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I don't know. The Kraken one doesn't worry me too much given that the Fighter gets 3 attacks per turn every turn by level 11 and the Magus will be burning spell slots to make that many. The Magus can do more attacks per turn than the Fighter as long as the Magus is happy to burn all spell slots but since that also takes away from their ability to burn damage through their Eldritch Armament I think maybe it's a good trade off. It's also taking away the ability to use a cantrip on that turn so War Magic won't work on the same turn. Even for builds specifically meant to take advantage of it I think it will be a conditional use since it kind of is counter to the main damage dealing strengths of the Magus.

Benjamin Huffman

Oh, one other thing...the Kraken 7th level feature is way too strong. Can you imagine that with a Hand Xbow Sharpshooter? Or a great weapon master? I see the "multiple tentacle attack" theme you're going for, but maybe a bonus to grapple instead, or a bonus action grapple attack?

Matthew Gesus

I can see the interplay you're going for with the "Enspell -> Drop Enspell to power the cantrips", and I approve. But I think auto-crit is simply asking for too much trouble. (Eldritch Archer and this with auto-crit splash damage would be painful). In general, put too many offensive features on a long rest schedule, even with limited uses, and you start to encourage nova builds, which are problematic for balance at multiple points. (Make initial encounters too easy, which makes later encounters too hard, which encourages 15 minute work day syndrome.) Maybe have the Enspell remove do max weapon damage, so that it's a decent bonus but doesn't stack with Eldritch Armament? Or maybe a Wisdom saving throw or be blinded for 1 turn, as the shadowy strike clouds their mind? (The other 3 Enspells all require saves against physical stats, a mental stat attack would be a nice changeup.) Then have the cantrips grant their special benefit against blinded targets.

Matthew Gesus

If you really want to go with the Monk theme here then have it mimic Flurry of Blows or something instead so at least its bounded strictly to unarmed strike and can't be abused cross class. Though that's still kind of janky as eldritch armament has no precise unarmed option so you're kind of working against the base class. In order to unarmed strike you have to effectively not be using your eldritch armament. Unless you're going to hold a shield in one hand and punch in the other. Which is bit silly to envision. But again, all this aside just making bigger numbers does not a compelling feature make. Especially on a shadow manipulator type class. Why doesn't it just strike the enemy blind or something similarly shadow magicish? Why can't I punch them so hard their shadow breaks off, puts them in a full nelson and everyone gets advantage against the target until the end of my next turn? I mean there's lots of stuff you can do with a shadowcaster theme.

Michael Doyle

3 level dips aren't that uncommon. Especially for a fruit as enticing as an autocrit. Magus is already capable of spiking a hit with a slot burn ala a Paladin with the right armament so you're getting two damage spike options for that 3 level dip. One of which is not limited by the Magus class as you a burn slot from any class to fuel it ala a Paladin smite. So you already have an on demand resource burn to damage boost option in the base class anyhow. Adding a second one doesn't add anything interesting imo and opens up a lot of messy abuse possibilities you have to find and math out to try and balance. Even as low as 6th level it starts to get worrisome. Being 3 levels down on a Rogue/Trickster is trading only 1-2d6 of your Sneak Attack damage for the formidable dice roll Ross pointed out. Plus you get the benefit of a Fighting Style for that 3 level dip as well as shields and better armour. Doing it with Paladin nets you two Fighting Styles that stack and a second pseudo Divine Smite option you can stack with your existing DS. Which you can then double whenever you like with the auto crit. Its just a Pandora's Box that you'll be perpetually trying to close as each new potential line of abuse pops up and you have to math it out to see if you've broken something. So yeah, honestly, I don't think its worth the hassle and I don't think just adding bigger numbers is all that interesting of a feature to begin with.

Michael Doyle

Thanks for your thoughts, Ross. I am going to consider applying a saving throw or some other limiting factor. I don't think it's too outrageous, even in those abusive edge cases, but I want to think about how to hedge out the abusive edge cases as much as possible.

Benjamin Huffman

I think this goes back to one of the cornerstone difficulties of balance in 5e - if people aren't playing it as intended it's super easy to abuse. I personally think turning a hit into a crit is good, but not game breaking, given that by 3rd level a Magus should only be able to do that between 2 ~ 5 times a day and it eats up a long rest resource to do. Additionally, dipping out of Barbarian and Rogue come with pretty steep drawbacks in terms of what you lose. Paladin this is less of an issue because at least you still get your spell slots but I guess I wonder even still if its worth the trade off for three levels of Paladin features to crit 2 ~ 5 times a day on a hit. I don't know...I appreciate you bringing it up, I am still turning it over in my head. I need to sit down with all the math soon and figure out exactly how game changing it is. Possibly I could add a saving throw against the effect or some other limiting factor if it seems like it could be out of control.

Benjamin Huffman

There are some really cool ideas going on in here, and I like the overall theming (though I was expecting more shadow-manipulation to be involved), but there are definitely some things that I think require tweaking. I must agree with Michael. The auto-crit is always going to either be too powerful or too weak, and the three-level dip makes multiclassing far too easy an abuse. A Shadow Magus/Arcane Trickster Multiclass would be absolutely terrifying. A guaranteed Booming Blade-Sneak Attack-Spellsword crit with an extra +1 to to hit and damage? And yes, Paladin's Divine Smite also applies here, but I'm calling out Arcane Trickster in particular because its main stats (Dex and Int) perfectly align with the Shadow Court's, and it gains Booming Blade due to it being a wizard cantrip. Even at 6th level, that crit with a rapier is 2d8+4d6+2d4+DexMod+1 piercing damage plus 2d8 thunder damage on the initial attack, an average of 41 damage with a +3 DexMod.

Ahh, going the Monk route I see. Interesting. Though on demand auto-crit is a big red flag. Even if you get it balanced inside of the Magus class, multiclassing opens all sorts of avenues of abuse. A 3 level dip for guranteed melee crits? Throw that on a raging Barbarian, a Rogue or even a Paladin with a smite dump and see what happens.

Michael Doyle