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I don't know how this hasn't been fixed yet.
The guide suggests INTENSIFY Spell as a wonderful metamagic feat to apply to Shocking Grasp, particularly with the Magical Lineage trait picked up. Allow me to quote the text of Intensify Spell, which is a crappy third-party feat:
"Benefit: When casting an intensified spell, reduce the range increment by one or more steps (as indicated below). For every increment you reduce the range, your effective caster level for this spell increases by 1. This stacks with other modifiers that affect caster level. The range increments are: long; medium; short; touch; personal. If the spell has an invariable range other than touch or personal (that is, a range expressed in feet), it counts as the lower of the two range increments it falls between.
For example, a cleric applies Intensified Casting to a bless spell. Bless has a range of 50 feet, which falls between close range (25 feet + 5 feet/level) and medium range (100 feet + 10 feet/level). For the purposes of determining its range increment, it is considered a close range. This does not actually affect its range, however the cleric could reduce it to a range of touch and cast it with +1 effective caster level. An intensified spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level."
The actual feat you want is INTENSIFIED Spell, the good and powerful feat printed by Paizo in the APG.
Also, just how many times is it called "Shocking Grip" instead of "Shocking Grasp" in this guide?
Also also, somebody pointed out recently an awesome trick that I think would go well with Spell Combat.
1) Get the Magic Missile spell.
2) Get the Toppling Spell feat.
3) Apply said feat to said spell.
4) ???
5) Profit
The CMB doesn't scale well and by level 13 trip is rarely possible. Good for low levels. High level? Not so much.
The +5 enhancement limit is only for the to hit/damage bonus.
You can go another +5 with weapon properties plus some other properties wich haven´t any +X in there description.
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The CMB doesn't scale well and by level 13 trip is rarely possible. Good for low levels. High level? Not so much.I hear people say this, but I simply don't believe them.
What's the CMD against trip for a level 13 encounter?
I picked one at random: Storm Giant (42), he might have freedom of movement but that doesn't protect him against trips. At 13th level a trip build will have higher than that in bonuses, and can likely succeed on iteratives.
-James
The real issue is not the CMD of your opponent, it's the restrictions on Trip.
You can attempt to trip your opponent in place of a melee attack. You can only trip an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you. If you do not have the Improved Trip feat, or a similar ability, initiating a trip provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver.
If your attack exceeds the target's CMD, the target is knocked prone. If your attack fails by 10 or more, you are knocked prone instead. If the target has more than two legs, add +2 to the DC of the combat maneuver attack roll for each additional leg it has. Some creatures—such as oozes, creatures without legs, and flying creatures—cannot be tripped.
I highlighted the important parts.
In your example unless you enlarge yourself the target is immune to your trip attempts. Also Storm giants are usually levitating and you can't trip any creature who's flying or off the ground.At this level of play (13+ level) the vast majority of your opponents will either be too big to trip or are flying/legless and immune to trip automatically.
So I noticed something in your guide.
Maximized Magic ***: A great arcana. Like the empowered version, this allows you to cast one spell per day as if it was maximized (that 10d6 shocking grasp becomes a flat 60, or 120 if it happens to crit, not to shabby). You won’t be able to get this at level 12 because you’re getting Critical Spell first, but at level 13 you can take Extra Arcana as a feat and pick this up.
Did you mean
Critical Strike **: Now we’re talking! Combine with your intensified Shocking Grasp via spellstrike and hit for 30d6 in one turn. That’s better than a level 15 disintegrate without the target getting the chance to succeed on a fortitude save. But there is a HUGE drawback to this arcana. It uses a swift action and not an immediate action. This means that when you want to use this, you’ll have to forgo using Arcane Accuracy, augmenting your weapon, casting a Quickened spell, etc. Because of this, it’s somewhat difficult to pull off. However, if you hold back on using your swift action when you fight something you would like to critical, you have a ¼ chance of getting this off on each attack (assuming you have a 15-20 range). Still, it’s a big “if.”
I was just wondering why one is green but the other which you advise taking first is yellow...
Random question
Any decent way to get a Magus on a mount that scales with level ?
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Random question
Any decent way to get a Magus on a mount that scales with level ?
I haven't researched this, so I could be horribly, horribly off, but off the top of my head -
Maybe start with a Small Size character (Halfling?) and take the Familiar Magus Arcana and Improved Familiar, and get your DM to let you take an Improved Familiar that can be used as a Mount.
Not as good as an Animal Companion, but it does scale!
Random question
Any decent way to get a Magus on a mount that scales with level ?
There is always the Leadership feat.
I haven't read the entire thread but just checking out the guide. Why have you got the Arcane Strike feat in your example builds yet it is not mentioned in the feats list? And, to me, it is not great for a Magus cos it uses one of your precious Swift Actions.
Am I missing something?
Amazing guide, very in depth and well thought out. Right now I'm playing a lv 12 Strix magus with the bladebound archetype (he's also dervish style, strix gives +2 dex and -2 cha, and has a 60 ft fly speed...NICE). He is seriously terrifying. Since he has wings he doesn't even need the fly spell, and he just blows up ranks of enemies or abuses dimension door wi/ spell recall to nightcrawler the battlefield. The other day our party was sailing to some deserted island when the lich king (big bad evil guy who decided to mess with our boat) showed up. He shot a prismatic spray at me, I got lucky and dropped to 5hp. I returned the favor with a maximized empowered shocking grasp that crit and did over 200 damage, effectively 1 hitting the BBEG. DM was so sad lol.
Besides me rambling on about how much I love my magus, I have a weird question. When I go to the guide on google docs it says the last time it was updated was 3/30, and you were planning to update with UC and stuff. Have you just been procrastinating or am I using an outdated version of the guide? Thanks
Don't know if it's just me but I can't get access to the guide. It keeps telling me "You need permission to access this item" anyone know what might be causing it?
Don't know if it's just me but I can't get access to the guide. It keeps telling me "You need permission to access this item" anyone know what might be causing it?
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1DB6sOfbAzFmKVPgcyLWipTVqvWFjfDSv6v _YiGQb5Yw
here you go
Would anyone be willing to have a look at my magus and offer suggestions/critiques of what I should do going forward? I'm playing in a planar campaign set in Abbadon, and I'm pretty well decided that his 7th level feat will be spell penetration. What should I take for my first magus arcana at level 6? Arcane Accuracy or Empowered Magic? Thanks in advance.
Would anyone be willing to have a look at my magus and offer suggestions/critiques of what I should do going forward? I'm playing in a planar campaign set in Abbadon, and I'm pretty well decided that his 7th level feat will be spell penetration. What should I take for my first magus arcana at level 6? Arcane Accuracy or Empowered Magic? Thanks in advance.
Well it'd help to know more about your magus, but here's my thoughts. While arcane accuracy is good, you only need it against certain foes (dragons, golems, AC happy fighters) and it burns your arcana pool out very quickly. Empowered magic is useful against anything that's not immune to magic (like said golems). Plus at higher lv's you can get maximized magic, then use empowered/maximized for when you really need to put the hurt on. Basically, if you're afraid of being dominated by golems and other high AC foes, then arcane accuracy is worth it. However I find that if you really need to land a hit the spell true strike does better than ok on making sure you land a hit.
also a side note, if you make your magus crit happy like mine (15-20 range), then ac doesnt matter when you automatically hit 30% of the time lol
Thanks Matt! Thanks Campin! You guys brought some good points. I hadn't considered Pool Strike, and yeah, he's a little low on Int, hopefully I can get a headband, and all further attribute bonuses will go towards Int. I should have mentioned that the character profile is in this alias.
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Would anyone be willing to have a look at my magus and offer suggestions/critiques of what I should do going forward? I'm playing in a planar campaign set in Abbadon, and I'm pretty well decided that his 7th level feat will be spell penetration. What should I take for my first magus arcana at level 6? Arcane Accuracy or Empowered Magic? Thanks in advance.Well it'd help to know more about your magus, but here's my thoughts. While arcane accuracy is good, you only need it against certain foes (dragons, golems, AC happy fighters) and it burns your arcana pool out very quickly. Empowered magic is useful against anything that's not immune to magic (like said golems). Plus at higher lv's you can get maximized magic, then use empowered/maximized for when you really need to put the hurt on. Basically, if you're afraid of being dominated by golems and other high AC foes, then arcane accuracy is worth it. However I find that if you really need to land a hit the spell true strike does better than ok on making sure you land a hit.
also a side note, if you make your magus crit happy like mine (15-20 range), then ac doesnt matter when you automatically hit 30% of the time lol
If I'm understanding your comment here I have to correct your assumptions. If you think you crit on a 15-20 means you hit on a 15-20 then you are incorrect. The only auto hit in the game is a natural 20, anything else just means IF you roll in that crit range and IF you hit the targets AC with that roll then you may crit. You still have to hit the targets AC with your roll before you threaten that crit.
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Here's some questions that it might be a good idea to include in the guide. (I have no idea what the answers are)
Questions on Spellstrike -
1) Can it be used as a sunder?
Just think, a maximized shocking grasp that has critted on a sunder attempt. No more weapon.2) If you use a force (or fire or any other energy type) spell with Spellstrike. What does the weapon damage become and how would this effect DR or vulnerabilities?
Got to thinking about this when I saw the first question asked in the rule section of the message board.
1. You can use a spellstrike as part of a sunder attempt but the effectiveness is pretty low unfortunately. Remember all energy damage done to objects is halved and then hardness is applied to the remaining damage.
For example using a 80point shocking grasp sunder attempt against your opponents +1 heavy steel shield. First the damage is dropped to 40pts automatically, then the hardness is applied which drops the damage another 12 pts to 28. That 28pts is removed from the shields hit points (30), giving it the broken condition and halving the AC benefit from it.The numbers get even worse when applied to other objects with any degree of thickness to it. Past 2-3 inches thick you'd have to burn through all your normal shocking grasps for the day to destroy the object.
2. The weapon damage stays the same, the two types don't mix when you hit and each damage is applied separately.
You'd be better off stabbing the shields owner for that 80 damage
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1DB6sOfbAzFmKVPgcyLWipTVqvWFjfDSv6v _YiGQb5Yw
here you go
Thank you that works perfectly
Pool strike is terrible.
By the time you get it, it's only doing as much as a single shocking grasp, which you could recall later on for a single point. Also, after third level one pool strike is less than one shocking grasp and there is no innate bonus to hit metal armor (which is nice)
Secondly, you have a better buff built into your class right in your own arcane pool. Why waste one arcane point on some inferior amount of damage when you can give yourself any element of damage (or other buffs) for 10 whole rounds?
Pool strike is a waste of arcana.
I'm not a huge fan of arcane accuracy, and any adventure day I don't use it would be a great day, but early on it's so valuable it's certain to be missed if you lack it. Later in the game it can be used to help manage power attack, but its effectiveness certainly wanes. Once you begin adding greater magic weapon buffs on top of arcane pool buffs your weapon really reaches mythical status on bonuses. Still, I find there are 1-2 really high AC encounters per module, and I would really kick myself for not having it.
Anybody thought about using 4 levels of Soulknife?
Would anyone be willing to have a look at my magus and offer suggestions/critiques of what I should do going forward? I'm playing in a planar campaign set in Abbadon, and I'm pretty well decided that his 7th level feat will be spell penetration. What should I take for my first magus arcana at level 6? Arcane Accuracy or Empowered Magic? Thanks in advance.Well it'd help to know more about your magus, but here's my thoughts. While arcane accuracy is good, you only need it against certain foes (dragons, golems, AC happy fighters) and it burns your arcana pool out very quickly. Empowered magic is useful against anything that's not immune to magic (like said golems). Plus at higher lv's you can get maximized magic, then use empowered/maximized for when you really need to put the hurt on. Basically, if you're afraid of being dominated by golems and other high AC foes, then arcane accuracy is worth it. However I find that if you really need to land a hit the spell true strike does better than ok on making sure you land a hit.
also a side note, if you make your magus crit happy like mine (15-20 range), then ac doesnt matter when you automatically hit 30% of the time lol
If I'm understanding your comment here I have to correct your assumptions. If you think you crit on a 15-20 means you hit on a 15-20 then you are incorrect. The only auto hit in the game is a natural 20, anything else just means IF you roll in that crit range and IF you hit the targets AC with that roll then you may crit. You still have to hit the targets AC with your roll before you threaten that crit.
Hmm, i looked up the rules section about critical hits and you are indeed right. My assumption was a critical threat was always a hit, guess not tho. On the other hand if you roll an 18 or 19 on the die and DON'T hit, you're either way underpowered or your DM isn't planning on you killing the thing.
gotta admit, I never was really sold on casting GMW before level 8.
I mean a Masterwork Cold Iron or Alchemical Silver weapon is only about 300-350ish in GP and you get +1 Enhancement to attack (but not damage)
at level 7 you cast it on any weapon for +1 to attack and damage for 7hours and It DOESN"T stack with the weapons normal enhancement bonus. It overlaps.
that's only +1point of damage better than just buying a golf bag of Masterwork weapons. And the golf bag is better cause you can have special materials to bypass DR.
EG.
Every Melee char should have
Masterwork Cold Iron Cestus R.Hand
Masterwork Alchemical Silver Cestus L.Hand
you now have to backup weapons that can't be disarmed with a 19-20 threat range for spellstrike.
Carry a Cold Iron Scimitar and a Alchemical Heavy Pick (x4 crit mod for CDG)
you now can deal with DR/slashing/piercing/blugeoning/cold iron/silver.
and you didn't blow a 3rd level spell for any of that.
I like GMW, but it's nearly useless at level 7 (the first level you can cast it) unless you just don't have a magic weapon.
At level 8, however, it's pretty awesome. Assuming you've cast GMW on your main (sub+2) weapon you can use your arcane pool to boost your GMW by +3 again. This means at level 8 it's completely conceivable to have access to a +5 weapon at a moments notice during the adventuring day. This means you can just skip most DR.
Although nobody answered my original question. Am I using an outdated version of the guide? Last time it said it was updated was 3/30.
The CMB doesn't scale well and by level 13 trip is rarely possible. Good for low levels. High level? Not so much.I hear people say this, but I simply don't believe them.
What's the CMD against trip for a level 13 encounter?
I picked one at random: Storm Giant (42), he might have freedom of movement but that doesn't protect him against trips. At 13th level a trip build will have higher than that in bonuses, and can likely succeed on iteratives.
-James
See this thread for what I believe is the correct answer:
.Hobbun said:
"No, it isn't a max enchantment bonus of +5, but enhancement bonus. There is a difference. Enhancement bonus is a specific type of bonus. The max of +5, is bonus to hit and damage (for weapons).
Now on top of the max +5 enhancement bonus, you can give an additional +5 of special qualities. In your example, +5 for a Vorpal sword, giving a total of +10 enchantment bonus. +5 for the enhancement bonus and +5 for special qualities."
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I like GMW, but it's nearly useless at level 7 (the first level you can cast it) unless you just don't have a magic weapon.
At level 8, however, it's pretty awesome. Assuming you've cast GMW on your main (sub+2) weapon you can use your arcane pool to boost your GMW by +3 again. This means at level 8 it's completely conceivable to have access to a +5 weapon at a moments notice during the adventuring day. This means you can just skip most DR.
You know I am not sure if the weapon will allow you to skip DR.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/m/magic-weapon but if you are a bladebound magus (like me) you can improve you +2 blade into a +3 keen to kill that damn shadow demon.
The CMB doesn't scale well and by level 13 trip is rarely possible. Good for low levels. High level? Not so much.I hear people say this, but I simply don't believe them.
What's the CMD against trip for a level 13 encounter?
I picked one at random: Storm Giant (42), he might have freedom of movement but that doesn't protect him against trips. At 13th level a trip build will have higher than that in bonuses, and can likely succeed on iteratives.
-James
See this thread for what I believe is the correct answer:
.Hobbun said:
"No, it isn't a max enchantment bonus of +5, but enhancement bonus. There is a difference. Enhancement bonus is a specific type of bonus. The max of +5, is bonus to hit and damage (for weapons).Now on top of the max +5 enhancement bonus, you can give an additional +5 of special qualities. In your example, +5 for a Vorpal sword, giving a total of +10 enchantment bonus. +5 for the enhancement bonus and +5 for special qualities."
Ah, that was supposed to be in response to the dialogue about how much of a enhancement bonus you could use on the weapon, not in response to the storm giant/cmb discussion. Ooops.
Are there any good magus spells that give effects to weapons? My Bladebound magus in PFS likes to use Weapon Wand to enhance his black blade.
oh is the ability to add fire/flaming burst shock/shocking burst keen vorpal frost/frost bursting dancing speed (also ghost touch, brilliant energy and alignment abilities with the right arcanas) not enough for you? lol just saying
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Are there any good magus spells that give effects to weapons? My Bladebound magus in PFS likes to use Weapon Wand to enhance his black blade.oh is the ability to add fire/flaming burst shock/shocking burst keen vorpal frost/frost bursting dancing speed (also ghost touch, brilliant energy and alignment abilities with the right arcanas) not enough for you? lol just saying
Nope.
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Nope.Are there any good magus spells that give effects to weapons? My Bladebound magus in PFS likes to use Weapon Wand to enhance his black blade.oh is the ability to add fire/flaming burst shock/shocking burst keen vorpal frost/frost bursting dancing speed (also ghost touch, brilliant energy and alignment abilities with the right arcanas) not enough for you? lol just saying
Weapon Wand is not that great for a magus, maybe if you want to swing your sword arround and shoot scorching rays.
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I use it with True Strike, as I mentioned earlier in the thread. It is an awesome spell, you need to find the right spell.
Not really a huge fan of true strike, since it improves my first attack roll every round and my chance to hit is pretty good. Of course I would have to take wand wielder arcana to use it with spell strike.
It might be very worthwile for a tank build with power attack though.
Actually reading wand wielder it may could allow you to use non-magus spells from your wand together will spell combat. Not sure if this could work, but if it does .... wands with paladin and ranger spells .. and of course use magic device is a class skill ^^.
Weapon Wand is OK, but the duration sucks.
Straight magus and go hexcrafter. The get hexes which is the best thing witches get