Gnome-Magus Blackblade Kensai Dervish Dance
So last night I used an Arcane Point to make my scimitar Keen for 1 minute (18-20 crit now 15-20)... Then in consecutive attacks with shocking grasp(inspired by greatness allows 1 extra caster lvl on 1 spell (shocking grasp) magical lineage allows for 1 lvl of a meta feat to not count vs. spell lvl and used intensified for 8D6-16d6 on crit) Using spell strike I rolled a 17 and confirmed a crit for 77 points of damage. Then the next attack rolled a 15 and confirmed for a second critical that hit for 60. If the monster we were fighting hadn't been incorporeal I likely would have killed it, but instead it took that and 2 vital strikes from the fighter, a smack by the barbarian and a sneak attack from the rogue. (yes we are damage heavy)
Now I know that was best case scenario, but the last two weeks I have felt like I was outshining the party. Last week was a 15 minute work day type of battle. We were about to rest and a monster popped up and I used Scorching Ray twice with Pyromaniac to get 8D6 with that as well. I have even been not attacking ever round and doing some RP in combat to give others the opportunity to kill the monsters. I passed up an opportunity to fireball a group of enemies shooting at us with arrows and instead ran past them into the tower they were on. The cleric however did fireball and took out 3 of the 6. I have been doing a lot of damage, but not always getting the killing blows. I have never been a blaster type of character and I am just curious if this is the normal way things will go for me or am I just blasting a little to much lately and it wont continue to be this way... I know the party benefits from kill fast strategy, but I don't want to do it all and everyone not be enjoying things. I try to support them giving hi fives and with them getting killing blows maybe I am just over thinking the situation.
I just felt that in the battles we had I was blowing it up so when it came to the last fight I stayed back and RP'd the entire battle while the party ran in and chipped away the BBEG. This serves two purposes 1 I saved spells for later fights since day wasn't over and two it allowed others to kill it without me so maybe they don't notice me as much. I attacked twice last night and both were big critical hits.
So does it sound like I am overpowered or just having a good run on the dice and it doesn't seem like a problem? I will talk with the GM as well just to see how he feels about it. I know he was probably frustrated with how the fights went last night. The Mind Control (not sure what spell maybe suggestion?) on the barbarian worked like we all thought it would, but on her 3 attacks she rolled 2,2,5 before the cleric countered the MC with Hold Person. Just seemed like we all hit everything perfect and the fights weren't nearly as tough as they could have been. I know if I was a GM that would be kinda frustrating. Then again who knows what lies ahead.
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
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First off, you are the kind of player I would love to GM for.
Second off, ignore posters who make this into an e-peen "That isn't even real damage, my character can do X"
Third, do exactly what you said and chat with your GM and make sure it isn't just you having a run of good dice that later could just as quickly turn and bite you in the butt.
Keep gaming, we need more players like you!
That just sounds like a good run of dice. I've been in that situation as a DM and it is a bit frustrating. Pimped out the BBEG and the ranger one rounded him with two crits from his bow. Kind of pissed me off because I spent a bit of time working on him, but that's part of the game.
As ciretose said, talk to your GM. This really should be the first answer to 90% of these types of questions.
I wound up in a similar situation with my Bladebound Kenesai Magus - I spoke with my GM and he thought it was just a good run of the dice, so we left it be. Then a few sessions later, he talked to me about it and asked me to tone it down a tiny bit, so he agreed to let me remove my magical lineage trait and intensified spell metamagic feat and replaced them with the reactive trait and the dodge feat. My GM thanked me next session in a HGUE WAY - we were fighting a pair of scythe wielding BBEG clerics of Urgoatha. I rolled a natural 1 on my initiative, but thanks to the reactive trait, I beat one of the BBEG cleric's initiative by 1. The other BBEG cleric rolled a nat 20 against me on round 1, threatening an X4 critical. His confirmation roll (a natural 12) missed my armor class by exactly 1, thanks to dodge!
When I initially made this character I was going to be the damage guy. We had a generic cleric who pretty much buffed and healed and didn't do much else. We were running a 3PC/1NPC party with a cleric just around to heal and occasionally buff. I was helping the GM by playing him but I didn't do much cause he was there to assist not overshadow the party. I ended up starting trouble with my Magus cause he has an attitude problem... and then the group would look for the cleric to smooth it over so I eventually gave up starting trouble cause I would have to RP the trouble then smooth it over. It gets old lol
Initial party make up:
Inquisitor, Druid, Magus, and NPC generic Cleric
Since then the Inquisitor was killed in combat. She re-rolled into a fighter. Then the GM's wife wasn't enjoying the druid so when we got to town. He allowed her to switch from a Druid to Ranger. She wanted to do the damage and have the animal assist not have the animal be more of the damage and her support with spells and ranged.
Then we had some friends join the group. So one guy made a cleric to replace the one we had and be more effective. Also, I wouldn't have to run 2 toons. Then his wife made a barbarian and one of our other friends made a rogue to play with us as well.
So we now have 3 melee character and an animal companion on top of my magus... So it allows me to be a trouble maker again and my damage isn't over the top if I deliver it in doses. Thus I run around in combat setting up flanks and not attacking. I don't mind not attacking if the rogue or fighter get all the extra attacks and what not. I just would have made the character different if I knew we would have 6 instead of the initial 3.5...
We have so much damage now that I take off fights and no one really notices. We had 3 combats yest. and I made 2 attacks (both crit!) I use a lot of utilities to help out with placement and light source etc. Yell out battle instructions or info I notice about the mob... I kinda wish I was a cavalier or bard now with some group buffs or paladin with heals to let my cleric go more attack not heal or possibly be a different class. I think I might ditch some damage spells and start going for the few buffs I can toss out. Any suggestions?
As a Magus is very crit-luck based this can happen, he is THE glass canon. Had the same in my S&S Campaign.
This can be sometimes frustrating, especially if you aren't the "MAX DAMAGE!!!!" Player, but it gives you also the possibility to do some funny/intressting (RP) actions ingame, like you did. :)
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An interesting way to solve the issue could be via roleplay - maybe your character feels overpowered, too. Maybe he gets cocky, starts taking unreasonable risks. Or maybe it's the other way around and the character is becoming afraid of herself and what she can do.
Any number of character traits can make the game more interesting and also serve to make your character less effective in combat. I think you might have a lot of fun dealing with this problem in-game instead of on the rules level.
I appreciate the feedback Theo. I made sure to factor in these things when I play already. I usually have one of the higher initiatives with my Dex and Int adding into my initiative and it being my 2 main stats. However, I don't charge in. I usually assess then react. So I can cast a range spell or just delay until people are in place. I play the smart jerk who sometimes doesn't feel the battles are worth my tyme.
Then if you are immune to shock I took close range arcana and can deliver Scorching Ray spell strikes.
I did hear that the magus is kinda front loaded, til 10, but I'm not tons worried about that with group make up they can take over and I can support. By the tyme we get to 10 I think we will have enough resources to not worry about me doing the damage... that's why I am starting to look now for alternatives. Haste and the like...
I have role played a few instances where everyone dismounts and rushes off and I gather the horses. Then walk over to the fight and kinda have this pissed off look and sarcastically say "always running off to fight things...not worried about the horse" then I shocking grasp do 30-40 damage and it dies and then I be like OK can we go now. Also the GM has mentioned that he wants to RP the Black Blade as a different alignment than me and have me kinda start to go crazy and more evil. SO that will be fun to RP as well. I rather enjoy being more RP than damage. I see the barbarian hit 2 tymes and its d12+17 or something... 2 of those and she does more damage than me. I think all the dice just makes people think I'm doing a ton more than other people.
It's a fairly standard magus build. If you are overpowered than it's because your party members are fairly unoptimized. If so, you might want to "brake off" so they don't feel gimpy. However, once spell resist, lightnig resistance and plain magic inmunity starts to play, you'll shine a bit less
Out of curiosity what level are you and how many encounters do you normally have between rests?
All depends on the encounter types you run into. We tend to have about half non-combat challenges, and my magus has max ranks in survival and things like that as a result. It's been very much worth it, too. Mind you, we play low-magic-items, and without pearls of power or stat boosters, a magus will have to be very cautious with spending his or her daily resources. Mine is a human with a good Int and so far I've helped win encounters with Craft, Appraise, the aforementioned Survival, Knowledge (Planar), Profession (Sailor), Spellcraft, and even weapons and spells. Were it purely combat prowess that mattered we had been TPK'ed before we hit level 2 once, and at least 3 times before level 3.
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As a Magus is very crit-luck based this can happen, he is THE glass canon. Had the same in my S&S Campaign.
He said he's playing a Dex-based kensai/bladebound magus. Built well, these can be quite durable. I wouldn't necessarily assume he's a glass cannon.
SycoSurfer, when you talk to your GM, make sure that you mention that your character greatly benefits by the 15 minute adventuring day. You have a limited arcane pool (reduced by bladebound), and limited spellcasting (1 less spell per level per day from kensai). It's going to be harder to consistently overpower multiple encounters in the same day.