Curse Blade (Magus)
When I see the magus, I think of a heavily armored knight charging into battle with spell and sword, which seem to pretty much be the idea. However, I have always been something of a traditionalist, and when I remember rolling multiclass fighter mages back in the day, I just think all that heavy armor getting in the way. Thus, when I was looking to make a new magus archetype, I thought of making something who wears a little less armor and that idea snowballed into a more subtle kind of magus. This is the curse blade, a graceful combatant who uses powerful supernatural and magical curses to cripple his foes before wrecking them with the normal one-two punch of spell and blade.
New Magus Archetype
Curse Blade
Some magi prefer to wade directly into the heat of a conflict, confident in their heavy arms and armor and using blasts of arcane energies to scatter their foes, but these lack the temperament to be a curse blade. The rare magus that chooses this path forsakes such blunt means of accomplishing his tasks, preferring instead to master the graceful art of swordplay and enhance it with subtle magic, diminishing his enemies’ ability to fight as the battle continues. This mastery of graceful fighting and subtle curse makes curse blades deadly and unpredictable combatants.
Proficiencies: A curse blade is not proficient with any type of armor or shield.
Spells: A curse blade treats all sorcerer/wizard spells of 3rd level or lower that have the curse, fear, or pain descriptor as magus spells, and can add them to his spellbook. For this purpose, the magus spell level of such spells it is equal to the sorcerer/wizard level of the spell.
This ability modifies the spells class feature.
Curse Strike (Ex): At 2nd level, curse blade is capable of delivering certain spells with his melee weapon. Whenever a curse blade casts a spell with the curse, fear, or pain descriptor, he can deliver that spell with a successful melee attack. If he does, he makes one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If the attack is a miss, the spell is wasted. If the attack hits, it deals damage as normal and has the same effect as the spell, except that it only affects the target of the melee attack, and the target suffers a –1 penalty on her saving throw against the spell.
This ability replaces the spellstrike class feature.
Graceful Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, a curse blade learns how to enhance his weapon using his arcane energies to deliver graceful deadly blows. As long as he has at least 1 point in his arcane pool, a curse blade adds his Dexterity modifier (in addition to his Strength modifier) to damage dealt with one-handed weapons. Additionally, by spending 1 point from his arcane pool, he can add his Intelligence modifier to all weapon damage rolls for 1 round.
This ability replaces the magus arcana gained at 3rd level.
Curse of Hungry Blades (Su): At 7th level, the curse blade learns to curse a foe so that swords find her heart more easily. Whenever the curse blade uses his spell combat ability, instead of casting a spell, the curse blade can expend a single prepared spell of 2nd level or higher in order curse a character within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the curse blade’s level + the curse blade’s Intelligence modifier) or suffer a –2 penalty to AC for as long as the curse blade can see the target, and for 1 minute thereafter. Additionally, during this time all critical hits against the target are automatically confirmed.
This ability replaces the medium armor class feature.
Curse of Withering Body (Su): At 13th level, the curse blade learns to curse a foe to lose strength of the body. Whenever the curse blade uses his spell combat ability, instead of casting a spell, he can expend a single spell slot of 4th level or higher in order to curse a character within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the curse blade’s level + the curse blade’s Intelligence modifier) or suffer a -4 penalty to all of her physical ability score for as long as the curse blade can see them, and for 1 minute thereafter.
This ability replaces the heavy armor class feature.
Curse of the Empty Mind (Su): At 19th level, the curse blade can shatter the minds of those he curses. Whenever the curse blade uses his spell combat ability, instead of casting a spell, he can expend a single spell slot of 6th level in order to curse a character within 30 feet. As long as the curse blade can see the target and for 1 minute thereafter, the target must succeed on a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the curse blade’s level + the curse blade’s Intelligence modifier) each round or be unable to take any action.
This ability replaces the greater spell access class feature.