| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I'm unclear on how this spell works.
My first reading was that it was a spell you cast with an already existing attack, that added some damage and a knockback effect, but I was unclear on the "as you strike" wording. I came here to find out when you had to make the decision to cast -- before or after you knew you hit or if you'd gotten a critical hit, and if so, did the force damage benefit from the critical.
A poster on a Battle cleric thread seems to agree with my original interpretation. (And expects that I'd cast it "after I hit.")
But some of the advice I found on Walter's Magus Guide thread seem to treat it as a standard touch-attack spell with a kind of built in Quicken and Spellstrike.
Does anyone have any insights?
You wouldn't be multiplying that damage dice anyways, so if it's a critical hit, it wouldn't matter so much.
It's a swift action spell that you use after hitting an enemy. As a swift action, it can be done in the middle of other actions. You do not cast it by itself and then get a free attack melee attack + spell effect.
What Cheapy said, and the key there is "strike" instead of "attack". Also, if you want to wait until after you roll your critical hit damage before casting the spell, then fine; it's that fast.
Cool. So it's pretty much what I'd thought when I read it.
Too bad it wouldn't be modified on a crit, but I guess it's probably a rather nice spell to have when fighting stuff with low fort saves. (A good thing if my DM succumbs to his natural impulses and brings back the incorporeal undead to go along with his fiendish plants.)
Thanks, folks!
Yeah, my 11th level Magus gets three 4th level spells per day. This one is okay, but fort save halves damage and prevents the knockback, which is only 40% likely to happen on average, above whether the save is failed.
So really, it's ~12.5 force damage for a 4th level spell and a swift action; I could do a Quickened Shocking Grasp for the same 4th level spell (because of the trait) which would average 17.5+weapon damage with a chance to crit, but I'd have to hit again, and it'd be electric.
Though, your hexcrafter should have evil eyed his victim, so he'd have a leg up on the save DC at least. (The size restriction would be harder on a goblin, but you may be polymorphed into something else, anyway.) The fact that it's naturally a swift action is nice -- do you plan on taking Cackle?
ETA: I should be coming up with stuff for you to kill, not ways to help you kill it! Hah.
|
Yeah, my 11th level Magus gets three 4th level spells per day. This one is okay, but fort save halves damage and prevents the knockback, which is only 40% likely to happen on average, above whether the save is failed.
So really, it's ~12.5 force damage for a 4th level spell and a swift action; I could do a Quickened Shocking Grasp for the same 4th level spell (because of the trait) which would average 17.5+weapon damage with a chance to crit, but I'd have to hit again, and it'd be electric.
Though, your hexcrafter should have evil eyed his victim, so he'd have a leg up on the save DC at least. (The size restriction would be harder on a goblin, but you may be polymorphed into something else, anyway.) The fact that it's naturally a swift action is nice -- do you plan on taking Cackle?
ETA: I should be coming up with stuff for you to kill, not ways to help you kill it! Hah.
lol....Not sure on Cackle...haven't had much time to truly explore the idea of the Hexcrafter Magus Goblin yet to see what is needed and wanted, then sift through them to see what I can do. Wish there were some builds of a Hexcrafter Magus I could see to figure out what I need to do to be not-worthless to the party....