WARINING: IT IS A little bit LONG
First a little table history (not long)
My players have been playing D&D since around 12 years ago. Theyv'e done and played almost every combination they could come up with. About 3 years ago I came in. I came at a moment when our group was playing as overwpowered and rule flexible as possible. We were using any published material that, even online stuff that seemed unbalanced.
A little after Pathfinder was released we decided to to underpower ourselves. We found that was a difficult task since we knew so much of every campaign setting we played.
Now on our latest and most successfull effort we are playing Rise of the Runelords with a strict rule, only Paizo published material under PRPG rules with the only variation being a 32 point buy system and a system to learn feats (around one feat per adventure path book)
So now that that is said you will see the reason for us deciding on a 32 point buy system.
Character Creation
This character was made after the previous char this player had died against two faceless stalkers. A 32-buy point system was used with a standard starting gold for his level.
Character Background (non test related info [long])
Leomaris a Merfolk from the surrounding area of the Eye of Abendego was a strong one with interests in both martial and arcane power, unfortunately he was made to chose between the honor of protecting his race or to live his life alone in the search for arcane power. Leomaris chose to become a warrior. During his time on one of his border patrols he came across one of the most incredible creatures he had seen, a young bronze dragon. From this fantastic creature he learned what many call the language of magic, and although he did not really understand how some of the dragon's magic worked, he was able to learn the basics of magic.
Leomaris spent more and more time with the dragon and away from his patrol. The treasures and knowledge the dragon had where ones that he could have not miss.
Eventually, the day came when Leomaris was not on his post to defend his people. The invading forces attacked but failed to achieve a victory.
When the rest of the Merfolks found out where Leomaris had been he was named an outcast and was given a day to abandon the city and never again approach a Merfolk city.
Before he left the young dragon gave him one word of advice. "Never come near the water, stay away and you will be safe". These words echoed on Leomaris head with no significance attached to them.
A week later after hs exile he had found a cave comfortable enough for his stay, but not a single day had passed when he saw what the dragon had warned him form; a patrol of Merfolk warriors seemed to have been following him.
Leomaris decided to leave the oceans and head to land, but before he had to make preparations. For weeks he eluded the patrols hunting him while dedicating his spare time to craft an amulet of alter self that would allow him to avoid suspicion.
He came out of the sea by Sandpoint and had a hard time understanding the language and currency of the land-dwellers. Eventually he befriended
Brodert Quirk the town's sage. Under his wing he learned the customs and traditions of the land folk and in doing so awakened his adventurer spirit. He traveled as much as he could and eventually signed up with the Pathfinder Society of Adventurers.
By the time he was back to tell his tales to Brodert the heroes of Sanpoint had already been made famous. Brodert adviced Leomaris that if he wanted to be an adventurer he knew no better group of heroes than those that had just left to magnimar about a week ago. And so the story of Leomaris the Land-dweller begins to unfold.
Rules:
32-point buy system
Only Paizo published book under the Pathfinder banner (Includes 3.5 and Pathfinder rules)
Rest are house rules non-relevant to the testplay
2 traits
Hero point system available (a new char has 0 hero points)
Level 6
Classes: Magus 6
Race: Merfolk
Ablilities:
Str 16
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 18
Wis 10
Cha 11
Feats:
Craft Woundrous Item
Improved Familiar (small earth elemental)
Combat Casting
-I am missing one at the moment, think it was an exotic weapon prof.
How my player felt (in his own words)
My first impression of this char was that it was balanced, but the more I read his abilites and do plans for my future the more overpower it gets, the fact of being able to cast in medium armor at level 7 and Heavy at 13 maes him a very powerful wizard. I know a lot of you would say that the spell list is limited bur if you analize it it is really complete and balanced, the spells are not the best but they are practical if you know how to use them. Now look at the possiblity of casting Empowered, Maximize or Quicken once per day without adding a slot is another thing that is not good for balance. He also has half his level for fighter feats and can gain a familiar. The word that comes to my mind s OVERPOWER!!! The class is in playtest which is good since it is broken in the sense that the magus covers to much terrainin both melee and magic and does an excellent job if played well which in my point of view breaks the balance. If it was to me to balance the class I would do the following changes.
1. Make it a Spontaneous Caster (Like a sorcerer),although you do not prepare your magics it limits your power since you now less spells.
2. Change his Magus Arcana, having Maximize, Empower, gain benefits from sacrificing spells, and gaining a familiar is ridiculus, it is like giving feats for free with limitations but also upgrades. It unbalances the class.
3. Romove the Spell Combat ability, it is a thing that does not make sense. If the magus is intending to recreate or combine an arcane fighter the ideal would be to have the spells coming out of his weapon and not do both things at the same time, hit and cast in the same round is something out of the ordinary and extraordinary.
4. For last, remove the Heavy Armor, I think it is ridiculus to think Mithral Full Plat or Adamantine Full Plate + Shield (spell) + Fighter Feats + Quicken, Maximize, Empwer + Familiar = Mae full attac of 3-4 (if haste) attacs + casting + your familiars actions all in the same round
In the first levels a magus does not represent a threat but as levels go up his power increments exponentially. This is a class for those who want to be demi-gods and eliminate enemies by round...
Disclaimer: This are my player's words from my blog translated from spanish, some phrases may mae more sense in spanish.
From my point of view (DM)
The class shined, most of the battle was the paladin against 6-8 cultists and the monk against 3 while the Magus and his familiar where positioning tactically and every once in a while having to melee while the wizard was in a combat maneuvers battle with one skinsaw cultist in the stairs. The last rounds the Magus shined by killing the flankers on the paladin and making his familiar (next to him, next to Ironbriar) deliver the defeating blow (spell) to the poor Justice immediately leaving him in -11 HP.
Granted, the encounter on the Mill is not difficult for a well formed and experienced party, but the flexibility of the Magus was awesome.
This class has a lot of potential, but there are things that do need to be checked with other products to see how they interact. Familiars, fighter feats, metamagics and so on.
Flavor on the class is great.
This character was tested in Skinsaw Mill against twelve Skinsaw cultist and justice Ironbriar with a party consisting of a Human paladin of Iomedae lvl 6, an Elf wizard follower of Nethys lvl 6 and a Duergar monk beleiver of pharasma lvl 4. And will be played this weeend against the final encounters of Skinsaw Murders.
Hope this info helps you guys.
Ohh and btw my player is asking if you could nerf the class, his exact words where: !!!!!NERF MAGUS POWER-OVERWHELMING DETECTED!!!!!
He also has half his level for fighter feats and can gain a familiar. The word that comes to my mind s OVERPOWER!!!
I do not understand why the Familiar is being mentioned here. Later in your post you mention that the Familiar delivers a touch attack for its master. Thats what its there for, its not over powered. There is no major gain in actions. The Familiar has to be in contact with you when you cast the spell to be the "toucher".
Seems the Class is only over powered when you have high stats. A lot of other classes have this same issue. Look at what happens to Paladin or Inquisitor when you go for a 15pt build to 32pt build. The practically double in power. The Magus is no different. You want STR and INT primary, DEX and CON secondary, dump WIS and CHR. The Inquisitor is the same with WIS instead of INT. The Paladin is the with CHR instead o INT. Fighters are STR primary and DEX/CON secondary and dump the last three.
With an 18 in INT, I probably would have put that in STR personally, but you other non dump stats are all 16. That's what is over powered. Try a 15 or 20 pt build.