Help my magus survive

[gorambrowncoat]

So I'm playing in a 5-6 player (we have a drop-in sometimes) campaign of rise of the runelords.

My character is a lvl 1 bushi/lvl 2 hexcrafter bladebound magus (probably not optimal but whatever).

Ive nearly died twice now, getting dropped from over 50% health to negative in one round. I won't say how or where to avoid spoilers but we are still on the first adventure path.

Defensive abilities:
My hp is 31. (con 16)
My AC is 19.
I have the iron shell maneuver to occasionally negate an attack.
My saves are 8/4/5
I fight at a small distance using reaching blade stance.
I generally prepare 1 or 2 infernal healing spells a day to try and stay at a good health level.

While these are not ubertank stats, I feel like they shouldn't be squishy stats either. Yet I keep dying. Sure I could stand at range and plink at things with my shortbow but magus is a melee class (mostly, I know there are ranged builds). Surely always standing at range is not the intended

What are some ways that I could boost my survivability? My damage contribution is fine but I go down like nothing despite the fact that I don't feel like I've built the character glass cannon.

[avr]

If you can get scrolls or a wand of infernal healing for use out of combat and cast shield in combat that would probably work better. I don't know what's taken you out or the circumstances so it's hard to come up with more there.

[MrCharisma]

Yeah shield would be my go-to spell for defense. Avoiding the hit is better than healing the damage.

This could actually just be bad luck and low level-ness. At level 1 an 18 CON barbarian can potentially die from one hit. Every level past that the odds of insta-death decrease. It could simply be that the dice have been against you.

The other thing to think about is positioning. You want to be in melee - sure - but is there someone else who can take the hits better? You can stand behind them and then 5-foot step out to make a full attack (and with reach that's not too hard). Try not to put yourself in danger untill you can take them out.

Bladebound Hexcrafter is strong, so don't stress there. I don't know Bushi, but a 1 level dip - while probably not optimal - won't really hurt a magus in the long run.

[gorambrowncoat]

avr wrote:

If you can get scrolls or a wand of infernal healing for use out of combat and cast shield in combat that would probably work better. I don't know what's taken you out or the circumstances so it's hard to come up with more there.

I took craft wand at level 3 to make my own wands but it was only during the current dungeon we are in so haven't had time (or money really) to make one yet (let alone buy one). But healing wands are for sure part of the plan.

We also found a CLW wand with a few charges as well as a couple of health potions along the way but those all ran out real quick :) I think we have 2 or 3 healing potions left which I hope somebody will be able to feed to my unconscious character otherwise I'm not really sure how I'm going to get out of this dungeon :)

I'll detail how I went down but please no spoilers about any place I don't specifically mention since we haven't completed the adventure path or the dungeon yet.

Spoiler:

The first time I got dropped was by Ripnugget who charged me and did .. I don't know .. All of the damage.
The second time was against a Barghest in the basement under that same fortress somewhere who took me from 21 to -5 in one round. I wasn't standing in front but it has reach so .. yeah

[Kaouse]

Ask your DM if you can play a Sublime Warmage, a Magus archetype that replaces cantrips with entry level initiation (but forces you to spend arcana/feats for progression).

Since all it does is replace cantrips, it also stacks with the Kensai and Bladebound archetypes. Kensai is good for not needing armor, but it can still wear and benefit from a Haramaki, since Haramaki armor lacks Arcane Spell Failure as well as Armor Check Penalty.

Bladebound is just there to save money on your sword, allowing you to purchase better items. If you have high DEX and INT, then you're set.

[gorambrowncoat]

Kaouse wrote:

Ask your DM if you can play a Sublime Warmage, a Magus archetype that replaces cantrips with entry level initiation (but forces you to spend arcana/feats for progression).

Since all it does is replace cantrips, it also stacks with the Kensai and Bladebound archetypes. Kensai is good for not needing armor, but it can still wear and benefit from a Haramaki, since Haramaki armor lacks Arcane Spell Failure as well as Armor Check Penalty.

Bladebound is just there to save money on your sword, allowing you to purchase better items. If you have high DEX and INT, then you're set.

I really just took bladebound because having a sword buddy seemed cool. I'm a recovering minmaxer from the 3.5 DnD days so I am purposefully trying to make choices based on 'that looks cool' rather than 'that seems mathematically optimal'

I'm not necessarily looking to have the most optimally min maxed character in the world, I just feel like despite that I'm going down easier than my stats would suggest. I can't imagine that paizo published adventure paths would be balanced towards only being possibly with minmaxed characters so I was wondering if I'm doing anything particularly wrong.

I took hexcrafter because I really like the idea of the prehensile hair hex (and also the flight hex but really mostly the mad hair). Coupled with the extra AoO gimmicks from Bushi that seems like it could be a neat battlefield controller. I'd just like to survive until then is the problem :)

Honestly Im not that bummed about the level dip. Yes it slows down spell progression a bit but I feel like I got a lot from it as well. There is more cool stuff in the Warder(Bushi) kit than just the low level initiation. And I took a perk that lets me make up up to two caster levels from multiclassing so at least I'm not missing out in that department. I'm even considering taking second level of bushi around 7 (If i can make it there) to get an extra higher level maneuver, retrain another one and get a second stance. To be determined though. But I really don't see how going straight magus would have made me more survivable. More damaging maybe yes but not survivable I think.

[Scrapper]

I'll be honest, your stats are impressive and seems like a solid character, it really looks like bad luck and rolls is all, and it happens. If you're concerned that some thing is off about your character, take a step back and compare it to the original pre-made characters for the Rise of the Runelords. It might not be the character it's self either, but maybe gear choice that you can still fix in game with some time to shop and a hand full of gold acquired from an earlier encounter.

[avr]

Bad luck's probably the big one but do get shield up when you can, or mirror image when you get 2nd level spells. Bladed dash will appeal too of course but it's possible your GM is modifying monsters with tricks from the same 3rd party sources you're using and more defence may be good to have.

Craft wand has caster level 5 as a prereq, not 3. This does give you your 3rd level feat back. I'm not an expert on Path of War but there may be something there where a feat could have immediate effect. Or you could get power attack if you have the strength, or a feat to build on later.

[MrCharisma]

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is the composition of the rest of the party (unless i'm blind). What are the rest of them doing? If you're the only meleee character in a 6 player party then (assuming your GM scales the encounters) you're basically boned. If there are 3 other front-liners and the wizard is focusing on battlefield control and you're still the only one being attacked - then there's another problem.

What are the other party members doing?

[juantamad]

Shield, Mirror Image, and Blur help out a lot.

You're more of a skirmisher. Buff with your defensive spell in the first round and move into position (preferably behind someone with better defenses/ HP than you). Hopefully by next round other melee party members have closed in on the bad guys/ people have buffed up as well/ controllers got their shot in. Then you should play clean up.

I know you're in the middle of a dungeon, but are you allowed to retrain Hit Points? Once you get out that should be a priority.

A Protector Familiar could help you out as well.

[Kurald Galain]

Check this handbook for defensive options. Consider a wand of Shield and opening every combat with it, or perhaps use Vanish instead to go invisible a lot.

[gorambrowncoat]

Thanks for the advice so far.

Party composition is as follows:
- Melee summoner (Eidolon archetype) Has a lot of hitpoints
- Melee Magus (me)
- Bow Ranger. Has as many hitpoints as I do more or less but obviously is not up front.
- Bombchucking Alchemist. Fights at range, kind of squishy.
- Oracle. Kind of squishy.
- Inquisitor. This is our drop in player. Don't know his build very well but he was up front last time we saw him. For the moment it is unlikely he will attend sessions though.

So there isn't a lot of front line, only me and the summoner. The summoner has reach as well so I generally can't stand behind him if I want to hit something.

I can't take protector familiar as bladebound magus inhibits me from taking other familiars than my black blade.

Various wands of healing and vanish and shields have been considered but as was correctly pointed out, I will have to wait a few extra levels for that. I'll probably move intensified spell down to 3 eventhough I dont have a use for it at this time and move craft wand up. So that won't be till level 5. So far we have not made much in the way of gold so buying wands full price is probably something of an extravagance at this point. Although we should have some money after we come back from the current dungeon and sell some of our loot.

Retraining hitpoints sounds interesting in theory but at 30*current level per 1 hp and 3 days time spent it seems quite costly. Currently it would cost 18 days and 500+ gold to gain 6 hitpoints. Likely by the time we actually will have that kind of downtime we will be level 4 or 5 though so it would be more still. Seeing as I'm currently only down 6 hitpoints of my maximum I feel like I shouldnt really feel low on hitpoints though, unless the game is broken :)

I have a few extra plans for survivability but none of them are for right now. Eventually I hope to have 4 different parry options (iron shell, calm the storm, aerial roll and deavons parry) which I hope will help :) Obviously I also intend to learn some protective buffs but right now spell slots are very limited.