Ultimate Options: New Magus Arcana by Super Genius Games

This product is 7 pages long. It starts with a cover and forward. (1 pages)

New Magus Arcana (3 pages) This section has new Arcana. Arcane Critical – gain arcane points on crits. Arcane Focus – reduces the penalty to attack rolls when casting in combat. Critical Spell – can make a free melee attack when a spell scores a critical Elemental Assault – imbues herself with spell of same name. Enduring Arcane – makes bonuses to weapons last longer Enduring Warding – makes bonuses to armor last longer Enruned Dagger – can place a rune on a light weapon that can be used in place of a somatic part of casting. Enruned Great Weapon – same as dagger but works on two handed weapons. Enruned Shield – same as enruned dagger. Force Magic Device – gain bonus to UMD skill. Greater versions of Enduring Arcane, Warding, Enruned Dagger, Greater Weapon and Shield. Better versions of the same abilities. Harmonic Blending – can add some bard spells to her list. Heroic Assault – can get benefits of heroism spell. Imbue Spell – can in short cast a spell not memorized. It says can cast a spell of equal level or higher level as the one used to imbue. I am guessing that is suppose to equal or lower level. Invisible Assault – become invis for a bit. Jinx Blending – can add witch spells to her list. Mounted Assault – summons a phantom stead and Magus starts mounted... weird but neat. Piercing Strike – gains a bonus to overcome SR Protected Assault – as a swift action can gets benefits like from protection from evil etc. Resistant Assault – can protect herself from one type of energy. Split Arcana – when using arcane pool to add bonuses can split them between two weapons. Staff Mastery – can use arcana that help with casting a spell to apply to magic from a staff. Versatile Combatant – gain access to a feat they don't have. Wand Lord – can make spells cast from a wand cast at a higher level. Warding – can as a swift action enchant their armor. Weapon Diligence – gains concentration checks with a single weapon.

New Archetypes (2 pages) Arcane Lord – can give up spells for arcana points Cabalist – gains spells like a bard instead and gets some bloodline powers. Magavan – uses the bard spell list and gains lore strike. Tovenaar – blends inquisitor with a magus.

It ends with a OGL and credits. (1 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work is color and pretty good. Editing and layout was good. I will admit I have not heavily studied the Magus class yet so I am not sure how well the abilities with in stack up balance wise. Most of the abilities make sense and fill in niches. They are well written and seem well done and balanced against each other. But none of them really blew me away either. Most of them was... yeah ok that makes sense, or that’s kinda cool. In short just not up to the normal impressive innovative level I expect from SGG. Good, very good even, just not great. So what's my rating? I am going to settle on a 4 star review.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.

As this product's "blurb" says, the warrior-mage turns up far more often in fantasy fiction than he does at the gaming table. This is partly due to the tendency for most systems to focus on being either a spell-caster or a sword-swinger, with cababilities in one or both having to be sacrified in an attempt to multi-class your way into the sort of character that you want to play. The recent publication of Ultimate Magic in the Pathfinder core line has begun to rectify this with the Magus class, although he's envisaged as being with a sword in one hand and a spell in mind. So, here is a short work jam-packed with ideas for how to make your Magus into your own idea of a warrior-mage, one who will hopefully be the subject of many a bard's song...

Material is presented as two aspects. Firstly there is a collection of new arcana, the arcane secrets that are the specialty of the Magus class. There's a wide variety, enabling all manner of enhancement to weapons including a neat one which allows you to pre-load a spell with a range of 'touch' into a weapon when preparing for the day, and then expend it at will... and use any spell, with certain limitations, each day you choose to use this arcana. Another enables the magus to use any feat for which he qualifies, but does not have, for a set period, another handy little ability.

The second part is a selection of new archetypes, building on all the new arcana. Like those presented in Ultimate Magic, an archetype must be chosen at first level, and it is an all-or-nothing package deal. There are some interesting ideas here. A Cabalist, for example, draws on inherent power rather than study to cast spells, acting more like a sorcerer who can fight than the warrior-wizard most Magus characters are. Those who value the finder side of life might prefer the Magavan, who specialises in social and divination spells and is well-suited to the role of Court Magician or diplomatic service.

If the Magus interests you, there are some interesting additional concepts to consider here. GMs will find material of use, I'm sure an NPC Magavan or two will soon be hanging around seats of power in my games...