Overcome Circumstances?

[Rustycan]

The "Overcome Circumstances" Magus Arcana says.....

The magus can
expend 1 or more point from her arcane pool as a free
action to shrug off detrimental effects. She can
immediately attempt a second saving throw to shrug off
one unwanted condition. Even if she fails this save she
ignores one debilitating conditions per point expended
that she is currently under the effect of for 1 round per
magus class level, that time counts as part of each
condition’s duration. Once this benefit lapses, the
remaining conditions return for the remainder of their
durations.

So what is considered a "detrimental effect"?? SO if a magus gets targeted by a hold person spell, and he fails the save, he then spends a point from his arcana pool to get a reroll, and fails the reroll, does he get to ignore the "hold" effect for 1 round per level, then the "hold" takes effect again?

Seems pretty good to me, you can ignore some effects for a short period of time to get thru combat, etc then you get hit with them all (if they still last long enought to continue)

[thepuregamer]

well if using overcome circumstances is a purely mental action(and it appears to be to me), then it seems like you can activate it while subject to hold person. and hold person basically makes you paralyzed so, I would say that overcome circumstances would definitely let you ignore the effect for a number of rounds.

[Some call me Tim]

Rustycan wrote:

So what is considered a "detrimental effect"??

I would say any effect that imposes a penalty or restriction on the magus is a "detrimental effect."

Does seem exceptional good, where is this from? I can't seem to find it in the rules.

[thepuregamer]

tim makes a valid point, where is this magus ability from? I cannot find it in ultimate magic or on the d20pfsrd.

[Rustycan]

thepuregamer wrote:

tim makes a valid point, where is this magus ability from? I cannot find it in ultimate magic or on the d20pfsrd.

From the "Secrets of the Magus" PDF here on this site, downloaded it a few weeks ago. It came out just after Ultimate Magic book.

Secrets of the Magus

[Lurk3r]

Gravity is a detrimental effect. Shrug it off so you can fly.

I think they meant detrimental conditions (poison, webs, faerie fire).

[Some call me Tim]

Rustycan wrote:

From the "Secrets of the Magus" PDF here on this site, downloaded it a few weeks ago. It came out just after Ultimate Magic book.

Secrets of the Magus

Then the proper place for this is over in the 3PP section.

As I see it this, as written, is vague and probably overpowered. This is why I'm always suspicious of 3PP stuff. They tend to be poorly written and/or play-tested. Just my opinion in general, although I've seen some great 3PP stuff over the years. *hands you a grain of salt*

If you don't want to ban it outright and I assume you don't because you're here asking about it. You could change it to apply only to circumstance penalties as it is called "Overcome Circumstances." This would make it fairly weak unless the GM tended to include a lot of circumstance penalties in regular game play.

It also talks about 'conditions' which could be referring to in-game conditions listed in appendix 2 (e.g. , dazed, staggered, nauseated). The only problem with that is technically dead and dying are mere conditions. I would suggest maybe create a specific list of conditions are can be ignored.

I still think the second saving throw AND ability to ignore the condition is overpowered. I would only allow one or the other.

The duration seems excessively long

Here's my re-write of this ability:
Overcome Circumstances
The magus may expend one or more point from her arcane pool as an immediate action to shrug off certain conditions. She may expend one point from her arcane pool to ignore one of the following conditions: bleed, blinded, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, deafened, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified, shakened, sickened, staggered, or stunned. She ignores the effects of that condition for one round, this time does count as part of that condition’s duration. She may continue to ignore that condition in following rounds by expending one additional point from her arcane pool for each condition ignored. Once this ability expires, the condition takes effect and continues for the remainder of its normal duration. If the condition ends while being ignored the magus suffers no effect.

I changed it to an immediate action so that you may take it even when it is not your turn. Added specific conditions that it applies to. Decreased the the long duration. Caveat: I haven't play-tested this or tried to abuse it, so it's as likely to as broken as it was before except now it much less vague.

[DM Mike]

I have allowed this in our game and found it was to overpowered. I tried "Tim's" version but found it hindered it too much, we had 2 magus players and each opted immedaitely to change and pointed out to me the reasons why. Changing it to an immediate action makes
the feat uselss, as by the rules it will only stop the problem for that player until the end of their turn and then it will take effect. It also deprives the player of using many of the class abilities for this class. I agree that the duration is much too long and that it should be taken down to only 1 round. here is how we have been trying ti recently in my group.
First lowered it to only one full round per point spent for ingnoring the circumstance in questions
Second allow it to stay a free action but only allowed it to be used twice per yurn only any one condition, multiple conditions could be used twice each per condition.
Third lowered the number of conditions it applied to, since this is a mental feat in essence it I only aplied it to things inside the body to overcome or outside effects not directly from another PC or NPC. So grapple, trip, disarm and such would not apply but to spells and poisons and such it would.
Fourth allowed one reroll against the condition imposed for each point spent so as not to have to just keep spending points. This helps me the GM and the player from having to do needless and countless arithmetic. If the PC can save against it immediatley the it solves the upkeep problem for everyone. I feel the reroll is important for not only game mechanics but also just for making things go faster in the game.
I recomend GM and player getting together and discussing the condition to allow this feat to aply to so everyone has a voice in the discussion.
This has seemed to help alot and made my players happy also. It also works for me because I make them use more resources which is what shoud be happening for each condition problem they receive.
I would recommed trying it this way and I think it will help. I will update this further after some more "testing" in our game.