Why does Eldritch Scion replace spell recall?

[insaneogeddon]

Is iy some balance thing I cannot fathom?

That alone shuts down a whole bunch of unique kinds of magus as its a huge penalty on trying to combo archetypes.

I sooo wanted to play a suli elemental knight (magus) eldritch scion and they fit together so well on so many levels... alas. One day a feat might come out or a home brew that has some artistic flair.

[blahpers]

Hmm. What would you replace instead?

[LoneKnave]

The reason is that he is a spontaneous caster, so he can't really regain spells he cast. He could regain spellslots, I guess, but it had to change either way.

It's still a pretty terrible archetype though. Also, Elemntal Knight really should have been just a bunch of feats/arcanas instead of a whole archetype (same with fiend flayer).

EDIT: bargain with your DM for the ability to take the arcanas. Being an eldritch scion is punishment enough.

[kestral287]

What LoneKnave said is certainly valid, but it is worth noting that the Hexcrafter, which is a very strong contender for the best Magus archetype, only replaces Spell Recall, so there's a balancing note in there too.

For a home game, talk to the GM. Good money you could get away with it.

[Shane LeRose]

Paizo screwed the pooch. Hey, it happens!

The fact that so many people are shoehorning this archetype into their characters shows how much a spontaneous magus is needed.

Heck, might as well make a magus/sorcerer hybrid called the blood-blade, or something.

Folks want a spontaneous magus and Paizo failed to deliver. Now game tables are being littered with people trying to play a sub-par character. In AP's, that can get a party killed.

Now if Paizo was smart (and they are, just sloppy sometimes) they'd create support for the archetype in the way of feats, traits or even spells that would make an eldritch scion a bit sexier.

A spell that lets you bloodrage for a few rounds without using your arcane pool. A feat that lets you maintain the bloodrage as a free action instead of costing you a swift action every other round.

Just some thoughts.

[kestral287]

Well, for home games at least there's always the old "talk to the GM" (I run a spontaneous Kensai right now), and a few 3rd party bits-- though 3rd party stuff seems to have a habit of screwing up the Magus even more often than Pazio does. Primagus from Rite is a spontaneous Cha-based Magus that's mostly solid, right up until somebody decided what it really needed was Rage. And no abilities to synergize with Rage. But Pazio Fans United put out the Spiderhawk, an Int-based spontaneous Magus that's... really good. Not in the blatantly-broken sense; it's a pretty balanced archetype, but it manages to bring a lot of new tricks to the table for the Magus by hybridizing in the Rogue without actually infringing on the Magus' ability to be a Magus.