Driving home from work I had a random idea, what if the Magus could trade out Spell Combat for the Wizard's Arcane School?
I'm kind of tired of Magus's always being built as empty offhand/Scimitar or Rapier main hand type combatants. Without Spell Combat you'll see Two-Handed weapons thrown into the mix (albeit still crit fishing ones). Spell Combat is pretty much the core of the class but this idea would be trading out some of the melee ability for better spellcasting, the same way other archetypes reduce spellcasting in favor of martial capability. Maybe being able to specialize in different schools would make them a little less cookie cutter.
So is this totally crazy? Overpowered or a nerf the class doesn't need?
It'd be a nerf. Spell Combat is the Magus's most powerful (and most compelling) class feature: Wizard arcane schools are generally less than impressive. People only play specialist wizards for the extra spell slot. An archetype that lets you play a "Specialist Magus" who gets an extra slot of each spell level for spells of their specialist school could be a neat idea, but I wouldn't trade spell combat for it. Consider trading an Arcana or two and lowering their Arcane Pool progression for it instead. Other things I'd consider:
- Make the benefits of each specialization unique rather than just ripping off wizard arcane school powers.
- The magus spell list is woefully deficient of certain schools, like Necromancy, Divination, and Enchantment (all three of which don't even have at least one spell of each level). Illusion and Abjuration have just enough spells to make it workable, but would be at a serious disadvantage when compared to Evocation, Conjuration, and Transmutation specialists (as these three schools make up the bulk of the spell list). Maybe give these disadvantaged schools extra spells to add to the magus's spell list to give them a boost?
- Give each magus specialization its own name rather than just copying the wizard specialization names. You're not a Necromancer Magus, you're a Deathblade.
If you want to make the Magus less cookie cutter and using the same weapon all the time, considering making archetypes that make other weapon styles more viable rather than taking away spell combat. Like how the Myrmidon tries (and fails) to make an Archer Magus work?
If you want to make the Magus less cookie cutter and using the same weapon all the time, considering making archetypes that make other weapon styles more viable rather than taking away spell combat. Like how the Myrmidon tries (and fails) to make an Archer Magus work?
That's a good idea. My biggest problem with that is that Spell Combat + Spellstrike, while being what makes the Magus a Magus, are exactly what make it cookie cutter. Spell Combat demands one handed weapons, Spellstrike encourages crit fishing above all else. So an archetype that made combat styles more flexible would necessarily change one or both of them.
A Magus with a polearm would be really cool, and it really screams for a good arcane archer type option (better than Myrmidarch). I was hoping that by giving it optional abilites on par with but different than Spell Combat and Spellstrike you could open up its weapon options.
By "Don't take away spell combat" I meant, don't take away the things that make the Magus, well, the Magus. These are:
- The ability to cast a spell as part of making a full attack.
- The ability to apply spells to an enemy as part of a weapon attack.
So long as these properties are kept intact, you should (and must) mess with spell combat and spellstrike to make other weapon styles work.
A good way to allow a magus to use a two-handed weapon should pass by a tweaking in the spellstrike ability. Allowing a wanna be two-weapon fighting used with a two-handed sword or guisarme could be too much, but an alternate spellstike could allow a two-handed magus to channel a touch spell trough his weapon by casting it as a standard action instead. No more full attack shocking grasp combo, but he still can buff/full attack or shocking grasp/move/attack 1 time. This guy can hit harder without spell, an can focus on utility or defensive casting.
Well, he can already mostly do Spellstrike. Standard Action cast touch spell -> free swing to deliver it. Spell Combat is what precludes two handed weapons because it demands you leave a hand open.
I could see a two-hander friendly archetype dropping Spell Combat for something else but Spellstrike could be left unchanged. But whatever replaces Spell Combat would have to be both powerful and interesting unless you just want it to be a nerf.
That was kinda my idea with replacing it with the Wizard's Arcane School specializations. It's a little cludgy due to the lack of certain schools on the Magus list but School abilities can be pretty nice and specialization pretty much means an extra spell per day per spell level.
But as Craft Cheese said that still isn't as nice as casting a spell and full attacking in the same round.
The magus has been shoe-horned into one-handed high-crit weapons. It's unfortunate, but it doesn't make it any less a highly flavorful class.
If we want to see a change in what's become something of a standard, we'd need to address the underlying mechanic. I was tossing this around, and came up with a...call it a rough concept draft. It would need balanced. It would need reworked, then tested.
What if we increased the bond between the magus' casting and her weapon? For example, as they worked both arcane and weapon in tandem (spell combat), energy would arc from the spell onto the blade. At first, the interaction between the two is rough...but over time, the magus refines and increases its potency and the blade and spell begin moving in almost perfect tandem.
You could flavor this with a number of effects, mechanic-wise, that increased over time with levels in the class. For example, maybe the arcane bonding ends up covering the blade in such a way that it...renders the blade as 'magic' for purposes of DR, and standardizes the crit range to 19-20 for both blade and spell.
Over time, this range could increase. Additional effects and flavor could be added as the magus is better able to control how they work together.
When not affected by this 'arcane bond,' the weapon uses its normal modifiers (but also doesn't receive the benefits).
This would require some rebalancing of the class (and testing...we'd want the options to be fun, blanced, and flavorful). While it wouldn't allow 2H weapons, it could help diversify the types of 1H weapons that are used.
I know the magus can already spellstrike with a greataxe, my idea was only to introduce a way to avoid giving free attack to someone with a two-handed weapon in hand if we allow him to use spell-combat.
However, you (BayonetPriest) mark a point as spell combat restrict the use of two-handed weapon...in some way. The fact you need one hand free to cast can easily be done by holding the weapon in one hand/ cast/ free action : put the second hand on the weapon/ attack. It is the same thing as for an archer magus like the myrmidach. Bow are two-handed...but they still can use spell combat. I know that this reading of the ability isn't the official one about big weapons, but I could imagine a class feature (a magus arcana ?) that could allow this or a modification in the spell combat wording on a specific archetype.
Yeah, Spell Combat was specifically worded to stop that. Spell Combat specifically says light or one-handed melee weapon. It specifies because if it didn't you could just do the free action let one hand off the weapon thing. Spell Combat doesn't work with a two handed weapon and Myrmidarch can't use it with a bow. They get Ranged Spellstrike but their Spell Combat is still just for melee. They're less an arcane archer type archetype and more a "I can also use a bow sometimes" melee archetype.
A Magus Arcana that opened up Spell Combat to allow two handed weapons might be neat though. I wonder what the implications of that would be. Myrmidarchs could be full archers maybe, using Spell Combat + Ranged Spellstrike to do the Spellstrike Full Attack flurry thing that the melees do. Two handed melee weapons open up so various high crit two handers are now options (and the higher two handed damage might be enough that you might be willing to forgo the high crit weapons entirely)