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Among all the discussions about action economy, focus spells and spell slots one thing seems to be missing. A discussion about Attack of Opportunity.
It's WAY less of an issue than in PF1, but there's still a good number of creatures who get it (or very similar abilities). As far as I can tell, nothing in Striking Spell prevents the Magus from triggering Reactions. His AC is decent but not outstanding and he probablay can't spare an action to cast Shield on a turn he want to use Striking Spell.
So what are you going to do? Just eating damage turn after turn?
How about adding something like "Your Striking Spell does not trigger reactions from the target if you hit the target in the previous round."?
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The magus becomes the perpetual target for soaking up an enemy's AoO, and they're not built to take them every turn.
Would a feat similar to the Monk's level 4 feat Guarded Movement be appropriate except the wording would be something along the lines of,
"Your guard is up, even while casting spells. You gain a +4 circumstance bonus to AC against reactions triggered when you use the Cast a Spell activity"?
portal slide
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The way to deal with AoO is to play Sustaining Steel with a Reach weapon !
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Furthermore, Disruptive Stance on a fighter can screw you up when you cast Striking Spell, since it has 'concentrate' trait, which gives (admittedly high-level) fighter an AoO.
I didn't even think that Strike to unload Striking Spell also provokes AoO. That makes me sad.
Compare Magus Striking Spell to Warpriest's Channel Smite. That's how you do it.
No manipulate trait, no concentrate trait, no problem. Bam!
The way to deal with AoO is to play Sustaining Steel with a Reach weapon !
Doesn't work so well, since you're stuck now taking actions to step away from the enemy, which you can't afford to take without delaying your Strike after casting until the next round (and giving up one of your two non-MAP Strikes to deliver said spell).
I didn't even think that Strike to unload Striking Spell also provokes AoO. That makes me sad.
Why would the Strike provoke? It doesn't. But being in melee and casting a spell does, even if you cast it into your weapon.
No manipulate trait, no concentrate trait, no problem. Bam!
That's actually a good idea. The concentration can stay for all I care since there aren't THAT many creature that react to contentration actions. But an additional line like "a spell cast into your weapon via Striking Spell loses the Manipulate trait, regardless of what components it uses" would definitely make me want to play a Magus more.
It would also give Striking Spell a real advantage over simply doing a Strike and casting a spell seperately, making it more attractive to use.
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portal slide
Yeah, that seems to be the answer here. It is a feat to move half your speed when you already have a free stride in the same situation. So it appears to be designed around avoiding AoOs (a fact it references, at least for movement).
Since you begin casting before you teleport, I assume it doesn't trigger since the triggering action happened outside of the opponent's reach.
This feat also comes at level 10- a level where classes often get 'mini capstones'. Removing one the the magus' major negatives seems like a fairly good use of that.
But unless you're wielding a reach weapon against opponents without AoO, where do you teleport to if you start tour turn adjacent to an enemy? You usually still need to end your teleport next to an enemy if you want to Strike with your spell-enhanced weapon.
Only ways around it would be a reach weapon, which aren't that common for one handed weapon. Or haste which isn't too hard to come by but makes the focus spell even more neccessary. If it's the only reliable way around AoO, both feats become basically mandatory, which is never a good thing.
And Portal Slide does nothing for a two-handed magus, of course.
How to deal? Lead with your face and take it like a man! [or woman, or asexual plant creature, or...]
On a real answer, use your slots for buffs and use strikes for your attacks with cantips for ranged foes: pretend your any other martial with a multiclass caster feat.
And Portal Slide does nothing for a two-handed magus, of course.
Yeah, I kind of assume that two handed is the obligatory black sheep of the default options. One handed was meant to inherit the old magus class mantle, and ranged has its own stuff going on that is decent (...such as staying our of AoO range the entire time).
If they want to avoid a black sheep, maybe they should give the two-handed build more reach? Which could stack with a reach weapon? It would certainly answer this problem here.
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And Portal Slide does nothing for a two-handed magus, of course.Yeah, I kind of assume that two handed is the obligatory black sheep of the default options. One handed was meant to inherit the old magus class mantle, and ranged has its own stuff going on that is decent (...such as staying our of AoO range the entire time).
If they want to avoid a black sheep, maybe they should give the two-handed build more reach? Which could stack with a reach weapon? It would certainly answer this problem here.
And be pretty cool, long magic blade and stuff.
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if the encounter is specifically built around you getting smacked by AoOs (2 enemies with AoOs and reach) well then you will get AoO-ed.
A single strong enemy will often have AoO and might be the only target so you can never not end your teleport near it. My party wiped on a Gug just yesterday. A magus wouldn't be able to do anything special against such a foe.
And I really don't want to see the Magus shoehorned into using reach weapons all the time.
But as it isnt a common ability to have, actually being extremely rare for Monsters to have and only some classes having it, that encounter has to be pretty specific.
Common or not, if you are a martial melee class with average AC, below average HP and probably low Con due to being MAD, you'd better not have a main shtick that provokes any AoO.
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And now a certain race is required for the magus to work properly? Not good.
This has been a problem since my concept for a melee caster druid was stopped in its tracks. I still think there should be a general rule that spells intended to be cast in melee don't provoke (a rule that would apply to striking spell casts).
And now a certain race is required for the magus to work properly? Not good.
2 certain races, but yeah.
But unless you're wielding a reach weapon against opponents without AoO, where do you teleport to if you start tour turn adjacent to an enemy? You usually still need to end your teleport next to an enemy if you want to Strike with your spell-enhanced weapon.
You Strike and Step out of range. There is a decent chance you started your turn with your weapon charged, anyway. No need to cast again in that case.
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Channel Smite is combining a 1 action Spell with a 1 action Strike to 2 Actions. It's exactly the same action economy as Striking Spell.
Channel Smite is always 2 actions, which gives you an extra action to move or cast Shield or whatever, regardless of the Harm's level.
Channel Smite doesn't have a manipulate or concentrate trait, provoking no attacks of opportunity, at all, ever.
Channel Smite is way better, even though the only thing it delivers is damage, not any debuffs or other effects.
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Channel smite only uses 1 action harm/heal + 1 strike, and requires 2 actions as it were casted.Not to say, a cleric martial proficiency is way worse than a magus:
-str/dex as not primary stat
-Expert with 1 weapon not of your choice, but your deity's, by lvl 7 ( instead of being experti with all simple and martial weapons by lvl 5 )
-No master weapon proficiency by lvl 13
-If the attack fails, the spell is wasted ( spellstrike asllows you to keep it until the end of the next round ).The fact channel smite doesn't trigger an AoO is good, but on the other hand it is way more limited if compared to spellstrike.
They are pretty different feats for so much different classes.
So I don't mean to be confrontational but I disagree with most of what you said.
1. Str/Dex is not only the primary stat, it is the only stat you care about as a warpriest. Okay, fine, Con matters a little bit. And if you have extra points you don't know where to put you can put them into Cha for more spell slots, but you're already swimming in them, so whatevs. Wisdom is your literal dump stat as a warpriest because you only cast heals and buffs.
Meanwhile, as a magus, you want both Str and Int to be as high as possible (if you go with a finesse weapon you can substitute Str for Dex at the cost of lower damage dice). If you look closely that spells out "GLASS CANNON", because you have to dump other things to reach peak efficiency and start out with two 18's.
2. Pick the right deity (GORUM!) and your weapon is your choice.
3. While expert weapon proficiency lags behind for the warpriest, you instead have a lot more spell slots to slot true strike and harm into. And these true strikes help you not miss. Oh and you can fit both true strike and channel smite into the same turn, isn't that nice?
4. Meanwhile magus has to max out both Str and Int and still suffers from double jeopardy, where the attack hits, but the spell has a high chance of missing. It's like crit confirmations all over again, remember those?
Hey, so this boss has a high AC and on the first turn after Striking Spell you missed the attack roll and kept your spell. On the second turn you can try again, right? That's a non-zero chance of another miss. What happens then? You're looking at multiple attack penalty for the next attack, which you have to use or lose the spell. If this third attempt hits (or the fourth, as you fish for 20s), the same multiple attack penalty applies to the spell attack riding on it. At which point you may consider looking at an agile weapon just so you can hit slightly more often. Say goodbye to that sweet d12 damage die. It's like a long con to make you choose a light weapon instead of a two-hander and get synergy for Dex, Reflex save and AC.
Ah but the solution is clearly to use spells that use saves instead of attack rolls so they don't suffer from multiple attack penalty, right? Oops, there goes your flexibility. On a side note, spells and save DCs don't benefit from various to hit bonuses you get from status effects like Bless or Inspire Courage, or from weapon runes.
So the idea of "not losing a spell" is a red herring, meant to distract you from the critical problem of "I can't land these spells" and "I don't have spell slots to waste". This line of thinking reduces a flexible glass cannon magus into a predictable risk averse cantrip spammer.
Guess who doesn't need to worry about landing a spell? That dudebro chad over there with Channel Smite. Heave ho! One track mind: max one stat, get the best weapon and hack away.
5. Is channel smite limited? Yes. It doesn't apply all the debuffs you get from fancier spells, when you can land them. But you don't need to dance in and out of melee range to use it, and you have the rest of your turn to stay on top of a moving enemy or punish them for standing still with true strike. Channel Smite is a lot more steady and reliable source of damage overall.
So yeah, these are different feats for different classes: one of them bellows "GORUM WITNESS MEEE!" and the other one wishes they could do the same. :)
Insult to injury: warpriest can heal, and her healing isn't affected by dumped Wisdom in any way. How does that make you feel?
Strength might be the most important ability of the Warpriest, but it's not his Key ability so he can never start in an 18 with it. So yes, he lacks behind.
Also, there's no way for a Magus to start with 18 Int, much less with 18 Int AND Str/Dex.
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You are correct, I was doing my ancestry boosts wrong all along. Shame on me!
Also, the rules for what is valid and not valid for these boosts and and how the interactions between different sources of boosts (ancestry, class, background) conflict with each other seem a bit... over-complicated.
Reasonably balanced, mind, but over-complicated.
It took me several rereads to figure out where Pathbuilder2e was doing them right and I was doing them wrong, until I got it.
Would not even dream of making a character from scratch without an app double checking my math, what does that tell ya? :/