Playtest Results - Level 7

[manbearscientist]

I ran a session with a Magus in my last session. The session was a mix of exploration with two potential combat encounters.

The Magus (free archetype):
19/14/14/18/10/10
Human-Versatile|Natural Ambition/Generalist
Toughness/Fleet/Incredible Initiative
Free Archetype (Wizard)
1: Familiar
2: Spirit Sheathe/Wizard Dedication
4: Spell Parry/Basic Wizard Spellcasting
6: Martial Caster/Arcane School Spell (Force Bolt)
Weapon: +1 striking staff of divination (flaming rune)
Synthesis: Sustaining Steel
Spells:
1-True Strike (6 counting Staff), Fleet Step (2)
2-Mirror Image (1)
3-Haste (1), Shocking Grasp (1)
4-Acid Arrow(1), Phantasmal Killer (1)

Party:

Druid - 7 (bear companion)

Wizard - 7

Ranger - 7 (scorpion companion)

Sorcerer - 7

Noncombat 1: Trivial
The Magus was held captive in a room enchanted with silence to prevent spellcasting, without his staff. The party used Dispel Magic to break the enchantment, and they communicated via Message. The party agreed to let them out and unlocked the door with a hard Thievery check.

The Ranger was teleported deeper into a trap. The following combat was scaled for 4 players, as the Ranger was not present.

Combat 1: Moderate (1 level 7 cultist, 1 level 6 antipaladin, 1 level 4 Vampire Rogue)

That Magus gave the party information about a group of cultists that avoided earlier fights and that have likely have the Magus's staff. The party agreed to help them get back the staff.

The Magus cast Haste on the Druid (who acts as a melee fighter, with Wild Shape and Rage from barbarian multiclass), and the party used Avoid Notice to get close to the room that the group of cultists was hiding out in.

The Magus rolled a 21 on initiative. This put them second to last in the combat round.

The Wizard used fireball, avoiding the Vampire Spawn (which was being controlled, and who the party hoped to control later).

Before further fighting could progress, the Sorcerer attempted to communicate in Necril to intimidate the cultist. They rolled a natural 20, bringing out the skull of an Osyluth the party had slain in the previous session in another part of the hideout.

Normally I would not give an easy out to combat such as this, but under the circumstances I agreed that this group would cave under such pressure. Plot happened, and the Sorcerer went with the group of cowed cultists to find the mechanism they were using to control the undead.

The Magus did not do much to affect this fight, but the druid did have a chance to seriously mess up the Antipaladin with the extra Strike from Haste.

Noncombat 2: Moderate

The Ranger was located in a locked room with a dangerous, uncontrolled zombie. They dispatched the zombie but could not unlock the door. The way to the door was marked with several dangerous traps, which could unlock other cell doors or cast harm spells.

The Magus decided to keep their weapon drawn, while the rest of the party searched for traps or used Detect Magic. Luckily, the party spotted the traps and were able to avoid them without taking damage or releasing the zombies. A high Thievery DC later, and they rescued the ranger.

Combat 2: Severe (4 level 4 Draugr, 9 level 5 reskinned Palace Guards, 1 level 8 Cult Leader, 1 level 9 modified Greater Shadow)

The overall experience for this fight was around 360, but it was fought over multiple fronts and phases. The party minus the Sorcerer advanced to the inner sanctum, finding the Cult Leader and 3 reskinned Palace Guards blocking their path.

The Sorcerer and his new pals were heading up to join the party right as the Cult Leader threw a lever and released the rest of the monsters (minus the Greater Shadow).

The Magus rolled a natural 1 on initiative. The Wizard cast Flaming Sphere and used it to damage the zombies in the small room with the Cultist. The Ranger Tumbled Through, taking a bunch of attacks of opportunity but getting face to face with the squishy Cult Leader before they could unleash more traps. The Druid and bear fought two zombies in a larger connected room.

The Sorcerer and Friends had to hold off against 7 encroaching zombies. They prepared their Lightning Bolts and Fireballs while the antipaladin held the door. The Magus cast Fleet Step, and then made it close to Sorcerer to help them out.

Due to circumstances, they made it back to help with the main group after 2 rounds. They used Striking Spell, rolling a natural one on their Strike. They used a Hero point, and then the attack hit with a 32. The resulting acid arrow did not go off with a 19 (6 on the dice), but the zombie they were attacked went down anyway.

The ranger and wizard ended up finishing off the Cult Leader, and then the Greater Shadow thing leapt out of his corpse. It had a couple of mechanics: 1 round possession effect and a 60-foot darkness effect.

On their next round, the magus attempted to hit and rolled a 2 on their Strike. The acid arrow was lost.

The party pummeled the Greater Shadow while it possessed the Ranger, then the Barbarian, then it cast the room into Darkness (none of the martials had Darkvision, but both almost out of spell casters did). The darkness was dispelled before the Magus's next move.

The Magus used Striking Spell. They were going to use Phantasmal Killer, but decided that it might not affect the Greater Shadow. They chose instead to use Shocking Grasp.

With flanking and a 19 on the dice, the Magus was able to critically hit the Greater Shadow variant (27 AC). They rolled a 19 on Shocking Grasp. This would have missed, but the critical hit bumped it up to a hit. The staff hit did 26 damage, and the shocking grasp did 32.

The Greater Shadow was killed before the Magus could go again as the Ranger rolled a 30 on their first attack, and a natural 20 on their second for 14+38 damage.

CONCLUSION

The magus wasn't attacked throughout this session, as they kept making giant moves with Fleet Step as didn't end their turn close to any zombie. This is atypical, and was more a response to situations than a tactic. Sustaining Steel thus was not useful.

The Magus ended with 1 spell from their highest level slots. They expected more of a knockdown drag-out playstyle (True Strike>Strike>Force Bolt), but that didn't materialize. In a longer session, I expect they'd have been out of spells.

None of their spells hit, but they didn't cast all that many. The turn they were able to get a critical hit and land a spell was the highest damage turn in the session, but overall the ranger (who mostly stood still and used Twin Takedown) did by far the most damage over the course of the session at well over. The Wizard came in next, most of which was from Flaming Sphere sustained (targeting poor Reflex save zombies), and the Druid was nearly tied with that. The Sorcerer did a decent amount of damage with a few Fireballs, but spent a lot of time doing noncombat stuff away from the party.

How much things mattered:

Low spell proficiency - A lot. Even with flanking, they weren't hitting because they kept rolling 6-8 on the dice.

4-slot casting - Very little, but the session was short. They ended with a lot of lower level slots left from their staff, Wizard Dedication, and Familiar and their Focus Pool intact.

Sustaining Steel - The THP never mattered. Not moving was slightly awkward.

Spirit Sheathe - Didn't come up.

Spell Parry - Did help avoid an Enervation from one of the Cultists, which helped.

[breithauptclan]

Awesome. Actual play experience.

One minor nitpick. I think the Acid Arrow would have been lost here:

Quote:

They used Striking Spell, rolling a natural one on their Strike. They used a Hero point, and then the attack hit with a 32. The resulting acid arrow did not go off with a 19 (6 on the dice)

Rather than during the next round here:

Quote:

On their next round, the magus attempted to hit and rolled a 2 on their Strike. The acid arrow was lost.

The spell from Striking Spell 'goes off' on the next successful hit of the weapon. Regardless of the result of the spell attack roll.

Striking Spell wrote:

If you hit with a melee Strike using the receptacle for the spell, the spell is discharged

Though for those complaining of how it is better to just cast the Acid Arrow rather than use Striking Spell, realize that the spell could just as easily have been cast to no effect (rolled a miss) during the round when it was being cast using Striking Spell. Which would have also affected MAP for the rest of that round.

[manbearscientist]

Yeah, the Acid Arrow would have been lost after being discharged. That was a mistake.

[HumbleGamer]

Why sustaining spell over Slide casting?

[BretI]

HumbleGamer wrote:

Why sustaining spell over Slide casting?

All three synthesis need time in playtest, so we can get experience. It is good that people are trying the different options.

I honestly wish the Magus had tried it without the Multiclass Wizard Dedication. I think it would have given a better indication of how the base class performed.

[manbearscientist]

HumbleGamer wrote:

Why sustaining spell over Slide casting?

Party-wise, it was because we wanted a tanky frontlier more than a quick striker. So the build is less about high damage (using a staff rather than a greatsword for instance) and more about getting that THP and using Spell Parry to stay up while dealing consistent damage (though losing actions to hand changes hurts).

Rather than running a one-off session, we are incorporating the Magus into our regular session for the duration of the playtest and might be converting one player into a Summoner from a Druid. As we lost a greatsword fighter in the exchange, we wanted to replace like for like but wanted something on the tankier side. So this is coming from the needs of the session, rather than specifically to test out the Magus. This is also why we let the Magus pick up Wizard multiclass, as with free archetype rules they would be behind the rest of the party if they weren't allowed an archetype, and Wizard made the most sense (particularly as we are trying to use as many one-action spells as possible, and Force Bolt is one route for that).

For reference, we are ruling that a staff can be wielded as a two-handed weapon for the benefits of Sustaining Steel. Interact action to switch to two-hands, free action to drop a hand for Spell Parry. Now that we are level 8, they will be trying to catch spells with Capture Spell as well. This interaction (two-hand dX trait weapons) needs clarification in the final, as it is not spelled out in the rules.