Arcane Pool--Added
Spell Combat--Moved to level 1 and changed to give lower penalties and to allow an attack penalty to get a Concentration bonus.
Overall, this is exactly the change this ability needed--the suggestion to make it like the Monk's flurry was too powerful, and this takes away the fear of uncertainty over the spells if the Magus so chooses, thus making the use of Spell Combat only a benefit. Nice change!
Spellstrike--The wording has been cleared up here, but no changes.
Arcana--I'll post these changes later.
Pool Spell--Added
Knowledge Pool--Added
Improved Spell Combat--Now all it does is give +2 to Concentration
Fighter Training--Unchanged
Improved Pool Spell--Added
Greater Spell Combat--No static bonus, but doubles the bonus to concentration from taking a to-hit penalty
Greater Spell Pool--Added
True Magus--I may have missed a change, but it seems equivalent to before.
Thoughts? Comments?
I'll post my take on the new Arcana soon (but in summary: I really really like what has been done here, with minor suggestions for just a few)
Arcane Pool and 1st level Spell Combat are enough to make me really like this class. After an initial reading I think they did a great job revising the class.
As I read it, Spell Combat can be used with any spell that is cast as a standard action, while the Arcana 'Broad Study' implies that is not the case. I would recommend adding a 'from the Magus' spell list' line somewhere in Spell combat to clear up and confusion.
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As I read it, Spell Combat can be used with any spell that is cast as a standard action, while the Arcana 'Broad Study' implies that is not the case. I would recommend adding a 'from the Magus' spell list' line somewhere in Spell combat to clear up and confusion.
I don't think that's right. What Broad Study would seem to do is allow a multi-classed Magus to cast spells from the other list in which he has levels in conjunction with Spell Strike and Spell Combat. I don't think the standard action casting time restriction is lifted by Broad Study.
As I read it, Spell Combat can be used with any spell that is cast as a standard action, while the Arcana 'Broad Study' implies that is not the case. I would recommend adding a 'from the Magus' spell list' line somewhere in Spell combat to clear up and confusion.
You mean like is in the description of Spell Combat?
Spell Combat (Ex): At 1st level, a magus learns to cast
spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This
functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the offhand
weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this
ability, the magus must have one hand free, while wielding
a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As
a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with
his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any
spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1
standard action.
Emphasis mine.
Okay, here's the rest of it!
Arcane Pool Abilities:
Bonded Weapon--Instead of infinite, this lasts for 1 minute and costs a swift action and a pool point
Arcana:
Arcane Accuracy--Changed to cost 1 pool point and add Int bonus to hit
Broad Study--Unchanged
Close Range--Added
Concentrate--Unchanged, but everything surrounding it is changed
Critical Strike--Unchanged
Dispelling Strike--Now costs pool points equal to the spell level
Empowered Magic--Unchanged
Familiar--Unchanged.
Hasted Assault--Now costs 1 pool point and lasts for Int bonus rounds.
Maneuver Mastery--Unchanged
Maximized Magic--Unchanged
Pool Strike--Added
Quickened Magic--Unchanged
Reflection--Now costs Arcane pool points and gives a save bonus if you don't reflect it
Silent Magic--Unchanged
Spell Blending--Added
Spell Shield--As Arcane Accuracy, now costs 1 pool point and adds Int bonus
Still Magic--Unchanged
Wand Mastery--Added
Wand Wielder--Added
I'm not sure if this was intentional, but this also allows the Magus to use Spell Combat with non-Magus spells.
I really don´t see how to get bestow curse from Knowledge Pool. Can you elaborate?
Pool Strike cannot be free simply because of the existence of the Conductive weapon enhancement.
Even as it stands now, paying two pool points to tack on damage from pool strike without an action! is pretty awesome for a +1 weapon enhancement.
I would disagree on the uselessness of greater spell combat, and true magus. You are assuming that your concentration check will always be at DC 15 + 2x SL.
You try casting a level 5 spell when your opponent readies an action to attack you with a greatsword which does about 30 damage a swing when you cast. That puts your concentration check at DC45.
These abilities put the magus at a huge advantage over other casters because they can take penalties to hit to overcome temporary increases in the DC.
I would disagree on the uselessness of greater spell combat, and true magus. You are assuming that your concentration check will always be at DC 15 + 2x SL.
You try casting a level 5 spell when your opponent readies an action to attack you with a greatsword which does about 30 damage a swing when you cast. That puts your concentration check at DC45.
These abilities put the magus at a huge advantage over other casters because they can take penalties to hit to overcome temporary increases in the DC.
If your opponent readies an action to disrupt you, just don't cast a spell. Slap him around until he either dies or stops readying and wasting his actions.
It is more of a concern with archers who ready actions to peg you while you engage in melee with other things. Then it is useful.
I would say it's pretty situational at high levels, but there are times when you'll be real glad.
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Overall, it looks pretty awesome. I wish I were in a pathfinder game so I could play one!
I agree that Dispelling arcana sounds kind of expensive.
Also, I am slightly sad that the one hand free specification precludes a Magus from kicking butt with a staff (Unless it's a staff with spells in it), am I the only one in the world who wants to see a mage that can fight well with his staff as well as spells?
Overall, it looks pretty awesome. I wish I were in a pathfinder game so I could play one!
I agree that Dispelling arcana sounds kind of expensive.
Also, I am slightly sad that the one hand free specification precludes a Magus from kicking butt with a staff (Unless it's a staff with spells in it), am I the only one in the world who wants to see a mage that can fight well with his staff as well as spells?
Maybe they'll bring back Greater Mighty Wallop and we can make TWF Eldritch Knights ;p
I like almost everything I see.
One thing I can't really describe but I just in general dislike about the magus is the over complications. Ill explain.
Several abilities use a hodgepodge of different parts of the class for their basis of uses (1/2 level + int, int bonus, 3 + int bonus, spell levels, 1/2 spell levels).
I feel like this makes it more difficult to keep track of what the magus is capable of.
I really really like the idea of an arcana pool and I think this could be used along with one of these other mediums to reduce the amount of numbers you need to keep track of.
I understand the class is supposed to be for advanced players, but keeping it relatively clean to me is important to keep it less work for not only players but DM's that like to make interesting PC's (the Magus is a great one).
Also it would be nice if the class included a table for the weapon abilities as this leaves alot of time to have to look up how much the price cost of a particular attribute is instead of just having it right there for selection.
I would have liked to see Medium and Heavy Armor be Arcanas and maybe a small boost somewhere else for the magus (I dont like having only one viable option for my AC, its the reason I liked the APG so much for Fighters because they then got the ability to be effective in different types of armor).
I also would have liked to see a decent defensive Magus ability (perhaps arcane pool with armor as well?) since they are going to be on that front line most likely with limited AC at low levels and standard HD.
Overall other than these specs I think it looks great.
Best of luck with the UM
I would disagree on the uselessness of greater spell combat, and true magus. You are assuming that your concentration check will always be at DC 15 + 2x SL.
You try casting a level 5 spell when your opponent readies an action to attack you with a greatsword which does about 30 damage a swing when you cast. That puts your concentration check at DC45.
These abilities put the magus at a huge advantage over other casters because they can take penalties to hit to overcome temporary increases in the DC.
Hey Charender,
Those DCs are high, no doubt about it! But True Magus (and Greater Spell Combat) doesn't apply in those cases--it is only an auto-success to cast defensively, which is a different sort of Concentration check. Now, if it made you auto-succeed on all Concentration checks, that would be totally amazing. I did fail to account for the rare instance where your foe is a Fighter with Spellbreaker, but I doubt that comes up enough to really be worth it.
@Freesword and Banpai Re: Bestow Curse--I did indeed read that one wrong, but it was too late to edit when I noticed (while I was doing the Arcana). It only gives you Magus spells you don't have rather than Wizard/Sorcerer spells, so it's much less useful, but it's still great if you find out you're heading somewhere where a particular spell would be handy and you just don't have that spell yet.
I also would have liked to see a decent defensive Magus ability (perhaps arcane pool with armor as well?) since they are going to be on that front line most likely with limited AC at low levels and standard HD.
Well, if the 1st-level Magus cast Shield on himself, while wearing a chain shirt, he will end up with a decent AC I think, maybe even better than the fighter's AC. Of course it takes you a standard action, but still, it's not that bad. :\
However I totally agree with you about the classe being over-complicated in some aspects. I mean, some abilities that could have used Arcane Pool's points only work once a day instead, this is strange.
Also, I think I would prefer if Arcane Weapon worked for 24h, but you would need to use 1 Arcane Pool's point for every +1 you add to your weapon, instead of spending only 1 Arcane Pool's point to give +5 to your weapon for 1 min (at 17th-level).
Pool Strike cannot be free simply because of the existence of the Conductive weapon enhancement.
Even as it stands now, paying two pool points to tack on damage from pool strike without an action! is pretty awesome for a +1 weapon enhancement.
Okay, I can see how the Conductive weapon ability would wreak havoc with an at-will Pool Strike. Very good point.
Unfortunately, without using that one weapon enhancement, the ability is strictly weaker than Spell Pool. Even with Conductive, it's not a very efficient use of the points, but admittedly it takes no action to use, which means you can use it with other things, so that is good at least.
Hmmm, I know you're right and it can't be at-will due to Conductive, so let's try to do an analysis of the Arcanum as it stands, assuming Spellstrike:
How many times will we want to spend 2 pool points on this per day? Even if we use our pool for nothing else, we're looking at ~5 uses of it until the highest levels. So let's pretend it is activatable 5x/day, and let's be kind and also imagine that it didn't drain our Arcana point pool or take an Arcanum selection--let's just say it was a weapon enhancement that gave you 1d6 + level/3 d6 elemental damage on 5 attacks per day. I think I would rather have Flaming or the like unless I knew for sure that the campaign would have only one or two fights per day. And since it does drain our Arcane pool and takes a selection, I think it still isn't worth it as it stands, but I could be missing something else (for instance, that Conductive idea was a brilliant counter to my at-will proposal!).
What do you think?
Well, if the 1st-level Magus cast Shield on himself, while wearing a chain shirt, he will end up with a decent AC I think, maybe even better than the fighter's AC. Of course it takes you a standard action, but still, it's not that bad. :\
I did note that shield could help (which they can't wield anyways because they need both hands so I feel this is kinda needed) but if you shortened it to a certain number of rounds (like rage, bardic music, ect) and then give them the ability to basically give their magic or armor magical properties I think it fits more with the other classes while still giving them options in close combat.
In my opinion with that HD and light armor at low levels, they could use the AC
It would (in my opinion) make the class far more flavorful. Like their "rage/bardic music" could be their insta-enchants for their equipment... just my PO obviously though :)
Also, I think I would prefer if Arcane Weapon worked for 24h, but you would need to use 1 Arcane Pool's point for every +1 you add to your weapon, instead of spending only 1 Arcane Pool's point to give +5 to your weapon for 1 min (at 17th-level).
24 hours is way too good. saves them a bunch of money for weapons.
They can essentially go buck wild with the armor spending then anyways which has the same effect but a little more ability to abuse.
They can essentially go buck wild with the armor spending then anyways which has the same effect but a little more ability to abuse.
I agree with you, this ability always seemed over-the-top to me. I don't know, it's just that spending a single Arcana Pool point to add flaming + cold + shocking at level 9 seems a little strong, even if it's just for 1 min.
Hey rogue I thought I'd point out that spellstrike was changed and it now allows for a melee attack as part of the spell.
"...Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make
one free melee attack with his weapon as part of casting this spell. If used with spell combat, this does not grant an additional attack."
This ability is a lot more powerful.
Hey rogue I thought I'd point out that spellstrike was changed and it now allows for a melee attack as part of the spell.
"...Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make
one free melee attack with his weapon as part of casting this spell. If used with spell combat, this does not grant an additional attack."This ability is a lot more powerful.
Ah yes, thanks! That's correct--for some reason though I noticed this, I thought this was already in an unofficial Magus 1.1 patch somewhere. It's much much better than the original, since before Spellstrike was only really good for a prebuff
Do you think there will be an "extra magus arcana" feat?
Do you think there will be an "extra magus arcana" feat?
There has now been one for every other class with a major ability/talent selection since the APG, and including for classes introduced in the APG. It would be logical for there to be a feat to arcana exchange.
Hey rogue I thought I'd point out that spellstrike was changed and it now allows for a melee attack as part of the spell.
"...Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make
one free melee attack with his weapon as part of casting this spell. If used with spell combat, this does not grant an additional attack."This ability is a lot more powerful.
Could someone please explain the mechanics of this for me? As I still find this description rather confusing...
What are the possible options for using spellstrike and attacking?
Spellstrike Option: As a standard action, cast a spell with the range of touch and make an attack. If the attack hits, discharge the touch spell at the target.
Spell Combat Option: As a full-round action, you may make all your normal full attack actions at a -2 penalty and cast a spell with the casting time of a standard action. If you are holding a non-discharged touch spell or if you cast a spell with the range of touch before attacking, you may discharge the spell at the target if you hit with the attack.
The touch spell takes the critical hit range of the weapon.
Hey rogue I thought I'd point out that spellstrike was changed and it now allows for a melee attack as part of the spell.
"...Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make
one free melee attack with his weapon as part of casting this spell. If used with spell combat, this does not grant an additional attack."This ability is a lot more powerful.
Ah yes, thanks! That's correct--for some reason though I noticed this, I thought this was already in an unofficial Magus 1.1 patch somewhere. It's much much better than the original, since before Spellstrike was only really good for a prebuff
For me, this was a big change. I never did like the pre-buff aspect of the previous spellstrike in the first playtest. It was meh, if not useless. To me, the magus has to compete with the duskblade in my group and with this important change along with all other great additions, the magus is the clear winner for the gish archetype.
I'd love to give the Magus - and your post - a much more in-depth view. Sadly, finals.
For now I'll simply say "Major improvement" and add a smiley face emoticon :)