Hello, all. I’ve been working on a magus version of monk vows, and would appreciate an unbiased opinion. The restriction is to a specific school of magic, as though the magus had a wizard’s specialized school (or, closer, the thassilonian wizard’s prohibited school). I did not remove a magus class ability as a monk with vows loses the still mind class feature.
I counted the amount of magus spells, per school, from all books, and tallied them up. Based on the amount of spells a magus would no longer be able to access by picking one of those schools as taboo, I increased the amount of points to their arcane pool. I don't know how to make a nifty table on here, so I will list my number haphazardly below:
School: 0th/1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th - total - percentage
Abjuration: 0/4/0/2/3/0/1 - 10 - 5%
Conjuration: 1/7/9/4/5/6/3 - 35 - 17%
Divination: 2/1/1/2/0/0/1 - 7 - 3%
Enchantment: 1/1/2/0/0/0/0 - 4 - 2%
Evocation: 5/6/11/9/12/4/5 - 52 - 26%
Illusion: 1/4/4/2/2/1/1 - 15 - 7%
Necromancy: 1/1/1/2/0/0/0 - 5 - 2%
Transmutation: 2/15/13/15/7/10/12 - 74 - 37%
Based on this nonsense, I humbly developed the following rules for your review:
Magus Taboos
A magus can eschew knowledge of spellcasting in order to expand their arcane pool. By selecting a school of magic as taboo, the magus’ arcane pool is increased by the amount listed in the taboo school’s description.
A taboo magus can never prepare a spell that is in a taboo school—he treats these spells as if they were not on the magus spell list. A magus must attempt to save against spells and spell effects from his taboo school, even if those effects are harmless or beneficial. A taboo magus that makes a successful save against a spell takes reduced or secondary effects as normal. If using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from a taboo school, he must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so.
As an immediate action, when targeted by a spell from one of their taboo schools, a magus can expend 1 point from their arcane pool to gain a bonus on that save equal to their Intelligence modifier (based on other magus arcana, this seemed too weak to make into its own arcana, so I made it a base ability).
A magus may have multiple taboos. Their effects and increase to their arcane pool stack.
Abjuration Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0).
Conjuration Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 3 magus levels (minimum +0).
Divination Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 7 magus levels (minimum +0).
Enchantment Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 8 magus levels (minimum +0).
Evocation Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 2 magus levels (minimum +0).
Illusion Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0).
Necromancy Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 point for every 8 magus levels (minimum +0).
Transmutation Taboo: A magus with this taboo increases his arcane pool by 1 arcane point for every magus level he possesses.
The taboos that give points every 8 levels were originally every 11 levels, but i figured no one would take them. Anyway. I would appreciate your thoughts, even if they are mean or stupid.
Thanks
I had similar fears, but didn't know which bugs to work out or how. Take 2 is more closely modeled on the thassilonian schools of magic, like the wizard specialization. I changed it to only being able to pick one "thassilonian focus school", and like the wizard specializations, your prohibited schools are chosen for you.
So, here's take 2:
Thassilonian Magus
A thassilonian magus can eschew knowledge of spellcasting in order to expand their arcane pool. By focusing their mind on one of the archetypal thassilonian “schools” of magic and shedding knowledge of its prohibited schools, the magus’ arcane pool is increased by the amount listed in the focus school’s description.
A thassilonian magus can never prepare a spell that is in a prohibited school—he treats these spells as if they were not on the magus spell list. If using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from a prohibited school, he must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so.
As an immediate action, when targeted by a spell from one of their taboo schools, a magus can expend 1 point from their arcane pool to gain a bonus on that save equal to their Intelligence modifier.
A magus may only have one school focus.
Envy Focus: An envy magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 4 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are evocation and necromancy.
Gluttony Focus: A gluttony magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 7 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are abjuration and enchantment.
Greed Focus: A greed magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 6 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are enchantment and illusion.
Lust Focus: A lust magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 2 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are necromancy and transmutation.
Pride Focus: A pride magus increases their arcane pool by 1 arcane point for every magus level he possesses. Their prohibited schools are conjuration and transmutation.
Sloth Focus: A sloth magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 3 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are evocation and illusion.
Wrath Focus: A wrath magus increases their arcane pool by 1 point for every 5 magus levels (minimum +0). Their prohibited schools are abjuration and conjuration.
[/end of all that]
Does that seem any better mechanically, while keeping with the theme of monk vows for magi?
Thanks
I like the idea of a sin-magic themed Magus. I could see this less as vows, and more of building into a Runelord-inspired Magus archetype. Even if it just modifies what is right here and nothing more.