I made this character for a strictly RP fun aspect of a story I had in my head and went with it so it isn't really optimized. I am actually pretty weak at lower lvls Str 9 (-1) using a scimitar with weapon finess I cant get benefit from until level 3. My build is geared towards Kensai BladeBound and Dancing Dervish so I wont really be powerful in Melee until lvl 3+. Hopefully as I get higher I will be more of what I am invisioning. However, after our first gaming session I realized that I kind of enjoyed using my spells as a crowd control and my melee damage was really weak. (I know I get spellstrike at 2)
The main area of concern with my character is the opportunity I will have in melee. Our party make up is 3 PCs and the GM tossed us a Cleric since we lost a player late in game prep and he wanted us to have a full group. We have a Half Orc Melee Inquisitor, An elf Druid ranged with an animal companion, the human cleric melee, and my Magus gnome which can be either melee or caster.
With a fight where the inquisitor has to get in the face of BBEG and then the cleric has to do the same and then the animal companion also... with my 20 ft. speed and the fact that I will likely cast a spell or two before rushing into melee I might be getting boxed out before I whip out my scimitar. This might help me since I have low AC and I dont want to get to physical for a bit, but later on I just think I will want to have the option. (I have never played a full caster so I wanted to start slow its a hard habit to break not being melee)
Our GM wants us to stick with these toons all the way through AP so unless I die I am kinda stuck with it. However, seeing as how it plays I think I would enjoy a caster class and can look to try a full caster in the future.
Are there spells you would recomend trying to get from Wizard/Sorcerer list that I dont have access to? I have a few Magus Arcana that I can use Broad Study on to pick up a few spells later on.
Also I know everyone seems to love Color Spray, but with the 15ft. cone range does it ever feel like you just cant get enough of the enemies in it to be useful? I know I didnt want to drop my only 1st LVL spell to stun 1 target... I just used daze. I know Color Spray does more than just stun for 1 round, but I never saw an opportunity to hit more than 1 NPC so I kept holding back on it. Am I just being to spell cautious? Should I just let it go and enjoy the fact that I can take 1 low level NPC out of combat for 3-4 rounds? Does the spell get better at higher levels cause the range seems to really hamper a caster that usually prefers to stay back due to lower AC not the magus just others that have it. My magus should have pretty decent AC.
I have a high INT so I get the bonus to Spells per day that I lose. I know that doesn't help me greatly, but enough to where I don't feel like it is that big of a loss. Also the spell that I will use mostly for spell strike is Shocking Grasp which is a LVL 1. So I would have most of my other spells free besides some Meta variants. I guess not being high enough lvl to see what all the restrictions will be and saves on the CC stuff. I can see how it will be hard to focus on CC. However, I dont want to ONLY do CC just wanted to know if I played a support role where I CC'd before I joined into the Melee would be a viable option. As a Gnome I only get a 1d4 with my scimitar once I get to LvL 3 I can get my 1d4 +3 for Dex with Dancing Dervish, but as of right now Im hitting with that 1d4 -1 cause of low strength. Besides most of my Melee damage is burst with spellstrike so I'd likely only use that now and again on what looks to be boss fights.
If I did drop the Kensai it would help me to be more of a caster. I will look it over and might ask the GM about dropping the Kensai archetype. My backstory isnt dependent on it where as if I dropped the Bladebound that I am planning on taking at lvl 3 the GM might not allow that. I also might stick with it for another session just to see how it plays out further down the line. We haven't had a ton of combat just yet. I did stay back because of my limited DMG which won't be as bad when I get a few lvls higher.
I keep track of how I do in combat cause I like to make sure I am doing my fair share of contribution to the party. So far I have made 3 unarmed melee attacks (kicks to the shin) hitting on 2 for 2 total damage. Cast 3 Daze spells all which landed and stunned target for 1 round. Then cast 2 disrupt undead spells only landing 1 for 5 damage.
Final stats:
Melee: 2/3 for 2 DMG
Spells: 4/5 for 5 damage and 3 stuns
At low lvl this is how I expected it to go. If I look to be playing the class wrong let me know what you think would be more effective.
There may be a for more appropriate character for you, as Magus can do quite a bit of control... But I wouldn't say enough to be a viable controller compared to a wizard/sorcerer, especially as a Kensai (and a gnome, with no bonuses to Dex or Int).
Magic Missle + Topple Spell, Obscuring Mist, Grease, Frostbite + Rime, there are lots of good things you can do as a Magus but only if you pick the right traits and feats.
If you wanted somebody who can be a controller and backup melee character, maybe consider a Dragon Disciple instead?
Im not trying to optimize this guy, if I was I wouldn't have gone with a Gnome. I came up with a backstory and Gnome seemed like a good way to go with it. I had never played a caster and didn't know how going from only melee to only spells would suit me so I made a small step in that direction. I feel comfy with it and will likely feel free to jump up to a bigger caster later. I agree the Kensai isn't a good mix as it is more of a melee character, but that was what I picked out.
I also agree that a Wizard or Sorcerer would be a better class to be a main controller type, but my GM isn't going to let me reroll just cause I didn't like how the game session went and I don't really want to do that. I will play this guy out and tweak how I play him to get the most out of what I have designed him for. I think I can do a little bit of CC here and there mix in some occassional burst melee damage and RP the hell out of it and it will be fine. I don't need to be the greatest magus of all tyme. I just need to be solid enough to help my party stay alive have fun and get the AP finished.
I actually looked at Dragon Disciple when I was picking my class and had I known a little more about how I would feel playing a CC role I prolly would have looked more into it. I read Treantmonks guide to Wizards and thought man who wants to play a CC and not do damage just sit back and let everyone have all the fun and do all the damage... now I have played 1 session with really only one fight where I CC'd it and I actually went about 6 combat rounds and only did 7 damage and had a blast with how the class played. So in the future I won't be so quik to rule those classes out. They might not get the glory and recognition when it comes to reminising about that one tyme where the barbarian Raged Power attacked Critted with 2 attacks and 1 shotted that baby dragon at lvl 8 or whatever... but you can be in the back saying I member that I stunned him then buffed you to get you that +2 to hit and doubled your critical range and the DM was so pissed cause we one shotted his boss before he even got to attack us. I have always been that Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue... this is just a new role I will have to take in analyze and master. I like the ideas of this type of challenge.
If you want to do control as a magus without needing too much optimization, look into Frostbite/Rime Spell (feat)/Enforcer(feat). Makes your enemies fatigued, entangled, and shaken (respectively) all in one attack. You can take Rime and Enforcer at 5 which is truthfully a bit away, but Frostbite is GREAT for your spells/day (as you can spellstrike with it for rounds on end).
Honestly I have never even considered Frostbite cause it was nonleathal. I mean if I am going to attack someone I want to do damage. It was my old mindset of my melee life. I mean who wants to hit and do no damage? Now playing a CC I can hit and do no damage and be happy. After looking at Frostbite with the Rime Spell it has the potential to be some great CC. To bad it doesnt work with Ray of Frost then I could do 1d3 damage and snare from 30ft away with no save. I guess that would be a lil OP... but then we got magic missile.
Magic Missile with toppling. I kept looking past it cause the top end damage wasn't much, but throw in the fact that every tyme I cast it I would hit and knock the target prone... well that is just fantastic. Then it can grow to up to 5 missiles. So the fight starts I cast slow on enemies. Then cast magic missile and knock 3 prone. They will be crippled before they get to do anything. I like the way this is looking in my head.
I had been preparing to use shocking grasp as my main SpellStrike, but after looking into a few of the other Meta Feats I can see that I can do oh so much more. The only bad thing is that I have made my two traits Inspired by greatness and magical lineage both SG. I'm sure I can talk to my GM since we arent that far in and possibly change this up, but since SG would still be my damage spell for SpellStrike I might keep it and see how else I can tweak this guy.
I just saw Force Punch and thorw in topple and now picture my 3'2" 37 LBs. Gnome walking up to BBEG and using a touch to throw them 20-30ft. and knock them on their ass. That is a great picture.
Nonlethal isn't much different than lethal in the grand scheme of things; the creature still drops at the end. Might need someone to slit some throats, but it also could help ensure the inquisitor can do some inquisiting. Only problem is that nonlethal doesn't work on every monster type (undead comes to mind, as do constructs), so you might find it less useful in Carrion Crown's first book.
Last night while looking at things with my DM I came across Frigid Touch which would do 4d6 of lethal damage staggers the target for 1 Round and if it is a Critical he is staggered for 1 min. Throw in Rime Spell and the target would be Entangled for 2 rounds. Also having a scimitar keen'd and a 30% (15-20) chance to crit... it has great potential decent damage with more CC/debuff ability. I also like staggered more than fatigued. I did read that if you get half of the HP in nonlethal damage the target is staggered, but with only 1d6 nonlethal it might take a while.
I was leaning towards Shocking Grasp as a go to spell strike, that only has 5d6 and no CC ability. Since I took Inspired by Greatness and Magical Lineage both with SG I will keep that as my big burst damage on "Boss Fights" coupled with an Intensified Meta feat makes it a pretty powerful 10d6 Lvl 1 spellslot. I would then have a few other spells in the bag for CC with touch attacks and battlefield control.
Has anyone ever had problems with a toppling spells high game effectiveness and the CMD or targets? Again looking things over with my DM on potential usefulness of projected feats... a CL 10 with a +4-6 modifier is 14-16... on a CR10 monster with a CMD of around 30... how often would a trip attack be successful? I guess it depends on the type of mob and so on, but has anyone had any experiences with this?
If you really want to focus on all this CC, especially if you plan on taking both Rime and Topple to NOT take dervish dancer. In the long run your extra CC feat will go a lot further than 4 damage/melee attack.
I dont want to focus ONLY on CC, but I am going to take a few more CC spells than I had initially planned to take. I doubt I will take both Topple and Rime, but if I have the Feat room and think it would be beneficial I could. I had mapped out my feats with alot of Melee feats that I probably wont be taking now. I see more ways to get what I want and that gives me more options in the feat area.
As for the Dervish Dancer I thought about dropping it, but I kinda have to take it with how I built my character. If I dont take it I dont just lose 4 damage per attack I also lose the +4 to hit(+5 with Weapon Focus) and with my -1 Str bonus atm it would be to hard to ditch. Also I can't change weapons cause of the Blade Bound Archetype. I realize I really limited myself by going with 2 seperate archetypes, but my initial idea was more melee based. Now I am having to do alot of recalculating and so on to pick up possible spell feats and lose some of my melee ideas. I think this character will be a lot less powerful than it could have been, but I also think in the long run I will enjoy it for being so complicated to play and rewarding. I wish I had known a little more before I started playing cause I could have done alot more with the build, but now I am kinda funneled into this build and will just have to make it work.
I may ask the GM about switching to my actual favorite weapon of the Kukri and look into the +1 Agile Mod to get the attack bonus and not lose the DMG. This would free up a feat, but I would still lose the damage until about lvl 5 when I could Arcane Pool the ability on the weapon. I don't know how crafting magic onto a bladebound's weapon would work. I might have to discuss that with him. I have a few small options to save a feat.
Thanks for all the feedback BTW.