This is a final battle in a quest, against a magus, his cockatrice mount, and three goblin flunkies. It's fairly nasty at a glance, and that's exactly how I prefer it. Anyway, here's my Magus:
Goblin Magus 2
Init +2, Senses: Perception -1
Defense
AC 15, Touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+2 armor, +2 dex, +1 size)
HP 14 (2d8+2)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +1
Offense
Speed 30 feet
Melee Longsword +3 (1d6+1, 19-20)
Statistics
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 9, Cha 10
Feats: Mounted Combat
Spells
0 – Acid Splash, Daze, Flare, Prestidigitation
1 – Shocking Grasp, True Strike, Shield
The party involved is level 1: a barbarian with a longspear and a trident/shield combo, a combat druid with a quarterstaff (prepping exclusively healing spells for 1st level) and a wolf companion, a monk of the empty hand/of the four winds. In this combat, he is wielding a wooden door he ripped off the wall in the middle of the dungeon (empty hand monk primarily uses improvised weapons) and a wizard using a longbow. They all have rolled stats and have above-average ability scores (I run low magic-item campaigns, so I prefer higher stats).
The barbarian rushes into the combat area, a 60 foot cage-like arena. The other party members are about 50 feet behind him, underground. Before the barbarian are three goblins, all with short swords and shields. Sitting 15 feet up, atop the cage, is the goblins’ evident leader. He himself is mounted upon a cockatrice (increased to medium size to be used as a mount). The goblin leader laughs and combat begins.
Round 1: Barbarian wins initiative, rages, and charges the center goblin, killing it with a single strike. The other two goblins charge him, passing through the threat range of his spear and provoking attacks. He gets one, and kills the left goblin with another swift attack. The third goblin attacks the barbarian, its attack skating off his armor. The goblin magus above casts shield on himself, increasing his AC to 19.
Round 2: The rest of the party arrives and rolls init. The order is now Barbarian, Wizard, Goblin minion, Goblin leader/Cockatrice, Druid, Monk. The barbarian drops his spear, pulls out his trident, and attacks the third goblin. His attack fails. On the mage’s turn, he spots the goblin leader and casts Gravity Bow, increasing his damage to 2d6 with his bow. The goblin minion attacks the barbarian again, this time dealing 1 damage as its attack barely gets through. The goblin leader, spotting the rest of the party, casts shocking grasp into his blade. The druid stays near the mage and casts resistance on him. The monk rushes forward and beats the final goblin minion over the head with his door, knocking it unconscious.
Round 3: The barbarian steps back from the wall, readying his weapon if the goblin leader attacks them. The mage lifts his bow and launches an arrow. He hits, dealing 12 damage to the goblin. The goblin now has a target. He casts true strike on himself on his turn. The druid readies an attack, should the goblin come after her or the mage. The monk hurls his door at the goblin, but rolls a 1, and the door shatters on the high wall.
Round 4: The barbarian again readies an action, should the goblin come after him. The mage fires another arrow, but it goes wide, deflecting off of the goblin’s shield spell. The magus spurs his cockatrice forward, toward the mage, and charges him. His aim is true (get it, because of true strike? Huh? Huh? I kid, I kid.) and he strikes the mage head-on. The Shocking Grasp activates, and the cockatrice succeeds on an attack. In total, the wizard takes 15 damage and drops. He succeeds on his constitution check and his fortitude save against petrifaction. The druid attacks with her readied action, and misses, her attack bouncing off the shield spell. When her turn comes, she attacks again, and again fails her attack roll. Her wolf attacks and fails its bite attack. The monk charges, but his attack fails due to the shield spell and the magus laughs at their futile attempts to kill him.
Round 5: The barbarian charges, raging, and rolls a critical hit against the magus, piercing through his spell and impaling him on the trident. It sputters and dies on the end of his weapon.
Pan to the end of the combat. They defeated the cockatrice in a few more rounds and revived the wizard.
Overall, I liked what I saw out of the magus. I didn’t get to use its arcane pool, but damn if that shield spell didn’t keep it in the game longer than I thought. Without the wizard’s lucky max damage or the barbarian’s crit, I could have seen this battle really going south. The magus did exactly what it was supposed to do, however, and that is deal enough damage to take out a 1st level fighter in one hit. I didn’t get to see spell combat in action (though I predict it would have been very fun combined with Daze and Arcane Pool enhancements), but spellstrike was beautiful. The ability to hold the charge in the weapon really adds a level of nasty, I think, since he can slap it in there, then use it whenever he need make an attack, whether it be a standard attack, spell combat, or a charge.
I really love the new magus, and in low levels, I see it as being quite deadly.
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Interesting stuff.
You may want to check the rules for 'Touch Spells and Holding the Charge' (core book p.216) - basically if you cast another spell whilst holding the charge, the touch spell dissipates. So if the Magus cast Shocking Grasp on round 2, held the charge, then cast True Strike on round 3, the Shocking Grasp dissipates, with no effect (other than wasting a spell) - Spellstrike doesn't alter that aspect of touch spells. Of course he could have cast True Strike in one round, then used Spellstrike to cast Shocking Grasp in the next round (after moving to a target) and taking the 'free melee attack instead of free touch' option to blat away with his Shocking Grasp-infused longsword.
You seem to have had the same reaction to the Arcane Pool as I found at low levels - it's easy to forget about it (until level 5 when you start to get the 'effect' options) - with all the other stuff to consider, but then again I've known many a Bard character who forgot he could sing...
The value of the Shield spell is a weird one - it's not like the Magus gets a better Shield spell than any other Arcane caster, although layering it on top of what little armour he's allowed to wear does make it seem better if you're used to playing robe 'armoured' Wizards... Although this guy was in leather armour, so if he was a Wizard he'd have been able to cast both Mage Armour and Shield and had an extra 2 AC on top of what he got.
The proficiency to use Martial Weapons is nice... but not a lot better than a full caster who gets decent racial weapon proficiences (like an elf or half-orc), unless you have your eye on something specific.
Your Round 5 conclusion, for better or worse, says more about low-level Barbarians than it does the Magus - at low levels, with low hit point foes, the ability to dish out lots of damage in a single swog is pretty much the best way to deal with any fight. It gets mitigated somewhat at later levels, when foes don't drop on a single hit, but it does, perhaps, point the way for the Magus at low level: using Spell Combat to churn out a damaging spell as well as a melee attack should deal with a lot of foes at level one, and when you get Spellstrike at level 2 (although I think it really needs to be a level 1 feature - much more useful than Spell Combat at low levels, before you get multiple attacks) layering Shocking Grasp onto your weapon damage is a must (you could use Chill Touch if you think one hit from it will drop the guys you're facing - like several goblins - but generally if you're going to do a couple of dice of extra damage, you may as well do it as fast as possible...).
Interesting stuff.
You may want to check the rules for 'Touch Spells and Holding the Charge' (core book p.216) - basically if you cast another spell whilst holding the charge, the touch spell dissipates. So if the Magus cast Shocking Grasp on round 2, held the charge, then cast True Strike on round 3, the Shocking Grasp dissipates, with no effect (other than wasting a spell) - Spellstrike doesn't alter that aspect of touch spells. Of course he could have cast True Strike in one round, then used Spellstrike to cast Shocking Grasp in the next round (after moving to a target) and taking the 'free melee attack instead of free touch' option to blat away with his Shocking Grasp-infused longsword.
You seem to have had the same reaction to the Arcane Pool as I found at low levels - it's easy to forget about it (until level 5 when you start to get the 'effect' options) - with all the other stuff to consider, but then again I've known many a Bard character who forgot he could sing...
The value of the Shield spell is a weird one - it's not like the Magus gets a better Shield spell than any other Arcane caster, although layering it on top of what little armour he's allowed to wear does make it seem better if you're used to playing robe 'armoured' Wizards... Although this guy was in leather armour, so if he was a Wizard he'd have been able to cast both Mage Armour and Shield and had an extra 2 AC on top of what he got.
The proficiency to use Martial Weapons is nice... but not a lot better than a full caster who gets decent racial weapon proficiences (like an elf or half-orc), unless you have your eye on something specific.
Your Round 5 conclusion, for better or worse, says more about low-level Barbarians than it does the Magus - at low levels, with low hit point foes, the ability to dish out lots of damage in a single swog is pretty much the best way to deal with any fight. It gets mitigated somewhat at later levels, when foes don't drop on a single hit, but it does, perhaps, point...
raging barbarian holding his action for so long makes no sense... why didnt he just move up with the long spear and tool on the goblin?
a 5 foot step would have let him kill the flunky next to him and then time to move on to the boss, could have killed that magus two rounds earlier. why wait until he rushes your wizard?
I thought it was funny that the Magus never used the signature Magus ability, Spell Combat/Spellstrike. Doing nothing but buffing the first several rounds of combat seems REALLY wierd. Given his positioning ´above the cage´ I would have thought 1-handed thrown weapons (including alchemical items) would have been a considered tactic. Or instead of JUST buffing up while they get slaughtered while not hurting the PCs, why not move into a Flank for them WHILE doing his buff casting, and maybe even be in position to draw an AoO from PC movement/actions.
This playtest does remind me of another idea I had: the Magus gets a floating weapon enhancement pool... why not an armor enhancement pool, which would help with AC issues many posters have complained about, while also providing access to stuff like Slick, Fortification, etc.