Prepare to gish out the pain with the class that perfectly blends spellcasting and martial prowess!
Listen to Anthony Li and Alex Augunas tackle their first class feature as the Private Sanctuary Podcast’s new hosts!
Listen Now!
Episode 245 Script
- Intro to the Class
- What’s a Magus?
- Why Play a Magus?
- The Crunch
- The Fluff
- Examples in Literature/Media?
- Favorite Builds
- Alex’s
- Anthony’s
- Outro
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Hey guys, love that you’re continuing the show. I’d really love to see you break into the Advanced Classes, especially, at some point.
One small help as far as accuracy goes. The “X” in Chinese is actually pronounced “SH”, so the Wuxia films that I’ve been a huge fan of over the past several years as well (Wong Fei Hung is my hero) would actually be pronounced more like “Woo-shee-ah”
We’re going to do the gunslinger first, then start on the Advanced Classes. By the time we get through all of them, though, the Occult Classes will be released. And then I’m sure people will want us to do the antipaladin, samurai, and ninja, so its quite possible that we’ll be doing class features until the day that we leave this plane of existence for our final journey down the River of Souls and into Our Lady of Graves’ clutches.
That’s great to hear Alex. Thanks for the follow up.
As for the final journey, when that day comes, I’ll be glad to sing a hymn for you from The Bones Land in a Spiral.
During this podcast you state that the magus can use spell strike with a light or one handed melee weapon. However, the FAQ and the text entry in UM seem to have this only apply to the spell combat class feature. Is there a forum post that clarifies this? There is some debate in my group wether or not a magus could use spell strike with a great sword or axe. I enjoy the podcast btw, keep up the good work!
The limitation only applies to spell combat, yes. You can hold a two-handed weapon in one hand, cast a spell, put the hand that you used to fulfill the spell’s somatic components on the two-handed weapon as a free action, and then make your free weapon attack roll via spellstrike as usual.
The most common complaint that I usually see regarding this is, “Well, how many free actions can you take in a round anyway?” To settle your group’s debate, remind them that drawing ammo for a projectile weapon is also a free action, so if the magus can’t spellstrike with a two-handed weapon, then surely an archer can’t draw more than one arrow per turn too, right?
Thanks!
Does a magus have to make a concentrate check when using spellstrike?
Yes. Spellstrike doesn’t change the action (casting the spell), it only replaces the free touch attack that all touch spells gain to deliver the spell with a free melee attack. So if you fail to cast the spell, you don’t get an attack either.
Thanks Alex. Does using this provoke an atrack of opportunity?
Yes. You’re still casting a spell, and might even need to cast it defensively in order to prevent yourself from getting bopped by enemies.
I actually wrote an entire article on Challenging the Magus, which you can read here at the Know Direction Network. Give that a read and see if it answers any more of your questions. 😀