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Summary: Long, but the magus player was fairly bored, and was jealous of most of the rest of the party during level 1 play.
Party summary - all 1st level:
Human Fighter, Scale, L-Sword & Hvy Shield; Dodge, W-Focus, Toughness; S16 D14 C16; Hp17 AC19; Combat: +5 (1d8+3)
Human Barbarian, Greatsword; Power Attack, Cleave; S18 D14 C14; Hp12, AC15; Combat: +5 (2d6+6) or +7 (2d6+9) raging
Human Cleric of Erastil (Growth,Fur); MWP Greataxe, Lighting Reflexes; Spells: Bless, Shield of Faith, Enlarge; Domain: Enlarge (swift), +10ft speed (swift); S14 W16 Ch14; Hp10, AC14;Combat: +2 (1d12+3)
Elf Magus; Rapier, Leather; S12 C12 D16 I16; W Finesse; Hp9, AC15; Spells: Color Spray, Shocking Grasp;Combat: +3 (1d6+1)
Half-Elf Alchemist; Dagger, Leather; S14 C12 D12 I16; Point Blank; Hp9 AC13; Mutagen, Cure Lt, Shield; Combat: +2 (1d4+2)
Fight #1
Traveling with caravan that is attacked by about 8 goblin minions, led by a mounted goblin warchanter/archer and a second goblin warrior type. Was meant to be the lone fight for the day, so a good one for everyone to use all of their abilities.
Most of the PCs had to move to engage. The fighter "tank" went to the mounted goblin, who had 2 other goblins protecting it. He walked past 2 goblins who got their AOOs and both missed his AC19. The barbarian raged, ran up to a pair of goblins starting a fire, and hit with a cleave, doing I believe 11 damage to the pair (his +7 to hit easily made the 13-14AC). The alchemist spotted another pair, lobbed a bomb, hit blowing up one for 6 damage, and injuring the other for 3. The Cleric cast Bless for everyone. The magus, not seeing any large groups left, worked his way around behind the leader to set up a flank (took the full round since he didn't have Acrobatics to avoid the AOO).
In terms of being attacked, the tank was missed, the goblin warrior ran up and missed the cleric barely. Out of the little goblins, the alchemist took a few points and the barbarian was hit once for a few points.
Round 2, the Fighter swung his longsword against the leader and hit (+6 to hit) for 9 damage. The Cleric used his domain power (6 uses a day) to Enlarge himself as a swift action, then moved into to try to grapple the goblin warrior. With his large size, he grappled successfully. The alchemist lobbed another bomb, killing the one he singed earlier, and injuring another. The barbarian sliced through another (even though he rolled a 7) for 15 damage. The magus decided to use "his big move for the day" against the boss - and FAILED the concentration check of DC17 (he rolled a 12 but only had +6).
The goblin warrior wiggled free from the cleric, and a couple ran over to defend their leader. The fighter was missed again (AC19) and the magus took 4 damage from a goblin mook who rolled a 13 (AC15). The magus player was definitely feeling like the "lamest player" - since he was half dead and hadn't done much yet.
Round 3, the Fighter swung again against the boss and missed. The alchemist cleaned up the rest of the stray mooks with splash damage, and the barbarian and the cleric teamed up on the warrior. The cleric did like 13 damage with his greataxe, and the barbarian added another 15. The magus took a 5 foot step and used his last spell to color spray 3 goblins, including the leader. The 2 mooks fell unconscious, although it was only DC14, it was close.
The rest was just clean-up, the barbarian couldn't miss much (he only needed a 7-8 to hit and was 11-21 damage). The alchemist lamented not being able to use his mutagen..
Speedbump Encounters (5-7 of them)
The party was “ready to keep going” and track the goblins to their camp – as most felt they hadn’t used up even half their daily abilities. The cleric suggested “I can still enlarge myself several times a day, still have a 1st level spell, and a bunch of channel energy” (he used 2 to heal up the party, with a 1 and 5 rolled). The fighter was good to go. The alchemist pointed out that he didn’t even use an extract or mutagen yet, and had tons of bombs.
The magus, however, was the one pulling to rest for the night. “I used all my spells… well except Daze I guess”. It was true, he used everything he had for a fairly unspectacular performance. While all the other classes used a fraction of their abilities (I’d guess 1/3rd) for pretty impressive ones all around.
Long story short – the party rested – especially since we were “doing this for the magus playtest” and there wasn’t much good in seeing a 3/4 BAB class without buffs or sneak attack or skills run around with a rapier.
If you fast forward to the next day, there were several low CR speed-bump encounters. There was some interesting RP where the Barbarian tried to predict the weather using Survival or catch a deer for a meal. They ran into some bear traps which the Alchemst disabled using his Perception and Disable skills. The magus, with high Int, ended up with ranks in Intimidate, Acrobatics (without +3 bonus), Arcana, Spellcraft and UMD. Of course, he wasn’t great at most of these – since they were Charisma based, and there was little chance of him having that as a high ability.
In most of the speedbump fights, the magus was really tight on using his two spells. He used Daze once, but the barbarian, alchemist, cleric and fighter really continued to outshine him as he played conservatively. He was really just a guy with +3 (1d6+1) in combat without any skills or sneak attack. There was some joking at the table that he could be playing a High Strength Commoner or High Dex Commoner and be as effective if he wasn’t going to use spells (which forced him to use a Daze and Ray of Frost), although you could argue he was better off firing a longbow for +3 (1d8) as Ray of Frost at +3 (1d3) against some of the low AC fodder.
Final BBEG Fight
Anyway, they finally got to the camp – and the big fight broke out. Sure enough, the magus failed his concentration check again on Shocking Grasp. He then spent some time getting into position for a Color Spray and finished the fight delivering coup-de-gras since (in the player’s words) “I’m so worthless compared to everyone else”.
Unfortunately, it didn’t end well – the player suggested he’d probably re-roll if this was a real campaign as he just didn’t feel competent as everyone else. He had a bunch of fun fluff where he was trying to be an Elven Bladesinger, but his combat ineptitude and lack of use outside of combat really got to him.
Summary
Ultimately, the magus was poor at any of the things that were needed:
+ He wasn't good at fighting a boss (like the barbarian, fighter and cleric were, or a rogue or monk might be to tumble into position)
+ He wasn't good at taking out groups of mooks (like the alchemist was)
+ He was mediocre at crowd control (Daze, Color Spray)
+ He wasn't good at skills outside of combat, his most flavorful skill being Intimidate with a 10 Charisma
In our recap, we discussed how maybe he should have been a big strong half-orc magus, but the player griped that he wanted to play the stereotypical elf bladesinger, which given Elf racial bonuses, would be a Dex fighter, not a Str one.
We had a debate on how the iconic on page 3 was built. Was he high Dex or high Str? What weapon was he using? You wouldn't want an Elven Curve Blade (it's 2H). It's not a rapier (which he thought would be the best 1H weapon for him at 1st level). We then degenerated into discussing how "the class might work at 1st level if it had a Heirloom Weapon Sawtooth Sabre".
Anyway... that's our playtest. I don't think the players have the energy to attempt another one.
Thanks for the playtest data--I'm going to link this from my thread collecting actual playtest data for Jason to have it all at his fingertips in one place.
Suggestion to your player if he wants to continue with a Bladesinger Magus--as I see it, the only way to go and be extremely effective is grab a Scimitar and take Dervish Dance at level 3. This won't help him out at 1st level, but by level 3, he'll be using Dexterity for both attack and damage and can thus afford to ignore Strength even a little bit more.
I think what would be helpful is a cantrip that's a touch attack that does say 1d3 damage. That way the magus could add 1d3 to each of his attacks. Because it would be a cantrip, the concentration check is easier, and failing it doesn't permanently reduce his resources. At 1st level it'd be a big help, but at higher levels it's just a fallback spell.
We had a debate on how the iconic on page 3 was built. Was he high Dex or high Str? What weapon was he using? You wouldn't want an Elven Curve Blade (it's 2H). It's not a rapier (which he thought would be the best 1H weapon for him at 1st level).
If I remember correctly, and if it hasn't been changed from his multiclass/eldritch knight days, the iconic is using a longsword.
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Yeah, literally we spent maybe 2 hours discussing - but we were all over the place in topic.
He said he would've liked to use an Elven Thinblade to be "most in character", and I agreed it probably makes the most sense for an elf magus. Likely it's just a piercing version of the Aldori sword that is available as a martial weapon to elves.
Our campaign games, I tend to like the use the slow progression, so this player would see maybe 40 encounters before he hit level 3. A lot of my players will actually retire characters "they aren't feeling" after the first 5-10 encounters (it happens maybe once per campaign).
A lot of the times, it has to deal with RP interplay (i.e. a shady character having difficulty getting in his groove around the good paladin and cleric).
We brought up, "but hey at level 2 you'll be able to cast your shocking grasp and attack as two actions" or "you'll be able to swing and cast color spray in the same round". He just imagined the level 1 fights he already was in, and doing 1d6+3 (say 6) extra damage to the boss.
He then (rightfully?) pointed out that the cleric was able to enlarge in the same round and attack. Or the alchemist could enlarge/mutagen in the same round and attack. Or the barbarian could rage in the same round and attack. So to him, getting an enlarge/daze/color spray/s-grasp in the same round was no big deal, except his had 50% odds of failing and gave him a -4 to hit (making it also likely to fail specifically against bosses when he would be most wanting to use this action)
How does your cleric/alchemist gain 3 standard action per round? Enlarge person is a full round action.
Yeah, literally we spent maybe 2 hours discussing - but we were all over the place in topic.He said he would've liked to use an Elven Thinblade to be "most in character", and I agreed it probably makes the most sense for an elf magus. Likely it's just a piercing version of the Aldori sword that is available as a martial weapon to elves.
Our campaign games, I tend to like the use the slow progression, so this player would see maybe 40 encounters before he hit level 3. A lot of my players will actually retire characters "they aren't feeling" after the first 5-10 encounters (it happens maybe once per campaign).
A lot of the times, it has to deal with RP interplay (i.e. a shady character having difficulty getting in his groove around the good paladin and cleric).
We brought up, "but hey at level 2 you'll be able to cast your shocking grasp and attack as two actions" or "you'll be able to swing and cast color spray in the same round". He just imagined the level 1 fights he already was in, and doing 1d6+3 (say 6) extra damage to the boss.
He then (rightfully?) pointed out that the cleric was able to enlarge in the same round and attack. Or the alchemist could enlarge/mutagen in the same round and attack. Or the barbarian could rage in the same round and attack. So to him, getting an enlarge/daze/color spray/s-grasp in the same round was no big deal, except his had 50% odds of failing and gave him a -4 to hit (making it also likely to fail specifically against bosses when he would be most wanting to use this action)
Yeah, Weapon Finessing single one-handed weapons is brutal for any class in Pathfinder, unfortunately.
Keep in mind that the Cleric must have been doing something pretty nonstandard to enlarge and attack in the same round, since the spell Enlarge Person has an entire round casting time, like summon monster (so you start casting, then you don't finish until your next turn and the monsters can smack you to interrupt it). It's a subtlety that is often missed.
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Daze and Ray of Frost are cantrips, cantrips are unlimited. Being afraid to "waste" them makes no sense.
He wasn't afraid to use expend these, at all.
His concept, as an elf magus had him as a bit of a snobbish elf (aren't they all), and he was having an interchange with the other PCs about his ancient elven techniques being superior to the human's rough-and-ready techniques.
So, him sitting back at range and firing off ray of frost or daze at lst level was more of an issue of being less in character, than him feeling like he would consume his resources.
That said, he did manage to cast a ray of frost (versus use his elven longbow) against a rabid hyena. This resulted in debate whether the elf would've used his longbow +3 (1d8) or ray +3 (1d3) against something that is AC14 or touch AC12. We decided he'd probably rather take the -2 to hit, to likely do 4.5 damage over 1.5 damage.
He also managed to use daze twice - mostly in combat situations to optimize his actions. Specifically, round 1 started, his weapon wasn't out yet so he couldn't charge the flat-footed opponents. So he would cast Daze, and draw his weapon in round 1. Then round 2 he would charge the non-flat footed opponent.
Of course, the fighter and barbarian had charged, swung and hit in round 1 (being able to draw their weapon during a charge from the +1 BAB) and were way ahead in hogging the glory.
This is another one of those subtle areas where the magus doesn't hold up to the +1 BAB classes that I think is overlooked... (not being able to draw with a move action).
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How does your cleric gain 3 standard action per round? Enlarge person is a full round action.
The growth sub-domain... as far as I can tell, we were playing it correctly.
Growth Subdomain
Enlarge (Su): As a swift action you can enlarge yourself, as if you were the target of the enlarge person spell. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
How does your cleric gain 3 standard action per round? Enlarge person is a full round action.The growth sub-domain... as far as I can tell, we were playing it correctly.
Growth Subdomain
Enlarge (Su): As a swift action you can enlarge yourself, as if you were the target of the enlarge person spell. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
Aha, that's a potent ability! But then, so are many of those domain powers. I think the Magus really needs something cool like those domain abilities that it can use 3 + Int times per day (or some other number of times) without using up her spells, available from the lowest levels--this will simultaneously give her something to else to do when she runs out of spells and also help preserve her precious spell slots for important encounters.
yeah I had not seen that one, do not think that one will be allowed in my games, it seems a bit to good.
Does a flat-footed foe who is Dazed before his action stay flat-footed on the following round? The Daze means he takes no action. Flat-footed condition stays until the character acts. Or is just getting to his initiative sufficient to remove flat-footed?
Simply wondering.
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I think the Magus really needs something cool like those domain abilities that it can use 3 + Int times per day (or some other number of times) without using up her spells, available from the lowest levels--this will simultaneously give her something to else to do when she runs out of spells and also help preserve her precious spell slots for important encounters.
In our multi-hour debate, we came to the same conclusion. Otherwise this class is real punishment to play at low levels.
I'm one of the DMs that says "absolutely not" to the class being full BAB or getting more spells per day, as it would tread too closely to full fighter or full wizard.
But spellstrike as the only thing it gets to make up for being "in the middle" is terrible, just terrible. Especially given 1 + 1 bonus spells per day. To make any use of spellstrike, you occupy at least 1 slot with Shocking Grasp (or a similar unreleased spell). For this sacrifice, you get a 50/50 shot to do 1d6 (3.5) damage. At 1st level, the net basically is you reserve a spell slot for 3.5 * 0.5 = 1.75 damage one time per day.
You might as well pretend spellstrike doesn't exist at 1st level.. it's mathematically almost the same benefit as using a whetstone (which of course my player pointed out, he wouldn't be able to use on his rapier, or an elven thinblade if we had a house-rule for one).
I've said it in other threads, but...
I think using spells to power the abilities is terrible. Give him the spell progression of a 2/3rds prepared caster instead of a 2/3rds spontaneous caster. Remove the spell use for arcana. Make arcana either pool driven (ala Ki Pool for monk) or make them X times per day abilities. Then get rid of the spell list, just give them all wizard/sorcerer spells they can cast (IE: cantrip to 6th level). That would go a long way to me.
Then get rid of the spell list, just give them all wizard/sorcerer spells they can cast (IE: cantrip to 6th level).
I was with ya to this part, which is a terrible idea.
Then get rid of the spell list, just give them all wizard/sorcerer spells they can cast (IE: cantrip to 6th level).I was with ya to this part, which is a terrible idea.
The flavor is he studies just like a wizard, but doesn't put enough time into it to reach the upper levels of magic. Not sure why he'd get one first level spell over another, it's just whatever he studied.
I'm kind of meh on spell lists. Mainly from being burned on not having them updated down the road when other supplements come out.
I am strongly aginest an open ended wiz/sorc list. He is not a wiz/sorc and does not have the same spell progression. Besides leaving glaring loopholes where a spell will work with powers it was never ment to, it also denies the Magues from having spells moved down a level for him when he needs them.
He does not level in spells as a wiz/sorc does, having his own list allow him to say have a 3rd level spell moved down for him or a 4th level spell as a 3rd level spell. Meaning some spell he will gain at the same level as the wizard.
It also allow him to have his own spells that are not available to the wizard.sorc
Ya really need to look at the whole picture when dealing with set spell lists.
I am strongly aginest an open ended wiz/sorc list. He is not a wiz/sorc and does not have the same spell progression. Besides leaving glaring loopholes where a spell will work with powers it was never ment to, it also denies the Magues from having spells moved down a level for him when he needs them.
He does not level in spells as a wiz/sorc does, having his own list allow him to say have a 3rd level spell moved down for him or a 4th level spell as a 3rd level spell. Meaning some spell he will gain at the same level as the wizard.
It also allow him to have his own spells that are not available to the wizard.sorc
Ya really need to look at the whole picture when dealing with set spell lists.
Does he get any off level spells right now on the current list? It doesn't seem like it. Granted the spell list preliminary but that's just because we're missing UM spells that are supposedly going to fill those gaps.
I say let's break the wizard/sorc list purely from the core book on Magus and see what happens.
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I finished writing up some of our game table debate (it's a Friday, what else would I do?) comparing the Magus with the Inquisitor, mostly based on comments like "hey if the magus was an arcane inquistor, it would be perfect!"
Remember, our playtest was level 1, so my focus is in making the class a great one to play at level 1, so the player wants to keep playing it, versus retire it early.
The Basics
Both have same BAB and d8 HP.
Inquisitor is 6 skills/level and has 20 to choose from
Magus is 2 skills/level and has 12 to choose from
Inquisitor gets medium armor, shield, simple weapons, crossbows, and their deity's favored weapon (often the weapon they choose to use).
Magus gets light armor and martial weapons.
Spells And Abilities
Both get 1 spell per day, and likely 1 bonus from their primary ability.
Inquisitor: Domain(C), judgement 1/day(B), monster lore(D), orisons(A), stern gaze(E)
Magus: Cantrips(A), spellstrike(B)
Comparing 1st Level Abilities
(A) Let's call the cantrips and orisons equal. An inquisitor can Daze, ask for Guidance. The Magus can Ray of Frost, Daze. (I know there's more, but these are practical ones being spammed beyond Light & Detect).
(B) Let’s call the Judgement (1x/day) and Spellstrike as meant to be equal. It’s actually in favor of the Inquisitor, since the judgement is:
* More flexible (AC, hit, heal, damage)
* Doesn’t consume a 1st level spell to use
* Is a “big battle” ability, meaning a battle that will typically be 3-10 rounds long; thus over this battle, a judgement will be on average +3HP in extra damage/hits, whereas the spellstrike is basically a +1.75HP effect in that “big battle”
(C) The domain is a pretty big deal, depending on the domain chosen. You can probably give a Magus full access to a Wizard school at 1st level to give them something else to do each day.
(D) Monster Lore is pretty cool, it takes an Inquisitor and gives them a bonus to something thematic to them (Knowledge checks) to balance the fact they are Wisdom-based and probably have a low Intelligence. Magus actually has a similar problem; they have skills like Intimidate and Use Magic Device which rely on Charisma (likely a dump stat). You could potentially create the same thing, letting them add their Int bonus to these skills.
(E) Stern Gaze is also a neat flavorful ability – great that it adds some thematic mechanics, and gives players something to enjoy outside of combat. Mechanic-wise, you almost want to give the Magus the same thing to their Concentration and (?) checks – to represent, like the Inquisitor, how pursuit in their class is specialization in something (i.e. for inquisitor rooting out evil and for magus the art of casting while in intense combat). My only objection is this would do little to give them use out of combat.
Magus Arcana at 1st?
For (D+E) you could probably just give them a magus arcana at 1st level. Why not? How much power creep is it? Get +1 to hit once (arcane accuracy)? Get +1 AC once (spell shield)? And they are giving up a spell for it, no less.
Summary
Just to be competitive in power/breadth at 1st level, adding in magus arcana and wizard school access brings them to maybe 80-85% of the Inquisitor.
I'd almost go as far as to give them another signature ability besides spellstrike, and make spellstrike be a magus arcana they could pick up instead if they wanted to go down that route.
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Daze and Ray of Frost are cantrips, cantrips are unlimited. Being afraid to "waste" them makes no sense.That said, he did manage to cast a ray of frost (versus use his elven longbow) against a rabid hyena. This resulted in debate whether the elf would've used his longbow +3 (1d8) or ray +3 (1d3) against something that is AC14 or touch AC12. We decided he'd probably rather take the -2 to hit, to likely do 4.5 damage over 1.5 damage.
Too bad Daze is utterly useless against a Hyena, rabid or otherwise (affects only humanoids 4HD or lower).
But yes I can easily see how he feels less than effective. As is the Magus is a real teamwork player needing flanks & buffs from allies. Using his Spells to power his abilities sounds like he's got an hourglass running in combat and can't stop the sand running out.
--DeVrocked!
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Too bad Daze is utterly useless against a Hyena, rabid or otherwise (affects only humanoids 4HD or lower).
Oh, we got the Daze right, it was against a human. The ray of frost was used against the hyena.
Any class can feel souped up by companions - heck, you can play a Commoner with a 2H weapon and a 16 Strength and feel pretty good at level 1 if you roll well, and get some flanks, a Bless or an Inspire Courage.
You know why people are griping about this class instead of playtesting it? It sucks to playtest. I have a trip monkey build I'll be playing tomorrow and frankly, I'm not enthused.
I've said it in other threads, but...
I think using spells to power the abilities is terrible. Give him the spell progression of a 2/3rds prepared caster instead of a 2/3rds spontaneous caster. Remove the spell use for arcana. Make arcana either pool driven (ala Ki Pool for monk) or make them X times per day abilities. Then get rid of the spell list, just give them all wizard/sorcerer spells they can cast (IE: cantrip to 6th level). That would go a long way to me.
I like your ideas, including the using the Wizard spell lis.
@Wakedown: I am not shure exactly what went wrong here, but there are some things that play against your Magus player other than the class.
Going for a dex based build with weapon finesse is fun in the long run, but makes the character weaker at the start.
Spell selection: You only have 16 Int you spell dcs wont be good - ever. So you really don´t get a big bang for your buck here.
Magic Weapon, Shield, Magic Missile, Grease and True Strike are way better choices than shocking grasp and color spray at level 1 (IMO).
His build is really tough at level 1, like a Paladin going for high Dex for "optimized" AC.
Maybe thing could have been better if the player had started with a different understand of what he could actually do at level 1.
With slightly different stats: STR 14 DEX 14 CON 12 and INT 15 taking Arcane Strike as his first level feat (alternatively take Dodge - it will be usefull).
Keep the rapier, it hardly the worst choice.
No way to say this politely, but if you choose to war leather if you could wear a chain shirt - do not complain about getting hit.
So you can end up with Shield and Magic Weapon as spells prepared, +2 attack with your rapier doing 1d6+3. AC of 16 wearing a chain shirt.
The first fight could have been quite different:
First round cast Shield and go for a flanking position (taking the AOO with you AC 20). Second round - till end of combat attack.
Just saying that you player did some things for RP reasons, but if you shoot youself in the foot during character creation, the class is not to blame.
That said first level is a bit weak since the Magus has no 3+ abilities he can spam once he has run out of the good stuff.
Thank you for your playtest, it has been a good read.
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Magic Weapon, Shield, Magic Missile, Grease and True Strike are way better choices than shocking grasp and color spray at level 1 (IMO).
His build is really tough at level 1, like a Paladin going for high Dex for "optimized" AC.
Maybe thing could have been better if the player had started with a different understand of what he could actually do at level 1.
With slightly different stats: STR 14 DEX 14 CON 12 and INT 15 taking Arcane Strike as his first level feat (alternatively take Dodge - it will be usefull).
Keep the rapier, it hardly the worst choice.
No way to say this politely, but if you choose to war leather if you could wear a chain shirt - do not complain about getting hit.So you can end up with Shield and Magic Weapon as spells prepared, +2 attack with your rapier doing 1d6+3. AC of 16 wearing a chain shirt.
Since we spent some 2 hours discussing the playtest, a lot of these topics came up.
Chain shirt didn't happen since it's a 100G purchase, which is a rare event at 1st level. I believe we ran Magus with 3d6x100 starting gold, and the player had about 110G to spend.
Obviously one of the top things at the table that was discussed was "you should've gone with a Strength build." I think that's one reason why we wanted to try to play the elf archetype so closely, since the picture in the PDF is for an elf.
The general thinking for the elf is buying a 14 is only 5 points - so might as well at least buy a 14 Dex and 14 Int, as those both bump to 16 with the racial modifier (effectively being worth 10 points in a point buy). Getting a 16 Strength would cost the remaining 10 points, and leave the Elf with C8 W10 Ch10 - not a pretty HP modifier, so you need to at least buy a 12 in your Con for 2 points. Once you do that, your Strength tops out at 15.
At any rate, he ended up pursuing the elf as a finesse fighter, which should be an acceptable path to take and enjoy a character. He wasn't expecting to do OMG damage - just have an enjoyable role in the party, like a melee ranger or paladin with a 14 Strength. As he planned on basing his attack rolls on Dex, Weapon Finesse was an obvious feat to bump up his hit bonus from a measly +1 to +3, which is a pretty solid investment at 1st level.
I do think, with an extra feat, Arcane Strike would have been a possibility, although we debated Combat Casting. When it comes down to it, Arcane Strike is +1 damage when you hit, and he felt hitting more as important rather than damage. To be honest, if it wasn't a playtest, Scribe Scroll would have been the player's top choice, but without a promise of future accessibility to ink supplies, he went with Finesse so he could be passable in combat. When you think about it, as you level with a Dex/Int magus, you should be relying on spells as the damage source, and not Strength+Power Attack builds.
As far as the spell list - he picked his two spells - Color Spray and Shocking Grasp based on how he felt the class was sold. Obviously you get Spellstrike at 1st level. If you didn't take Shocking Grasp, you are basically saying - hey I'm going to ignore the bulk of my 1st level feature ability. If he did that, we wouldn't have been able to playtest that feature at all!
Finally, he picked Color Spray, since without a wizard or bard in the party, it's arguable the single most potent 1st level spell he could take - nobody else in the party had the ability to satisfy a battlefield control role (outside of alchemist bombs). Believe it or not, color spray was his strongest contribution, as he took out ~2 foes with each casting (he only got in 2 castings over 2 days IIRC).
He played the character based upon how we both perceived the designers wanted to encourage it to be played - as an elf since that was pictured; and as someone who tries to spellstrike at 1st level, since it was the main ability granted at that level.
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I think the spell list is goofy for the Magus. I would like to see something where the Magus picks certain schools, and can cast from those schools. Maybe the Magus can cast and learn spells from three or four schools. That way- a) there's no need for a spell list, b) it maintains the flavor of a Magus not having the breadth of learning that his wizardly counterpart has, c) there's no need for a separate spell list and d) the Magus gets new spells as they come out in new supplements and can easily import spells from 3.5 books for backwards compatibility.
For some reason, I can all but picture a Feat in Ultimate Magic, or a magus arcana as "Pick an arcane spell not on your list. Now consider that spell as part of your list."
The spell list, in our 1st level playtest at least, wasn't a factor. There wasn't a lot of "I wish I could take X spell at its not on the list." We had a little debate if you could take Sleep or Vanish - if any of us would have taken those over other 1st level spells. We passed on Sleep, figuring "this guy is supposed to be in melee so Color Spray is just as good" - given Sleep takes 1 round to cast.
Given how tight the spell castings are - you're using your touch spells just to try to be compete in a losing DPS race against rogues, and then using them again to power class abilities - a broader selection might even be frustrating.
I for one think that there are cogent reasons for withholding spell combat till a later level when the penalties are not so nearly debilitating to the use of the ability. Conversely, arcane weapon should be granted significantly earlier to shore up the perceived weaknesses of the class at lower levels. Perhaps the level at which these abilities should be simply swapped?
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Something along these lines would help - at least in our case where we playtested low levels and tried to emulate the elf magus archetype (which we read somewhat as a bladesinger).
What it came down to for us, is we felt a straight Wizard would have been more enjoyable to implementing a faithful elf fighter/mage - at least at level 1 and 2 - when the spellstrike and spell combat abilities seemed prone to failure, and were unspectacular.
You can argue that we should be more aggressive on Strength and min-max, but we don't tend to play that way on ability scores - at our table, min-maxing scores to 7-8s is unusual.
Elf, 20-Point Buy
S12 D16 C12 I17 W10 Ch10
Here's the Wizard 1
Spells Per Day: 1st) 1(base)+1(bonus stat)+1(school)+1(bond)
Hp7 AC13 (Dex)
Arcane Bond Mwk Rapier (from Elf) +4 (1d6+1)
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Scribe Scroll
Transmutation: could be used for +2 Dex to make melee attack become +5 (1d6+1)
.. or ..
Foresight: could be used to roll twice for attack rolls 6 times a day
Here's the Magus 1
Spells Per Day: 1st) 1(base)+1(bonus stat)
Hp9 AC15 (leather, Dex)
Rapier (from Elf) +3 (1d6+1)
Feats: Weapon Finesse
Basically, the masterwork bond for the Wizard coupled with having double the spells coupled with the school power makes the wizard a more attractive melee damage dealer at 1st level - at the cost of sacrificing 2-3AC (from light armor) and 2HP.
The schools are significant in many cases - the Foresight school alone can make the Wizard outshine the Magus as a sword-wielder at low levels.
But the Wizsrd could even go above and beyond with those 2 extra spells per day - a pair of Mage Armor, or a pair of Shield or a pair of Enlarge or a pair of Touch of Gracelessness. Having 2 extra among this list means 2 more combats of a 5-10 combat day, you have something more interesting going on and are more competent in melee than the Magus that doesn't have those buffs/debuffs for those fights.
I won't even begin to add how much free Scribe Scroll will actually tip the scales for the Wizard melee character over the Magus melee character once the Wizard gets his first 13g, 25g, 38g, 50g and a chance to go shopping in town for ink.
The wizard was already better in sword-only melee than the magus when they aren't expending spells (the masterwork weapon + school ability ensures that). On two combats when the the magus expends his 2 spells (for spellstrike or straight casting), the wizard is likely matching that - maybe coming up short 1-2 damage on the spellstrike round, if it's a successful hit.
Then for those other 10-12'ish combats earning 2nd level, the Wizard has 2 more spells, and more realistically, 3-5 scrolls to fully outshine the Magus in melee.
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We had a level 1 Magus in our PFS group this last Sunday and our experience mirrored yours almost exactly (using a very similar build). The class could not compete in combat effectively at level 1, and was not as strong as a specialist wizard usually is at level 1. The end result was that he felt virtually useless.
One comment the player made was that he felt that his spellcasting was difficult due to the high rate of failure on concentration checks and the fact that most of his spellcasting needed to occur in melee range. We all agreed that combat casting seems nearly required in order to play effectively.
So generally in agreement over our first playtest.
One idea we considered though was this. What if at level 1 magi (is that the plural for magus?) get some kind of power that incorporates their need for concentration checks. We were thinking that allowing them to fail concentration checks without losing the spell might be an effective way to go (say if you fail by 5 or less you do not lose the spell for the day). It would reduce one of the classes most difficult features, that as soon as you're out of level 1 spells, you're more-or-less turned into a very weak fighter.
