THE GOBWOOD
Goblin, Fantasy, and RPG Blog
This character, among others, was inspired by the 3.5 monster manual V which has a great section on hobgoblins. The entries are clearly intended for NPC enemies but I always found the racial HD variants to be really cool. This one took me for just about ever to finish because, again, I was trying really hard to make something that was officially legal so anyone who ever saw this might actually feel like TheGobwood is a useful resource. The more you try to actually follow the rules the more you realize that you don’t know the rules and that was exhausting. I also almost completed a backwards goblin bard before this but didn’t finish… he’ll be next probably. Anyway, I present to you Ropach, the HobGoblin Duskblade.
Character
History-
Ropach is among the last duskblades- a skilled group of warrior magi trained to support and protect more powerful spellcasters. Despite coming from the lower caste, duskblades were seen as a transitional generation whose offspring could be adopted by a noble family if their blood was proven worthy. Ropach was an exemplar of his station- obedient, clever, and formidable- and his spawn would have certainly lived as nobles had fate not doomed them. After surviving the defeat of goblinkind Ropach continued to serve his spellcaster, a warsoul, as they searched for purpose. Outside of the hobgoblin war machine only mercenary service seemed a reasonable alternative and the troop excelled at it.
In the course of their work the troop discovered a trail of curious clues which led them to an artifact from ancient times. The artifact was a long jagged chunk of black metal which looked as if it had been ripped apart from a larger piece. Otherwise unremarkable, the artifact granted visions to the troops warsoul which, though cryptic and unclear, called for a quest to locate more artifacts like it. With renewed purpose, the troop pledged themselves to the calling of these visions.
Now an operative for the cult Ropach seeks to gain knowledge about artifacts from beyond the heavens and the circumstances that brought them to this world. There are a small number of cells and operatives pursuing this knowledge but Ropach himself is tasked with simply questing among other adventuring parties so that he will be organically led to people and places of power and knowledge wherein he may find the information he seeks. Secrets not yet revealed needed discovering, and ropach’s skills are the key to uncovering them.
Personality-
Ropach’s speech is monotone and clear. He never saw much point in expressing or even entertaining emotions when there is important information to exchange. He ignores virtually all concerns not related to completing his mission- dignity, ethics, feelings… all are trampled without a thought. When among his troop he is very protective of his Warsoul and, were it not for his demeanor, one might even think he was caring. He sleeps with one eye open during her watch, and he always places his bedroll beside hers. He inquires about her needs and comfort though despite saying that such things are trivial. He is ready and willing to lay down his life for her even though the oligarchy and its castes are dead and gone. Ropach does not believe in love, but perhaps there is a deeper reason he still follows her instead of scattering like the rest…
Build
Goals:
Goals:
The typical magus is just a blaster caster who does their blasting through melee attacks. Intensified shocking grasp is really great but its overplayed and I want to explore an entirely new kind of magus so we’re going to focus on a supportive role with the following objectives.
1- BackLine/Caster Shutdown and Escape Denial by forcing checks and following to threaten with step-up.
2- Battlefield Mobility to advance and egress safely with spells like bladed dash and force hook charge
3- Sustainability by preferring spells that are continuous and do not rely heavily on a save.
4- Battlefield Control through spells like web, tentacles, walls, clouds, etc…
Traits/Racials:
Focused Mind(trait): +2 to casting defensively. We’ll talk more about this in the level-by-level breakdown.
Arcane Revitalization(trait)- once per day when you confirm a crit, restore 1 arcane pool. With luck we can hope to think of this as a flat +1 arcane pool and, honestly, that’s how I’m going to treat it in my games so I don’t have to track as much.
Magehunter(racial): +2 to spellcraft to identify a spell being cast and +1 to hit vs arcane spellcasters. Lose sneaky. I’m never going to remember that I have this unless I make a big deal out of it in this guide- +1 to hit is very nice and since we’re a caster-killer its just right. Lets see if I ever remember to make a big deal out of it.
Skills:
Acrobatics, Climb, Swim: Put a point into each of these at low levels because it just might matter and you have enough to go around.
Spellcraft: max it. Though we’ll probably end up knowing what spells were cast based on the effects, it will feel thematic to make these rolls to identify the spells and it will interact with an arcana we pick at level 7.
Fly: Once you can get the fly spell stop putting points into your other physique skills and just keep this maxed. We won’t need to climb or jump after that but may still need to swim.
Scores:
STR: We’re going to be a STR based magus so we’ll want at least 15 to start here. The most is the best, but we are a little MAD. We’ll probably be torn between maxing STR or INT at start and the choice will boil down to whether you want more damage output overall or more important resources for important moments.
DEX: Being hobgoblin, we can actually afford to leave this at 10 and we’ll still get a 12. We want at least +1 bonus for when get full plate and combat reflexes near end of build but, since we’re going to be stuck in light armor for a while, it would be really nice to get more dex.
CON: I feel like no d20 character should have less than 14 CON because everybody eats a greataxe at some point. We can take 12 and have 14 from HobGob. No Problemo.
INT: We must get at least 14 for enough arcane pool to last our adventuring day and cast spells of up to 4th level. There is significant benefit from more- our DC’s will improve, though we’re preferring spells that don’t rely on the save, and we get more arcane pool. We do probably want enough skills to be mobile/martial and also fit spellcraft and know:arcana in, so the more the better there. 15 INT can be bumped up to 16 at lv4 but 16 INT never has to bumped.
WIS: Will saves are scary so I wouldn’t dump it but we also can’t afford to pump it. Leave it at 10 I guess.
CHA: Dump! But not just for minmax, dump because Ropach isn’t supposed to be charismatic, he don’t even like feelings (he says).
Archetypes/Options:
Bladebound(Archetype): Its probably an overused archetype but it is really cool and helps weave our backstory and motivations into our build. The basics are that we get a scaling intelligent magic weapon but lose our our 3rd level arcana and slow the growth of our arcane pool.
Feats, Choices, and Features
- Combat Casting, Arcane Pool, Spell Combat, Cantrips, Lv1 Spells, Traits
- Spellstrike
- Arcane Strike or Exotic Weapon: Falcata, Blackblade
- Spell recall, Lv2 Spells, +1STR
- Step Up Feat, Extra Arcana: Lingering Pain, Energy Attunement
- Disruptive Arcana
- Extra Arcana: Arcane Scent, Lv3 spells
- Spell Combat
- SpellBreaker Arcana, Combat Reflexes, Teleport Blade
- Fighter Training, Lv4 spells
- Teleport Tactician, Improved Critical, Imp. Spell Recall
- Planar Hunter
- Critical Focus, Heavy Armor, Transfer Arcana, Lv5 spells
- Greater Spell Combat
- Extra Arcane Pool, Reflection Arcana, maybe Re-train Combat Casting to Extra Arcane Pool
Exposition
Level 1:
Arcane Pool is our magus resource which can fuel a number of helpful things. At this level it can only give your weapon a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute but that’s really nice.
Spell Combat is our class defining ability that, essentially, allows us to dual wield spells and weapons as a full round action. At this level we don’t get a lot of spell slots but we do have infinite cantrips. Take note that we can also take a penalty on attacks while using this to increase our concentration check to cast defensively but, with our feat and trait choices, we may not have to.
Combat Casting gives +4 to the concentration checks made to cast defensively. It stacks with the focused mind trait and is important to help us get our spells off at low levels without triggering AOO’s or failing the spell. Failing a cantrip is sad but no big deal, losing a spell slot to failure would suck, and losing an escape spell when you’re low could doom you. At higher levels this edge becomes less important as our bonus outgrows the DC but for now its crucially important. To showcase: DC for defensively casting a lv1 spell is 17 and our bonus will be about +9 failing only on a roll of 7 or less. By level 10 the DC for a 4th level spell will be 23 and our bonus will hopefully be around +22 so you almost can’t fail anymore. It would eventually be reasonable to retrain this but the value up to that point is totally worth it and we’ll probably never need to utilize spell combat’s defensive casting trade-off.
Spells per day at this level are pretty slim but that makes the choices even more important. We’ll get to pick at least 5 1st level spells to learn at start. There are many cool spells, but the first picks are going to be the most important and you can fill in your spellbook later either as you level up or by finding/buying scrolls.
Cantrips
Daze- If we can make our concentration check, and if they fail their save, they lose their turn. If we fail our check, we lose nothing as we can do this all day. Unlike a regular caster, we’re not terribly upset if they make their save because we’re still going to swing our sword at them too. This is our spam spell but only for level 1.
1st level spells
Shield- +4 to AC that doesn’t stack with the shield we don’t use and lasts for minutes. This is pretty crucial for surviving those low levels without getting whomped. Take this first.
Ray of Enfeeblement- reduces the targets STR by 1d6+(lv/2) making toughies much less threatening for everyone. Worth getting, for sure, though we’d be better with it if we had better DEX like most magus builds.
Vanish- poof invisible for a few rounds. Not worth it until 2nd or 3rd level when you can stay invis for more than 1 turn but great for approaching or egressing unmolested. The best part is you can spell combat this after your attack so you don’t lose a chance to hit and 5ft step to the right so they don’t know where you are anymore.
Expeditious Retreat- +30ft speed, great for getting into or out of the enemy backline with fewer actions and lasts a lot longer than Vanish. Probably don’t need both.
Long Arm- Seems silly but gives you 10ft reach which is amazing! You can now threaten more area and spell combat from 10ft away without having to cast defensively. Sure we’re good at casting defensively but… better still to not have to. Spaghetti arms never felt so useful! Now… you might ask why not just get enlarge person? Well… no good reason. Aside from the AC penalty enlarge is empirically superior. I just feel like somebody at paizo took the time to write this spell and, as someone who writes things that nobody uses, I want that writer to have the satisfaction of having their thing used. Except… they’ll never see this to know so… what was the point after all? (if you’re smart you’ll get enlarge person but, as smart as we are, we’re much more stylin)
Level 2:
Spellstrike is our 2nd signature ability which lets us replace the free touch attack granted by most touch spells with a free weapon attack that can deliver the spell. This is why we’re STR based. We’re going to use low power spells just to get a 2nd chance to hit with a beefy weapon.
Arcane Mark- Of note here is that RAW you can use arcane mark with spellstrike, like zorro, so that you can get that extra weapon attack but there are reasonable arguments that it was not intended to be used in that way. Really it’s not much different than TWF or flurry of blows but its mechanism is such that you should ask your GM. If they say no then you must take Extra Arcana: Close Range at level 3; covered in the alternatives section.
Level 3:
The Blackblade is our Bladebound archetype’s signature ability. We get a sentient magic weapon that upgrades as you level. Ours, in particular, is going to be a chunk of the carapace of a “GALACTIC SPACE DEMON” named itculixti who looks like a runed space-mantis because that’s what was in the intro to my homebrewed 3.5 spelljammer adaptation game. This blackblade is one of the chunks we’ve been looking for so make sure your DM knows that you need to find it during the session that levels you up to 3. The blade seeks to be reunited with the rest of its body and will use Ropach to this end. Our blackblade has its own arcane pool and it can spend its point(s) on buffing its damage. It scales the same as your arcane pool enhancement, and stacks with it, but this only affects damage and not +to hit. You can communicate telepathically and, as long as it has at least 1 point in in its arcane pool, it is immune to being broken. You can still fix it if it does get broken though. Right now it’s probably going to be a +1 scimitar.
Arcane Strike just adds some damage to our weapon as a swift action. It’s only +1 right now but it jumps to +2 next level and grows to +5 by 20th. Being a 1hander the extra damage is important, and being a ¾ BAB class not having to take a penalty to hit (like in power attack) doesn’t suck. Alternatively you could pick up the falcata proficiency for coolness and excitement.
Level 4:
Spell recall lets us spend arcane pool, as a swift action, to get back spells that we’ve already cast. If we cast it once, it was probably useful so we can cast it again yay! For now, since our arcane pool is somewhat nerfed by the bladebound archetype, we probably can’t afford to do it a whole lot but that’s ok because we’re more about the sustained spell effects than we are about spamming shocking grasp anyway. If you find that you consistently need more spell slots, maybe spring for a pearl of power as an alternative because there are no alternatives for arcane pool without giving up a character defining feat.
Our ability score boost will go into either STR or INT depending on which we left at an odd number, but all boosts hereafter will probably go into STR.
2nd level spells are now available to us but, unlike at 1st level, we can only pick 2 on levelup.
Bladed Dash- This is our #1 cool points spell throughout the whole build. Upon casting it flashes you up to 30ft in a direction of your choice, not provoking AOO’s, and gives an attack at the end of that movement adding +INT to hit. You can spell combat this, dashing past the enemy frontline to a soft target, getting both this hit and your full attack after. The 2nd best use is the same in reverse- spell combat full attack then dash out. Learn this as your level-up spell or don’t be cool.
Mirror Image- Creates 1d4+(lv/3) illusions that will probably get hit instead of you. In lieu of high AC we’ll make other targets and hope we don’t get hit, that’s really among the best defense you can get. Take this on level-up as well.
Web- simple battlefield control. 20ft radius of “get stuck stepbro” or at least hindering their movement. It does require opposing surfaces to work, however, so it only creates the 3d webs in tighter spaces but it can always web people who fail their save to the floor below them. This will be a staple spell for many levels so take it asap from scroll or on next level-up.
Blood Transcription- drink 1 pint of an enemy casters blood to learn one of their spells. You can’t learn anything that’s not on the magus list so it may be of limited use but if you can pick it up at some point it could potentially save you a lot of money on scrolls and maybe learn some spells before your trip back to town. It is also a bit thematic as this character cares little about grossing out temporary companions but cares a great deal about acquiring knowledge from other spellcasters. This is even a worthy first pick if it could let you learn mirror image off the caster you levelled up from killing.
Armor Lock- Staggers heavy armor, entangles med/light armor. Saving drops the effect down a level but this is our go-to heavy armor stopper because it targets reflex. A good option when the terrain doesn’t support web but unlikely to affect wild monsters as most don’t wear armor.
Frigid Touch- a 1shot spell but there is no save and it staggers. This is a solid “just 1 more round” time-buyer that’s worth having for tough times but not part of our desired tactics.
Level 5:
Step up is a feat that lets us take a 5ft step in response to a threatened foe taking a 5ft step. If we’re trying to kill casters, this is really crucial because normal casters don’t want to cast defensively if they don’t have to- they’ll try to 5ft step out. Well now we 5ft step with them forcing them to either cast defensively or eat an AOO and they can’t do any other movement. Even if your DM tells all his npc’s that you have step-up, like a douche, and they never try to 5ft step away; you’re still limiting their best option to cast safely.
Lingering Pain Arcana is another big money item in our basket of stuff to ruin a caster’s internal locus of joy. 1 arcane pool to treat ALL damage from 1 attack as continuous damage until your next turn. Normally only half of the continuous damage is considered for injury while casting but this explicitly says ALL and that… that’s rough buddy. We can’t do this a lot but with our limited arcane pool but it should make a big difference when we do. What hasn’t been said yet is that, now, you don’t need to ready an action to attack when then cast a spell because all that does is trigger an injury while casting check which we’re already forcing them to make. I guess making them do it twice would be nice too though. Keep in mind that we do get a +1 to hit vs arcane spellcasters from our racial alternate, Mage-Hunter!
Energy Attunement just lets us spend our blackblade’s arcane pool to turn our weapon damage into energy damage. This may be handy if you are aware of an energy vulnerability but is, otherwise, probably a poor way to spend a very limited arcane pool point.
Lastly, it is of note that we can, and should, now add Keen to our weapon using our arcane pool.
Level 6:
The Disruptive Arcana just lets us get the disruptive feat at the same level a fighter would. Any caster we threaten who attempts to cast defensively has the DC of their concentration check increased by 4. This is, though very narrow in application, another thing that really brings together our caster-killer role. Keep in mind that spell-like abilities also provoke and this affects them too. Sadly, many casters will take combat casting which breaks even against our feat but, at low levels anyway, their odds still aren’t great to make the check.
Level 7:
Arcane Scent is an arcana that allows us to spend 1 point of arcane pool to gain a Scent ability for 1 hour that can sniff out casters and creatures with spell like abilities. I said we want to be cheap with our arcane pool but… isn’t this cool as heck? Not only can you now track them through a clean maze (where no trail could possibly be left) but if they go invis before moving away you can still pinpoint their location and can use step-up to pursue (note that the step-up feat makes no mention of having to see the target, they only need to make a 5ft step and you get to respond). You’ll get the “invis” miss chance and it may take many actions to locate them but at least they won’t get away. To top it all off, you can spellcraft to smell what level their top spells are. You can find magic users, estimate, and even mitigate some of their abilities which seems awesome and thematic. Imagine walking into a room and you get to say with full confidence: “<snoooort!> Hmmm… smells like a wizard in here.” Note that the cloud spells we will be using later may ruin the scent ability, though it is not explicitly stated. Wizards trying to cover their scent probably won’t help because we don’t have scent vs anything else that might obscure them, we still can’t smell stank from 30ft away. Lastly, this may give us cause to disbelieve illusions if they are illusions of spellcasters- we could know that they lack the scent unless they somehow knew to create an illusory smell with major image (if so then screw your DM for meta-gaming so hard.)
Knowledge Pool lets us use our arcane pool to prepare spells that aren’t actually in our spellbook for that day. This is normally a really cool flexibility option and, someday, maybe I’ll build a magus that just takes Extra Arcana for every single feat but for this build… we’ll probably not be using it much.
Medium Armor gives us its namesake proficiency and allows us to ignore any spell failure from it. While this pales in comparison to the defensive spells we’re picking up, it is the icing that every sane person enjoys on their cake. Most medium armors reduce movement speed which we won’t appreciate- we really don’t want to be slower than the our desired spellcaster targets. We can mitigate this concern with the expeditious retreat spell but, by this level, Mithril Breastplate should be achievable with ease thanks to the wealth we’re saving on our blackblade.
3rd level spells are a major milestone for most casters but for us its mostly linear improvement. I’ll highlight a few top spell choices.
Displacement- 50% miss chance, can’t be beat. Coupled with mirror images you will avoid most attacks.
Take this first.
Fly- its OP and essential so you have to take it asap. In my games, however, I don’t like flight and punish it severely. Its annoying and it makes melee sad and it removes lots of obstacles and stuff that would otherwise be interesting- especially since the most effective counters to flight are either “shoot it” or “fly yourself”. Take this first in normal situations.
Stinking Cloud- drop this on top of our web (or, later, tentacles/walls) to really shut down anything inside. Fortitude negates but if they’re stuck in it they have to resave each round and will likely start barfing soon. This is a great early pick.
Siphon Might- sucks 1d6+(lv/2) str and gives it to you or an ally. Chances are that you and fellow frontliners already have an enhancement bonus to str by the time you get this (~lv8) but its still a strong penalty and even the minimum roll will boost STR by 5. You can spellstrike it, and a fort save only halves the effect. Use it on a squishy backliner (your goal anyway) and you might encumber or even paralyze them with a high damage roll. This is a worthy early pick as well, especially if you don’t have a +4 belt of STR, replacing ray of enfeeble.
Force Hook Charge- hookshot deals 1dmg/lv, then pulls you to the target. Its basically bladed dash in 3d, but it does provoke. It goes further and can go vertical but is a whole spell slot for 1 movement which doesn’t fit our theme that great. If, like in my games, you don’t/can’t do fly then this is really important. If you can fly, its much less important but still neat. I want this to be better because it’s so cool and I’ll probably buff it in my games, but at least you can spell combat this and full attack too.
Haste- I hate having to include this but lets be real about it. Its essential, and its good, and its fun. If you don’t do it someone else has to and they don’t have spell combat. You will be in melee where its most needed already and you can still full attack after casting it. Even an evil hobgoblin magus bent on releasing an ancient evil and conquering the galaxy has to do the right thing sometimes.
Level 8:
Improved Spell Combat is all we get at this level. Its just a +2 bonus to concentration checks which stacks with everything else so far… nothing special but we’re that much closer to being unable to fail casting defensively.
Level 9:
SpellBreaker is a bit underwhelming but, it adds extra danger to something we’re already hoping for anyway. Now, when casters do fail those defensive casting checks, we get to hit them too! Nicer still is that we can use AOO hits to apply lingering pain and make it hard to cast next turn too. When we do trigger an AOO from this, remember the +1 we get to hit arcane spellcasters from Mage-Hunter!
Combat Reflexes will let us take additional AOO’s. Note that our disruptive feat only applies to targets we threaten when we could actually make an AOO- because that AOO is what they’re casting defensively against. Now we can take an AOO on someone moving away and still threaten more AOO’s to keep up disruptive. Previously it might have been wiser to keep our AOO for the caster. There are even a few situations where you might get 2 AOO’s against the same caster, maybe we’ll get a chance to do that. Pre-Cast long-arm and now you can threaten more squares to take more AOO’s! Lastly, you can take AOO’s even while flat-footed which is neat if you can remember.
Teleport Blade calls your blackblade to your hand from up to a mile away. It’s a standard action and nothing we could build any sensible kind of strategy around but it is pretty cool for rp.
Level 10:
Fighter Training is pretty pointless as a class ability. You half-count as a fighter for fighter-only feats except we already got all the fighter only feats we want as arcanas already. Oh well, at least we also get….
4th level spells! This level gives us some major upgrades to previous staples and some altogether new options.
Black Tentacles is an upgrade over Web as it does not require opposed surfaces to work well. It’s a 20ft radius of “get stuck onee-chan” as difficult terrain, grapples, and damage. Universally a great spell, among the best, Trump loves it!. Take this first since battlefield control is one of our things.
Arcana Theft is our best version of dispel because it is a touch spell; this means we can spellstrike it for weapon damage! Even if we fail to dispel anything we still get that weapon swing but if we do dispel we get the buff! Would be a shame if the buff you stole was one you already had on though like displacement but I’ll bet divine casters would have some pretty exciting ones.
Wall of Ice- more battlefield control. Imagine walling some baddie in and then dropping poison cloud or making a serpentine so they have to solve a maze while wrestling tentacles. If you can pull fights into a small room and bisect it to cut the fight into two easier halves, that’s the most perfect possible use for this. Note that if there is a visible avenue of escape the monster will probably prefer it but if can’t see one it may try to break through the ice which is not actually that hard.
Poison Cloud- like cloudkill minus. It just does 1d2 CON/rd but that’ll really do someone dirty if they’re stuck in web, tentacles, or walls.
Greater Invis- Its basically the upgrade to both vanish and displacement at the same time but it does not stack with mirror image because they look just like you and right now you look invisible. Images with Displacement is a superior defense but if you need to avoid being located, such as if escaping to range, and wish to continue to contribute while still being hard to chase, this is the way to do it.
Wreath of Blades- 4 mithril daggers, which you must actually find or purchase, swirl around you dealing 1d4 per 2lvls to adjacent squares, protecting you from provoking AOO’s for casting spells. The damage is applied to any creature that starts its turn in the area. We’re really good at casting defensively so it’s a bit redundant but the damage, while not huge, can really add up if we continue to threaten each turn (which we’re good at doing.) This is going to be one of my top choices because of the cool factor but I can certainly see how other spells might feel more urgently necessary.
Dimension Door- Poof way over there! If you need to escape, this gets you out. If you need to get around an obstacle, get up there, or just be past things this does that and is universally capable of trivializing movement related stuff. Don’t forget to take your full attack right after you poof in- now you’re thinking with portals! That said, everyone uses this spell and somehow not doing things that everyone does makes me feel just as special as doing something that nobody can do- it’s the hipster condition. This is also worth a first pick, but I probably won’t.
Level 11:
Teleport Tactician is our final caster killer feat which allows us to make an attack of opportunity on anything that teleports in/out of our threatened area. By this point it’s not all that impossible for a foe with combat casting to get a spell off, which I dislike and will probably do something about in my games, but if they’re boss level, which is precisely the kind of target which ropach wants to prevent from escaping, there’s a decent chance they’ll be able to make their escape. This lets us, hopefully, get at least 1 hit to stick that lingering pain, and soon other effects, and still make his day harder. Teleportation is mostly an arcane caster thing so don’t forget about that +1 to hit them from mage-hunter!
Improved Critical just lets us stop having to use our arcane pool bonus for keen freeing up a +1 equivalent bonus for enhancing our weapon.
Improved Spell Recall makes our normal spell recall cheaper by half, and lets us prepare anything from our spellbook instead at the normal cost. We still don’t have a lot of arcane pool so we can’t exactly depend on this for versatility but its still great to have.
Level 12:
Planar Hunter lets us spend 2 more arcane pool to add phase locking to our weapon. Note that this does not simply add the option to spend your enhancements on phase locking, it straight up adds phase locking. You can spend 1 point to add Planar which bypasses outsider DR but that’s not what we’re after. This will be great to keep that caster in place if they trigger an AOO by teleporting- and boy what a load of wasted resources if it gets to this point. Sad thing is that you must add this when you enhance your weapon else re-fresh when a caster appears which costs points again. Sadder still is that a caster may not even get to try their escape if you do em dirty enough. To help prevent wasteful sadness I think I would let players just add this on the spot whenever in my games and would beg my DM for the same pittance. This is the kind of thing where, if you need it, you’ve spent your entire build looking forward to it and it would either justify all your past choices gloriously or poison all fond memories of the character if you were out of arcane pool right when the opportunity arose so plan accordingly.
Level 13:
Critical Focus gives us a +4 to confirm criticals. We’ve been wishing for crits all along but the pursuit of casters took priority so that we could do it well by the time we face lots of them. This may be too little too late so if you feel that way you could grab whatever you want. We’ve got all the feats we need for doing our job; everything from here on out just makes it better.
Heavy Armor is a terribly confusing and difficult to understand ability. It appears to let you wear heavy armor without worrying about a lot but… I’m not certain. My biggest concern would be how you can wear heavy armor but not be outrun by unarmored casters- expeditious retreat of course.
Transfer Arcana lets us suck some of our blackblade’s arcane pool to fuel our PC’s arcane pool. It’s a full round action so its probably not worth doing in combat, requires a will save vs the blackblade’s ego (only 16 right now) to succeed which fatigues you on failure, and it costs 2 of our blackblades pool of 4 to get 1 of ours back though we can sap all 4 if we wish. This is, at best, a poor trade and probably not worth the time or risk in combat.
Lv5 Spells offer us some direct and awesome upgrades but nothing truly new that’s useful.
Greater Bladed Dash is Bladed Dash with more Bladed Dash! You get to make an attack against everything you dash past. Sick! Dash to the back… ba-da bum bum! Dash to the front… bum da-da bum! That’ll be our little dance, teach the bard how to jam it and pick this first.
Overland Flight is just as boring as Fly but lasts all day. Take it first because, if you’re smart, you have to.
Wall of Stone/Force are direct upgrades to ice. Force lasts rounds per level down from minutes, close range, same area (10ft/lvl), but is indestructible and blocks the ethereal plane too. Stone is permanent, medium range, half the area (5ft/lvl), but can create lasting stable structures like a whole dang castle. Pick your foes poison, and block em in with some poo gas or turd vapors.
Corrosive Consumption is increasing acid damage over 3 turns on a spellstrike, no save. This thing does 1/lvl on the spellstrike, then 1d4/lvl, and finally 1d6/lvl capping at lvl15. That’s a lot of nearly unavoidable damage which can crit on the spellstrike and is continuous damage for purposes of injury while casting. If we stick this on a caster, plus lingering pain, he’d better spend his full-round to scrape off the acid and provoke an AOO because there’s no way he’s getting any spells off for the duration of this.
Dimensional Blade makes all your attacks resolve as touch attacks. I really wish it lasted longer or had some kind of damage output with it because we don’t even get our 3rd iterative until level 15 but… right at that moment it becomes important. If its not a caster, its probably a giant beefmonster and probably has giant natural armor. This makes all our attacks ignore that. Deflection still counts so this would be likely useless vs casters but honestly we’ve been doing it wrong so far by focusing so much on rare enemies and this will help fill in a gap that’s been open since the beginning of our build.
Soulswitch is the last spell I’ll mention here and only because it seems so interesting for a bladebound magus. We don’t have a familiar because we can’t get one because the bladebound archetype says so- but do you ever wonder why? Is it because our blackblade IS our familiar? Well that’s how I’m interpreting it so imagine what your demon-fragment blackblade’s soul would do given full control of your body! What if its ego could resist your attempts to transfer back to your body? What if Ropach becomes the sword and Itculxti becomes the magus? What if you become a galactic space-demon PC? What if you become an intelligent weapon for another player in a later campaign? What if you have surprise twins and can hardly play anymore but you can still email your old DM telling him your goals and some RP stuuf to do as a blackblade belonging to someone you’ve never even met who replaced you at his table? Ooohohohooo…
Level 14:
Greater Spell Combat just doubles the bonus to casting defensively from the penalty to attack that we never wanted to suffer anyway and by now we literally cannot fail to cast defensively unless the threatening foe has disruptive so… I guess its nice that a mere -1 penalty should almost guarantee our success even in the most threatening conditions. Then again, if allowed, we’re about to lose combat casting.
Retraining combat casting is pretty reasonable right now since our concentration bonus itself is now probably around +20, with an extra +6 from combat casting and our trait to cast defensively. The DC to cast a 5th level spell is 25 so we can’t normally fail and it just gets easier for lower level spells. We do still have access to long arm so we can go back to employing that to avoid the need to cast defensively if we really feel unlucky or if the foe has disruptive. I’m going to retrain it to Extra Arcane Pool so we can finally have enough points to spend on all the things we can do; like smelling our own party’s caster for all the waking hours of the day. This is all assuming you’re allowed to retrain and have the downtime to do so.
Level 15:
So by now we’re full build and, like I said with critical focus, many of the little buffs and improvements may not be very significant so just have fun with your remaining feats. I’m just going with another Extra Arcane Pool because we now have many things to spend it on but, at most, only like 14 points to throw around.
Reflection Arcana lets us spend even more arcane pool than we just got with these feats to send 1 spell back on its caster and still be arcane pool starved. This is fun isn’t it? If we fail to identify the spell we can still just spend points blindly and if we underspend we at least get an insight bonus on any save(s) the spell requires. If we overspend, well we don’t because we have arcane scent and we can tell what their highest level spell is right? Hekk yea brudda! And theres zero chance they won’t use their highest level spell on us so we don’t even have to worry about that!!!
Combos and Strategies
Spell Combat, SpellStrike, Arcane Mark:
Spell Combat lets you dual wield spells and attacks, Spellstrike lets you use your weapon for the free touch attack as part of casting a touch spell, arcane mark is a touch spell that you can cast all day. With this combo we can get 2 attacks per round with our beefy blackblade without expending any resources at all! If your GM does not let you spellstrike with arcane mark, pick Extra Arcana: Close Range at level 3 to still enjoy this high-mileage combo 1 level later than usual. Don’t forget to narrate the enduring mark now visible on the target of your attack after you hit.
Web/Tentacles + Clouds + Walls:
Web/Tentacles will dramatically slow, if not stop, your foes in place. Stinking/Poison cloud will force saves each round against very nasty effects. Wall can create a physical barrier blocking or controlling your foes movement. Imagine dropping a Tentacles on your target, then Walling a serpentine around them so they have to complete a tiny tentacle maze, and then drop a cloud so they’re barfing or getting dissolved the whole time. This is a big expenditure of spells for a single combat, especially if you put up defensives too, but they aint never getting outta that cringe-tier labyrinth. This kind of combo doesn’t have to be all you either, any other caster could complement with their own spells.
BlackBlade, Arcane Pool, BlackBlade Arcane Pool, and Arcane Strike:
Being both a single-hander and a ¾ BAB class we would straight up suck if all we had was a typical weapon acquired through level-appropriate fortune. Our blackblade is automatically a magic weapon for free and grows as we do for free. Our arcane pool lets us spend a point to add even more magical enhancement to that which grows by level. Our blackblade has its own very tiny arcane pool which only adds damage to our weapon and confusion about what ability is what but, since we will hardly ever get to 2hand, damage sources are essential. Arcane Strike is yet another source of damage that costs a swift action. Cumulatively we should be nearly on-par with most primary melee but our desired targets should have lower AC anyway which will feel very nice when rolling attacks (not for our targets, they’ll feel awful). The biggest benefit of all may be the additional wealth that we save on a weapon and can put toward Armor or STR and INT items.
Images + displacement:
These two stack! I had originally misunderstood how a lot of things worked so I was trying to use ghost touch to let us combo Blink with greater invis and images while mitigating the drawbacks but that doesn’t work. Invis and Displacement don’t stack, Images and Invis don’t stack, Blink stacks with everything but the drawbacks are harsh, Images and Displacement are really the only thing that stacks reliably and without issue so that’s gonna be our thing. Theres a 1 in (total images) chance to be hit, and then a 50% chance to still not be hit and, ideally, the things we’re hoping to be in the face of aren’t that dangerous to us anyway. This defensive combo should do fine for when we do have to get deep in it.
Caster Killing:
Our tools for this are Readying actions, Step Up, Lingering Pain, Disruptive, SpellBreaker, Combat Reflexes, Teleport Tactician, Planar Hunter, and Reflection. Our best universal tactic will be to move to the enemy rear and threaten something with spellcasting or, at least, ranged attacks. Once we get there, we have a choice: focus exclusively on shutting down the caster or split our efforts between battlefield control and caster molestation. We don’t have any specialized tools for this before level 5 but there aren’t many caster enemies in the low levels anyway and the simple readied action to attack should suffice. Note that you are allowed to take a 5ft step with your readied action so just by readying you can kinda simulate the effects of step-up before you get it.
Once level 5 and 6 hit you’ll no longer want to ready an action because you can just spell combat and full attack spending an extra arcane pool to apply lingering pain if you hit. This will force the same concentration check that readying would have and you get to cast a spell too which gives that you battlefield control opportunity. You can still follow with step-up if they 5ft away continuing to threaten so they still have to cast defensively and that’s hard due to disruptive but, honestly, the lingering pain check will probably be harder. Before level 9 you’ll have to be cheap with your attacks of opportunity because disruptive only applies when you threaten and you only threaten when you still have AOO’s in your turn. Level 9 brings combat reflexes, so you don’t have to hold back on the AOO’s, and spellbreaker for another chance to trigger an AOO when they cast a spell. Teleport Tactician and Planar Hunter by level 12 work together to prevent escapes even when they manage to make their concentration checks. Finally Reflection lets us turn back anything a caster might try to use against us and, believe me, the enemy casters will use everything they’ve got once they realize you’re a threat. I should make a flowchart but.. nah. Oh yea… and we get +1 to hit them from our racial alternate Mage-Hunter!
Long Arm and Unarmed Strike:
When an NPC disrespects you, you cast long arm so your hand stretches out to 10ft. Wind that sucker wayyyy back and let loose the biggest bitch slap the party has ever seen!
Alternatives
Extra Arcana is a feat that lets us take another arcana. Our blackblade replaced our first arcana but we can’t spellstrike with arcane mark then we still need one so we’re taking this feat so that we can have the Close Range Arcana. Close range will allow us to use ranged touch spells as touch spells which means we can spellstrike with them. This is, obviously, useful with spells like ray of enfeeblement but what we really want to use it for is acid splash and ray of frost- the cantrips. We can spellstrike all day with those cantrips just to have a 2nd chance to hit and it does add a wee bit o extra damage.
Riving Strike slaps a -2 penalty to saves vs spells on anything you deal your arcane strike damage to. I wish we could take this early in the build… like level 3 early… but that’s how it is. I feel like feats should be given at every single level or at least everyone should get one at level 2, or maybe 2 feats at level 1. Maybe I’ll try that in my next campaign because I feel like I have to cut a whole goal out of every build and its very disappointing- except that then I get to make a whole ‘nother character around it and get more ideas and cut more out and have to make more characters and! Woah! Easy there mr. gobbo… gotta stop somewhere.
Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Falcata. Most magus go scimitar or rapier so they can crit with intensified shocking grasp and deal many d6’s but spellstrike only doubles on a crit so weapons like battleaxe or pick typically aren’t used. We, being STR based and bladebound, are able to add a ton of bonus damage to our weapon. Tripling that damage could be pretty awesome. Just to showcase: if we take this feat at 3rd then by 4th level our blackblade could easily do 1d8+8 fully enhanced (1d8+1 base, +3 STR, +2 arcane pool, +2 blackblade arcane pool) and on a 3x crit that’s 3d8+24. A regular magus only gets excited when their spellstrike crits but we could get stoked for all crits and spellstriking really just gives us more chances to crit. Most reasonable to take at 3rd level when you get the blackblade.
Extra Arcane Pool is an amazing feat. There’s so much you can do with arcane pool just from the baseline class abilities to add flexibility and many of the arcana add even more options. The blade bound archetype reduces our arcane pool a bit so having those extra points really helps. This is good at any level in place of anything else you’re not interested in. If your GM lets you apply it to your blackblade’s arcane pool instead of your own that’s even better because its arcane pool is very small.
Weaknesses
This is a new section i’m adding to my builds. We try our best to shore up weaknesses and do our job well but, especially in cases like this, we’re so hyper-specialized that we’ll have some difficulties even in our general role as a striker.
Low arcane Pool and additional abilities that cost arcane pool will result in us not being able to provide some of the things a magus normally brings like spell-utility and a big burst damage.
Shutdown is less effective against non-caster ranged like archers. We’ll have to use spells to effectively lock them down which means we’ll have to focus solely on the backline and sacrifice our 2-fold strategy of attacking backline while still supporting frontline.
We can only shutdown one caster at a time (maybe 2 if they foolishly stay within reach of long-arm) so if there are multiple casters they can just focus fire and bone us. We do have decent escape options that they can’t really stifle but then we’re not doing our job anymore which feels dooky.
We have only 1 AOO at low levels so we may need to pass some up, if triggered by movement, in order to continue to threaten and apply disruptive or save the AOO for if/when they cast.
Roleplay
Ropach was imagined to be a part of a persistent adventuring group which acts as a cell of this space-demon cult. If in his own group there would be a specific dynamic but that’s something I’d rather get into with a whole post dedicated to that cult. For now, lets just assume that he’s on special assignment joining the party in your campaign gathering info on or exploring some obscure lead related to the space-demon’s scattered remains. His charisma should be low so he should, indeed, seem a bit sus’ around your own party’s other spellcasters- not hostile, just odd. He might be caught creepin on watch, maybe go through their stuff (not stealing, just checking), and borderline interrogate them to see if they know anything that could help his lead. This is actually a great motivation to present your fellow players with opportunities for background exposition; something that happens all too rarely player to player. Maybe ask your DM to plant a seed with the other players that advances your story and involves them too- all the better if it leads to an eventual conflict of interests because ropach is, in fact, evil.
Ropach should begin play with no reason to wish harm upon his party, but such reason could develop if he believes they’ll end up somehow interfering with his mission. Don’t get it twisted! He may not be exactly loyal but he is fully committed and expects the party to be his best bet on getting close to powerful spellcasters or sites which hold the secrets he seeks. He will make the effort to integrate into the party just as someone would who liked being in the party. The only difference is that, for him, its about doing his job.
If you’re willing to do a voice I originally used a monotone non-cartoonish slightly Austrian accent (a la terminator but toned down). Anything almost robotic in its unemotiveness will work but, of course, he’s not a robot and he does know social ques so keep it somewhat natural. He speaks clearly, succinctly, and fully pronounces the syllables that most typically concatenate or drop. He also has a brief throaty stop before each word that begins with a vowel as if vowel words started with an ‘apostrophe. Ropach never gets angry or frustrated; he simply adapts to new developments so he’s actually quite easy to get along with. He also never complains- he has very minimal needs and you would never know if his needs weren’t met but he will be vocal about anything important to the success of the adventure.
Once you acquire the blackblade…
It is not villainous and has no interest in typical evil things like dominance and inflicting suffering though it does seem to enjoy when foes experience fear. It is but a shard of the great creature it was sundered from so its personality, though for different reasons, mirrors ropach’s own in lack of apparent emotion. The BlackBlade is what will urge ropach to perform socially unacceptable and likely unnecessary acts in pursuit of absolute certainty regarding any leads. It will allow ropach to leave no stone unturned, perhaps even to the point of absurdity, and this is where it and ropach clash. Ropach’s practical and efficient methods would prefer to ignore avenues that are unlikely to achieve results while the blackblade is concerned that they might miss an important detail or hidden clue- Itculixti cannot allow this. The quest for the shards ought to be undertaken by an army of thousands but he has only 1 hobgoblin to do all the work. The blade may be frustratingly persistent, but it is not impatient or antagonistic.
Some good roleplay topics might be to approach your fellow party members saying “my sword wishes to know more of your family history” or “my sword wishes to read your spellbook and I think it’s a good idea.” If your party’s primary caster takes a big hit, maybe approach them after the battle, callously wipe some of their blood across the blackblade, then ask the blade “was that educational?” Perhaps, instead of rifling through your caster’s things you could just shove your blackblade into their bag of holding for a minute. If confronted, just say “it wanted to have a look around.”