the Magus, v0.5 - Patreon backer feedback requested!

Yeah, I think I am going to try to come up with a ribbon ability. The class currently doesn't have any and a good ribbon feature might help add a touch of cohesion to a class that's defined so much by how diverse its archetypes are.

Benjamin Huffman

I'm not convinced that spellcasting isn't enough of a feature at level 2. Maybe a ribbon ability as well, but 2 1st level spell slots is nothing to sneeze at. The only other concept that would fit there is Eldritch Armament, since the paladin (the kissing cousin of the magus) also gets their smite at level 2.

Matthew Gesus

Hey Ross - I love the idea of incorporating a ribbon ability at 2 or 3. I will be thinking about that. I believe developing that ribbon ability & possibly developing a couple more new spells will be the finishing touches on this class (prior to working on 3 more archetypes).

Benjamin Huffman

Before I say anything else, I'd like to say that I love the new spells you added and the changes you made to ones that existed in the last draft. Also, the new cantrip lists for each Eldritch Society are absolutely perfect. The Arcane Order Booming Blade abuse case is no longer an issue (until they inevitable take it at level 7), and I just love that every Eldritch Society has cantrips to support both ranged and melee builds. This is some superb work. I like the idea of moving Eldritch Societies back to level 1 since it does solve the problems you mentioned. However, that now leaves a pretty big dearth of features at level 2 since spellcasting, while useful, isn't super-impactful at that level. Perhaps you could move Society-specific Mystic Mark improvement effects to 2nd-level? But, now that I think about it, that kind of makes level 3 feel a bit weak since it costs such a large portion of your resources to use an Eldritch Armament. I think my best recommendations to solve this potential issue would be one of the following: 1) Add some sort of extra little thing to level 2 to pad out that level, perhaps some sort of ribbon that's useful outside of combat. The Magus could use one or two ribbons; nearly the entire class as it stands is pretty darn focused on combat. Even Paladin gets Divine Sense. 2) Move Eldritch Armament back to level 2, and add some sort of ribbon (as above) to pad out level 3, though the Mystic Mark improvements could be considered enough at that level. Overall, I'm loving the changes you made, and I can't wait to see the next version.

Also, for the record, here are the changes I am implementing already... Eldritch Society choice is back to level 1 & gives you 2 cantrips at level 1. This neatly solves all of the problems I had created by moving things around and, I think, is probably alright balance-wise especially if I with Eldritch Armament now at level 3 instead of 2.

Benjamin Huffman

That's odd, Ross...not sure why that's happening. I did try to rename the document so maybe that's it? Here is another link, see if this works: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B02_m9TCpCJAUVhuRHk1MGkxaDg/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B02_m9TCpCJAUVhuRHk1MGkxaDg/view?usp=sharing</a>

Benjamin Huffman

I'm not sure if anyone is experiencing this same issue, but when I use the URL to go to view the Magus document, I'm getting an image cut off before the halfway point of the first page. I would love to give feedback, and maybe it's just my computer, but I can't view the levels in question right now.

Also, what do people think about not getting cantrips until 2nd level? I see I messed up the table but in the text of the features it indicates that doesn't happen til 2nd level in this current draft.

Benjamin Huffman

Maybe just moving the Eldritch Society feature back to 1st level and changing nothing else would solve this issue?

Benjamin Huffman