NerdyMedic's page

NerdyMedic wrote:

-When an opponent does have an AoO, they will get only a single reaction.

Not always.

Those opponents are exceedingly rare.

-Even if you do provoke the AoO while spellstriking, your action would only be disrupted on a critical hit. In most cases, against most opponents, you would succeed in your spellstrike. The chances of any given enemy disrupting your spellstrike are far less than missing your attack altogether.

I don't agree: Most times you're using a slot for your spellstrike, it's going to be on a boss type that's more likely to crit you making it more likely to lose the spell. They also don't have the HD or armor to suck up AoO like a fighter, champion or barbarian [instead of armor has temp hp] so even if it's not disrupted, it's not good to get free damage.

That is why you have teammates to take the AoO. If the Boss is that tough, you need to act like a team. Have the fighter or Champion take a stride or interact action, instead of the 3rd MAP at -10 to take the AoO.

-The Eldritch trickster Rogue, Warpriest, and other gish-types don't seem to worry about AoO's, even though they are casting spells while adjacent to enemies. These spellcasters also have d8 for class HP. Nobody is talking about rewriting those classes.

Are they? I can't say it's my experience that any of those are hugging enemies while casting spells. I see Eldritch trickster Rogues cast cantrips from range, Warpriest buffing before getting in melee range and others mainly casting before or after melee, not during. This of course id different if for some reason the party found out that the foe 100% doesn't have an AoO.

As someone who plays an eldritch trickster, I can say that 70% of the time, I am hugging the enemy to get the flank. If I know it has an AoO, I will either take the risk of that hit being a crit, delay until a martial character can trigger the reaction, or try to make them flatfooted some other way. If not, I will do a normal strike (A Magus can attack like everyone else too). Even though I was not able get off my most damaging spell attack, I am still providing a flank for my teammate. Again. You have to play as a team.

I think people just want to have their cake and eat it too.

The issue is they are the ONLY class that is FORCED to cast in melee range for most of the subclasses. Every other character class does not have to and only does so if the character wishes to while the magus' main feature doesn't give them that option. That's why you'll see some people that don't see it as equivalent. A Eldritch trickster Rogue, Warpriest, and other gish-types have the option to cast out of melee while a spellstriking magus [outside the ranged option] doesn't.

A Magus can most definitely cast out of melee. It is only their spellstrike that has to be done in melee. I have played in many games where due to the nature of the opponent, that my character has been relegated to that of support or aiding. What makes the magus any different than any other character who finds themselves out of their comfort zone? Is the magus to be the only character who gets to act without consequence or thought? If you build a 'one trick' min-max magus, who is built to spellstrike at the expense of everything else, you are a detriment to your party if you find yourself unable to spellstrike.

My thoughts on this are thus:

-AoO's are uncommon to rare in 2nd ed. This means that 15-25% of your opponents will actually have the ability to make an opportunity attack.

-When an opponent does have an AoO, they will get only a single reaction. If there is a magus in the party, another character can provoke the reaction to set up the magus's spellstrike. Teamwork is a thing in RPG's. If you don't want to help your teammates, play a different game.

-Even if you do provoke the AoO while spellstriking, your action would only be disrupted on a critical hit. In most cases, against most opponents, you would succeed in your spellstrike. The chances of any given enemy disrupting your spellstrike are far less than missing your attack altogether.

-The Eldritch trickster Rogue, Warpriest, and other gish-types don't seem to worry about AoO's, even though they are casting spells while adjacent to enemies. These spellcasters also have d8 for class HP. Nobody is talking about rewriting those classes.

-In 1st edition, casting a spell would draw an AoO. To mitigate this, all spellcasters had the option to cast defensively. In second edition, nobody has the option to cast defensively. This is because the majority of enemies no longer have Opportunity attacks, nor does being hit have a chance to disrupt a spell (only a critical disrupts). Why should a magus's be able to ignore opportunity attacks when casting a spell, when nobody else can?

I think people just want to have their cake and eat it too.