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Stan
2015-06-01, 07:27 PM
Magus Archetype for Fighter
This is heavily inspired by the Pathfinder Magus class.
There are those who wield weapons and those who wield spells. A few can do both. The magus is such a case, though they lean more heavily towards weapons than magic. Magi are fighters who have harnessed magic to improve their fighting ability. Though not capable of shooting fire across a battlefield, they can pour magic into their weapons and into their bodies. The magus spell list is limited to 3 types of spells: those with a touch attack, those with a target of self, and those that can be cast quickly in the heat of a battle.

Spellcasting
At 3rd level, you can cast spells and cantrips. Spells known, spell slots per level, and spellcasting ability is identical to that of an Eldritch Knight. However, spells are selected from the list below. You can make somatic gestures with a melee weapon.

Cantrips
Blade Ward
Guidance
Light
Mending
Produce Flame
Resistance
Shillelagh
Shocking Grasp

1st
Armor of Agathys
Cure Wounds
Ensaring Strike
Expeditious Retreat
False Life
Feather Fall
Hellish Rebuke
Hex
Heroism
Inflict Wounds
Jump
Mage Armor
Shield

2nd
Barkskin
Blur
Enhance Ability
Flame Blade
Invisibility
Magic Weapon
Mirror Image
Misty Step
Protection from Poison
See Invisibility
Spiderclimb
Spiritual Weapon

3rd
Bestow Curse
Blink
Counterspell
Elemental Weapon
Fly
Gaseous Form
Protection from Energy
Vampiric Touch

4th
Death Ward
Fire Shield
Freedom of Movement
Grasping Vine
Greater Invisibility
Stoneskin

Spellstrike
At 3rd level, whenever you cast a spell with a range of “touch”, you can deliver the spell through any weapon you are wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee spell attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, you can make one free melee attack with your weapon as part of casting this spell. On a successful hit, the target takes both normal weapon damage and the effects of the spell.

Empower Weapon
At 7th level, you can expend one spell slot to give the weapon(s) in your hands a magical enhancement equal to the level of the spell slot expended. The enhancement lasts for one minute. The damage type can also be changed to fire or lightning.
• At 10th level, cold or acid damage can also be selected
• At 15th level, poison or thunder damage can also be selected
• At 18th level, psychic or radiant damage can also be selected.

Quick Buff
At 10th level, you can cast any spell you know with a target of self and a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action as long as you do not cast any other spells on your turn.

Flexible Grasp
At 15th level, you can change the damage type for shocking grasp to any damage type that you could use to empower your weapon. All other aspects of the spell are unchanged.

Parry Spell
At 18th level, your understanding of magic is great enough that you can use your reaction to sacrifice a spell slot and gain advantage on any magic save.

Notes
Yes, the archetype bends action economy; many classes do this in some way so it’s a matter of how much is helpful without being too powerful. For damage comparison, assume that the magus will occasionally do a big hit with a higher level spell but will mostly spam shocking grasp with an attack. At levels 3-4, this is clearly superior to simply hitting with a weapon. Once multiple attacks come into play, the damage output is a bit lower than a heavy weapon (compare a 16 strength fighter with a greatsword. Two hits is (2d6 + 3) * 2=20. A hit with shocking grasp is 2d8 + 2d6 + 3=19). However, shocking grasp does improve over a smaller weapon (two hits would be (1d8 + 3) * 2= 15 vs 2d8 + 1d8 + 3 = 16.5 which makes other fighting styles closer to parity. In both cases higher ability scores, magic weapons, and fighting styles will tilt the advantage toward standard fighting to be able to apply those bonuses two or more times in an attack.

A shocking grasp attack as the advantage vs metal armor and negates reaction so it is likely to see some use. At higher levels, the magus is also likely to be able to take advantage of any damage type vulnerabilities. Obviously, the bigger touch attacks are worthwhile but the magus has other competition for spells and only a few slots per day.

The magus has only a few spells for buffing and they’re low level. With concentration though, I think the number of characters who can buff is almost as important as the level of the buffs.

I had thought about a points pool for powering Empower Weapon. This would effectively give the magus more spells as they wouldn’t be using them for this. However, I think the magus is already clearly stronger than the eldritch knight and I don’t want to track both points and spells.

I’m not too thrilled with Parry Spell as fighters already have Indomitable. I didn’t want to add more powers that take spells or further bend the action economy. At least it fits the theme and it won’t come up much as it doesn’t kick in until 18th level.

Kerleth
2015-06-02, 08:18 PM
Okay, this is kinda a long post. It didn't start that way, but, I'm kind of a know-it-all :smallredface:


What if for the 18th level ability you gave them some sort of spell reflection. Something like the following.

Arcane Riposte
Whenever a hostile spell fails to effect you, you may harness a small amount of that energy and reflect it back at the caster. Whenever you are missed by a spell that requires an attack roll, or succeed on a saving throw against a spell, you may use a reaction to channel the spell back towards the caster. Any attack rolls or saving throws use the same bonus or DC as the original casting. The reflected spell is localized on the caster. As an example, this means that you reflect only enough of a fireball or web spell to damage or bind the caster in place, and not the entire spell. The dm may rule that some spells, such as wall of stone or other indirect effects, cannot be reflected this way.

You said you weren't 100% happy with the final ability, and that is just what popped into my head.



Overall, I think the subclass is a bit too powerful, but interesting. I am a big fan of customizing the spell list, but I think putting hex in there is a bit much. At 3rd level, Hex as a bonus action, + cast shocking grasp and attack, +acion surge shocking grasp and attack is ..... well, it's absolutely CRAY CRAY WACKO OMGBBQROFLMAOSEIZURE. Assuming a 14 str/dex and a 16 int (not at all unreasonable using only the default array), with the duelist fighting style and a 1 handed weapon you have:
(1d8+1d8+1d6+2+2)x2 for an average of 33 dmg.
By way of comparison, The best core single target nova damage, levels 2-11 (maybe higher, haven't checked) is a battlemaster. Though this isn't the ultimate damage build for a battlemaster, with a similar fighting style and scores you have: (16 dexterity/strength instead of intelligence)
(1d8+1d8+3+2)x2 for an average of 28 dmg.
Admittedly the battelmaster gets a full recharge on a short rest, and gets special effects with his manuevers.
BUT, the magus also has significantly higher at-will damage and the utility of a diverse spell list. (That's another borderline issue, though admittedly the limited spells known helps keep that from getting out of hand).

Personally I think that the designers purposefully gave weaker abilities to the eldritch knight. In specific, I believe that the 3rd level ability is intended, nay, required, to be an almost flavor only ability. Why? Because THEY GET SPELLCASTING. Seriously, to truthfully compare, say, a 10th level eldritch knight to another subclass you have to figure in not just the listed abilities, but also all the spells per day they have access to at that level. That is a huge ability that scales as you level.



Quick buff is also prettystrong, but it's fairly narrow and I think it might be okay.

I like the 7th level and 15th level abilities, but flexible grasp is pretty narrow. Perhaps just make it so that any melee touch spell can be adjusted to use that energy type? It allows for more variety variety through additional published or homebrew spells. Actually, I think a couple of new homebrew melee touch spells (and at least one cantrip) would help the subclass stand out as well as prevent one trick ponyism between potential characters.



Well, them's my 0.5 cents worth(adjusted for inflation). I think the class has potential, especially in a high powered campaign, but needs some tweaking. Happy Brewing!

Stan
2015-06-03, 08:22 AM
Thanks for the feedback! It's very helpful.

I prefer arcane riposte to what I had but I think I'll limit it to spells that target one individual.

Hex might be a bit much as it's added to more attacks with a fighter than anyone else. Though a fighter who took a dip in warlock could do the same thing. I'll probably remove it though.

I'm ok with flexible grasp being so limited as the other powers are good. It's mainly making up for the fact that there is only one touch attack cantrip and I didn't want to make new spells - new spells would help but I didn't want to mess with that part at the moment.

I've thought about flipping spell strike and empower weapon to make a dip not too attractive. But then their defining feature wouldn't kick in until 7th and they'd mainly use spells for buffing until then.