Greetings,
I know that the Bulmahn is a male, but I would still deign to assist him in the betterment of my Class and so I give this Playtest report of my endeavours this past night.
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Module: The Skinsaw Murders
Exploring Foxglove's Townhouse and The Seven's Sawmill
Party Setup: 5th Level Party
Paladin
Rogue
Swashbuckler (Tome of Secrets)
Fighter
Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer
Priest of Sarenrae (Tome of Secrets)
and Me
Battles and Party Contribution:
Unfortunately I missed the battle in Foxglove's Townhouse as three of us (the Lawful ones - Paladin, Fighter and Me) went to request assistance from the authorities in gaining entrance to the dwelling lawfully. While we were gone, the rest simply helped themselves and fought what lay within without us.
We have however fought one group of four Skinsaw Cultists (and I believe we are about to fight another), so I will relate that battle to you:
Paladin was tied up the entire battle by the water wheels machinery. :(
Rogue didn't do anything in the battle.
Swashbuckler helped take out one Cultist and then attempted to help rescue the Paladin.
Fighter helped take out two Cultists.
Sorcerer cast two poorly rolled Magic Missiles.
Priest also helped take out two Cultists.
And I took out one Cultist alone, although it wasn't as quick as it should have been.
Final Analysis, Thoughts, and Suggestions:
While it wasn't much of a fight, I still noticed a few things.
1) At early levels, it can be difficult to make the Concentration check needed to properly pull off Spell Combat. As such I believe that it is vital that a Magus take Combat Casting. As such I feel that they should receive this Feat for free at 1st or 2nd level, since one shouldn't have to spend a Feat slot on something that practically every Magus needs to take.
2) While I ended up making the Concentration Check, I didn't make the Attack Roll to hit. :(
I know it gets better, but -4 to hit makes using Spell Comabt fail more often than it works. I managed to hit the following round no problem and insta killed my opponent using the Shocking Grasp I cast the round before, but casting in one round and then hitting in the next is poor resource management when I simply could have cast the Shocking Grasp and (probably) killed the guy vs. Touch AC in one round rather than wait and try it against using his regular AC in the next.
3) I didn't cast my buffs for the fight because with the few buffs I had available, I didn't want to waste them in case we came up against something harder upstairs.
4) My biggest problem was the lack of Touch Spells available to use with Spellstrike. I realize you've stated that more Touch spells will be available in Ultimate Magic, I still can't see there being the amount necessary to give me the flexibility and choice I need when using pretty much the core ability of my Class. I think that a few of the existing ones should definately be included (Touch of Fatigue and Vampiric Touch I'm looking at you specifically) on the Spell List.
This doesn't affect the Playtest specifically, but I feel I must bring this up as well: In regards to the long term playability of this Playtest Class (I'd like to continue playing her in our regular Pen & Paper game) I feel that only having one Touch Spell available to me means that at later Levels I will pretty much have to use up every 1st Level Spell slot on Shocking Grasp as I will have no other alternatives for using Spellstrike. To me this is very annoying, sorry
I'm also wondering why Energy Resistance selections weren't abvailable?
Also regarding Spells, I am questioning why a number of the ones on my Class List are there (Beast Shape and Elemantal Body for starters).
Why Invisibility but no Vanish?
I also realize that it treads on the Summoners toes a little, but I think Summon Monster might be a good inclusion as well.
All in all I wasn't happy with some aspects of my performance, but since I insta killed my opponent (not counting the time it took me to do so) when I did hit, I didn't think I went to shabby either.
P.S. If you hadn't figured it out, this Alias is the Character I used and has everything included as I played it. :)
