I find Healer's Gloves to be the most overrated item in the game. I've seen so many characters with it but I'm still waiting to see it used...
Nothing gets close to Heal when you absolutely need healing. There are a few alternate abilities, but Healer's Gloves are none of them. No (or close to no) healing is definitely not the best amount of healing.
I mostly pick these up for the item bonus to the Medicine skill. The heal is nearly worthless.
Oh wow. I didn't even know he got a +5 damage bonus when flanking. He never said anything. I wonder if he knows it himself. That and the speed bonuses are not mentioned on his character sheet. I will need to fix that.
It kills part of the reason to play a laughing shadow magus, you lose half of your speed bonus. With the laughing shadow for defense I would try to get that alchemist collar and some drakeheart mutagens. For your party in all honesty he might be better of with a different hybrid study. For your party composition sparkling targe or inexorable iron.
With only +1 Dexterity, he definitely needs the defense more than the speed.
With a drakeheart mutagen his defense would be higher and he would be faster. Now he should be able to get moderate drakehearts which gives +5 AC and +2 dex cap. You do take a hit to recall knowledge and to your non fortitude saves. So pros and cons. Faster and higher defenses plus a boost to perception. With the collar you can inject the mutagen before rolling initiative and it's an item bonus. Cons you take a -1 to will, reflex and recall knowledge.
I couldn't find the collar. Give me a name and perhaps I'll recommend it to him.
Items are going to be rough. We're in the middle of a nowhere jungle at the moment and probably won't see a shop for the next couple of levels.
Why a bastard sword and a katana?
I don't really know. I think he started with one, and found the other. He was probably going for the most damage he could with a one-handed weapon.
The magus player just outright rejected my offer for advice. *sigh*
Wouldn't even listen after I told him I thought he was shorting himself no less than 5 damage per attack.
Says he's doing great on his own and that if there are any problems with his character, he'll find them.
I'm not too surprised. My friends can be pretty stubborn sometimes. I just hope everyone doesn't fall into line behind him, resulting in many more repeat encounters.
Ok as long as he isn't trying to dual-wield.
I don't recall seeing him ever do that.
And it's called Collar of the Shifting Spider
Thanks. I suppose it doesn't matter now.
I'm sorry. Magus is my favorite class so I was trying to help.
Oh no worries! Your advice is greatly appreciated. If nothing else, I learned a thing or two that will definitely be helpful for the next time I play a magus.
Also, he actually reached out about an hour later to let me know that he "found the issue."
Turns out he is keenly aware of how all of his abilities work, and readily recognizes that he could be dealing more damage if only he could get some party cooperation to flank with him.
He's worked out several different routines and strategies (which he walked me through) and was dismayed in the last encounter when he began to realize that almost the entire party is ranged, and won't likely be flanking with him any time soon.
He was already considering talking to the GM about switching to am inexorable iron magus or champion.
I'm hoping I can talk the rangers into flanking more often (particularly the half-elf switch hitter who only seems to like throwing his trident from afar), or sending in their companions to fill that role.
If need be I'll even step up more, and maybe summon something to help flank with him.
There are other issues, such as the armor/speed and the spell selection lacking attacks, but we can totally take it slow if that is his preference. (I'm here to help, not tell people how to play their characters.) Maybe now that he knows there are other issues, he will look for them and find them on his own.
I would rebuild one of the rangers to have an animal companion. Animal companions get the same hunt prey edge the ranger has, so a precision ranger gives their animal companion added precision damage to their first hit. If they don't have to move, they have two chances to get the extra 1D8 damage.
On my ranger, I had a dromaesaur animal companion. Between hunted shot and animal companion, I usually had 3 attacks per round
Both rangers have mature animal companions, but seem somewhat adverse to putting them at risk.
The dwarf has a badger and the half-elf a snake.
Maybe one of the others could get an animal companion to flank with him?
That certainly would be nice.
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Both rangers have mature animal companions, but seem somewhat adverse to putting them at risk.
That is a major issue in playing together, and maybe something your DM could adress together with the players.
Hitpoints are a party-wide resource, and not using that resource puts you on a major disadvantage.Maybe they can buy some heavy barding for the companions to make them tankier?
...your Precision Ranger is strangely built (one handed weapon, no Twin Takedown/Hunted Shot, nothing in left hand) so I don't expect much damage from them...I'm surprised to read this, as we were rather proud of that one. He's an amazing switch hitter with good range, his free hand gives him tons of versatility with his actions, and he is one of the few characters who seems to care about what kinds of enemies we are fighting and what spells they are casting.
Why would he take Twin Takedown when he only gets Precision once per round? I understand that to be more geared toward Flurry rangers. And why would he take Hunted Shot when it doesn't apply to his trident?
I know he's been avoiding taking the same feats as the dwarf, so there's that as well.
The issue being highlighted is that versatility is not power. Parties are somewhat designed for specialization - it's a little like asking "why should the wizard stop pumping Strength and investing money into a magic sword, it gives him great versatility in melee?" The answer is because he's a wizard, and swording people to death is something the fighter is actually specialized to do.
Twin Takedown/Hunted Shot are very, very good because they give you two actions for the price of one, freeing up your remaining actions to do other things (move around, demoralize, hide, cast spells like gravity weapon, use a multiclass ability, whatever). They're a form of specialization - they make you more efficient at hitting people.
Just wanted to expand on versatility is not power.
Vertical increases are power.Horizontal expansion creates more opportunities where your level of vertical power applies fullest.