Magus Archetype Homebrew

[thflame]

Here is a Magus Archetype, the spellsword, that I thought up. Please critique.

Spellcasting: A spellsword casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a spellsword must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level. The DC for a saving throw against a spellsword's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the spellsword's Charisma modifier. A spellsword can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is the same as a bard of the same level. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

An spellsword's selection of spells is limited. He has the same number of spells known as a bard of the same level, and can choose new spells to replace old ones at 5th level and every 3 class levels after that, just as a bard does. See the bard for more information on swapping spells known.

This ability replaces the magus's spells class feature, Spell Recall, Knowledge Pool, Medium Armor, Improved Spell Recall, Heavy Armor, and Greater Spell Access.

The spellsword may not select Item Creation Feats as a Bonus Feat

The Spellsword may not select the following Magus Arcana: Empowered Magic, Familiar, Maximized Magic, Quickened Magic, Reach Magic, Rod Mastery, Rod Wielder, Scroll Mastery, Silent Magic, Still Magic, Wand Mastery, and Wand Wielder.

[Cyrad]

I'm not a fan of it at all, honestly.

[Artifix]

In my opinion, usually an archetype has a theme that most it's powers and lack of powers follow. I don't see a theme like that in this archetype, if you have one please tell me.

To quickly go further into this I would like to ask, why are those specific feats and Arcana not allowed. I don't see a connection between them and having Sorcerer/Wizard spells.

[thflame]

Artifix wrote:

In my opinion, usually an archetype has a theme that most it's powers and lack of powers follow. I don't see a theme like that in this archetype, if you have one please tell me.

To quickly go further into this I would like to ask, why are those specific feats and Arcana not allowed. I don't see a connection between them and having Sorcerer/Wizard spells.

The "theme" is sort of a spontaneous magus with a non-restricted spell list.

Honestly, I really like the Magus' flavor, but every time I try to make one, I look at the spell list and give up.

Here's how I see it.

A Wizard is a guy who pours over books and sinks hours in to research, just to learn how to manipulate the arcane.

An Eldritch Knight is a Wizard who spends his nights learning how to fight (or a fighter who spends his nights learning how to cast spells) and has learned how to multitask to keep both skill sets sharp. He isn't as good a fighter as a guy who only fights and he isn't as good of a caster as a guy who only practices spells, but he is pretty good at both. (Hence, why most Eldritch Knight's have CL of 14-18 and a BAB of 15-17)

A Magus is a guy who started out wanting to be an eldritch Knight, but then came up with the idea to merge fighting and spell casting. He spent a good deal of time learning how to merge these abilities, so he won't fight or cast as well as an Eldritch Knight (Only get's 6th level spells and BAB 15) but he has some cool abilities.

Now, why is it that a Wizard can learn any arcane spell (that he is skilled enough to cast) and an Eldritch Knight can learn any arcane spell (that he is skilled enough to cast) but a Magus just has mental blocks when it comes to learning specific spells, especially when those spells would synergize with the Magus very well (Touch of Fatigue, for example)? I know they CAN learn Wizard spells too, but they either have to wait until level 19, or spend their Magus Arcana Feats, which I interpret as the part of Magus training that focuses on the merging of might and magic.

All of them learn spells from books/research, but for some reason, the Magus can't learn certain spells that other Wizards of his arcane skill level can.

I also like spontaneous casters more than prepared ones. (It's a book keeping thing.) I wouldn't mind playing a prepared Magus, if he actually had a list of spells that I didn't feel were useless. Most early Magus spells are just plain bad. I was picking spells for an NPC and after a point, I was just grabbing spells because I had free spots, not because I wanted them or would ever prepare them.

The Bard has a limited spell list too, but that makes sense because the bard spells are mostly about manipulating people. I also have difficulty picking what spells I want now and what spells I am willing to wait for. I feel like I am missing out on something when I pick one spell over another as a bard. I feel like if I ran into another bard, he would have different spells and be better than my bard in some areas and worse in others.

When it comes to the Magus, it feels like every magus picks the same half dozen spells. If a Magus doesn't pick certain spells (like Shocking Grasp) they are probably going to end up being "that corpse you find the cool loot on in the dungeon". The only reason Magi pick additional spells are that they get them anyway and might as well add them (they might be useful later).

[Artifix]

K that is good, but why ban those specific Magus Arcana. I guess I see the Item Creation thing, as a Magus wouldn't have much time for it. However I don't get why you don't allow metamagic Magus Arcana.

Edit: Also have you checked out Spell Blending.

[thflame]

Artifix wrote:

K that is good, but why ban those specific Magus Arcana. I guess I see the Item Creation thing, as a Magus wouldn't have much time for it. However I don't get why you don't allow metamagic Magus Arcana.

Edit: Also have you checked out Spell Blending.

I banned the Metamagic ones, because spontaneous casters have to normally spend a full round action to cast them, so I assumed that a spontaneous Magus wouldn't be able to use them effectively.

I banned Item Creation Feats because the is usually a Wizard thing and this Magus is more of a Sorcerer than a Wizard.

I have looked at Spell Blending, but I feel like a Magus shouldn't need to spend a Magus Arcana just to learn a spell, that a Wizard of his arcane skill level could learn with no trouble.

[Artifix]

Understandable. Though if you are leaning more towards being a Sorcerer based archetype, then you might want to connect it more with the blood of the Magus. Then again there is the Ley Line Guardian archetype for witch.

Also if you're taking away that much, then I would suggest adding a slight bit more. As well as fluff, fluff never hurt anyone.

[thflame]

Artifix wrote:

Understandable. Though if you are leaning more towards being a Sorcerer based archetype, then you might want to connect it more with the blood of the Magus. Then again there is the Ley Line Guardian archetype for witch.

Also if you're taking away that much, then I would suggest adding a slight bit more. As well as fluff, fluff never hurt anyone.

The ultimate goal is to be able to cast from the full list. If I can make an archetype for this and make it similar to the Cabalist, that would be perfect.

Perhaps losing Spell Recall and Improved Spell Recall to have access to the full spell list on top of the Cabalist?

A far as fluff goes, to me, this is what the Magus feels like it should have been from the beginning to me (minus the spontaneous casting of course).

[Cyrad]

thflame wrote:

The ultimate goal is to be able to cast from the full list. If I can make an archetype for this and make it similar to the Cabalist, that would be perfect.

Perhaps losing Spell Recall and Improved Spell Recall to have access to the full spell list on top of the Cabalist?

A far as fluff goes, to me, this is what the Magus feels like it should have been from the beginning to me (minus the spontaneous casting of course).

I still feel like the goal of giving the magus the full wizard list -- the most powerful arcane spell list in the game -- is misguided.

Your comment about the fluff confuses me. All the archetype does is give the magus spontaneous casting and expand their spell list.

[Amanuensis]

A better approach to achieve your goal would be to create magus archetypes focused on a specific school of magic, including options for an expanded spell list.

I tried something like this here with a magus archetype focused on mind-affecting spells. I could imagine similar archetypes focused on necromancy, conjuration (teleportation), illusion, and transmutation. That way, you increase variety among different magi without destroying class balance.

[MrCharisma]

thflame wrote:

Here is a Magus Archetype, the spellsword, that I thought up. Please critique.

OK

Fluff Text?
I feel like I agree with the others here, this archetype doesn't seem to have much role-playing flavour. Mechanically it changes a bunch, there doesn't seem to be much of a unifying theme.

Spontaneous Caster?
There doesn't seem to be much of a reason that this archetype is a spontaneous caster. In fact it seems to contradict some of what you were saying about how a magus learns from a book so why can't he learn all the wizard spells. Not trying to say BAD WRONG FUN, this is just something that feels like it needs a bit more flavour text to make sense.

Specialize
I like Amanuensis' idea of focusing on a specific school.
Maybe at 4th level you choose a school of magic & you can learn any spell on the wizard's list that belongs to that school (up to 6th level using wizard level as magus level etc etc). At lvl 11 you choose a second school & can learn those as well (this replaces spell recall/improved spell recall). This means you don't get the ENTIRE wizard spell-list, but you can get a pretty amazingly expanded one.

Balancing the class
- This one might just be me, but why lose medium/heavy armour? All you're really doing there is shoe-horning this archetype into being dex-only. I realise you're probably trying to balance it a bit - taking away some old toys since you gave it so many new ones - but this seems less like a mechanical nerf and more like a thematic nerf.
- Also it's worth mentioning that losing spell recall AND improved spell recall means you actually end up with a lot less spells per day. The Hexcrafter loses spell recall, but picks it up later (when the normal magus gets improved spell recall), but the hexcrafter also gets hexes to keep them relevant in a long day. This one actually IS a nerf.
- Last note for this one: If you're going for an archetype that gets way more spells to choose from, it seems thematic to lose something like Fighter Training or even the bonus feats (or even something like Spellstrike, though that'd take some serious thought). Again, think about the theme you're going with.

Metamagic ArcanaTotally with you on this one, I feel like spontaneously casting every wizard spell and adding metamagic on the fly for no cost is probably going to unbalance things a bit (a bit more?).

Sorry about the wall of text. I can see what you're trying to do (Spontaneous Magus with improved spell-list), and I'm keen to see what you end up with, this just doesn't feel like a final draft to me.

[MrCharisma]

Also if you're having trouble with the fluff of "a magus can only cast these spells for some reason" think about this: A magus can cast any spells he wants, he just has to take levels in wizard (or whatever).

The reason only certain spells work for the magus is that he has to be able to cast any spell on the magus list with just a flick of the wrist in the midst of combat. Sure there are some amazing spells out there, but the magus is used to doing things much faster than a wizard, and with less concentration (he's focusing a lot on his sword). If he wants to get some of those cool spells to work with spell-combat he has to research a way to cast them on the fly (spell blending). Not every spell works with spell combat without some finagling.