Magus for an 8 year old?

[Talos the Talon!]

My son played his first two sessions of society play, and wants to try his hand at magic. He liked magic missile, butdoes not like being squishy. I think magus will be to complex, but aasimar eldritch knight might not. Any simple aasimar build ideas for me?

[Arachnofiend]

I think a prepared caster period would be too complex for an 8 year old, to be honest. Maybe make him a warrior Oracle instead? Wood is pretty simplistic I think, it lends well to just bashing people over the head with a quarterstaff.

[pogie]

Yeah I think Magus is too complex for an eight year old. Spell combat, spell strike, concentration checks, touch AC....etc. I would not squash his enthusiasm but would "encourage" him to stick with martials until he has a bit more experience than two sessions.

Still squishy but a sorceror is a lot simpler. You know these spells. Combined you can cast them this many times a day.

[Calth]

Also, if you want more combat focus the advanced class guide is available to you, you could try a bloodrager, aasimar celestial is a nice flavor. Bloodrager also builds up the mechanics over time, starting with rage as its only mechanic, which is binary on/off, then slowly adds spells and more bloodline powers over time. If you keep a duplicate character sheet with the rage effects included, it makes things pretty simple to start with to help learn the game.

Bloodrager is spontaneous as well, so the keeps the options low. If you dont already, I recommend some sort of token system for keeping track of spells used during each day. For example, if you have 4 first level spells available, have 4 say blue poker chips or something similar, and when he casts one of his spells take one away. Do something similar with rage rounds, or modify rage by an encounter basis (start with 2 encounters of rage and add 1 every fourlevels or something.)

[Brom the Obnoxiously Awesome]

I don't know. I say give the kid a chance. 8 year olds are smarter than we give em credit for. I agree that Magus is a little complex. Even I don't have one.
Still though, another spellcaster, even a Wizard could be really great. A sorcerer, as mentioned is really clever idea.
Just don't underestimate him is all I'm saying.

[The Ragi]

My 8 year old plays an alchemist, the other a ranger. Just print out the specific parts of the book that relates to his powers, and help him every now and then during combat.

[Dave Justus]

I think Magus is one of the simpler casters. Many 8 yo would not have problems dealing with them.

[Raisse]

Magus really isn't as complicated as people frequently claim. You should be able to prepare a character sheet with each of his attack options already calculated in.

That way, when he attacks he can simply go to the correct line:

Arcane Pool OFF! (Crit on 18-20)
Attack: +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
FullAttack: +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
+5 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
ShGrasp(concentrate +10): +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing +8d6 electricity
SpCmbt (concentrate +12): +8 hit, 1d6+4 slashing + 8d6 electricity
+8 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
+3 hit, 1d6+4 slashing

Arcane Pool ON! (Crit on 15-20)
Attack: +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
FullAttack: +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
+6 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
ShGrasp(concentrate +10): +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing +8d6 electricity
SpCmbt (concentrate +12): +9 hit, 1d6+5 slashing + 8d6 electricity
+9 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
+4 hit, 1d6+5 slashing

I've also seen people do well with tokens to represent their prepared spells. Things like coins that have the spell description written on the top of the coin or poker chip, that you can flip over when you cast the spell (and turn back over with Spell Recall).

Another thing that might help keep all the detailed stuff for a magus for a kid would be to have a dice pool set up. For example, have a little box or cup that when he casts Shocking Grasp he puts Xd6 and his weapon dice (of a different color) into the cup. Then he rolls his attack rolls in order (say.... +9/+9/+4), when he hits he rolls his dice pool, then removes the Shocking Grasp dice, and only puts the weapon dice back in.

[ngc7293]

I'd say paladin or Ranger.
You get a hardy character with some use of spells as you go along.

[Matt2VK]

I like your idea for a aasimar eldritch knight> I think there's some Eldritch Knight build threads floating around here and there might even be a guide still stickied in the Guide to the Guides.

Magus -
My biggest problem with the Magus is the number of ways I've seen it played mechanically. Before playing a Magus make sure you and the GM agree with how the game mechanics of a magus work.

I brought this up because just the number of ways I've seen the magus get played mechanically is shocking (in PFS). Then there's all the different questions on how a magus get's played that come up in these forums.

SO MAKE SURE BOTH YOU AND THE GM AGREE ON HOW A MAGUS PLAYS.

Once this is agreed on, then you can decide on if your son wants to play a Magus.

[Marius Castille]

Raisse wrote:

Magus really isn't as complicated as people frequently claim. You should be able to prepare a character sheet with each of his attack options already calculated in.

That way, when he attacks he can simply go to the correct line:

Arcane Pool OFF! (Crit on 18-20)
Attack: +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
FullAttack: +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
+5 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
ShGrasp(concentrate +10): +10 hit, 1d6+4 slashing +8d6 electricity
SpCmbt (concentrate +12): +8 hit, 1d6+4 slashing + 8d6 electricity
+8 hit, 1d6+4 slashing
+3 hit, 1d6+4 slashing

Arcane Pool ON! (Crit on 15-20)
Attack: +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
FullAttack: +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
+6 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
ShGrasp(concentrate +10): +11 hit, 1d6+5 slashing +8d6 electricity
SpCmbt (concentrate +12): +9 hit, 1d6+5 slashing + 8d6 electricity
+9 hit, 1d6+5 slashing
+4 hit, 1d6+5 slashing

I've also seen people do well with tokens to represent their prepared spells. Things like coins that have the spell description written on the top of the coin or poker chip, that you can flip over when you cast the spell (and turn back over with Spell Recall).

Another thing that might help keep all the detailed stuff for a magus for a kid would be to have a dice pool set up. For example, have a little box or cup that when he casts Shocking Grasp he puts Xd6 and his weapon dice (of a different color) into the cup. Then he rolls his attack rolls in order (say.... +9/+9/+4), when he hits he rolls his dice pool, then removes the Shocking Grasp dice, and only puts the weapon dice back in.

This is good advice for any player. Know your numbers folks! ; )