I’ve been working on some magus characters, a sort of “If Tyler Ran the Zoo” project to create a magus class deck (or decks – see later ;) ). My Bladebound Seltyiel role is not part of the class deck(s) thing, though it’s only natural that the process of creating multiple magi, and multiple versions of the iconic magus, has common points across each effort.
This character, Valánta, is part of the class deck. Actually, I’ve expanded the effort to create three characters in a “good” magus class deck (since it includes the iconic magus, Seltyiel, that’s a misnomer) and three characters in a “bad” magus class deck. Valánta was initially conceived as a halfling staff magus, but became a human after seeing this picture. Now I have no idea who or what the character in that image is. I don’t even know if she’s in the Pathfinder setting or if she’s in some other setting. I just think that she looks cool so she gets the job.
First, though, some level setting for those of us that don’t play the RPG and aren’t familiar with the staff magus archetype:
While most magi use a one-handed weapon as their melee implement of choice, one group of magi uses the quarterstaff instead. These lightly armored magi use staves for both defense and inflicting their spells upon enemies. Skilled in manipulating these weapons with one hand or two, they eventually learn how to use arcane staves as well, and are just as formidable in combat as their sword-swinging brethren.
So here’s the base character:
VALÁNTA
Female Human MagusSKILLS
Strength d10 □+1 □+2 □+3
-Melee: Strength +2
Dexterity d8 □+1 □+2 □+3
Constitution d6 □+1 □+2
-Fortitude: Constitution +2
Intelligence d6 □+1 □+2
Wisdom d4 □+1 □+2
Charisma d10 □+1 □+2 □+3
-Arcane: Charisma +1Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with WeaponsChoose a weapon that has the staff trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
You may discard a weapon to recharge a random spell from your discard pile.
You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait and pass a Dexterity or Acrobatics 5 check to reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2.
Cards List
Favored Card Type: Weapon or SpellWeapon 4 □5 □6
Spell 4 □5 □6 □7
Armor - □1
Item 2 □3 □4
Ally 2 □3
Blessing 3 □4
So players familiar with Seltyiel’s rules from the Skull & Shackles base set will notice a few areas where there are distinct differences.
First, this character’s additional skills are capped at 5 instead of 7 (i.e., Seltyiel has Melee: Strength +3, Arcane: Intelligence +3, and Craft: Intelligence +1 whereas Valánta has Melee: Strength +2, Fortitude: Constitution +2, and Arcane: Charisma +1).
Second, the basic magus power has had the wording changed from “…a weapon that doesn’t have the Two-Handed trait…” to “…a weapon that has the Staff trait…” as a core shift in the character’s weapon focus.
Third, Valánta’s power to recharge a spell from her discard pile is automatically successful, but requires discarding a weapon. So there’s a trade off here. In concept, the character will use the weapon and recharge the spell when using her basic magus power, so recharging a spell from the discard pile will be when spells are used for damage (safe enough if you can recharge them later) or when they are non-Attack spells (most players optimize Seltyiel for combat, but there’s nothing prohibiting players from building a more flexible magus). Since the character can acquire most Strength/Melee weapons with relative ease, though, having to discard weapons might allow for those non-Staff weapons she acquires during game play.
This character also has a third power, whereas base Seltyiel only has two. I figured that removing two additional skills justified adding a minor power. So I gave a defensive power suggested by the lore I quoted from Ultimate Magic. The inclusion of “Acrobatics” was deliberate based on a power in one of the roles.
As far as the roles go, I built each around a different focus. Quite simply, one focuses on magic while the other focuses on using staves.
VALÁNTA (SPELLWARDEN)
The spellwarden uses her staff as a focus to amplify her magical powers.Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with □Light Armors, WeaponsChoose a weapon that has the staff trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)( □ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
You may discard (□ recharge) a weapon to recharge a random spell (□ or a spell of your choosing) from your discard pile (□ or put it on top of your deck).
You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait and pass a Dexterity or Acrobatics 5 check to reduce combat (□ any) damage dealt to you by 2.
□ You may recharge a weapon or item that has the Staff trait to add 2 to your check to acquire a spell.
□ You may reveal a weapon or item that has the Staff trait to reduce the difficulty of a check at your location against a bane with the Magic, Arcane, or Divine trait by 3.
So the spellwarden gets stronger with the base character powers while having two additional powers that focus on gaining magic and defeating magic.
VALÁNTA (STAFF MASTER)
Any staff becomes a deadly weapon in the hands of a staff master.Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with □Light Armors, WeaponsChoose a weapon that has the staff trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)( □ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
You may discard a weapon to recharge a random spell from your discard pile.
You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait and pass a Dexterity or Acrobatics 5 check to reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2 (□4).
□ You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait to add 1d6 to your check to defeat a barrier that has the Lock, Obstacle, or Trap trait (□ then you may immediately explore your location if it is your turn).
□ When you would discard a weapon that has the Staff trait for its power, recharge it instead.
□ You may use the above powers with an item with the Staff trait instead of a weapon.
□ You gain the skill Acrobatics: Dexterity +1.
As you can see, this version focuses on the physical use of a staff in combat and defeating banes. One change I’m considering is in the last power, limiting it to a non-combat check. Alternately, it could limit the effect to “another character,” either alone or in conjunction with the non-combat check change. The reason for these potential changes is that a character’s powers shouldn’t all stack in a single way (i.e., combat checks) and a character’s powers should allow for a variety of effects across the spectrum of the game.
Some of the issues affecting this character were the other characters I developed. One, obviously, is a variation of Seltyiel. With the expansion of the project to include a “good” class deck and an “evil” class deck, I split the roles I’d developed for Seltyiel (once seemed appropriately “good”/non-malevolent while the other seemed appropriately “evil”). Also, I’m still trying to finish the ongoing Bladebound Seltyiel discussion that I linked previously, so I don’t want to confuse things by introducing another version of Seltyiel to the mix. The other “good” character is unknown at this time because the third character I created was a drow (Arcaveil), so I shifted him over to the “evil” magus class deck. As I mentioned earlier, this character was originally conceived as a halfling. When the third character became a drow (he was originally conceived as a human, but changed for reasons I’ll describe in his discussion), I turned Valánta into a human because I can’t recall a single class deck other than the druid class deck that didn’t include at least one human. With the realignment of the drow magus into the “evil” magus class deck, I can turn Valánta back into a halfling if my third character ends up being human. My current concept for that character is a non-human character, though, so Valánta will probably remain a human. Basically, I wanted to avoid having characters/roles look too much alike, so the development process was iterative and involved comparing characters/roles to ensure that there were distinct differences.
Any suggestions for improving this character would be appreciated.
I've done some tinkering with the Spellwarden role:
VALÁNTA (SPELLWARDEN)
The spellwarden uses her staff as a focus to amplify her magical powers.Powers
Hand Size 5 □ 6 □ 7
Proficient with □ Light Armors, WeaponsChoose a weapon that has the staff trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)( □ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.
You may discard a weapon to recharge a random spell (□ or a spell of your choosing) from your discard pile.
You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait and pass a Dexterity or Acrobatics 5 check to reduce combat (□ any) damage dealt to you by 2.
□ You may recharge a weapon that has the Staff trait to add 2 (□ 4) to your check that invokes the Magic trait.
□ You may reveal a weapon that has the Staff trait to reduce the difficulty of another character's non-combat check at your location against a bane with the Magic or Arcane trait by 3.
□ You may use the above powers with an item with the Staff trait instead of a weapon.