Christian Chaney's page

First off I wish people would let us know if they've actually play tested the class or are just crunching numbers and speculating. The other night we did a 7th playtest with 3 consecutive encounters to test the durability of the Magus and Summoner. The other characters were a Barbarian (Giant Instinct), a sorcerer (arcane), and a Fighter. We went with these classes to also compare damage output per fight. The 3 encounters were:

1) 3 chuul's
2) 3 flesh golems
3) 1 adult black dragon

Our Magus would often on his first round use invisibility and spellstrike while getting into position while the eidolon, fighter, and barbarian would take the front line, the summoner hanging in the back to fill in as needed. The sorcerer was king of the damage in the first fight with the barbarian, fighter, summoner, and magus all coming in about equal.
The flesh golems were tough and pounded the barbarian, but with a heightened jump spell on the eidolon and the magus putting his stride ability to good use were able to get behind them so the group could get flanking. It was a tough fight, but the magus was 1st in damage with his use of produce flame on his spell strike vs the golems. Barbarian was 2nd, fighter and summoner were about the same. The sorcerer actually healed on of them forgetting when he cast a lightning bolt... hahaha
The black dragon (which we expected to loose the fight) was rough, but with 2 crits in a row from the barbarian we won (purely by luck). The summoner ended up playing medic trying to keep people alive with heal, while the eidolon would move to absorb the AoO (he only made on attack on the dragon, but did hit and it was equal damage to the group fighter). The fight was crazy, the fighters shield was destroyed when he blocked a crit on the barbarian, but that kept the barbarian up. The magus also had shield block, as did the summoner. The shields honestly were the reason we succeeded.

My take away is that while 4 spells for the magus are too tight, 6 spells work. While its a little tricky to figure out what to do with the summoner when your friends are dying and you have a heal spell, the rest of the time it's a fun class and didn't ever feel like I was repeating my actions over and over again. I know our Magus felt the same, his heightened invisibility was his favorite and with that cruised around and got several crits bumping up the effect of his spell strike.

I will fully admit that when I first read the Magus I thought "What are they thinking, this will not work" but after actually playtesting (a lot) I am please to report I was wrong.

Man, this was quite the read. I'm going to have to disagree on the hit point pool. My playtest, 1st, 4th, and 7th level consisted of a Magus, Fighter, Summoner, and Ranger. We took those classes so we could compare similar classes. At 1st level the Ranger and his animal companion was better than the summoner in HP. I played a primal summoner so with magic fang my beast eidolon had a +7 to hit and dealt 2d8+7 damage (with the boost eidolon), on a charge a +8 to hit. The summoner did some really awesome damage, but we did go down a few times where the ranger and his animal companion never went down and also dealt really good damage with his Precision Hunter's Edge.

By 4th level my summoner had shield block and armor proficiency and was not nearly so squishy. I took alacritous evolution (the increased move really helped out). I thought about tandem move but up to that point thought the greater movement would be better. Now armed with a +1 striking khopesh I had no need for magic fang. Enlarge was suiting me just fine. The reach was extremely helpful for assisting the party with flanking. Also at this point the rangers animal companion was taking crits more often and went down several times. The only time my summoner went down was when we were ambushed and I got nailed with a nat 20 and max damage, hahaha.

At 7th level I had up to medium armor and both my eidolon and myself had an AC of 27. Equal to both the fighter and the magus. I had a +13 to hit with my +1 khopesh and my eidolon was sitting on a +16 and dealt 2d8+9 (when boosted). I was still rocking enlarge because hulking evolution doesn't grant reach, and with a 3rd level jump my eidolon was all over the map. With my sturdy shield my summoner was up in the fight, but mostly to provide flanking. We even fought a group of 3 hill giants and my eidolon squared off against two of them for a round. Yes I took a bit of damage but was able to heal most of it. The rangers animal companion died in that fight, almost every hit on it was a crit and after the ranger healed it with his healing focus spell he got crit again and was dead.

Over all I loved the feel of the class! It's a pet class for sure, but has such a different feel than the druid or ranger. I enjoyed the 2 characters immensely, and I strongly suspect there will be additional feats or items that will increase the damage die of the eidolon. I do hope the make some changes and I'm sure they will. Overall this a very solid start to a really cool class concept. Sorry to those of you that are hung up on the "Summoning" aspect or wording, but animal companions already exist with the ranger, druid, animal tamer, and beastmaster. I really don't think we need a 5th at this point?

I ran a primal summoner on Saturday and loved it. At 1st level with magic fang my beast eidolon had a +7 to hit (+8 on a good charge) and was dealing 2d8+7 with the boost eidolon. If I had some extra prep evolution surge boosted its move up to 45' which with charge put it almost out of range. Most of the time my summoner hide behind his shield with a potion in hand (he had shield block).

My first impressions are:

1) Sustaining Steel isn't very viable. The temp hp is trivial, it would be better if they were able to make an attack as part of casting the spell after using Striking Spell.

2) Everyone will take Martial Caster out of necessity. 4 spells per day is fine for an encounter, but 2 or 3 encounters... You will have to turn to scrolls and other consumables to remain competitive at higher levels. (Something that might help is your spell slot returning if your spell never goes off after Striking Spell)But I do think they need maybe up to 6 spells a day, 2-2-2 and martial caster bringing it up to 8 with 2-2-2-2.

3) This is billed as a melee class that bolsters itself with magic and advertises using a lot of cantrips during the course of your adventure, but at 11th level I'm really not super keen on roling 3d8+6d4+mods for every attack that I land. Not to mention then cutting that d4 damage in half, most of the time. (Maybe this is an issue of real dice vs. apps?). Maybe with a cantrip it adds additional weapon damage of that elemental type (no save for half) bases on your level. I just see this being extremely cumbersome at higher levels. Could just be me though.

4) It looks like a fun class when the kinks get worked out. I feel a lot of people are going to put it into the mold of "I'm a spell caster that can also wield swords and wear armor" not "I'm a warrior that can infuse my attacks with magic."

5) A little worried about HP. Needing Str or Dex, and Int does not leave a lot of room for Con. As such gaining 8hp per level and being a front line fighter. I feel it will be akin to the barbarian as you get hit a lot and get some good crits against you, but you only get one attack to pull of the high damage where the barbarian can just swing away with abandon.

Anyways, these are just my initial thoughts. I'll post more after I play it this weekend

I don't view Sustaining Steel very viable in it's current form. The temporary hit points gained are trivial. Especially at higher levels. A 4th level spell will give you 8hp while the monsters typically deal significantly more damage than that. Of course it helps, but if the player has chosen a two-handed weapon they want to be up in the combat! In its current form I would never select this option.

I would suggest allowing the player to make an attack with the weapon as part of casting the spell after using Striking Spell. It accomplishes the same thing as Slide Casting, but you are putting yourself in more danger by having to be within reach of your enemies. Greater risk, greater reward with you massive two-handed weapon. It will also make some of the other feats, such as Steady Spellcasting, more desirable.

Thank you for all your hard work and allowing us the opportunity to try these new classes out!