Lex Bishop's page

You are used to getting along in unfamiliar lands and interacting with interesting new people. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (local) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is a class skill for you. You can also speak one additional language (this does not count toward your number of languages)

You have a tendency for rash behavior, often disregarding your own safety as you move across the battlefield. You gain a +1 bonus on Acrobatics checks, and Acrobatics is always a class skill for you.

Cantrips: Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Flare, Ghost Sound, Light, Mage Hand, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Spark

1st Level Spells: Color Spray, Grease, Shield, Floating Disk, Shocking Grasp, Snowball

A staff magus is proficient with simple weapons only. He can cast magus spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a magus wearing medium armor or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass magus still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes. This replaces the normal magus weapon and armor proficiency feature.

At 1st level, the staff magus gains the Quarterstaff Master feat as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the normal prerequisites. He only gains the benefit of this feat when wearing no armor or light armor.

As he gains levels, a magus learns arcane secrets tailored to his specific way of blending martial puissance and magical skill. Starting at 3rd level, a magus gains one magus arcana. He gains an additional magus arcana for every three levels of magus attained after 3rd level. Unless specifically noted in a magus arcana's description, a magus cannot select a particular magus arcana more than once. Magus arcana that affect spells can only be used to modify spells from the magus spell list unless otherwise noted.

3rd Level: Familiar (Ex): The magus gains a familiar, using his magus level as his effective wizard level. This familiar follows the rules for familiars presented in the arcane bond wizard class feature.

At 4th level, the hexcrafter magus gains access to a small number of witch’s hexes. The hexcrafter magus picks one hex from the witch’s hex class feature. He gains the benefit of or uses that hex as if he were a witch of a level equal to his magus level. This feature replaces spell recall.

At 1st level, the magus gains a reservoir of mystical arcane energy that he can draw upon to fuel his powers and enhance his weapon. This arcane pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 his magus level (minimum 1) + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the magus prepares his spells.

At 1st level, a magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.

At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.

Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property’s base price modifier. These properties are added to any the weapon already has, but duplicates do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added. These bonuses and properties are decided when the arcane pool point is spent and cannot be changed until the next time the magus uses this ability. These bonuses do not function if the weapon is wielded by anyone other than the magus.

A magus can only enhance one weapon in this way at one time. If he uses this ability again, the first use immediately ends.

At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.

At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.

Quarterstaff (Free)
Cold Weather Outfit (Free)
Spellbook (Free)
2nd Cold Weather Oufit (8gp)
Chain Shirt (100gp)
Magus' Kit: This includes a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, ink, an inkpen, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin. (22gp)
2 Daggers (4gp)
Cold Iron Short Spear (2gp)

Cash: 4gp

"Go to sleep now, Lexie, and remember - I will always love you."

That was the last thing that she remembered her mother say to her before her disappearance five years ago. She's heard the tale from her father many times before in her youth of how he met the woman twenty years ago. After his Varisian caravan left a small village in the north, he found her stowed away in his wagon, an unearthly woman with hair white as snow and skin as pale as ice, heavy with child and with an ermine faithfully at her side. He fell deeply in love with her beauty, offering to care for her and her unborn child as if she was his own. A month later Alexis was born in Varisia, and her mother was accepted as part of the traveling band.

Her childhood was full of wonder as they wandered from place to place, village to village, and despite her physical differences from the other children, the auburn hair and pale freckled skin, she got along well enough with her peers. Alexis was a curious and perhaps reckless child, often climbing trees and cliffs to get a better view of the land, marveling at tales of the frozen north where her mother was from and wishing to go see it - her mother was apprehensive of returning to her homeland however, and the caravan stayed in Varisian lands.

As she got older, she learned new things - her mother revealed to her that she was a witch, her ermine pet her familiar, and showed her a few tricks of hexcraft for her protection. Her father taught her how to defend herself physically, training her to wield a staff as part of herself and building up her strength. But the greatest boon to her development came from a slightly burnt spellbook found in the remains of a ruined cart found along their route, the owner surmised killed by bandits. She claimed it for herself, pouring over the text and learning what she could from the arcane writing, the magic coming naturally to her.

When she was only fifteen, her mother vanished - she had left along with her familiar, leaving no note or mention of where she was going. Alexis was terribly disturbed by this, wondering why she would abandon her husband and child like that. She developed a spiteful hate for her that intellectually she knew was petty, but emotionally held onto to cope with the grief. They spent many months asking in every settlement they traveled to if they'd seen the woman passing through, with no leads given. Eventually they gave up the search, and Alexis became sullen and kept to herself, training harder to ignore her turmoil.

After having grown into a full woman, and on one fateful day, the axle of the family wagon broke in a pothole, and she assisted her father in the repairs. That was when she found a tiny scrap of parchment, singed at the edges and wedged in a crack in the boards, left there for years without discovery. There was only one word legible, written in Skald: 'Return'. Realizing that her mother must have gone back to her homeland in the north, and now having the excuse she needed to strike out on her own, she bade farewell to her father and started her pilgrimage, hoping she would find out what happened to Anastasia Abelone.

Alexis is a tall woman, standing around 5'10" and weighing 140lbs, with auburn hair she keeps in a single braid that goes down her back. She has a powerful build, toned with developed musculature, and her skin is pale and freckled. For her travels, she wears a fur-trimmed coat over her chain shirt armor, along with woolen breeches and thick knee high boots.

Lex is quick to make assumptions about others and takes longer to lose preconceptions. She is a tomboy who gets easily flustered when flirted with, and has a slight complex about not inheriting much of her mother's inherent beauty. She likes sparring, puzzles, and handsome men* as well as hates nobility and hot weather. Her greatest fear is never resolving things with her mother - her second greatest fear is becoming crippled.

*(or women, pending future events.)