I'm planning to play a Magus in my next campaign (after finishing the one I am GMing now), and was very excited about it. But then, after crunching some numbers and building several different magi I realized something: ZOMG DERVISH DANCE ROFLMAO PWN!!!
Basically, there is ONE best build and basically every magus looks the exact same, unless intentionally avoiding the cliche or just being bad at optimizing (or going with something totally different like the Staff Magus). And the Strength-based armored magus has no love at all. This made me very sad (especially considering the short time where I thought I was being clever in my optimization).
Fortunately, the guy who will GM our next campaign is pretty open to customization. So that got me started on making up my own Magus archetypes. I ended up making 3. Mage Knight is an archetype for wearing armor and casting spells. Spell-Sword focuses on the Magus ability to enhance his weapon. Magi Meister is an odd one I thought up in the process-a Magus who focuses on non-touch spells.
Anyway, I would really like to get some feedback on what people think of these three archetypes and how balanced they look.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A mage knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. A mage knight is also proficient with light and medium armor. He can cast magus spells while wearing light or medium armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a mage knight wearing heavy armor or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass mage knight still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.Spellstrike
At 2nd level, a mage knight gains the spellstrike ability as normal. However, when a mage knight delivers a spell through his weapon, the spell only threatens a critical on a natural 20 (as normal), rather than using the weapon's threat range. This means that the weapon delivering the spell may score a critical hit, while the spell itself does not.
This modifies the spellstrike ability.Mage Armor
At 8th level a mage knight adds Mage Armor to his spellbook as a 1st level magus spell. When a mage knight casts mage armor on himself the AC bonus it grants uniquely stacks with the armor bonus granted by the mage knight's armor (much like stacking dodge bonuses). This only works for the mage knight himself. Cast on anyone else the spell has its normal effect. If the mage knight loses or removes his armor, the spell immediately ends.
This ability replaces the bonus feat gained at 5th levelArmor Training
At 7th level, a mage knight gains armor training, as the fighter ability. At 14th level, he gains armor training 2.
This ability replaces knowledge pool and greater spell combat.Heavy Armor
At 7th level, a mage knight gains proficiency with heavy armor. A mage knight can cast magus spells while wearing heavy armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a mage knight using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component.
This replaces the normal medium armor and heavy armor abilities.Greater Spell Shield
At 8th level, whenever a mage knight wearing medium or heavy armor uses spell shield, he may spend 1 extra point from his arcane pool to cause the AC bonus from spell shield to last for a number of rounds equal to his Intelligence modifier rather than until the end of his next turn. If the mage knight removes or loses his armor the effect immediately ends.
This ability replaces the improved spell combat class featureFighter Training
Starting at 10th level, a mage knight counts his magus level –3 as his fighter level for the purpose of qualifying for feats (if he has levels in fighter, these levels stack).
This ability changes the fighter training class featureTrue Knight
At 20th level, a mage knight gains DR 5/magic while wearing medium or heavy armor. As a free action, he can spend points from his arcane pool to improve this damage reduction. For 1 point, the DR can be changed to one of the alignments (chaos, evil, good, or law). This must correspond with his alignment. For 2 points he can change the DR to adamantine. For 1 point he can increase the DR to 10/magic. A mage knight may both increase the DR and change its type by paying the cost for both. These modifications last for one minute.
This ability replaces true magusMy Notes
Mage Knight is mostly about making an armor-wearing Magus competitive without taking away his spell-casting. The changes to Spellstrike are the main drawback. Spells go from criting on a 15-20 back to a 20. My thought is that this nerf offsets the improved armor proficiencies and any of the traded out abilities that might be a bit more powerful than the regular Magus ones (also, no more ZOMG SCIMITAR PLZ!!11!1one1!). RAW the Dex-based Magus has just so much of an advantage over the armored one (especially with Dervish Dance). Mage knight also looses the bonuses to concentration (for defensive casting), but mostly gains AC boosts in it's place. And frankly, I strongly believe armored characters should have higher Armor Class than dex ones.
Diminished Spellcasting
A spell-sword may cast one fewer spell of each level than normal. If this reduces the number to 0, he may cast spells of that level only if his Intelligence allows bonus spells of that level.Arcane Enchanter
At 3rd level, when a spell-sword uses his arcane pool to enhance his weapon and uses other magus arcana to improve this ability (such as enduring blade or devoted blade) he spends one less point from his arcane pool in total than normal (minimum 1). If he spends more than 5 points in total, then he reduces the total by 2 instead.Arcane Blade
At 6th level, a spell-sword may ignore level prerequisites for magus arcanae that improve his ability to use his arcane pool to enhance his weapon. This includes arcana that give increased enchantment options or improves the enchantment itself, such as enduring blade or bane blade.Epic Arcana
At 16th level, when a spell-sword uses his arcane pool to enhance his weapon, he may spend 2 additional points from his arcane pool to bypass the normal restrictions on enchantment bonuses and modified bonus limits. This allows him to use his arcane pool to give his weapon an enchantment bonus higher than +5 and a modified bonus higher than +10. This does not allow a spell-sword to create or modify a weapon so that it has a permanent bonus exceeding the normal limits, and does not stack with bonuses granted from any other source (such as spells). This bypass only applies to enchantment bonuses and special properties applied using his arcane pool. Treat this ability as a magus arcana for the purpose of the arcane enchanter ability
This ability replaces CounterstrikeMy Notes
The whole spending arcane points to enchant your weapon is what drew me to the magus in the first place. Being confined to the whole +5/+10 enchantment maxes is silly. That's the whole purpose! To add enchantment on to what your weapon already has! How does it makes sense that a Magus can't effectively use a weapon with an enchantment of greater than +5 total? Also, the prereqs for Bane Blade and Devoted Blade are so high it's kind of ridiculous. Why wait so long just to get options you still have to spend your bonuses on (though I know Bane is an exception)? IMO diminishing spells makes up for the extra abilities here pretty easy.
Battle Caster
At second level, a magi meister becomes skilled at hurling spells at one opponent while engaging another in close combat. When a magi meister succeeds in casting defensively (while being threatened) he gains a bonus on the spell he casts, so long as it targets, or includes in it's area of effect, at least one hostile creature not threatening him. The spell may also include any creatures threatening him, but it must include at least one that is not. That creature must be hostile and capable of threatening him (not helpless) but simply not be within range.
The magi meister chooses one of the following bonuses to add to the spell: +1 to the DC to resist the spell, +1 on checks to overcome spell resistance, or +1 damage per level of the spell (the spell must deal damage normally).
At sixth level, and every four levels after that, the bonus increases by +1, up to a maximum of +5 at 18th level.
This ability replaces spellstrikeDeadly Caster
At 9th level, when a magi meister uses spell combat and makes his attack before casting a spell, if he reduces an enemy to 0 or fewer hit points with his attacks, he may apply any one metamagic feat he possesses to the spell he casts without increasing the spell slot it takes up. The metamagic is applied on the fly but does not increase casting time. Quicken spell cannot be used for this. This can be used on a spell that already has a metamagic feat applied to it, but the total effective spell level cannot exceed 9.
This ability replaces the magus arcana gained at 9th levelMy Notes
A Magus who doesn't use shocking grasp or any other touch spell. Instead it focuses on engaging in melee while casting spells at other enemies. I thought it was a neat idea and ran with it.
Anyway, I would really appreciate any thoughts or ideas on the balance of these Archetypes. They look fairly well balanced to me, but I admit I'm biased. I'm really hoping to use the Mage Knight and Spell-Sword types together for my Magus, but I want to make sure others think they look fair enough. The Magi Meister was something I came up with that sounded pretty cool for a more traditional sword and sorcery.
Thanks for your input.
Deadly Caster fails the Bag of Rats test. I have more comments, but I am not on a computer now, so typing is hard. PM me tomorrow as a reminder? :-)