Athroxis as a Magus?

[wertyou2]

I've been thinking about remaking Athroxis as a magus, since it seems to just mesh better with her role as an enemy, so I gave it a shot. An argument can be made against it though, seeing as magus ≠ wizard, so it kind of goes against the general theme of Runeforge. Still, I'd like to see what other people think of the rebuild.

Note: I know I didn't list skills, but I figured that her modifiers wouldn't be so important to the point that I'd need to recalculate them. Also, in case the difficulty is called into question, I'd like to point out that I'm DMing a party of 8 that are all very well built characters.

Highlady Athroxis
Female Azlanti human Magus 16
LE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +17

DEFENSE
AC 31, touch 16, flat-footed 25 (+13 armor, +2 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 insight, +2 natural)
hp 191 (16d8+116)
Fort +18, Ref +11, Will +15

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee +3 adamantine flaming ranseur +21/+16/+11 (2d4+10/19-20/x3 plus 1d6 fire)
Special Attacks counterstrike, greater spell combat (-2 attack, +2 concentration), spellstrike

Spells Prepared (CL 16th; concentration +19)

6th - chain lightning (DC 23), defending sword
5th - cone of cold (DC 22), dimensional blade, maximized scorching ray, empowered vampiric touch
4th -caustic blood (DC 19), forceful strike, empowered scorching ray (2), shout (DC 21)
3rd - fireball (DC 20), fly, greater magic weapon, haste, keen edge, lightning bolt (DC 20)
2nd - blur, defensive shock, mirror image, scorching ray (3),
1st - burning hands (DC 18), expeditious retreat, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement, shocking grasp, true strike (2)
0(at will)-detect magic, light, flare (DC 17), ray of frost, read magic
Thassilonian Specialization evocation; Opposition Schools abjuration, conjuration

TACTICS
Before Combat Athroxis casts greater magic weapon and keen edge on her ranseur daily, and false life on herself. When she sees the PCs reach K3, she casts fly, blur, defensive shock, and mirror image on herself as well.

During Combat Athroxis casts haste, defending sword, and caustic blood immediately before combat begins, and then uses her cone of cold spells. Before engaging in melee, she spends a point from her arcane pool to increase her weapon’s enhancement bonus by 2, and add a flaming burst enchantment to it as well.

Morale Ahtroxis fights to the death. If reduced to 15 or fewer hit pints, she willingly sacrifices herself, centering a fireball on herself if doing so catches a number of PCs in the blast.

STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 16, Con 20, Int, 20, Wis 10, Cha 12
Base Atk +12, CMB +17, CMD 34
Feats Arcane Strike, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Empower Spell, Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Improved Critical (ranseur) Iron Will, Maximize Spell, Spell Focus (evocation), Toughness
SQ arcane pool (13 points, +4), fighter training, heavy armor, knowledge pool, magus arcana (arcane accuracy, concentrate, maximized magic, quickened magic, spell shield)
Combat Gear as listed, but +4 mithral full plate in place of +4 mithral breastplate

Thoughts?

[Bellona]

Interesting conversion! (By the way, there's no need to list the Thassilonian specialization, as that doesn't apply to a Magus.)

While I can easily understand wanting to make her a Magus (I considered doing that myself), I do think that the leader of the Evocation wing should be an Evoker (even if multi-classed with something else).

On the other hand, there's no reason why her minions couldn't be Magi. Six Magus 8, backed up fronted by their meat shields, could still be a credible threat at that level of play.

[wertyou2]

I decided to keep the detriment of the sin school specialization (though not the benefit, now that I look at it; I'll probably fix that) since every other boss had that limitation. I know it's not normally a magus feature, but I figured it wasn't a huge matter.

Yeah, that's partially why I'm a bit iffy on using the conversion.

I had the same idea for the minions too. I'll make/post their conversion later today.

[the Lorax]

I had that in mind when I designed an alternate Magus Archetype - I posted it in the message boards, but it didn't get much interest.

If you wanna look its here.

[TwoWolves]

I did this for my game. The Warriors of Wrath were all 7 or 8 Magi, and the HighLady was too. I also used some spells from "1001 Spells" and other sources, mainly a lot of swift action/quickened force spells. The called buddy was there to spam Dispels and point out invisible foes, never attacking directly. I think she managed to drop the cleric and scare the crap out of the rest of the party, but in the end, the final blow was struck by.... the party wizard. He also Dominated a warrior of wrath, and so has instantly become a warlord with over a half dozen fanatical followers.

[Razcar]

Bellona wrote:

I do think that the leader of the Evocation wing should be an Evoker (even if multi-classed with something else).

It says on p.279 in the AE that "non-apprentice minions like Delvahine or Athroxis took command" of their respective wings. So story-wise, at least for me, I think it fits quite well to make her a powerful magus who usurped the original evokers. The Runeforge hasn't filled its intended purpose, function or rules for a very long time, after all.