Limited Time Sneak Peek: Magus, Revised Early Draft

Now added to this Limited Time Sneak Peek, an additional archetype! A buddy of mine has been asking me to make a ninja class or archetype for a long time and I decided the Magus would be the best place to do it. Since I drafted it out today I thought I might as well share it! <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H8PQV6JM96l67bo5fEgDejNSvO1DRA12hR2b1Ancho0/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H8PQV6JM96l67bo5fEgDejNSvO1DRA12hR2b1Ancho0/edit?usp=sharing</a>

Benjamin Huffman

The update to Edritch Archer is perfect. It definitely also helps that the scaling is reduced. I didn't catch it, but noticed after the fix that 2d6 per spell level would actually be stronger than Divine Smite, which is already bonkers, after only 2nd level. Good changes all around. As to your arguments for the balance level of Sylvan Enspell, I have a rebuttal. The reason the Open Hand abilities are balanced are the following: 1) The monk need to have used Flurry of Blows to activate the abilities, which is not only a ki point resource cost but also an opportunity cost; the monk is very hungry for its bonus action, and while Flurry of Blows is a very common choice, it is not always the correct choice. If the monk makes a different choice, he or she cannot also push, knock prone, or prevent reactions. Given that Enspell is something that produces a significant majority of the magus's reliable damage output, it will be used quite a bit, and the specific Enspells of the different Orders happen every single time the magus hits with zero opportunity cost or additional cost beyond the one initial use of Mystic Mark, which lasts a full minute. During that duration, a monk would have needed to use 10 ki points to gain the effects each turn. 2) The monk needs to be in melee combat, which usually means the front lines against organized enemies, in order to make use of the abilities. This creates the risk of becoming flanked, of being targeted by multiple enemies, of being grappled (which would prevent the usage of the monk's enormous movement speed), and being in the danger zone of friendly AOE effects. Running a Bow Magus build completely eliminates these risks, unless the magus is outmaneuvered by its targets (which is significantly less likely due to the next reason). 3) This may be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that reducing a creature's speed to 0 for a turn is a significantly more powerful effect than anything the monk can do with its Flurry of Blows additions. The push is a minor inconvenience at best unless fighting alongside some sort of cliff or pit trap, and taking away reactions barely effects most creatures that the party would be fighting besides the niche case of taking away a creature's Parry ability for one turn (besides opportunity attacks, which most parties are smart enough to play around, anyway). As to the most comparable ability, knocking prone, yes, I will admit the obvious that gaining advantage on all melee attacks against a prone target is very strong. However, it also gives disadvantage to all ranged attacks made against the target, which can make several party members useless against that target. In addition, knocking something prone only functionally halves its speed for the turn since getting up takes half a creature's speed. Meanwhile, there are a large number of advantages to reducing a creature's speed to 0: A) Flanking the target and keeping them flanked just become much, much easier, as they can't disengage and run away to their allies, B) Your ranged attackers do not suffer disadvantage, C) If you do knock them prone, they cannot stand back up as long as their speed remains 0 (this is why grappling something and then shoving it is such a potent combination, and why your Squared Circle Fight Club on the Pugilist is so rewarding to play), and D) you can lock the target into a duration damage or disable spell with a specific area of effect, such as Moonbeam; now your caster doesn't have to blow its action or bonus action to keep the spell locked on target each turn, and all without potentially hurting your own ally if the Bow Magus keeps the target locked down. I just think it's a much more powerful effect than people will give it credit for. Sorry for such a long-winded response. Please know it all comes from a place of love for the game and homebrewing, and I can be...passionate...

It is really hard to remember to hit shft+enter. I did not know that rule about Primordial. Even though now that I look at it I can see that it's clearly stated even in the PHB section on languages. Oops! I am glad you like this update, I am feeling more confident about it too. I am spending today working on a Scholar that will hopefully be every bit as enticing to play!

Benjamin Huffman

Okay, I cleaned up the Eldritch Archer trait and actually just removed the bonus action clause. Arcane Enspell and Sylvan Enspell have both received some updates to clarify they are optional. My feeling re: the power level of Sylvan Enspell is that at 3rd level monks can choose the Open Hand archetype which lets them push, knock prone, or prevent reactions twice per turn at no ongoing cost to themselves. I believe reducing a creature's movement to 0 is generally less useful than that although, for sure, it could be annoying if you're playing a Sylvan Archer and locking down some creature who only does melee outside of melee...something for me to think about.

Benjamin Huffman

My pleasure!

Sorry, more notes...I accidentally hit Enter instead of Shift+Enter: For the Eldritch Archer armament, the wording is a little confusing. I think your intention is that it requires both your attack and bonus action to cause the arcane explosion. Perhaps it could read like this "Once during each of your turns, when you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack using a weapon under the Effect of your Enspell feature, you can choose to mark that creature until the end of your turn. As a bonus action, you can expend a magus spell slot to detonate the mark. When you do, each creature within 10 feet of the marked creature, including the marked creature, must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, taking an amount of the same type of damage dealt by the attack equal to 2d6 per level of the spell slot expended on a failure, or half damage on a success." I know it's a bit more long-winded, but I feel the feature needed a bit more clarification, since no other feature I can think of melds a bonus action into an attack this way. The PHB tends to separate them more fully, which is what I tried to represent with my suggestion. As to the Sorcerous Sentinel option, I agree with the commenter in the Google Doc; I would much rather see something different with it or see it removed. It'skind of useful against low-level mobs or creatures with many smaller-damage attacks, but feels much less versatile than the other options due to being much more niche than the extra damage, which is pretty much always useful. For the Arcane Order's Arcane Enspell, does the user have the option not to knock the target back if they want force damage, or does it always happen whenever one chooses to take the force damage? I suppose the same question also applies to the Sylvan Enspell. Speaking of the Sylvan Enspell, I realize that poison damage is very commonly resisted so that helps to balance, but I feel that possibly permanently rooting a target to the ground, especially if running a ranged magus, is a little too powerful. In the Primordial Order, allowing the magus to learn one of the dialects of Primordial, at least according to the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, is redundant if one knows Primordial. Other than those little things, I'd like to say that I like this version of the magus a lot more than the one you put out in July. It feels much more unique, especially as a "half-caster" class a la paladin and ranger that is more based around spellcasting. I love the replacement of Extra Attack with War Caster; it provides a ton of flavor and cool gameplay opportunity. I know that as a two-handed Sylvan Magus, I'd love to Thorn Whip a target in the backline to drag them closer and then wallop them with a greatsword, making use of my Mystic Marauder Eldritch Armament to annihilate a high-value target. It really feels like maguses will be really fun playmakers, and I really look forward to seeing more of this class. This update may even cause me to switch my vote away from the scholar.

Ah, yes. Thank you!

Benjamin Huffman

For the Enspell Mystic Mark option, you didn't specify a duration. I'm guessing it's a minute like the Aegis option, but I just wanted to make sure it was your intention.