I made some homebrew adjustments for a player at my table who wanted to play a Magus that really made a big difference: 1) Buffed arcane cascade with +1 damage and +1 to hit. Entering Arcane cascade recharges your spellstrike, but spellstriking ends your cascade in a big burst of magic (gives a more enjoyable gameplay loop and makes the turns you don't spellstrike feel better) 2) If you miss your spellstrike your spell lingers in your weapon until the end of your next turn. If you hit with it the spellstrike activates normally. (this is HUGE! A miss still sucks as it "wastes" your turn but it's far less punishing) Even with those changes he wasn't overpowered, especially compared to the Giant barbarian, but he was a lot more effective and enjoyed the character a lot more.
Interesting updates! I'm glad you were able to playtest it and found it to be balanced. I feel like a lot of my homebrew ideas sound great but then end up being way overpowered.
It's a really fun class and the best designed gish around. But. It is really action hungry and it makes it difficult to do anything else with your turn of you want to spellstrike every turn. Watching it in action, often times arcane cascade stance doesn't get activated, moving around the battlefield is tough to manage. Best expectation is setting up spellstrike for every other round, and hope you don't miss. With that said, it is still super fun and a big hit feels really good. Plus true strike is your friend.
It always looks SO easy and powerful on paper - spellstrike, recharge, spellstrike again. But then you realize the enemy won't just be standing next to you for the entire combat, so you need to stride, adjust to terrain, maybe escape a grapple or retch to remove sickness, and suddenly you're out of actions.
Magus: a welcome addition to any adventurer group. I GM'd a party with a Fighter, a Wizard, War Priest and Magus. They struggle a bit as the group's primary wizard, they struggle as the primary warrior but if those roles are covered and the magus is allowed to do what it does best, OMG can they inflict damage. I think the following multi-classes may work well when using the Free Archetype variant; Archery Ranger / Magus and the obvious Magus / Wizard. The later isn't great but it does increase access to more lower level spells.
I'm still learning the game, so it is hard to separate my magus experience from my pf2 experience in general. To cast 1 spell and make 1 weapon attack still costs 3 actions, so spellstrike with a recharge feels like a sneaky way to avoid m.a.p. or move a aoe placement. Since spellstrike goes all-in on one attack, I wish there were easier ways to invest in the accuracy of an attack. I have some issues with level dc and the difficulty of succeeding some of the characters' best skills.
Im playing the laughing shadow rn and having my conflux spell let me teleport and hit for 1 action and get my spellstrike back at the same time, are often the turns i get to drop into arcane cascade. The teleport is great for flanking in tight spaces as well. Almost always on my few spells its felt like any amount of cc is better than just shocking grasping somthing; but if i read the arcane cascade rules correctly, you can apply persistent damage using your arcane cascade after you cast something like grim tendrils to get bleed damage which is sweet with the extra arcane cascade damage the laughing shadow gets
I played magus some, and I have to say it is also a surprisingly effective "tank". Both Inexorable iron and Sparkling targe can be incredible frontliners, especially with an archetype thrown into the mix. Witch with life boost hex on an inexorable iron for constant regeneration or some additional shield feats for sparkling targe to shield block more and free your actions by raising your shield as a reaction, can give you impressive results
@@RebelThenKing I had made one who was just a farmboy using a pitchfork as his two handed weapon, his familiar was just a chicken whose footprints always happened to be magic sigils and symbols for him to learn spell. He has no idea if it's just incredible luck, or if familiar is actually smart.
My first character is a Starlit Span magus! I've found that the leveled spells are kind od a once per combat thing so you have to make sure they pull their weight each time, so I've actually minimized the direct damage and debuffs in my slots. I try to avoid whiffing them.
"gish" is sort of the unofficial term for a character who is partially magical, partially martial. I think the magus does this blend really well, so nothing is gishier than it.
I’ve played as and with a Magus in different campaigns. I think the Magus is an ok class. They can do some cool things that no else can, however, their action economy was a bit too cumbersome for my style.
I personally doesn't like the magus. First: He's a frontline glasscannon, who has no action for runnig away. And he's one, constantly in danger of being hit AND disrupt by an Attack of Opportunity. Which stops the Spellstrike. And third: Most time while he definitly needs support to hit or survive, he's the one who has no time to support other peoples attack. But to be fair, as long as he lives, his damage is good.
Sie haben recht! The action economy of the magus doesn't leave room for much movement, defense, and certainly not for supporting other characters. (Wenn Sie wollen, dürfen Sie auf meinem Kanal Deutsch benutzen. Ich habe Deutsch studiert und versuche immer mehr zu üben).
@@RebelThenKing Danke. Der Magus ist eine Todesfalle. Gerade auf den höheren Stufen. Fortitude saves als letztes (15) auf master. Was bedeutet, er kann leicht festgehalten oder zu Boden geworfen werden. Und er hat nicht die action economy um den Zustand immer wieder auszugleichen. Je höher die Stufen werden, desto schlimmer wird der Schaden. Und der Magus kann weniger einstecken als die meisten anderen Frontkämpfer. Was den Schaden angeht, kann der, wie oben erwähnt, durch die AoO leicht unterbrochen werden.Und er WIRKT nur mächtig. Ein feat-Doppelschlag mit Schadenrunen macht ähnlich Schaden.
I made some homebrew adjustments for a player at my table who wanted to play a Magus that really made a big difference:
1) Buffed arcane cascade with +1 damage and +1 to hit. Entering Arcane cascade recharges your spellstrike, but spellstriking ends your cascade in a big burst of magic (gives a more enjoyable gameplay loop and makes the turns you don't spellstrike feel better)
2) If you miss your spellstrike your spell lingers in your weapon until the end of your next turn. If you hit with it the spellstrike activates normally. (this is HUGE! A miss still sucks as it "wastes" your turn but it's far less punishing)
Even with those changes he wasn't overpowered, especially compared to the Giant barbarian, but he was a lot more effective and enjoyed the character a lot more.
Interesting updates! I'm glad you were able to playtest it and found it to be balanced. I feel like a lot of my homebrew ideas sound great but then end up being way overpowered.
It's a really fun class and the best designed gish around. But. It is really action hungry and it makes it difficult to do anything else with your turn of you want to spellstrike every turn. Watching it in action, often times arcane cascade stance doesn't get activated, moving around the battlefield is tough to manage. Best expectation is setting up spellstrike for every other round, and hope you don't miss. With that said, it is still super fun and a big hit feels really good. Plus true strike is your friend.
It always looks SO easy and powerful on paper - spellstrike, recharge, spellstrike again. But then you realize the enemy won't just be standing next to you for the entire combat, so you need to stride, adjust to terrain, maybe escape a grapple or retch to remove sickness, and suddenly you're out of actions.
Magus: a welcome addition to any adventurer group.
I GM'd a party with a Fighter, a Wizard, War Priest and Magus. They struggle a bit as the group's primary wizard, they struggle as the primary warrior but if those roles are covered and the magus is allowed to do what it does best, OMG can they inflict damage.
I think the following multi-classes may work well when using the Free Archetype variant; Archery Ranger / Magus and the obvious Magus / Wizard. The later isn't great but it does increase access to more lower level spells.
I personally like Rogue Racket Eldritch Trickser more than the Magus Class. Its more fun to deal Sneak Attack Dmg to your Spell in addition ;D
I'm still learning the game, so it is hard to separate my magus experience from my pf2 experience in general. To cast 1 spell and make 1 weapon attack still costs 3 actions, so spellstrike with a recharge feels like a sneaky way to avoid m.a.p. or move a aoe placement.
Since spellstrike goes all-in on one attack, I wish there were easier ways to invest in the accuracy of an attack. I have some issues with level dc and the difficulty of succeeding some of the characters' best skills.
Im playing the laughing shadow rn and having my conflux spell let me teleport and hit for 1 action and get my spellstrike back at the same time, are often the turns i get to drop into arcane cascade. The teleport is great for flanking in tight spaces as well. Almost always on my few spells its felt like any amount of cc is better than just shocking grasping somthing; but if i read the arcane cascade rules correctly, you can apply persistent damage using your arcane cascade after you cast something like grim tendrils to get bleed damage which is sweet with the extra arcane cascade damage the laughing shadow gets
Yeah, you can apply arcane cascade after ANY spell, which is so cool. The magus is such a fun class.
I played magus some, and I have to say it is also a surprisingly effective "tank".
Both Inexorable iron and Sparkling targe can be incredible frontliners, especially with an archetype thrown into the mix.
Witch with life boost hex on an inexorable iron for constant regeneration or some additional shield feats for sparkling targe to shield block more and free your actions by raising your shield as a reaction, can give you impressive results
I love that combination of magus and witch!
@@RebelThenKing I had made one who was just a farmboy using a pitchfork as his two handed weapon, his familiar was just a chicken whose footprints always happened to be magic sigils and symbols for him to learn spell.
He has no idea if it's just incredible luck, or if familiar is actually smart.
My first character is a Starlit Span magus! I've found that the leveled spells are kind od a once per combat thing so you have to make sure they pull their weight each time, so I've actually minimized the direct damage and debuffs in my slots. I try to avoid whiffing them.
Nice video, I really enjoyed. I do have one question, what does gish-ier mean?
"gish" is sort of the unofficial term for a character who is partially magical, partially martial. I think the magus does this blend really well, so nothing is gishier than it.
I’ve played as and with a Magus in different campaigns. I think the Magus is an ok class. They can do some cool things that no else can, however, their action economy was a bit too cumbersome for my style.
Great video, the background music was a bit loud and was a bit distracting. Thanks!
You know what, I was wondering about the music levels and thought they were too loud too. I've adjusted this for upcoming videos.
Well, the 1E magus was far gishier.
I personally doesn't like the magus. First: He's a frontline glasscannon, who has no action for runnig away. And he's one, constantly in danger of being hit AND disrupt by an Attack of Opportunity. Which stops the Spellstrike. And third: Most time while he definitly needs support to hit or survive, he's the one who has no time to support other peoples attack. But to be fair, as long as he lives, his damage is good.
Sie haben recht! The action economy of the magus doesn't leave room for much movement, defense, and certainly not for supporting other characters. (Wenn Sie wollen, dürfen Sie auf meinem Kanal Deutsch benutzen. Ich habe Deutsch studiert und versuche immer mehr zu üben).
@@RebelThenKing Danke. Der Magus ist eine Todesfalle. Gerade auf den höheren Stufen. Fortitude saves als letztes (15) auf master. Was bedeutet, er kann leicht festgehalten oder zu Boden geworfen werden. Und er hat nicht die action economy um den Zustand immer wieder auszugleichen. Je höher die Stufen werden, desto schlimmer wird der Schaden. Und der Magus kann weniger einstecken als die meisten anderen Frontkämpfer.
Was den Schaden angeht, kann der, wie oben erwähnt, durch die AoO leicht unterbrochen werden.Und er WIRKT nur mächtig. Ein feat-Doppelschlag mit Schadenrunen macht ähnlich Schaden.
It's pronounced Magus like GIF