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Sorry if this is Necroing this thread, but it was the only discussion link on the guide, and I saw that it was still being updated.
I just wanted to say thank you NintendoGeek ! Starting on Pathfinder has been super rough, especially as I found out early on that playing a full caster REALLY wasn't for me, and had to switch classes mid module (with my GM's full approval). Your guide helped me a ton with setting my sights on the Magus and having a ton of fun with the class !
If you want to add a nugget of my experience onto it, the Unbound Step mind for the Psychic Dedication probably deserves a mention for Starlit Span specifically. I went out of my way to avoid doing the...well, quite frankly broken imaginary weapon cheese, because that simply wouldn't be fair on everyone else on my table.
But amped Phase Bolt is very good. Phase Bolt is already decent for Starlit Span since you'll encounter a lot of cover, but amped it gets even better, especially since your conflux spell is situational and adds to the MAP. A lot of enemies you'll hit won't be put off-guard by your teammates or good positioning, and my GM at least tends to put cover kind of everywhere. A de facto +4 to hit is really good for consistency, and 2d4 scaling per level is nothing to sneeze at (yes it's pathetic compared to 2d8, but if you ignore the outright cheese it's an amazing option).
Anyway, thanks again for the guide, and have a nice day !
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sorry if this is Necroing this thread, but it was the only discussion link on the guide, and I saw that it was still being updated.
I just wanted to say thank you NintendoGeek ! Starting on Pathfinder has been super rough, especially as I found out early on that playing a full caster REALLY wasn't for me, and had to switch classes mid module (with my GM's full approval). Your guide helped me a ton with setting my sights on the Magus and having a ton of fun with the class !
If you want to add a nugget of my experience onto it, the Unbound Step mind for the Psychic Dedication probably deserves a mention for Starlit Span specifically. I went out of my way to avoid doing the...well, quite frankly broken imaginary weapon cheese, because that simply wouldn't be fair on everyone else on my table.
But amped Phase Bolt is very good. Phase Bolt is already decent for Starlit Span since you'll encounter a lot of cover, but amped it gets even better, especially since your conflux spell is situational and adds to the MAP. A lot of enemies you'll hit won't be put off-guard by your teammates or good positioning, and my GM at least tends to put cover kind of everywhere. A de facto +4 to hit is really good for consistency, and 2d4 scaling per level is nothing to sneeze at (yes it's pathetic compared to 2d8, but if you ignore the outright cheese it's an amazing option).
Anyway, thanks again for the guide, and have a nice day !
Glad I could help, and yeah this is the only discussion thread I've started. I'm not active enough on Reddit to have bothered posting there (though that didn't stop at least one other reader from finding me on reddit anyways, lol).
But thank you for reading and I'm glad this guide helped.
Anyways, I am excited to learn that the Magus is finally getting a proper Remaster printing in the upcoming Impossible Magic book, and oh boy... I suspect that's going to make me busy.
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Glad I could help, and yeah this is the only discussion thread I've started. I'm not active enough on Reddit to have bothered posting there (though that didn't stop at least one other reader from finding me on reddit anyways, lol).But thank you for reading and I'm glad this guide helped.
Anyways, I am excited to learn that the Magus is finally getting a proper Remaster printing in the upcoming Impossible Magic book, and oh boy... I suspect that's going to make me busy.
I actually found you on reddit btw, but realized there might be a discussion thread for this guide after I found another one that had its own.
No problem !
For the remaster, well...I have good news and bad news.
Good news, given the small list of changes to the Psychic, you probably won't have to remake the entire guide !
Bad news, Paizo seems to have it out for the Magus, what with their remaster having made sure Magus cannot use amps and nerfing psychic dedication and some of its feats into the ground. I'm afraid they'll slit the class' throat in a pile of nerfs like they did its multiclass with the psychic. Hopefully not, but I'm honestly not holding my breath.
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I retrained into Alchemist Dedication. Haven't had a lot of time to use it but it quite literally saved our asses during the boss fight my party got caught up in. It's also made me a LOT more engaged about levelling up. Pathfinder is light years ahead of 5e in that respect (where it feels like half the levels are pointless on some classes), but with alchemist dedication it's dialed up to 11. There's mountains of new and upgraded stuff every level. And it really feels like my build went from a one not DPS machine to, well, as the OP said, a Witcher. We run into specters ? Quick alchemy ghost bombs. Acid spewing horror ? Energy mutagen. Run out of invisibility spells ? Camouflage Dye. Bunch of ghouls in the next room ? Brew up some antiplague, or better yet a vaccine if you can find a sample. There's just so many options and it feels like I was working with a box of screwdrivers before and then someone just gave me an entire workshop.
Also avoids the game feeling a bit too one note. I didn't really have a niche beyond 'dps because everyone else is support'. We had a commander who handled all the knowledge stuff, a cleric who focused on healing, a champion who focused on status effects, and the guardian was the tank. Now my character is kind of this recon alchemy fiend who constantly gives questionable vials to her teammates and has something in her bag of tricks for everything we can encounter. Yeah all the formulas get kind of expensive but it's fun and honestly better than just 'saving for next rune upgrade/spellstriker's staff'.
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Just saw the update to the guide, @Nintendogeek01, and it's unfortunately wrong.
Amps are, in effect, spellshape, as they require you to cast a psi cantrip as your next action. They're thus completely incompatible with spellstrike. So psychic should be red (*), since all you get from the dedication is one cantrip, and getting the amp doesn't even give you a focus point, since you start with one as magus (and the rule about having a focus pool as large as you have focus spells does not apply to amps).
That makes it strictly inferior to, well, every other spellcasting dedication. At least for the Magus.
After reviewing the rules another time, I will say that the text doesn't support the idea that amps are considered the same as spellshape as far as the rules are actually concerned. That being said, as spending a focus point to use an amp is supposed to be followed by "cast a cantrip" I am personally reading that to mean that they meant "cast a spell" so I tend to agree with Playwar that amps are probably not intended to work with spellstrike.
I also see where Angwa is coming from in that the exact language that they used in the book doesn't explicitly say "cast a spell" which leaves just enough room for ambiguity. The next chance I get I am going to update the psychic dedication entry to highlight the rules ambiguity.