I was reading a few posts and saw this pop up a lot as a good option. I am not very familiar with Magus but this sounds pretty interesting. I am curious using FA(Free Archetype), how would you guys build a Starlit Span Magus to get the most out of it? If it helps I believe we will most likely be playing the Kingmaker campaign.
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Magus + FA = Magus + Psychic dedication!
Psychic dedication make a very good combination with magus. It's gives you an extra focus point and an cantrip with an amp and at level 6 you can take imaginary weapon and another focus point. This basically give you the best dmg attack cantrip of the game (1d8 per spell lvl) and it's AMP.
This sounds cool. Sadly both classes I am not quite up to speed with. I learn best by playing them. Imaginary weapon looks like an awesome cantrip though. How does that AMP work with spellstrike?
Basically just double the Heightened damage. The 2 targets effect are ignored by Spellstrike Specifics:
Though the base Spellstrike rules cover most spells, various modifications apply to more complicated spells when loaded into your fist, blade, or other attack.
One Target: The spell targets only the target of your Strike, even if it normally allows more targets. Some feats let you affect more creatures.
Reach: The coupled spell affects the target using the reach of the weapon or unarmed attack you make your Spellstrike with. For instance, shocking grasp would affect a creature beyond the reach of your hand if you used a weapon with reach, and ray of frost would affect only a creature in your weapon's reach, even though the spell's range is longer.
Ancillary Effects: Your spell still has any non-targeted effects that might affect creatures other than the target, as well as any ongoing effects starting from the moment you hit with the Strike. For example, acid splash would still deal its splash damage to creatures other than the target and tanglefoot's circumstance penalty would last for its normal duration. The spell takes effect after the Strike deals damage; if the Strike has other special effects, the GM determines whether they happen before or after the spell.
Multiple Defenses: Any additional rolls after the initial spell attack still happen normally, such as the Fortitude save attempted by the target of a disintegrate spell. Similarly, a spell that allows you to attack with it again on subsequent rounds would only combine a Strike with its initial attack roll, not with any later ones.
Invalid or Immune Target: If the target you hit wouldn't be a valid target for the spell, the spell is still expended but doesn't affect the target. If the target is immune to your attack but not the spell, it can still be affected by the spell.
Variable Actions: Some spells have different effects based on the number of actions you spend to cast them. You choose whether to use the effects of the 1- or 2-action version of the spell when you use Spellstrike. A spell has to take exactly 1 or 2 actions; you can't use Spellstrike with a spell that takes a free action, reaction, or 3 or more actions.
Metamagic: You typically can't use metamagic with Spellstrike because metamagic requires the next action you take to be Cast a Spell, and Spellstrike is a combined activity that doesn't qualify.
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Another alternative is to take Wizard or Witch multiclass (or both by higher levels). This will help to alleviate the lack of lower level spells, many of which are still very good for buffs.
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You don't even need FA to make it one of the best options of the system. It is just as good without it as it is with it.
The level 2, 4 and 6 feats are free for Starlit magus, so you can fit perfectly there the dedication, the basic spellcasting feat and Imaginary Weapon.
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Another alternative is to take Wizard or Witch multiclass (or both by higher levels). This will help to alleviate the lack of lower level spells, many of which are still very good for buffs.
Yes. Wizard Archetype is the natural dedication for Magus. Both share same spellcasting DC/proficiency, the basic/expert/master Wizard Spellcasting + Arcane Breadth "gives back" your lost spellslot and you also share the same spellbook for both (your spells learned as magus could be prepared into archetype spellslots and spells learned from archetype can be heightened prepared into your magus spellslots.
It's the perfect combination if you want a versatility of a Wizard + Single target damage of a Magus.
Another alternative is to take Wizard or Witch multiclass (or both by higher levels). This will help to alleviate the lack of lower level spells, many of which are still very good for buffs.
IMO, the wizard multiclass archetype would likely work better since the character can keep and use all of their arcane spells from the same spellbook. Alternately, you may want the breadth of using a different spell list (Primal even has some additional blasting spells over Arcane).
It takes a couple levels to get going (basic functionality comes online at 3rd), but this might be a fun Starlight Span magus (skills and skill feats as desired):
Human/Half-Orc
1st- Orc Weapon Familiarity ("For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial orc weapons are simple weapons and advanced orc weapons are martial weapons")
2nd- Gunslinger Dedication*; can now use a barricade buster as if a martial firearm
3rd- Ancestral Paragon (Natural Ambition [Arcane Fists]); no need to pull out another weapon for melee strikes
4th- Basic Shooting (Defensive Armaments)**
5th- Bloody Blows
6th- Force Fang**
7th- Fleet or Toughness
8th- Advanced Shooting (Running Reload); makes the three actions to switch out a barricade buster magazine easier to deal with
9th- Multitalented (Wizard Dedication)
10th- Basic Wizard Spellcasting
*- the Way doesn't really matter mechanically for this progression, but Vanguard is the most appropriate
**- switch the order of these feats if desired
I would actually consider dipping into archer archetype for Starlit Span to grab point-blank stance; this will make longbows a practical choice for both closer battles and spell-striking from either further away, or if that doesn't interest you it will also squeeze out a little extra damage on your bow strikes.
But after that I'd definitely pick up a spell-casting multi-class archetype. Which one would depend on exactly what I want, but the other fine people before me have already gone into length about what combinations would be good for what purpose. ;-)
imaginary weapon is a great cantrip, unfortunately the amp is not good with starlit span as they are the only magus who cant spellstrike the amp with their primary weapon (theres a feat where you can use 3 actions to make multiple spellstrikes if the spell allows it, which does not work for ranged weapons unfortunately)
besides that its still a solid dedication for some cool spells
Gunslinger gives some intersting weapon options but consider that reloading and spellstrike recharge can be iffy to manage at the same time
Archer is also very solid to give yourself some more bow tricks
it might seem redundant but the eldritch archer offers some intersting options too, you should consider an unarmed laughing shadow magus for that instead, it basically exchanges flexibility in using the spellstrike in ranged for better melee spellstrike, extra spells and some magical arrow moves
Gunslinger gives some intersting weapon options but consider that reloading and spellstrike recharge can be iffy to manage at the same time
Barricade buster is Reload 0. It's also Repeating with an 8-round magazine and does 1d10 B (+1 with Kickback; by 10th level or so, with 18 Str, apply the large bore modification to make that +2). It is shorter-ranged than a composite longbow, however; more of a weapon for an "in your face" Starlight Span magus rather than a purely ranged magus.
Whether the 40' range increment of the Barricade Buster is going to be inconvenient for the Starlit Span Magus is largely dependent on the campaign. It's best suited for games where you're going to be spending a lot of time indoors (which you will consistently wreck with your ridiculous gun.)
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Whether the 40' range increment of the Barricade Buster is going to be inconvenient for the Starlit Span Magus is largely dependent on the campaign. It's best suited for games where you're going to be spending a lot of time indoors (which you will consistently wreck with your ridiculous gun.)
Looks like a good gun. But volley 20ft range 40ft is too narrow. It really needs Point Blank Shot to get rid of the volley.
Gunslinger gives some intersting weapon options but consider that reloading and spellstrike recharge can be iffy to manage at the same timeBarricade buster is Reload 0. It's also Repeating with an 8-round magazine and does 1d10 B (+1 with Kickback; by 10th level or so, with 18 Str, apply the large bore modification to make that +2). It is shorter-ranged than a composite longbow, however; more of a weapon for an "in your face" Starlight Span magus rather than a purely ranged magus.
It's a fun weapon and fit the flavor of heaving a big and cool gun that shoots magical embedded bullets but...it's too complicated and expensive to do what a composite longbow already do without extra investment and without any reload and with 2.5x of the range.
It's a firearm and just like any other firearms in this game they work if your base class is a gunslinger but if you want to play as other class you need too much feats to do what bows already do.
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I would actually consider dipping into archer archetype for Starlit Span to grab point-blank stance; this will make longbows a practical choice for both closer battles and spell-striking from either further away, or if that doesn't interest you it will also squeeze out a little extra damage on your bow strikes.
But after that I'd definitely pick up a spell-casting multi-class archetype. Which one would depend on exactly what I want, but the other fine people before me have already gone into length about what combinations would be good for what purpose. ;-)
Note that point-blank stance and Arcane Cascade are both stances, so you could only use one at a time.
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Note that point-blank stance and Arcane Cascade are both stances, so you could only use one at a time.I would actually consider dipping into archer archetype for Starlit Span to grab point-blank stance; this will make longbows a practical choice for both closer battles and spell-striking from either further away, or if that doesn't interest you it will also squeeze out a little extra damage on your bow strikes.
But after that I'd definitely pick up a spell-casting multi-class archetype. Which one would depend on exactly what I want, but the other fine people before me have already gone into length about what combinations would be good for what purpose. ;-)
That's not problem as a STARLIT SPAN Magus gets almost nothing from Arcane Cascade as that buffs "your melee Strikes".
That's not problem as a STARLIT SPAN Magus gets almost nothing from Arcane Cascade as that buffs "your melee Strikes".Note that point-blank stance and Arcane Cascade are both stances, so you could only use one at a time.I would actually consider dipping into archer archetype for Starlit Span to grab point-blank stance; this will make longbows a practical choice for both closer battles and spell-striking from either further away, or if that doesn't interest you it will also squeeze out a little extra damage on your bow strikes.
But after that I'd definitely pick up a spell-casting multi-class archetype. Which one would depend on exactly what I want, but the other fine people before me have already gone into length about what combinations would be good for what purpose. ;-)
Right, Starlit Span's arcane cascade winds up being more of a fallback if they have no way of avoiding a melee since arcane cascade does not benefit their ranged strikes.
There is one exception in that the Starlit Eyes feat requires the Starlit Span to be in arcane cascade. Good for dealing with concealed and hidden creatures, but not much else. For everything else, there's point-blank stance.
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Right, Starlit Span's arcane cascade winds up being more of a fallback if they have no way of avoiding a melee since arcane cascade does not benefit their ranged strikes.
The only time it makes sense, IMO, is if you somehow can't get out of melee range AND the foe has some kind of reaction: if they don't have a reaction, here isn't a reason not to shoot them point blank.
There is one exception in that the Starlit Eyes feat requires the Starlit Span to be in arcane cascade. Good for dealing with concealed and hidden creatures, but not much else. For everything else, there's point-blank stance.
It's quite odd to have one ability tied to it when it's of no use the other 99.9% of the time. I've never taken it as a Starlit Span and I've never used Arcane Cascade: this is because I never got into a fight that I thought it's be better to punch someone with my free hand weapon instead of firing my bow.
Question #1: Any better options than shortbow or gakgung with 10 str?
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Using a gakgung currently - not really thematic for the region so may have to change - but 1d6, deadly d8, propulsive, monk, 100' initial increment
Unless you campaign runs primarely in large open areas with large battlemaps the shorbow is better due Deadly d10. For larger battlemaps the longbow is better especially if we consider the fact that you can command or mount to keep the minimum Volley distance.
Question #2: Any specific starlit span + familiar synergies?
Yes and no. Familiars can act as spell and focus spell battery but its not something specific to Magus and honestly don't worth the action cost.
Question #3: What is a good progression for mounted archer at level 6? Class feats, another dedication (psychic, alchemy, archery, witch/wizard, cleric, investigator?)
Its a bit tricky to take another dedication due the requirement of take 2 more feats from that archetype before select another. First I recommend you to analise if you really have two more good enough archetype feats before consider to take another dedication.
That said psychic archetype may be interesting to take Imaginary Weapon but this also will require another good amount of feats (2 feats).Wizard dedication is another natural archetype if you want to have more versatility instead. Once that you share the same spellbook for both Magus and Wizard both class and archetype will benefits from it. But once again is a build that will require a good amount of feats to be improved and you probably will want feats slots to improve your mount.
Cavalier vs Beastmaster - cavalier has a quick mount skill feat, can get both impressive mount (mature AC) and quick mount at 4 - leaving level 6 available for class feat or another dedication.
Probably Quick Mount was used here to complete feat tax in order to allow you the take the 2 extra feats before take another dedication feat. Because being honest when you have a mount or you are mounted during most part of the game or you are in a situation where its is unavaliable its very rare to be in a situation where you need to run and mount.
Small mounted archer 18 dex/16 int (18 int by lvl 6) -
Unless you are planning to use spells to direct attack your opponents or want to use Expansive Spellstrike pretty frequently (what's bit tricky once you have a low number of spellslots) invest into Int usually won't worth because Int isn't your key stat and your spellcasting proficiency progression is worse than a full caster. Probably is more useful to invest into Con or Wis instead and if you really want to do a large use of Expansive Spellstrike take some AoE focus spell instead because you may use it more frequently.
Also cavalier charge (2 action stridex2+strike)
It's pretty situational for a Starlit span magus. Its basically a 2 actions to get +1 into your Strike but you can't use it to SpellStrike so the only useful situation I can imagine this being useful is where you need to take some distante, is unable to use spellstrike due recharge, don't have enough focus points to use a Shooting Star conflux spell and even so probably is better to use your mount free action to move recharge and SpellStrike instead.
Can take the Psychic dedication feat - Focus point + amped shield
Level 8 gets imaginary weapons and 3rd focus point
Will need 1 more feat to move on
If youor
Alchemy dedication - lean into crafting with magical crafting as well
Can craft a variety of items...or
Archery, witch/wizard, Investigator? Fighter?
Question #3: What is a good progression for mounted archer at level 6? Class feats, another dedication (psychic, alchemy, archery, witch/wizard, cleric, investigator?)
A good interesting alternative to such build is use a Precision Ranger with Eldritch Archer Dedication instead of being a magus. You can get your mount via normal Ranger Animal Companion feats, the precision damage will be added to Eldritch Shot and you can even increment it with Gravity Weapon also Enchanting Arrow is pretty useful in situations where you don't have your full 3-actions (like switching prey).
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Great feedback, thank you. I'm good with the familiar - not really sure it would be worth a class feat but an ancestry feat I'm good with.
You might find my Guide to Acquiring Familiars useful.
It's a breakdown of ways to get familiars and increase their number of abilities.
For ranged weapons themselves, the sukgung has a whooping 200 ft range, which is further than most spells. You can also hold it in one hand, although I don't understand how it works due to the Fatal Aim trait...
You can fire with one hand... as long as the other hand holds nothing??? What's the point? I could get around "as long as you do NOT take any action with the item held in your other hand", but I technically cannot shoot a sukgung, jezail or piercing wind with one hand while simply holding a sword.
Might as well replace "Hands 1" by "Hands 2" at this point...
Other than that, the Gauntlet Bow seems to be a good ranged weapon with a good 60 ft. range, thanks to Capacity 4, Free-Hand and Parry. You even can have TWO of these... although you're gonna look suspicious with two crossbows attached to your forearms unless you find a way to magically conceal them :P
Fatal Aim weapons are worded incorrectly, imo.
They're listed as 1h weapons with the fatal aim property, but they aren't actually 1h weapons. You have to assume a specific grip to fire it one handed and can't make attacks if you're holding something in your other hand.
They should be 2h weapons with a special property that enables the janky 1h grip.
Then again, as a two-handed crossbow (with Fatal Aim), the sukgung is still viable just for the range alone. For the record, Ray of Frost has a 120-ft range, versus the sukgung's 200-ft range. It may not be practical in common situations, but... sniping someone with this can be deadly ;)
That's why I recommended the Gauntlet Bow. Your hand is free, you can have 4 loaded bolts, the 60-ft range is better than for most ranged cantrips (minus Ray of Frost :P) and it can serve as a shield thanks to Parry. Since your hand is free, it doesn't hamper casting and it allows you to wield a two-handed weapon.
and now I wonder if you could a Fatal Aim weapon one-handed in one hand... while having a free-hand weapon in the other... since a free-hand weapon "doesn't take up your hand".
JiCi, the rules that aobst128 is referencing are found in the Capacity trait.
Weapons that have the capacity trait typically have multiple barrels or chambers capable of containing a bolt or round of ammunition. Capacity is always accompanied by a number indicating the number of barrels or chambers. After a capacity weapon is fired, you can select the next loaded barrel or chamber as an Interact action that doesn't require a free hand. You can use abilities that let or require you to Interact to reload to switch barrels or chambers of a capacity weapon instead. Each barrel or chamber can be individually reloaded after it's fired as a separate Interact action.
So you have to spend an Interact action (which takes one action) each time you switch chambers.
Since you do get four shots before needing your other hand to reload, it's a decent backup ranged weapon for situations where your other hand is occupied with something important. It's particularly nice backup weapon for Investigators since DaS lets them use Int in either it's ranged or melee modes. And, as you say, parry is nice.
Oh, yeah, sure, you need an action to "rotate" the next barrel, but it's still 4 loaded bolts, usable for Spellstrike.
The free-hand trait allows you to wield a two-handed weapon, use items and do whatever you want with your hands.
If you have 2 Gauntlet Bows, you can pepper a target with spellstrikes quite a few rounds in a row :p