Magus Class Preview: Base Class!

This is a great point. I'll take a look at how Divine Smite works and see if I need to clarify the language a bit more. As a DM, I'd personally rule that the weapon damage applies first, then the spell effect (at least that is the intention behind the design).

laserllama

Thank you for the detailed analysis of Spellstrike! It is definitely the ability I had to think about the most (and I feel it is on the cusp of being too fiddly/complicated for 5e). Your points are all correct, but one big difference that I purposefully created between Spellstrike and Divine Smite is that you can't activate Spellstrike after you crit on an attack. The best use for Divine Smite is to wait for a crit and dump your slot. Yes, you could crit with a fireball Spellstrike, but you can't wait until you crit then dump your fireball on top. Gotta love sleep and color spray! I'll probably add at least one custom Magus spell that works on the same hit point mechanic.

laserllama

Glad you're on board! I agree, there are so many abilities that are iconic for a Spellsword/Gish/Magus class. Unfortunately, I had to prioritize what was most important and get that to them at lower levels. Spellsight and Arcane Armory are extremely flavorful while not being super powerful, perfect 1st level abilities that make you feel like a Magus. Fighting Style and Spellcasting are both non-negotiables for a half-caster in the same vein as Paladin and Ranger. Spellstrike is more of a modification for Spellcasting. It is also the core ability of a Magus - being able to deliver spells through weapon attacks. While Spellsunder and Aegis are really awesome Magus abilities, I think it is okay that they come later. After all, Paladins get their Aura at 6th level and that is core for their ability.

laserllama

One thing I would change about Spellstrike would be to clarify that the spell's effects take place after the weapon attack's damage is applied. As it is currently written, the two effects are simultaneous, which could make for some weird interactions, such as spells that allow additional saves after taking damage or determining if a creature has to make one death save or two when targeted by a Spellstrike. Having the attack damage specifically come before the spell effect would be important for avoiding wasting the slot for spells like Polymorph (e.g. turning the big bad into a frog, then immediately dealing enough damage to revert their form) or Sleep (e.g. a creature having enough HP to resist the spell before the weapon damage, but not after). Looks great overall and I'm excited to see how the subclasses tweak the identity and role of the base class!

Oops I guess faerie fire was a bad example. I don’t think concentration spells would play well with Spellstrike

laserllama

Witcher sounds like a great archetype to add! I still need to watch season 2.

laserllama

Nope, just you! Unless of course you reduce it to zero.

laserllama

Spellstrike is rad. That was the feature I was most curious about since it occupies the same position as smite on the paladin. This feature can make or break the class, IMO, so it deserves intense scrutiny. It seems potentially... very potent. I think as a whole the feature is better than divine smite for its versatility when you consider the Magus spell list, but it's not completely overpowered. Here's my thinking: Attack Rolls - Landing a hit with an an attack is, generally, easier than hoping for a failed save especially with the help of fighting styles and magic weapons. This alone gives the feature a lot of extra utility, but there's additional benefit from the improved action economy (essentially you can cast something like hold person as a bonus action, and still have your full attack action to deal damage). There's also the fact that the spell triggers on your next successful attack, so at 5th level you have two chances to get the result you want compared to just casting the spell normally. This improves the value of a lot of save or suck spells considerably. Though i have to give praise to the clever wording here which still allows a legendary resistance to function properly with this feature. Damage - Of course, these advantages can be accounted for if spellstrike was secondary to divine smite in terms of burst damage. I think the most common way to use this will be burning hands for a 1st level 3d6 fire damage "smite" which is very cool but still feels distinct from the paladins signature feature. For 2nd level slots, shatter puts them on par with paladins at 4d8. This ramps up quickly to 8d6 smite from fireball on an attack which a bit better than what a paladin could do with a 3rd level slot (5d8). When you look at this at as a once-per-turn feature, it seems like Magus has a distinct advantage. But there is still one thing that differentiates the feature from smite. Bonus Action - The bonus action casting time is the saving grace for this ability, IMO. This means that the Magus will have to forgo any bonus action attacks granted by feats, and they can only spellstrike once per turn. I think that Paladins are still the kings of nova because they can use a BA to cast something like thunderous smite and also divine smite on both of their other attacks. This is a huge advantage because nova damage is a big reason that smite is so powerful. Bonus Action spellstrike is a good way to keep the magus from being a better weapon user than martials, and prevents them from being better burst damage dealers than paladins. tl;dr, its cool, and it's a bit more powerful than the existing official options. That's exactly where I like my homebrew to be! PS thanks for including functionality with the oft-forgotten sleep and color spray spells!

ranch_big

You mentioned previously Faerie Fire as an example of a Spellstrike rider, but with RAW Faerie Fire is concentration which excludes it as a possible Strike spell. Is this an intended change?

This already looks like a lot of fun to play! But maybe there is a way to get stuff like Spellsunder and Aegis a bit earlier in the class? they feel very iconic for a class like this, and they are given quite late in the class itself, but those are just my 2 cents. Keep up the great work!

This looks amazing so far! A witcher subclass seems pretty necessary as well. I'll let you know if any other subclasses come to mind!

Since Aegis says that it reduces the damage of the spell, does this mean it reduces the damage for everyone involved in the spell?