| Harley Queen |
Greetings everyone. I thought that now is as good time as any(if not better) to stop lurking anonymously and contribute to the community, so here's the report on my Magus play-testing.
Long story short - almost immediately after the release of Magus preview i gathered my players, composed a simple and straightforward combat module(as that's the kind more suited for testing combat classes than social modules, no?) and we began. I'll divide my report in two parts - first the report itself; analysis, suggestions and random ranting later.
Characters.
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NE Male Elf Magus 6
Init: +4; Senses: Low-light vision; Perception +8
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AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15
HP 34(8+5d8+6)
For +5, Ref +6, Will +5
Concentration(adjacent to Sorrow): +21
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee: Whip +9(1d4+3+1d6 electricity/20x2/) or
Cestus +9(1d4+3/19-20x2/)
Spells Prepared:
0(at will)-Acid Splash, Spark, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Mage Hand
1st-True Strike, Hydraulic Push, Shield, Shocking Grasp*3
2nd-Alter Self, Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Spider Climb
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Str 14, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +6(+8 on trip); CMD 19
Feats: Combat Casting, Weapon Finesse, Shielded Caster, Arcane Strike
Skills: Knowledge(Arcane, Planes) + 14, Spellcraft +14, Acrobatics +7, Perception +8,
Stealth +15, Use Magic Device +9
Modifiers: +2 Perception, +5 Stealth(Shadow armor)
Traits: Focused Mind, Heirloom Weapon(Scorpion Whip)
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Gear: Shadow Mithral chainshirt +1, mithral scorpion whip +1, mithral cestus +1,
Belt of Incredible Dexterity +2, Ring Of Sustenance, scrolls, wands, odds and ends
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NE Male Elf Fighter 2/Transmuter(Enhancement) 4
Init +5; Senses: Low-light vision; Perception +2
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AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10
HP 29(10+1d10+4d4+6)
For +5, Ref +4, Will +4
Concentration(adjacent to Shadow): +18
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee: Curve Blade +7(1d10+3/18-20x2/)
Spells Prepared:
0(at will)-Resistance, Detect Magic, Ray of Frost, Touch of Fatigue, Message
1st-Mage Armor, Shield, Obscuring Mist, Lead Blades
2nd-Alter Self, Bull's Strength, Knock
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Str 14, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 18(19 vs bull-rush, trip, overrun, drag & reposition)
Feats: Power Attack, Combat Casting, Shield of Swings, Shielded Caster, Arcane Strike, Scribe Scroll
Skills: Appraise +13, Knowledge(Dung., Arcana, Nature, Religion) +13, Spellcraft +13
Traits: Magical Knack, Warrior of Old
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Gear: Mithral Elven Curve Blade +1, Ring of Sustenance, scrolls, wands, odds and ends
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Comments:
*As it can be seen, i made some allowances, mithral weapons are more of a point of style than anything; "Lead Blades" is, for some reason, a Ranger-only spell, although "Gravity Bow" is on sorcerer/wizard list, etc. I also allowed players to share a spellbook. Some might argue but i consider these largely irrelevant to the play-test.
*Player of Shadow choose bonus hit points as his favored class bonus, whereas player of Sorrow choose extra 1/2 of wizard school power(Augment in this case).
*Magus Arcana: Maneuver Mastery(Trip), Concentrate(for the lack of other worthy options)
*Arcane Bond: Shocking -> Scorpion Whip
*Players reasoned that they "Alter Self" themselves into stronger, meaner selves. I had no objections.
*Generally, both Shadow and Sorrow enter combat with Alter Self(both), Shield(both), Mage Armor(Sorrow), Bull's Strength(Sorrow) and Lead Blades(Sorrow) cast either from spell slots or scrolls and Arcane Strike activated each round, so combat statistics are as follows:
Shadow: AC 21, Atk. +9(1d4+6+1d6) with whip
Sorrow: AC 21, Atk. +8(2d8+15) power attacking with curve blade, or AC 25 with shield of swings(shield of swing at that point)
*Teamwork effort was made to ensure that casting defensively is more or less an auto-success.
*The Sorrow's build could've been Fighter 1/Wizard 5, but we collectively decided that having 3 level spells is too obvious advantage to be additionally confirmed by play-testing, and it would be fair if both Shadow and Sorrow got 3 level spells on level-up.
*Most of the monsters in this play-test carried potions of cure light wounds, to somehow ease the absence of cleric, or any other healer in the party.
*I will comment more on some choices in the "ranting" section of this report.
Encounters(Shadow and Sorrow were sent by their master to track and eliminate an entity called Bbegoroboss, lurking within dark folk enclave):
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2 Dark Creepers(patrol) - Shadow and Sorrow encountered 5 such patrols due to actively seeking them, reasoning that such course of action will blind the dark folk to their approach.
or
1 Dark Creeper riding Fiendish Worg, with Fiendish Raven as a messenger for "sounding" alert(outrider) - two of these.
I've kinda missed with challenge rating of patrols - all of them were cut down with minimum effort and with no buffing. Creepers were unable to use their sneak attack due to "back-to-back" tactic employed by my players, all fights were resolved by standard melee attacks and, occasionally one or two cantrips. Magus class features have seen no play.
The encounters with worg riders proved more interesting, but again, not as challenging as i thought - largely due to very lucky rolls on Sorrow's power attack. Shadow got tripped once, in the first worg-encounter, but was quickly saved by already mentioned power attack. Raven messenger got shot down with cantrips. Second worg-rider was actually ambushed by S&S and dispatched in surprise round+1st round. This time, however, raven got away, due to bad rolls on cantrip attacks.
Summary: Average/easy-challenge encounters discourage Magi to waste spell-resources on Spellstriking or risk Spell Combat for an advantage that is not apparently significant - mindful usage of consumables and cantrips is enough to survive and prevail through this kind of combat, though the help from teammates is necessary. Hard limit on the use of class features forces to play Magi as full-melee class with no gishness through most of encounters and that spawns boredom.
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(Shadow and Sorrow located the deserted village with dark folk enclave underneath. They entered the basement level of this village and go ambushed)
1 Darkmantle, 2 Bat Swarms.
Bat Swarms were intended to be more of an environmental hazard during the fight with darkmantle - they were disturbed by darkmantle's descend from the ceiling and attacked everyone(including darkmantle).
Surprise Round.
Darkmantle lands on Shadow, initiates and wins grapple. Bat Swarms swarm the area, damaging everyone; as usual - half damage dealt to darkmantle goes to Shadow. Later i realized that it was not "as usual" and belonged to a monster from next encounter, not a big deal at the moment, but still spawned some argument after the fight.
1 Round
Both swarms are dispersed by Sorrow using Gust Of Wind from a scroll. Darkmantle still grappling Shadow for damage. Shadow succedes on casting Alter Self using Concentrate Magus Arcana(oh, so it's good for something!)
2 Round
Sorrow uses Augment(+2 Str) on Shadow. Darkmantle loses grapple to the now vastly more strong Shadow and he breaks free.
3 Round
Sorrow misses with power attack. Darkmantle tries to get away but ends zapped to death by Spellstrike from Shadow
(1d4+7+6d6, he rolled 30 on these 6d6)
4-5 Round
Remains of bat swarms burned to ashes with burning hands from scrolls.
Amazingly, lower CR monster(Darkmantle) proved to be more challenging than dark creepers, and even dealt more damage. Spellstriking it was more of an avenging act than optimal decision, still the resulting damage was respectable for the level. Still no use for proper spell-combating.
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(Shadow and Sorrow rushed forward in the hopes of finding some combat before Alter Self wears out, putting on other combat buffs as they go. After exactly 3 minutes of very loud running, they entered the caverns lying beneath the deserted village)
1 Cloaker
Another batlike grappler for my nongrappling gishes, this was first serious combat. Shadow shifting was quickly negated by lots of Dancing Lights, saves against Moan boosted with Resistance(for the lack of better save-boosting options, a preparation failure on behalf of players). Fully buffing took first 3 rounds, allthewhile Cloaker was held back by lights and random whip strikes. On the 4th round, the Cloaker managed to charge-grab Sorrow, separating him from Shadow and negating Shielded Caster bonuses.
4 Round
Sorrow tries to win his freedom back, to no avail. Shadow runs close and casts Grease from a scroll, targeting
Sorrow.
5 Round
Greasy Sorrow slips from Cloaker's grab and retreats to Shadow' side. Shadow covers his retreat with Glitterdust.
Cloaker makes its save and responds with Unnerving Moan.
6 Round
Cloaker maintains Unnerving Moan, while moving away from dancing lights. Sorrow, using Knowledge(dungeoneering) identifies the nature of unnerving moan and suggests rapid action, supplying this suggestion with wand-based Ray of Enfeeblement(and successfully hits with it). Shadow Spider Climbs himself in position to whip Cloaker next round.
7 Round
Cloaker maintains Unnerving Moan, while moving away from dancing lights and climbing Shadow. Sorrow, too, casts Spider Climb from a scroll and moves closer to the act. Shadow whips Cloaker from 15 ft., spellstrike non-usable in given circumstances, so he declares a Dirty Trick with the intention to stfu the Cloaker. I allow it, he succeeds (with natural 20, Cloaker stfued and Unnerving Moan stops - crisis averted.
8 Round.
Enraged, Cloaker lashes out at Shadow, dealing damage. Sorrow spiderclimbs to flank the beast and, after some metagaming, readies an action to drop down to the floor after Shadow's attack. Shadow then spellpunches Cloaker with cestus. The fact that Cloaker charged on its turn and is flanked now allows Shadow to land the blow. Then Shadow and Sorrow both drop down to the floor.
9 Round.
Cloaker, still stfued and raging 'cause of that, charges Shadow again, but misses this time. Shadow and Sorrow decide to withdraw a bit to the tunnels to negate Cloaker's flying advantage.
10-14 Round.
Battle rages on in the tunnels. While players judged correctly that Cloaker is sufficiently angry with them to fall for their withdrawal, they forgot that tunnels are dark and they no longer have time to Dancing Lights them. Cloaker used this to mirror image and then blur himself. He was defeated, but not before Shadow and Sorrow expended almost all their spells. Spell Combat -> True Strike was used to good effect, ending the fight, Obscuring Mist somehow evened the chances during the fight. Overall the fight was fairly difficult and, at last, presented the opportunities to use Spellstrike and Spell Combat. Luck was on Shadow's side during this rounds and no spells fumbled. After the fight Shadow and Sorrow opted for Rope Trick+Alarm from scrolls, using their rings of sustenance and a bag of clw potions looted from dark creepers.
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After some discussion and decision making, we agreed to bring some further changes to how Magus class features work (more on that later), and as the result Elemental Touch replaced Spider Climb in Shadow's memorize. This was the only change
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(Rested, Shadow and Sorrow ventured forth into what proved to be a more ancient village, buried in the caverns beneath ordinary not-ancient deserted village. Here they got to partially ambush the ambush)
1 Dark Stalker, 2 Dark Creepers, 1 Fiendish Worg
Warned by the raven-messenger, remains of dark folk force set up an armed watching post on the "central street" of
the buried village. None of the patrols came back to join them on the barricades, since said patrols were butchered.
Dark Creeper(the other one was the ambushed part of the ambush, he was murdered and his stationary double crossbow in the position of cover was captured) altered between ranged attacks from the other vantage point and later, when he ran out of bolts to fire, providing flanking opportunities for Dark Stalker and his Worg. Worg was a "tank" blocking
the pathway(difficult terrain), Dark Stalker stalked the dark.
1 Round.
Shadow operates the stationary crossbow, dealing some damage to the worg. Sorrow buffs. Dark Creeper retaliates with his crossbow but misses. Dark Stalker moves into position. Worg is very angry.
2 Round.
Shadow and Sorrow jump down from their vantage point to finish the worg. Dark Creeper hits Sorrow. Dark Stalker and Worg both move to flank Shadow.
3-5 Round.
Sorrow takes on the worg to break his flanking, leading him away(I judged that good rolls on power attack is enough to make the beast angry and very interested in dispatching the source of damage). Shadow dueled with Dark Stalker. After one more volley, Dark Creeper moved to flank Shadow with Dark Stalker.
6 Round
Shadow rolled good on his Fort saves vs, poison, but sustained quite the damage before spellstriking Dark Stalker to oblivion with Shocking Grasp. Death throes of Stalker killed the second Creeper and put Shadow at -6. Sorrow finishes his Worg and rushes to the rescue, barely in time to clw Shadow and himself before next(and last in this report) encounter started.
This improvised "city fight" was hell of 5ft. steps, tracking which terrain is difficult and which is not. As it is, i think i've overcomplicated this encounter for myself and my players. Hydraulic Pushing and then tripping with Spell Combat proved to be a decent tactic to avoid AoO(for attacking with whip) and disrupt enemy flanking. Over all, Sorrow was more stable than Shadow, due to higher AC and more reliable damage output.
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(The flash of light from Dark Stalker's death throes awakened the last guardian on the way to Bbegoroboss)
1 Wyvern.
This is what the crossbows were for. Both players grasped the idea. They employed a simple tactic. They shared the
remaining bolts and fired from both crossbow. As the wyvern rushed to attack one of them, that one used the surrounding structures to hide in, and while the wyvern tried to claw him out, the other rained bolts upon. At some point wyvern switches to second annoyance, but he hides in structures on his side of the street and so on.
The bolts lasted long enough to bring the wyvern to 1\2 hit points. Open warfare was due.
This would be the end of party, if not for the change(or perceived change) in Spell Combat. I allowed each touch attack from Elemental Touch to count as a separate "casting" and, therefore, work in Spell Combat full-attack. Since all of Shocking Grasps were expended in the last fight - this was the only method to deal required damage to have a
chance of prevailing. Second part of this combat was devoid of movement(except some on the Shadow's part, to move in a proper flank). Sorrow opted to tank, increasing his Con with Augment. Shield Of Swings(Still a Shield of Swing really) proved extremely helpful in avoiding the grab and rake, but again due to Shield of Swings the damage was lacking. Ruined walls and other obstructions prevented the Wyvern from making any good use of its Flyby Attack so it
was a stand-off.
The fight was won, with Shadow at 7 hit points, Sorrow at 12 and suffering 4 Con damage from wyvern poison.
At the end of this battle the level-up was upon us and we took a break.
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| Harley Queen |
What was learned. Comments, Suggestions, random ranting as promised.
First impression was promising. Second and all further revealed the scary truth: Magus is... boring. All his class features, most of his spell-list, list of bonus feats - all unavoidably point towards combat and most require you to expend your spell-resources which are scarce. At least at this level, Magus simply has nothing to do except for blasting - it's really his only combat option, the only thing that he can do relatively well. Due to the mechanics of his class features and their narrow focus - between spell strike and spell strike he is a simply a fighter, only without a pile of bonus feats and straight BAB. Yes, he has his bonded weapon and some level of battlefield control with spells. But if he actually would engage in attempt to control with spells - he will lose his ability to spell strike when needed.
Now please don't assume that our collective opinion is based solely on this particular build. As it can be seen, some choices were intentionally suboptimal. The point being that powerplaying would certainly enhance the "play" part, but at the same time - hinder the "test". And the purpose of our test was to see how *average* Magus build will perform vs. average-to-challenging encounters and how it will compare with equally *average* eldritch knight set-up build.
The following is our conclusion.
The role of Magus or, really, niches that he could fill are undefined by his class-features. First, he does look as skirmisher - damage spikes, respectable chance to hold his own in melee combat for 1-2 rounds - enough to deliver his damage and get away. But! Let's compare him with other non-fighter melee characters who are, as Magus, are limited in the use of their abilities in some way. The Barbarian, while not squishy and quite damage-dealing without resorting to magicks - is limited by the rounds of raging per day. He gets lots of different rage powers - to make his time in rage really useful to the party and entertaining to himself: bonus on skills, different abilities like scent, different types of damage to suit the opponents, really, a whole load of options. Then the Rogue - mostly, he is not limited to times/rounds per day on his sneak attack - he only needs a proper set-up and can not hold his own in melee as fighter, barbarian or, in fact, Magus can. But he gets loads of rogue tricks, multitudes of means to set-up opponents for a sneak attack, tricks than give him social and utility bonuses, once again, making him useful to the party and fun to the player. Magus Arcana is a class feature that, supposedly, should serve the same function. It does not, it only limits him further, giving him powers he can not use freely and will be penalized if used to early. Further still, even at it's current state, Magus invalidates the need of Eldritch Knight. Why would someone want to enter a prestige class that has a base class ability as a capstone and does not have any other abilities at all? Some might argue that 9th level casting is reason enough. We will parry that 9th level casting is not a class-feature, it's not new, it's not unique - it's a simple sheer power. Interesting and innovative way to apply your power(Imbue Arrow, Spellstrike), on the other hand, is a worthy class-feature. One might consider packing class features of Magus in 10 levels and making him a prestige class, while downgrading Eldritch Knight to base class. That's not serious, of course, just saying.
We will brain-storm and try to analyze the current Magus class-features. They are as follows:
*Spellcasting: One who has experience with 3.5 can't really help but compare Magus with Duskblade. Duskblades is a spontaneous caster which supports his constant use of 3.5 Arcane Strike and his channeling ability. His spells per day are many, once again, to support the playstyle. Magus, on the other hand, is a preparation caster BUT his Magus Arcana still makes kind of a limited spontaneous caster. I can see a flavor point in preparation-based casting - he is a scholar of sword and spell alike, let it be so, that's nice. And he gets more spell per day than wizard. Good. But not good enough, since most of his class-features force him to use this spells for something other than spells and this something is generally weaker than spells or more situational. I will elaborate later, but as of now, our suggestion is to give Magus at least slightly more spells per day, maybe +1 at each level - that would change things a lot.
*Spellstrike: This is how we used this ability during this playtest and, sincerely, this is how it should be to be worthwhile. You can use a standard action to cast any touch spell from Magus spell-list and deliver the spell through your weapon with a melee attack. Casting a spell in this manner does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action or less. If the melee attack is successful, the attack deals weapon damage normally; then the effect of the spell is resolved.
No doubt, this is powerful. But this is also a signature ability for the class and, this is worth noting, a signature ability that in it's current rendition(that was not used in our play-test) does not progress with levels. At all. Yes, you get it on 1st level, but you also can't use it efficiently till later, it kills your action economy dead and is nowhere near a guaranteed success(in any rendition, really). Would it hurt so much to award this ability on 3rd, or even 6th level, but in actually working state? Further, it interacts with next class-feature, Spell Combat in a disappointingly one-way manner. You can't prepare a spell into your weapon and then cast True Strike with Spell Combat, for example, since any and all held touch spells will harmlessly dissipate upon casting of any other spell. This is an understandable limit to class power and it should not be lifted, but this is not the only limit, this is another nail in a coffin.
This is what we suggest:
At 15th level
You can cast any touch spell from Magus spell-list as part of a full attack action, and the spell affects each target
you hit in melee combat that round, but any one target can't be affected by more than one such attack. Doing so discharges the spell at the end of your turn, in the case of a touch spell that would otherwise last longer. Make a Concentration check(as if casting defensively) at the end of your turn. If you fail, you are dazed for 1 round.
*Spell Combat: 2nd level, as with Ranger combat style. This is good. It allows for tactics, control, making improvised shadow pounces with Dimension Door, all around steady ability. The Concentration penalty is more than manageable as the build above shows, and we even sure that it can be made with less effort. Unlike Spellstrike, this ability actually improves with level, but in what way? It diminishes the penalty for using this ability. And here we thought that Pathfinder is about giving bonuses, rewarding with increasingly powerful abilities, rewarding for staying in one class to high level. All we get is a lifted penalty, with no additional options or bonuses. It states that it works "much like two-weapon fighting" - and it would be *really* good if that would be so.
This is what we suggest:
At 8th Level(Or 9th, on the next level after gaining Improved Spell Combat)
When you cast a touch spell as part of Spell Combat, you get two attacks with that spell for that round(or can use one additional attack if the spell already grants multiple attacks on 1/round basis). You must make a Concentration check(as if casting defensively) for each of these attacks. Second attack receives -4 penalty on such check. So it would be -2/-4, or -1/-3 with Improved Spell Combat. The penalty on attacks(-2 with improved spell combat) applies to the touch attacks as well.
At 15th Level(at the point when you receive 3rd main hand attack)
When you cast a touch spell as part of Spell Combat, you get three attacks with that spell for that round(or can use two additional attacks if the spell already grants multiple attacks on 1/round basis). You must make a Concentration check(as if casting defensively) for each of these attacks. Second attack receives -4 penalty on such check, and third receives -6 penalty. So it would be -2/-4/-6, or +0/-2/-4 with Greater Spell Combat.
This gives you mid-to-high-level options, nice progression and gives a feel of a real Spell Combat performed by melee caster you should be. Note, however, that 4 attacks per round(3 from BAB and 1 from Haste-like effects) is maximum you can achieve without combat reflexes and generally building your character around combat reflexes - and still none of these suggested options affect your AoO. Our estimation is that it's powerful but nowhere near overpowered.
First, as it was already mentioned on this board and beyond, and we completely agree, that Medium and Heavy Armor Casting should be made into options for Magus Arcana. No amount of buffing, no amount of thick armor can make this class as durable and scary in melee combat as Fighter, Barbarian or Paladin are. So, most builds will probably go with light, or medium armor and only very specific(see suggestions below) build would need heavy armor. Forcing a choice is never a good thing.
-Arcane Accuracy. This gives Insight bonus on attack rolls, just as True Strike does. Only much, much lesser bonus. On the other hand, it's a [Su] ability and therefore, probably, does not disperse your held touch spell. But if this is an intended use, i can't see why you won't cast True Strike on the first round and then your attack spell on the second. Maximum bonus you can receive from this is +6, on one round, by burning 6th level spell-slot. By casting 1st level spell, you can receive +20. Granted, this ability is a swift action. But there's Arcane Strike, taking away your swift action, scaling with level, and more useful. The benefits of this ability are too small, too short and too situational, while requiring considerable resources from you. Maybe if it last 1 min./caster level or at least 1 round/caster level - it would be worth it.
-Spell Shield. Same thing. There is a 1st level spell that does exactly the same, but better, earlier and for longer time. Yes, this spell is not an immediate action, but if you prepare it and cast it, you would not need to waste your immediate to give yourself Shield bonus to AC - you would already have it. +1/+2 AC gain, starting from levels 13/16 is simply not worth it. There are 5th and 6th level spells that will do you more good. On the other hand, if this bonus will be Deflection bonus, and will last 1 min./caster level or at least 1 round/caster level - it would be worth it.
-Broad Study. Good, solid option. Multiclassing to get spells into your spell-list is an old trick, but this does it very clean and without abuse.
-Concentrate. Our Magus has it, and would rather not has it. Extra maneuver mastery would be more useful. 1/day? 1 daily use of ability that is relevant only at low levels? Why?
-Critical Strike. As noted above, this is cruel and unfair. Why this base class has a capstone ability of a prestige class 4 level earlier than said prestige class? Eldritch Knight will be reprinted in Ultimate Magic with better
abilities?
-Dispelling Strike. This might be useful, might be worth taking, but you have Dispel Magic on 3rd level, 2 levels earlier than this Arcana becomes available. And still you can't dispell 7-8-9th level spells with it. And later, you will get Greater Dispell Magic. Added versatility in the form of not needing to memorize Dispells is tempting but can prove to be undoing of Magus. High risk, medium reward.
-Empowered, Maximized Magic. This class features can be bought with gold, at reasonable price and would be usable more times per day. "3+Int modifier uses per day" will redeem Empowered Magic. Maximizing is just bad.
-Familiar. This one's good. That's a good option to have, good option to take. This is the one of only two Magus Arcana(the second being Broad Study), that have uses outside of combat.
-Hasted Assault. This, again, is confusing. One can get this at 9 level, 2 levels after Haste is available. Sacrificing 1st and 2nd level spells to this ability is worth it for short term boosts. Sacrificing 3rd and higher level spells is worthless. It can safely be said that this feature badly scales with level. Still more useful than Dispelling Strike.
-Maneuver Mastery. Once again, it lifts the penalty instead of giving a bonus. Taking this option is expressing a desire to focus in one, maybe 2 maneuvers, while other maneuver-oriented combat classed - Fighter and Monk, can focus in all of them and then extra focus in some, and then perfect 1 or 2 without much effort. Would it hurt to award at least +2 bonus on top of lifted penalty for such dedication? How, exactly it's even a "mastery" if all that it does is lets you use *one* maneuver on par with, say, ranger?
-Quickened Magic. Ability to quicken a 6th level spell without having access to higher level spells is good and powerful. No objections here, 1/day is perfectly balanced given the circumstances.
-Reflection. This one is good. More so given the fact that there is no spell turning effects on Magus spell-list. Even more so if combined with Counterstrike.
-Silent Magic. This class features can be bought with gold, at reasonable price and would be usable more times per day. "3+Int modifier uses per day" will redeem Silent Magic to some degree, but it still will be situational and metamagic rod will still be better.
-Still Magic. So, you get to cast in armor 1/day. Wait, you can do that all day long without this Arcana. This can be used to escape really scary grapples. Dimension Door can be used to do the same with more reliable effect. Still This class features can be bought with gold, at reasonable price and would be usable more times per day. "3+Int modifier uses per day" will redeem Still Magic to some degree and it still will be situational.
What we suggest:
First, to give class options and variety it currently lacks, progression of Arcana should be similar to that of the
Rogue Tricks, starting at 2nd level and forward. Magus will be better, more interesting, more fun. Currently it forces too much very hard decisions on you and none of them pay off significantly enough. Other classed do not wait till they become capable of doing what they're supposed to do - they scale with level, becoming progressively better at doing that. Beta-Magus is not one of them. More utility, and maybe even social Arcanas should be added so as to not pigeonhole Magus to one and only playstyle. Here's what we came up with.
At 8th level
You are capable of wielding two-handed weapons while performing Spell Combat. If you choose to do so, however, each one of your attacks with two-handed weapon in Spell Combat applies a cumulative +2 to the DC of any Concentration checks you are required to make in a round you are using Spell Combat and in the next round, as you are thrown off balance.
At 8th level
You are capable of channeling the arcane energies into your shield, in a process similar to that of Spellstriking. As a standard action you can bind any touch spell from the Magus spell-list to your shield. Any enemy missing you with a melee attack in this round is automatically hit with bound spell and the spell is discharged. Enemy who missed you due to concealment, or you being ethereal or incorporeal, is not affected - only a failed attack roll against your AC counts. Enemies who successfully hit you and enemies attacking with reach weapons are also unaffected, note, however, that depending on the nature of the stored spell, their weapons might be affected. At 9th level this Arcana is capable of affecting two enemies prior to discharging. At 15th level this Arcana is capable of affecting three enemies prior to discharging.
At 6th level
You are capable of tracing somatic components necessary to cast spells from Magus spell-list with your weapon, even while attacking with it. Such style imposes additional -2 penalty on your attack rolls, but allows you to use any shield with which you are proficient in Spell Combat.
At 4th Level
Add one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell-list to the Magus spell-list and your spellbook. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level you can cast.
Some of these will require adding proficiences to Magus list, obviously, but still, it's worth not forcing players into one and only combat style.
*Arcane Weapon. This is pretty good and pretty standard. Arcane Duelist Bard can do this, Arcane Archers can kinda do kinda this. Maybe, just maybe, here is the place where arcane spell-slots should be burned? Sacrifice a spell to the weapon, weapon gets enhancement bonuses either on attack or damage(tracked separately) based on the total spell levels sacrificed for the whole day. Weapon can't receive more spell levels than 1/2 your caster level. This effect can be dispelled or suppressed as normal, using your caster level as target DC. If dispell is successful, sacrificed spells are lost. Overall we are also surprised that there's no Dueling and Defending on the list.
*Counterstrike. Situational but very good when this kind of situation arise. No objections or suggestions.
*Weapon Bond. These are nice and useful and flavorful abilities. 19th level. I can read about them, i can comment on them and will never ever use them in real game.
*True Magus. I guess that all these mishaps, hindrances and general pain for the last 19 levels were due to the fact that my Magus was Untrue. Good to know. Bonuses are to the appropriate areas but to small for a 20th level capstone ability. We can't really comment on this, 20th level is just too 20th level.
That wraps it. The Pathfinder really needs a base arcane gish class, and much hopes are tied to Magus to fill this role. But, no offence, at the moment it looks like Paizo is on the way to repeating the mistake WotC made with Hexblade at the dawn of 3.5 - painfully hard limit on uses of signature ability per day, limited casting, extremely limited choice of roles to fill and penalties everywhere all for the ability to cast in armor. And Hexblade got fighter BAB! Please don't let this happen again.
P.S.
It would be very nice if Mr. Bulmahn commented on this.
P.P.S
English is not my native, and i'm sure it shows. I sincerely apologize for the hardships inflicted upon those reading through this text.
cfalcon
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The Hexblade suffered many limits that the Magus does not, such as 1/2 level casting and 4 level access, along with a much smaller number of spell levels in general and very delayed access to stuff that the wizard got bored with years previous. I don't think these two classes compare.
The Duskblade certainly does.
This looks like you did a really good job testing, btw.
| Harley Queen |
The Hexblade suffered many limits that the Magus does not, such as 1/2 level casting and 4 level access, along with a much smaller number of spell levels in general and very delayed access to stuff that the wizard got bored with years previous. I don't think these two classes compare.
The Duskblade certainly does.
This looks like you did a really good job testing, btw.
That's the point. Other classes are bound with limits so as to not be overpowered and break campaigns and prancing about in god-mode. Hexblade and Magus are similar in that they *suffer* limits put on them.
Thank you.