Results 31 to 60 of 1103
-
2015-06-28, 07:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Add in spell perfection disintegrate and prep 2 maximized disintegrates. Get the spell critical arcana and theoretically full attack +2 extra attacks + 2 maximized disintegrates at least one of which is critting. Not much will survive that, save or no.
-
2015-06-28, 11:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Only the Range, the multiplier is always x2.
Yes, damage-wise a magus benefits incredibly from a high threat range, it's by design.
Magus has one of the better damage outputs of the game, and there's a reason Magical Lineage(Shocking Grasp) + Intensify Spell is the core of its efficient damage output.
The true power of the magus is still Spell Combat, however, since it's essentially an action multiplier.
-
2015-06-29, 05:39 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
I'll make a note on that, but it only applies for level 15 and up.
Yes, this is one of the main perks of the Magus. I'll need to add an intro section about this and its other class features.
Also, the rest of the arcana (level 9-15) are up.Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-06-29, 09:49 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- San Antonio.
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
... Wait, Spellcraft isn't the highest color possible? Why not? Its your caster skill! Determines identifying spells, magic items (really important), making items if you invest in those feats...
-
2015-06-29, 08:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
I think the reason that Eldritch Scion is suprisingly weaker than normal Magus is because they were super frightened at the idea of giving another class Charisma as a primary ability score, it already put Bards drastically high on the playable class just because you can do more out of combat just by talking the GMs ear off!
The biggest fix for me would be to change the "mystic focus" from 2 rounds to +1/4 level or something, even a minor boost would help I think.
(Sorry off topic, keep it up OP I love me some Magus!)
-
2015-06-30, 02:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
I would like to hear some more views on this, but generally in our games here (with a wide range of GMs) it doesn't come up nearly as much as Knowledge Arcana / Religion / Planes. Only one member in the party needs to be able to ID items, it doesn't have to be you. And in a handbook like this, it's hard to give a meaningful rating to crafting, since it depends heavily on the GM whether or not it's going to be an option in the first place.
Probably. But I think they're not as bad as they sound, as long as you avoid arcana and items that require a swift action. At level 4, you should have 8 rounds of focus per day (12 with the extra pool feat) which should cover most of your combats for the day. At level 8, you can spell combat normally, and it ceases being an issue (at that point, you can just spend points on focus to e.g. enlarge yourself). Bear in mind that getting a bloodrager bloodline is a good thing here.Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-06-30, 02:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Also, archetypes are now up. I expect (and welcome) that there'll be some discussion on these!
In brief, the best ones are Beastblade, Bladebound, Hexcrafter, and Kensai; whereas the worst are Greensting, Soul Forger, and Spellblade. A couple of them have level-dependent ratings; for example, the aforementioned Eldritch Scion gets quite a bit better at level 8, when it's allowed to spell combat without entering its focus.
This was the biggest and hardest section of the guidebook, so enjoy!Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-06-30, 08:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
"You give up the iconic spellstrike feature in exchange for the ability to attack an extra time per round, which you could already do with spellstrike anyway."
Well the idea is that if you're going Spellblade, you'd be dedicating yourself to a TWF style, and therefore you'd be getting more than one extra attack.
While I agree that Spellblade is a small step down I think you're being harsh. What it is, is situational - if you optimize for a TWF style (e.g. GTWF + Piranha Strike) it can be pretty beneficial, i.e. letting you contribute to combat while conserving your spell slots and pool. You create the athame, buff up and go to town in a large combat without casting anything further unless you need to. The athame is a free ghost touch weapon that ignores DR as well.
Spellblade Parry is worthy of note because it boosts your touch AC and CMD as well. My main issues with it are that it won't stack with other deflection bonuses (so if you get deflection elsewhere it's useless) and that it doesn't apply to ranged attacks/rays for no good reason.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
-
2015-06-30, 05:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Thought I'd add some info that might make you change your mind on how you rank Ki Arcana. Perhaps, maybe get it to Ki Arcana or Ki Arcana.
It is situational but allows for a recharge mechanic with your Arcane Pool.
1) Worship Irori
2) Have a source of channel positive energy
3) Take Ki Channel
-- You know have a way to recharge the Ki Pool of others --
4) Get a Ki Pool yourself
5) Take Ki Arcana
-- Have fun using Ki to fuel your Arcane Pool and recharging it when you get low. The more D6's you roll for channel, the more Ki you recharge.
Possible tips for the VMC section that makes use of this? VMC Monk becomes useful for those Kensai Magus that dip for Channeling. Throwing VMC Magus onto a Warpriest Sacred Fist build is fun. First Magus Arcana is available at level 7, exactly when the Sacred first gets a Ki Pool. And you don't need to have a Ki Pool to take Ki Channel, allowing it as a 5th level feat, just after you get to channel energy with fervorLast edited by Eldonauran; 2015-06-30 at 05:38 PM.
-
2015-06-30, 05:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
I think the problem there is, how do you intend to get a channel source and a ki pool and be sufficiently a magus all in one?
-
2015-06-30, 05:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
-
2015-06-30, 09:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Sovereign State of Denial
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
-
2015-06-30, 09:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
While Card Caster isn't fantastic, I would argue that it is superior to the Myrmidarch for thrown weapon users, because it allows for touch or ranged spells, not just ranged touch and rays. It also gives up fewer features, and retains the majority of its arcanas.
-
2015-06-30, 10:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- San Antonio.
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Plus, you're gambit.
-
2015-07-01, 04:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Ah, now all the interesting combos come up. Good!
(edit) Thanks for the feedback. Also, first set of feats is up.
Good point.
Upon further investigation, Myrmidarch is worse than I thought, because it can't attach a touch attack to an arrow; you can only attach a ranged spell to an arrow, which increases its range at the cost of accuracy (since it now targets regular AC instead of touch AC). That's not a great deal; if you want more range, either use Reach Spell or spells that have medium range to begin with. And oddly enough, Spell Combat requires a melee weapon, and Myrmidarch doesn't change that (nor does Card Caster and nor does Throwing Magus).
On the other hand, the Card Caster can actually attach any touch attack to a thrown weapon to increase its range to at least 20'; even though the rest of the archetype is not so great, this ability is good and he doesn't give up a lot for it (and can still take Hexblade, Kensai, or Staff Magus if so inclined). The only issue here is that a javelin or chakram is still a better weapon than playing cards. Ok, I'll give this some more room for discussion and then adjust the ratings accordingly.
Could you explain how you would use this in practice?
The way I see it, a warpriest can indeed benefit from recharging his ki with Irori's channeling, but he doesn't need a Magus arcana to do so. On the other hand, a Magus could dip one level into cleric and two into ninja to gain channel and ki, and can then recover about two pool points per day... or he could simply take three more levels in Magus (which gives +1 pool) and the Extra Pool feat for +2 more. So it seems to me that he doesn't really benefit from this trick.
Could you explain further how this combo works?
GTWF requires level 15. At that point, you could spend two feats/arcana on precise strike have an attack routine of +9/+9 (spellstrike)/+9 (haste)/+4/-1 for 1d6+15 (precise strike)+7 (dex)+5 (magic weapon), or 30.5 average damage. This could be boosted further by taking e.g. Bladebound or Kensai, and you can do it all day; you also have the option of using spellstrike for an actual damage spell.
Or you could spend four feats on TWF/ITWF/GTWF/Piranha Strike and have an attack routine of +6/+6 (haste)/+6/+1/+1/-4/-4 for 1d6+18 on your primary (+7 dex, +5 magic, +6 piranha for 21.5 average), 1d4+7 on your secondary (+4 magic, only +3 from piranha, for an average 9.5). This doesn't strike me as a good deal; even in the best-case scenario (if all your attacks connect, which really isn't likely with the penalties from piranha), you're looking at 114.5 average damage vs 152.5 for the regular Magus.
Spellblade Parry is worthy of note because it boosts your touch AC and CMD as well. My main issues with it are that it won't stack with other deflection bonuses (so if you get deflection elsewhere it's useless) and that it doesn't apply to ranged attacks/rays for no good reason.Last edited by Kurald Galain; 2015-07-01 at 08:10 AM.
Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-07-01, 09:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Which Precise Strike do you mean? The teamwork feat?
And you can get way more attacks with a TWF magus than you've listed there. For instance, any natural weapons you have from your race or buffs can get thrown into the mix, whereas they can't with normal spell combat unless you take Natural Spell Combat, and that only applies to one natural weapon at a time. For example, a Spellblade Magus using Monstrous Physique 2 to become a Tikbalang will get a bite and two hooves, plus still get to use his weapons (including the athame) - all finessable, all with reach, all boosted by piranha strike (50% for the athame and the 3 naturals), plus pounce. Throw in Multiattack and all those additional swings are at a decent +4 (+3 with the size penalty.) And all that is from a single spell.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
-
2015-07-01, 10:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
-
2015-07-01, 10:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
- Location
- Runite
- Gender
-
2015-07-01, 10:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
You can do this one as early as 10 so it's not that high really. And you can use your natural weapons in a full-attack before that, "pouncing" with things like Force Hook Charge at 7.
Ah, I see now. Indeed, that's a good combo. It does however require using up two arcana and the most DR/hardness-resistant damage type.
The way I see it, Spellblade can be useful on a Magus that needs to be more of a utility caster for the group, say in a T3-or-lower-only game. They have fewer spell slots to spellstrike with because they have to prepare some measure of utility spells too, and they need arcana that boost their utility like Spell Blending and Familiar. So being able to get the most bang for their spell slot buck would be vital - buffing and full-attacking with "TWF" while still being able to cast spells as needed.
I fully agree that the base magus is stronger, but Spellblade can be optimized decently if you know what you're doing.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
-
2015-07-01, 11:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2013
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Card Caster is....awkward.
One of the things I found was that you can use an alchemist flask for the ranged spellstrike.Which is nifty.
The awkward part of it is that I believe by RAW the spell transfers to the splash damage as well FOR FULL EFFECT and no reflex save for half.
It also says "any touch or RANGED Spell" for its Harrowed spellstrike.
Although, I just place that under poor editing.
Finally, I believe that the player companion product threads actually have the freelance developers commenting on anything awkward about their archetypes. So they might be good for a little bit of context or insight.
-
2015-07-01, 12:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Sure.
Having both a Ki Pool and an Arcane Pool means you could effectively have twice the amount of points to work with. You can activate your Arcane Pool abilities with Ki and you can recharge Ki. Slap on an item that boosts your total healing, like Phylactery of Positive Channeling, and you can recharge multiple Ki per burst. If you have fellow Ki users in the party, they will love you.
It is definitely a niche ability. An Eldritch Scion that dips Ninja could realistically have a Ki Pool of 4. A dip of cleric could give 6/day channel energy. Combined with the Phylactery, that is potentially 18 Ki you can recharge a day. If you are willing to spare 4 levels towards this, a 2 ninja / 2 witch (hex channeler) will net you channeling with the option of increasing the healing dice by taking extra hex feat.
-
2015-07-01, 12:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
With the Spell Combat problem, I think that it can still work with something like a dagger, a melee weapon that has a ranged increment, that can still be thrown. Spell Combat only stipulates that the melee weapon is held and used for the attacks, and not that they have to be melee attacks. This also allows for the modified Spellstrike to work well with Spell Combat.
For another option on ranged touch attack spells for the likes of the Card Caster and the Myrmidarch, I would look at Snowball, as shown in Forger's Updated Guide to the Magus. It has the same scaling as Shocking Grasp, but it has no SR, which is big.
-
2015-07-01, 04:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
If you go by JJ's ruling here, Frostbite becomes a great spell for a magus. I use Empowered Frostbite in half of my 3rd level slots to add (1d6+level)*1.5 to all my attacks for a whole combat.
-
2015-07-02, 05:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Nice trick. A net also works.
It also says "any touch or RANGED Spell" for its Harrowed spellstrike.
Although, I just place that under poor editing.
This is definitely a fun combo. However, I see it as more of a niche build (ki battery + a party with other ki users) than as something for a broad class guide. I'd say that in general, a Magus benefits more from four extra levels in Magus than from a combo that gives more arcana points than he really needs.
Indeed. Even without that ruling, it's still a very nice pick. That goes on the list of spells.
This feels like something that many GMs would ban. I'm not a fan of writing a handbook based on ambiguous rules.
For another option on ranged touch attack spells for the likes of the Card Caster and the Myrmidarch, I would look at Snowball
Well, if one build can afford to spend three feats on TWF/ITWF/GTWF, then the other can afford to spend three feats on Natural Spell Combat; and if conserving spell slots is the goal, then a spellstrike build does that better than a build that spends spell slots on conjuring a dagger.
I completely agree that a multiattacking natural weapon Magus is a great combo (that should go in the builds list later); but I'm don't see how Spellblade really adds to that. A bunch of natural attacks plus spellstrike still strikes me as more effective than a bunch of natural attacks plus a conjured dagger. For example, try stacking multiattacks with Frostbite, or with one of the Eldritch Scion's "do nasty stuff on a crit" bloodlines...Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-07-02, 11:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Yeah, it is quite possibly more Arcane Points than really needed. However, should you play a Magus that doesn't give up spell recall or spell knowledge ... It serves to drastically improve your spell recharge mechanic, meaning the Magus can "Nova" multiple times per day.
-
2015-07-02, 12:47 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
FYI half-elf trade skilled for ancestral arms, not elven immunities, so you can get both EWP and +2 to will.
-
2015-07-02, 03:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
Both race traits swap out Adaptability, sadly.
Ancestral Arms Some half-elves receive training in an unusual weapon. Half-elves with this racial trait receive Exotic Weapon Proficiency or Martial Weapon Proficiency with one weapon as a bonus feat at 1st level. This racial trait replaces the adaptability racial trait.Dual Minded The mixed ancestry of some half-elves makes them resistant to mental attacks. Half-elves with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on all Will saving throws. This racial trait replaces the adaptability racial trait.Proudly addicted to pointing out where exactly rules can be found.
Countdown to Belkar's death and my follow-up count gives us less then 3 weeks left. Poor Belkar.
Avatar by Akrim.elf
___
What effects allow a saving throw?
List of almost all 3.5 skills.
Old PF Initiative Build
-
2015-07-02, 04:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
-
2015-07-06, 07:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
All feats are up.
In summary, the best magic feats are Dimensional Agility, Intensify Spell, and Spell Perfection; whereas the best weapon feats are Lunge or Lunging Spell Touch (and, for a dex magus, finesse + dervish, of course). Feedback and other suggestions welcome; for obvious reasons I'm not going to list every feat in the book, there's way too many of those.Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
-
2015-07-06, 08:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
- Gender
Re: Myrrh, Frankincense, and Steel: Kurald Galain's Guide to the Magus
As a general note, I've got a Magus in a group I play with on Thursdays who makes good use of the Shocking Grasp schtick - doesn't hurt that the GM's both houseruled away crit confirmations and made crits autohit, which makes critfishing OP as all get-out. But he's started to run into something shutting his damage down pretty hard - namely, spell resistance. Shocking Grasp is SR:Yes, which means that any creature that has level-appropriate SR, of which there's quite a few, stands a very fair chance of saying nope to his main damage output. What I'm saying is, I'd make it pretty clear that if somebody's going to rely on SG, they should be sure they've got a couple boosts handy to get through SR if they need to. Not sure what, aside from basic CL boosts, but it bears looking into.
Also, electricity resistance/immunity is a thing. Lesser Rods of Elemental Spell are cheap - 3k - and highly useful for dealing with this from mid-levels up; at that price tag, it's well worth it to have a couple of each other type handy, or potentially even learn the feat, if you know specifically what type of baddie with resistance electricity you'll be running up against a lot. It may do a lot less damage than Intensified SG, but half of full damage is better than none of full-and-a-half.Last edited by AnonymousPepper; 2015-07-06 at 08:32 AM.