Well with us starting the next campaign in the next week or so, Now would be the prime time If you want to switch to EA if you want . You stuck the magus out through this campaign but honestly if you dislike it I’d encourage you to switch.
But whatever works for you.
Mith
If I stay with my universalist wizard I’ll need to learn haste too. Could Maedhros teach it to Vani? It would take 3 hours of downtime.
She will probably need haste to make Bond Conservation work in combat and still be able to move.
Sadly yes, I am going to need another week for prep. I need to make at least 3 maps (4 if I don’t reuse one of Paizo’s).
So we’ll resume on April 8th.
I’m also hoping that maybe Ver 4.1 of FGU (vision system incorporated with line-of-sight) and/or Release 18 of the PF2 ruleset will be available by then.
Just to give a heads up. I am giving serious thought to switching back to Malinar but reworking him a bit. I’ll see what I can come up with for him and decide. I really haven’t been in a position to use Rasinar’s Champion reaction much, so I am thinking the Fighter AOO might be better choice.
If I do switch to him, I am guessing I should just use the level 5 starting wealth level (either in items or starting GP) correct Rando?
Mith
Si.
Only two characters in the party are behind wealth-by-level for 5th. There’s still a bunch of items on the party sheet to distribute.
Also, got myself edumacated on the general skill Learn a Spell “action”, as well as the idiosyncrasies of the individual caster classes on how they learn spells… For a nominal fee, y’all can learn spells from various sources (scrolls, spellbooks, other casters teaching, etc) and add them to your spellbooks/repertoires if that spell appears on your traditions’ spell list. This includes bards, sorcerers, and oracles (but the have a fixed repertoire size so can’t learn more spells than their max repertoire size but can swap spells this way)!
I didn’t realize the limitations on the Witch’s familiar with the whole “eating” scrolls thing. So I’m going to retroactively change Mialari Docur’s spellbook that y’all found to be a collection of scrolls.
So now, correct me if I’m wrong:
So for all the party shared spell scrolls, Vani, Maedhros, and Synjen can learn the spell if needed before feeding it Emerald to maximize spell learning gains.
I made a list here (this is a hyperlink) of the spells available to be learnt. I didn’t list out Synjen’s spells that he can teach nor included him on the lists of spells that could be taught by the other party members 'cause he already knows all of them and/or y’all can look up the entire divine spell list yourself and ask Synjen to teach you a spell if you want. I didn’t cross-reference and see if anyone actually already knows the spells in question, I just listed them as being able to be learned.
TLDR: we can change the names and descriptions of spells to whatever we want as long as we don’t change mechanics
I have a history of playing a large number of wizards in 4E and a bunch of spell casters of various sorts in PF1. I also have a history in playing many Hero System games where the “fluff” of a power was divorced from the mechanical “crunch” and players were encouraged to come up with their own descriptions of powers.
I don’t know what the actually rules in are in PF2 regarding what I’m about to suggest, but in any case Rule Zero would be in effect.
So, in the past with most of my caster characters (my wizards most of all) I would “personalize” my spells by changing the names and or descriptions of the spell without changing it’s mechanics.
For example.
This is Ray of Frost as presented in the CRB:
Ray of Frost - Cantrip 1
Attack, Cantrip, Cold, Evocation
Source CRB pg. 362
Traditions Arcane, Primal
Cast Two Actions, Somatic, Verbal
Range 120 feet; Targets 1 creatureYou blast an icy ray. Make a spell attack roll. The ray deals cold damage equal to 1d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
Critical Success The target takes double damage and takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 round.
Success The target takes normal damage.Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 1d4.
If I change it to the following:
Vanimórien’s Icicle of Death - Cantrip 1
Attack, Cantrip, Cold, Evocation
Source CRB pg. 362
Traditions Arcane, Primal
Cast Two Actions, Somatic, Verbal
Range 120 feet; Targets 1 creatureYou conjure a shard of ice from the available moisture in the air and fling it at your target. Make a spell attack roll. The icicle deals cold damage equal to 1d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
Critical Success The target takes double damage and takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 round.
Success The target takes normal damage.Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 1d4.
I now have what I think is a much cooler spell (see what I did there? har!). But, mechanically, it’s identical to the normal Ray of Frost so I think it’s all good. I can’t change the range, casting requirements, damage type, damage amount, etc, because all of those have mechanical game implications. At “run-time” when Vani casts said spell an enemy caster could still Identify Spell (assuming they had the Recognize Spell feat) and go, “Oh, Ray of Frost!”
Why is this a not-so-big deal? There’s that Black Hand of Bane spell that three of the party members could learn but I have a feeling they don’t want to. Call the spell whatever you want; Tymora’s Unlucky Caress for example. Make the descriptive text whatever you want. As long as you dont’ change the mechanics of the spell, it’s all good.
P.S. No one has downloaded the handout let alone read it yet.
OK thanks Rando. I Played around a bit last night and think I came up with a Fighter/cleric path I want to follow. I think I am just going to pick a new name for this one though. I am starting to get confused between all the Malinar and Rasinar versions. I’ll just build him offline and have him ready to import whenever you bring the server up next.
I think that I will have Rasinar and Malinar take the remains of of the Dwarves that had been turned into undead back to the Mines of Tethymar so they can be laid to rest under the protection of Moradin and the other dwarven gods. After all they both had Bellowbelow talk to them in a brotherly dwarven fashion before the undead curse caused him to attack them.
Mith
Does not understand the instructions or location so have not downloaded or read.
The Hand out is at the bottom of the first post in this thread.
Mith
So when Jordyn and Parise explored the castle, the portal was “exhausted”. But then when Belcarra and her goons discovered it again it was working?
I’m trying to remember the names of the people we fought at the portal…
Should we meet up again Thursday night to divvy up loot and do downtime stuff so we can dive straight in the following week?
It would be nice to craft a few scrolls as well. I think those would make relatively inexpensive backups for in-combat utility spells like Glitterdust and See Invisibility (which I don’t have).
I don’t know whether to take Slow or Haste
Some spells I’d really like to learn:
Longstrider, Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Enlarge, See Invisibility, Obscuring Mist, Walk on Water, Haste.
Assuming I don’t have any of those though, this is what I’m planning for spell loadout.
Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
I don’t know about that Black Hand of Bane spell, I seem to remember looking at it and it was something that Maedhros actually might use with the Magus spell striking. But I don’t remember it too well and I can’t remember if it was a spell that targeted a single target or not, because that is the essential requirement for any damage spell I use.
@Rando as a magus how would I determine my spell repertoire? I’m not sure how to figure that in regards to way the Magus spell slots work as I lose lower level spell slots as I level up.
I was wondering how to do that easily in FGU and um…
As far as I know, Magi don’t “lose” spells as the level up, just their lower level spells can only be used in higher level spell slots (i.e. heightened).
I guess you would have to “erase” the spells from spell slots/levels you don’t have and copy all your lower level spells into the new level/slots.
For example:
At 4th level a Magus has 2 1st level spell slots and 2 2nd level spell slots, and happens to have Magic Missile in their spellbook. They can prepare that Magic Missile in either their 1st level slots and/or their 2nd level slots by heightening the spell. In FGU this would require a spell entry for Magic Missile in both the 1st level and 2nd level spell locations. At 5th level our Magus has 2 2nd level spell slots and 2 3rd level spell slots. They don’t lose the Magic Missile spell from their spellbook but now can only prepare it in higher level spell slots. In FGU you would add an entry for Magic Missile to both the 2nd level and 3rd level spell slots, and remove the entry from the 1st level spell slots since the Magus doesn’t have 1st level spell slots anymore.
Currently my spell slots are looking like this at character lvl 6:
lvl 1 spells: None, I lost these slots once I hit lvl 5. When the Magus gains spell slots at a new lvl they lose spell slots from an earlier lvl. AS in at lvl 5 I gained two lvl 2 slots but lost my two lvl 1 slots.
Lvl 2:
Acid Arrow
Mirror Image (I might learn soemthing else at lvl 2 to replace Mirror Image)
Lvl 3: (not a lot of good options here for attack spells for the Magus as I can’t use stuff like Fireball and Lightning Bolt with the Magus spell striking)
Vampiric Touch (this is probably the best spell for a Magus in all acutality and I’ll probably keep it at higher lvls)
Haste (I could swap this out for Slow or perhaps Paralyze* but I think Haste is my best choice here)
I don’t know why I even shared my spell slot list as the spells I cast really don’t affect the party at all and aren’t used for control or debuffing. I guess I just wanted to be in on the spell slot list sharing action.
Also, I was looking through forums and stuff trying to figure out my spell repertoire for Magus and I came across one statement in one post that pretty much sums up my feelings on the Magus.
“Between action cost, spell availability, and multiple chances of failure, it just seems underwhelming and unimpressive”
But I’m gonna keep playing him until he outright dies. No resurrection, he’s already been brought back to life once by some dickhead divine or celestial beings and ain’t looking to be brought back again. Now, @Airen that’s not to say I don’t wanna get healed up if I am down and dying, but if Maedhros outright dies like Rasinar did then Maedhros is done and I will move on to Eldritch Archer or Kobold Beastmaster or Kobold Kavalier riding a Riding Drake.
Out of curiosity Ryu, why keep playing him if you’re really unhappy? Are you waiting to see if the official version of Magus turns out better in Secrets of Magic?
As for myself, the reason I am continuing on with Vani is b/c I already pretty much wrote a novel for her backstory 
. That and I really want to be absolutely certain how I really feel about Universalist Wizards. To do that, I need to play through at least level 8 when she will get Bond Conservation. I’m pretty sure I will need Haste to make it work though, so would defintely like to learn that spell from Maedhros 
I’m not unhappy per se with my character at this point, more disgruntled with the class as it stands in 22, especially compared with 1e. They almost completely redid the class for 2e in such a way that it is barely like the 1e version. The 1e Magus is much more versatile and does not have to rely soley on the gimped 2e version of Spellstrike ability. Maedhros as he is in this campaign is starting to come into his own slowly and I figured this character was going to be a slow burn progression.
To compare here are the different versios of the Magus
1e Magus - [Magus - Classes - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder RPG Database]
2e Magus - The Trove :: Reader starts on page 3 but page 5-6 is all you really need to read to compare to the 1e Magus…
and realize how much the 2e Magus was rewritten in the style of NERFS! to the point where it is like 1/3 of the 1e Magus. The key differences are:
1e Magus had multiple ways to attack. With Spell Combat the Magus could make all their weapon attacks with a -2 penalty and cast a 1 action spell for free. 2e Magus can’t do this aside from making 2 attacks and casting a 1 action cantrip with full MAP penalties. 1e Magus can also do the Spell Strike like the 2e Magus.
1e Magus was not constrained by the three Spell Strike Synthesis specs that was added to 2e Magus, which limits the 2e Magus to one fighting style and one weapon type. The two-handed melee weapon Sustaining Steel sucks, Slide Casting limits you to one hand melee and Shooting Star is the ranged weapon only version of Slide Casting. 1e Magus was just more versatile all around.
1e Magus could use Arcane Pool points (basically Focus Pool) to give a +1 or higher (depending on the amount of Arcane Pool points spent) enhancement to their weapon THAT STACKS with other enhancements on the weapon. 2e Magus can only use a Focus Spell to replicate the effects of weapon potency runes which does not stack with weapon potency runes already on the weapon.
1e Magus DOES NOT LOSE SPELL SLOTS AS IT GAINS SPELL SLOTS. 2e Magus does. That is all that needs to be said.
I put some effort into my backstory focused on the special ancestry of the character, his past life and the circumstances of his “rebirth” as a Duskwalker. Not as detailed or in depth as Vani’s backstory, but enough to make me want to stick with the character despite the flaws.
Hmm… I never played PF1e but it does sound like based on what you mentioned that the 2e Magus is a lot more limited.
I don’t know if this would make you feel any better or not, but what I have noticed so far is that lower level spell slots become more or less worthless as combat spells as you gain levels because of the way incapacitation and counteracting levels work. For lower level pure damage spells those also become worthless eventually as cantrips level up and will exceed the damage potential of lower level spell slots. I am planning to use those slots in the future more for utility, which I’m actually pretty excited about but if damage and combat debuffs are more important to your build then this may not be as big of a loss as it seems.
The lower level slots are what keeps the party moving forward on my end since I don’t have many higher level and the fonts go quickly.
Ok, so you’re saying “heal me” but low prioritize you - check
Perhaps shooting star might keep you up longer by not having you on the front line.
Hmm 479 posts in this thread - i’ll wear my mouse out scrolling that far.