All numbers given here are wet-finger estimates and placeholder.
Additionally, not all of those ideas HAVE to be considered together, maybe some would work well by themselves but together would be overkill.
My suggestions and analysis rely on a common sentiment I saw and share to an extent that Magus is lacking in some aspect, that some of its design is inconsistent within the class features and the "optimal" options are found outside of the class and its intended design.
I will try to address those as they come in more detail, from my understanding of them.
I do not think nor argue that the class is broken or underpowered, what I address are changes on the level of changing how a cleric's font spells slots are counted between legacy and remaster. Tweaks for a better flow of the class.
Please note I am in no way pretending to be an authority on ttrpg class designs, to be the magus messiah or that I'm in any way smarter than anyone else.
Now, let's us begin.
Base Class Chassis and the value of Spell Slots:
The strategic value of the Magus wave caster slots have been discussed at length.
My takeaway is that, while a very flexible tool due to the Arcane List, the limit on spell numbers and them being only your top levels spells does make a LOT of choices compete for those. Including utility or buffs, some of which wouldn't heighten smoothly but retain value nonetheless.
This issue is likely why the class receives additional lower rank slots in the form of Studious Spells. Slots reserved for a selection of utility and Flavor spells.
The encouragement to use the top slots for offensive spells is further reinforced by several class features and feats that explicitely do work solely when triggered by the use of a spell slot.
Other feats allow more versatility to them, namely Expansive Spellstrike that allows the use of the action compression/delaying of Spellstrike with AoE spells, and Standby Spell that let's you use some/all of your slots for situational/utility spells while still retaining the ability to use those slots for one offensive spell of your choice.
In a vaccuum, this works fine enough and Standby Spell is even a very valuable feat to get more flexibility in your spell preparation (some might argue it would be best as a class feature).
However when taking archetypes into account we turn to an issue: offensive focus spells sidestep this matter entirely.
Focus spells like Imaginary Weapon, Winter Bolt, Fire Ray, Stone Lance, Sun Blade and so on are all on par if not better than some ranked spells for the purpose of spellstrike, and are a renewable ressource.
Their one downside is that you cannot recharge spellstrike from using them.
I have been leaning more and more into removing focus spell compatibility with Spellstrike and will go in detail about it later.
But assuming this issue is gone, or just that we deal with a pure magus with no archetype: is there things to change.
Maybe, here are some options:
Standby Spell is a level 7 class feature
This frees up the selection but honestly seems a bit simplistic to me. It'd have to be replaced as a feat, though level 8 is already pretty frontloaded with 5 others feat that are pretty good.
Striking Spell Slots
Similarly to a Wizard's school slots or a cleric's font spell slots, the class could have an opposite to the studious spells in the form of 2 spellslots locked to spells elibible to spellstrike. Either 1 of each of the two top ranks, or 2 of the highest. This gives the liberty to grab powerful and useful buffs that won't be listed in Studious Spells as they become available and compensate the loss of power from potentially removing focus spell synergy. This also garantee that the captstone class feature will be useful no matter what.
No Change
Leaving things as they are, this does make Stanby Spell extremely desirable however but maybe it isn't an issue.
Core Class Mechanic: Spellstrike and its missing half:
Spellstrike, as others have said, is more of an action deferment than compression. Unless the encounter ends before you recharge it, it'll cost you 3 actions in full.
However, this flexibility in WHEN to pay that 3rd action is one of its big strengths, especially when you can sneak it in with another one or two actions into a single one with conflux spells.
It does lead to a form of clunky routine though, since it's a 2 action activity that counts double for MAP, and it is potentially so strong when using more than a cantrip with it, everything leads to you trying to spam it, or use it as much as possible.
Which in itself isn't that much of an issue.
Its power is normally kept in check by your limited spell slots, and doubles at very high level when you get the option to recast the same spell in your next spellstrike. Making a single slot being used twice in a fight potentially.
The class features and numerous feats (16 out of 45 feats) rely on either being upgrades to Spellstrike, or triggering from its use.
Several of them requiring the use of a spellslot to trigger.
But not all of them.
Some work with cantrips, innate spells, focus spells, scrolls, staves, and slots.
Some with anything that isn't a cantrip.
Some with only slots.
It is inconsistent but still clear that by design the slots are what's meant to be used for the big strikes.
Expansive Spellstrike allows more variety in the spell choice, but those only benefit from the action deference and to an extent a range or angle manipulation.
As I said before, Expansive Spellstrike feels more like Spell Combat than spellstrike: Striking with one hand and flicking the spell from the other.
And so this is exactly what i'd like to propose, to reintroduce Spell Combat as revamped Expansive Spellstrike AND a slight rewrite to Spellstrike.
Spellstrike
You channel a spell into a punch or sword thrust to deliver a combined attack. You Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast, has a harmful effect and targets at least one creature other than self. The effects of the spell don't occur immediately but are imbued into your attack instead. Make a melee Strike with a weapon or unarmed attack. Your spell is coupled with your attack, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell's attack if it had one. One a successful hit, the targets suffers a -2 status penalty to their saving throw against the spell, -3 on a critical hit. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don't apply the penalty until after you've completed the Spellstrike. The infusion of spell energy grants your Strike the arcane trait, making it magical.
After you use Spellstrike, you can't do so again until you recharge your Spellstrike as a single action, which has the concentrate trait. You also recharge your Spellstrike when you cast a conflux spell that takes at least 1 action to cast; casting a focus spell of another type doesn't recharge your Spellstrike.
By allowing spells targetting a creature rather than solely attack rolls this expands the spell selection without having to wait for more spells with the attack trait to be added. Allowing things like Electric Arc, Frostbite, Thunderstrike etc. The penalty on a hit helps the Magus' catch up somewhat to full casters when using their core feature and mixing their martial and magical skills to be as good as a pure caster, when dealing with a single target.
This also allows to select Spell Swipe with more than 2 spells eligibles for it.
This also allows the use of control spells like Slow etc right away, which was an advantage of Expansive Spellstrike, but this'll be addressed next.
Note that in this version the spell is still lost on a missed strike !
Spell Combat (former Expansive Spellstrike)
You have adapted the core functionning of Spellstrike to weave the magic before making contact to quickly fling spells in between your attacks.
When using Spellstrike, you can use any spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and Cast it at any valid target. If you choose to do so, choose wether the Spell or Strike happens first. If the Spell goes first, or targets a different creature than your Strike, the target will not suffer penalties to their save from Spellstrike.
If you decide to Strike first and the Spell has an area of effect, the target must be included in it. A burst is centered on a corner of the target's square, or the square corner closest to the center of the target, if the target is Large or larger; you choose the corner if more than one is eligible. A cone or line emits from you and must include the target; if you're not adjacent to the target (using a reach weapon or starlit span, for example), choose any square adjacent to the target as the source. The spell affects all creatures in the area as normal, but the Strike still targets only one creature.
If your critically miss your Strike before Casting such spells, the spell is lost.
The wording would need some work, but essentially: this allows to use those utility spells in combat in a way unique to a Magus.
You could cast Mirror Image and Strike after Striding to the target, and recharge on the next turn for example.
If you somehow have other spells, you could Cast Soothe on an ally as you're striking an adjacent ennemy and raising your shield.
Some potential issues: some spells like Warding Aggression require a weapon attack roll as part of their casting, I am unsure how to resolve this. Would making two strikes at the same MAP be too good, or would MAP apply normaly to them ? I am leaning to the latter option.
It could be possible to limit Magus Archetype to spellstriking with attack spells only.
Now the other aspect of Spellstrike that might need tweaks:
Recharging Spellstrike
As of now there is 3 ways to recharge Spellstrike:
-Spend an action.
-Use a Conflux Spell (their utility varies from study to study and depending on feats but there is always at least 1 good option to choose from)
-Successfully recall knowledge on a foe with the feat Magus Analysis (works once per target, as the target is then immune for a day)
I think the last option is under explored: Skill Actions recharging Spellstrike.
Similarly to Gunslinger having their own special recharge action per subclass, or Swashbuckler having the bravado trait on certain actions depending on their style, each Hybrid Study could have one or two skill actions that could recharge spellstrike on a success, once per target.
For example:
Inexorable Iron: Shove and Trip
Laughing Shadow: Feint and Tumble Throught
Sparkling Targe: Shove and Reposition
Twisting Tree: Trip and Disarm
Could be more than just those actions, maybe with some feats allowing things like medicine or something else. All with that "target is then immune for X hours or minutes" afterward.
There is another option I'll explore in the next part:
Arcane Cascade: the abandonned child:
A tad dramatic, I know.
Arcane Cascade is the mechanic of Magus that is the most under utilized.
Its benefit per subclass have varying utility and it's not always easy to enter it because of the action cost (that also require casting a spell in the same round so really it can sometime feel like it costs 2 actions just to enter it with Shield)
I believe this stance would stand to gain some value, mainly in two ways:
The first, relating to the previous chapter is this action:
Cascade Recycling
Condition: you are in the Arcane Cascade stance
As a free action, you cycle the cascading magic of your previous spells to realign your magic and recharge your ability to Spellstrike.
You end your Arcane Cascade and Recharge your Spellstrike.
This is another side to the Action Deferring of Spellstrike.
Rather than pay the 3rd action on a later round, you can treat Arcane Cascade as paying it in advance.
Of course this means losing all the benefits from the stance: no more bonus damage or hybrid study benefits (temp HP from Inexorable Iron, free grip swap or deadly trait for twisting tree etc) and also unability to use actions requiring to be in the cascade until you enter it again.
This makes this option an "emergency" recharge for spellstrike when you need it but don't have the other ressources for it.
Maybe limit it to once per minute if it would prove too good.
For it to be an actual opportunity cost however, there need to be uses for Arcane Cascade. This is were more actions are needed, mainly in feat selections.
First of, it could be made that the skill actions that recharge Spellstrike only do so while in Arcane Cascade.
Second, during "off turns" those new attacks and abilities can give something to do to the class that either emulate or put its own spin on pure martials' abilities (again mixing martial and magic to do something specialists can or even cannot)
Some ideas:
Cascading Splash: 1 action flourish
Make a Strike, on any result other than a critical failure this strike deals splash damage equal to your arcane cascade bonus plus your number of weapon damage dice. You are unnaffected by this splash damage.
Riving Strike: 2 actions
Make a Strike, on a success you create a crack for magic to pierce through. On a success the target suffers a -1 status penalty to saves against spells until the end of your next turn. -2 on a critical hit.
Arcane Slamdown: 2 actions
Make a Strike and attempt a Trip action (if you are wielding a 2 handed weapon you can ignore needing a free hand to trip), both count to your MAP but it doesn't increase until after both actions are complete.
If the target is successfully rendered prone, it suffers additional damage equal to your Arcane Cascade damage, on a critical success the damage from the fall can be of the same type of your Arcane Cascade
Rend Defenses: 2 actions
Make a strike, on a success you cut down the energies protecting the target. The target reduces its resistances to energies by half of your level, or your level on a critical hit. (Maybe it can be full level regardless, or only be the energy of your arcane cascade)
This gives you some idea.
Focus Spells and Archetyping:
Finally, the issue of focus spells aka "Why do Magi often devellop psychic powers".
Cleric, Oracle, Champion and any class offering Attack Focus Spells is very appealing to Magus because those are compatible with Spellstrike and are a renewable ressource.
Psychic even more than those since it shares its Spellcasting attribute with Magus, making it less MAD and still giving the option to use save spells with its Magus slots.
This is a very powerful synergy.
It completely circumvent the need to save your spell slots to do burst damage and opens them up for buffs and utility.
It eliminates the need to conserve your power spikes because those are a renewable ressource.
It is easy enough to use one, then a conflux spell to recharge more easily and then still have a focus point to spare for another one (especially with psychic which maxes out your focus pool by level 6)
It also addresses the lack of spell choices for spellstrike.
Which is why some Hybrid Studies feats, as recently as Tian Xia character guide and the new post-remaster Aloof Firmament subclass explicitaly calls off cantrips AND FOCUS SPELLS from its level 10 feat "Unsheathe the Swordlight".
It would be better if this was uniform accross the board.
Either all or none of the feature should be compatible with X types of spells.
I think that for balance it might be better to remove the compatibility of Focus Spell from Spellstrike, especially with the QoL changes I suggested that make it easier tor recharge, potentially offer more slots and a wider compatibility of spells.
However: more attack spells are badly needed, a lot of those focus spells would be incredible as ranked spells. Even if just a new coat of paint:
Winter Bolt -> Obsidian Spear: damage changed to piercing and slashing on the burst (maybe with some persistant bleed)
Stone Lance -> Conjure Javelin (metal trait instead of Earth, maybe higher ranks make it be of special metals like cold iron or silver)
Fire Ray -> Acid Hose : Change damage to acid, leave an acid puddle on the ground instead of fire
You get the idea.
Now, i've been typing this for over 2 hours and I'm starting to lose track, I dunno if I covered everything I wanted but I'll leave it here for now.
Edit: 3 and half hours actually, damn.
Again: all numbers are estimate/placeholders, not all of those ideas have to be implemented together etc etc.
Stay civil, this is a place to discuss and elevate ideas.
If you have the time and opportunity, I invite you to playtest some/all of those changes and give feedback !
Thanks !
Hi, I was looking at the Fireworks Technician archetype and I see it has feats to improve its Advanced Alchemy level.
It says however that it can only use it to craft fireworks... but I don't find any fireworks in the Alchemical items, so I wonder what Advanced Alchemy is for in this case.
Hi, I was pondering a defender type Magus and of course I thought of that spell.
At first I considered using a staff, and then take Fused Staff and Expansive Spellstrike and I realized some things:
1- Warding Aggression doesn't have the Attack trait, despite making you do a Strike.
2- It does target a creature and implies attacking it, so it would qualify has "a harmful spell".
3- It doesn't require any save or other defenses.
The question becomes: Is Warding Aggression Compatible with (Expansive) Spellstrike ?
If yes:
-Do you end up attacking twice ? At full attack bonus ? That would be kind of strong, especially with a staff to have multiple casts of it thorough the day.
-Do you Strike only once, and just benefit from the Action economy of not turning the weapon into a staff then back into a weapon ?
If no:
-Well, it just doesn't work and you need to swap the weapon to a staff and strike with the staff as part of the spell. Or use Striker's Scroll with 2 handed weapons.
When you succeed at an Athletics check to Disarm, the circumstance bonus and penalty from Disarm last until the end of your next turn, instead of until the beginning of the target's next turn. The target can use an Interact action to adjust their grip and remove this effect. If your swashbuckler's style is gymnast and you succeed at your Athletics check to Disarm a foe, you gain panache.
This makes Disarm a much better action, locking it behind a feat I could understand, but behind a specific class feat it feels too much.
Of course taking it away from Swash' would require giving it something else, maybe an even better disarm like "on a success the target can't use attack reactions with that weapon until the start of its next turn" or something.
It's just something I noticed while looking up Swashbuckler with a new player.
I just learned that Dragon Form prevents casting spells (and talking) which kind of surprised me and might make me reconsider the evolution of my current sorcerer.
But now I wonder. Is there any battle form currently allowing you to cast spells ?
And would it be that powerful if for 1 minute a caster could cast spells while turned into a creature that is supposed to do so ?
I know this propbably falls into homebrew territory, and the final say will be my GM, but I'm curious to know what people more experienced than me think of it, balance wise.
(Also rp wise the draconic sorcerer turning into his dragon form while still casting spells is super cool fantasy)
In the new Ancestry Guide I saw that new weapon trait (and the Conductive Rune that grants/upgrades it) and I really like it.
But I am unsure about something, would a Strike with a weapon inscribed with a Flaming Rune (or the activation of the flaming effect ?) trigger the Resonant trait ? The Strike itself doesn't have the trait, but the Rune (and so the weapon) has it. In the case of a Flame Tongue, the weapon itself has the Fire trait too.
I guess that would be too strong if every subsequent attacks could get an extra d8 of elemental damage, but I'm just not sure of if it works that way or not.
So... does a Strike with a Flaming (or shock etc) weapon, triggers Resonant/Conductive effects on subsequent Strike ?
I've seen people complain before about how spellcasters lack in accuracy with attack spells since they don't get to have "pluses" to their spell attack rolls.
Then my DM was struggling to describe a +1 striking dagger in a roleplay fashion and it gave me an idea.
Since the "pluses" are actually just named "potency rune" how about we have 2 different type of potency runes ?
Martial Potency Rune: The one we already have, makes the weapon more resilient, self-adjusting in your hand to optimize your precision, guiding your arm as you strike.
Magical Potency Rune: Quite litteraly a magnifying glass for magical power. Makes your spell harder to resist and evade, kind of like a slight "auto-aim" effect (think Soul Arrow in Dark Souls but with a weaker tracking).
Both are exclusive, you can only get one or the other on your weapon. Both are "potency" runes for all the other rune rules so you need a +1 to get properties etc etc.
In their video on the Magus, GameGorgon (Original) raised an interresting point.
The way it is written, it kind of sound like the Striking Spell end up counting for a single attack for your multiple attack penalty.
Playtest wrote:
The spell still requires its normal spell attack roll or saving throw, but you don’t increase your multiple attack penalty until after attempting both the discharging Strike and the spell attack roll.
What made them think of that is the fact that, unlike most (if not all) actions doubling your MAP there is no line explicitely saying "this counts double toward your multiple attack penalty". Some of the other abilities the Magus get through feats do however.
Spell Swipe wrote:
. A Spell Swipe counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty.
Whirlwind Spell wrote:
You combine the might of a multitarget spell with a whirling flurry of attacks. You use Striking Spell, then Cast a Spell with a casting time of 1 or 2 actions, then make a melee Strike against each enemy within your reach. Each attack counts toward your multiple attack penalty but doesn’t increase your penalty until you’ve made all your attacks. If you discharge the spell, you can affect each creature you hit with a Strike, up to the spell’s normal maximum targets.
So does Striking Spell counts as a singular Strike toward MAP ?
Personnaly I think it still counts double when using an attack spell, but RAW it seems that using a save based spells would make it count as a single attack, so you'd get better accuracy on following actions (assuming you didn't Strike on the turn of the cast). So it has a better value than initially anticipated, but still clunky.
Ok, this thread might be off-topic as it has nothing to do with the mechanics or maths of the class.
Some who have read some of my posts might remember me saying I give a lot of importance to "narrative" aspects of a class/character. I like describe actions and events, while staying true to mechanics. Plus we DO have Pathfinder comics and books.
So here is my question.
What does a Magus, in action, looks like to you ? If you were to see one in a comic, or even a show or movie. What kind of actions would he perform ? The things you'd want to feel you're doing when playing one.
I imagine a ruthless combattant opening the guard of his foe with a disdainful sword strike before grabbing their face and blasting the fool with a point-blank fireball.
Or a methodical master of his craft, dashing between two foes thanks to magic to deliver a Strike imbued with mind rending magic.
So, give some scenarios, scene. Just cool s+!% you'd imagine a Magus doing. Not the mechanics of how it could work, just the visuals, the pure idea. A lot can come from thoses, from thinking of "how could we make it possible".
Greetings everyone. I don't know how to do a proper introduction and I want to get into the meat of the topic already so here we go. I won't talk much about spell slots as they are another topic.
Spell Combat, a proposition to adjust Striking Spell
The Good of Striking Spell
First of, the concept/flavor is good. I've seen some people saying they really enjoy the "chess game" of playing Magus, planning your actions ahead etc. And I totally get that, it is a great feeling to plan something and see it pay-off.
Then the mechanic, it has a good idea behind it, delaying the release of a spell you cast through a special metamagic. I presume that the idea would be that it "replaces" or "make up" the Magus' different type of actions that a martial would normally get through feats. And it's definitely an interresting take and a good direction to take, along with some martial oriented actions.
What needs to be "fixed"
The action economy is currently too limiting, and given that the Magus does not have a lot of alternative to Striking Spell, it makes it feel lacking when it cannot or doesn't want to use it.
Double rolls is awkward. That's part of why I suggest that rename, I said it before, but failing an Attack roll on a spell despite having stabbed the foe with the weapon holding the spell is kind of immersion breaking, and does feel rather bad.
This requires good system mastery and teamwork to ensure hitting, and while optimal teamwork and smart play/mastery of the game absolutely should be the way to make each class shine the brightest, it should NOT be required for a class to work. As not all situations will allow for the right conditions to be present.
Spell Combat and Spell Strike
So here I am, with a suggestion. First of, Spell Combat, the new name of Striking Spell.
This works by using the Combat Casting free metamagic. It works mostly the same as Striking Spell, with a few exeptions.
Reworked Striking Spell wrote:
You drastically alter a spell to combine it with a martial attack. If the next action you use is to Cast a Spell that can target one creature or object, instead of casting it as normal, you hold onto it, this is called "Holding the Charge", for a number of round equal to your Intelligence modifier, after which you have to spend an action with the concentrate trait to keep holding it for a maximum of 1 minute after which it dissipates harmlessly and the spell is lost. During any of the subsequent rounds during which you are Holding the Charge, you can release the spell as a single > Action sharing the spell's normal traits.
The idea here is to keep that "chess/planning ahead" aspect that seems to be liked by some people, while opening it to any spell a Magus can cast. It can be support, AoE, buffs, debuffs, attacks, anything. Scaling the time limit on your Intelligence is here to encourage keeping a high score in this Ability, while not disallowing leaving it low if you don't plan on holding spells for several rounds or using saves, and giving you an option to hold it for a bit in case something unexpected happens.
An example I bring up most of the time is this:
Turn 1
Enoriel Combat Cast a "Grease" Spell and Hold its Charge before moving closer to a group of bandit.
Gertrude, his barbarian friend, Suddenly Charges at the bandits and kills one of them with her Battleaxe, and her second swing is deflected by the shield of another bandit.
The remaining bandits are flanking Gertrude and she takes some hits.
Turn 2
Enoriel Strides and finally reach the melee, he has 2 actions remaining, both bandits are at range of his weapon. He Strikes the Bandit holding a bigger weapon, and hits, not enough to kill him though. He uses his second action to release his Grease spell to try to make him drop his weapon. Or he could do it so the other one drops his Shield so Gertrude can focus on him. Or release Grease on the ground to try and make one of them fall. What should he do ? Your choice !
I legitimately could not decide because I had several choices here.
But then, what about the meat of the Magus, the signature ability, the thing everyone dreams to do ? What about Spell Strike.
Well here we are.
SpellStrike wrote:
Magi are able to channel their spells through their weapon in a unique way in order to both Strike a foe and cast their spells on them in a single, unified movement.
When a Magus casts a Spell with the Attack trait, they can replace the Somatic Component of that Spell by a melee Strike, replacing the Spell Attack Roll. This counts as 2 Attacks when calculating your Multiple Attack Penalty.
Roll a melee Attack Roll, on a success you will deal both weapon and spell damage. On a critical success, both the weapon and spell are critical successes. If the spell also require saves, those are rolled normally.
When you are Holding the Charge of a Spell able to target at least one creature other than yourself, you can Spellstrike with that spell as part of the action to release the spell, even if it does not have the Attack Trait, if the Strike is a critical success, saves are rolled with a -2 penalty. This still counts double toward your Multiple Attack Penalty.
So, let's rerun this situation with SpellStrike in mind.
Straight to round 2.
Turn 2
Enoriel Strides and finally reach the melee, he has 2 actions remaining, both bandits are at range of his weapon. He Strikes the Bandit holding a bigger weapon, and hits, not enough to kill him though. He uses his second action to SpellStrike Grease on the big weapon bandit, he hits but does not kill him, and the Grease splashes on the impact over the sword hand of the bandits, who attempts to keep a firm grip on the handle but only makes it slip even more, dropping in at his feet.
Here the idea is to allow the Magus to easily do SpellStrike with Attack Spells as his "bread and butter" offensive action.
To avoid spamming save spells, I thought of making it a requirement to Combat Cast them and to be Holding their Charge.(at least at low level, maybe feats would allow to spell strike them directly). Maybe at higher level, the save debuff would increase slightly (to -3 or -4?) so a high level Magus can still be good with save spells, while not allowing multiclass characters to be better than the Magus at being a Magus (so a Fighter with the Spellstrike from Magus Dedication, despite critting more often, would not benefit from it as much)
Conclusion
With those two abilities, despite making setup turns relatively heavy, following ones gives the Magus more flexibility. When you are Holding a Charge, you essentially have a magical Flurry of Blow ready, so you can have your 3 actions in your turn to Move, Strike, Spell Parry or anything.
This would open up space for more multiactions feats in the Magus' progression, stuff like Riving Strike (2 actions, Strike and inflict a save penalty on the target for 1 round) etc.
Something else I thought of would be giving a "Hold the Charge" reaction. If you were about to lose the charge because of the time limit or because you didn't spend an action concentrating, you can spend your reaction for it instead at the end of your round. However this would only be interresting if the Magus had several interresting reactions they could take, so this feels like a real tradeof. Capture Spell is already a very good one, maybe Deflecting Spellstrike could be one to counter attack on melee strikes by rolling an opposed one, rolling higher than the opponent would nullify their strike, critically succeeding (10 over their roll or nat 20) would unleash the spell on them, you'd lose the spell either way though.
So here I was, writing this up for an hour xD Hoping this isn't lost in the depth of the forum ! I hope you had a good read and you found this interresting.
We all know that the final versions will have way more feats available to both classes on release. But as of now, I thought it might be a good idea to gather potential ideas that could work with the class as it is now (addressing weaknesses and strengths) or could be useful in possible reworks.
Here are two ideas I had during a discussion on another thread (of course numbers are from the top of my head, balancing would have to be done etc) :
Riving Strike:
2 Actions
Make a Strike, if it hits, the target will suffer a -2 penalty on saving throws against magical effects until the end of your next turn. -4 if the Strike was a critical hit.
(Possible higher level version) Rend Defenses:
2 or 3 actions
Make a Strike, if it hits, the target's resistances will be reduced by half of your level until the end of your next turn. If the Strike was a critical hit, reduce them by your level instead.
Those two would help setup your chances to land a Spell Striking on the following turn and/or support your magically inclined teammates. Helping them land their spells more easily against a particularly tough opponent or managing to deal some damage in case of bad element matchup (like for a flame oracle).
It has been said before in other threads but I'd like to go in a different direction, a more narrative one.
Pathfinder and tabletop rpgs in general are also narrative experiences, where you picture the action in your mind as you play.
As it is, Striking Spell seems misnamed to me, let me explain with examples.
Enoriel, the Magus, uses Striking Spell to place a Produce Flame in his rapier.
Since he has the Sliding Synthesis, he steps up to the ennemy orc and Strikes.
It's a success ! (Yay) Now he rolls for Produce Flame to hit... a failure !
So narratively, how does it happen ? How does the spell inside the weapon that just hit the creature misses them ? For some spells I can imagine, like Telekynetic Projectile that could fling some debris from the ground where you scratched your weapon as you swung.
But now if we narrate is as Spell Combat.
Enoriel, the Magus, uses Spell Combat to precast his Produce Flame out of the orc's range, he stores the energy within himself and steps in thanks to his Synthesis.
He now lunges his rapier and hits ! Quickly he lets the energy he was holding back flow to his palm and reaches for the orc's face, but he turns at the last second and the fire goes crashing on a nearby wall !
Now, if Enoriel crits.
Enoriel, the Magus, uses Spell Combat to precast his Produce Flame out of the orc's range, he stores the energy within himself and steps in thanks to his Synthesis.
He now lunges his rapier and critically hits ! The ennemy's guard is open and he reaches for his face in that short opportunity, engulfing the orc in flames !
You get the gist of it. It just feels weird narratively that a weapon charged with a spell can touch but miss the spell. For saving throws, it makes sense. The target will still attempt to resist the creeping cold of Vampiric Touch or mind numbing sensation of Hallucination.
But why would a Striking Spell have a chance to miss the spell on a weapon hit, and not a Spell Storing Weapon ? The principle is the same, isn't it ?
I'd be fine if Spell Striking was renamed Spell Combat and Spellstrike became another ability the Magus unlocked a few levels later. Like a natural progression, instead of storing a spell in his body to unleash it at an opportune moment, storing it in his weapon so it is release on impact.
Spell Combat, with just a bit of tweaking, could have uses by itself I'm sure, if you wish to throw an Area of Effect spell but have to do a manoeuver first to reposition an opponent before releasing your Lightning Bolt for example.
I hope this point of view gives a somewhat interresting perspective on things.
I find it weird that an upgrade to your "subclass" is a feat, when compared to other martials like Champion's Exalt, Ranger's Edge or Barbarian's Raging Expertise for example.
Those are pretty powerful upgrades for the Synthesis, clearly. But given the strong limitation (only with spell slot spells, not any spell like scrolls, wands, staves) you only use them 4 times a day (unless you multiclass but I'd prefer to address the Magus on its own).
It would make more sense, in my humble opinion, to have them become natural upgrades to your synthesis around level 10 to 12. Maybe along with a Spell Strike update (Second Chance is extremely useful but 18th level feels way too late for that, for example) like "if you hit, increase the DD of the spell's save by 2 or by your attack ability modifier, or by your weapon's number of damage dice" or something along those lines maybe ?
In a way it's impressive that this aspect of the class survived the transition from 1E to 2E.
When using Spell Strike you absolutely want to crit, so you'll likely work with your teammates to create crit situations. I feel like the Magus relies heavily on teamwork and that's where it will truly shine, when allies can set up a kill situation for them.
I know that the difference between prepared and spontaneous caster has always been "lot of options" vs "flexible casting" and I think it works pretty well for the main class Wizards and Sorcerer but it seems that the repertoire limitation on the Sorcerer dedication (and all class following a repertoire) is too drastic compared to the Wizard Dedication.
Sorcerer Dedication gets 1 spell known per spell level. 3 of which can be signature spells, if I get it right.
Signature spells are awesome, but knowing only 8 spells (if you get to master spellcasting) or 14 with Bloodline Breadth feels much more limiting.
Of course I understand that you are not supposed to have as many spells as a pure Sorcerer, that is obvious. However since you do not get things like bloodline spells, Blood Magic etc... you end up having nothing that makes up for the limitation of fewer spells known compared to a Wizard Dedication (aside from having access to the spell list of your choice).
Balance is a complex issue to work on, and I am well aware of that. However I think that having archetype's repertoire start at 2 spell known per spell level, and 3 (save for 2 highest spell level) with Bloodline Breadth (or other depending on the archetype, I just used sorcerer as an example) would balance the two type of archetypes better.
I don't know if it can be done, if erratas are enough for that or if it's impossible or even if it's actually a terrible idea. I just thought that sharing it would be the best way to make it happen, if it's necessary.
Thanks for reading, and for your opinions/ideas if you share them !
