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Will be throwing a couple playtest challenges this weekend, just looking for some suggestions for decent challenges.
So far, I'm thinking:
4 PC Party, one of which is definitely Magus.
Level 1-2
Challenges:
CR1: 3 Human Skeletons
2 Orc Warriors
Spider Swarm
CR 2: Faerie Dragon
2 Lizardfolk
Medium Shark
CR 3: Ogre
Monstrous Scorpion
Fire Mephit
CR 4: Owlbear
Wyrmling Green Dragon
Satyr
CR 5: Green Hag
Manticore
Megaraptor
As individual encounters, I plan on running 3-4 of each CR level per simulated "day" of adventure, likely escalating in difficulty. I expect the solo-monster types to fair worse than the pairs do.
Still need to come up with good Mid and High level challenges - perhaps APL 7-8 and APL 15-16?
Those will take some more engineering, I fear.
Interesting encounters. I think the solos will fair worse than the pairs against a full party but will fair better against the Magus at low levels due to having high AC and ruffling the Magus's action economy (the Magus should refrain from using Spell Combat against high AC enemies). If you don't have one already and are planning on using a standardised Magus build for playtest, I have a build from level 1 to 20 here.
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We'll see how far we go tomorrow.
I intend to build a single Magus and incorporate him/her into a 4-person group & let them at a bunch of combat encounters.
I'm interested to see how he stacks up in a party. Liability? Better than Fighter? Somewhere in the middle?
All PC's will be independently controlled & dice-rolled to simulate actual play.
Hopefully, we'll get through the low-level stuff tomorrow at least.
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here goes:
Magus "Ally" Level 2
CG Human Magus 2
Init +3
HP 2d8+9 (22 hp)
AC: 15 (+4 Armor, +1 Dex)
Touch: 11
Flat Footed: 14
Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +4
SPD 30
Melee: Masterwork Scimitar +4 (1d6+2 18-20/x2)
Ranged Touch +2
Feats: Toughness, Scribe Scroll
Skills: Acrobatics +3, Know(Arcana) +8, Know(Dung) +8, Spellcraft +8, UMD +4
Traits: Desperate Focus (+2 Concentration), Reactionary (+2 Init)
Gear: Mwk Scimitar, Mwk Chain Shirt, Spell Component Pouch, Adventuring gear worth <50g.
Spells Prepared:
1st True Strike, Shocking Grasp, Enlarge Person
0th Acid Splash, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Mage Hand
Scrolls: Obscuring Mist, Shield, True Strike, Magic Missile, Hydraulic Push
Ally was joined by a Human Necromancer 2 (Life), Dwarf Cleric 2 (Pukebeard), Half-Elf Rogue 2 (Randy), and eventually a Dwarf Fighter 2 (Frank), on a quest to clear a small dungeon of some level appropriate monsters.
Encounter 1 (CR 3):
Ally, Life, Pukebeard, and Randy vs. 1 Ogre in a 40' x 40' room.
Randy surprises Ogre with really good stealth and sneaks into room before initiative. Gaining init on the Ogre, Randy stabs him, sneak attacks, and stays within melee range. Pukebeard charges in and dodges an AoO thanks to Defensive Training. Ogre whacks Randy and drops him to negatives. Ally moves & Spellstrikes her sword with Shocking Grasp, Life buffs himself.
Next round, Randy bleeds, Pukebeard heals him a bit, Ogre nearly takes Cleric's head off with 1 swing. Ally moves and zaps with Scimitar + Shocking Grasp, dropping Ogre into negatives.
Searching, they find some minor treasure and a couple of CLW potions , and head to the next encounter area.
Encounter 2 (CR 3):
Ally, Life, Pukebeard, Randy, and now Frank vs. 1 Fire Mephit in a 40' high, 25' diameter tower with a spiral staircase around its perimeter. Mephit begins on the 2nd level (20' up on a ring-balcony area), and is again surprised by a very stealthy Rogue .
This fight was a little tougher, since noone had very strong ranged attacks, AND the mephit had DR 5/Magic. Frank's Javelins and Randy's thrown daggers were all but useless.
Mr. Mephit managed some good damage between his breath weapon and Scorching Ray attacks, dropping Life into the negatives with the latter. Pukebeard's Magic Stone, some lucky over-the-DR hits from Frank & Randy, and being surrounded caused him to flee into the darkness up above.
A Light spell limited his hiding spaces shortly thereafter, and a Magic Missile from Ally's scroll managed to drop him into negatives. The fall and a CdG from Randy were enough to end his threat. Once again, they found a couple of CLW potions (immediately consumed) and some minor treasure, and pressed on.
Encounter 3 (CR 1.5):
Below the tower was a small, cramped Wine Cellar room, with 4 Skeletons. Randy, being party scout, headed down and was attacked by all 4. Due to cramped conditions (squeezing, basically, between wine racks) only 1 claw landed before he was able to tumble out.
Everyone else was able to ready actions or (in the case of Ally) Enlarge Person themselves and prepare for the bony onslaught.
Stupid mindless undead then took a Channel Energy (3 HP, enough to drop them to 1 or 3 HP, depending if they saved) before moving up the stairs into the gauntlet of doom. Each readied action (Frank's Axe, Life's Disrupt Undead, Randy's Sneak Attack) managed to drop a skeleton, and the last one, provoking an AoO from Large Ally, also bit it.
Grabbing some Wine-Bottle CLW potions (noticing a pattern yet?), they collected themselves and moved on to the last Low-Level test encounter.
Encounter 4 (CR 3)
Ally, Life, Pukebeard, Frank, and Randy vs. 1 Giant Scorpion
Tucked into a forgotten barracks room, the Scorpion was able to detect our heroes' approach easily enough. Frank charged right in, dodging the AoO and doing some decent damage. Randy moves in, trying to angle for a flank, and Frank eats a full attack of Claw/Claw/Stinger/Constrict. He drops in one round, and the party then exchanges blows for another 2 rounds while healing Frank (Life gave him some Temp HP, Pukebeard CLW'd via spells) and trying not to get eaten.
Ally (still Enlarge Person'd manages to lay on the final killing shot via Spell Combat - Attack & Acid Splash.
After that, Ally was spent for spells (had True Strike Left, as well as most of her scrolls), Pukebeard had no 1st level spells and no Channels left, Life had 1 1st level spell left, and everyone had been healed up.
Overall, the player (a long-term player of all kinds of classes, from Artificer to Wizard, and sometime DM) had good impressions of the character. She failed a Spell Combat roll once (against the Mephit, IIRC) but otherwise felt she was able to contribute very well.
Being able to Enlarge herself, charge up an extra 2d6 to a scimitar hit, and still cast things like Obscuring Mist or Magic Missile was fun. Her AC was 4 lower than the 2 dwarves (both wearing breastplate and carrying shields) but on par with both the Rogue and Wizard.
Nothing about the class screamed "super-broken" but she was still able to contribute in low level combat, even against non-melee threats (like the Mephit).
As far as character build: Scimitar was chosen for it's crit range, which turned out very nice in the higher level test. 15 Point Buy (standard fantasy) allowed for a generally even stat array allowed for good Int, Str, and Con, without really sacrificing Dex or Wis. Cha was dumped.
Spell Selection was intended to give 1 utility, 1 Direct Damage, and 1 Buff spell. In retrospect, Hydraulic Push would have been very nice to have prepared, while True Strike could easily be made into Scroll or Wand.
Scribe Scroll allows for even easier "utility casting" and having the right spell for the occasion, like I have with my wizards. While Toughness or Combat Casting may have made for a sightly easier time, the trade-off was worth it, IMO.
Overall, the class seems to need something else to set it apart, and without careful resource management, she quickly becomes a "Bard without music."
Spell Combat could probably get a smaller (or more rapidly reducing) penalty, and the one-handed or light weapon restriction doesn't seem all that necessary.
Spell Striking seems a bit like Psionic Weapon; spend a round "charging up" a big swing, then unleash it and whup some butt. If it were more easily repeated at low levels (3 + int / day, perhaps, or some kind of "Arcana Pool" a la Ki Points) I could see it as more beneficial.
As it stands, though, a Magus with a Spell-Storing Weapon and Spell Strike can unleash some really nasty damage fairly early on. With Empower Arcana and Shocking Grasp, dump that into the Spell Storing weapon, then Spell Strike with another Shocking Grasp (possibly also Empowered, if it's the next day). Wpn Damage + Str + 5d6*1.5 + 5d6*1.5 at level 5 or 6 is kind of crazy. It is only once a day (at most), but still something to consider.
More to come...(like the 7th level version of this character and her test)