Looking at making a cool BBEG for my players to fight, I decided I want to look at some magus levels for access to spell combat and spellstrike, but the game calls for him to take a few levels in wizard. I wanted to multiclass him from magus to wizard and have him finish his levels in Eldritch Knight to make up for the BAB, but in order to get the full effects of the class one must take 6 levels in magus.
Does that seem a little steep to anyone else? 6 levels eats such a huge chunk out of the characters levels that I would either have to make him epic or house rule it and cheat my way into having this ability (which I would rather not do).
On a normal character, 6 levels is more than a substantial dip for an ability that is clearly designed to encourage multiclassing.
Am I the only one who sees this as flawed?
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I think it's purposefully put at that high of a level to discourage people from dipping into Magus for 2-3 levels to get the ability to cast all of their own spells using Spellstrike.
It's designed to encourage a Magus to multiclass, not to encourage another class to dip into Magus.
I believe that Cheburn has the right of it.
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As written, Broad Study only allows spells from the other class right? So if you were a Magus 6 / Elemental Sorcerer 3, you could cast your Sorcerer spells with Spellstrike and Spell Combat, but you couldn't use your Elemental Ray ability with either correct?
Would it be overpowered to do so? Use your Wizard's Arcane School ability with Spell Combat, or Summon Monster as a Magus / Summoner? Or if you were a Magus / Cleric, to use Spell Combat with a Channel in place of a spell. Something like that? Would it require a higher level version of Broad Study (with Broad Study as a prerequisite) to be "balanced"?
What about things that are "as you cast a spell", like the Admixture Wizard Arcane School ability? You would be able to use that with Spell Combat as long as the spell you were casting was on your lists right?
Arcanist Exploits? Lightning Lance vs. Metamixing? One is used like a spell to blast your enemies with lightning (totally Magus) the other allows you to add a Metamagic feat to a spell without increasing its casting time. As written, only the second would work with Spell Combat correct?
I could have sworn it was spells and abilities of the other class, but that might have been a playtest version I'm thinking of.
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There is nothing terrible about broad study as long as your wife doesn't catch you. Studying abroad is an excellent opportunity if you afford it.
I think maybe level requirement of 4 would be more appropriate, but also wouldn't make much sense in how the Magus gets Arcana.
I like it because you could grab it with your 5th level feat when you MC out of magus.
I think it's purposefully put at that high of a level to discourage people from dipping into Magus for 2-3 levels to get the ability to cast all of their own spells using Spellstrike.
It's designed to encourage a Magus to multiclass, not to encourage another class to dip into Magus.
No it wasn't done that way because EK dates from CRB when Magus wasn't even a gleam in someone's eye.
EK was designed to marry the Fighter and the Wizard, so it's not surprising that choosing other paths to qualify may yield some weird results, especially when using a class that's already a hybridized Fighter/Wizard.
Just to clarify, the "it" I'm referring to is the Magus Arcana Broad Study, not the requirements for the Eldritch Knight prestige class. "Broad Study" was released along with the Magus in Ultimate Magic.
I believe* the devs put Broad Study at level 6 Magus so that it was a cool ability Magus could get, instead of an ability you could get with a 1-2 level dip in Magus for any class. This statement relates back to the OP saying:
On a normal character, 6 levels is more than a substantial dip for an ability [Broad Study] that is clearly designed to encourage multiclassing.
*Obviously I can't prove the reason for having Broad Study at 6, as I'm not the dev who put together the class, but it seems reasonable.
My synthesist/magus just loves it! :D