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| Sigfried |
 Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:51 pm Post subject: Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus - Collected Reveiws |
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Hi folks,
This is simply a collection of reviews for Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus
These are posted by yours truly and collected from various locations. These reviews are not edited other than formatting so they are readable in this forum.
If you wish to post your own review, you are by all means welcome to do so. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:55 pm Post subject: Sean Holland of RPGDrivethrough - 5 of 5 stars |
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Reviewer: Sean Holland
Website: DriveThruRPG
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Like the new sword and spell-wielding Magus but feel there are not enough options? Well, this product will solve that problem for you. While the new feats are primarily focused on the Magic, two thirds of them can be used by a wider range of classes. So, if you like sorcery with your swordplay, consider giving this product a look.
Might of the Magus: Advance Feats is a 16-page PDF (14-pages if you remove the cover and OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG for the Pathfinder RPG written by Sigfried Trent and published by Open Design. This is the latest volume of Open Design’s Advance Feats line for Pathfinder.
The layout is primary traditional two columns and the table of feats clear to read. The cover is full color while the interior art is a smaller version of the cover (also in color) and lots of interesting black and white runic designs which have a nice arcane feel to them.
Might of the Magus begins with an introduction to the Magus class and its abilities, discussing the potential overlap between the Magus arcana power and feats among other things. As always, a useful overview of a new class in provided
The heart of this product is the thirty new feats, about a third are directly tied to class abilities of the Magus making this one of the most focused of the Advanced Feats lists. Each feat is followed by a paragraph or so of commentary that explains the idea about the feat and sometimes discusses balance issues. Several sidebars throughout also look at game and roleplaying issues. As is usual for the Advanced Feat line, this provides a good amount of understanding of the design concerns that are helpful for those aiming to understand the system underlying Pathfinder. The feats are good mix, building on the Magus’ specialty, mixing magic and combat, quite well. (A list of useful feats for a Magus from the Complete Advanced Feats is included as a useful form of cross marketing.)
The product concludes with three example 20-level builds for the Magus: A fae swordmaster, a whip-wielder and a magus-monk hybrid. Good food for thought is provided with these builds.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:52 pm Post subject: Dark Sasha of Paizo.com - 4 of 5 stars |
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Reviewer: Dark Sasha
Website: Paizo.com
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
First off, I have to admit my bias. I do not like the Magus class. I am an old school player and game master. Mage classes are supposed to have melee classes protecting them while they cast their spells. However I do recall the old elven fighter/magic user class from the “good old days” that allowed the elf to be a weak fighter and weak caster, but be able to do both. Many like these types of characters and want to build a character based on these extraordinary individuals who possessed great power like Elric of Melnibone’ and the jedi of the Star Wars universe. Given the audience in mind, I will try to look past my personal biases and see the material presented on its own merit.
I particularly appreciate the analysis of the Magus class at the beginning. This is useful for those who think they want to play a Magus but need some hints and guidelines on how to play this class well. For players who are already good at optimizing characters, this is perhaps not as useful. It still makes for interesting reading though. For players who are hopeless at optimization this is an extremely useful tool even for a campaign where optimization isn’t needed.
Following the analysis of the Magus class as a whole is a series of “Advanced Feats”. The summary table with summary and prerequisites is a handy tool. A few feats seemed particularly interesting but others seem too good. The Magus class is overpowered enough at it is, so those feats that allow the Magus to break rules, particularly if done in a metagame fashion, I dislike.
Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus - list
Adrenalin Surge – moral bonuses in combat when at half health
Arcana Thief – gain arcane points for disrupting and dispelling spells
Cleaving Spellstrike – spellstrike when using cleave feat
Clever Maneuvering – use Int instead of Str for calculating CMB
Dancing Strike – take a 5’ step between each attack
Evasive Spell – casting doesn’t provoke AOE
Grasping Strike – initiate grapple after successful unarmed attack
Greatweapon Spell combat – Use spell combat with a two handed weapon
Hobbyist – Gain full ranks in a single skill
Ki Arcana – Intermingle Ki and Arcane pool
Last-Ditch Effort – Perform a standard action before you fall in battle
One Handed Grappling – Not hindered when grappling with only one hand free
Parrying Defense – Sacrifice attacks to increase AC
Precise Attack – Sacrifice attacks for greater accuracy
Ranged Spell Combat – Spell combat with ranged weapons
Reckless Attack – Sacrifice defenses to gain bonus to hit adjacent foes
Savage Spellstrike – Use weapon’s critical multiplier for spell damage on a confirmed nat. 20
Spell Charge – Cast a touch spell as part of a charge
Spelldrinker – a black blade can learn spells from enemy spellcasters
Spellstrike Multishot – Deliver a spell affect with both arrows
Spellstrike Trip – Deliver touch spells while making a trip attack
Touch of Opportunity – Use touch spells as AOE
Unbalancing Parry – When you fight defensively, opponents that miss you suffer AC penalty
Unorthodox Training – Swap a good save for a poor one
Warding Touch Spell – Turn a touch spell into a personal ward
Weapon Reliability – Do not auto miss on a natural 1
Whip Mastery – Overcome whip’s limitations as a combat weapon
Wrap Strike – Swing around opponent’s shield in combat
Discussion of specific feats:
Black Blade Spellbook and Spelldrinker seem particularly well done for the Black Blade archetype.
The multiclass feat Ki Arcana is clearly a niche feat and only those who wish to play the Magus with a class that has a Ki power can even take it.
Spellstrike Multishot is clearly overpowered in my view as it allows a Magus to cast two spells in the same round. Its prerequisite Ranged Spellstrike seems very useful in that it allows touch spells to be delivered at range.
I particularly liked Dancing Strike and its utility is not restricted to the Magus only. I can see some finesse fighter or bard dancing back and forth between opponents like Syrio Forel from The Game of Thrones.
Of the ones I didn’t like, Weapon Reliability tops that list. Under no circumstance will I remove the auto miss feature in the game. There should always be a chance at failure no matter how powerful a character is. It also goes both ways, if the players can take this, why not the game master for his favorite NPC with which he wishes to thrash the PC’s. It is the recipe for potential game group disaster if the players think the GM is cheating.
Next is a discussion on character builds and three individual examples with flavor and story backgrounds. Now these examples don’t have full stat blocks for GM use, but the stats and suggestions for archetype, features, feats and ability increases for each level as well as the suggested spell lists are useful for both GM and player.
The feats provided included some really interesting and useful ones as well as a few that are not good. I really appreciated the analysis of the Magus at the beginning as well as the designer’s discussion of each feat are useful and appreciated. There were also a number of boxed items discussed that are useful for running or building a Magus. These included a discussion on mithral buckler use, a note on magic swords and real world mythology, a discussion on feat balance, notes on weapon crit ranges with regards to the Magus spellstrike ability, uses of armor spikes, and notes on role playing characters with low charisma.
Overall, the feats that I liked outweigh the ones that I didn’t. The additional discussion on building and running a Magus as well as the designer’s notes on the new feats were interesting and useful. However this extra discussion took up space that perhaps could have been filled with actual content. For those that only want additional content and don’t need the extra discussion, this book may not be as useful. Those that were hoping for full stat block treatment for the sample characters will be disappointed. However this is clearly intended to be a player resource not a game master specific one. For new players who want to know the ins and outs of playing a Magus, this is particularly useful. So my rating is a 4 of 5 because I see some use in the design comments and others. Even though I didn’t love all the feats, it was interesting to read the design comments. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:36 am Post subject: Tzimiscedracul - Thoroughly Recommended |
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Reviewer: Tzimiscedracul
Website: Tower of the Lonely GM
Rating: Thoroughly Recomended
I didn’t expect a new sourcebook from Sigfriend Trent so soon… does this man ever sleeps? Is he really a humanoid (after all, outsiders, undeads and other creature don’t require sleep). Anyway…
New base classes mean new Advanced Feats books: now it’s magus class (from Ultimate Magic). Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus is all about Pathfinder’s fighter/mage class. While the author gives us a close examination of the class’ role and abilities and provides three full progressions (the Fae Blade, the Lady of the Slash and the Rune Fist) what we really want to see here is feats… tons of feats.
Might of Magus bring 30 new feats, each followed by “behind-the-scene” comments of the author. Due to the magus’ role as a martial class, many of the new feats are perfect for fighters, barbarians and other melee-inclined classes.
Right away, we get Adrenaline Surge, that gives bonus to attacks and damage rolls when your character is below ½ his total hit points (a feat thematically perfect for the barbarian, if you ask me).
Arcana Thief is one of my favorite approaches to feat design. Instead of just granting bonuses, it rewards specific actions. In this case, the magus gains extra Arcana Pool points if he successfully dispel, counterspell or disrupt spellcasting – a perfect blend of flavor and mechanic.
There a number of feats that expands on the idea of a “magic warrior”, enabling the magus to use magic while cleaving or executing attacks of opportunity. Other feats improve class features like spell combat, enabling the magus, for example, to cast spells while using two-handed weapons or even ranged weapons.
As usual, Trent “hides” many core feats in his Advanced Feats line. By “core” I mean feats that change basic structures from Pathfinder. For example, Hobbyist grants you full rank at one skill, while Unorthodox Training let you exchange saving throw progressions. Both are nice additions to Pathfinder.
Back on the combat department Might of the Magus has a number of feats that make excellent companions to basic abilities like Power Attack, Combat Expertise and Cleave. For example, we have now Reckless Attack, Parrying Defense and Precise Attack.
A clever feat: Warding Touch Spell is a metamagic feat that allows you to place a normal touch spell on yourself. The next target that hits you on melee combat is affected as if you had touched him.
A cool feat: Spelldrinker let you learn a new spell (from your spell list) every time you score a critical or kills an enemy. The fact that it requires the Black Blade class feature should provide ample hints from its inspiration.
Might of the Magus keep’s Advanced Feats standards and manages to increase it. It has excellent (almost obligatory) feats for all types of melee-based classes, not counting increasing the magus’ versatility by enabling members of this class to specialize in two-handed weapons, ranged weapons, among other tricks. I thoroughly recommend it. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:42 am Post subject: Jerall of Tenletter - Can't go wrong |
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Reviewer: Jeral
Website: Tenletter
Rating: Can't go wrong
Might of the Magus, by Sigfried Trent, is the 7th supplement in Open Design’s Advanced Feats series. Regular readers would know that I’ve taken a liking to Trent’s work – especially the feats that tend to push hard against the restraints of the rules, introducing new and interesting character options. Might of the Magus explores the magus class (a gish-orientated (fighter-mage) base class), introduced in Ultimate Magic.
As with the other Advanced Feats products, Might begins with an analysis of the class. Trent’s analysis provides a great starting point for players new to the class, discussing not only class features, but other factors such as offensive potential and defense considerations. Thereafter, Trent dives into 30 new feats. Though these feats are definitely inspired by the magus, many are in fact available to other character classes too. I enjoy the bits of designer commentary that Trent includes throughout this section. These tidbits allow players and GMs to make better informed decisions regarding the inclusion (or exclusion) of the feats into their game. Further, I’ve often seen Trent use this added commentary to help clarify tricky or complicated rules – a nice added feature found in all of the Advanced Feats products. Naturally, there are a few feats that stand out from the rest, including:
Ki Arcana: This feat allows a character to use her ki pool to power her arcane pool abilities and her arcane pool to power her ki-based abilities. I like feats that promote multiclassing and Trent makes full use of this later when discussing character builds (see below).
Warding Touch Spell: This is my favourite feat of the lot. As a metamagic feat, Warding Touch Spell introduces a novel twist to touch spells. This feat allows a caster to use a touch spell defensively, changing the method of delivery and creating a ward which triggers when the caster gets hit in melee. The creature that triggers the ward is then subjected to the effects of the spell.
Whip Mastery: I love the idea of playing a lasher, but the whip is one of the weakest weapons in Pathfinder. Whip Mastery gives the whip a little more oomph and, when combined with spell combat and spellstrike, allows for an exciting magus builds.
Trent continues with a look at three character builds: the Fae Blade uses the bladebound archetype and an elven-curved blade (the Greatweapon Spell Combat feat, also introduced in Might, allows a magus to efficiently wield a two-handed weapon); the Lady of the Lash focuses on the whip (with some built-in tricks for those occassions when the whip proves impractical); and the Rune Fist, a monk/magus multiclassed character that makes clever use of the staff magus archetype. I was mightly impressed with Trent’s use of archetypes in his character builds (especially the sexy monk-magus combination).
Trent concludes with a quick look at role playing low Charisma scores. All three of the above builds are introduced with a character concept and all three have a low Charisma score. I thought this a nice way to end off the product, but wish Trent had a bit more space to expand on this section – it’s one thing to have a jerk character, but it’s another thing to be a jerk at the table.
Overall, I enjoyed going through Might of the Magus. Though not every feat will find its way into my game, the bulk of them conjured up exciting new character concepts (the ranged magus (yes!) and monk-magus amongst them). If you are looking for an introduction to playing the magus class, or seeking to beef up or tweak an existing magus, you can’t go wrong with Might of the Magus. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:13 am Post subject: Charles Carrier on Paizo.com - 5 of 5 stars |
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Reviewer: Charles Carrier
Website: Paizo.com
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
This is the fourth Advanced Feats book I’ve had the pleasure of reading, so I already had a good idea of what to expect. Not just in terms of layout, but also in terms of quality. All of Sigfried Trent’s prior Advanced Feats books have been of extraordinary quality, and this one upholds the tradition. I am very pleased to now have thirty more of his feats in my campaign! (There is no doubt that I will soon be buying the remaining books that I’m missing in the series.)
Following a short three-paragraph introduction, we get an in-depth analysis of the Magus class. There is a surprising amount of insight packed into this one-and-a-half page section. For example, even though I went back and re-read my “Playtest Round 3” pdf of the Magus class as preparation for this review, I failed to notice what was omitted from the Magus spell list. However, the author of Might of the Magus noticed: The spell list lacks holds, charms, divinations, and abjurations. This section has a number of useful observations regarding the Magus class.
Next, on page 4 is a summary table of the thirty new feats, which gives us an at-a-glance review of each feat’s prerequisites and benefits. The in-depth descriptions start on page 5. Curiously, a typo in the Table of Contents lists this page number as 10.
As always in this series, the feats are well thought out and described with a clear, concise, economy of words. You will find no redundancy or ambiguity here. Each feat description includes a commentary from the author, where he lets us in on what he was trying to accomplish and what lead him to make the decisions he made. I find these commentaries to be particularly useful, not only because they give me insight into the individual feats, but also because after reading a few of them it is easier to understand what principles lead to good game design.
Sprinkled through the book are sidebars with short discussions (usually about two paragraphs) of ideas related to the book’s theme. I have always really liked these informative little sidebars tucked into the Advanced Feats series, and Might of the Magus gives us six of them!
As you would expect in a book of feats for the Magus class, a lot of the feats apply only to the Magus. However, there are also a lot that can be used by anyone. (Well, almost anyone…) One of those is Spell Charge. It allows a touch spell to be delivered as part of a charging attack (remember, under the regular rules only melee attacks may be used in conjunction with a charge). This one is absolutely great for any spellcaster who has a really aggressive streak! I think this one is destined to be quite popular in my campaign
Precise Attack was one of my instant favorites. This feat allows a character with multiple attacks to forgo all but their primary attack in exchange for a fairly nice bonus to their attack roll. It appeals to me for two reasons: First, because it matches exactly what the hero often does in movies and books – pause, concentrate, and then make one really effective attack. Second, because of Mr. Trent’s commentary – “With lots of options that grant extra attacks for less accuracy, I wanted something that would drive in the other direction.”
This feat demonstrates exactly why I enjoy Mr. Trent’s work so much. To begin with, so many of his feats provide ways for players to do the dramatic and heroic things that we love in adventure stories. Next, it demonstrates one of his great strengths as a designer: The ability to approach a familiar idea from a new direction, and do something useful with the resulting insight. Last of all, you’ll notice that in the prior paragraph I said “a fairly nice bonus”, not “a really big bonus”. Mr. Trent is an enemy of power creep. His feats add variety, they add flavor, they add options, but they do not unbalance the game. I am not afraid to use any of Sigfried Trent’s feats in my campaign.
Another instant favorite is Warding Touch Spell. This is one of those ideas that is so incredibly obvious, it makes you wonder why no one ever thought if it before. Yet no one did, until now. Oh, by the way... No; I’m not going to describe this one to you. I’ve got to leave something for you to discover when you buy the book!
I do have a nitpick with the name chosen for one of the feats: Adrenalin Surge. To my ears, that is a modern-sounding name. As someone who enjoys a mediaeval feel to my FRPG’s, I would have preferred a more archaic sounding label. Maybe “Rising Choler”, or “Vengeful Anger”, or at least something that isn’t quite so reminiscent of modern verbiage. Still, this is my only point of unhappiness with this excellent book.
I am very pleased to own this book. I think you will be too. |
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| Sigfried |
| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:16 am Post subject: Mordicai Caeli - A High Benchmark |
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Reviewer: Mordicai Caeli
Website: Live Journal
Rating: High Becnhmark
It is no secret that I'm a fan of Sigfied Trent's feat series, having previously enjoyed his work on The Inquisitor & The Witch & The Alchemist. He just fundamentally gets it. There is something refreshing about someone who will talk frankly & honestly about the nuts & bolts of the game-- too often you get condescending platitudes, as those game balance was just, like, an idea man, or you get the veil of secrecy drawn, as though esoteric proprietary data lay behind the Wizard's curtain. This time Trent tackles the Magus from Ultimate Magic, & his signature style of transparency is on display. There is just something nice about being addressed on the level. You can tell me the Magus is an Int-based caster with a bard-like progression & a three-quarters attack bonus & I will know what you are talking about. Of course I will, I'm hip deep in the middle of the game. & hey, thanks for the little side-box pointing out that mithril bucklers exist. I've certainly noticed-- I've used them as a player & given them out at treasure in my Oubliette campaign, but you can keep your nasty, goofy armor spikes, thank you very much. Trent mentions off-hand that it is hard to build feats for the Magus since "Extra Arcana" from Ultimate Magic is such a strong pick. Something to keep in mind, but just as well; like all of the "Advanced Feats" series, most of the content here is applicable to a wide range of characters. I see a lot of Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition influence here, actually-- "Adrenalin Surge" & "Hobbyist" are notable for this-- but the bulk are the usual mix of work-horse feats & very clever pieces of flavor-- "Black Blade Spellbook" & "Spelldrinker" are good examples of the latter. Things like the metamagic feat "Evasive Spell"-- which lets you trade off spell level to not provoke opportunity attacks-- are useful across the board, while things like "Ki Arcana"-- which lets you add a Monk's (or whatever's) Ki pool to the Magus' Arcana pool-- are the sort of seeds you could draft a character around. This hits the high benchmarks of the rest of the series-- first thing anybody playing Pathfinder should do it get the "Advanced Feats" for their class, if you ask me. |
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