All this All for One love, and the Psychic is sitting over there with two different paths to an aid build with native Synesthesia access.
I know omnidirectional scan, but what's the other one? I prefer one for all because it scales faster (+3 crits starting at level 7, +4 at 15 as opposed to 15/19) and because it can be applied to any skill check making it great out of combat too.
All this All for One love, and the Psychic is sitting over there with two different paths to an aid build with native Synesthesia access.I know omnidirectional scan, but what's the other one? I prefer one for all because it scales faster (+3 crits starting at level 7, +4 at 15 as opposed to 15/19) and because it can be applied to any skill check making it great out of combat too.
Gathered Lore subconscious mind has the Recall the Teachings psyche activity, which uses Occult skill scaling at 7/15 and can apply to any check, including skills. It can't be used out of combat, though, or even all combat rounds as it only works during psyche.
Recall the Teachings vs. Omnidirectional Scan once you've decided on a psychic support build depends mostly on opportunity cost between other conscious/subconscious minds. Omndirectional Scan has additional amped party attack buffs (and guaranteed save knowledge) in addition to the aid if you're willing to spend the focus point.
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Gathered Lore subconscious mind has the Recall the Teachings psyche activity, which uses Occult skill scaling at 7/15 and can apply to any check, including skills. It can't be used out of combat, though, or even all combat rounds as it only works during psyche.All this All for One love, and the Psychic is sitting over there with two different paths to an aid build with native Synesthesia access.I know omnidirectional scan, but what's the other one? I prefer one for all because it scales faster (+3 crits starting at level 7, +4 at 15 as opposed to 15/19) and because it can be applied to any skill check making it great out of combat too.
Thank you for reminding me why my Gathered Lore psychic never uses Recall the Teachings. It's because she's Dark Presence, so if I'm close enough to use it, I'm also Frightening my people. (Although I should use it occasionally to make up for when they get caught in the blast.)
I normally use Glimpse Weakness to give a one action damage buff -- would Aiding be mathematically better?
Thank you for reminding me why my Gathered Lore psychic never uses Recall the Teachings. It's because she's Dark Presence, so if I'm close enough to use it, I'm also Frightening my people. (Although I should use it occasionally to make up for when they get caught in the blast.)
I normally use Glimpse Weakness to give a one action damage buff -- would Aiding be mathematically better?
Bonus to accuracy is almost always better than a bonus to damage. It has to be something like punching through high resistance for a damage bonus to be meaningful.
And of course if you Aid someone's attack, you have to have some way to justify it (for instance, you're in melee holding a weapon you can threaten the target with). Or a very lenient GM.
This is not the case for Recall the Teachings or Omnidirectional Scan. RtT works for aiding anything and everything off Occultism, OS works with aiding attacks off your spell attack roll. Only generic aiding requires you to "GM may I," these abilities (and One for All and whatever the Bardic skill aid is called these days) just work.
Or just a big enough damage bonus. The action from Thaumaturge multiclass is alright at low levels, but never scales up, so I'm not sure I'd be using it much past level 5 or so. (Unlike main class, which gives at least 2+half level on basically anything but a natural 1)
Consider that the biggest damage bonus around, the barbarian, isn't enough to beat a fighter's +2 except against high resistance/hardness monsters/traps. At least, not without pouring enough extra accuracy on both that the initial +2 is sufficiently diluted. You need a ton of damage before accuracy stops being the superior investment, though ideally you get both.
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Starlit Span Imaginary Weapon Magus will do the following Routine :
Round 1
Cast True Strike from scroll
Spend a focus point, Spellstrike with amped IWRound 2
Recharge Spellstrike
Strike twice or cast a spell or whatever 2 actions you want. You can even Strike and draw another scroll of True Strike (likely the optimal choice here).Round 3
Repeat Round 1Round 4
Repeat Round 2Round 5
Repeat Round 1Round 6
Repeat Round 2Round 7
Repeat Round 1, just with something else than amped IW.And so on.
Every combat.
Too long. Most Magus archers will just use SpellStrike AMPed Img Wpn 3 times in a row to try to end the encounter sooner.
Depending from you GM, if he/she/it is considering all lvl 12 refocus feats as remastered version (fully refocus) after level 15 you can easily recharge using Divine Inspiration scrolls (or you can simply ask to the party divine caster if you have one) and keep this working as you need.
I personally hate the feeling of missing with my Amped nova attack. Hence why the True Strikes.
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Consider that the biggest damage bonus around, the barbarian, isn't enough to beat a fighter's +2 except against high resistance/hardness monsters/traps. At least, not without pouring enough extra accuracy on both that the initial +2 is sufficiently diluted. You need a ton of damage before accuracy stops being the superior investment, though ideally you get both.
That's not right, Barbarians are dealing as much average damage than Fighters. Also, it's only Greatsword Fighter that is really competing with Barbarian in damage, if you reduce the dice the Barbarian becomes superior even with low damage Instincts.
The legend that bonus to damage is worthless next to accuracy is ridiculous. Both are important and can be as impactful.
Consider that the biggest damage bonus around, the barbarian, isn't enough to beat a fighter's +2 except against high resistance/hardness monsters/traps. At least, not without pouring enough extra accuracy on both that the initial +2 is sufficiently diluted. You need a ton of damage before accuracy stops being the superior investment, though ideally you get both.That's not right, Barbarians are dealing as much average damage than Fighters. Also, it's only Greatsword Fighter that is really competing with Barbarian in damage, if you reduce the dice the Barbarian becomes superior even with low damage Instincts.
The legend that bonus to damage is worthless next to accuracy is ridiculous. Both are important and can be as impactful.
This lines up with my data. A 2-hander weapon fighter with a 1d12 weapon or a 1d10 Ogre hook pick weapon competes for damage. Once you drop to a d10 or lower with no real booster, barbarian damage at least for giant and dragon starts to pull even or ahead. If no AoOs, the barbarian often pulls ahead.
If you want a comparison between to-hit and damage, a d10 Fighter is nearly equivalent to a d8 Fighter with a permanent +1 to hit. So a +1 to hit is roughly equivalent to +1 damage per damage dice.
So we can make an equivalence between a +1 to hit, a higher damage dice, a +1d6 to damage at mid level (like Elemental Runes), a typical bonus to damage (Stoke the Heart, Elemental Betrayal, Dread Marshal Stance), etc...
I've seen multiple fighters in play. The only ones that were impressive were 2-hander big die fighters or eldritch archer fighters with debilitating shot.
The trip is good, but barbarians are often better at athletics. Rogues are all around more versatile martials.
The Starlit Span is a much better archer.
I think a fighter over time if setting up their AOOs would do more damage than a Starlit Span archer. But I'm not sure about that since Starlit Span can operate at range and has some nice buffs.
My Starlit Span just made level 8. I picked up Disappearance. That spell is absolutely brutal. A 10 minute duration greater invisibility to every type of sense. Sickening.
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I think a fighter over time if setting up their AOOs would do more damage than a Starlit Span archer.
The difficulty of this build is that it's no solo build. If the Fighter is the one who needs to trip, then your damage won't be stellar. Now, if your teammates are tripping the enemies, the Fighter becomes a crazy damage dealer... but it's now not "just" the Fighter.
That makes the comparison complex. The Starlit Span Magus, operating at range, is overall a much more reliable character than a 2-handed Fighter from a pure damage point of view.
I've found that the barbarian isn't beating a fighter even with the same weapon. Though I did state that rather poorly and implied the barbarian's damage was explicitly inferior rather than about the same, that's on me.
But it's still a numerical damage bonus that is 4 to 8 times the size of fighter's +2 bonus to accuracy just to break even. That's going to apply to other bonuses to accuracy and damage as well, which is the point I'm trying to make.
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Why not do Fighter + Eldritch Archer, with Imaginary Weapon? That free, free +2 and more hit points with equal amount of skills. So what benefit is Starlit Span + Imaginary Weapon if you can Fighter + Eldritch Archer it? I guess if you want to be technical, a Fighter + a Starlit Span Magus Aiding would be technically stronger once you hit legendary since you get +4 Circumstance bonus if you Criticall succeed, giving the Master Magus a godly level of profieincy for their attacksa, making them roll with a +10 by default before Dex, Items, Level bonus which is +2 higher then the fighter.
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Why not do Fighter + Eldritch Archer, with Imaginary Weapon? That free, free +2 and more hit points with equal amount of skills. So what benefit is Starlit Span + Imaginary Weapon if you can Fighter + Eldritch Archer it? I guess if you want to be technical, a Fighter + a Starlit Span Magus Aiding would be technically stronger once you hit legendary since you get +4 Circumstance bonus if you Criticall succeed, giving the Master Magus a godly level of profieincy for their attacksa, making them roll with a +10 by default before Dex, Items, Level bonus which is +2 higher then the fighter.
Fewer actions to spellstrike, you can use sure strike, you get 9th level slots, you don't need two archetypes to make it work leaving room for another dedication that lets you get a dromaeosaur mount for free 50ft movespeed if you wanna make it very extra
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Eldritch Archer has 2 main issues:
- It takes 3 actions. So no more True Strike and many issues when you need to reposition. To outdamage the Magus you'll need to play extremely well.
- It's a second Archetype. So unless you play in an FA environment it'll be extremely hard to combine both. Either you start by going Psychic and it starts at 8 but then you have a lot of levels with rather obnoxious feats. Or you start with Eldritch Archer and it starts at 10 (with Multitalented) or 12... quite late.
The Magus also comes with the added benefit of versatility through spell slots. The hammer is big enough either way, but sometimes you need other tools than a hammer.
Question: how does the Starlit Span archer do with lesser/standard cover being an impact? When I was playing a sniper gunslinger, I constantly had to work around that, and Starlit Span, as presented, seems to need a lot of those 3-action turns, especially if you're recharging manually instead of conflux.
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Question: how does the Starlit Span archer do with lesser/standard cover being an impact? When I was playing a sniper gunslinger, I constantly had to work around that, and Starlit Span, as presented, seems to need a lot of those 3-action turns, especially if you're recharging manually instead of conflux.
Starlit Span specifically has a Conflux spell that works around it compared to any other Hybrid Study.
Sure Strike also works around it as well.
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Eldritch Archer has 2 main issues:
- It takes 3 actions. So no more True Strike and many issues when you need to reposition. To outdamage the Magus you'll need to play extremely well.
- It's a second Archetype. So unless you play in an FA environment it'll be extremely hard to combine both. Either you start by going Psychic and it starts at 8 but then you have a lot of levels with rather obnoxious feats. Or you start with Eldritch Archer and it starts at 10 (with Multitalented) or 12... quite late.
It is not entirely one sided though.
+2 to hit helps on all those turns where you can't spell strike. If you are only true striking on half of your spell strikes then the Fighter base is damage competitive.Enchanting Arrow is a useful 2 action option for some variation.
Point Blank Shot is a good damage boost.
Worth noting that the conflux spell actually doesn't work on spellstrikes (it's just a vanilla attack)
That isn't true: "This gives the benefits of concealment negation and cover reduction to any attacks made against the creature (by anyone) until the start of your next turn." As such, you could cast Shooting Star [and also recharging spellstrike], then spellstrike and get the concealment negation/reduction. Granted, you have to then deal with MAP so it depends how much you want to avoid concealment.
Question: how does the Starlit Span archer do with lesser/standard cover being an impact? When I was playing a sniper gunslinger, I constantly had to work around that, and Starlit Span, as presented, seems to need a lot of those 3-action turns, especially if you're recharging manually instead of conflux.Starlit Span specifically has a Conflux spell that works around it compared to any other Hybrid Study.
Sure Strike also works around it as well.
Worth noting that the conflux spell actually doesn't work on spellstrikes (it's just a vanilla attack) and that sure strike only cuts through concealment (not cover) and circumstance penalties to hit. It does nothing about circumstance bonuses to AC. Which is what cover is.
So it's not awful, but it still has to deal with cover.
The Galaxy Brain move is to psychic dedication for Phase Bolt to get past cover/shield bonuses, then wait until level 12 (because cross conscious mind, so you need the Psychic 6th level feat) to get Imaginary Weapon.
Question: how does the Starlit Span archer do with lesser/standard cover being an impact? When I was playing a sniper gunslinger, I constantly had to work around that, and Starlit Span, as presented, seems to need a lot of those 3-action turns, especially if you're recharging manually instead of conflux.Starlit Span specifically has a Conflux spell that works around it compared to any other Hybrid Study.
Sure Strike also works around it as well.
Cover is usually only light cover from creatures so a +1 circ bonus.
I haven't had to deal with cover too often, but I'd probably switch to phase bolt.
At higher level my experience is the following:
1. High end powerful monsters with high AC don't usually spend actions to take cover. They are big, so don't often get cover from other creatures. So it's not much of an issue in boss fights.
2. Mooks might use cover, but their ACs are low enough that even with cover they get hammered.
3. Groups like mine focus fire targets. So whatever is in melee range gets hit first, hard, by everyone, meaning likely soft cover at the worst.
I and my players position not to provide cover to enemies.
4. Sometimes I use invis, so the target is flat-footed to me and has no idea where I am to use cover effectively against my Starlit Span Magus.
It hasn't really been an issue.
Don't do that. It's not worth it, the cover reduction is never more than -2 to AC and MAP is more.
I think it'd be more to avoid a DC 5 flat check from concealed. If you have both concealment/cover and you have an agile weapon [say a Wrist Launcher] handy you trade -2 to negate a 25% chance to miss off the top.
I admit I don't usually see concealment and cover at the same time, especially not standard cover. Lesser is much more common.
The instance I recall was some tower shield wielding guards backed by archers behind arrow slits that had some kind of blur effect on them: they were an effecting roadblock while our target ran away.
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I think it'd be more to avoid a DC 5 flat check from concealed. If you have both concealment/cover and you have an agile weapon [say a Wrist Launcher] handy you trade -2 to negate a 25% chance to miss off the top.Don't do that. It's not worth it, the cover reduction is never more than -2 to AC and MAP is more.
Cat's eye elixir is a staple on any of my PCs who needs to target opponents.
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Cat's eye elixir is a staple on any of my PCs who needs to target opponents.I think it'd be more to avoid a DC 5 flat check from concealed. If you have both concealment/cover and you have an agile weapon [say a Wrist Launcher] handy you trade -2 to negate a 25% chance to miss off the top.Don't do that. It's not worth it, the cover reduction is never more than -2 to AC and MAP is more.
Cat's eye elixir is a hard sell for me as magus is already action starved: this is 2 actions [draw then drink]. Maybe if you can pre-buff.
The 30 range can also be a detriment if you would otherwise be engaging at longer range: having to move from 100' to 30', for instance, is a substantial drop in range. Shooting Star also gives it's benefit to anyone targeting the creature, so your conflux spell recharges your spellstrike, gives a free attack and is a buff for your party for a single action.
PS: Expansive Spellstrike can also make a second MAP spellstrike more viable: a shot missed by a flat 5 check has no affect but even a missed spellstrike will have the spell go off and the spell isn't affected by MAP. You could slap on a cantrip like caustic blast or timber and even if you miss the Strike and they make the save, you'll be doing some damage without spending a slot [and at a much higher max range].