I'm currently playing a Duskblade who just turned level 5. This is a 3.5 DnD class which I found on the internet and it had been converted somewhat to Pathfinder.
It's like a Magus but has a lot of spells known & cast per day and all of them are spontaneously cast off INT. It also has a full BAB. It also uses spells from both 3.5 and Pathfinder.
What I'd like to do, is just pretty much switch it over to a Magus, Bladebound/Kensai.
Currently I'm asking for some help on 4 feat choices, because a lot of mine are centered around 3.5 books and I shouldn't keep using them.
My stats on my human are extremely good and I took the alternate human racial thing of getting +2 to two stats versus having the bonus feat.
STR & DEX are both now 18 (including +1 from 4th level), INT 20, CON, CHA, WIS are all 13 to 15 I think.
My weapon of choice is Longsword, and I yeah I know it's not the most optimal of things but I have that trait that gives me a +1 to hit with it and free Weapon Focus from Kensai for it too. I Figure to keep it since the -2 to Spell Combat/Spellstrike will hinder me without the former class I had with a full BAB. Feel free to talk me out of it and give any recommendations to what I should take weapon wise & replacement trait.
I thought hard about going Power Attack, Hurtful, Enforcer and Intimidating Prowess route with the Bruising Intellect trait. Then using Frostbite to score me an extra swift action attack while I have the spell channeled. At level 5 with my stats my Intimidate chance should be +17.
-Magi really really really do love their 18-20 crit ranges- Scimitar, Rapier, Kukri. Longsword doesn't quite cut it. I can personally assert to the pleasure of going 'oh wait that's a crit' and adding a second handful of damage dice to the pile, and I wouldn't like to live without it. If you do, go for it, just saying keep in mind the consequences.
-If you're able to, might be worth adjusting your stats. Depending on if you go str-based or dex-based, might want to up Con a little.
-The Enforcer combo is a legit one, just keep in mind that it is completely ineffective against enemies who are -immune to nonlethal (undead) -immune to mind-affecting (many monsters).
For feat selection, I'd suggest putting in Extra Traits. Traits are great for Magi- Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp/Frostbite), Metamagic Mastery (Shocking Grasp/Frostbite), Stealth class skill trait, UMD class skill trait, Acrobatics class skill trait. The metamagic traits lead nicely into Rime Frostbites or Intensified Shocking Grasps.
Rapier is the ideal Magus weapon due to Precise Strike + broad crit range. Using a longsword will actually have you lagging pretty heavily behind in damage output, because Precise Strike grants Magus-level-to-damage with one-handed piercing weapons.
Your stats are solid; you have enough Dex to survive the early game as a Magus so you might as well save yourself a pair of feats. If you /did/ want to convert to Dex-based, it's two feats (Weapon Finesse + either Fencing Grace or Slashing Grace), and if you can slot them in it's pretty worthwhile. That said, I'm running a Kensai with not-dissimilar stats and while I entertained going Dex-based, I couldn't spare the feat slots.
Check with your GM about Frostbite and Enforcer; Enforcer specifies doing nonlethal damage with a melee weapon and Frostbite is a spell (delivered by a melee weapon, mind). Most GMs seem to allow it, but I would make sure so you don't get an unpleasant surprise. I would also heavily consider the kind of campaign you're going to be in, because it's rather easily shut down (as was mentioned above: mindless, undead, mindless undead, silver or white dragons, all kinds of stuff). It's great debuffing when it works but can fall apart hard.
Adding into traits, Clever Wordplay or Pragmatic Activator can get UMD working off your Int stat. That's pretty awesome. That said, Magical Lineage or Wayang Spellhunter/Metamagic Master tend to be go-tos.
And personally, I'd advise straight Kensai. The Bladebound archetype is frankly not worthwhile when you really break down what you get.
Out of curiosity, what 3.5 feats were you using and why do you feel that you shouldn't keep using them?
Yeah I'm torn now between Aldori Dueling Sword and a 18-20 threat weapon.
The Dueling Sword route, I can keep my Sword Scion trait for that extra +1 to hit, and further down the pipeline pick up Dueling Mastery I think its called. It would net me +2 Shield bonus to AC and +2 Initiative.
Falcata is also tempting for the 19-20x3 threat/critical.
However a Scimitar/Rapier/Katana would allow me to crit a lot more.
If I adjusted stats, I think I should probably remove my +1 to STR from level 4, into DEX or INT. CON is 14 right now.
I've got 4 traits, due to taking 2 disadvantages or whatever you call them. 1 Trait is Reactionary, the rest can be changed out. Will probably take Magical Lineage Shocking Grasp and pick up Intensify Spell feat at level 7. Still will keep Bruising Intellect though. Still need 1 more trait.
I had a feat called Somatic Weaponry which allowed me to cast somatic component spells with my hands filled with weapons.
Also had some class abilities that let me cast a standard action spell as a swift action 1/day. All in all the class gained a lot of freebies and wasn't balanced as the Magus was.
I wanted to go Kensai Magus when I rolled the stats but didn't think it would have survived with our then party make up. I would have been the front line fighter. Now we have another melee character in game (rogue) and we just gained another player who is a Warpriest. This is our first healer!
As it is now I want the Bladebound due to our game seriously lacking material/magical wealth so far. In our party we only have a +1 ring, a +1 Cloak resistance, +1 dagger and a looted flintlock pistol and a few potions. Having a Magic Weapon from the Bladebound would be a serious plus. Also we have had a few sunder attempts on weapons as well, so that unbreakable feature of the BlackBlade will be nice.
On the Falcata: it's a good weapon, but you want the range of crits more than the raw numbers. The Magus is actually in an odd boat as crit-fishers go. They want as many crits as possible despite their best damage-boosting tool (Precise Strike) not getting multiplied on crits. So, while the Falcata is normally considered to have the best crit profile in the game, for a Magus that's not the case, and an 18-20 will suit them much better.
To an extent this also depends on the spells that you're focusing on. It helps a lot less with Frostbite than it does with Shocking Grasp, for example.
The Dueling Sword is... okay, but not fantastic. Dueling Mastery helps, but it's quite a bit of feat taxing for a +2 to AC and Initiative. If you do go Dueling Sword -> Dueling Mastery, adjusting stats becomes a good idea. Since Dueling Mastery requires Weapon Finesse, it's one more feat for Slashing Grace for Dex-to-Damage, so you can tank your Strength in exchange for Con or Wis.
Best trait you could get now, I think, is one of the Perception-as-a-class-skill traits. Perception's a pretty big deal.
So, the way I figure for feats, you kind of have three options:
1. Weapon Finesse, Slashing Grace (Dueling Sword), Dueling Mastery, one open-- I would take Intensify Spell here to get it out of the way, then at 6th level when you get an Arcana you take Flamboyant Arcana, at 7th you take Extra Arcana: Arcane Deed: Precise Strike. If you don't take Bladebound you have a little more room to play with, but Bladebound + Kensai means only one Arcana in the first eleven levels, which is harsh.
If you do drop Bladebound, I'd snag Flamboyant Arcana at 3rd, Arcane Deed: Precise Strike at 6th, and consider a Spell Blending at 7th if there are some 2nd level or lower spells that appeal to you. You mentioned sunder attempts; I'd grab Mending and then something like False Life. In fact if you had a first-level spell that you wanted (I know Mage Armor is popular for some Kensai), you could take your Spell Blending at level 5 for that+Mending.
2. Grab a Rapier, go Dex-based by dropping two feats on Weapon Finesse and Fencing Grace, have two open feats to play with.
3. Grab a Rapier and stick Str-based, and thus keep all four feats open to play with.
How you fill in the open ones is going to depend on what they were doing before. Before you try to fill in new roles with your feats I'd try to make sure the old ones are covered, so that your character isn't losing too much.
Also on feats, the Magus does get a bonus feat at 5th level if you haven't filled that in yet.
The reason I dislike Bladebound is that it really doesn't save as much money as it's made out to. Across a 20-level game, it comes out to a +5, which is a saving of 50,000 gold. That's kind of a drop in the bucket by 20th level. The Magus already saves a lot of money on magic weapons because they only need a +5, meaning that even though you're at 5th level and have only gotten a smattering of low-level items, you have a +2 sword when you need it.
The Black Blade is good for raw bonuses, but is kind of miserable at actually providing the real upside of magic items-- the abilities. For example, Spell Storing is crazy good for a Magus. Shocking Grasp, Frigid Touch, and Vampiric Touch are all go-to-Magus spells that can fit in a Spell Storing weapon and be easily utilized. Keen is also something that I'd want in an always-on fashion just in case I felt the need to conserve Arcane Points. For a Bladebound, you have to put a point in to get Keen every time (and they have a smaller Arcane Pool, remember) and can never get Spell Storing. That's a pretty noticeable loss.
So, you save a fairly small amount of money for a weapon that's below what you could buy or craft (remember, the Magus bonus feats can be dropped into crafting feats-- I'd consider Craft Magic Arms & Armor with one of your open feat slots), and you give up a decent chunk of your Arcane Pool and an Arcana for it. To me, that doesn't come out ahead.
Of course, if you disagree, by all means ignore me and take it. This is just one Magus' opinion.
Just got off the phone with our GM, and he said we were going Mythic at level 10 and he's already planning the campaign to go up to level 30. He said he wanted us to go Gestalt at 20. And we are going to level faster as well. Just a few weeks ago we were level 3 and apparently we supposed to be fast tracked up the ladder so to speak. His opinion is that you don't really get the better feel out of your classes until level 10 or so.
EEEK!!! I'm pumped. He told me to start checking out Mythic stuff so I can prepare myself to how I want my character planned out.
Now if I hadn't already had problems with how I wanted this character...
I mentioned our severe lack of resources for our level and he said that will resolve itself soon...
Also I'm now able to take Extra Arcana feats at levels 3 & 5 plus any for retraining if I want to pay for that. His opinion is that I still have the class feature Magus Arcana to meet the prerequisites for Extra Arcana, I only have exchanged the 3rd level arcana for the Bladebound archetype, I still get arcana at later levels. So awesome for me I guess if I want to take Bladebound still. Which after your post above I'm now on the fence about.
Edit: going with Rapier
Mythic has a /lot/ of good stuff for a Magus. Most of it is stuffed under the Archmage, but the Champion has the single best ability out there in Fleet Warrior (move before or after a full attack). Dual Path is a really solid first feat choice.
Since you're a Kensai you can also consider Enduring Armor (3+Tier as a Force-effect Armor bonus to AC) if there are no armor special abilities that jump out at you as being worthwhile enough to invest in Silk Ceremonial Armor or the like. I've never found Armor abilities to be nearly as good as Weapon abilities, so that was what I went with.
By RAW your GM is wrong and you don't have the Magus Arcana class feature until 6th level if you're Bladebound... but if he's willing to let you, then by all means enjoy it. It's a fairly reasonable ruling and doesn't have a lot of impact since level 6 is right around the corner anyway.
If you're going Rapier, the next question is whether you focus Dex or Strength. That'll determine how many open feat slots you really have.
I'm going to focus on Dex. Hate to lose some feat slots but a higher Dex would benefit me more than a high Str score.
Question is when to start or stop improving Dex compared to pumping INT up... Right now I'm dropping STR back to it's original stat of 17 and boosting DEX to 19. At level 8 I think I'll stop putting character bumps into it and put those in INT at 12, 16, 20.
I shouldn't need Fencing Grace until level 7 or 9 though. I'll need to grab Weapon Finesse now though. Depending on how well the Opportune/Riposte goes for an Arcane Deed, I'll have to decide on taking Combat Reflexes before level 11 or not. If I do I can retrain it at level 11 if I need to.
If you're pushing Dex I'd drop Str farther; ask your GM if it's okay to swap it with your Con or Wis.
You're going to want Fencing Grace as early as possible. Unless you're winding up really choked for feat slots, it's worthwhile.
Combat Reflexes... I'm on the fence about. My somewhat-similar setup isn't taking it. The thing is that at lower levels, your Arcane Pool points are a limited resource, and throwing three or four of them out on a single turn isn't something to do lightly. So you want to use the Parry either only when you have points to burn or to stop the most dangerous attacks, and those shouldn't be things you're needing multiples of in a single round.
Forgot that I spent pool points in order to parry, i thought it was only spent on riposte, i had it backwards. Combat Reflexes is out then.
Eigengrau wrote: Yeah I'm torn now between Aldori Dueling Sword and a 18-20 threat weapon.
The Dueling Sword route, I can keep my Sword Scion trait for that extra +1 to hit, and further down the pipeline pick up Dueling Mastery I think its called. It would net me +2 Shield bonus to AC and +2 Initiative.
Falcata is also tempting for the 19-20x3 threat/critical.
However a Scimitar/Rapier/Katana would allow me to crit a lot more.
If I adjusted stats, I think I should probably remove my +1 to STR from level 4, into DEX or INT. CON is 14 right now.
I've got 4 traits, due to taking 2 disadvantages or whatever you call them. 1 Trait is Reactionary, the rest can be changed out. Will probably take Magical Lineage Shocking Grasp and pick up Intensify Spell feat at level 7. Still will keep Bruising Intellect though. Still need 1 more trait.
Sorry if this has been addressed already. High crit multipliers don't really help a magus. The spell crits will use the weapon's threat range, but it will still only do x2 damage, regardless of the weapon's multiplier.
Edit: now that I've read the rest. Don't bother upping dex any more. You can get a belt for physical stats and that should suffice. You'll want to get int as high as possible because for Kensai that directly affects your AC. Higher int also means more spells per day. Since you have weapon focus, a magic weapon (assuming you still pick blade bound), and a high dex, you'll still be able to hit most of the time. Also, having shocking grasp up gives you a +3 to hit anything wearing metal.
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