|
Let's face it, the sacrifie of spellstrike and a prepared spell to gain a dagger in your off hand is Self defeating for the magus. if I wanted a dagger in my off hand I'd have one.
Yes, the hand would then be full and I couldn't cast spells with it, but Who cares!
The Spellblade archetype does not have spellstrike AND loses a prepared spell for a temporary Dagger...
that is so OP! (note the sarcasm)
The true spellblade Magus would be a Fighter/Sorcerer blend, with sacrifices to pay for a variation of the "instant weapon" spell as a class feature. So what will this cost the figurative three parent classes and what can the SwordSoul sacrifice to have an "Instant weapon". Like the Kensai archetype, the spellblade should be signified by utter devotion to the "Instant weapon" feature.
Hit dice, class skills, skill ranks, Bab, Saves, no changes here.
1. No Armor the SwordSoul has no armor proficiencies, no shield proficiency, no ability to ignore spell failure, and no level based improvments in these magus features.
2. Weapon proficiency SwordSouls are proficient with all simple and have one martial weapon proficiency with a one handed martial weapon with a cutting blade; which will be the only weapon created by the phantom blade class feature. Once chosen the form of the phantom blade does not change.
3. Bloodline you have the arcane bloodline, but only have arcane bond feature. The bonded object is your phantom weapon. you can never have another bonded object or familiar from any source; your familiar is your phantom blade. You can not gain any other bloodline and lose access to any other bloodline(s) held before taking this class.
4. hand of the apprentice you gain acess to the universalist wizard ability but only for use with your phantom blade. This is the only way you can throw your phantom blade and have it return to you. Use your dexterity modifier for the roll to hit and your charisma modifier for bonus damage.
5. Spontaneous spellcasting Use the bard table for the number of spells per day with bonus spell slots for a high charisma score.
Reduced known spells use the table for Bard spells known and subtract 1 from every spell level. If this reduces that spell level to 0 the arcane edge simply doesn't know any spell of that spell level. All known spells must be drawn from the magus spell list.
Sorcerery All magus class abilities which cite the use of the intelligence modifier are changed to the charisma ability modifier.
6. Arcane pool is changed to 1/2 magus level (minimum of 1) + the charisma modifier. The magical enhancement feature of Arcane pool is changed to summoning the phantom blade as a move action. Which is a +1 magic weapon composed of raw spell essence. This differs from the "Instant weapon" spell description; this weapon is NOT a force effect and has no elemental property. The summoned weapon is weightless and may be used with the weapon finesse feat regardless of form. This weaon may not be weilded with two hands to deal additional strength damage. The weapon vanishes if the weapon is broken, or no longer in the SwordSoul's hand. The quickdraw feat has no effect on summoning the phantom blade.
The Sword Soul adds his charisma modifier as bonus damage when using the phantom blade, this ability counts as having the acrane strike feat.
At 3th level the phantom blade is summoned as a swift action and can be summoned as part of a move action. This counts as having the quickdraw feat, but only for the phantom blade. additionally applied enhancements via this feature last the durration of that phantom blade. The remaining text of the Arcane pool feature is unchanged.
7. Spell combat and spell strike the SwordSoul can only use these features with their phantom blade.
8. Arcane Flow Starting at 1st level the SwordSoul may sacrifice a spell slot of 1st level or higher to gain arcane pool points equal twice the level of the spell slot lost. The arcane pool can not exceed the SwordSoul's maximum; any excess arcane pool points are unuseable and instantly lost. Arcane flow is only to convert spell slots into arcane pool points. This ability replaces spell recall and improved spell recall.
9. Magus arcana The SwordSoul can not learn the following arcana; Broad study, spell blending, familiar, enduring blade, natural spell combat, pool ray. The SwordSoul can not learn any arcana that grants access to spells not on the magus spell list. The SwordSoul can not learn any arcana that grants addtional spells to cast per day. The SwordSoul is bound to the summoned weapon and can never gain a familiar or other arcane bond. The SoulSword must weild the phantom blade to use spell combat and spell strike and can not substitute any other weapon to include natural weapons. The SwordSoul can not learn any arcana that will enchant any weapon aside from his phantom blade.
10. Bonus feats Bonus feats start at 4th level and the SwordSoul gains an additional bonus feat every 4 levels after. These bonus feats apply only to the use of the phantom blade. The SwordSoul counts his class level -3 as fighter levels and may purchase fighter feats with these bonus feats. The arcane edge must meet all prerequisites for these feats as normal. This changes the bonus feats and fighter training features.
11. Knowledge pool this ability is lost.
This should be in the homebrew section.
|
You want to fight with a weapon? Kensai magus is generally the archetype. A Popular combo is Kensai/Bladebound [black blade] magus, so you can enjoy an intelligent ass kicking slashing one handed weapon. which in your case, could be a dagger or any exotic or martial one handed slashing weapon, you want to use.
|
|
You want to fight with a weapon? Kensai magus is generally the archetype. A Popular combo is Kensai/Bladebound [black blade] magus, so you can enjoy an intelligent ass kicking slashing one handed weapon. which in your case, could be a dagger or any exotic or martial one handed slashing weapon, you want to use.
YEs, thank you. What I am looking to do is create a cooler alternative to the magus spellblade archetype.
one that does not carry a weapon nor spellbook, one who's central theme is drawing upon their sorcerous bloodline to make a weapon when they need it, via a twist on the level 2 spell "INSTANT WEAPON".
So you could have a jedi/sith dude running about with a glowing blade of spell essence...
Check out the first post in this thread please.
Looks good...doesn't seem OP. Making it based on Cha seems kind of shoe-horned in to me.
Alternately, you could have the PC give up the lvl 3 arcana for familiar a la Bladebound Archetype...and either drop the sorcerer thing or open up the other bloodlines for versatility.
Have you seen the Blood scion write up that was posted...It looks pretty badass and someone may have already done alot of the heavy lifting for this concept for you already.
It would be nice to have a Psylock or Jedi type magus...although bladebound does have the lightsaber thing going for it to some extent.
Did you mean more like the 3.5 soulknife?
Only as much as the class seemed to be inspired by the Marvel character Psylocke. I just meant the concept, rather than the mechanics.
|
|
A magus with both archetypes Bladebound and Kensai.
Yes that's nice, but the purpose of this thread was to make a cool alternative to the magus spellblade archetype.
A sort of "kensai" who caries no weapons, because their sorcerous blood is their weapon.
a character who starts with a form of the "INSTANT WEAPON" spell.
|
Going to organize & condense this a bit so it's easier to see what the trade-offs are.
Losses:
1. No Armour
2. Proficiency in only one martial weapon
5. Diminished spellcasting
7. Spellstrike and spell combat limited to summoned weapon
9. Limited arcana choice (mostly re: spell flexibility)
11. Lose Knowledge Pool (spellcasting flexibility)
Neutral:
3. Bonded item (weapon). Counts as arcane bloodline - cannot gain other bloodlines. Also at risk when sword not summoned!
5. Spontaneous spellcasting and cha-based features
8. Arcane Flow: Trade spell recall (& improved) for ability to convert spell slots to pool points.
Gains:
4. Can throw phantom blade 3+Cha times/day.
10. 3 Extra bonus feats (limited to blade) plus improved fighter training.
Instant Weapon: Instead of enhancing a held weapon, the archetype summons a magical weapon.
- Pros: Cha to damage, can use with finesse regardless of form, summoning has slightly better action economy vs drawing and enhancing a held weapon in the long run. Can be re-summoned if sundered. Count as having Quickdraw and Arcane Strike for purposes of pre-requisites.
- Cons: Enhancement values of this weapon are the same as would be bestowed upon a held weapon, but the instant weapon has only those enhancements (no base enhancement) so overall power of weapon is lower. May not be wielded with two hands to deal additional strength damage. Vanishes if disarmed (no option to pick up, must re-summon).
- ???: Duration of summon matches normal weapon enhancement use?
Conclusion: While the concept is interesting, the execution is lacking.
Giving up armour is a big deal for a character expected to spend time in melee, and unlike the Kensai the Swordsoul doesn't get an AC bonus to compensate. Diminished spellcasting is a similarly big disadvantage, and you add to that less significant disadvantages in terms of flexibility of weapon and spell selection. In exchange you'd expect to get some pretty cool benefits - like, again, the Kensai, which gets abilities enhancing initiative, attacks of opportunity, and critical hits. The swordsoul's gains are not this significant. Having an arcane bonded weapon is a double-edged sword since without the weapon in hand you must make concentration checks - especially problematic if the summoning duration is limited. Being able to cast an additional spell known per day is also not as useful for a spontaneous caster compared to that for a prepared caster. The feats and hand of the apprentice are nice, but not enough, and the Instant Weapon...
It's underwhelming. Cha to damage is really nice at low levels but in the long run a Magus' damage is more likely to come from spellstrike. A bigger issue is that the weapon is actually likely to be weaker than a manufactured one since unlike the Black Blade it has no native enhancement bonus beyond that granted by the arcane pool feature. If your archetype is all about channeling your arcane power through a sweet weapon - the weapon actually needs to be sweet.
Recommendations:
- Make the instant weapon remain until dismissed, damaged, or disarmed (if that was not already the intent).
- Allow the magus to improve the basic enhancement of their weapon - use arcane pool to improve it for a short duration. (Like most bonded items, this may work like item crafting, though you may want to reduce the time required to enhance the item.) This should fix the power issue from the weapon.
- Remove the special rules on weapon finesse and using the weapon with two hands - these strike me as needlessly restrictive on weapon choice. In the same vein, consider allowing exotic weapons as a choice.
- Consider improving defenses whether with an AC bonus, parry mechanic using the instant weapon, or giving back light armour (if not heavier armours).
- Consider an additional higher-level feature for the weapon. If you implement all of the above, it doesn't need to be too powerful but should add a bit of extra interest to the weapon. For example, the magus may choose to redirect an attack or spell that would kill or incapacitate him into the weapon, shattering it and rendering it unable to be re-summoned for 1 hour. Since loss of the weapon is a severe debuff this would be dramatic last resort.
Honestly, I just homebrewed a magus arcana that lets you conjure a weapon using your arcane pool and another one lets you cast spells with somatic components while wielding it. Don't really need to make an archetype that butchers the whole class.
The move to spontaneous, charisma-based casting also puts this up against the already pretty lovable Arcane Duelist Bard.
First impression is 'underpowered' with the loss of armour proficiency and no defensive class feature. A mid-level start would let you have access to armour-boosting magic gear, but low-level starts don't look survivable.
|
|
Gains:10. 3 Extra bonus feats (limited to blade) plus improved fighter training.
Instant Weapon: Instead of enhancing a held weapon, the archetype summons a magical weapon.
Cons: Enhancement values of this weapon are the same as would be bestowed upon a held weapon, but the instant weapon has only those enhancements (no base enhancement) so overall power of weapon is lower. May not be wielded with two hands to deal additional strength damage. Vanishes if disarmed (no option to pick up, must re-summon). Giving up armour is a big deal for a character expected to spend time in melee, and unlike the Kensai the Swordsoul doesn't get an AC bonus to compensate. Diminished spellcasting is a similarly big disadvantage, and you add to that less significant disadvantages in terms of flexibility of weapon and spell selection.
1. The bonus feats should have been "one every four levels thereafter". so 4th,8th,12th,16th,20th....
2. Also, I had intended to allow the use of arcane pool to enhance the weapon as it states. you summon the weapon and enhance it separately.
3. I may actually drop the "fighter training" option and go with Raising the weapon die size: 1st=1d8, 4th=1d10, 8th=1d12, 12th=2d8, 16th=3d6, 20th=4d6. Increased damage as a counter to the loss of armor, rather than a bonus AC.
|
|
The move to spontaneous, charisma-based casting also puts this up against the already pretty lovable Arcane Duelist Bard.
First impression is 'underpowered' with the loss of armour proficiency and no defensive class feature. A mid-level start would let you have access to armour-boosting magic gear, but low-level starts don't look survivable.
The ability to summon the phantom blade and spontaneous spell casting means that you can never be stripped of "All" your abilities...
Well, as long as you have arcane pool and spell slots to cast or convert into more arcane pool points.(*phantom blade, and no metal = no rust monster fear.)
As Weirdo recommended above, I will change the duration of the phantom blade to: until dismissed, broken, or disarmed.
(*so you don't have to keep summoning it every few minutes and have to book-keep the rounds passing.*)
No armor does not mean absolutely no protection...
At lower levels if you are surprised, you are in trouble. So perhaps I will tweak the class skills to include perception and stealth?
On-the-other-hand, if you can prepare for a fight: Mage armor and shield, work rather nicely. as you advance, bracers of armor and a force shield ring may be available, if not - an extended duration shield spell can help a little.
instead of canny defense and increasing initiative and critical threat chance and a bonus to confirm critical Hits; I ramp up the bonus damage of the phantom blade and allow you to further enhance it according to the normal magus arcane pool enhancement options. to which I may add the ability add the properties of special materials (at specific levels) as a separate enhancement. the phantom blade will be able to counter DR
The bonus damage (re-visited) shown here stacks with that of the phantom weapon; 1st=+1d8, 5th=+2d8, 9th=+3d8, 13th=+4d8, 17th=+5d8. This damage is not affected by a critical hit.
The loss of the fighter training means no weapon specialization and critical feats (?) but that ought not to matter as the bonus damage dice, and charisma bonus damage, should be more than enough to keep the phantom blade on par with other melee class DPS.
Clearly I need to provide an entry for the phantom blade
let's say you make a variant human (No bonus feat, no skill rank, Get two +2 ability modifiers) and you go with:
St:10, Dx:18, Co:10, In:10, Ws:10, and Ca:18.
1st, weapon finesse, and a class bonus (*Counts as) Arcane strike, but only for the phantom blade.
I will add a bonus feat here: "weapon focus-phantom blade".
2nd, Spell strike.
3rd, you take slashing grace. a class bonus (counts as) quickdraw only for the phantom blade.
****************************************
Hrmm, with just a 1 level dip everyone can have a phantom blade.
that's not good.
maybe I am doing this all wrong? I think I should have a level delay (say 3rd) and just make "instant weapon" spell as a magus Arcanum?
this way the Kensai can simply take learn the Arcanum and thus never be without his favored weapon...
|
|
I would go with the arcana. It's simpler and more flexible. I'd be interested in a psychic blade but not necessarily with the rest of the package.
Gains: 3 Extra bonus feats (limited to blade) plus improved fighter training.1. The bonus feats should have been "one every four levels thereafter". so 4th,8th,12th,16th,20th....
I miscounted, then. Two extra bonus feats - on top of the three that the magus normally gets at 5, 11, and 17.
2. Also, I had intended to allow the use of arcane pool to enhance the weapon as it states. you summon the weapon and enhance it separately.
You summon it as a move/swift/part of a move (gaining a +1 weapon) and then spend another swift action to further enchant it? That's not an improvement, since it takes the better part of a turn - or even two turns - to get the weapon functional (a +1 weapon is close to useless at higher levels). The instant weapon really needs to improve on its own, separate from the arcane pool enchantment feature, or else it will be inferior to the black blade or to simply buying a weapon.
3. I may actually drop the "fighter training" option and go with Raising the weapon die size: 1st=1d8, 4th=1d10, 8th=1d12, 12th=2d8, 16th=3d6, 20th=4d6. Increased damage as a counter to the loss of armor, rather than a bonus AC.
...
On-the-other-hand, if you can prepare for a fight: Mage armor and shield, work rather nicely. as you advance, bracers of armor and a force shield ring may be available, if not - an extended duration shield spell can help a little.
instead of canny defense and increasing initiative and critical threat chance and a bonus to confirm critical Hits; I ramp up the bonus damage of the phantom blade and allow you to further enhance it according to the normal magus arcane pool enhancement options.
That's not a great trade. Critical hits normally contribute a good deal to a magus' overall damage, so the Kensai's crit advantages (not to mention AoO for extra attacks) may very well match the increase in weapon damage dice you're proposing. The Kensai has the same options to increase AC but isn't as vulnerable without them. The initiative features increase the chance that the Kensai will be able to activate an important defensive spell before being targeted - or quickly take out their opponents thanks to having increased damage in the surprise round.
to which I may add the ability add the properties of special materials (at specific levels) as a separate enhancement. the phantom blade will be able to counter DR
This is not so useful because a weapon with a high enhancement bonus can naturally bypass most DR, and thanks to arcane pool a magus can easily increase their enhancement bonus to deal with DR. Between the weapon's normal enhancement and the arcane pool, a bladebound magus can bypass cold iron, silver, or adamantine at level 5, and alignment DR at level 9.
|
|
Okay, Options with the rules as is:
1. Kensai, the third level Arcanum can be Spell Scars which works like Spell Mastery (note: PFS-Legal, spell mastery feat may be available to the magus class). You can "read" a spell scar to cast a spell as if from a scroll. as long as you do not, you can prepare your spells by reading your scars.
2. at 4th level you can learn the magus spell, instant weapon.
a standard action to cast, and you make your favored weapon; follow that up with enhancing it. Yes the action economy is terrible but there is no multi-classing and no rule tweaking shenanigans...
3. at sixth level if you feel the need exists, one could take blended spells Arcanum and learn the first level sorc/wizard spell Shadow blade (*not to be mistaken for Umbral weapon). this instant weapon is made of shadow/illusion and is subject to both disbelief and spell resistance. the reason why you can not do this at third is that the spell you learn must be one level lower than the highest you can cast.
It sounds like the occult adventures book will have a mindblade magus.