What is the intended role of the magus? Are they supposed to be frontline, melee fighters with swords and spells? Tanks? Mainly casters, mainly melee, or a 50/50 mix?
At a glance they seem to want to be the PF equivalent to a Warmage, but with a heavier focus on melee combat.
That proabably didn't help...
If I had to pick from your choices, I'd say 50/50.
Indeed. It seems actually like a Duskblade/Warlock/Warmage...
It's a blended melee caster, trying hard not to suck at either task.
It looks good with a cursory look over, but with hard scrutiny, things like "That's neat, but why wouldn't i play x instead?" seems to crop up.
So it is hard to see what niche this particular class is supposed to fill that isn't filled better by another existing class.
exactly! I could do this concept better with a few levels of wizard, fighter and ten levels of Eldritch Knight. Especially with the right feats I can almost guarantee a crit every other round! I know, I've done it before! XD
Spell Critical alone makes up for Spell Combat. No negatives, no concentration check as the swift spell you gain from it provokes no attack of opportunity. Its just wail wail wail SPZAT! sad day! And that my friends, is how you say no to panda!
LOL @ saying no to a panda...
After a tertiary glance...is this supposed to actually be an arcane swordsman version of a monk? Maybe approaching it from that angle might be the right direction...
exactly! I could do this concept better with a few levels of wizard, fighter and ten levels of Eldritch Knight. Especially with the right feats I can almost guarantee a crit every other round! I know, I've done it before! XD
Not entirely disagreeing with you, but how many games do you play in where you get to start out at 15th+ level? This class is (theoretically) aimed at people who want to play a sword-and-blasty-spell character from the get go, rather than having to finish 10 levels of a prestige class. I'd wager the vast majority of games end before anyone gets to that point.
exactly! I could do this concept better with a few levels of wizard, fighter and ten levels of Eldritch Knight. Especially with the right feats I can almost guarantee a crit every other round! I know, I've done it before! XDNot entirely disagreeing with you, but how many games do you play in where you get to start out at 15th+ level? This class is (theoretically) aimed at people who want to play a sword-and-blasty-spell character from the get go, rather than having to finish 10 levels of a prestige class. I'd wager the vast majority of games end before anyone gets to that point.
Sadly, the current Magus mechanics don't really function that well until the levels that EK comes into play to solidly trounce it :<
I don't know, I soloed a monk pretty good tonight with a Magus. It really just comes down to build.
The actual point behind the Magus is to have a caster that actually cast those melee combat spells. At higher levels if a Wizard is casting any first level spells in combat, it's magic missile and that's it. A Magus will cast Shocking Grasp almost exclusively, but will fit in shield/grease/color spray into the mix with surprising success at times.
Very exciting.
I think the intent is to give access to an eldritch knight style of character from level 1 all the way through to level 20 without forcing a multiclass.
The class is certainly built for it, but right now the numbers don't work out very well. Spell combat needs its melee penalty reduced and spellstrike needs to allow touch spells to deliver even if it only hits touch AC with the weapon attack.
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What is the intended role of the magus? Are they supposed to be frontline, melee fighters with swords and spells? Tanks? Mainly casters, mainly melee, or a 50/50 mix?
To me it seems that Magus, much like the Bard, would be a good "fifth man," something nice to round out a party with, bit not the first thing you go looking for.
==AKA 8one6
The monk is far more effective in combat than a Magus.
^This
Sad but true.
With appropriate choice of spells and/or weapons, I can see using the Magus class to replicate most of the flavor of abilities seen used by the element benders from the Avatar cartoon.
Though, it could be slightly better represented by an alternate archetype for the EK based on a Monk + Sorcerer.