| GeneMemeScene |
OVERVIEW
While they aren’t the cliché that the dex magus is, the strength magus is hardly wanting for power. However, it is something of a letdown that the magus is basically restricted to one-handed weapons. They can admittedly still spellstrike with a two-hander, but then they’re missing out on one of their main abilities with little to show for it, and the supremacy of large critical threat ranges compared to the lack of advantage for high critical multipliers can be fixed. The mindblade takes until level 13 to answer the former, doesn’t answer the latter, and comes with the possibly unwanted conversion to psychic magic.
The meteor knight is supposed to cover this, with all of its features useable with any melee weapon you can wield and rewarding higher critical multipliers. I realized about ¾ of the way through that this setup was screaming for a bladebound falcata, and I think that’s great. Spell Combat is now purely for keeping up some damage while buffing and can no longer be used for mini-flurry. The early access to medium and heavy armor comes from an early draft that was actually supposed to get Armor Training and full movement in armor, but I figured that much wasn’t necessary.
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METEOR KNIGHT
The meteor knight uses the raw might of their weapon to enforce their arcane abilities, landing explosive spells to overwhelm their enemies’ defenses.
WEAPON AND ARMOR PROFICIENCY
A meteor knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light and medium armor. They can cast magus spells while wearing light or medium armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a meteor knight wearing heavy armor or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass meteor knight still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.
HEAVY SPELL COMBAT
As a full-round action, a meteor knight can make one attack with a melee weapon held in one hand at a –2 penalty and can also cast a spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action; this spell cannot be one that requires an attack roll. If they cast this spell defensively, they can decide to take an additional penalty on the attack roll, up to their Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on the concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attack still takes the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attack first.
At 4rd level, a meteor knight may use both hands to wield their weapon during the attack.
At 8th level, a meteor knight may use Heavy Spell Combat as a standard action.
This ability replaces Spell Combat.
HEAVY SPELLSTRIKE
When a meteor knight delivers a spell through Spellstrike, the DCs of all saving throws made in response to the spell are increased by the critical multiplier of the weapon used -2.
This ability alters Spellstrike.
HEAVY ARMOR
At 7th level, a meteor knight gains proficiency with heavy armor. They can cast magus spells while wearing heavy armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a meteor knight using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component.
This ability replaces Medium Armor.
METEOR CRASH
At 8th level, as a full round action, a meteor knight can cast an area of effect spell strengthened the weapon they wield. The DCs of all saving throws that enemies make in response to the spell cast increase by an amount equal to the critical multiplier of the meteor knight’s weapon. This ability can only be used with spell that has a shaped area of effect (cone, line, sphere, etc.). This ability cannot be used with spells that produce multiple areas of effect. If the spell has a radius, the meteor knight must center the radius on themselves.
This ability replaces Improved Spell Combat.
CALAMITY WARD
At 8th level, when a meteor knight prepares their spells, they can choose to lose one prepared spell of any level they can cast. This allows them to designate a number of creatures up to the level of the spell lost +2 whenever they cast a spell. The designated creatures gain a bonus equal to the meteor knight’s Intelligence modifier on saving throws against spells cast by a meteor knight. Damage dealt to the designated creatures by spells cast by a meteor knight also decreases by the meteor knight’s caster level + the meteor knight’s intelligence modifier. This decrease is applied after factoring in resistances, vulnerabilities, and the outcomes of saving throws.
This ability replaces the magus arcana normally gained at 9th level.
PENETRATING MAGIC
At 13th level, if a meteor knight is wielding a melee weapon enhanced by their arcane pool, they gain a bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon.
This ability replaces Heavy Armor.
METEOR CHARGE
At 14th level, a meteor knight may cast a spell delivered through Spellstrike in place of the attack at the end of a charge. In addition to the +2 bonus on attack rolls and -2 penalty on AC for charging, the spell cast has its saving throw DCs increased by 2. Effects that augment damage dealt on a charge only apply to the weapon damage and not any damage dealt by the spell.
This ability replaces Greater Spell Combat.
UNSTOPPABLE IMPACT
At 20th level, a meteor knight does not need to make concentration checks to cast defensively when using their Heavy Spell Combat, Spellstrike, Meteor Crash, and Meteor Charge abilities.
This ability replaces True Magus.
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MAIN CONCERNS
- Poorly worded abilities and/or abilities that require more specification
- Any unfair breaking of action economy (Heavy Spell Combat as a standard action is most suspect)
- Being overpowered in any other way (like maybe those DC increases)
- Whether this is actually a helpful archetype for users of two-handed or high crit multiplier weapons
- Whether something about this archetype buffs a weapon style I didn’t intend, particularly if it benefits them more than it does the two-handers and high crit wielders.
CHANGES SO FAR
- Removed "At 6th level, this increase becomes equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon used" from Heavy Spellstrike
| GeneMemeScene |
So wait, heavy spell combat isn't actually a full attack sort of move, it's just a 1 or 2-hit deal?
Yeah. 1.5xstr with two handed weapons on an actual spell combat on its own would probably be worth more than everything this archetype trades out.
Now that I think about it though, that might be too much of a lateral change, as now Spell Combat and Heavy Spell Combat are pretty incongruous, both in mechanics and intended use.
Perhaps an alteration instead:
"As a full-round action, they can make all of their attacks with their melee weapon at a –2 penalty, but their highest bab attack is replaced by casting any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If this spell includes any attack rolls, those attacks also take the -2 penalty.
At 4rd level, a meteor knight may use both hands to wield their weapon during the attack."
But it comes down to how much of a nerf is needed to account for the advantage of two-handing.
| Cyrad RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16 |
I'm not a fan of it. The magus could already cast a spell and attack with a two-hander using spellstrike.The archetype gets a bunch of abilities that are way better than what they lose. And the archetype gets medium armor early for no reason, which is a really big buff for the magus.
I'm Hiding In Your Closet
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Why does the Archetype still have to wait until 4th level to use 2-handed weapons?
Also, it changes too many things; this is an alteration to the Magus I've wanted for a long time (i.e. since I first read the class), so I definitely give you credit for trying, but an Archetype that fills this niche ideally shouldn't replace/modify any class features except Spell Combat and its advancements, so it can be compatible with as many other Archetypes as possible (for example, the way you made it, it couldn't go with the Kensei).
| GeneMemeScene |
I'm not a fan of it. The magus could already cast a spell and attack with a two-hander using spellstrike.The archetype gets a bunch of abilities that are way better than what they lose. And the archetype gets medium armor early for no reason, which is a really big buff for the magus.
They lose the Spell Combat > Spellstrike > Full Attack chain, which was the magus' biggest perk; this doesn't have a corresponding "nova" like the base magus does. It ends doing less damage to single targets in exchange for more better AoE. The armor things were more just the image in my head and because the Armored Battlemage is awful, but right, one thing at a time.
I'll be streamlining things in my next post.
an Archetype that fills this niche ideally shouldn't replace/modify any class features except Spell Combat and its advancements, so it can be compatible with as many other Archetypes as possible (for example, the way you made it, it couldn't go with the Kensei).
Getting a two-handed magus to stack with Kensai would take some finagling, because a two-handed Spell Combat would be broken. This means you need to nerf Spell Combat, and doing so generally means enough changes to the ability that it demands renaming the ability. And if you've renamed Spell Combat, then you need to alter the text of True Magus, which Kensai replaces.
However, Eldritch Scion calls its alteration of Spell Combat "Spell Combat", so I guess it's doable.
| My Self |
Why not push spell combat back a few levels (from the original Magus level), completely drop the ability to get a spell combat bonus to defensively cast, and offer Calamity Ward as an arcana, instead of a mandated replacement? Instead of doing a musical chairs replacement of medium armor with heavy armor, and heavy armor with another feature, why not simply alter heavy armor to happen at an earlier level?
| GeneMemeScene |
Ah, much tidier at least.
CHANGES:
- Abilities and replacements streamlined
- DC bonuses slightly reduced
- Armor related abilities removed
- My concern about the arcana is that this could be a considerable blessing to blasters with VMC Magus, getting them a more easily version of Selective Spell 3 levels earlier.
- This archetype would stack with Beastblade, Bladebound, Hexcrafter, Kensai, and Staff Magus.
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METEOR KNIGHT
The meteor knight uses the raw might of their weapon to enforce their arcane abilities, landing explosive spells to overwhelm their enemies’ defenses.
SPELL COMBAT
A meteor knight can use spell combat with a weapon held in two hands, so long as one hand can freely let go of the weapon.
They cannot use spell combat to cast any spell that requires an attack roll.
At 8th level, when using spell combat, the meteor knight does make the attack roll at their lowest base attack bonus (bab-5 from levels 8-14, bab-10 from level 15 onwards).
This ability alters spell combat.
SPELLSTRIKE
When a meteor knight delivers a spell through Spellstrike while holding their weapon in two hands, the DCs of all saving throws made in response to the spell are increased by the critical multiplier of the weapon used - 2.
This ability alters spellstrike.
METEOR CRASH
At 8th level, as a full round action, a meteor knight can cast an area of effect spell strengthened the weapon they wield. The DCs of all saving throws that enemies make in response to the spell cast increase by an amount equal to the critical multiplier of the meteor knight’s weapon - 1. This ability can only be used with spell that has a shaped area of effect (cone, line, sphere, etc.). This ability cannot be used with spells that produce multiple areas of effect. If the shape of the spell has a radius, the meteor knight must center the radius on themselves.
This ability replaces Improved Spell Combat.
PENETRATING MAGIC
At 14th level, if a meteor knight is wielding a melee weapon enhanced by their arcane pool, they gain a bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon - 1.
This ability replaces Greater Spell Combat.
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And introducing a new arcana:
CALAMITY WARD
When you prepare your spells, you can choose to lose one prepared spell of the highest level you can cast to gain the benefits of this arcana. When you cast a spell from the magus spell list, you may chose to lose a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell lost to designate a number of targets equal to the level of the spell lost. These targets are excluded from the effects of the spell cast and you take damage equal to twice the level of the spell lost.
| GeneMemeScene |
Lowest BAB? That attack is often thought of as a lost cause already. Perhaps just a flat -5 penalty to hit with a spell?
The Magus has tons of accuracy boosting options and ways of hitting flat footed and touch attacks. BAB-15 is a lost cause, BAB-10 not so much, and BAB-5 not really.
And this spell combat can't combo with spellstrike anyway; there's no spell to be getting a -5 penalty to.
The idea that this archetype ends up with fewer attacks during spell combat than a normal magus using the spell combat cast with spellstrike.
1st: both can get one spell and one attack, but the normal magus can make that spell a touch spell through spellstrike for an extra attack
8th: the meteor knight still only gets one spell and one attack, while the normal magus gets two attacks and can get a third via spellstrike
15th: meteor knight gets one spell and two attacks, while the normal magus gets three attacks and can get a fourth via spellstrike; even calling the bab-10 a lost cause, that puts the normal magus potentially one attack ahead
| GeneMemeScene |
CHANGES:
- More streamlining
- Spellstrike removed
- Protecting party from own spells now in-archetype feature again
+ DC increases improved, but now limited by level
- This archetype would stack with Beastblade, Bladebound, Hexcrafter, Kensai, and Staff Magus (and possibly others).
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METEOR KNIGHT V3
The meteor knight uses the raw might of their weapon to enforce their arcane abilities, landing explosive spells to overwhelm their enemies’ defenses.
SPELL COMBAT
A meteor knight can use spell combat with a weapon held in two hands, so long as one hand can freely let go of the weapon.
Upon reaching a base attack bonus of +6, when using spell combat, the meteor knight does not make the attack roll at their lowest base attack bonus. (bab-5 from level 8-14, bab-10 from level 15 onwards)
This ability alters spell combat.
METEOR STRIKE
At 2nd level, when the meteor knight casts a spell with an area of effect, they can channel it through their weapon to improve its power. The meteor knight must be wielding a magic weapon to use this ability. The DCs of all saving throws that enemies make in response to the spell cast increase by an amount equal to the critical multiplier of the meteor knight’s weapon (up to a total of half the Meteor Knight's caster level). This ability can only be used with spell that has a shaped area of effect (cone, line, sphere, etc.). This ability cannot be used with spells that produce multiple areas of effect. If the shape of the spell has a radius, the meteor knight must center the radius on themselves. The Meteor Knight receives a bonus on saving throws equal to their Intelligence Modifier against their own spells cast this way.
This ability replaces spellstrike.
CALAMITY WARD
At 7th level, when a meteor knight prepares their spells, they can choose to lose one prepared spell of the highest level they can cast to gain the benefits of this arcana. When the meteor knight casts a spell from the magus spell list, they may chose to lose a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell lost to designate a number of targets equal to the level of the spell lost. These targets are excluded from the effects of the spell cast and you take damage equal to twice the level of the spell lost.
This ability replaces Improved Spell Combat.
PENETRATING MAGIC
At 14th level, if a meteor knight is wielding a melee weapon enhanced by their arcane pool, they gain a bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance equal to the critical multiplier of the weapon.
This ability replaces Greater Spell Combat.