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Human Magus 12
Str 10
Dex 24
Con 12
Int 20
Wis 8
Cha 10
Traits
Heirloom Weapon (Aldori Dueling Sword)
Fast Talker
Feats
1h: Combat Casting
1: Weapon Finesse
3: Aldori Duelist (This is basically Dervish Dance for the Aldori Dueling Sword. It’s silly that a feat like that should only be available to one weapon)
5: Dodge
5b: Weapon Focus (Aldori Dueling Sword)
7: Blind Fight
9: Iron Will
11: Improved Initiative
11b: Weapon Specialization
Arcane Pool: 11=6+5
Arcana
3: Concentrate
6: Empowered Magic
9: Spell Blending (Heroism)
12: Maximized Magic
Equipment (108k)
Celestial Armor (22,400)
+3 Aldori Dueling Sword (18,020)
Light Hammer
+1 Longbow (2000)
Ring of Protection +2 (8000)
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (2000)
Belt of Incredible Dexterity +4 (16,000)
Headband of Vast Intelligence +4 (16,000)
Cloak of Resistance +4 (16,000)
Pearl of Power 1 (1000) x2
Bag of Holding I (2500)
Raod of Lesser Extend (3000)
5x Cure Light Potions (250)
HP 87
AC 30
Fort 13
Ref 15
Will 13
Init +11
BAB +9/+4
Full Attack
1-Hand: +20/15 d8+12
2-Hand: +20/15 d8+15
Arcane Pool can add +3 enhancement bonus to hit and damage
Spells
1st (7)
3x Magic Missile
2x Shield
2x Chill Touch
2nd (6)
3x Scorching Ray
1x Glitter Dust
2x Mirror Image
3rd (5)
1x Fly
2x Haste
1x Displacement
1x Heroism
4th (4)
1x Black Tentacles
1x Greater Invisibility
1x Dimension Door
1x Fire Shield
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CR9 – Nessian Warhound
Magus wins initiative. Casts Fire Shield (cold). Enhances weapon with +1 Keen Frost. Wets pants. Only to protect against the fire, of course. Just that. Moves forward 20’.
Hound takes 5’ step and bites (1) but misses.
Magus takes 5’ step and uses Spell Combat. Can’t fail concentration check and deals 21 damage (105 remain). Two melee hits (10,12) for 14 and 21 damage (70 remains).
Hound bites and rolls another natural 1. There is a not inconsiderable amount of glee.
Magus full attacks (2,2) misses twice.
Hound uses flame breath. Reflex save is good (6). Chill Shield protects against all damage.
Magus Full Attacks (9,9) two hits. Deals 26 damage and 20 damage (24 remain)
Hound bites and rolls a third natural 1. I can not make this sh*t up.
Magus Full Attacks (5,11) two hits. Deals 28 damage and 24 damage and slays the Warhound. The Magus feel somewhat silly about the whole wetting pants thing.
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Well, that was ridiculous. I felt kind of bad about the whole thing. In all fairness, though, it was a good example of the nice variety of the Magus list. Chill Shield would have been really useful if the thing had ever hit me.
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Up next is the Rakshasa.
Quick (stupid) question: what allows him to cast Fire Shield (cold)?
The spell itself. It allows a cold or fire version.
We all do it, heh. At least you know the magus even better after re-combing it!
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3: Aldori Duelist (This is basically Dervish Dance for the Aldori Dueling Sword. It’s silly that a feat like that should only be available to one weapon)
I'm actually quite happry with this sort of thing. I like the idea of selective weapon training at a particular school/academy and as such it sort of fits to make it one weapon. All to often I run into players who want great abilities stretched out to their chosen weapon for the extra +1 (or such). I think the flavour you can get from this type of specialist weapon feat outweighs the oddly strange limitation of one weapon only.
Also thanks for doing this with the Magus. Its prompted me to repeat your endevours myself - much the same result but less 1's for the nessian. In five combats score was Magus 5 - Nessian 0 (almost 1 though). But I've been forced to reread the Magus and I really like the class now.|
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I'm glad that further testing of that fight continued to bear out for the Magus. I can't believe it just could not hit.
But you learn something from every fight regardless of how the luck runs. In tough fights in the Level 8 Arena I learned just how excellent some of the abilities can be in a tough situation. In this easy fight, I got a good look at how you can control a fight with the right spell to start it off.
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I didn't mention it after the last round but the Magus used a Pearl of Power to recover a Magic Missile.
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CR10 – Rakshasa
Magus wins Initiative. Casts Greater Invisibility. Enhances weapon to add Frost, Flaming, and Shocking. Moves 30’ to be adjacent to Rakshasa.
Rakshasa tries DC 30 check to pinpoint Magus but fails. It takes a 5’ step in a random direction which happens to be directly away from the Magus. However, since he doesn’t know whether he’s still adjacent, he attempts to cast Invisibility defensively and passes (11).
The Magus knows where his foe must still be. Using Spell Combat he casts Glitterdust, Rakshasa saves against blinding, 5’ steps, and full attacks, two hits (20,7) and the crit confirms (15). Deals 38 and 9 damage (68 remain) after taking into account its damnable DR 15.
Rakshasa takes a 5’ step, a good perception check allowing it to move directly away from the Magus. Casts Mage Armor.
Magus takes 5’ step and full attacks and hits twice (14,14). Deals 9 and 13 damage (46 remain).
Rakshasa passes perception check to locate Magus, takes 5’ step and Lightning Bolts the Magus. The low DC 16 is easy for the Magus to avoid and he only takes 12 damage (75 remains).
Magus 5’ steps and full attacks and hits twice (4,8). Deals 16 and 12 damage (18 remains).
Rakshasa passes perception check to locate Magus, 5’ steps, and blasts the Lightning Bolt again. Still an easy reflex save. Half damage is 14 (61 remains).
Magus 5’ steps, full attacks, and hits twice (20,15) but crit does not confirm. Deals 15 and 18 damage which kills the Rakshasa.
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Cure Moderate, please. Two 8’s get me 28hp, 2 more than I need to get back to full. Sweet.
That went fairly well. What might have been a somewhat difficult fight was mitigated by Greater Invisibility. Of course, if it weren’t for Glitterdust the Rakshasa would have just gone invisible and waited me out with its longer duration. Once again, the Magus’ nice selection of spells paid off.
I really didn't like the loss of the old Arcane Weapon Bond but once again the new mechanic has proved itself to me. I would have had such a hard time getting past that DR if it weren't for being able to stack Flaming, Frost, and Shocking on my weapon.
Chill Strike might have been worth a pool point to help with stacking more damage in this fight.
Edit: Considering that with Improved Pool Spell a Scorching Ray also only costs 1 pool point, it might be worth tucking that in a Spellstoring weapon to start the fight off right.
Just out of curiosity: Why not a +1 Corrosive Spellstoring Sword, with GMW cast on it? Loaded with Chill Touch and Magus enhanced (that ability reallllly needs its own name!) with FlamingFrostShock, you'd be sitting at +3 weapon with +5d6 damage per attack. Net you an average (one handed) damage of 34 per hit, which ain't to shabby at 12th.
Might be worth switching a feat out for Arcane Strike (if it counts with unnamed Magus enhancement ability) for another 3 damage per attack if you have a free swift, which you usually seem to.
Just a couple ideas. I'm really enjoying reading these write-ups. Keep up the good work, man.
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Chill Strike might have been worth a pool point to help with stacking more damage in this fight.
Edit: Considering that with Improved Pool Spell a Scorching Ray also only costs 1 pool point, it might be worth tucking that in a Spellstoring weapon to start the fight off right.
Just out of curiosity: Why not a +1 Corrosive Spellstoring Sword, with GMW cast on it? Loaded with Chill Touch and Magus enhanced (that ability reallllly needs its own name!) with FlamingFrostShock, you'd be sitting at +3 weapon with +5d6 damage per attack. Net you an average (one handed) damage of 34 per hit, which ain't to shabby at 12th.
Might be worth switching a feat out for Arcane Strike (if it counts with unnamed Magus enhancement ability) for another 3 damage per attack if you have a free swift, which you usually seem to.
Right now I'm working off the assumption that Arcane Strike doesn't work for the Magus. You can bet I'll find room for it if it ends up stacking later.
You are very right about my weapon enhancements. When I first started thinking about the Magus, I figured I'd forget about GMW in order to have an extra spell around. Now that I can trade out points for more spells (and at a discount at 11), I should be bringing GMW back into my thinking. I'll let it be for now but if I do another playtest and when I actually get to play this Magus in our upcoming campaign, I'll be smarter about my weapon.
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To my dismay, it appears the next fight will be against an Elder Air Elemental. Not looking forward to being in a whirlwind again.
Can anyone clarify Whirlwind for me? It says that if a creature touches the whirlwind it may be caught in it. Does that mean I have to make saves every time I stand adjacent to it so I can attack? That would be distressing.
I really like that Magi with spellstoring weapons can really get going fast in early combat. The fact that for 1 pool point/fight they can cast a free 12d6 attack (via spellstored scorching ray) is just mind boggling. That's like 42 relatively free damage to start off every fight.
On that note, if you're about to finish off a monster, you can even use spell combat to kill the monster with your attacks (waiting to see if you need to use a spell), then reload your spellstoring weapon....then next turn you can move, spellstrike for a spell+melee attack AND unleash your spellstored spell from last round. That's a nice little midcombat blitz.
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OK, so while I was fighting that Rakshasa I realized I wasn't using Heroism. Then I realized that it wasn't exactly fair for me to get to prebuff with a Heroism or GMW or what have you but make the Rakshasa burn an action on Mage Armor.
So from here on out I am going to make a couple of changes.
1. Any monster with buffs lasting at least 10/min level may prebuff with as many as two of them before fights.
2. The Magus will get a + 1 corrosive, spell storing weapon and cast GMW. One of the Haste spells prepared will be exchanged for GMW. A Chill Touch is stored in the weapon.
New Buffed Attack Sequences:
1-Hand: +22/17 d8+12+d6 acid
2-Hand: +22/17 d8+15+d6 acid
New Buffed Saves:
Fort 15
Ref 17
Will 15
I still don't know when I'm supposed to save for whirlwind. Unless I hear differently, I think touch is going to mean enter or use part of my body like a touch spell, not a weapon attack.
Good adjustments there, I think it's fair, especially with Hour buffs.
For whirlwind, I would just make you save if the whirlwind enters your square or you enter its square. I read over it, and I think that is what I would go with as a DM. Just my opinion, though.
As for Chill Strike, that is something that will require some DM ruling, I think. I've seen it discussed a little more, and it really makes me wonder as to the time limit of using the extra touches, whether or not you are considered to be "holding a charge" while it is on (meaning you can't cast other spells without losing the charge) etc.
Personally, I would go with you get 1/round per level to make the extra touches, but don't have to "hold the charge" for them. Of course that is a house ruling, but it's such a grey area (and even worse with spellstrike involved or even spellstoring) that I think it's just something that DMs will have to adjudicate.
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As for Chill Strike, that is something that will require some DM ruling, I think. I've seen it discussed a little more, and it really makes me wonder as to the time limit of using the extra touches, whether or not you are considered to be "holding a charge" while it is on (meaning you can't cast other spells without losing the charge) etc.
My GM already decided it would count as holding the charge. That does limit the usefulness of Chill Touch a bit but as long as you buff, spell combat with the spell first and then go spell storing, you should be good to go for the rest of the fight for the most part. I think that's enough casting most of the time.
But it is probably better to keep a Scorching Ray in there. That just hands out a whoopin like crazy. After I use the Chill Touch I'll store one if I can. But since I'm switching stuff out mid-arena I don't want to make everything as good as it could possibly be.
Keep in mind that if you really want to Nova it up, you can go Invisible after attacks w/spell combat, then 5' step. Next round, if they can't find you, reload your spellstoring weapon. Next round, use Spellstrike to cast a touch spell and hold the charge in your weapon, move in next to opponent. 3rd round invisible, use spell combat to attack (with all bonuses on first attack from Invis) hit with the held charge and the spellstored spell and then you still have your spell this turn from Spell Combat. Ouch. And you can back out of combat to do that anytime if they can't find Invisible creatures.
I just posted a 5th level Magus BBEG actually based around using Vanish and loading up Shocking Graps....I think he has a decent chance to one shot 4th level PCs, especially with a 15-20 crit range....yikes.
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Sorry for the delay between posts. My brother's birthday was yesterday so drinking and Rock Band was a thing. Did you know the Rock Band 3 Endless Setlist takes a really long time? It does. The title is apt. My feet still hurt 12 hours and a muscle relaxer later.
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CR11 – Elder Air Elemental
Air Elemental wins initiative. Goes Whirlwind and attempts to suck up Magus by moving into its square. Reflex save for damage is no good (3) and deals 19 damage (68 remains). Magus passes check to get sucked into whirlwind (16). The Magus gets shunted into an adjacent free space.
Magus enhances weapon for shocking, flaming, and frost. Uses Spell Combat for Haste. Cannot fail concentration. Full attack hits twice (6,9,1) and deals 16 damage and 23 damage (113 remains).
Air Elemental again tries to suck up the Magus. Reflex save for damage fails (7) and save to not get sucked up just barely passes thanks to Haste (9). Deals 22 damage (46 remains).
Magus uses Spell Combat. Cannot fail concentration check for Scorching Ray, which is Maximized with an Arcana. One ray misses (2,20,19) but the others hit dealing 48 damage (88 remains). Damn Elementals not being subject to crits makes the Magus exhibit his full on sad face. Full attack hits twice (12,17,7) Chill Touch is released from spell storing with the first hit. First hit does 27 damage and the other deals 23 damage (15 remains) and one Str damage!
The Elemental whirlwind again tries to ruin the Magus’ day. This time the Magus makes both saves against the powerful winds.
The Magus full attacks and hits twice (11,4,5) dealing 21 damage and 28 damage dropping the Air Elemental.
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The Magus will take a Cure Critical from the sideline for 24 (62 total) and drink a potion for 4 more (66 total). That’s not so good.
Well, things went much better for the level 12 Magus against and Air elemental than they did for the level 8 version. Using Spell Blending to get Heroism was a life saver. That extra +2 to saves really made the difference between getting stuck in the whirlwind and, you know, living. The +2 to hit from Heroism also made the difference between a hit and a miss on at least two attacks. If Heroism doesn’t end up on the Magus list, using Spell Blending to get it is going to be pretty much required for all Magi.
This fight was another instance where high DR made stacking every possible elemental damage on my weapon a must. I remain grateful for the sweet, delicious flexibility offered by the Arcane Pool.
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Our protagonist must next fight an Adult Green Dragon! Will he survive? Should the Dragon just use Flyby Attack to cheese his way to a victory? I don't know!
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I just realized I did the attack sequence for the Magus wrong and neglected to add the trait bonus to attack rolls from Heirloom Weapon. Fixed now.
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CR-12 Adult Green Dragon
Magus wins initiative. Passes Frightful Presence (6). Casts Shield. Enhances weapon with Frost, Flaming, and Shocking. Moves forward 15’
Green Dragon uses breath weapon. Magus saves but still takes 11 damage (55 remains). I hope the dragon keeps rolling crap like that.
Magus uses a point to Spell Strike Shocking Grasp and tries to acrobatics his way into striking distance. Dragons have a really high CMD and the attempt fails. Luckily for the Magus, the AoO fails, too. Attack is a threat (19) and confirms (4). Shocking Grasp does 43 damage with great rolls and the attack deals another 47 (82 remains).
Green Dragon full attacks and rolls crap again hitting with nothing (3,2,1,4,4,5). Magical!
Magus uses Spell Combat to cast Magic Missile. Can’t fail concentration so it deals 15 damage (67 remains). Full attacks hits once (20,6) but crit does not confirm (6) and deals 32 damage (35 remains).
Green Dragon full attacks again and hits with one wing (1,4,11,2,19,9) dealing 5 damage (50 remains).
Magus full attacks and hits twice (10,17). They deal 32 and 31 damage, dropping the Dragon.
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Cure Serious heals 25 (75 total). Magus puts a Scorching Ray in his Spell Storing weapon.
OK, so that was nice. Shield made it so that the Dragon needed a 13 or 18 to hit and that saved me from taking a lot of damage. Really highlights the awesomeness of a high dex build.
Starting to run a bit low on spells, though. One Shield, Magic Missile, and Chill Touch. One Scorching Ray and two Mirror Images. One Displacement, Black Tentacles, and Dimension Door. Not too terrible considering I’m four fights in, though.
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I rolled an Adult Blue Dragon for the next fight but I just fought an adult dragon. the two aren't different enough to suit me really so I re-rolled. Got a Storm Giant.
Yeah, but the Blue could use Fly-By... ;-)
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Yeah, but the Blue could use Fly-By... ;-)
It's not much of a playtest of the Magus doesn't get to fight. With a fly speed of 200ft, either dragon could simply bite as it flys past and the Magus could never touch him.
I have to give the poor bastard some measure of latitude.
But OK, here's the platest result with the Dragon using Flyby Attack.
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Magus wins initiative. Casts Shield.
Green Dragon patiently flies about killing the sh*t out of the Magus. He dies. He is dead.
Fun read.
Critting with channeled shocking grasp is fun times.
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You real sure of that? I'm thinking readied actions and a Magus's nova damage capacity from spellstrike might just make trading hits suboptimal for the dragon...
Quite positive.
You can't ready an action to hit something out of your reach. The bite has a 15' reach. The Magus could possibly, with Fly, position himself so that he might be in range for an attack once for every two Flyby attacks made by the Dragon. It would be costly, though.
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You are doing a great job of confirming my fears with the Magus.
Thanks!
Fears? Too strong? Too fun? Too...sexy?
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CR13 – Storm Giant
Magus wins initiative. Casts Mirror Image for 6 images. Enhances weapon with Keen, Frost, and Flaming.
Storm Giant moves forward 20’ to attack with Improved Vital Strike. Hits but strikes an Image.
Magus tries to acrobatics into striking distance but the Storm Giant’s massive CMD can’t be beat. AoO hits (6) but only crashes another Image. Magus strikes out and hits (14) dealing 31 damage (168 remains). The spell stored Scorching Ray is released but one misses (1,6,18). The other two deal 16 damage each (136 remains).
The Storm Giant full attacks with power attack and hits with all three (17,16,18). First one bypasses Images but can’t confirm the threat (3) dealing 50 damage (25 remains). Second one smashes an Image. Final attack bypasses the remaining images to smash the Magus for another 49 damage dropping him.
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OK, well that didn't take long. I think this might be a good example of Magus players needing to be smart about really challenging fights. At this level, Shield's long duration could have let me prebuff before combat if I knew the fight was coming. I think scouting will be a useful thing for the Magus or his allies to do.
Interesting posts, while a straight up fight isn't always the best way to look at the strengths and weaknesses of a class it looks like your arena of doom has worked pretty well. I was surprised how quickly you blew through the dragon, only to fall even faster to the Storm Giant, but it makes sense. A dragon fighting straight up in melee combat is much less of a threat than one flying around and using its spells, breath weapon, and flyby attack. Still, it's cool to see that if you can get into range the Magus can do damage in a hurry.
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As an experiment I tried the Storm Giant again using Greater Invisibility, cast with points since I already used the prepared one.
Alternate Fight against Storm Giant
Magus wins initiative. Uses two points for Greater Invisibility. Uses stealth and moves 25’ closer.
Storm Giant can’t pinpoint Magus so moves away 70’.
Magus moves forward 15’ and casts Scorching Ray, Empowered by his Arcana. Each hits (8,9,4) dealing 20, 25, and 19 damage (135 remains).
Magus is spotted by perception now and the Storm Giant charges, hits (9), but misses due to concealment.
Magus moves forward to be adjacent and Spell Strikes with Vampiric Touch (using another 2 points). Hits (18, boy do I wish this sucker was Keen now) and deals 21 damage plus 20 from Vampiric Touch (94 remains). Releases the stored Scorching Ray hitting thrice (2,20,2) and the crit confirms (12). These do 21, 24, and 17 damage, respectively (32 remains). Temporary HP from Vampiric touch bring the Magus to 95 hp.
Storm Giant full attacks with power attack. It hits once (20,2,9) and the crit just barely confirms (7). However, concealment is once again effective!
Magus uses Spell Combat. Magic Missile concentration check can’t fail and it deals 14 damage (18 remains). Two hits (9,15) deal 17 and 18 damage dropping the Storm Giant.
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So there we go. Invisibility buys me time and the miss chance gives me sufficient defenses to withstand the combat. This was a bit more nova than my previous attempt. The Magus is down to only two Arcana Points and barely any spells. This is a good example of what a Magus can do with a decent number of Pool Points. Even after using half of them he had enough to dig out the spells he needed to be able to win this fight.
I'm going to call this a done Arena for our hero. There is pretty much zero chance he can defeat a Nalfeshnee by himself with practically no spells. He uses Dimension Door to get the hell out of there and live to fight another day.
You real sure of that? I'm thinking readied actions and a Magus's nova damage capacity from spellstrike might just make trading hits suboptimal for the dragon...Quite positive.
You can't ready an action to hit something out of your reach. The bite has a 15' reach. The Magus could possibly, with Fly, position himself so that he might be in range for an attack once for every two Flyby attacks made by the Dragon. It would be costly, though.
I'm pretty sure that Enlarge Person or a reach weapon will solve this, tho. Ready the action, cast the spell, take 5' step, attack. You'd even get to act before the dragon got to attack.
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I'm pretty sure that Enlarge Person or a reach weapon will solve this, tho. Ready the action, cast the spell, take 5' step, attack. You'd even get to act before the dragon got to attack.
Still not going to work. You'd need both Enlarge Person and a reach weapon because you can't take a 5' step straight up.
As this is a Dex build, Enlarge Person is not even on this Magus' list. Doesn't know it.