you took recognize spell, which is really useful for counter spelling, kind of pointless for a magus. maybe fix assurance in deception then. your scholar assurance would probably be most useful for religion or nature using magus analysis(wisdom rolls). Assurance in nature is much more useful later if you take natures medicine, to guarantee your down time treat wounds. also riding checks.
Fun fact about magus analysis: it sort of bypasses the secret nature of recall knowledge. Because it only recharges spellstrike on a success or better, if the GM gives you information about the creature, but your spellstrike didn’t recharge, then you know that the information was false and that you must have crit failed the check. Normally you have no idea if the info you get is true or is false due to a critical failure. With this feat, you know based on whether you actually recharge spellstrike or not.
yeah this feels like an error in design. the ability should just automatically recharge your spellstrike no matter whether you succeed. so really this should just be an action economy feat to get a free recall knowledge when recharging your spell strike, much like how gunslingers get special reloads
@@pierreolivierlepage664 This is probably the best RaI ruling to be honest. It keeps in the drawback of only succeeding some of the time while preventing the unintentional gain in knowledge from a critical failure. It's not like it recharging on a crit failure is going to be your desired outcome anyway. ...As long as you aren't able to get your skill so low that you are guaranteed to critically fail, which could then work in it's own way...
If I were GMing, I'd leave it to the player to think they recharged. After all, that's what an 'actual Magus' would feel happened(?). Anyway, but the GM knows. When the Magus tries to use the focus spell it fizzles and that's when the Magus realizes that maybe they didn't get remember correctly on the recall knowledge.
I'm so happy that in your final thoughts you give the players that came from 5e an encouragement to look at character builds from a different perspective when it comes to pf2e. It's really hard to come from the perspective of "My build will outshine everyone and everything" to "My character is good at one thing and it's impossible to outshine everyone." Otherwise, your forray into pf2e builds is amazing to see!
I feel like, even in 5e, you shouldn't build to "outshine everyone and everything"... That doesn't sound very fun to play with imo. Not sure if it's just lost in the online interaction or if you meant it to come off this way, but it kind of sounds like your fond of stepping on your table mate's toes 😅
@@SuperFizzah problem is, even if you don't build for it, this can still happen by accident in 5e. I've been playing an elven twilight cleric in my 5e game and I'm at the point where I feel bad about how much I'm outshining other characters. No reason I should have the highest AC, do the most damage with spirit guardian/weapon, AND be the best support by dolling out temp HP with my twilight sanctuary. It's just too much.
Magus's damage definitely comes from its crits, since a single spellstrike crit gives you your weapons critical hit damage and your spells critical hit damage AND whatever the spells extra critical success effect is. I once did a spellstrike disintegrate crit for like 160+ damage and turned my sword into a lightsaber and just instadeleted an enemy. It was amazing.
Who wouldn't ;) That is practically what I made in D&D by combining Sorcerer(5) (Any, but I love Clockwork or Shadow here. Sorc because for Quickened/Subtle Spell) and Hexblade(5) (for the Infusions Relentless Hex, Thirsting Blade, Improved Pact Weapon and Eldritch Smite - yeah, Eldritch adept Feat is needed here), juiced up with Echo Fighter(4 because Feat) and Divination Wizzard(4 because Feat). If you wanna go disgustingly annoying, you may add Druid(1) and Cleric(1) to it instead of the additional Sorcerer/Hexblade levels. Or, Artificers stuff can also be nice. This Style uses a Longsword as it can be used with a Shield (no casting then if not using subtle Spell or having improved Pact Weapon aka Focus) for full fighting or use it without to retain our casting abiliy without the use of subtle Spell and/or Imporoved Pact Weapon. Best of this Build is the Counterspell ability and the short-rest-Spellslotrecovery due to Warlock and Arcane Recovery. Make sure you convert the Sorcery Points accordingly before doing so to add them up as well over the Max or recover Slots with them.
Quick glance shows the PF2e vids are doing slightly better than his current 5e vids. So at the very least it doesn’t seem like his audience is being picky!
Magus gets their power from abusing weaknesses. Their damage seems lower than the rogue, but you can slap that dragon right in its 15 weakness to cold with runic impression to give your sword cold damage. Better yet, lets say the enemy is weak to cold and acid, you can runic impression to hit the cold and spell strike to hit the acid, triggering both! Really pays off to know your enemy, in true Witcher fashion.
Magus is a gish in a box and you can do one of ANY spell list by multiclassing (You end up with more multiclass spell list slots than your 4 arcane/magus ones lol)
Colby, small detail at 16:50, the scholar background gives you Assurance in the skill you picked to get trained in Between Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion. So at 1st level you have Assurance in Occultism, not Deception!
And honestly, he'd have been better served by Scholar: Arcana. His assurance would be in a skill with higher training, which is vital, and the second Arcana skill would be converted to a free pick, so he could still get Occultism.
@@DnDDeepDive Actually, a couple more things for your consideration. 1) Assurance on a skill you're not going to advance past 'trained' is usually bad, as 10 (roll) + level +2 (trained) is rarely enough to reach any target numbers you'll encounter past level 7 or so. If you put it on a skill you have at legendary, then you'll, by and large, be able to regularly roll the standard DC for one level below yours, which you'll run into a lot. 2) If you fully train Athletics, it's a wonderful assurance target. Actions like Shove, Disarm (gag), and Trip are Attack actions and thus suffer from the multiple-attack penalty. However, if you use your THIRD action to do one of these after attacking twice, you'll often have a better attack bonus than if you didn't use Assurance. And while you'll never Trip a boss using it, you WILL regularly pull it off against anything lower level than you. 3) It's also really good on any Lore or Knowledge (Arcana/Nature/Occult/Religion), as it can be used fairly well on standard Recall Knowledge checks, and also on Treat Wounds and Battle Medicine checks.
One cool little intangible in favor of an Elf: they are FAST. With 30-foot base speed, and both Nimble Elf (Ancestry feat) and Fleet (General feat) bumping their speed up to 40 feet per action by Level 3, the Laughing Shadow's conflux spell scales indirectly with that increase since it checks for half your movement speed. There's also something to be said for being as fast as every other character (and faster than some) even when you're wearing full plate. Edit: Added because I forgot- great video, and I'm glad you liked the Magus as much as we all hoped you would!
As a Canadian I greatly appreciate the shirt! Way to represent your colleagues to the north! As always great stuff Colby! I haven't even finished it yet but the first 15 minutes has me riveted!
On chainmail, thanks to the noisy trait you still take the penalty to stealth checks. It's really meant for characters who don't have the strength to use Breastplate thanks to it's flexible trait. Breastplate is just better if you have the strength and coin to use it efficiently
I can't express how incredibly helpful and easy to understand your video is! I'm a 10 year DnD player going into my first PF2e game and your magus build is nearly identical to what I was trying to do with the class. I'm so excited to play it and watching your video really helped put all the pieces together. Down to the weapon of choice, ability scores, skills, feats, and spells, it was seriously exactly what I needed. I have a lot of trepidation going into a new system but I'm genuinely so much more at ease after watching your video. My grumpy skeleton magus is ready to take on the world! 💀
colby: “we don’t just want to be able to choose between casting spells or making weapon attacks. we want our freaking weapon attacks to cast spells” 5e arcane archers in the back row: “YEAH!”
The rock music intro, the character concept, the casual swearing pass with Bastard sword, and all I can think of is Nazareth's song Hair of the Dog but the chorus is "Now you're a Magus... son of a Gish!"
This is by and far one of my favorite subclasses for the magus, it's interesting to see a Strength-focused version of it! one thing i would consider is revisiting this particular build later on once you start flipping through other books. Whilst the Armor Proficiency feat does make the Magus trained in heavy armor, it doesn't increase in proficiency like light/medium armor do as a magus levels up, but if you were to take the Sentinel Dedication, it would not only give you heavy armor at level 2(a whole level earlier), but also allow your heavy armor proficiency to scale at the same rate as your light and medium armor. it also has a bunch of amazing feats to accompany it. worth looking into IMO.
YES my first PF2E character is a STR based Laughing Shadow Magus!! I also took Gouging Claw (I describe it as my sword growing bones btw!) You have taught me well
One combination that might be counter-intuitive is going with a Cleric Dedication, specifically one with a Fire Domain for the Fire Ray Focus Spell, which is a very strong on-hit usage for your Focus whenever you want to remove one enemy at the start of combat, and gaining access to a spell list the Magus usually cannot use with a ton of buffs and heals for party utility.
Ooh, got here right on the notification this time! Glad you finally got around to the Gish of PF2e! 44:00 don't forget that because you boosted your intelligence, you become trained in another skill you weren't already trained in! Also worth mentioning: Armor Proficiency only grants you trained, with no future scaling. So at level 11 when you gain medium armor expertise, your heavy armor won't move up to expert. It doesn't matter if you stop at level 10, but if you continued it might take you by surprise
Funny thing about the Laughing Shadow Magus: Nothing prevents you from playing it with a two handed weapon, like a greatsword, greataxe or maul. Yes, you lose on the extra damage from arcane cascade, but you more than make up for it by bumping your weapon from a D8 to a D12. Also, my favourite gish is a Psychic (or Sorcerer) with a Champion Dedication! You can definitely make up for your lower accuracy by having absurds amounts of damage with options like Magic Weapon on levels 1-3, Organsight from levels 5+, and True Strike for... all levels.
And the Psi Strike feat works on ANY spell, even cantrips and focus spells! And with a d12 weapon, your average is about .5 damage above a 1H d8 weapon in Arcane Cascade so…still good!
Love your enthusiasm during the whole video, it's quiet and gleeful. 6:27 or my personal favorite, Laugh maniacally as you smash a fireball into an opponent at point blank. 32:23 Level 2 Tears people up a lot. Both of those feats are so sought after they're basically picked right after the other. Melee Magic Missile is just cool.
Probably one of the best Pathfinder videos I've watched from you thus far since subscribing since February. I can FEEL your 2e excitement from this side of the screen.
Great video! Some suggestions: - As mentioned in the video, multiclass into Psychic (at L2) can get you Imaginary Weapon (at L6) and that is the true Magus meta DPR right now. Its both the best sustained DPR since the cantrip is a 1D8 + Spell casting mod and best burst damage because you can spend a focus point to 'amp it' to have it scale by 2D8 per level instead of 1D8 per level (basically makes it a tactical nuke, but conflicts with using conflux spells to recharge). Also the L8 spell swipe feat lets you hit two adjacent targets so if you're a melee magus with reach you can wreck some things. - Ancestries that can get re-rolls on attacks without action usage can be really good because the bulk of your DPR comes from the spell strike. So halfling can do this once per day at L9 with guiding luck (or figure out how to suck up to your GM for extra hero points). - Ancestries that can give you a familiar are good options (e.g., gnomes, kitsunes, etc.) since the familiar can help you feint with the partner in crime + independent traits (auto success on aid or crit aid if you're a master). They also can let you refocus focus points or get extra cantrips or extra spell slots. So trying to get a 4 trait familiar is actually really nice (this is typically why a Witch MC can be better than a wizard in addition to getting some better focus spell options if you want them). - There are also ancestries that can give you +2 status bonuses to skill checks (to support feinting) like the Android and Kashrishi or ancestries that can support free action focus point refocusing like kashrishi to support spell strikes with focus points or more conflux uses in clutch fights. - There are also a few ancestries or versatile heritages that can get you innate spells for true strike or bless to increase your accuracy. Those include things like android at L5, kobolds (via dragon paragon at L9), Asimars at L5, etc. - With respect to items you really want to look at Spellhearts, Spell Striking Staff, grimoires, and rings of wizardry. Spell hearts can land and easy 2 extra cantrips and the one you attach to your weapon will give you a 1d4 scaling to 1d8? of the same elemental damage on other strikes (not a big deal since you're unlikely to cast/strike) but can be nice for recharge turn if you electric arc + conflux spell if that conflux spell lets you strike as part of it. Spell Strikin staff has acid arrow and true strike on it but comes with a shifting rune so you can shift it into a gauntlet which works for getting more true strikes. The grimoires provide bonus spell slots (for more true strikes). The ring of wizardry also provides more spell slots as well. - Expansive Spellstrike is a trap feat and I'd strongly recommend against it. For the cost of one action saved you are coupling your spell slot to your strike. You can miss, which means you've just added a 35-45 (40% average) failure to your spell (and you lose the spell if you miss). You're always better just casting the spell (which might let you trigger arcane cascade or other feat effects) then doing a strike. Beyond that magus have an already trailing proficiency on save spells so you should likely avoid spells with spell saves. IMO you're better buffing yourself with your top spell slots, and using cantrips or focus spells for your spell strikes bundled with true strikes to up statistical damage. - In terms of Sustained DPR does the rogue still include enemies being flatfooted? That might bias the results due to Sneak Attack. Otherwise you might want to look at a cleric archetype for fire domain focus point (e.g., fire ray) or as mentioned above the psychic focus point spell. - You might run into some action economy issues with the bastard sword since its a free action to release a 2H grip but its an action to regrip.
By the way on the 2nd Telekinetic Maneuver spell. It resulted in sort of instant enemy deaths for a magus I played because our GM was very happy to let us fight atop a narrow mountain path and a bridge. Two times my enemy flew, failed their Grab an Edge and died in some pretty cool scenes. So I am a fan of that choice. Oh and as for runes. Look into getting a Conducting rune on your weapon as well. It is a way to gain a free action that allows you to add an additional d8 energy damage if you used one of four or five energy types and may synergize with some Magus playstyles.
One thing that embodies the essence of the gish (creating something greater than the sum of its parts by mixing decent martial and magical abilities to be an equal with dedicated fighters and wizards) that the magus represents really well, on top of spellstrike, is that when in arcade cascade stance your flat bonus to damage will be on par with that of a fighter. The fighter, because of Legendary Weapon proficiency, at high level with greater weapon specialization get a +8 to damage with their weapons. The Magus, ending at Master (like most martials) ends with a +6. BUT, because of their stance it gains an additional 3 damage to achieve a +9. Because of their way of mixing their martial and magical prowess. It's just a detail, but you know where the devil is.
There is an option of taking Cleric archetype as they get nice focus spells like Fire Ray or Cry of Destruction with auto scaling and you can spellstrike with theese every combat. Psychic's also get their focus spells some of which is even stronger
So awesome that you gave a shoutout to David Wilcox and "The Kid" !!!! Now I have to go listen to that album again. I bought that CD when he was selling them from a suitcase after a show in Austin, TX many, many years ago. Love it!!
Yes! Awesome work! This is the first video I've watched at 1.0x speed for months and I didn't mind a single second of it! So glad you finally did a Magus build. It absolutely cracks me up that your build is 99% identical to the build I'm currently playing too! And yes, my experience is the same as yours, the sustained DPR is lower if you never expend any resources. But it's still respectable, and you do also have the ability to burst ridiculously high when you choose to, arguably one of the highest in the game. I'm so glad you love it. I do too.
Another awesome Pathfinder build. You dug deep on this build. Unsure if it’s Pathfinder or just you being awesome, but we’ve found your Pathfinder builds to have serious ‘crunch’ that makes the build seem more well-oiled than their D&D counterparts. Either way, keep them coming!
Thanks for diving into Pathfinder 2e. I have been playing DND 5e and love some of the concepts PF2e has. Your videos make it a lot easier to get into all the rules and options!
So, I wouldn't blame you at all for leaving this class til much later in your PF2e schedule, but I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Thaumaturge. They're the class that stands out most to me for being interesting and different from anything 5e has to offer, and I feel like I've gotten lost down multiple rabbit holes trying to understand how one would perform haha! (If I ever get to just play, I'm sure that'll stop being a problem, but until then I have to live vicariously through your channel XD )
It's worth noting that Crafting is an excellent skill for a Magus because it allows you to create your own scrolls (which means you can keep True Strikes on hand indefinitely), and wands (longstrider!) as well as cherry pick the specific magical gear you and your group need most. It's a great way to bring utility to your team and doesn't require a ton of skill feats to work well. Definitely recommend.
Really proud with how you've approached your PF2E builds. Not many players ever take a moment to consider all aspects of the game when judging if something is fair or not. Keep up the good work my friend!
When you get access to all books, try a Necromancer~! (Any class with access to the Arcane or Divine list works) They're a summoner in PF2e but they have a lot of unique spells (Like a level 2 spell that makes your minions explode.)
As others have noted, Magus' DPR seems low but your crits are absolutely nuclear because you get a two for one special (plus spell crit effects). However this can lead to Magus feeling really swingy - you only get one reliable attack per round (sometimes less), and normal hits aren't as spectacular as you'd expect, so you can go long spells in between getting your awesome moments. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the class after getting to play your Rogue version for a while! Also very much a class that loves team support - if you can get someone to bring enemies to you, saving movement, or you can get party members to buff you and debuff your target to land those nuclear crits, this class can really carry a party's DPS.
I've been planning a magus who is also going to go for a bit of monk stuff, and I considered laughing shadow a lot, but in the end I'll be going for the shield magus subclass, to have a bit of a Captain America feel.
A great thing about PF2e is that while they pretty strictly restrain the ability to be a spellcaster and a warrior (most full casters don't get full weapon proficiency and magus doesn't get full casting) it isn't that bad even if some of the aspect falls behind a little on a character dedicated to that. Clerics get a limited version of Spellstrikes, you can build a champion/ranger/monk that has a decent spell arsenal, bards can be okay with weapons with its AoE buffs. There's gishy stuff everywhere.
Thanks for this, Colby. My magus is also a LS, though just 3rd level right now. Your build pointed out some good ideas that I'll be incorporating in my build.
I still haven't tried out Pathfinder yet, but definitely enjoying these videos. I find the mechanics of different games really interesting. Thanks for a great video 🤓
Oh yeah, shadowblade... Waiting what happens when Colby discovers the Mind Smith archetype... :D Awesome video, as ever! Just a quick note about Bastard Swords (or any weapons with Two-Hand trait): changing grip from 1h to 2h takes an interact action. The build is already action starved, so d8 may be more frequent than d12. Changing grip from 2h to 1h is release, therefore free.
@@abcrasshadow9341 as a pathfinder 2e player it's just for balance there a lot of battle actions like trip, grapple, shove that require a free hand again for balance (some feats or weapons let you do this things without a free hand) so the action tax it's way encourage using a one handed weapon instead of always using a two handed one. Personally I have a barbarian (giant instinct) in 2e with a giant katana that is a 1d6 one handed and 1d10 two handed and it a good trade off you want the extra damage or you want to use a crazy wrestling move. At level one 1d6 vs 1d10 doesn't sound big but at level 10 3d6 vs 3d10 it's more impactful. But like aways you can ask your gm to make it a free action and it's not a really big deal, but it can be powerful.
@@abcrasshadow9341 it's for balance and build diversity, in pf2e there's a lot of value in having a free hand for items, maneuvers, dueling feats, etc. changing your grip with an action instead of it being free means there's a tradeoff to using the more powerful 2-handed weapons.
This was extremely helpful. Currently converting a character over to pathfinder and learning the magus and the system is still a bit daunting. Appreciate the work you do as always. Keep it up.
I like the level 10 assumption for builds beyond what you stated: Paizo makes a fair bit of 1-10 APs to supplement their standard 1-20 APs and I’ve gathered that a lot of people actually prefer that for a shorter, faster paced campaign with a tight, quickly resolved narrative.
This is the video i've been waiting for, Pathfinder 2e supports Gishes better than any other system imho. Loving your Pathfinder stuff! And really loved your take about game balance at the end. Spot on. You could clip that and put it somewhere public and it would make a great sharable response to many of the 5e players coming to PF2 who complain that casters are no longer OP.
The problem is that they underpowered casters. For spells with saves it's only a little bit, because caster scaling is slower than weapon scaling. But the real problem arises with spells with attack rolls. Casters don't get +hit items AND they scale slower than martials. Spells with attack rolls are simply inferior to save spells. Which is a problem. The magus bypass this to a degree with spellstrike , they can use magic+hit weapons. But no other caster can do that.
@@petenell5807 Not saying I necessarily disagree, because at some levels the difference in to hit modifiers is really high (I'm pretty sure non-fighter martial modifiers are a whole +4 ahead of casters at 13-14 level), but do you think True Strike might have something to do with that? It's a very strong buff that martials don't get easy access to, and even if they do, they get less value because a caster's highest level strike spells will do more damage on a hit than a single weapon attack from a martial of the same level. At very low levels the disparity in to hit modifiers is very small (nonexistent at lvl 1), and then, as characters level, it becomes more resource efficient for casters focused on blasting to turn their low level slots into True Strikes (since their cantrips out-damage low level spells) to make their high level blasts count. Obviously, I'd have to do some math to figure out just how much True Strike improves your to hit/to crit chance, and the action costs bear consideration. Also, True Strike is only on the Arcane and Occult spell lists, so the situation is different for Druids/Clerics/Oracles (Druids especially, because I'm pretty that the Divine list is short for blasting spells anyhow). Not a perfect solution, but I would be willing to bet that True strike plays into why caster attack rolls are so lackluster.
I've been waiting for this video since I found your channel, and doubly so since you found PF2E! I loved the magus in PF1, but it's been so long I honestly was confused by the language for magus in PF2E.
This seems really cool. If we are looking at something based in 3.5 though…I have to mention Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords. Could have been called the Gish’s Guide to Gishing. Love that book, personally
I am also a big fan of the spellsword archetype, so the magus was the first class that caught my eye when I started looking into Pathfinder! However, the nimble striker that you favor is not my preferred fantasy - I love the heavily armored, hulking, brutish battlemage archetype. Thus, this build is basically my favorite.
The sentinel archetype is quite good if you want to wear heavy Armor. Because your proficiency levels up with your medium armor proficiency. Also feats to increase the bulwark trait to 4 and have it added for all reflex saves not just damaging ones
Glad you like the Magus. The white room math makes a lot of people undervalue it, but I'm glad you caught the fact that spell casting is spell casting, with all the powerful versatility that entails. Also, your decision to go Strength here highlights one small gripe I do have with PF2e: the existence of Bulwark on heavy armor makes Dex builds niche unless you're specifically investing in the Dexterity skills, and even then there's Assurance.
I really enjoy the way you break down all of the choices you make and why for your builds and theory crafting. I have been watching your 2e builds since your first stop on Rules Lawyer videos. I think you could really like the gnome for this build. Paizo recently adopted the Alternate Ancestry Boosts option for all ancestries, meaning every ancestry can get ability boosts like a human. No flaws and 2 boosts of your choice. This lets you get a gnome with +2 int, +2 str. Why gnome? Wellspring heritage: Get an additional arcane cantrip. Lev 1 ancestry feat: Animal accomplice gets you a free familiar at level 1 (For familiar focus and cantrip connection ). Level 3 ancestral paragon gets you a level 1 ancestry feat. You can get First World Magic, which gives you a primal cantrip, but treats it as arcane for your spell proficiency progression. At level 3, you got 4 additional cantrips you can cast via ancestry feats, covering every damage type needed. And finally, at level 5, you can grab energized font, which grants you another once a day focus point, due to wellspring heritage. Gnome is my go to choice whenever I am looking at classes that feature extensive use of focus points, like the magus.
A neat point to consider with this Magus is that you have ranged attacks always ready with your cantrips. Some other characters would need to use actions to switch between range and melee, while you always have that option to fall back in case of flying enemies and hard to reach places, while still having your weapon ready for melee.
One of the only MMO classes that made me feel like the perfect balance of spells and swordplay was the Riftblade from, well, Rift. You have various weapon strikes that are elemental. Most Warrior subclasses build up to 3 "action points" by doing basic abilities, and then have "finishers" that consume them for bonuses or to hit hard. So your general combat flow is one two three SLAM. Riftblades have a much more arcane use for their action points though. Your finishers aren't part of the global cooldown, and simply modify your NEXT basic strike. This turns your combo into something of a metamagic waltz. If you're fighting a bunch of enemies at once, you can cause lightning to arc from your swings, hitting everything near you as you build up 3 points, then you hit Earth Burst between attacks and just start your next 3-hit combo. The first hit of your next combo will still arc lightning around, but stalagmites will rip out of the ground around the target you hit, dealing area damage. For single target damage, you tend to use ice and fire strikes. You also get various magic stances that add bonuses, like lightning damage on-hit, or bonus speed and dodging. It reminds me a bit of PF2e Monk stances + PF2e Magus spellstrike + WoW Rogue combo points.
Colby, You can cast spells that target saving throws (electric arc) then use either a spell attack with 1 action (draconic barrage) or attack with a weapon without MAP.
"That background is too lit, it's more focused than I am" I feel you man. My background is also way cooler than me and I too have a hard time keeping foc- Squirrel!
I'm loving the Pathfindder builds and am going back and exploring the D5e builds too. Thanks. One thing to point out is that by level 10 Weaknesses and Resistances are pretty common. The Rogue faces the limitation that they only do few damage types where your Magus build has tons of flexibility that can really affect the damage output. At level 10 weakness are commonly 10. Once you find it you can consistently add +10 to every hit.
This video sent me on a quest to find something like this for 5e, and I found. A redditor by the name of Laserllama created a Magus homebrew, and it's glorious.
Awesome build. Magus may be my favourite PF2 build. Still getting used to PF2 (Bard lvl2). It is a crunchier system that me and my group are enjoying very much.
I think something to keep in mind when thinking about why the damage is low is that the laughing shadow can more consistently get in range of an enemy in 1 stride thus allowing it to make more attacks over a long battle
Thank you for the rundown Colby! These continue to be a great source of education for my foray into PF2e. Love having your analytical view on player options!
Most non-shooting star magus I have seen played (inexorable iron and sparkling targe) don’t try and spam spellstrikes but instead they wait until the right opportunity (or set up the right opportunity) and then unload with a big spellstrike for massive damage. It was highly effective, though it does take good teamwork. Don’t know if you could do a dpr calculation on that though. For spells don’t sleep on hydraulic push! For shoves it is strictly better than telekinetic maneuver - and shoves are fantastic even without any special teamwork (like snares or spells to create terrain): they can eat enemy actions and break enemy grapples. Jump is also good: it’s one action so it helps with both moving and getting into cascade stance and you don’t fall until after your next action so you can get an attack off (which could be a trip). Really helpful vs flying creatures.
I randomly watched a guide to the Magus class and for almost every feature my reaction was just "wth that's so cool?!" I also thought Laughing Shadow was the most interesting with all the teleports and invis.
I've never done anything with Pathfinder but my friend bought a great 5e Magus homebrew that I used up to level 14 and it was a blast! Happy it's still getting love even outside 5e and of course I love your videos.
Love your video, recently I myself decided to dive into Magus as our GM gave us the opportunity to change our characters for kind of spinoff. I decided to go Twisting Tree Magus, as it uses staff and spells in there as effective as attacks and I wasn't disappointed. Maybe the damage is not as good as fighter's, but the flavor itself is so satisfying!
The Eldritch Knight can also cast a spell and make a weapon attack on the same turn. At level 7 they gain War Magic which allows them to do it with a cantrip. Then at level 18 it gets upgraded to where they can do it with a leveled spell. I only recall this because I was comparing the pro's and con's of using an Eldritch Knight vs a Bladesinger for part of a Shadowblade build.
Dude, Colby. For 5e, even though I know you like to stick to official content, you should ABSOLUTELY look at Benjamin Huffman’s magus for 5e, which is widely known and respected, as well as KibblesTasty’s brand-new, still-in-alpha Spellblade. Both are AMAZING.
in terms of flavor, magus has easily got to be my single favorite class in pf2e. i don't think i could even imagine a more perfect combination of martial and magic. i'm currently a forever GM, but if i ever get to play in a campaign myself, i'm absolutely running a str-based laughing shadow.
My favorite Magus build right now is a Dex-based Empty Sky Kitsune with Foxfire and Starlit Span, Arcane Fists, Hybrid Form and Cascade Countermeasure. Not just magical fists but can deliver their spells through their Foxfire. Combine with the Flame Wisp and Produce Flame spells and you get to drop fistfulls of D4s. It just feels good.
