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Puns aside, welcome !
Given that the remaster of the Magus got confirmed and given a date within the Impossible Magics book (which I am now doubly excited for given Runesmith is there to begin with) I figured it was time for me to actually finish putting together my own "remaster" attempt on the magus.
Right here you'll find the link to the document itself - Magus Remagusterized
Now some rundown of the intent behind the changes, along with the reasonning and a few of the features:
- Initial intent is to make a fully functional and strong class that doesn't feel a need to grab multiclass abilities to circumvent the limitations it is designed with (yes, I am looking at Imaginary Weapon and other focus spells like Fire Ray being pilfered to use with Spellstrike. I'll explain my reasons in detail later)
- Give more uses to Arcane Cascade, making it much more worthwhile to enter by unlocking more useful actions that can be part of your rotations and gameplans. Be it techniques inspired by other martials or ones more unique to the Magus.
- Tweaking certain feats and subclasses, mainly Inexorable Iron by altering certain existing features of the class.
- An experimental change for Spellstrike to have better synergy with save spells.
- SPELL COMBAT IS BACK
- Probably plenty of typos and formatting errors
Based on feedback and new ideas I'll probably add in some more feats and such, which will update automatically when I do.
I hope you enjoy the read !
The Magus is a class designed around making difficult choices of what to do with your limited amount of spells, you only have 4 that have the potential of being used for big bursts of damage that put you ahead of most of the other classes as far as single instance of damage goes.
But among all the spells to choose from there is also very useful buffs utility and control options you can take.
Which is why in its features and feats a lot of the magus kit is about getting more flexibility with your spell slots.
Be it Standby Spell letting you make one spell "spontaneous" for the purpose of spellstrike and by doing so letting you more easily slot in utility or buff spells. Along with feats giving easier access to scrolls and staves so any subclass and weapon choice can allow for them to supplement your slots.
Or various Spellstrike related feats that squeeze more value out of the spell slots used on it (splash damage, a dash of healing, a 1 round buff...)
Then of course all the options you get from equipment such as Rings of Wizardry, Endless Grimoire, various staves, scrolls, wands... and of course multiclass archetypes potentially giving you more spell slots for utility purposes if you choose to invest heavily in them.
Focus Spells are also a great source of renewable magical abilities. And before the remaster using them for spellstrike was a powerful option to save spell slots that was kept in check by the Refocus rules of the time.
As a reminder, before the Remaster, using more than 1 focus spell between refocus activities would essentially lower your maximum Focus Pool by 1 for the rest of the day. Then by 1 more if you did it again.
Because you could only regain 1 Focus Point per Refocus, and could only Refocus if you had spent Focus since the last time you Refocused. (take a shot each time I say Focus)
Until level 12 where there was a feat that let you regain 2 points.
Then at level 16 one to regain your full pool.
This was convoluted and overall it is a good thing that it was streamlined in the remaster.
However this now leaves a few interractions unchecked and giving a lot of power very early and without limits.
By level 4 a Magus can have 3 focus points and use them all in every fight provided they have 30 minutes between each encounters. And all of those can be used on Spellstrike with power equivalent to their highest slotted spell.
This completely upsets the power progression the class was originally designed within and allows to sidestep a lot of its pain points.
Which in turn tends to masks them in a lot of conversation because "it's easy to fix, just grab X focus spell".
However doing so doesn't fix issues such as cumbersome action economy, under-utilized Arcane Cascade and unbalance between subclasses.
And I also believe adding a Focus Spell intended for Spellstrike into the base class in a remaster would just make it worse as it would either be a "best in slot" feat if it is a feat, or just make it even easier to pile on more archetypes instead of needing to commit to one for 6 levels before being able to take more things.
But Focus Spells being a valuable addition to the class is something I believe remains essential. The Magus, even back in 1e, had a big thing for grabbing abilities and spells outside of its chassis to enhance its particular fighting style.
So my solution here is to remove that "exploit" and instead make any and all Focus Spell able to Recharge Spellstrike. Making Focus Spells a Magus' reliable, repeatable everyday/encounter combat spells. be it offensive ones used as their strong ranged attacks, or aoes, or reusable utility powers (Lay on Hands, Invisibility Cloak...) worked within their "off turns".
You might leave the interraction working if you wish to, along with the recharge function and let it be a moment by moment choice to make and maybe it'll be fine. Just be aware that it might be too good.
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I'm very glad to see this posted! I won't rehash the feedback I've given already in DMs, and while there are a few formatting errors that could be cleaned up still, this is an excellent brew that I found easy to read. I especially like the addition of skill actions as a means of recharging Spellstrike, and I believe that could go a long way towards improving the flow of the Magus's actions. Well done on this!
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Thanks !
That kind of thing really is the linchpin I hope we see in the actual remaster. Just this would do so much to make the class flow better and feel more complete and less "one trick pony"
I might say I'm not the biggest fan of your implementation of magus maneuvers. I get that the idea is that they are all MAP actions to avoid magus maneuver + spellstrike every round (which I don't really think would be as bad people think it is, but anyways), but the fact that all of them are Athletics actions is pretty much forcing the magus to both become trained in Athletics and max out Athletics ASAP too.
Also, starlit span not having one is IMO bad. I get the rationale (its explained right there) but I feel its wrong for just one subclass to not have a magus maneuver with all the others have one. If it was a class archetype I get it since those break the rules, but starlit span isn't.
I personaly would either steal the swashbuckler's homebrew and make it so each hybrid study makes you trained in one skill and allows for one of their actions to recharge your spellstrike (like laughing shadow making you trained in Deception and allowing you to recharge with a feint).
I might say I'm not the biggest fan of your implementation of magus maneuvers. I get that the idea is that they are all MAP actions to avoid magus maneuver + spellstrike every round (which I don't really think would be as bad people think it is, but anyways), but the fact that all of them are Athletics actions is pretty much forcing the magus to both become trained in Athletics and max out Athletics ASAP too.
Also, starlit span not having one is IMO bad. I get the rationale (its explained right there) but I feel its wrong for just one subclass to not have a magus maneuver with all the others have one. If it was a class archetype I get it since those break the rules, but starlit span isn't.
I personaly would either steal the swashbuckler's homebrew and make it so each hybrid study makes you trained in one skill and allows for one of their actions to recharge your spellstrike (like laughing shadow making you trained in Deception and allowing you to recharge with a feint).
I went back and forth on which maneuvers to choose. Some feat (or feat templates) I've added are meant to help achieving those maneuvers more efficiently or easily (as would certain archetype feats). Crosscurrent Counter for example gives you such an opportunity, etc.
I just ended up tired to write all the possible feats, as it was starting to go beyond the original scope.This is also why certain feats let you use Spell Attack instead of athletics.
I had used a few acrobatic maneuvers as well, but then got told stuff like Tumble Through was just too good because it's a MAPless action you could do every turn (provided you have enough enemies, now that I think back on it, maybe should put it back the way it was, it is once per enemy after all)
For your example, I was tempted to put feint on laughing shadow. And decided to go with disarm since it also kind of fitted with the whole one handed thing, but maybe I should swap it to feint.
As for Starlit Span, yeah, I just drew a blank. Hiding feels a bit out context, Search is too situational, maybe Recall Knowledge ?
I might say I'm not the biggest fan of your implementation of magus maneuvers. I get that the idea is that they are all MAP actions to avoid magus maneuver + spellstrike every round (which I don't really think would be as bad people think it is, but anyways), but the fact that all of them are Athletics actions is pretty much forcing the magus to both become trained in Athletics and max out Athletics ASAP too.
Also, starlit span not having one is IMO bad. I get the rationale (its explained right there) but I feel its wrong for just one subclass to not have a magus maneuver with all the others have one. If it was a class archetype I get it since those break the rules, but starlit span isn't.
I personaly would either steal the swashbuckler's homebrew and make it so each hybrid study makes you trained in one skill and allows for one of their actions to recharge your spellstrike (like laughing shadow making you trained in Deception and allowing you to recharge with a feint).
I went back and forth on which maneuvers to choose. Some feat (or feat templates) I've added are meant to help achieving those maneuvers more efficiently or easily (as would certain archetype feats). Crosscurrent Counter for example gives you such an opportunity, etc.
I just ended up tired to write all the possible feats, as it was starting to go beyond the original scope.
This is also why certain feats let you use Spell Attack instead of athletics.I had used a few acrobatic maneuvers as well, but then got told stuff like Tumble Through was just too good because it's a MAPless action you could do every turn (provided you have enough enemies, now that I think back on it, maybe should put it back the way it was, it is once per enemy after all)
For your example, I was tempted to put feint on laughing shadow. And decided to go with disarm since it also kind of fitted with the whole one handed thing, but maybe I should swap it to feint.
As for Starlit Span, yeah, I just drew a blank. Hiding feels a...
The thing is that not all characters take Athletics and even less characters take Athletics to use maneuvers (certainly that's my case).
In the case of laughing shadow in particular, its even more explicit since that's a subclass that's intended for Dex-based magi so there's little difference for them in just wasting an action to recharge spellstrike than doing a disarm for the same effects, and I'd argue some would likely prefer to waste the action to not gain MAP.
It totally went over my head the first time I read the doc (or it wasn't there when I read it?) but it seems each magus maneuver has a 1 minute cooldown per target. I'd probably just make it a 1 minute cooldown period (with ways to do it more times through feats) and diversify which skills and actions each hybrid study can use, not only because of the problems I mentioned above, but also to make each subclass feel a bit more unique in that regard.
The only real problem I find with this is that under a system like this I feel the magus should have auto-scaling on their hybrid study's maneuver skill, but at the same time I don't think the class has enough class budget to such feature, more so after all the other QoL improvements it received in your version.
...I might say I'm not the biggest fan of your implementation of magus maneuvers. I get that the idea is that they are all MAP actions to avoid magus maneuver + spellstrike every round (which I don't really think would be as bad people think it is, but anyways), but the fact that all of them are Athletics actions is pretty much forcing the magus to both become trained in Athletics and max out Athletics ASAP too.
Also, starlit span not having one is IMO bad. I get the rationale (its explained right there) but I feel its wrong for just one subclass to not have a magus maneuver with all the others have one. If it was a class archetype I get it since those break the rules, but starlit span isn't.
I personaly would either steal the swashbuckler's homebrew and make it so each hybrid study makes you trained in one skill and allows for one of their actions to recharge your spellstrike (like laughing shadow making you trained in Deception and allowing you to recharge with a feint).
I went back and forth on which maneuvers to choose. Some feat (or feat templates) I've added are meant to help achieving those maneuvers more efficiently or easily (as would certain archetype feats). Crosscurrent Counter for example gives you such an opportunity, etc.
I just ended up tired to write all the possible feats, as it was starting to go beyond the original scope.
This is also why certain feats let you use Spell Attack instead of athletics.I had used a few acrobatic maneuvers as well, but then got told stuff like Tumble Through was just too good because it's a MAPless action you could do every turn (provided you have enough enemies, now that I think back on it, maybe should put it back the way it was, it is once per enemy after all)
For your example, I was tempted to put feint on laughing shadow. And decided to go with disarm since it also kind of fitted with the whole one handed thing, but maybe I should swap it to feint.
As for Starlit Span, yeah, I just
At first I had given 2 actions for each subclass to give more identity yeah.
1 minute cool down in general might work as a way to balance it, I had used the initial magus's analysis as a template, hence the once per target to avoid spamming but also having flexibility against multiple foes
I think one of the challenges with choosing skill actions is that the Magus as a class is fairly constrained by their attributes -- Charisma skill actions could be really good here, but relying on those would make the Magus maximally MAD, and skill actions like Battle Medicine are gated behind a skill feat. Thus, that leaves a lot of Athletics maneuvers and a few Dex skill actions for the most part, with RK and Seek as potential, more situational skill actions to use. Most hybrid studies also tend to be geared towards some kind of Athletics maneuver, and Dex skill actions in a few cases, though many Dex actions that aren't Tumble Through tend to be more situational.
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I'm thinking of adding a level 4 or 6 feats that allows it with battle medicine if you have it.
There's a few Dex actions like Dirty Trick but again, gated behind a skill feat. Maybe Laughing Shadow could give it to you for free though ? It does have the attack trait after all.
If you want to power up hybrid studies slightly more, you could always give each hybrid study a free skill feat, which would give you room to add more skill actions for sure!
That's true, the more recents ones actually do that already.
They could all give you the benefits of a skill feat while in Arcane Cascade like Aloof giving you cat fall as base and Quick Jump while in arcane cascade.
I'll work on that and update later
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I think making all the conflux maneuvers based on things with MAP is fine. It's a clear setup for making it less of a "the only way to play" is spellstriking every turn.
Dirty Trick does fit in there very nicely. (Note that Laughing Shadow looks very dexterity-focused but actually has no problems being used on a strength build.)
Maybe for Starlit Span the maneuver could be a trick shot of some kind, that inflicts a minor condition instead of damage? Something like the bow crit effect (pinning people to the ground), that requires enemies to Interact to get themselves unstuck?
I preferred to stay away from designing a unique skill action but that might be a solution yeah. I've yet to add some edits (busy start of the week lol)
I mean sure but that's kind off irrelevant to the discussion here.