Would such a character work well? He should be able to achieve a good AC at higher levels as well as a good offense. Without Improved Spell Recall, Shocking Grasp is less fun but Arcane Mark plus Blighted Critical should work well.
Sure he would, but levels one and two are gonna Suuu-uck.
The first level feat could be a tough choice, due to how few prereqs you meet, the squishiness is a serious issue, esp. for a melee'r, the (presumably) dumped strength is no fun 'til you get Dervish Dance...before you get dervish dance, your (probably scimitar) black blade doesn't gain finesse benefits (dex to atk)
You could, like, *get by,* but the party (and player of said Magus) should understand that you'll be standing around firing a longbow until level 3... or, like...later than that. Because
H- Improved init (or something)
1- W. Finesse
3- W. Focus (Scimitar)
5- Dervish Dance.
Yeah, that part's gonna be dumb. But at least you can get super-high INT and DEX, as well as decent CON. You also get to be pretty darn good later. Just...not good, or probably even fun, at first.
Just a wee bit of a thing about the feats.
Dervish Dance has the following requirements: Dex 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (Dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.
Also, as far as I can tell from the various info in various threads about the Kensai, he is proficient with one martial or exotic weapon at 1st level, as well as gaining Weapon Focus with that weapon, also at 1st level. That weapon will obviously be the scimitar.
So, it would be something like:
1st - Weapon Finesse
Human 1st - Improved Initiative or Dodge or Toughness or Combat Casting or whatever (one could probably partially substitute Improved Initiative and/or Combat Casting by choosing the Reactionary and/or Focused Mind traits)
Kensai 1st - Martial Weapon Proficiency (Scimitar)
Kensai 1st - Weapon Focus (Scimitar)
3rd - Dervish Dance
Could be wrong, of course, as I do not have the book yet. The above is from what I have gleaned from the various threads providing info about Ultimate Combat.
You could use a finessable weapon until level 3 to offset the probable low str.
I don't have the rules handy but your black blade doesn't kick in until lvl 3, before then, it's just a mundane sword.
I have a player who's going to play a bladebound magus and he's going to find his black blade right before he hits level 3.
He doesn't know it yet, but it'll open up for some nice roleplaying and a way for me to hint about it's special purpose.
A kensai bladebound dervish dancer would have no more problem surving at first level any more than any dervish dance magus would have at first level, and that's because kensai gets his INT to his AC and a regular magus would have a studded leather at first level. So +3 for both of them.
The Kensai gets the Canny Defense ability that the Duelist PrC class gets. If the abilities are identical, then it would mean that the Kensai adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus per Kensai class level to his Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class, just like the Duelist does. That would mean that at 1st level the Kensai gets to add only +1 to AC from Intelligence.
Starting at 5th level? I'd say go for it. Solves the only issues I see.
And a Kensai Dervish Magus WOULD have a harder time surviving the first levels than a regular Dervish Magus, because no chain shirt for you.
Didn't know that Kensai got auto-W. Focus, though. Neat!
So, anyway, assuming 20pt buy, I'd say (not knowing things in UC that might change the game up) a 5th level build could be...
STR 9
DEX 16 (18)
CON 14 (12)
INT 16 (18) +1@ lv. 4 (19)
WIS 10
CHA 7
This makes you a little bit of a Glass cannon before the AC starts creeping up, so...
((H)-Toughness)
1-Finesse
KProf-Scimitar
KFocus-Scimitar
3-D. Dance
5-Toughness (H)- Improved Init))
It's a little bit weird, and not optimized for DPR, but it should be pretty good all-around.
Is tiefling allowed? It's a better choice for the race...
The Kensai gets the Canny Defense ability that the Duelist PrC class gets. If the abilities are identical, then it would mean that the Kensai adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus per Kensai class level to his Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class, just like the Duelist does. That would mean that at 1st level the Kensai gets to add only +1 to AC from Intelligence.
Can someone who has this book comment on this?
Are the abilities similar or identical?
Identical. You definitely need Mage Armor early on.The Kensai gets the Canny Defense ability that the Duelist PrC class gets. If the abilities are identical, then it would mean that the Kensai adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus per Kensai class level to his Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class, just like the Duelist does. That would mean that at 1st level the Kensai gets to add only +1 to AC from Intelligence.Can someone who has this book comment on this?
Are the abilities similar or identical?
Ok then the kensai do have a problem at the first levels.
Oh and since mage armor isn't on the list of magus spells then that means that someone must cast it on him.
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Ok then the kensai do have a problem at the first levels.
Oh and since mage armor isn't on the list of magus spells then that means that someone must cast it on him.
You could also just wear some armor for the first level or two until you would get more out of your int modifier than the armor. I'm pretty sure you don't lose anything for wearing armor.
You could also just wear some armor for the first level or two until you would get more out of your int modifier than the armor. I'm pretty sure you don't lose anything for wearing armor.
Ok then the kensai do have a problem at the first levels.
Oh and since mage armor isn't on the list of magus spells then that means that someone must cast it on him.
Arcane spell failure and non-prof. penalties.
That means leather armor at 1st level (no acp) and eat the 10% arcane spell failure and at 2nd level mwk studded leather (still no acp) and eat the 15% arcane spell failure, at 3rd level i think that you are getting enough at of your INT and spells, also you probably have enough money for a wand of mage armor.
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You could always forget about using Dervish dance and use Piranha Strike instead.
But Power Attack and Dervish Dance work just as well. You just, you know, need three feats and 2 ranks in Perform(Dance)
You could always forget about using Dervish dance and use Piranha Strike instead.
That's not as good as Dervish Dance for a Dex based character. And it doesn't stack with it.
You could always forget about using Dervish dance and use Piranha Strike instead.
But Power Attack and Dervish Dance work just as well. You just, you know, need three feats and 2 ranks in Perform(Dance)
Although Piranha Strike is a good alternative for many builds, it doesn't produce the same damage. Yes you need 3 feats but this isn't the problem, the only problem with the dervish dancer build is that you still need STR 13 (in order to take power attack).