@Michael Foster 989: I agree that toughness was overkill, but at the time I wanted to protect my party and since we are low level and doing the slow level up progression =/, I thought I needed as much HPs to survive the levels, but yeah sadly I shouldnt have taken it with my 18 con, but at least I can say I am tough! lol :D.
@Mathwei ap Niall: I must say looking at hexcrafter and the spell recall. I can see why its definitely helpful more so, for tanking purposes. The spell recall will hurt and definitely at higher levels, but definitely I can see my resources being used somewhere else. But how would I use hexcrafter if I went that way? I think evil eye is good and so is flight, but thats it. I think presentile hair isnt that great because for tripping it would use my INT bonus instead and my STR is like +4 compare to the +3. Also how can a familiar help me use wands and so forth, do they have the mind capacity to use the magic out of the wand and cast it on me?
Also frigid touch is a level 2 spell and it only does 4d6, do I use magical lineage on that spell so it won't boost up my spell level when I put the metamagic feat Rime on it?
Here is the build with hexcrafter in mind. Thanks for the input, I think I am getting there :D.
Feats are bold, magus arcana/hex are italics
3rd: Extra Arcana(arcane accuracy), evil eye
4th: presentile hair maybe not sure yet
5th: Rime spell
5th: Extra Arcana(Familiar)
6th: Flight
7th: spell penetration
9th: spell blending, open slotBlargh, I meant Frostbite not Frigid Touch (Frigid touch is my go to after 10th level). Magical Lineage (frostbite) allows you to use Rime spell metamagic on it and use it as a first level spell. That's an additional 1D6+level damage on your next level number attacks.
As for spell recall you still get it, it's just delayed till 11th level and THEN you get...
Ah i see Frostbite, sounds good, but sadly I want to get the intensify spell feat later so I can boost my damage with shocking grasp. Because I don't know how many damage dealers we got honestly. I think me and the summoner are the only optimizers.
I feel like rime frostbite is good for fatigue and entangle, but the entangle only lasts for 1 round =/. Also how does prenhensile hair work for tripping it can only hold objects, so the creature counts as an object? I feel like that hex wouldnt go so well with my character, with long hair I trip you! lol. I feel I should talk to my DM about that hex. However, I feel the evil eye and flight hex is awwwesome!
Also how do familiars use wands and scrolls? I know they can use my skill UMD which I have, but how do they physically hold the wands? I would get a raven but it has no thumbs to activate it right?
Also this might be a rule question but I know how spell combat works and spellstrike works. However, when you combine spell combat with spellstrike, can you two hand your sword when you start swinging after you imbued the spell on the blade?
Thanks for a lot of input guys, I am liking the hexcrafter idea.....I just kind of miss the damage potential lol.
|
Prehensile hair is a natural weapon that does 1D4 +int bonus damage (1.5x int bonus if it's the only attack you use that round). Any weapon can be used to make a combat maneuver so use the hair instead of your main hand weapon.
(To be honest I sometimes ONLY use my hair to attack with, 1D4+10 +1D6 +6 4x a round is a LOT of damage)
Rime spell causes them to be entangled for a number of rounds equal to how many times you hit them. Hit him 3 times he's entangled for 3 rounds.
Remember, Frostbite goes off on your level number of attacks.
Ravens have been proven to use sticks as tools in RL so yeah, However Monkeys have thumbs and at 5th level can speak (to you) so can freely use any wand/scroll/rod they want.
If you want to do LOTS of damage go dervish dancer and follow the build from the magus guidebook. If you want to try and TANK without getting splattered by every thing you run into then you need to change your focus.
|
I don't know about you, but if were my character both entangled and slowed by a mere touch, I'd seek to make sure it won't happen again. The double ailment combo is a dramatic way to draw the ire of enemies, at least by my reckoning.
It's also something that should not be done, indeed can't be done but only occasionally. Cold immunity is a nasty thing and you just don't have the resources to pull the shtick off all day. That's where your blade comes in, so hopefully you can do both.
It's terrific when it counts though. Trying to exit combat with a magus like the one Niall described is going to be painful and playing one is a surprisingly decent way to tank. If by tanking we do mean tying down the enemy and getting them to focus on you instead of the squishies.
I'd never take Power Attack as a magus unless they had 18-19 starting strength and/or Weapon Focus. It's great when you have the accuracy to carry it through, but a baseline 16-17 or even 14-15 starting hit stat magus desperately needs buffs to offset the PA malus and buffs are not something magi have a smorgasbord of. Indeed all the other self-buffing d8 fighters have it easier when it comes to buffs. So yeah, OP should probably pick it up, for the less optimized magi there are better options.
That said, with the godly stat distribution of the thread's character in play, he really doesn't have much to worry about.
@Michael Foster 989: I agree that toughness was overkill, but at the time I wanted to protect my party and since we are low level and doing the slow level up progression =/, I thought I needed as much HPs to survive the levels, but yeah sadly I shouldnt have taken it with my 18 con, but at least I can say I am tough! lol :D.
@Mathwei ap Niall: I must say looking at hexcrafter and the spell recall. I can see why its definitely helpful more so, for tanking purposes. The spell recall will hurt and definitely at higher levels, but definitely I can see my resources being used somewhere else. But how would I use hexcrafter if I went that way? I think evil eye is good and so is flight, but thats it. I think presentile hair isnt that great because for tripping it would use my INT bonus instead and my STR is like +4 compare to the +3. Also how can a familiar help me use wands and so forth, do they have the mind capacity to use the magic out of the wand and cast it on me?
Also frigid touch is a level 2 spell and it only does 4d6, do I use magical lineage on that spell so it won't boost up my spell level when I put the metamagic feat Rime on it?
Here is the build with hexcrafter in mind. Thanks for the input, I think I am getting there :D.
Feats are bold, magus arcana/hex are italics
3rd: Extra Arcana(arcane accuracy), evil eye
4th: presentile hair maybe not sure yet
5th: Rime spell
5th: Extra Arcana(Familiar)
6th: Flight
7th: spell penetration
9th: spell blending, open slotBlargh, I meant Frostbite not Frigid Touch (Frigid touch is my go to after 10th level). Magical Lineage (frostbite) allows you to use Rime spell metamagic on it and use it as a first level spell. That's an additional 1D6+level damage on your next level number attacks.
As for spell recall you still get it, it's just delayed till 11th level and THEN you get...
I was looking at the feat lay out you had but I don't think I can get two arcanas at level 5.....i get a general feat but my other has to be a combat, metamagic, or item creation feat. But that layout sounds good but I might need to rearrange it.
Prehensile hair is a natural weapon that does 1D4 +int bonus damage (1.5x int bonus if it's the only attack you use that round). Any weapon can be used to make a combat maneuver so use the hair instead of your main hand weapon.
(To be honest I sometimes ONLY use my hair to attack with, 1D4+10 +1D6 +6 4x a round is a LOT of damage)Rime spell causes them to be entangled for a number of rounds equal to how many times you hit them. Hit him 3 times he's entangled for 3 rounds.
Remember, Frostbite goes off on your level number of attacks.Ravens have been proven to use sticks as tools in RL so yeah, However Monkeys have thumbs and at 5th level can speak (to you) so can freely use any wand/scroll/rod they want.
If you want to do LOTS of damage go dervish dancer and follow the build from the magus guidebook. If you want to try and TANK without getting splattered by every thing you run into then you need to change your focus.
Again I can't go dervish dancer, if I could I would have. also how do you get 1d4+10 +1d6+6 from a hair attack??? how does that happen? I guess I could get a raven since they know how to speak a language.
Also i guess rime spell would be good for tanking for low levels, but how would high levels work for it? would it still be effective? wouldnt shocking grasp with intensified metamagic be more effective at being threatening?
|
|
Prehensile hair does 1D4+int bonus as base damage. If it's your only natural weapon and you only attack with it that round you do 1.5x int bonus in damage. I routinely have a 22 int (+7 bonus = +10 bonus damage when using the hair) by 6th level.
Frostbite does 1D6 + (1 per level) on top of that for a number of attacks equal to your level (at 6th level this spell affects your next 6 attacks).
Put this together and you do 1D4+10 from the hair alone and +1D6+6 from the frostbite.
It stays super relevant since frost immunity is surprisingly rare in the game and since you are constantly applying painful status effects that keep your targets from getting full attacks off on you (since your AC and HP's will never be high enough to absorb it)
As for shocking grasp, it CAN do a lot of damage but it's not a tanking move. It eats up resources FAST can only be used on your turn and if it doesn't kill the target right off it does NOTHING to stop it from whaling on your party members.
Tanking is not about doing damage, it's about keeping that target right here dealing with you and leaving everyone else alone.
Prehensile hair does 1D4+int bonus as base damage. If it's your only natural weapon and you only attack with it that round you do 1.5x int bonus in damage. I routinely have a 22 int (+7 bonus = +10 bonus damage when using the hair) by 6th level.
Frostbite does 1D6 + (1 per level) on top of that for a number of attacks equal to your level (at 6th level this spell affects your next 6 attacks).Put this together and you do 1D4+10 from the hair alone and +1D6+6 from the frostbite.
It stays super relevant since frost immunity is surprisingly rare in the game and since you are constantly applying painful status effects that keep your targets from getting full attacks off on you (since your AC and HP's will never be high enough to absorb it)As for shocking grasp, it CAN do a lot of damage but it's not a tanking move. It eats up resources FAST can only be used on your turn and if it doesn't kill the target right off it does NOTHING to stop it from whaling on your party members.
Tanking is not about doing damage, it's about keeping that target right here dealing with you and leaving everyone else alone.
Ah i see...... Well i hope i get Int that high one day lol. But yes you do make a good point about the hair with frostbite, i didnt really thought about it that way. I just wish i could go the shocking grasp path because i like the power :D, but it makes sense that if i want to stop my enemy i need to focus more on BFC and debuffing than pure damage sadly. Hmmm i feel like just going fighter to make things easier for me lmao. But hopefully my DM will reply on what he thinks
I could use some advice on a frontliner magus as well. Character is a homebrew race (from the advanced race playtest), so has +2 str, +2 con.
stats are (after adjustment for race and level)
str 20
dex 15
con 17
int 16
wis 14
cha 12
I was planning on making the character a bladebound kensai, who will share the role of frontliner fighter with our metal-oracle. I have some ideas of feats and such that I'd like to take, but I'm willing to listen to ideas.
The character will be starting play at 6th lvl, but because of the bladebound archetype, will only get have magus arcana at that level.
Character has chosen a katana as his weapon of choice.
Please... inspire me re: feats and the magus arcana.
Also, in all the examples above, how are these characters getting 10d6 with shocking grasp when the spell caps at 5d6?
I know a lot of this has been discussed already here, but this character has a bit more str and a bit less con than the other one discussed and I wanted to know if people had different ideas on how to build him.
I was thinking power and cleave and weapon specialization w/katana, and concentrating more on the combat than the magic because of the diminished spellcasting and smaller arcane pool.
But I'm willing to listen to other suggestions for sure.
|
|
I know a lot of this has been discussed already here, but this character has a bit more str and a bit less con than the other one discussed and I wanted to know if people had different ideas on how to build him.
I was thinking power and cleave and weapon specialization w/katana, and concentrating more on the combat than the magic because of the diminished spellcasting and smaller arcane pool.
But I'm willing to listen to other suggestions for sure.
Without more information on what you really want to do with the toon all I can do is repeat what I said before.
Magi are CASTERS who fight not fighters who CAST.
Build that way.
You lack the Bab, HP's and armor to try to build like a frontline character.
Think of yourself as a rogue-y caster and focus on that mindset, get in and hit really hard then get out of the way.
edit: Also, make sure you're playing a hexcrafter. Any other choice will make you pll your hair out on using your resources.
hmmm.... more to think about.
I was actually thinking of the character as more of a fighter who casts, rather than a caster who fights, which is I think the way you have to think to play a kensai with their diminished casting and all.
Thinking like a rogue-y caster isn't a bad idea... but I guess to do that, I need to think about a lot more defense for the character.
Currently with haramaki +1 and rop 1, has a 19 ac... any suggestions for improving this? i can't afford much more in the way of magic items with my starting WBL at 6th.
I know he lacks good bab, but he does have +14 to hit with his chosen weapon, so without the bab, he's still got good chances to hit, if i roll even half decent.
My biggest problem is thinking in terms of really only being good for one or at most two combats a day... which isn't usually a problem in our group, but it could be from time to time.
|
|
Buy a wand of Shield and that should comfortably put you at 23 AC.
For a Kensai who's more fighter than anything else I'd recommend wand wielder arcana and the Weaponwand spell.
This will make up for your diminished spellcasting, keep your AC up and let you do some interesting tricks.
Spend your money wisely and you will always be hitting your opponent with nasty spell effects or thumping them hard with your sword.
oooh, I didn't see that spell on the magus spell list I have. Thanks, those are great ideas! I will have to do a little investing in some wands asap. I think I can afford the wand of shield now, but that will tap me out of my WBL.
Of course these things require some preparation before combat ensues, which doesn't always happen. Still, I will consider them.
I am kind of torn now between wand wielder and enduring blade for my 6th lvl arcana. I like that wand wielder doesn't cost ap, which I don't have a lot of. But enduring blade is usable on the fly - no prep time required before combat begins.
I have to consider this carefully because with not getting another magus arcana til 12th lvl, I'm kinda stuck with one choice. It has to be the right one.
I had the game session last weekend and ask my DM about if it was cool if I could change feats or traits. He said yes but said I have to do it by retraining =/. So I'm going to try to retrain to get magical lineage so i can put it on frostbite or shocking grasp. Also maybe I might swap toughness for another feat because I have 18 con. As of now I have been talking to the group and I guess we are deciding how to share the frontline position. So I'm not sure if I should go rime spell(frostbite) or go for the damage route intensify spell(shocking grasp).
Definitely I will be going hexcrafter.
If I go for the BFC and debuffing route:
Retrain toughness->rime spell
Retrain reactionary->magical lineage
3rd magus arcana(arcane accuracy), Extra arcana(familiar)
4th hex(prehensile hair)
5th Extra acrana->hex(evil eye), bonus magus feat(combat reflexes)
6th magus arcana->hex(flight)
7th open feat (maybe lunge)
9th magus arcana(spell blending), spell penetration(maybe something?)
If I went the shocking grasp route, I would stay with toughness and maybe get extra arcane pool or power attack and get evil eye and flight only for my hexes.