The Magus, Early Draft

Yes, please do both! But yeah, scholar first.

I definitely agree with you on all accounts. So far there are people pulling for both. I'm going to probably put out a revised early draft of both before making a decision about which one to pursue but, with any luck, I'll eventually be releasing full versions of both.

Benjamin Huffman

Third comment in a row here...getting a bit ridiculous. I actually think this feature is problematic with or without the restriction and might need to rethink it. Pretty sure this makes Magus the top tier damage output at level 3. Arcane Order Swordmage could do Eldritch Blast (d10) + enspelled long sword (d8 + d4 + STR mod) for a max of 27 dmg, an average of 16 dmg, and he can do that every round.

Benjamin Huffman

Ah, though Swordmage does clarify it only works with a one-handed melee weapon.

Benjamin Huffman

Oh man, yeah...that's pretty outlandish. Honestly I might need to rethink that happening at 3rd level anyway...that's a pretty big damage output boost. Maybe it makes more sense for that to be what they get instead of Extra Attack at 5th level and then come up with a different Swordmage feature.

Benjamin Huffman

While I think that this idea is a cool one and I'd like to see it explored, I think I would much prefer to see you finish the Scholar. Intelligence really doesn't get much love in 5e, and there aren't a lot of interesting pure support options (other than bard), so your Scholar really piques my interest. It also feels like the Scholar, as mentioned by Matt Lowry, is more of an unexplored concept than the Magus. I guess I'm just more interested to see where the Scholar goes than the Magus, though both look quite interesting.

One thing I did notice reading the Magus preview was that the Swordmage Style doesn't specify that you need to cast a Magus cantrip to trigger the bonus action attack so if you can pick up Greenflame Blade early from being a High Elf or the Magic Initiate Feat then you can make two attacks with something like a Great sword every round at level 3. I have no idea how this affects the balance or maths behind the class design but thought it was worth mentioning.

Matt Lowry

To be completely transparent even though I will likely focus on just one of these classes for the time being I think it's highly likely I will finish both in the long run. That's not a guarantee but it is how I'm feeling about it right now.

Benjamin Huffman

When I read that this class would be in competition with your Scholar class you previously previewed my initial reaction was to hope that the Scholar made the cut as the concept has been much less explored than the 'Gish' and wanted to see how it turned out. However after reading your Magus preview I really like that your Sub-class determines your casting ability and now I'm torn.

Matt Lowry