The Magus' spellcasting proficiency is lacking to say the least. So how about using the Weapon Proficiency for any spell delivered with a Striking Spell?
You'd get Expert and Master two level earlier than a pure caster, but you still have to actually hit with the weapon first and your spellcasting ability isn't maxed so it might balance out?
Being limited to 4 non-cantrip spells makes me think this wouldn't be overpowered. It changes if you get more spell slots via multiclassing. So maybe limiting this proficiency advantage to Magus spells can work?
With item bonuses this gives Magus better spell success chance than a full caster, no thanks.
What you said made me think that the better alternative is to carry over the weapon item bonus and nothing else. A Magus will always be at least 3 points (2 lower proficiency and 1 lower key ability) behind a full spellcaster on spell rolls and DCs. Giving them the item bonus of the weapon would put them exactly on the same level as a full caster, but only if they use Striking Spell and succeed on the initiating Strike (which is far from granted). This would help give Striking Spell more value without bringing Magus above other casters.
With item bonuses this gives Magus better spell success chance than a full caster, no thanks.
What Item bonus? I'm not talking about using the weapon's total attack bonus. Just the proficiency. You'd still add your Int Mod and that's it.
I can't do a level-by-level comparison right now, but from the top of my head, you'd be like 2 spell attack/DC ahead at level 5 and 6. And 1 ahead at levels 13 and 14. And that's it, I think. For a class that's limited to using Cantrips for most of the day, that doesn't seem too bad.
Monk/Champion spell prof rate would be more consistent, then.With item bonuses this gives Magus better spell success chance than a full caster, no thanks.What Item bonus? I'm not talking about using the weapon's total attack bonus. Just the proficiency. You'd still add your Int Mod and that's it.
I can't do a level-by-level comparison right now, but from the top of my head, you'd be like 2 spell attack/DC ahead at level 5 and 6. And 1 ahead at levels 13 and 14. And that's it, I think. For a class that's limited to using Cantrips for most of the day, that doesn't seem too bad.
Not sure what you mean by more consistent. It would be better than what the Magus currently gets, but doesn't seem to fix the issue.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Probably the strongest case for this is for Attacks spells specifically, since those are most swingy compared to 4-degree Save spells. The latter can still get partial effect on Save Success, and a Weapon Crit even can downgrade CritSave to normal Save for partial success, while even with upgrade from Weapon Crit that would still be Normal Miss=Nothing in Attack spell equivalent.
Honestly I could see Feat helping that area, allowing weapon attack stat/proficiency (or item bonus, no need for all) for spell attacks when they are made with Striking Spell*, although probably doesn't need to apply when you benefit from weapon crit's upgrade to spell effect (as that already makes you hugely likely to at least succeed as well as crit... getting even higher chance for spell crit there seem overkill). Perhaps instead of the latter, I might just say if weapon crits, you are guaranteed a normal success for Attack spells? That avoids increasing spell crits even more, while negating chance of normal failure (on Crit Miss of spell).
...Not really sure if this is actually needed, but something to address dichotomy in Save vs Attack spell "swingyness" seems reasonable IMHO. Even with ignoring MAP it seems like swingyness of attack spells make Save spells preferable to use, and increasing Attack spells' attractiveness seems reasonable... Maguses might even be most prolific users of them if they can get more reliability out of them, compared to Wizards etc who may avoid them especialy with their chance of wasting slot completely on Miss.
(Maguses already do good there, as they can still "hold" spell charge until end of next round, and with crits being significant amount of their weapon hits the spell success chance is upgraded significantly... probably more than just +2 proficiency would do)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly I could see Feat helping that area, allowing weapon attack stat/proficiency (or item bonus, no need for all) for spell attacks when they are made with Striking Spell*, although probably doesn't need to apply when you benefit from weapon crit's upgrade to spell effect (as that already makes you hugely likely to at least succeed as well as crit... getting even higher chance for spell crit there seem overkill). Perhaps instead of the latter, I might just say if weapon crits, you are guaranteed a normal success for Attack spells? That avoids increasing spell crits even more, while negating chance of normal failure (on Crit Miss of spell).
...Not really sure if this is actually needed, but something to address dichotomy in Save vs Attack spell "swingyness" seems reasonable IMHO. Even with ignoring MAP it seems like swingyness of attack spells make Save spells preferable to use, and increasing Attack spells' attractiveness seems reasonable... Maguses might even be most prolific users of them if they can get more reliability out of them, compared to Wizards etc who may avoid them especialy with their chance of wasting slot completely on Miss.
(Maguses already do good there, as they can still "hold" spell charge until end of next round, and with crits being significant amount of their weapon hits the spell success chance is upgraded significantly... probably more than just +2 proficiency would do)
I don't know how many crits you guys are experiencing in play with your non fighter martials but myself and plenty other poor luck individuals would be loathe to have their core class mechanic be balanced around crits. Better to remove the crit rider, require one weapon attack roll, and nerf damage accordingly