I saw someone already has an issue with the Arcane pool as well so Im not going to say anything more on that subject. But I have a real issue with the Armor ability the Magus gets, the one where eventually hes running around in full plate with no problems. I think thats a bit too much, if it was only light armor with a reduced penalty on medium at most I would be fine with it but Spells and Armor with ZERO penalties, I just dont like that at all.
Huh...to each their own, but I don't see it ever being an issue, as I don't see anyone (mostly myself, as I don't think the magus appeals to that many others in my "group") ever using heavy armor. In my opinion medium and heavy armor should be (as in will promptly be houseruled in my campaign) into magus arcana.
I think thats a bit too much, if it was only light armor with a reduced penalty on medium at most I would be fine with it but Spells and Armor with ZERO penalties, I just dont like that at all.
Zero penalties? You have six spell levels -- clerics get nine with medium armor, can take heavy armor with no penalties, from level 1, and they get two domains, channel energy, bonus spell slots, two good saves, and your same hit dice/BAB to boot.
I would hardly say "zero penalties" especially when you must stay in class until level 7 to even think about going with medium armor, and you only get 6 spell levels.
A EK can run around in Full Plate and Heavy Shield from about 6th level with only a feat and be about on par with the Magus progression; with a much bigger spell list and they still cap out at 8th level spells.
Armored Casting is overestimated. One of the biggest things the 3.5 devs said upon making the duskblade was "Yeah, sorry about hexblades, we thought it was nasty but it was quite lame."
Whats the point of being a magic knight/warrior if you cant wear plate armour (if you choose, eventually)?
Whats really the issue here? Is this just a thematic mental block or a balance issue of some kind (which frankly I dont see either)?
I am running a magus in one of my current games, and I have no intention of wearing full-plate, not because, I don't like the ability, but because I don't consider it an Ultima ability.
It's also pretty much a nonissue for the following reason...
Most campaigns won't go high enough to make use of it.
That's not an excuse to let things slip, though. There's no point in designing a 20 levels class if you don't want to see all 20 levels in good standing. The fact less people will use the latter 7 or 8 doesn't make them less worthy of attention.