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How does the magus perform at high levels?
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<blockquote data-quote="SteelDraco" data-source="post: 5988881" data-attributes="member: 359"><p>I started at 9th level with my character, as he was a replacement for an old character that I retired. As you stated, I went with Str/Int as highest, then Con. My dump stat was Wisdom - obviously not a min-maxed choice, since it drops your Will save, but it made sense for my character to be impulsive and relatively weak-willed. Half-orc is obviously not an optimal choice for any caster; human or dwarf would probably be better for a Strength-based magus. </p><p></p><p>My build was...</p><p></p><p>Feat1 - Combat Casting</p><p>Feat3 - Power Attack</p><p>Feat5 - Furious Focus</p><p>Magus5 Bonus Feat - Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword)</p><p>Feat7 - Intensified Spell</p><p>Feat9 - Extra Arcane Pool</p><p>Magus11 Bonus Feat - Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword)</p><p>Feat11 - Extra Arcana (Empowered Magic)</p><p></p><p>Magus Arcana went...</p><p>3 - Pool Strike - This is usually regarded as a very sub-optimal pick. It always sucks in comparison to Shocking Grasp damage-wise... unless you're fighting lots of things that have elemental resistances and you have enough Knowledge skills in the party to figure out what works and what doesn't. I faced a lot of cold and electricity immune things, and the ability to choose a different element, even at a lower damage output, was helpful several times. Cold and electricity have the best touch attack spells for a magus, in my opinion, but this is a decent choice if you need extra damage against something immune to both.</p><p>6 - Spell Blending (Elemental Speech and Resist Energy). Elemental Speech was a flavor pick - I was playing my character as an elementalist. Having Resist Energy on my spell list saved my character's bacon several times. There are much more powergamey things you can do with Spell Blending - it's a very powerful arcana.</p><p>9 - Accurate Strike - Highly recommended for a Strength-based magus. High-level monsters usually have terrible touch ACs, so this is more or less an automatic hit with every attack on a full attack. Power Attack + Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp + touch attack killed a pretty major boss in one full attack at one point; it can be brutal.</p><p>11 - Empowered Magic - It was nice to be able to do this on the fly, but limited to once per day. That sucked. It might have been more efficient to take the normal feat. A 4th level slot for an Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasp for 10d6x1.5 would have still been worth it.</p><p>12 - Arcing Pool Strike - This was just a flat waste. I regretted taking it. Thought it would be more useful.</p><p></p><p>Equipment-wise, I used a +2 spell storing bastard sword. I typically kept a vampiric touch in there, and triggered it if I needed hit points. My character was something of a glass cannon, so being able to grab some HP and do damage at the same time worked out well. Armor was the most enchanted mithral breastplate I could pick up.</p><p></p><p>I liked the bastard sword because I was almost always Enlarged, so the jump from 1d10 to 2d8 (5.5 to 9 avg) was nicer than the jump from 1d8 to 2d6 (4.5 to 7 avg). EWP/Weapon Focus was a slight loss in damage potential from WF/WS would have been, but since you can't take WS until 11th level, it didn't seem worth it to me. There are better options at that power level, I think. Improved Crit didn't make sense to me because I almost always had a keen weapon from my arcane pool.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2669279/ChoGal.pdf" target="_blank">Here's my character sheet at 11th level</a>; that's the highest-level version I have on hand.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SteelDraco, post: 5988881, member: 359"] I started at 9th level with my character, as he was a replacement for an old character that I retired. As you stated, I went with Str/Int as highest, then Con. My dump stat was Wisdom - obviously not a min-maxed choice, since it drops your Will save, but it made sense for my character to be impulsive and relatively weak-willed. Half-orc is obviously not an optimal choice for any caster; human or dwarf would probably be better for a Strength-based magus. My build was... Feat1 - Combat Casting Feat3 - Power Attack Feat5 - Furious Focus Magus5 Bonus Feat - Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword) Feat7 - Intensified Spell Feat9 - Extra Arcane Pool Magus11 Bonus Feat - Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword) Feat11 - Extra Arcana (Empowered Magic) Magus Arcana went... 3 - Pool Strike - This is usually regarded as a very sub-optimal pick. It always sucks in comparison to Shocking Grasp damage-wise... unless you're fighting lots of things that have elemental resistances and you have enough Knowledge skills in the party to figure out what works and what doesn't. I faced a lot of cold and electricity immune things, and the ability to choose a different element, even at a lower damage output, was helpful several times. Cold and electricity have the best touch attack spells for a magus, in my opinion, but this is a decent choice if you need extra damage against something immune to both. 6 - Spell Blending (Elemental Speech and Resist Energy). Elemental Speech was a flavor pick - I was playing my character as an elementalist. Having Resist Energy on my spell list saved my character's bacon several times. There are much more powergamey things you can do with Spell Blending - it's a very powerful arcana. 9 - Accurate Strike - Highly recommended for a Strength-based magus. High-level monsters usually have terrible touch ACs, so this is more or less an automatic hit with every attack on a full attack. Power Attack + Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp + touch attack killed a pretty major boss in one full attack at one point; it can be brutal. 11 - Empowered Magic - It was nice to be able to do this on the fly, but limited to once per day. That sucked. It might have been more efficient to take the normal feat. A 4th level slot for an Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasp for 10d6x1.5 would have still been worth it. 12 - Arcing Pool Strike - This was just a flat waste. I regretted taking it. Thought it would be more useful. Equipment-wise, I used a +2 spell storing bastard sword. I typically kept a vampiric touch in there, and triggered it if I needed hit points. My character was something of a glass cannon, so being able to grab some HP and do damage at the same time worked out well. Armor was the most enchanted mithral breastplate I could pick up. I liked the bastard sword because I was almost always Enlarged, so the jump from 1d10 to 2d8 (5.5 to 9 avg) was nicer than the jump from 1d8 to 2d6 (4.5 to 7 avg). EWP/Weapon Focus was a slight loss in damage potential from WF/WS would have been, but since you can't take WS until 11th level, it didn't seem worth it to me. There are better options at that power level, I think. Improved Crit didn't make sense to me because I almost always had a keen weapon from my arcane pool. [URL="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2669279/ChoGal.pdf"]Here's my character sheet at 11th level[/URL]; that's the highest-level version I have on hand. [/QUOTE]
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How does the magus perform at high levels?
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