So my wizard character died in my Xcrawl campaign (using the pathfinder rules system). It was sad but my GM is allowing me to roll a new character. At the moment, we've got a ranger (lots of attacks for most of the damage we deal plus our "rogue-like"), a hungry ghost monk crit specialist who has both decent AC and damage dealing bad-assery making him our secondary tank/secondary damage-dealer, a whip-wielding oracle with monstrous AC that annoys enemies into attacking him who acts as our primary tank/healer, and a ported psychic warrior who generally acts like another secondary tank/damage-dealer except that he's mostly useful for taking out the random unexpected monster none of the rest of the team can deal with. The game is ridiculously combat focused so having a good team is literally what stands between us and a total party kill for most fights. The character I think would be cool to play would be a Magus from the new Ultimate Magic teaser release, self-buffing and going again for massive damage, but I realize that it's not really what would be most effective in the party as it stands. I also made a crowd control witch with some minor healing capability that could deal with the masses we sometimes have trouble with, probably the most needed thing in this party atm. I can see that the Magus would step on all kinds of toes, especially the psychic warrior's, but I've always wanted to try playing an actually effective battle mage. I know I'd have fun with both, so should I save the Magus for another game and go with the more effective Witch or should I go with my preference and try and force the Magus?
Well, it looks like you've got a bit of a conundrum there. On the one hand, you really seem revved up about playing a magus, but on the other hand, it sounds like that might cause a stir with stepping on the other players' toes. It does seem like your party has a number of tank/damage dealers already, so there may very well be some overlap there.
A few things I might take into consideration were I in your position. First of all, how do you feel about playing the witch? Does it offer less interest to you than the magus?
Another thing to consider is how the other players will react and how this will impact your enjoyment of playing the magus. Would there be a later campaign down the line you could play the magus some other time?
I say go with the witch.
You’re really jazzed about the magus, but if it won’t be a good fit for the party, you’re not going to able to get everything you could out of the magus-play experience. Add to that the fact that the campaign is very combat focused - the suboptimal class choice makes for a high probability that your first magus experience will be disappointedly short - and you’ve got a compelling case for settling for your second choice – at least for now.
As always, I suspect the best 5th character would be a bard. Battlefield control is great, but it's hard to beat the buffing power of the bard.
I don't particularly like Bards to be perfectly honest. The boost to hit and damage is nice, but I'm not going to get much opportunity to fascinate creatures and if I really wanted to boost my allies combat strength I'd play a cavalier (that 8th level tactic as a dragon cavalier in a party with 2 people that need full attacks would be sick). The witch gets a decent buff in the form of Fortune, which can be extended near indefinitely with Cackle. As for how I feel about playing the Magus vs the Witch,I made the witch before I even knew the Magus existed, so it's definitely a character I like and would enjoy playing, but being able to use a real battle mage has been my aspiration ever since I read the Magic the Gathering Odyssey block books and saw how badass Kamahl was. On the other hand, I know there will be other Pathfinder games, so I suppose the Magus can wait until then, and I'll be able to use the finalized version then too. Thanks for the assistance guys.
I'd love it if you play-tested the Magus, but given there's already three front-line fighters, and given the size of many of the rooms you fight in, probably best to go with the ranged spellcaster. Next time one of the melee dies, though, I'll have them do something at range so that you can use the magus if (when) the witch dies.
What level is the group?
If you really want to try a magus, it can also work together with Arcane Archer for a fairly fun caster and ranged damage dealer, though it doesn't get the full benefits of the arcane archer until 11th or 12th level, with the benefit of holding your own if it does come to melee combat.
elf (+2dex, +2int
Magus 8 AA 3 magus 1 (any future levels magus again)
1 Weapon Finesse
3 point blank shot
5 weapon focus longbow,Precise Shot
7 rapid shot
9 Manyshot
11 quickdraw (or another feat of your choice, arcane strike works well too, or dervish dance fore nice scimitar damage)
3 arcane accuracy
6 spell blending - gravity bow, (1 other 1st level spell)
9 hasted assault