Elemental Magi (Archetypes for the Magus Class)

[Sphynx]

Here is the initial rough draft of my design, please be brutally honest in regards to balance issues you foresee. Once I'm assured that all issues are ironed out, I'll go into inDesign and make it a pretty pdf file for official release.

To those who have helped thus far, many thanks. :)

---> LINK to current Draft <---

[kestral287]

Aeromagus: In terms of actual combat capability it's going to be vastly below the standard Magus due to a lack of Spell Combat, but I think we've had that discussion.

Terramagus: The Earthen Hammer needs some form of magic progression, ala Black Blade, or there's no particular reason to use it past low levels. I'd rather have the +5 weapon I had to buy than the +0 weapon that happens to have a slightly larger damage die that I got for free.

It should be noted if Critical Earth can stack with the Keen enhancement. If it can, that's an obnoxiously huge threat range (13-20). If it can't, why would I ever use that over just boosting it with my Arcane Pool? Same cost, from level 5 and on double or more the benefits.

Beyond that it's interesting, and while it gives up a lot you do feel like what you get in return is worthwhile.

Pyromagus: Burn should probably be a Swift Action; it's hard to really make it worthwhile as a Standard.

In terms of viability, giving up /all/ of your Arcanas for a pretty weak blast ability is... really not worthwhile. Burning Weapon is also really not worthwhile. Any Magus can add Flaming to their weapon, and for most opponents (any not vulnerable to fire or resistant to cold and electric but /not/ fire) you'll be mathematically better off using your standard Arcane Pool enhancement to add Flaming+Frost or Flaming+Shocking. So that's definitely not worth losing bonus feats for.

Hydromagus: I'm not seeing any abilities that are lost from this archetype, so by default it's the most powerful Magus archetype available.

[Sphynx]

Thanks for the comments Kestral. :)

Hydromagus: As stated in the 2nd line, he loses Spells. Similar to Warrior of the Holy Light (Paladin).

The Aeromagus is indeed weaker in combat than the standard magus, but they have 2 areas they far excel the magus in. The primary is the combat potential of a ranged Spellstrike. The secondary is raw mobility and defense. All in all, my tests say that it's an even balance switch, with the Aeromancer doing slightly poorer in combat, but excelling in utility options.

Skipping Terramagus for last because I need most help with him, I think.

Pyromagus: Switching Burn to a "Swift Action". I had no particular reason for selecting a Standard Action. The 6 (or 7 with a feat) Arcana Magus has to compare to the damage output of Burn of course... So, there's a a potential number of minutes equal to his Arcane Pool in which he is doing up to 3d6 damage to anyone within 5' of him, and that damage can potentially continue for multiple turns even if they leave his proximity. Up to 3d6 damage for up to 5 rounds. Stacked of course with the realization that this is a melee character who is going to be doing even more damage with his weapons.

Now... I am not saying that they are equal. I just want to make sure we are on the same page in regards to what was given up vs what was gained. He lacks much of the utility the Arcana Magus can provide, but I think he makes up for it in raw damage from just his Immolation, and this is before we add in the Molten Blast which starts at a weak 2d6+Int to a single target, but goes up to 7d6+Int to all targets within a 15' radius up to 10 times a day. And of course... a half-damage reflex save.

Not as powerful as an Alchemist of course, but an Alchemist has fewer offensive spells than a Magus who (assuming he focuses on offense spells) can toss a lot of Fireballs, Contagious Flames, etc...

To be honest, my goal was to create someone that could pour out more raw damage than any other spell-caster. If I havent' achieved that, I would like to adjust to do just that. He can't cast Firestorm or anything like that, but he should be able to throw more damage out than other classes. However, with his access to offensive spells, following the Alchemist bomb damage verbatim seemed over powering... BTW, what do you mean by it being "weak"?

As for the Feats vs Flaming Weapon. It's basically 3 feats. One allows your weapon to double your flaming damage. The next allows you do double your critical flaming damage. And the 3rd allows you to double your doublings. That's pretty much the equivalent of Weapon Specialization, Bleeding Critical, and then both of them again and them stacking. He still gets his 10 general feats, but I was concerned that with what I thought to be a slightly overpowered Burn/Molten Blast, pre-deciding his feats in a manner that forced a thematic cohesion would help balance it some (didn't expect someone to think the Burn/Molten Blast would be "weak").

Terramagus Ok, I would love help making this work. I did however leave out a very important line from the character that alters slightly the BAB adjustments. :P When using the Earthen Hammer, he uses his Terramagus level in place of his BAB to calculate his Attack Bonus. That gives him the equivalent of the +5 weapon in correct levels, which stacks with his Arcane Pool for further enhancements.

Keen however, what do you think? I'd be inclined to reword it so that is added 2 to your critical threat after any other enhancements such as "Keen". That would make it 15+.