It depends. If you're going the standard shocking grasp route, then intensify is up there on priority at/after level 5. If you're going to focus on a different spell, it depends on how it scales. Frostbite and magic missile gain no benefit from intensify spell, but love having rime spell and toppling spell, respectively.
Never bothered to take Intensify Spell on my kensai.
He does not focus on Shocking Grasp and has no issues dealing damage.
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It depends. If you're going the standard shocking grasp route, then intensify is up there on priority at/after level 5. If you're going to focus on a different spell, it depends on how it scales. Frostbite and magic missile gain no benefit from intensify spell, but love having rime spell and toppling spell, respectively.
Then Just for an example, The character I have in mind has a multitude of spells he would use focusing more on versatility. The general mainstays would be things like
Shield, Blade Lash, Shocking Grasp, Bladed Dash, Scorching Ray, Stone Call, Frigid Touch, Storm Step, Lightning Bolt, Grasping Tentacles, Ice Storm and Dimension Door.
Just to give you a general idea of what he would like to do. So would a character like this absolutely need Intensify spell?
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One of the biggest determinations would be if the GM/Group pushes daily resources to their limits. I played a Magus in a game where we went 4 or 5 sessions without resting and near the end I was heavily rationing my spells and pool points. Having Intensified Snowball as a first level spell and a pocket full of level 1 pearls of power were the only thing that kept me relevant for the last session or 2.
I think having the Magical Lineage trait and Intensified Shocking Grasp is great to have even if it's not a primary tactic as it is the single best way I know of to stretch resources for a Magus.
If you know that resource management won't be a big issue then I would say you could skip it given your spell selection.
The approach I'm kinda taking is to have spells be useful (As always) but I don't particularly NEED them to be effective in combat.
Here's the feat list I came up with without intensify, oh and I absolutely refuse to get magical lineage I just don't like it.
Traits:Cautious Warrior
Clever wordplay
Feats:
Dodge
Weapon Finesse
Combat Casting
Bonus Feat:Improved Unarmed Strike
Crane Style
Crane Wing
Dilettante
Bonus Feat:Improved Critical
Crane Riposte
Dimentional Agility
Spell Penetration
But yeah I'm generally assuming the DM won't just throw fight after fight our way, oh and this is bladebound btw
@Malik: Sounds like you don't need intensify spell with the way you're setting it up
I think having the Magical Lineage trait and Intensified Shocking Grasp is great to have even if it's not a primary tactic as it is the single best way I know of to stretch resources for a Magus.
Frostbite. Gives you 1 attack/caster level.
One of the biggest determinations would be if the GM/Group pushes daily resources to their limits. I played a Magus in a game where we went 4 or 5 sessions without resting and near the end I was heavily rationing my spells and pool points. Having Intensified Snowball as a first level spell and a pocket full of level 1 pearls of power were the only thing that kept me relevant for the last session or 2.
I think having the Magical Lineage trait and Intensified Shocking Grasp is great to have even if it's not a primary tactic as it is the single best way I know of to stretch resources for a Magus.
If you know that resource management won't be a big issue then I would say you could skip it given your spell selection.
My experience has been the exact opposite.
By focusing on self buffs and party buffs with decent durations, I have been able to extend my effectiveness across a much larger number of encounters than I would be able to handle otherwise.
Intensified Shocking Grasp may be nice for single target, but it's much less impressive when facing a couple dozen opponents spread across 5-8 encounters.
Where Intensified Shocking Grasp really shines is PFS, where you only have 3-4 enounters and there are rarely more than 2-3 opponents per encounter. Most of those encounters will have only 1 significant individual.
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One of the biggest determinations would be if the GM/Group pushes daily resources to their limits. I played a Magus in a game where we went 4 or 5 sessions without resting and near the end I was heavily rationing my spells and pool points. Having Intensified Snowball as a first level spell and a pocket full of level 1 pearls of power were the only thing that kept me relevant for the last session or 2.
I think having the Magical Lineage trait and Intensified Shocking Grasp is great to have even if it's not a primary tactic as it is the single best way I know of to stretch resources for a Magus.
If you know that resource management won't be a big issue then I would say you could skip it given your spell selection.
My experience has been the exact opposite.
By focusing on self buffs and party buffs with decent durations, I have been able to extend my effectiveness across a much larger number of encounters than I would be able to handle otherwise.
Intensified Shocking Grasp may be nice for single target, but it's much less impressive when facing a couple dozen opponents spread across 5-8 encounters.
Where Intensified Shocking Grasp really shines is PFS, where you only have 3-4 enounters and there are rarely more than 2-3 opponents per encounter. Most of those encounters will have only 1 significant individual.
Really? I genuinely imagine standard encounters would have you outnumbered at least 3 to 1
Nah, following CR being outmanned means you're fighting stuff that has no threat to you.
An NPC of equal level is CR-1, but two of them are CR+1. Fighting 4 of them is a quite high CR fight and that's just to reach an equal count fight if the players only have 4 people. Getting 6 enemies for a 6 man party to fight would be even higher CR. So like a lv7 party of 6 would be fighting like 6 lv2 characters to have the CR end up right.
that's why standard encounters won't have that many enemies to fight at once usually.
I'd say 10, on a scale of 1-5.
I prefer to the hex based frostbite debuff magus to be honest, so i'd rate it like a 4 or 5. The problem is, its one feat, that has a big effect by mid levels so its easy to just throw it in, even if you're not doing the full lineage shocking grasp optimization.
Its like a 2hander martial...really only requires a one or 2 feat investment for the damage aspect to work so why not?
@Malik - you have a plan, it's not a bad plan, and you can change it later fairly easily to add one feat if required. Also note that a lesser rod of intensified, rime or toppling spell costs 3 000 gp which will be affordable at some point.
15
Tiefling race with Prehensile Tail, Spellsword, Prehensile Hair Hex through Hexcrafter, and/or Monkey Belt can be used to hold a rod while keeping both hands free.
And the Kasatha race, I think the Vanara race too. If the rod is made as a mace (some are) then it could be the weapon in your primary hand. Though obviously a 20/x2 crit isn't ideal for a magus using spellstrike.