Kalaam's page

I mean, you wouldn't use such a spell just on a PL+2 boss. That's the kind of spells that'd be handed to deal with ennemies way over the party's punching weight.

I can imagine something busted like "For the next minute up to 4 creatures of your choice start their turn with 4 actions instead of 3." like Haste but with no limitation.
Or plot related spells that undue the effects of major curses or artifacts. I think most won't be combat related, but we might have a couple.

The one in our party likely does too lol

Iruxi or kholo really were the most logical choice for a necromancer iconic, I really like Usharak. Hope we see them pop up in some adventures or stories !

It's either that or you retain 1 slot from the lower rank spells (so like 1 1 1 2 2 at 10 or 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 at 20)

Basically 1 round cast time versions of what would be ritual effects is what I expect. The kind of thing that will have narrative impact and some mechanical one.

Yeah to the extent that the spells are going to mess with maths, I think it's going to be letting players punch far above their weight class. IDK, you slap the Level 20 BBEG with something that makes them effectively level 10. Stuff like disregarding immunities on their own just doesn't seem narratively satisfying.

I mean that's an example but it's also a way to fight something above your weight class. Remove a high resistance or immunity of a particular boss creature that's high level and dangerous specifically because of it (say remove the magic immunity of some golem, or the resistances of a dragon)

Yeah basically single use rule change spells in a way. Stuff like "Nobody is immune to X for the duration" or something like that. Ways to counter artifact like abilities

Weapon rune tatoos for unarmed would be pretty dope honestly.
We already have several ancestries that have have armor runes carve don their scales and such after all.

Wasn't aware it was a thing in starfinder. Might be a "improbable" spell then :p

Kalaam wrote:

Same. And yeah Impossible Spells hopefully are the kind of insane broken stuff that will feel memorable whenever you get to use one.

I would have to suspect that such a spell would also have some long lasting effect/repercussion.

I think it'll be a mix of spells that redefine a story (permanent/long lasting, comparable to ritual effects) or that just break the maths in combat but can only be used once. Like "next attack the target makes will be a critical hit regardless of target DC" or something

Same. And yeah Impossible Spells hopefully are the kind of insane broken stuff that will feel memorable whenever you get to use one.

I think arcane cascade's base damage is fine as is since it makes your normal strike damage be equal to a fighter's. Thematically it's cool that this mixing of martial and magical abilities is what makes you equal to a specialist martial in some ways.

Having more feats of situations that make use of cascade to do more than a bit of extra damage would be great though.

I wish they just pillaged half of my homebrew lol (my ankles are fine, thank you)

I also think it's mostly several small to medium changes.

Keep in mind that even IF it got a focus spell meant for spellstrike it wouldn't recharge it...since it's already charged when you use it.
Could also just make all focus spells recharge spellstrike, and either remove the ability to spellstrike with focus or not. But if they do I hope it's to compensate an increase in other stuff (namely "off turns" options)

It'd honestly be a shame. There isn't any deep identity stuff that needs to change, but they do need some in depth look at least. Not in depth changes but ya know...

But well, guess we'll have some more years of people touting how much better Magus is if you just ignore all the class feats and abilities and just take focus spells elswhere.

Unless you're a mammal, in which case it'll be warm.

I remember that being said a while ago yeah.

I'm seeing a ...30% chance wave casting changes to leaving you with 1 slot per previous ranks or something like that. If it is what changes

Thanks

I hope someone will do a writeup soon

Nice ! Probably won't be able to watch, but looking forward to recaps !

Ooh, when is that ?

Honestly for Inventor I had figured they'd made the Unstable DC start at 5 and increase as you use unstable actions in combat. Resetting after taking time to tune up your invention. (Then you got feats that lets you ignore it once etc etc)

Thing is they don't really need big changes. But a lot of small ones in different places. Maybe a couple of "big" ones that take half a paragraph.
So it being a new book should give more than enough room for it. Question is: will it be done.

Lowkey scared lol
Especially with how people in the community are being heavily critical of how inventor and psychic got touched up or not in their own remastered books.

Imagine and old stubborn wizard writing infuriated notes about how whatever he is describing contradicts every laws of magic he knew and it shouldn't work.

Getting increasingly upset and standofish as it goes on.
Like AVGN but a wizard

Thanks for setting the expectations right Maya !

There's no event planned until the release isn't there ?

Just a couple of feats screenshots

I immediately thought of Final Fantasy 6. I kind of picture Terra as a Sorcerer. Celes could maybe be a Magus?

Pretty much, maybe with a summoner dedication with meld into eidolon for terra and her trance form.

And yeah Celes is 100% a magus with Magical Experiment (elemental resistance I guess) as her background. Cascade Countermeasure+Spell Parry+Capture Magic+Preternatual Parry all fit her very well.

Best you can do is adapt a character, translate it, but not port it

I do find the decision to apply the resistance to a single chosen damage type, rather than to the total sum of damage, a little curious though. Wouldn't that mean you won't benefit from your full resistance in some edge cases?

I mean, maybe but it's under your control then.

The one tricky part I imagine will be VTT implementation honestly. And while for champion i think the change is fine, for all other classes that had a very low amount of resistance to all, but was a constant rather than a reaction (like the often brought up barbarian resistance feat(?)) it feels quite a bit worse. But well, if it becomes an issue, another errata can address it.

Battlecry and Draconic Codex were great. I love both of them.

I only wish I had more opportunities to use all that draconic goodness within my group lol

Hasted Assault comes in a bit too late to really be good imo. At this point scrolls or potions of hastes are easy enough to get, and the restriction to attack only as you said makes it a bit tricky.
I'd kind of like it to be something other than Haste-lite, maybe a reaction focus spell that lets you do another attack after finishing a strike, at the same MAP.

A pricey combo, but probably devastating.

Yeah i know that's what's weird

I remember the bit of rule about cleric/champion following pantheons that they still need to follow a particular god within it (at gm discretion etc). But for a philosphy without any god that's a bit weird.
Seems to be a case where it's up to your GM to allow it or not. Couldn't find anything clear about that in the rules. The classes themselves call for following a specific deity granting you powers.

It's a bit weird to get powers from a godless faith/philosophy though. Does it really work like that?

That's if you want both, if only one is enough there is more deity choices thankfully.
Otherwise all Magi would be either hippies or weebs lol

Honestly a feat like 1e Spell Blending or Broad Studies arcana (if I recall the name right) to be able to adapt a focus spell from a different tradition could be interresting. Maybe only for offensive ones tho. Something like "select one focus spell from the wizard, cleric or druid lists that has the attack trait and is of a level you could cast, you adapt it into your own magic and reproduce it as a conflux spell" or something like that.

Yeah I know those are focus spells. I believe they are so good in big part because they are a renewable ressource so missing with them feels less like a waste.

Maybe attack spells should be relegated to focus spells mainly/only but then it means most of them are hard to access without multiclass, which means a lot of builds will be samey.
Converting more of them into slot spells would be good, I don't see much reasons not to do so, even if it's straight up the exact same spell with no change. Their value as focus spells wouldn't be diminished by that.

And the more I think about it, the more I think keeping focus spellstrike in but letting any focus spell recharge it so it's a tactical choice when to use them for different purpose might be the simplest way to go about it

I mean there is some that do damage and another effect, and while they aren't the highest damage spells (because they have other utility) it's nice to see more of those.
Even Fire Ray and Winter Bolt, two very popular focus spells to grab for that, have powerful utility (forcing a movement/interract action to avoid more damage).
You can't really have that on cantrips, it makes the spells feel more unique than *just* different damage types.

From the top of my head i'm thinking of Sticky Fire and Threefold Limb as that's what I have access to with my current character, but i think there's some others.

To be fair quite a few focus spells could be reflavored in the normal spell pool for that >.>
Fire Ray into acid damage, name i Caustic Beam.
Winter Bolt into raw physical, with earth or metal trait and call it Shattering Spire Spear.

Then again it'd probably be easier for paizo to write new attack spells if it was easier for other casters to make use of them.

I think if you wanted to raise the floor of what the Magus can do without raising the ceiling, you could just make the bonus damage apply to cantrips only, without having it apply to slot spells as well. It might make slot attack spells less attractive by comparison, and I honestly think that's fine; the Magus in my opinion is a much more diverse class when they're not pushed to use their four spell slots to Spellstrike or otherwise try to deal raw single-target damage.

I think it might also be an issue in itself, there's so few attack spells already and slotted ones have the power budget to be more than just damage, including rider effects or special benefits of different kinds that are a big part of the fantasy I think.

To be fair, I'd imagine in the coming months there is enough time for small adjustements before everything is fully locked in and going to the printer.

I honestly feel comparing anything to an optimized fighter is unfair tbh.

I think making all focus spells recharge spellstrike along with giving better conflux spells would expand the value of all focus spells and make it a choice of whether to spellstrike with one or use it to recharge while doing or ranged strike or something

I'm honestly struggling to understand what are the points trying to be made here

Kalaam, if have a question on Conflux Focus if you are playing with the Mythic Rule set why would you need Conflux Focus when you could take Mythic Refocus at 8th level?

The rest of your work is great and I have added it.

I didn't design the rework with variant systems in mind, so for the same reason you would or wouldn't take the refocus upgrade feats on other classes at that level ! :D It's just the standard upgrade feat that every class with focus spells has at level 14.

Hope you can share some feedback on how your use of it goes !

Could also have a wand of manifold missile active while using, say, a rapier or longsword instead. And maybe LS with. A flat footed enemy due to being under 4th rank invisibility
All stuff the magus gets within its chassis. Using it fully would be a fairer comparison

Kalaam wrote:

I just meant there is more that direct damage. Rider effects that make an enemy waste actions, lower their offensive ability, force them to move etc etc when you wouldn't one shot them anyway allow for more damage to go their way.

It's also more dynamic and fun imo to have that kind of ability

That's fair, but most of the rider effects I've seen used were to make the enemies easier to hit in some manner or another, by reducing AC, saves, ect.

I fully agree that it is more dynamic and fun, unfortunately the game is also rather tightly balanced and fun can get you absolutely wrecked. Which is something of a problem.

Those too are imo fun rider effects to play with. In the end it's all to deal more damage (or more consistent, etc etc) but in different ways.

Kalaam wrote:

Conclusion: Spellstriking with cantrip won't require recharge

This accomplishes...what? The demo above uses a focus spell and still falls behind. Cantrip spellstrike itself doesn't do enough damage to compete without force fang's free damage to follow up. That's also why any other recharge mechanisms wouldn't matter anyway.

It'd give a bit more flexibility, but at the same time smokescreen doing other stuff, or maybe not, hard to tell.

I'd argue the magus using Cascading Ray against a secondary target might be an interresting comparaison tool tho. Since it uses the same MAP as the spellstrike (assuming maxxed int, basically a -4 ranged attack)