The Scion: A brand new gish class with 34 subclasses and 50 feats!

[Teridax]

A quick introduction: this homebrew started with the Magus, and how to do the Magus differently. Starting with the foundation of the Magus, I wanted to let the class opt into different traditions, perhaps even emulate the features of other classes besides the Wizard's spellcasting, while also leaning more into utility... and realized that what I was developing wasn't the Magus at all, but something entirely new.

From this concept came the Scion, a completely different take on a gish class. The Scion is a hybrid class in purest form, in that they draw from the power of two separate classes, one caster and one martial, and combine spells and Strikes in combat in their own unique way. Here are the highlights:

Hybrid, class-based subclasses: The Scion has two dimensions of subclasses with their hybrid focus feature, and the class chooses one magical focus and one martial focus as their two subclasses. These foci each emulate an existing class, determining your proficiencies, your spell tradition, whether you're prepared or spontaneous, and give you a few of those classes' features as well. This is more than you'd get from a multiclass dedication, but far less than what the original class gets, and you don't get the scaling damage boosters of your martial focus's class or the spellcasting proficiency or spell output of your magical focus. With 14 magical foci and 20 martial foci to choose from, you get 280 different subclass combinations!

Spell Combat: Drawing from a key feature of 1e's Magus, Spell Combat is an action compressor action that lets the Scion cast a Strike and a cantrip against a single target at a reduced action cost. Because you start out only being able to use this with cantrips, your bounded spell slots become much more valuable for utility, but at higher levels you get fusion spells, special spell slots that let you cast spells with Spell Combat, and only with Spell Combat.

50 Feats: Many feats allow the Scion to modify Spell Combat in various ways, draw more power from their spell tradition, and mix magic into their skills in order to make more use of skill actions, among many other effects. In addition, your hybrid focus lets you take feats from the classes you're drawing from, making the Scion one of the most customizable classes in the game.

In short, the Scion is a class that shines not necessarily through raw power output, but through versatility and breadth of options. They're not a class I'd recommend to a player new to Pathfinder, but they have the ability to let players play a character that's split about 50/50 between two classes, rather than the typical 75/25 or so split you'd normally get from multiclassing, and that combines different class features into a harmonious new playstyle. Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy!

[Here4daFreeSwag]

Good to have some free Scion stuff out there for PF2e+, Teridax. ;)