Pathfinder Magus Class Analysis 

Honestly I just think whoever was trashing spell combat is probably really uncreative, it’s one of the better mechanics in the game and definitely one of the most fun.

Magus is definately my favorite class, I was drawn to it because it reminded me of the elder scrolls spell sword, and spell combat is friggen amazing. Y'all need more imagination.

A normal house cat is deadly to nearly every level 1 character...

D6 your amazing, d10 your awesome and low key, d8.....you give me the feeling of stepping on a d4 in the early morning,,your just a pain

It sounds like D8's main opposition to the Magus is that they suck at low levels. Exactly how many classes are awesome at levels 1-3?

Yall are helping me build my Magus. Im so happy i found someone to further explain the classes to me!

Gotta say I appreciate using Geralt as a background to this video. He is my wife's first video game crush 😍 and she is currently playing a Bladebound Magus in Crimson Throne. Thank you for the breakdown.

Interesting advice. I would have to disagree with Spell Combat. It's easily the defining ability of the Magus, as no other class can cast a spell and perform a full attack routine. Attacking the Enemy General directly while tossing a Fireball at his troops (as an afterthought) is just incredible. Also, Arcane Accuracy is limited by the Arcane Pool; it is not unlimited. I agree that the Medium and Heavy armor abilities come online very late. Taking the armor proficiency feats will not help however, as you will still suffer from the Arcane Spell Failure %, until you gain the ability at 7 and 13. The Magus does, however, have a decent amount of defensive spells on his list to mitigate this problem.

“May gusses” Uh Magi Just like cactus/cacti, it’s Magus/Magi

Arcane strike trumps power attack for thus class by far. With weap. Spec and keen, weapon attack alone is nasty. With spell combat = SO MUCH DAMAGE

I might be mistaken I’m not an expert on this class, but I love the concept, it sounds like you need to 1)focus on hit not weapon damage that way you don’t loose out too hard by turning touch spells into normal attacks (because most weapons don’t hit touch ac) 2) don’t buy armor feat because you still suffer arcane failure until the appropriate level 3) focus int dex and con. Hopefully in a few levels you might be an effective member of your group? Oh wait you guys didn’t cover most of that because you argued about irrelevant crap... sorry this was the worst one of these videos you’ve made

You can also get an Elven Thornblade, which is a Martial weapon for Elf PCs, has a 18-20/x2 crit profile, does P or S damage, and gives a +2 to confirm crits.

As a magus player. I’m dominating the party even at low levels.

You don't have spellstrike right. You don't get a second free attack. You get one free attack to deliver the spell

I theory crafted, (I rarely play so I go around theory crafting) A vital-strike, magus, build using a few spells but one I really liked in my theory was a spell known as "Frostbite" Its a spell that does 1d6 nonlethal cold, but it does 1d6+1 per level, with no cap and you get a swing with it per level aka lvl 4 can apply it 4 times etc. The idea was to utilize both the power of that and a vital strike since you can only spell strike one attack to do something in the ballpark, of like 2d8+1d6+5 or whatever, and as I kept looking over this build it went from the glass cannon I've seen so many Magus' builds do and instead turn into a not as damage dealing dps but your damage is consistent and not all around that bad for a swing of a touch-spell per turn.

One of the disappointing things about the magus is that so few people use a strength based melee weapon. Normally they will go with a finesse weapon and have a high dex for ac purposes, but at later levels, you have the option to turn into monstrous physique, which will give boosts to strength and make some hard hitting two handed builds. One thing I find that can help midigate that issue is using tiefling and getting armor of the pit to give a +2 to natural armor at first level. Basically it is equal to wearing medium armor at first level and will eventually stack with medium armor and heavy armor much later. It might be a good option for that first feat.

So how about this ability? Looks like it could- MMMMM UHHHHHH I DUNNOOOOOOO no And then you have this ability that can- OOOOOOOO UHHHH YYYYYEAAAH no You also have the option to- TSSSSSS ABOUT THAT no

Geez D8 would annoy the hell out of me at the table. Also he is wrong a lot.

Okay... So... According to d8, ONLY the fighter is good at "low levels" (Level 1-2)? Sorry, pretty sure this video gets better, but I'm looking for a review not a debate. lol

There are ways to increase the chances of getting your spells off in melee. One example, is casting Mirrior Image before entering melee, and then go nuts without casting Defensivily, at least until you only have one Mirror Image left. Or, cast Invisibility.In some cases, you might just want to provoke attacks, depending on the enemy/enemies around you, as the DC for the concentration check is 10 + damage dealt + spell level. But that is only if the attack hits, so if you have a good AC your opponnent will probably have a better chance at missing his attack, than you making the Concentration Check for defensive casting. Also, enemies can only make a single AoO, in most cases, so if your target has already made one, your safe to cast spells next to him/her/it.

You can be a Polearm Magus with Spell Combat if you take the Bladed Brush feat, and then you can even get it on a Bardiche or Fauchard (18-20 crit!) with Martial Versatility, which you can qualify for as a 7th-level Human Kensai. In addition, a Polearm Magus doesn't have the problem of Spell Combat being hard, because you're attacking from Reach distance. With Bladed Brush you can even choke up if you need to do close-combat.

Even low level is pretty good. Assuming you have 14 intelligence, you have 3 pool points to use per day, so a +1 to attack and damage for 3 separate combats, putting you on par with a full BAB class. And then you still have the utility of being a prepared caster.

Oh, btw, as far as class than can cast in heavy armor...it is an archetype of the bard called Arcane Duelist...at 16th level. Medium armor prof and ability to cast in it at 10th level. There might be more, but that jumps out at me, especially because I played one once.

Why is d8 always like this? Bro, who hurt you? Always so argumentative, petty, and debates semantics. No idea how y'all can stand this guy....

Magus + UCRogue = the most hilarious arcane trickstser you've ever played.

D8 can't operate without armor lol seems my magus will make him rend out his hair 😆

Black Blades as sword canes: yea or nay?

dervish dance takes away the need for str and arcane mark (level0 touch spell) 2 attacks every round

Lol don't get pissed at each other. I'm a new pathfinder player who just build a samurai themed magus kensai, and you guys are really helping me understand stuff, so thanks! But don't get ad at each other haaaha

A great spell combo bladed dash a spell that allows a 30 ft movement no attacks of opportunity 1 attack in that time pe enchant your sword the turn before use the spell mirrored strike with meta magic feat empowered spell do double damage or strike another foe depending on your dm also use echo spell meta magic to strike 2 more foes or 1 more so in the end you hit 3 to 4 opponents with an enchanted sword with no possability of being retaliated on once I used this spell combo an delt over 150 magic damage between 4 enemies afterwards the next turn I then used bloat bomb causing the bodies to explode on the other enemies I missed so in conclusion magus op

Played a Tiefling Bladebound Magus. Rolled some insane stats (three natural 18s one 17, one 14 and a 12) and got my GM to allow a bit of homebrew (GM's a Soul Calibur fan) to be brought in, a snakesword based on Ivy's Valentine. It kicks ass, and so did my character.

I've found a great way to get the most out of the magus class is to use words of power instead of basic magic and go with the bladebound archetype.

I have an Aasimar sorcerer, but I really wanted to pick magus. Luckily, there's rips in the time-space continuum in our campaign and my GM asked me to change either my race or class. Aasimar magus, here we come! ;)

i have a lvl 10 magus in an ongoin campaing, two bladed sword and the two weapon fighting feats is my go with this class, proven to be very fun to play as support/control

What do you think about the Kensai archetype? You lean more on the fighter side than the wizard, but the crit build with it releases some amazing damage. That also helps alleviate some of the spell failure that would happen earlier on. You are a little squishy at first, but you supplement that with shield spell, dex, and int (kensai adds int to ac).

Im just finding this vid now. Been running a Magus for a few years now in different Campaigns. This is a great video that briefly touches on some things I have discovered researching and playing this class 3 times now from level one. Firstly, I personally can't stand the dervish dance model Magus and I'm glad not much time was spent on it here. I've spent hours making my case that a strength based Magus is so much more versatile in the long run and the the Dervish build Maguses are COMPLETELY USELESS at levels 1-3. I have found one unique Strength based path that is quite versatile and allows you to play the class in a way that I believe was intended. As I said earlier, one of the guys in the video touched on the idea of using a katana as your main weapon, but it was quickly brushed over. The Katana is simply the most versatile and damaging bladed weapon the class can use. If you choose Half-Elf as your race you can swap some class traits around and gain ancestral arms at first level and start the game with a katana without burning a feat on it! Also take the Gifted Adept trait (shocking grasp) and always cast that at one level higher than you are. The Katana can be used two handed or one handed and is the best combination of damage/crit range of any one-handed bladed weapon in the game. At first level you’ll be doing 1d8 +7 damage as your standard melee damage critting on 18-20. At second level you’ll have the potential to strike an opponent for up to 33 damage on a single attack (or 66 damage on a critical) At 3rd level you’ll have a non-situational attack bonus of at least +11 with your non-magical Katana. By 5th level you’ll be critting on a 15-20, exploding for a potential 96 damage on a critical. And this is just using your spellstrike ability. You’ll can also spell combat you Shocking grasp at a DC 17 with a +14 to your cast defensive roll. So you need to roll a 3! You guys said the max crit range was 16-20, I’m sure by now you’ve learned that it’s actually 15-20. (18-20 weapon with keen property is 15-20) No offense to the Dervish Dance builds out there, but I have no idea how you guys tough out the first 2 levels of the game being so useless, biding your time waiting for that 3rd level feat. And even @ 3rd level you are bare bones as can be, with a Crap damage modifier and no bonuses to help your combat casting. For the campaigns I play in, getting to third level can take up to 6 or 7 game sessions. That’s weeks of hiding out trying to not die, avoiding melee combat at all costs.

I'd love to see a class analysis on the Brawler class

Magus and bloodrager were so brilliant.

So I know this is a pretty old video, but I gotta say that D8's take is a pretty bad one. Let's do some math. Going by wealth-by-level, at 2, both the fighter and the magus, no matter what armor they are wearing, are likely to have an AC of 18 from equipment, or 20 for a sword and board fighter instead of two-handed or two-weapon. A magus will usually have shield active at later levels, but since this is so early, I'm going to assume all casts are saved for Shocking Grasp.. The rapier is the quintessential magus weapon, operates basically the same in the hands of a fighter unless she's two-handing, at which point we can substitute the statistically identical scimitar. For the purpose of this exercise, we'll assume the fighter has 18 str and the magus has 18 dex, giving both an extra +4 to hit. The Fighter's BAB will be 2, the magus 1. Using Spell Combat imparts a -2 to hit on both the spell and the rapier attack. So, the fighter's total to-hit will be +6, or +4/+4 if he's two weapon. The Magus will be +3/+3. Both crit on 18 or higher for x2, we'll ignore that to save time since they're equal. For Shocking Grasp, crit increases damage by 4.5% assuming the fighter has 12 dex. We'll assume at level 2 neither has gotten masterwork weapons. We'll assume the magus has 12 str. Sword and Board Fighter has a 60% chance to hit, a 30% chance to be hit by the magus' attack or 55% by shocking grasp. She's dealing an average of 4.5 DPR. She's taking an average of 5.2 damage per round. If we assume that the fighter and magus both have 14 con and max HP, the fighter has 24 hp, and the magus has 20 hp. It takes an average of 5 rounds to kill the magus(rounding up because there's no iteratives, thus the entire round must be spent attacking). The magus will also take 5 rounds to kill the fighter, and will likely win the fight due to having a higher initiative. Of course this comes with the caveat that the magus has not spent any arcane pool in this fight, but has likely spent all spells, so the math isn't all inclusive. The numbers will also vary a bit for the 2h or TWF fighter builds. It also doesn't include the 60% chance to take an AoO from casting, nor the 20% chance to lose the spell as a result, which skews it back towards the fighter a bit until the magus uses more resources. The point stands here though, even if you account for the needing to use more resources: Even BEFORE getting Spellstrike, the lynchpin of the Magus class, the Magus is standing toe-to-toe with the fighter, comparable in all aspects, trading staying power for higher damage spikes and the option to target touch AC. Magus characters are competitive for some of the highest DPRs in the game, limited only by spells per day. What makes D8's take so bad is that it's built entirely on gut feeling without any actual investigation. Criticism without foundation is just whining.

Wow, D8 is really annoying, pretty much ruining an otherwise informational video. Otherwise great stuff.

Lunge, along with the 5 foot step, is a crucial feat for magus. You've missed that in this video. Any magus without lunge feat is not worth playing.

I wish they put a list and showed written examples on the screen so I can read further in detail while they talk.

As lvl 1 dex18. First cast is obscuring mist, second, cast shield, take dodge as feat. Cast o.m. next do shield. That's two turns but actually is high plus 3rd rnd let them get in atk go full defence is high ac. I love it

Oof this didnt age well haha. My Tiefling Black Blade/Kensai Magus is dex/int focused with an empowered shocking grasp that he casts at normal level and uses a keen katana. he crits on a 15 and higher, which also applies to the shocking grasp. His AC, initiative, and + to crit confirm is insanely high. At level 11 I once crit with all 4 hits in my full attack with shocking grasp and did a total of 332 damage which was almost ENTIRELY shock damage (with a little bleed) due to the black blades ability to change the weapon damage type. He's got Haste, Bladed Dash, and Dimension Door, as well as a variety of nasty little spells and a bunch of Pearls of Power. He slaps hard

Transmutation and abjuration and conjuration spells fit more for magus 😁

I would like to point out that Mobility does not increase your AC against attacks of opportunity, only against those caused by moving out of a threatened area.

in my current campaign I have a TIefling Magus tank with the big arms as tiefling heritage and he has a gigantic sword now (actually Large)

armored magus trades spell combat for heavy armor stuff early. If you really wanna crit, inspired blade swash can crit on a 14. i dont know how well a multiclass between the 2 would work

I thought it was just you there d6. its cool to hear there is others. I was wondering if you guys would be willing to do one of these on the Pathfinder Hybrid Class called Warpriest? I've looked it over and I understand how the mechanical issues work, but I'd like to hear your opinions. it does sound an awesome class though.

Super helpful. Thanks so much!

So a spellthief, bladebound magus, and fucking elemental bloodrager walk into a bar.....

OK woaaaaah, so provoking AoO is not a bad thing for magus due to the fact that it gets access to the the swashbuckler's "panache" powers that runs on you arcane points, you can parry and make ripostes, pretty much tripling your opportunity to attack each turn, you just take that risk to get dealt damage on the AoO. Another thing is with a Scimitar and the "dervish dance" feat, since your off-hand IS empty, you get none of the downsides and all of fun. and I don't see spell combat as two-weapon fighting, I see it as flurry of blows in magic form. Granted, it's not as good as monk in the beginning, but if you focus on Dex and only touch spells that disable and weaken your opponent they become a chopping block very fast.

I feel like these guys have no clue what they're talking about whatsoever lmao. They know the numbers but have no real idea on how things end up when put together in play.

This is my favorite Class overall! ^^

Perfect example of a Magus: Sasuke Uchiha

I'm pretty sure that the archetype Arcane Duelist for the Bard can also cast in heavy armour, but I think it gets heavy armour proficiency much later.

Spell Combat is crap, Spellstrike is awesome. Get the right stats and you are a capable warrior that can cast spells alongside your weapon strikes. I am playing the Mindblade archetype and not only have a higher AC than my heavy armored characters, I also put out lots more damage. Only drawback is number of spells known. Scrolls and potions help make up the difference, however. Just be careful to manage your positioning and have a proper build through feats/traits, and you'll be super effective. Wands help too. And who wouldn't want to be able to psychically manifest whatever weapon you want? Not to mention that you get automatic enhancements. Talking about the Mindblade obviously.

I think that the best example of magi in other game etc, would be the Adepts from the Golden Sun serie.

any chance of covering the bloodrager class, looking into using it in my next game and would love some good advice as my DM admitted to not knowing the class well I thought I would ask you

If you're crapping on spell combat then I'm sure you didn't get past 2 sessions with the character before giving up.

Such a prude " I was saying base not core class." excuse me fancy pants lol

How do you feel about a character taking 1 level in Magus for the ability to make mundane weapons into a magic +1, and then taking the rest of their levels in fighter? For the lore, you could say it is someone who flunked out of magus training, but didn't forget everything.

Keen on a rapier goes From 18-20 to 15-20. Also if your a high level swashbuckler inspired blade, eventually you can get 14-20 highest crit range in the game.

Bladesinger.

28:18 polearms don’t work with any magus abilities I thought.

Pffft Eldritch Archer is bad ass

am i the only one who thought whip magus was an amazing idea? i mean especially with a custom whip sword it's practically cheating

so i should go STR,INT,and DEX for my top three AB points

Damn americans... let's walk through this together. Magic Mage Magi Magus Notice the pattern?

It's not difficult to defensively cast with the Magus. I had a magus spell dancer archetype who and a very early level I think level 5 had no trouble whatsoever defensively casting level 1 spells every time he cast certainly by the time I got to the mid-range levels I never failed to defensively cast with that character. It's been several years so I don't remember offhand what the build was but I do remember that it was a combination of feets and the abilities that make it easier to defensively cast and potentially something else I'd have to go back and look at it but I did eventually get to the point Where I had a 0 percent chance of failing to defensively cast first level spells and I think by the time I was level 12 I was defensively casting 2nd level spells with a 0% chance of failure without even using all of the Magus abilities. I know that there is one Magus ability where you can take some kind of negative I think a negative to hit to get a bonus on defensive casting and I wasn't even using that and I was casting spells in combat with a 0% chance of failing to defensively cast

is it me or r 2 of 3 not that bright?

LOL Spellcombat doesn't work, LOL too funny... probably one of the most broken abiliries ever invented... it doesn't work... ahahahahah....

You really don't see it's actual potential evidently 😆

Magus ? Mixing martial arts and magic wait this sounds like a battlemage then the point system sounds more like a monk using weapons

God those 2 argue like a little girls.

Whom ever was the man to say "i think you should choose race and class separately" you are the real fuckin hero..... 10/10 to that man.

Keen rapier or katana would have a threat range of 15-20

Gandalf has done like what 3 spells

You guys disagree with each other way too much, I’m trying to watch a video about nerd stuff, not nerds arguing about stuff. Smh, discuss don’t argue

I play human magus/rouge/arcane thief. If you crit you hit right? When you hit you hit hard right?

im dissapointed in you d6... weis is the perfect example and you didnt call it out. only with pic

Geralt is clearly an alchemist, though :P

if you are a bladebound magus do you need to keep your spells in a spellbook? since they store in your black blade?

I like the pic at 21:12

is it just me or is the magus blah, not the same magic, but isn't the war priest so much better?

How could a magus make use of two weapon fighting? In combination with spell sword or wand sword could be pretty good

any website for pathfinder magus builds?

How many times can I use spellstrike as a lvl 8 magus?

Just binge watch over a dozen D6Damage vids. This is my second with d8 and d10, and I just lost interest. Sorry d6 only vids are fantastic, d8 is killing it for me,

This was really boring.