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Hey everyone. Monday night I played the Magus for the first time in my friend's newish campaign (2e conversion of Ruins of Azlant). Previously my character was a drow wizard, but with my DM's permission, I converted him to a Magus. I'm going to play him for the next month or so until I take a break when my baby is born, so this is the first post of several to come over the coming weeks. Also, full disclaimer, I never played 1E as I'm coming from 3e/4e/5e D&, so my perspective on the Magus is probably different from 1e players.
The session had two combats, with us leveling up halfway through the session (between each encounter). The rest of the party are a kobold flame oracle, human paladin, human investigator, and tiefling investigator (yes two investigators). My new drow magus used a longsword, breastplate, and the slide synthesis. I had a magic item that once per day let me become quickened (only to stride) for a turn as a free action. As an elf, I had high movement speed (35ft with the elven speed feat), and also took the Witch dedication (free archetype rule). With the Witch cantrips and my Magus cantrips, I had 7 cantrips so I took 5 combat ones (produce flame, ray of frost, chill touch, electric arc, shield) and 2 non combat ones. My prepared spells were shocking grasp and shockwave.
The first encounter was against 3 chokers, who if you haven't faced them before, are a pain in the ass. They can strangle you and use a grabbed victim to block attacks. Anyway, my friend's tiefling investigator ended up dying in that encounter as he got grabbed early on, choked to unconsciousness, and then eventually failed his Fort save. A lot of the encounter was various party members (failing) to stop him from dying. Despite the unfortunate loss, my Magus did really well. My high strength and athletics helped me break free of the Choker's grabs. I also used Magus Potency to boost my weapon. I landed a produce flame spell strike against one choker, while it was in the aura of the flame oracle, so my buddy's oracle added persistent fire on top of my damage. It was a huge hit against that choker. Later, I was able to spell strike again, and this time, I got a crit on my longsword attack, which then turned my produce flame into a crit too for 32 total damage. I didn't roll for the persistent fire damage, because I did enough to kill the already damage choker outright. I did try using Shockwave at one point, but both my targets saved and were only flat-footed, not knocked down. After my friend's tiefling died, we were able to sweep up the rest of the chokers thanks to my Magus putting down some serious damage.
Since my friend's tiefling died unexpectedly, we carried his body back to town and RPed the effects of his death (sad words and figuring out whether to bury him or cremate him). Since it was an emotional day, we ended up resting for the night. We all leveled up to 3, and I took the toughness feat and sudden bolt and mirror image for my 2nd level spells. Toughness helped me compensate for my squishy HP (10 Con plus lower HP from being an elf). I also got an Azlanti Longsword (+1 longsword basically), so no need to waste an action on Magus Potency for now.
Early on in the day, we saved one of the townsfolk from three sea creatures that came out of the water (think they are Scum?). This was a much easier fight. Thanks to my item's quickened ability, I was able to double stride (item plus slide synthesis) and one shot one of the Scums with a spell strike using my new Sudden Bolt. I hit with my Longsword attack and the Scum failed their Reflex save, so 43 total, combined damage, which was enough to kill the Scum in one hit!
At the end, we found a map to a tower that we are going to probably investigate, so next session will likely have more encounters, but I still have two spell slots left (Fear and Shockwave) plus my cantrips.
Here are my initial thoughts on the Magus so far:
- It felt much better than the standard Martial/Caster or Caster/Martial multiclass. I already had weapon training, medium armor, Magus Potency to help boost my attack, and more HP than the caster/martial combination. If I went Wizard dedicated into Fighter, then my HP would had been lower and my attack bonus smaller (no Magus Potency or 18 Strength). Compared to Fighter/Wizard, I had actual spells already plus way more cantrips.
- Slide Synthesis is amazing, and the other synthesis need to match up to it. Normally, a Fighter/Wizard would have to spend 3 actions to cast a spell plus make an attack, with no actions to move. However, my Magus could do all of that plus Stride, which was great, especially with my 35ft movement speed. Slide let me get into flanking positions, which helped my land my Spell Strike. In short, Slide Synthesis is great and made me feel like I was cheating the action economy. Hopefully down the line, I'll get to play my Magus at 10th level for that sweet teleportation. If I chose Sustaining Steel, I would had been more tanky in the Choker fight, but I'm not sure if I would had ever got the chance to Spell Strike without the extra movement from Slide Synthesis. Enemies are constantly moving, and no one was really standing still, plus Chokers had reach, which meant I needed to get closer to them.
- I landed all 3 of my Spell Strike attempts, including one of them being a crit. That's pretty lucky, and I know won't always be the case. However, I did try to always make the numbers in my favor with Magus Potency for a +1 and using Slide to get into flanking position. I'm sure in the next few sessions, I'll have some misses. I do plan on mostly using cantrips for Spell Strike so as to not feel like I'm "wasting" a spell slot. Fear and Sudden Bolt are both save spells, so at least they do something when the target succeeds on their save.
- It was sad not to get a 1st level feat. I ended up taking Combat Assessment for my 2nd level feat. In general, the Magus early feats feel bad with my only other option being Spirit Sheath or maybe Cantrip Expansion (if I didn't take Witch free dedication). I know some people like Raise a Tome, but it feels really goofy to me (a book blocking an attack?). Why would I want to risk my spellbook being damaged?
- Magus Potency is a nice early boost, but it feels clunky. As soon as I got a +1 weapon, it becomes irrelevant for the most part.
Thanks for sharing!
i dont know if i agree humblegamer. sustaining steel is quite powerful by virtue of being able to use a d10 reach or d12 weapon. granted it could be argued as the most martial of the 3, and outside of spell slots or weakness proccing, most often you will be just swinging your weapon looking for things like energized strikes to boost that already beefy damage. giving them free movement i think would make them just...better than any other synthesis.
maybe im wrong but that is how it seems to me.
i dont know if i agree humblegamer. sustaining steel is quite powerful by virtue of being able to use a d10 reach or d12 weapon. granted it could be argued as the most martial of the 3, and outside of spell slots or weakness proccing, most often you will be just swinging your weapon looking for things like energized strikes to boost that already beefy damage. giving them free movement i think would make them just...better than any other synthesis.
maybe im wrong but that is how it seems to me.
I haven't tried Sustaining Steel, but I imagine it leads to less Spell Strikes. With Slide, I almost never had a problem using Spell Strike because the extra stride could always get me into a good position, especially to flank. I think all Magus should at least get some movement from Spell Strike if it stays a 3 action ability, otherwise its too hard to proc. Maybe as part of Spell Strike, you can Stride up to half your speed. Slide Synthesis will then let you stride your full speed.
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I haven't tried Sustaining Steel, but I imagine it leads to less Spell Strikes. With Slide, I almost never had a problem using Spell Strike because the extra stride could always get me into a good position, especially to flank. I think all Magus should at least get some movement from Spell Strike if it stays a 3 action ability, otherwise its too hard to proc. Maybe as part of Spell Strike, you can Stride up to half your speed. Slide Synthesis will then let you stride your full speed.i dont know if i agree humblegamer. sustaining steel is quite powerful by virtue of being able to use a d10 reach or d12 weapon. granted it could be argued as the most martial of the 3, and outside of spell slots or weakness proccing, most often you will be just swinging your weapon looking for things like energized strikes to boost that already beefy damage. giving them free movement i think would make them just...better than any other synthesis.
maybe im wrong but that is how it seems to me.
A pretty good solution I've seen someone propose if Striking Spell is to remain unchanged is to allow all Syntheses to Step during Striking Spell as a default feature, and have each Synthesis grant an action you can take instead of Step. Such as Stride for Slide Casting, Reload/Draw a thrown weapon for Shooting Star or Parry for Sustaining Steel.
That way, each synthesis can choose between getting a bit of mobility or something that fits with their intended role.
I haven't tried Sustaining Steel, but I imagine it leads to less Spell Strikes. With Slide, I almost never had a problem using Spell Strike because the extra stride could always get me into a good position, especially to flank. I think all Magus should at least get some movement from Spell Strike if it stays a 3 action ability, otherwise its too hard to proc. Maybe as part of Spell Strike, you can Stride up to half your speed. Slide Synthesis will then let you stride your full speed.i dont know if i agree humblegamer. sustaining steel is quite powerful by virtue of being able to use a d10 reach or d12 weapon. granted it could be argued as the most martial of the 3, and outside of spell slots or weakness proccing, most often you will be just swinging your weapon looking for things like energized strikes to boost that already beefy damage. giving them free movement i think would make them just...better than any other synthesis.
maybe im wrong but that is how it seems to me.
A pretty good solution I've seen someone propose if Striking Spell is to remain unchanged is to allow all Syntheses to Step during Striking Spell as a default feature, and have each Synthesis grant an action you can take instead of Step. Such as Stride for Slide Casting, Reload/Draw a thrown weapon for Shooting Star or Parry for Sustaining Steel.
That way, each synthesis can choose between getting a bit of mobility or something that fits with their intended role.
That's not a bad idea. If Striking Spell is to stay a 3 action ability, it needs to feel like you're "cheating" the action economy in some way. Otherwise, you're just a martial/caster using 2 actions on a spell and one action to attack. Ignoring MAP is a minor benefit IMO especially since most spells are saves anyway. Slide Synthesis does this by giving a free Strike, which makes Striking Spell a 4 action ability for the price of only 3 actions, which is really good!
If default Striking Spell let you Step, with the rest modifying it, then that would be a step in the right direction.