Magus Playtest (NPC villains)


Round 1: Magus

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Module: Kingmaker Stolen Land (No real spoilers)

Characters: Human Barbarian 3, Human Inquisitor of Erastil 3, Dwarf Cavalier (Shield) 3, Gnome Sorcerer (Destined)3, Elf rogue 3.

The Setup A twisted area of forest with Bandits hidden around the area (lots of difficult terrain and cover). Polom and Porom were on either end of the party. They were well hidden and prepared for the party with their buff spells (shield, magic weapon etc).
Enemies = 2 magi and 4 bandits.

Magi: I had a pair of Magi with a group of bandits ambush my PCs in the Narlmarches.
Surprise Round: Polom (half-orc magus) casts Enlarge Self and demands the PCs drop their weapons. Porom (half-elf magus) casts Shocking Grasp from a wand. Bandits fire arrows at the party.
Round 1: Party mostly attack the bandits. Polom 5misses his AoO against Barbarian. Porom attacks Dwarf Cavalier and hits with Rapier and Shocking Grasp Spellstrike dealing a massive 20 damage in one turn (not a critical).
Round 2: Party drop a couple of bandits. Deal some damage to Polom and Porom. Polom 5-foot steps and attacks the Barbarian (enlarged with bastard sword manages 21 damage). Porom uses Spell Combat to cast Grease beneath the Cavalier's mount, but the mount makes the save.
Round 3: Polom attacks the Barbarian but misses (I was rolling about 5-7). Porom attempts to attack the Dwarf with a normal arcane strike, but misses. The Dwarf crits Porom dropping her. The barbarian gets off both attacks against Polom causing the half-orc to die due to being critted. With both their lieutenants dead the remaining two bandits surrendered.

Parting Thoughts: It was a tough fight (I dread to think what a Magus' critical hit might look like). The Magi had about a 35% chance to hit the highest AC in the party, and their damage output when they hit was very intimidating to the party. Over-all a fun encounter, but Magi are complex enemies to run. They were designed to test two build philosophies Pre-Buffing and going in using a weapon 2 handed, or using spells dynamically in combat. One style feels very barbarian, the other style feels very manga. Three rounds is pretty average for my party combats. A lucky crit or two from the magi could have caused some egregious PC harm.

I think maybe finding a way to streamline Spellstriking and Spell Combat might make a GMs job easier when running a dynamic casting Magus.

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