I really, really liked the look of this base mechanic, so I decided to dig deeper and see what I could come up with. Instead of spellstrike, it gets the ability to “charmstrike,” which allows it to cast a 1 st-level spell as a swift action whenever a foe fails a saving throw that the puppetmaster casts.

Among other things, it loses the ability to enhance its weapon, gains bard AND magus spells, and doesn’t have spellstrike. This archetype focuses rather heavily on trading out the high-damage output of the magus for more subtle magics. With this in mind, I found an archetype that REALLY intrigued me-the puppetmaster magus from Pathfinder Player Companion: Arcane Anthology. The first thing that I knew about this build was that I wanted to be a magus, and more specifically, I wanted to be a magus that played drastically differently from the stereotypical “shocking grasp gatling gun” magus that you always see. Magus Arcana: flamboyant arcana (3 rd), arcane deed: menacing swordplay (6 th), hasted assault (9 th), critical strike (12 th).Abilities: arcane pool (3 + Int +2), charmstrike (2 nd level), improved spell recall, knowledge pool, puppet combat, spell recall, the show must go on.Feats: Weapon Finesse (1 st), Trick Spell (3 rd), Piranha Strike (Bonus), Spell Focus: enchantment (5 th), Greater Spell Focus: enchantment (7 th), Conceal Spell (9 th), Weapon Focus: short sword (Bonus), Extra Arcane Pool (11 th).Why not invite it again?Īny information important to understanding the build or its roots goes here. Probably because they know the Internet will tear down their livelihoods. So, why DOESN’T anyone try to build the magi different? Even with archetypes, its one build that basically does the same trick over and over again, despite having a spell list that rivals the wizard’s in utility. However, it really got me thinking about the magus class-you don’t really SEE varied builds with that class. So I was sitting at Redcaps Corner for PFS on Tuesday, and my three-man party consisted of myself (a flying blade / weapon master swashbuckler) and two magi.

Wayang spellhunter and shoacking grasp