NerdyMedic's page

Or, here is a crazy idea, why should you have to jump through all those hoop to just use your main ability when both the fighter or Champion work fine without such hoops.

I'd say that having to follow a cause that restricted your behavior, with an anathema, would qualify as a hoop. A fighter doesn't have hoops to jump through, per se, but they have the responsibility to make themselves the target, rather than the poor wizard.

*slow claps* Yes, we ARE talking about how spellstrike provokes AoO after all.

Spellstrike has always provoked Attacks of opportunity, even in 1st edition. But let's change the rules for this class because there might be a chance of getting getting hit when attacking with spellstrike.

No, as I showed it is difficult to tell who does or doesn't have an AoO without metagaming: that ooze might have it or that animal, or dragon, or demon or undead, or... And with NO real guidelines for Recall Knowledge, there is no guarantee that rolling it will let you know it has an AoO so it leads you to times when there is NO real chance for planning: you have a hard time avoiding an AoO you don't know about. Well, unless you never enter melee and use your main feature. :P

There is inherent risk in any activity that involves weapons, spells, and monsters. If you are unwilling to take a small risk, for the payout of connecting with Spellstrike, maybe you are too risk averse to play a Magus. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the game much more when there is some risk involved.

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.

The event numbers don't work because the event numbers, for sign ups, all start with '1'. They are also completely different than the ones on the list. I wish they would give us the new numbers for the events, so we can search with those.

Looks like the tokens I bought are going to get used.

So here is my contribution to those weapons and characters that are rarely seen. I am probably that guy that is playing that rarely seen archetype/build, who is not using the normal weapons, and who avoids certain spells because everyone else has them. Blame it on the aging punk in me.

1. A Tiefling Transmuter wizard who doesn't cast glitterdust or black tentacles, but hands out Haste like candy
2. Samurai with a Katana who rides a horse with the bodyguard archetype and the feat In Harms way
3. A Nagaji Chelish Diva Bard/Urban barbarian/Evangelist of Calistria with a bardiche.
4. A Half-Orc Spellbreaker Inquisitor of Asmodeus with the Persistence Inquisition and a Greataxe
5. A Tengu Slayer/Swordmaster Rogue with an Elven Curved blade
6. A Spellscar Drifter Cavalier, with a 2 level Hunter dip, wielding a holy pistol
7. A Core sorcerer/rogue/arcane trickster TWF with a rapier and kukri
8. A Core GM baby
9. An Ifrit mindchemist/empiricist bombthrower
10. A half-elven Abjuration Thassalonian Specialist/Fighter, soon to be Eldritch Knight who wields a Flying Blade- She has the bodyguard feat and is going to play the role of a Defender. She has been effective so far.
11. An Undine Cleric of Gozreh with a trident who channels negative energy
12. A Divine Hunter/Voice of the Wild Bard with a Composite Longbow

As I said, I like to make the unusual work..if anything, to show that it can be done.

I've run several modules by now and they're mostly the same length, so I hope this is similar, but you never know.

I'm planning to run this module in a few sessions, but not all players can join in all days. This is for PFS, so it's important they complete it, otherwise they're locked in. I'm planning to play three sessions to be sure, but perhaps I can condense them in two. I have two times five hours to play, so 10 hours total at most if it's possible to cram it in two sessions. There's always some time lost with breaks and slow starts, so perhaps 9 hours of play. Would that be enough for this module? I ran Feat of Ravenmoor in roughly the same timeframe, maybe slightly more, but that's mostly roleplay and some easy combats, so it's hard to judge. I'd rather have three sessions where the last one is finished a bit earlier and we can go through it at a leisurely pace than to rush through it and even then possibly not making it. I played through Realm of the Fellnight Queen in a single day and I felt we still skipped a lot.

Thanks a lot.

I have run it twice for PFS: one normal, and one core. The first time, it took me 11 hours, and the second, 9. It really depends on what the players decide to do. In the second game, the players ended up investigating the town before going to the manor, which saved them an hour or so. The first game, was only my second time GMing, and I had to look up a few stats on a few encounters. Also, their fight with Ilquis was an epic battle that took an hour.

I would set aside 10 hours-just in case the players get bogged down in the investigation.

This sounds like a wonderful idea. Sign me up!

I will bring a sorcerer or a fighter, depending on party need.