Magus and Eldritch Scion advice

[Capn Cupcake]

Gotta make this quick. On break at work. I'm playing a Magus in a 3 person party wit a Druid and a Bloodrager. Hex crafter Bladebound. The Bloodrager learned about the Eldritch Scion and it fits her character better but has the same fluff. Will there be too much similar between us and will one greatly overshadow the other? She's planning on doing control stuff Ala color spray and such.

[Robert Carter 58]

I personally wouldn't like it, but every player is different (I like to to be as unique as possible in the party and with a three player party that is certainly possible) It really depends on you. You're both going to be throwing arcane spells, hitting with weapons- most likely in a one handed style, and there's only so much you can do to differentiate. Sure there are SOME things you can do- absolutely (choosing different spells, different races, different weapons, and different archetypes) but at the end of the day you're still both Magus and filling the same niche.

One of you can choose a different role to play. If she's got some back story that she wants to idealize... well, it's probably going to be you , cupcake.

Don't worry, someone will come along in a moment and tell you and me that everything I just said is wrong and nonsensical :)

[Capn Cupcake]

Yeah thats what I was afraid of too. My character's backstory hinges on this too though what with the blackblade and all. The DM and I have worked pretty hard on this but I suppose my character would be the easier one to change. I just sort of have a thing for the swordmage type. I mean hell I have a Red Mage tattoo. But the bloodrager's character is supposed to be an adaptation of her Swordmage from 4e. She liked the Bloodrager with her Fey back round but when she learned about the Eldritch Scion it just made more sense. Same fluff but she can sling spells and swing one handed just like th e old 4e buibuild. I'm not sure what I would do with my Magus if I were to change it.

[Eltacolibre]

The druid is going to overshadow both of you...jokes aside:

In my opinion red mage are more like Bards in my opinion but don't let that stop you from playing whatever you want.

[nate lange]

A hexcrafter and an eldritch scion are significantly different. If either is going to outshine the other it's almost certain to be you outshining her... Eldritch scion is frankly an underpowered archetype- it's got good flavor but their 'mystical focus' clutters their (already busy) swift action economy, burns through their eldritch pool quickly, and severely limits their ability to use spell combat; hexcrafter on the other hand grants hexes which are a nearly limitless resource.

The fact that you both use a 1 handed weapon and cast spells doesn't mean you have to be too similar... She'll play up the fey flavor and pick spells that go with that, you can play up the hexes and pick spells with a totally different feel.

That said, I agree with TheFreeTaco- bard is more like a Red Mage IMO (they get a handful of 'white magic' like Cure spells).

[Capn Cupcake]

Bards tend to play a more support oriented role and get a ton of utility skills and spells, whereas Red Mage in Final Fantasy usually get damage blasty type spells, cure spells, and strong melee combat. I agree Bards are a great take on the versatile thing, it's just in a slightly different direction than what I prefer personally. With Hexcrafter I can take healing hexes to cover the minor healing aspect, and get my spellstabbing goodness too.

But I digress, that's another topic altogether. All in all we've come to the conclusion of just letting her stay as the Bloodrager and keeping it at that. The Eldrich Scion absolutely oozes the flavor she wants, but it's mechanically wanting, and I'm not out to outshine anyone. I want everyone to have a blast playing and so does she. That said, I would be interested in building a card caster/eldrich scion sometime for kicks (at least I'm pretty sure you can combine those. Maybe not). The idea behind it is since you're not really going to be using spell combat anyway you can make use of all the cool battlefield control spells a bit better, and there's something really cool about attaching an acid orb to every card you throw.

[Johnny_Devo]

There's a homebrew topic floating around that builds an entirely new gish class using some elements of magus and eldritch scion. The basic idea of a non-barbarian arcane melee sorcerer. Maybe you'll want to take a look at that?