Just re-read Master of Devils and it makes me think about an unarmed combat magus. I can't immediately think of a very good way to do this effectively.
Any ideas on how to do this?
Esoteric archetype is designed to be an unarmed combat magus.
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Esoteric archetype is designed to be an unarmed combat magus.
Yes, but unfortunately it is designed poorly. Its main appeal is that it lets you spellstrike with unarmed strikes, but the designer overlooked that a regular Magus can already do that anyway. And it gets diminished spellcasting, which is not nice to have.
Archetypes that are a better fit for an unarmed combat Magus include Hexcrafter, Eldritch Scion, Magic Warrior, and Puppetmaster.
Yes, but unfortunately it is designed poorly. Its main appeal is that it lets you spellstrike with unarmed strikes, but the designer overlooked that a regular Magus can already do that anyway.
I don't know, looks like the main appeal was meant to be "Your unarmed strike deals damage as a monk" and "you can enchant your fists", rather than the writer thinking you couldn't already spellstrike with unarmed since it says it as a "You can *only* use spell strike with unarmed" rather than suggesting that magus couldn't before.
The hexcrafter would only do slight damage with his unarmed strikes.
The Esoteric sounds perfect. I don't yet have OA so I didn't now about it.
thx!
The down sides I've seen with the Esoteric is AC and bypassing DR. I've tried to build a few and giving them a decent AC so they can get in close to got HTH was difficult. Mirror Images and Shield were their mainstay. Also having their Tats to hold a spell as a SPA helped with the diminished casting. I opted to use my first for Shield. But the DR issue kept popping up. If anyone has advice on that it would help.
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Here's the two weird questions I have concerning the Magus/Esoteric:
A base magus, and many of it's archetypes, have a list of weapon qualities they can add to their weapon when they enhance it with Arcane Pool. Impact is not one of those abilities.
However, the Esoteric Arcane Pool lists Impact as a weapon enhancement they can add, which is odd as Impact normally can't be applied to Light Weapons (which unarmed strikes are).
Does this mean that all Magus' can add impact, or just the Esoteric?
Does this allow the Esoteric to bypass the restriction on the Impact weapon enchant when applying it via Arcane pool?
Does this mean that all Magus' can add impact, or just the Esoteric?
Just esoteric.
Does this allow the Esoteric to bypass the restriction on the Impact weapon enchant when applying it via Arcane pool?
Yes, as specific beats general when it comes to whether rules override each other.
Esoteric really depends on what level you are. It gets better at higher levels when the SLAs partially compensate for the diminished spellcasting and your fists get big, but at low levels you take diminished spellcasting and lose armor in exchange for a bonus feat and a very tiny amount of bonus damage and that's pretty awful.
They still get the 1st level light armor ability like most Magi. They do lose the 7th level medium armor ability and the 13th level heavy armor ability, but they get a +1 dodge bonus at each of those levels while wearing light or no armor.
So use a chain shirt for a +4 armor bonus at first. Take the Armor Expert Trait and, once you have a little cash, you can get a mithril breastplate for a +6 armor bonus. At 7th level you are also getting that +1 dodge bonus, and at 13th level that jumps to +2. At most levels they are matching the vanilla Magus or just a bit behind. At very high levels, when you have plenty of cash, Brawling Elven Chain becomes very appealing.
They still get the 1st level light armor ability like most Magi.Nope, their armor proficiencies are replaced.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An esoteric is proficient with simple weapons only. This alters the magus’s weapon and armor proficiency.emphasis mine, they do not have proficiency with light armor. Incidentally, this also takes away their ability to cast light armor with no ASF, so chain shirt is probably a bad idea even with armor expert.
Haramiki lacks both an ASF and an ACP so it's a solid pick though.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An esoteric is proficient with simple weapons only. This alters the magus’s weapon and armor proficiency.
Emphasis mine. Alters means that the original version is intact other than the changes specified. It is not the same as replacing the ability. In this case the only change is to limit them to simple weapons. The armor proficiency and ability to ignore ASF aren't touched.
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Weapon and Armor Proficiency: An esoteric is proficient with simple weapons only. This alters the magus’s weapon and armor proficiency.Emphasis mine. Alters means that the original version is intact other than the changes specified. It is not the same as replacing the ability. In this case the only change is to limit them to simple weapons. The armor proficiency and ability to ignore ASF aren't touched.
I'd agree with this, Also:
At 7th level when an esoteric wears light or no armor, he gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC and CMD.
This bonus increases by 1 at 13th level. He loses these bonuses while immobilized or helpless, or while wearing medium or heavy armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load.
This ability replaces medium armor and heavy armor.
I know this isn't proof, but it does seem like a strange thing to include if an Esoteric Magus can't wear light armour without spending a feat on proficiency (and even then would have Arcane Spell Failure).