Houseruling a Better Spellblade

[OpFarce]

I really like the flavor of the magus's Spellblade archetype. Maybe this is just me, but in terms of flavor/concept I just don't think Spellstrike is all that cool. I don't think it's uncool, necessarily, but to me the fantasy of the magus is less about hitting stuff really hard with a magically charged sword and more about being a tricky, flexible melee combatant who swords things with one hand and wields magic with the other, using their spells to complement their martial prowess with extra damage, mobility, and utility. That's why the idea of an archetype like the Spellblade that sacrifices Spellstrike for more power and flexibility in straight melee appeals to me, and why it's kind of a shame that the Spellblade is what it is.

The problem, of course, is that the Spellblade just can't justify itself mechanically. Spellstrike is kind of the magus' #1 thing, and while the Force Athame is a neat trick with some redeeming qualities (force damage, dual arcane pool enhancement), it's not good enough to replace what you're giving up, especially not when it comes with some unnecessary feat and arcana taxes. The obvious first step for Spellblade houserules, then, is cleaning those up: let the Spellblade have Pool-Sourced Athame for free when they get the dagger, and let them use the dagger as though they had Two-Weapon Fighting without buying the feat. (I'd probably also let them have Improved and Greater Two-Weapon Fighting when they hit the appropriate BAB, though that's maybe not as much of a no-brainer.) I'd also toss in Throw Athame and Spellblade Parry as free level-up bonuses (mostly because they're not very great and you'd never use an arcana on them), and give the magus the ability to spend an arcane pool point to keep the dagger after using those abilities so they go from "a big waste of resources for minor results" to "a smaller waste of resources for minor results." Oh, and I'd let the Enduring Blade arcana boost the duration of the athame, because there's no reason why it shouldn't.

Even with those quality of life improvements, though, I'm not sure the Spellblade stacks up. I feel like it needs some other signature ability to make up for Spellstrike, and I've got a few ideas kicking around for what that could be--regenerating arcane pool points like a Gunslinger/Swashbuckler, making them better at spell combat, giving them a way to use spell combat and the athame in the same round, throwing in bonus arcana and/or pool points, some combination of those things--but that seems like the place where you really run the risk of throwing things off-balance. Does anybody have ideas for additional abilities that might make a viable alternative to Spellstrike, or any solutions they've used in games that worked out well?

[Cyrad]

They made a better designed spellblade called the Mindblade in Occult Adventures. It doesn't replace spellstrike, but it's way more playable than Spellblade. Even if spellstrike doesn't float your boat, it's still pretty useful to have. I suppose you could replace it with the ability to throw the mindblade or transform it into a blast attack?

Brief tangent: Adding a regeneration mechanic into arcane pool is a really bad idea. As I explain in this article, grit and arcane pool have very different economies. You especially don't want to screw with that in a class that can spend points to regain spells.

[OpFarce]

Cyrad wrote:

They made a better designed spellblade called the Mindblade in Occult Adventures. It doesn't replace spellstrike, but it's way more playable than Spellblade. Even if spellstrike doesn't float your boat, it's still pretty useful to have. I suppose you could replace it with the ability to throw the mindblade or transform it into a blast attack?

Brief tangent: Adding a regeneration mechanic into arcane pool is a really bad idea. As I explain in this article, grit and arcane pool have very different economies. You especially don't want to screw with that in a class that can spend points to regain spells.

The Mindblade is interesting, but I guess the thing I'm looking for is less of a focus on the summoned weapon and more of a focus on spell combat. There's no reason you can't just build a magus that uses spell combat more than they use spellstrike while still having it as an option, of course, but it'd be nice to have an alternate class option to enhance that approach. At some point, though, it probably makes more sense to design that as a new archetype rather than trying to bang the Spellblade into something workable, since the athame wouldn't do terribly much for a spell combat-focused magus and you'd basically end up with a different archetype that just kind of has the athame as a neat trick they can maybe do if they want anyway. It's something to think about, at least.

I'll buy that letting the magus regenerate pool points is a bad idea though, it was an idea I had kicking around but didn't necessarily think through.