[PF] Spellclad Magus Archetype PEACH

[HugeC]

This is something I whipped up while reading about the Magus. Kind of like an Abjurant Champion, but hopefully nowhere near as OP. Tell me what you think.

New Magus Archetype - Spellclad Magus
The Spellclad Magus eschews physical armor in favor of protective spells.

Armor Proficiency
A Spellclad Magus is not proficient with any kind of armor, and suffers the normal chance of arcane spell failure for wearing armor.

Magus Armor (Sp)
At 1st level, a Spellclad Magus can use mage armor as a spell-like ability by spending one point from his arcane pool. At third level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the armor bonus to AC granted by this ability increases by +1, to a maximum of +10 at 18th level. This ability replaces the medium armor and heavy armor abilities.

Extra Arcane Pool (Ex)
At 1st level, a Spellclad Magus gains Extra Arcane Pool as a bonus feat.

Tenacious Warding (Ex)
At 5th level, the DC of dispel checks against the Spellclad Magus’ Magus Armor or any abjuration spell he casts increases by +5. This ability replaces the bonus feat a magus normally receives at 5th level.

Improved Shielding (Su)
At 8th level, when the Spellclad Magus casts the spell shield or uses the Spell Shield magus arcana, the shield bonus to AC it provides is increased by +2. This ability replaces the Improved Spell Combat ability.

Edit: Moved Tenacious Warding to 5th level, which is when you'd get the bonus feat it replaces (thanks Osagasu!)

[Cieyrin]

Seems okay but I'm not sure why it needs Extra Arcane Pool as a bonus feat, especially given Mage Armor is hours/level.

[Morbalus]

Looks good to me, though I don’t see a particular reason not to give Extra Arcane Pool, but you right Cieyrin i don’t see a reason for it either.

[Pyromancer999]

I believe it's to offset the fact that a magus with this archetype is going to have to expend at least one point from their arcane pool in order to benefit from this, more so at earlier levels, when the spell only has a duration of a few hours per casting(and only one hour per casting at level 1).

[Morbalus]

Yeah that makes good sense; I now see there is reason for it.

[Cieyrin]

I believe it's to offset the fact that a magus with this archetype is going to have to expend at least one point from their arcane pool in order to benefit from this, more so at earlier levels, when the spell only has a duration of a few hours per casting(and only one hour per casting at level 1).

You'll still have 3-4 points in your pool at 1st level and I doubt you'll be spending it on magicing up your weapon for a minute, so I still don't see the big deal. And again, given it's hours per level, it'll probably last more than one combat, especially as you get past 1st. Unnecessary goodies are unnecessary, especially when you get it for free for a feature that expands your Arcane Pool abilities, to cast a spell that normally isn't on the Magus list. Like any other Magus, you'll have to balance your resources, it doesn't need a crutch.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Magi don't gain a feat at 6th level, they gain one at 5th, with an arcana being at 6th level.

[HugeC]

OP edited to fix the incorrect level for the bonus feat, thanks Osagasu!

Yeah, my thinking on Extra Arcane Pool was it would be needed for 1st-level play. Power-wise, I reasoned that, according to the PF race-building rules I recently read over here (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/arg-creating-new-races), having a 1st level spell-like ability once/day was 1 race point, while a feat was 2. I figure the ability to cast in light armor should be a feat at least, so with light armor proficiency that's 4 RP worth of stuff I took away. Then I added a level 1 SLA effectively 0 times per day, but linked it to the arcane pool. So let's say that's 1 RP, then 2 more for the Extra Arcane Pool to make using the archetype less of a pain at level 1, and I can carry 1 point forward to make up for the other abilities.

I thought about adding Mage Armor to the Magus spell list for this archetype, but it seemed like too big of a penalty to force members of the archetype to always use up a spell slot to prepare it. That's why I went with the SLA.

I wasn't sure how exactly to balance the extra armor bonus. I wanted to make it good enough to compete with wearing armor, but not so good that not taking the archetype sucks by comparison. I initially made it +1 at level 3 and +1 per 2 levels, but that seemed a touch too good. For builds with a giant Dex score, this archetype is probably desirable since there's no max Dex bonus. But for Strength builds, you can get a higher AC by not taking this archetype and going with mithral full plate.

Thanks for all your feedback, guys! I'll think about dropping the Extra Arcane Pool. Maybe I can convince someone to try this archetype out and see how it plays without it.

[Pyromancer999]

You could also just give a single extra point to the magus' arcana pool, if you were to want to still give them extra points to their arcana pool.

[desyphur]

Magi don't gain a feat at 6th level, they gain one at 5th, with an arcana being at 6th level.

I'm more than likely trying out this archetype in a game with Osagasu here, so I'll let you know how it feels. Would be coming in at level 7.

[Cieyrin]

You could also just give a single extra point to the magus' arcana pool, if you were to want to still give them extra points to their arcana pool.

I think just having it as both an Arcane Pool ability and add it to their spell list makes the most sense, as it's a spell they specialize in, so why wouldn't they be able to cast it normally? Also remember that Mage Armor isn't personal, it's touch, so you can provide your friends with enhanced Mage Armors, too. Is that broken? No, that's using resources you have to do things you specialize in, just means you're not using it for other things, like other arcana. At 1st level, with it on your spell list, you may be using scrolls to get it on yourself but that's okay, since your enhanced AC doesn't kick in till 3rd, anyways. I don't think having a few scrolls of Mage Armor lying around is unfair. It's your signature, why wouldn't you want more chances to cast it?

[HugeC]

I forgot about mage armor being a touch spell! That might need the nerf-bat.

Maybe make Magus Armor have personal range, increase the duration to 24 hours, and remove Extra Arcane Pool?

[Cieyrin]

I forgot about mage armor being a touch spell! That might need the nerf-bat.

Maybe make Magus Armor have personal range, increase the duration to 24 hours, and remove Extra Arcane Pool?

Why? There are more important things than your armor bonus and, again, you're using your precious resources to buff your friends and allies, meaning you're not enchanting your weapon or doing other cool arcana. It's called a trade-off. Having trade-offs is GOOD.

[Amechra]

I do have to say that this is the first time I've ever seen Abjurant Champion referred to as OP; a little bit of a boost to AC is not that important in the long run.

Yes, +10 to AC at 18th level, if you stay in Magus the entire way, is nice, but that requires that you don't play around with PrCs; casting it on yourself makes up for the fact that you can't get nice Armor special qualities like Fortification and the like.

Honestly, if you are going to have someone go their entire career, pretty much, to get a bonus this minor, let them share it around.

[HugeC]

I was thinking about the effect it might have on party WBL, since nobody really needs to buy Bracers of Armor anymore with this guy in the group. But, meh, I guess it's worth trying out first as-is.