I've never played the Magus before, but was inspired to build one based on the class' versatility. Toward that end, I'd like to submit what the character looks like at Level 1 (150 GP for gear) as well as show where they're going... and ask you a few questions about it.
Please bear in mind my critique is mostly concerned with "is this good enough to carry its weight at a table and not drag the party down?" I'm not worried about total optimization for damage output, merely "Good enough" while maintaining high flavor; I was going for a Sarenrae worshipper who is also something of an overachiever that dabbles in many interests. Yet if you see anything that makes it legitimately unplayably bad, please suggest improvements. If at all possible, maintaining the overall flavor of the build is highly desired but I'm willing to lose an aspect or two of it if need be. I'm also wanting a legality check, as I'm not sure my Hex and Arcana selection were done correctly.
With that said, here's the build:
(Name TBD)
Human Magus (Hexcrafter archetype) 1, Align NG. Deity: Sarenrae
Attributes
Str 8
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 14
Note this will be a Scimitar Magus build once it can take Dervish Dance.
Cha 14 is an intentional choice to enable this character to do Face roles.
Combat Stats
AC 15 (10 Base, 3 Dex, , +2 armor)
HP 8 (6 Class + 1 Con + 1 Favored Class Bonus)
Melee Attacks: Gladius (1d20+3, 1d6-1 dmg) or Tonfa (1d20+3, 1d6-1 dmg) or Cold Iron Dagger (1d20+3, 1d4-1 dmg)
Special: Blade of Mercy - may do +1 damage on non-lethal slashing attacks and ignore the -4 attack penalty.
Ranged Attacks: Sling (1d20+3, 1d3-1 dmg, uses Rocks) or Acid Splash (1d20+3 vs. Ranged Touch, 1d3 Acid, will get Acid vial for +1 Dmg later on)
Saves: Fort +3, Ref + 3, Will +2
Favored Class Bonuses
Always +1 HP. Will go straight Magus 11 or Magus 12.
Languages
Common, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal.
Skills
The usual Magus choices are kept maxed (the relevant Knowledges, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, etc), with a few ranks in the Perform skills needed to Dervish Dance, plus Intimidate and Diplomacy for Face role.
Traits
Blade of Mercy (+1 damage, ignore attack penalty, for non-lethal slashing attacks)
Friend in Every Town (+1 Diplomacy and Know/Local, Diplomacy is Class Skill)
Will later gain Additional Traits feat to pick up...
Magaambyan Arcana (adds Burst of Radiance to spell list)
Magical Lineage (for Shocking Grasp metamagic purposes)
Feats
1: Weapon Finesse, Eschew Materials
3: Dervish Dance
5: Additional Traits (see Traits above), Intensified Spell (Bonus Feat)
7: Improved Familiar (Silvanshee Agathion)
9: Spell Penetration
11: Toughness, Merciful Spell (Bonus Feat)
Arcana/Hexes
3: Flight (via Hexcrafter) - Legality check requested
4: Healing (via Hexcrafter)
6: Familiar
9: Empowered Magic
12: Devoted Blade (Unlikely to actually get to use it due to level cap, though)
Common Spell Choices - Obviously not all at once, but they show the general trends in daily memorization.
Cantrips/0: Acid Splash, Light, Prestidigitation, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Brand (this is gained via Hexcrafter)
1: Shocking Grasp, Vanish, Obscuring Mist, Grease, Burning Hands, Snowball, True Strike, Magic Missile, and so on.
2: Bladed Dash, Burst of Radiance, Frigid Touch, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray (really wish I could fit Admonishing Ray into the build...), Glitterdust, etc.
3: Haste, Fly, Vampiric Touch, Sleet Storm, Fireball, Aqueous Orb, Storm Step, etc.
4: Dimension Door, Dragon's Breath, Shield of the Dawnflower, Wall of Ice, Ward Shield, etc.
5 and 6: Unavailable to this character before the practical level cap is hit.
Character also has various Curse spells available via Hexcrafter.
Starting Gear (Roughly 150 GP spent of 150 GP available, only pocket-change is left):
Lamellar Curiass
Gladius
Tonfa
Dagger, Cold Iron
Sling (uses Rocks for ammo)
1x Alchemist's Fire
1x Cure Light Wounds Potion
Spellbook
Magus Kit (character is Encumbered by this and will drop it to regain 30' Speed in combat)
Closing Notes
As you can see, this character spreads out their focus a lot. I envision them as a very curious scholar type who wants to be useful in a lot of different ways (some healing, some terrain control, some Face skills, places some value on learning holy spells like Burst of Radiance, etc) while still being able to help out with long range and close range fighting. It's a high-flavor build, but I want to be sure it's at least playable and won't drag the party down. Being able to end some fights non-lethally is fairly important to the character, given their Sarenrae religion.
With this in mind, is my build legal and would you be comfortable with it at the table at level 1? Level 3? Level 5 to 11?
Thank you for reading this, I look forward to your input!
At a minimum I would swap flight with healing since you can't fly until 5th anyway, and once per day levitate doesn't seem all that useful to me.
Taks, thanks for chiming in! ...I think we just found the first error in my build. Turns out NEITHER Witch Hex can be selected at Level 3. Your reasoning is sound, but it seems I can't do either of those. Glad you made me double-check with what was otherwise a great idea, though!
So I need to find a proper Magus Arcana to take its place. Maybe something that increases attack accuracy. Then I'll have to make a choice between healing OR flying, and I'll probably do the former because Magus spells can grant Fly and I can replicate Feather Fall via a Ring.
Still, you said "at a minimum." Do you find any other glaring issues?
Well, given that, maybe... Unfortunately, I'm partaking in my other hobby at the moment (as if Pathfinder is a hobby, rather than a lifestyle) so I can't say for sure, but arcane accuracy is my next guess.
My first post was from the couch on my phone so I didn't check what was legal other than I know flight doesnt grant flight until 5th level, which sorta always chapped my hide. Maybe if you got class level uses of levitate per day...
I'll look at it more within the next day.
Oh, and fly is on the Magus list. You just can't cast it for a while...
Yeah. I just wanted access to some of the other perks, but when the choice is between healing (a new ability) or extra access to an existing ability (flight)... I'll take the new ability.
I've swapped Arcane Accuracy in to help the lack of Weapon Focus and other DPR-optimization in the build, should take the edge off some of it.
And really, I appreciate the help you've offered; you revealed a major goof-up I'd made!
I'd put the Familiar Arcana at level 3, then either healing at 5 flight at 6, or flight at 4 healing at 6.
The flight hex is amazing on a magus, because you get the ability to fly 2 full levels before you get the fly spell. Also even when you do get flight, you can either fly once for 7 minutes per day at the cost of your highest level spell-slot, or fly 7 times for 1 minute per day at the cost of no spell-slots. It's probably the best hex you can get till level 13 (when you get access to overland flight) and even then it's saving you a 5th level spell slot (once again your highest) and is still giving you a faster fly speed than the spell that would otherwise replace it.
Having said that, I love the healing hex. As you say it gives you something the magus otherwise finds it very hard to do. And realistically the earlier you get it the more benefit you get out of it (since at lower levels it's healing a higher percent of your health). So realistically I don't know which way I'd go.
Flight at 4 means you've taken a useless hex for 1 level, but at level 5 you'll be glad you did it. Healing at 4 means you get more benefit out of heals and don't have a dead level, but you'll delay your flying till level 6.
The other thing I noticed is you're getting intensified spell at level 5. Intensified spell on shocking grasp does literally nothing at level 5, and only +1d6 at level 6. You're probably better off swapping improved-familiar and intensified spell to get more benefit earlier.
And finally I'd be tempted to ditch Eschew Materials and take toughness at level 1 instead of level 11. Or you could take FAST LEARNER at level 1 and then you can still take toughness later if you want?
EDIT: I just realised your level 5 bonus feat has to be selected from certain groups of feats, so you may have to leave Intensified spell there ... I'll leave that paragraph in though as it's something to think about if you can find another way to swap feats around.
...Yeah. I like Eschew Materials from a flavor standpoint, but mechanically speaking it might not do much for me; if the Magus is separated from their spellbook, they won't be casting much the next day regardless of access to spell components or not.
I think I'll take your advice on that and replace Eschew Materials with Toughness. I don't like it from a flavor standpoint, but I think this character might have an awful lot of flavor as it is.
I love Fast Learner, wish I could fit it into the build, but I really can't.
A question though, re: Familiar Arcana at 3... would you find the loss of Arcane Accuracy acceptable? This amounts to losing out on +3 Attack on a 3/4th BAB class.
In any case, thank you for the ideas, MrCharisma! I'll tweak that part of the build momentarily.
EDIT: Done, swapped Eschew for Toughness. I think Flight is being underrated here; Levitate is good, Feather Fall is good too. I do not consider those 'dead levels.' Not fully utilized levels, but not dead either. I'll slot Flight in at Level 4, then get Healing at 6. If I absolutely, truly must have some kind of Healing on this build before then... Celestial Healing spell or CLW wand usage will suffice. (Yes, Infernal Healing is better; I do not see a Sarenite willingly using it)
Yeah I know they're not dead levels, but I'm pretty sure you can only use the flight hex on yourself, which means you can only levitate yourself, and only once per day. At will feather-fall is amazing, but it's a lot more amazing once you're actually able to fly (because it's more likely you'll need it). You're right it's not terrible, but I think once it hits level 5 it really does become the best hex for a magus by far.
I'd say if you like the idea of your character having eschew materials you probably won't NEED toughness. I just thought if you're getting toughness you're probably better off getting it early. I would keep a few healing potions on hand either way since I discovered recently that celestial/infernal healing only helps if your allies wait to be healed before charging a group of golems.
Hmm. So you think Con 12 + the favored class bonus would be sufficient HP? If so, I admit there are a few benefits in Eschew Materials (not being affected by a component pouch being Shattered, for example) and I like the flavor.
At this point my major concerns are attack bonus and HP, as I'm unsure if I have enough of either.
Nicholas: Thank you for the idea. It's interesting, but the Healing aspect is also something I wanted, so Hexcrafter will be where I stay for this build. At this point, I have nearly all the flavor features I want and most of the combat mechanics; I'm mostly debating whether I need to get some more HP or attack bonus somehow.
To an extent, spells will make up for the attack bonus issue, but I am unsure how far to really rely on that.
Yeah Toughness is definitely the better option, but if you're careful & not too unlucky you should survive.
nicholas storm I haven't looked at Magic Warrior in depth really, so thanks for pointing that one out. It does look really strong, but it also has a lot of in-built flavour, so it won't suit as many characters (although I'm definitely going to make one now).
RickDias As far as I can tell Hexcrafter and Magic Warrior are compatible, so you could potentially take both: You'd lose your 3rd level arcana, but you'd save the one you spent on Extra Hex. You'd get flight at 3rd, healing at 4th & a familiar/arcane accuracy at 6th. (and you could potentially swap out 1 minute of flight for scent or swim or something if you need to). The magic mask stuff does make it harder to be the party face though ... MAGIC WARRIOR.
EDIT: Thanks, Aristophanes! My bad. (End Edit)
Oh, wow. These are some great ideas! Magic Warrior and its mask requirement unfortunately hurt the Face aspect as you've noted, which rules out an otherwise interesting option. Thanks for suggesting it though, 666bender.
I'm going to decline the suggestion for Power Attack since it further reduces accuracy that I'm already worried is a bit low.
MrCharisma I'll think about the feat swap. Your reasoning is sound.
So, as general commentary... I did some looking into which spells my character would use that even require Material Components. The answer, to my tremendous surprise, was "only a few". They're big ones, mind you; Glitterdust, Grease, Fireball, they all need Material. However, lots of other good ones that are core to the build don't. So I don't even need Eschew Materials, I can live without it! This frees up a Feat slot at level 1. Edit 3: Going with Fast Learner on this, I think it's what we meant by "focused study".
Cavernshark, you're on to something really good here. Quick question though, what's Focused Study? I looked it up and it appears to be a set of free Skill Focus feats, not +1 HP and Skill as you say?
In my old build I was going to put the two level-up bonuses in Int or Dex (wasn't sure which one). My only real concern with your idea is the loss of a skill point (and a language, but this is not as big a problem).
Still, I played around with it for a bit and found a similar spread that could work just as well.
What I came up with was...
Str 9
Dex 17 (15 + 2 Human)
Con 14
Int 15
Wis 10
Cha 12
Int gets the +1 at Level 4, Dex gets the +1 at Level 8. I can arrange other bonuses to cover the small loss in Cha.
This gets some extra HP going.
I think we're pretty close to having this build fixed up, such that it maintains most of its original flavor, corrects an illegality issue, and is more survivable. Thanks for your help, everyone!
(Edit 2 removed as redundant text)
Aristophanes: Yeah, I've got that in at level 1 and cleaned up my level 11 choices accordingly (I went for Greater Spell Penetration plus Extra Arcana - Spell Blending to pick up some Wiz spells I really want in the build even if it is a tad late).
At this point I think I'm about done. It turns out I'll have to pick Healing or Flight, which is a tough choice to make. The way I'm reading Hexcrafter, I only get Witch Hexes at level 4, 12 (level cap at best), and 18 (won't see play)... so I either make the choice between those or I ditch the Improved Familiar to make both Flight and Healing fit. Hrm.
That or I gain it at level 9, but that's kind of a long time to be without these things.
I think Flight is being underrated here; Levitate is good, Feather Fall is good too. I do not consider those 'dead levels.'
I'm certainly not underrating flight. I love it. The levitate aspect doesn't make sense to me and makes flight not worth taking until you can actually fly. For a witch, that would be extra hex and flight at 5th level. Frankly, I think the hex is worded strangely, too. It simply says "levitate once per day." For how long? Level minutes per the spell (presumably)? If so, why doesn't it specify "per the spell" as it does with fly? Also, why not allow you to break it up like fly? Seems like it wasn't thought through.
Blade of mercy trait is from Legacy of Fire player's guide, but it is listed as OGL content for 3.5E. I'm assuming this is OK for PFS? I don't play, so I don't know.
Anyway, weapon focus may be a better option than intensified spell at 5th level (it's on the bonus list). As Mr. Charisma noted, you won't get any benefit from the latter until 6th level anyway, and even then, only 1d6 on your shocking grasp. Combat casting may be a necessity, too. At 5th level, your concentration check is only +8, and you'll need a 17 to cast shocking grasp in a crowd. I don't know how common spell resistance is at 5th level in PFS scenarios, but there are certainly more than a few beasties with it, so even spell penetration may be an option.
Unfortunately, doing these would push off your additional traits for more than a few levels.
Taks: Yeah, Blade of Mercy is labeled PFS legal. I'm using it in place of Merciful Spell because upon further review Merciful Spell is really cumbersome in a Magus build.
You make good points about Combat Casting, but I don't know where I'd fit it in. I'd probably just have to use the class' built in bonuses to Concentration checks and use Arcane Accuracy to compensate for that.
So now I've got what looks like...
Feats
L1: Weapon Finesse and Fast Learner
L3: Dervish Dance
L5: Additional Traits (Magical Lineage to Shocking Grasp, and Magaambyan Arcana: Burst of Radiance) + Intensified Spell (bonus)
L7: Improved Familiar (Silvanshee Agathion)
L9: Spell Penetration
L11: Extra Arcana (Spell Blending, pick up Admonishing Ray and one other L3 or L2 choice from Wizard list) + Weapon Focus Scimitar (or other Combat Feat)
Arcana/Hexes
Level 3: Arcane Accuracy
Level 4 (Hexcrafter): Healing OR Flight. Lose Spell Recall due to this.
Level 6: Familiar
Level 9: Empowered Magic
Level 12: Devoted Blade (irrelevant, build won't see play at this level in all likelihood)
At this point, the sole issue I'm struggling with is how to get Flight and Healing into this build. I may have to pick one and live without the other.
As I can simulate Healing via Use Magic Device, the Familiar, and the Celestial Healing spell in an extreme case, I am considering dropping Healing from the build to go with Flight. The alternative is booting out the Familiar, but losing a Silvanshee Agathion for access to Cure Medium Wounds equivalency is not smart.
At 12th level, your concentration will be +15, so you'll still have a 5% chance of failure for 1st level spells while in combat, +10% for every level above that. With combat casting, you'll have no failure chance for up to 2nd level spells, which would include burst of radiance.
FYI, I like hexcrafters (particularly bladebound, but I'm not sure if they are PFS legal anymore), btw, and I tend to build with high concentration checks (elf, traits, high INT, etc.), so I rarely suggest combat casting. Since you're human, and a lower INT, that's +4 on concentration you don't have relative to my builds, which is why I think it's a good option. Too bad it's not on the bonus feat list.
EDIT: elf doesn't help with concentration by itself, you have to swap out elven weapon familiarity with arcane focus for a +2 (to cast defensively).
Taks: You have a good point there. It... sounds to me like I need to ditch the Familiar.
This would let me get the Healing hex via Arcana substitution (the wording is unclear in the Hexcrafter page, but rules discussions I've seen suggest you can do straight 1:1 swaps of Arcana and Hexes) and fit in Combat Casting later on. Still not ideal, but I could get Combat Casting at level 5 and Intensified Spell at level 7.
I'd be sad to see the Silvanshee Agathion go, but nothing else really fixes the build. I think I may be overextended and just have to pick SOMETHING to get the boot. Holy spirit kitty might be it.
Edit: Whoops, I mean I'd have to take Additional Traits at 7 and Intensified Spell at 5, since Combat Casting has to go in the General Feat slot at L5.
Unfortunate. That really changes the build.
May have something. I can lose the whole Blade of Mercy trait to fit in Desperate Focus. That'll get +2 to Concentration. Going to play around with this a bit. I'm glad you pointed out the math involved on these things!
(the wording is unclear in the Hexcrafter page, but rules discussions I've seen suggest you can do straight 1:1 swaps of Arcana and Hexes)
Hex Arcana: A hexcrafter gains access to the following magus arcana, or may select any witch hex in place of a magus arcana.
Interestingly, the way it's worded, you are only forced to take ONE hex, the one you get at 4th level. The rest can be either hexes or arcana.
May have something. I can lose the whole Blade of Mercy trait to fit in Desperate Focus. That'll get +2 to Concentration. Going to play around with this a bit. I'm glad you pointed out the math involved on these things!
How often do you expect to be in the thick of things? I'd guess a lot, the magus one of my players runs is in the middle always. He's an oni-spawn tiefling, with a +14 concentration at 7th level, with combat casting and abendego spellpiercer (+2). The +2 helps, though 1st level spells won't be freebies until you get to 11th level. It's a tough call.
That reminds me, time to get ready for our session today!
EDIT: +18 to cast defensively.
Got the build fixed. Thanks for your help, everyone! I ended up having to ditch the social skills, non-lethal damage (easily fixed by acquiring a Sap) and a few holy-themed spells... but the end result doesn't fall flat on its face due to Concentration failures and other issues.
For those curious, I wound up with:
Str 9
Dex 17 (15+2)
Con 14
Int 15
Wis 12
Cha 10
+1 to Int at Level 4, +1 to Dex at Level 8.
Feats
L1: Weapon Finesse, Fast Learner
L3: Dervish Dance
L5: Combat Casting, Intensified Spell (bonus Metamagic feat)
L7: Improved Familiar (Silvanshee Agathion)
L9: Spell Penetration
L11: Toughness, Weapon Focus: Scimitar (or other bonus Combat Feat)
Traits
Magical Lineage: Shocking Grasp
Quantium University Graduate (+2 to arcane spell Concentration checks)
Arcana/Hexes
Level 3: Familiar (Hawk)
Level 4 (Hexcrafter): Flight. Lose Spell Recall due to this.
Level 6: Healing
Level 9: Empowered Magic
Level 12: Devoted Blade (irrelevant, build won't see play at this level in all likelihood)
I lament the loss of Cha skills, but the result is a build that has a scout, can melee fight, can long-range fight, has some control spells, and can heal. Someone else will just have to Party Face, and I can still run Shield of the Dawnflower to satisfy the whole 'uses some holy-themed spells' thing. It's not ideal, it does remove some of the flavor I enjoyed so much, but... I think this is about as good as it's going to get. The only improvement I could make would be to raise attack accuracy via losing Healing Hex for Arcane Accuracy Arcana, and that's about it. Regaining social skills requires a Feat investment I can't afford.
Looks good otherwise though, so thanks again for all your help!
Looks pretty solid. I'm sorry you couldn't fit everything in, but I guess at some point you have to let someone else in the party help =P
The only thing I might change at this point is to get rid of Toughness at level 11. Not that toughness is ever a bad feat, but I feel like if you survive till level 11 you won't need it. Since this is for PFS and that's likely your "Capstone" level, I'd grab something a bit more flashy so you can show off a bit (You did mention spell blending earlier).
Of course you could leave it in your build, and if you find yourself having trouble at an earlier level you can take toughness when needed and push everything else back, eg:
If you find you're having trouble at level 4 and wishing you had more HP, you take Toughness at 5, then Combat casting at 7, Improved Familiar at 9 & Spell Penetration at 11.
Just my 2 cents.
Looks like a fun build =)