as far as I know, each metamagic feat is applied separately to the base spell, so that can give a maximum of 12d6.
Preferred spell is still an interesting choice, though needing that pre-req hurts a bit.
I really don't agree with the metamagic arcanas being weak - they are FREE metamagic effects, though the Empowered one I took mostly because I didn't see anything better for that level, and it is a nice little bonus once a day.
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Not a fan of your Arcana choices or really your feat choices.
I would make sure to pick up feats like Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell (Shocking Grasp) so you can cast it spontaneously and not have to prepare it anymore.
This is especially effective with the magus as you get spell recall which means you can prepare any old spell (let's say a utility spell) and at the toss of a hat change it in for a Shocking Grasp, then later on use Spell Recall to just get the spell back. If done correctly, this turns your Arcane Pool into 15d6 bursts of damage.
Remember to actually pick up Empowered Spell and Quicken Spell as the Arcanas for them are very weak choices as they can only be used once a day. Elemental Spell is also a good choice.
You will also want to nab Spell Perfection at 15th on Shocking Grasp, so at the cost of a 1st level spell (really just an arcane point) you can cast shocking grasp as part of spell combat and not lose out on the spell slot.
I would also recommend checking out the Dimensional Dervish feat chain.
Where are you getting the 15d6 of damage from? Closest I can tell is from incorrectly stacking Empowered Spell and Intensify Spell - as far as I know, each metamagic feat is applied separately to the base spell, so that can give a maximum of 12d6.
Preferred spell is still an interesting choice, though needing that pre-req hurts a bit.
I really don't agree with the metamagic arcanas being weak - they are FREE metamagic effects, though the Empowered one I took mostly because I didn't see anything better for that level, and it is a nice little bonus once a day.
Don't invest too heavily in Shocking Grasp if you anticipate encountering very many demons. Weapon Specialization is a feat that works on all opponents, on every single hit. It adds up over time.
Not a fan of your Arcana choices or really your feat choices.
I would make sure to pick up feats like Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell (Shocking Grasp) so you can cast it spontaneously and not have to prepare it anymore.
This is especially effective with the magus as you get spell recall which means you can prepare any old spell (let's say a utility spell) and at the toss of a hat change it in for a Shocking Grasp, then later on use Spell Recall to just get the spell back. If done correctly, this turns your Arcane Pool into 15d6 bursts of damage.
Remember to actually pick up Empowered Spell and Quicken Spell as the Arcanas for them are very weak choices as they can only be used once a day. Elemental Spell is also a good choice.
You will also want to nab Spell Perfection at 15th on Shocking Grasp, so at the cost of a 1st level spell (really just an arcane point) you can cast shocking grasp as part of spell combat and not lose out on the spell slot.
I would also recommend checking out the Dimensional Dervish feat chain.
Where are you getting the 15d6 of damage from? Closest I can tell is from incorrectly stacking Empowered Spell and Intensify Spell - as far as I know, each metamagic feat is applied separately to the base spell, so that can give a maximum of 12d6.
Preferred spell is still an interesting choice, though needing that pre-req hurts a bit.
I really don't agree with the metamagic arcanas being weak - they are FREE metamagic effects, though the Empowered one I took mostly because I didn't see anything better for that level, and it is a nice little bonus once a day.
10 d6 from intensified multiplied by 1.5 for empowered maths out the same as 15d6.
If you are concerned with immune enemies I would recommend either Elemental Spell or Preferred Spell (Vampiric Touch) to keep the damage going.
Don't invest too heavily in Shocking Grasp if you anticipate encountering very many demons. Weapon Specialization is a feat that works on all opponents, on every single hit. It adds up over time.
A good point - I'm quite sold on preferred spell to allow me to cast it effectively spontaneously, but Spell Perfection seems to not really be necessary for it.
On the other hand, I could take Spell Perfection on something like Vampiric Touch, and Maximise it for free. It is a fantastic spell to use either at the start of a combat you know is going to be damage heavy, or as an emergency save spell. Letting it punch through SR when you absolutely NEED it too is even better.
I do have some feat slots in the higher levels open for weapon spec, but at that point in time a couple extra points of weapon damage isn't going to be a huge deal
10 d6 from intensified multiplied by 1.5 for empowered maths out the same as 15d6.
If you are concerned with immune enemies I would recommend either Elemental Spell or Preferred Spell (Vampiric Touch) to keep the damage going.
Ah - Another situation of me misreading feat text - I thought Empower worked by giving extra dice equal to half the number of total dice. This makes it a MUCH better metamagic than I thought!
Alright, how does this look?
3rd - Dervish Dance
5th - Weapon Focus: Scimitar
5th - Intensify Spell
7th - Heighten Spell
9th - Empowered Spell
11th - Preferred Spell: Shocking Grasp
11th - Preferred Spell: Vampiric Touch
13th - Spell Penetration
15th - Greater Spell Penetration
17th - Spell Perfection: Shocking Grasp
17th - Greater Weapon Focus: Scimitar
19th - Spell Perfection: Vampiric Touch
I am thinking of dropping Greater Weapon Focus in order to take Quicken Spell - the +4 to spell level makes it not particularly viable until I have Spell Perfection, and until then I still have a 1/day free use of it.
A revised version of the above list:
3rd - Dervish Dance
5th - Weapon Focus: Scimitar
5th - Intensify Spell
7th - Heighten Spell
9th - Preferred Spell: Shocking Grasp
11th - Preferred Spell: Vampiric Touch
11th - Spell Penetration
13th - Greater Spell Penetration
15th - Spell Perfection: Shocking Grasp
17th - Quicken Spell
17th - Spell Perfection: Vampiric Touch
19th - Maximize Spell
I dropped Empower as it didn't really add a huge amount to the build, and it let me shift everything into an earlier slot. I put Shocking Grasp's Spell Perfection at 15, despite not having much to really make use of the free metamagic (well, I suppose I could heighten it, but that is not exactly useful in most situations). However, it most certainly has the most fantastic benefit of doubling the bonus given by the Spell Penetration feats, which should come in handy.
At 17, I pick up both Quicken and Perfection on Vamp touch, so between the two spells I can double-cast them in combat all day, mixing and matching to suit my needs. I still have two free uses of maximize and one of Quicken from my Arcana, which I can use as needed, especially to quicken buff spells.
19 brings Maximize to the party, which gives me the rather nasty ability to quicken one spell then smash in with a maximized one... even after moving.
You can only take spell perfection once, and as for the one trick thing... really you haven't don't forget you have an entire spell list of things to do.
Personal opinion: you've built a one-trick pony. You will be at a severe disadvantage in fights where that one trick fails.
Well, between Shocking Grasp and Vampiric Touch I should cover pretty much all my bases, and my boosting of my ability to penetrate SR should definitely make sure my hits count. I am even able to keep both spells unprepared and instead keep a nice variety of spells up my sleeve.
My main issue, I think, is my rather pathetic attack modifier. I think I shall be making room for Accurate Strike in my Arcana selection - if all else fails, throwing these attacks against touch AC is a neat trick to help end fights quickly
You can only take spell perfection once, and as for the one trick thing... really you haven't don't forget you have an entire spell list of things to do.
Oh damn, right you are. Hmm, I am now at a loss as to which spell to add it to - though Shocking Grasp is one hell of a strong contender due to it being 10d6 for a level 1 slot...
On the other hand, being able to punch through SR like it isn't there and free metamagic has a MUCH more impressive effect on Vamp touch, and will not let me down against things that are immune to electricity
Hmm, what would be the most effective damage type to set with that? Basically, what do things that are immune to electricity NOT usually also immune to?
All you need to hit is INT and arcane accuracy - giving you more spells/day is just gravy.
More INT - more arcane points - more arcane accuracy - more hitting!
Arcane Accuracy was my first port of call when it came to choosing arcanas - it is just plain fantastic. Speaking of, I have updated both it and my feat plan:
FEAT PROGRESSION
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3rd - Dervish Dance
5th - Weapon Focus: Scimitar
5th - Intensify Spell
7th - Heighten Spell
9th - Preferred Spell: Shocking Grasp
11th - Elemental Spell: Acid
11th - Spell Penetration
13th - Greater Spell Penetration
15th - Spell Perfection: Shocking Grasp
17th - Quicken Spell
17th - Greater Weapon Focus: Scimitar
19th - Maximize Spell
ARCANA PROGRESSION
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3rd: Arcane Accuracy
6th: Spell Blending (Touch of Fatigue, Protection from Evil)
6th: Wave of Mutilation(3pp)
9th: Spell Blending (Heroism)
12th: Critical Strike
12th: Maximized Magic
15th: Quickened Magic
18th: Extemporaneous Metamagic (3pp)
18th: Piercing Strike (3pp)
I have replaced the level six ability to cast a spell with a free Empower 1/day with an early Spell Blending - Protection from Evil is a nice little bonus to my survivability, but it is Touch of Fatigue that really did it - a level 0 touch spell. Hell, causing the target to take a save or suck from it is actually just a secondary thought - this is a spell that will likely see some serious use against targets that I simply don't need to blow a spell slot on to kill. If I go with third party spells, I could instead go with Touch of Lethargy, which is rather nice in that it causes stagger.
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A nice little trick - get the cracked Ioun stone that functions as a Ring of Spell Storing but only for level 1 spells, it only costs $2,000 to buy. At higher levels if you have downtime you can start storing - not only 10d6 shocking grasps in them - but Empowered (via the Empowered Magic Arcana) Maximized (via the Maximized Arcana) and one more effect from a metamagic Rod into them - and it still counts as a level 1 spell.
Of course - this risks flying Monster Manuels...
At CL 1...
A ring of spell storing contains up to 5 levels of spells (either divine or arcane, or even a mix of both spell types) that the wearer can cast. Each spell has a caster level equal to the minimum level needed to cast that spell.
You can store you shocking grasp in the ioun stone, but it is stuck forever at 1d6. It's much better for a True Strike imo.
I am already planning on getting my grubby mitts on as many low-level Pearls of Power as I can find - perhaps I shall make them into a pretty necklace?
I don't know the rest of your party makeup but you may be better served blending for resist energy as the Magus list is lacking in that department.
We will have one of the shiny new hunters, and something else - perhaps the new fighter/monk hybrid thing.
When it comes to Spell Blending, I always make sure I pick up Rope Trick and Trapfinder's Focus should I find myself the only arcane caster. Both of them make great spells to have prepared, but to then convert into Shocking Grasp bursts spontaneously then Recall them back into their original prepared forms when I need them.