Spellcasters and swordswingers rejoice, you don’t have to choose between the two anymore!

In this week’s update I present the first 5 levels of the magus class. Like the early draft of the scholar we revealed last month, the magus is still in development and may change quite a bit from today’s version. If I finish it at all! That’s not to say it’s unlikely the magus will see a final version it’s just to say that as I work on the next round of the scholar and the magus I will probably start to focus on just one of the two for the next couple months.

The magus is the Sterling Vermin Adventuring Co.’s attempt at a pretty popular concept, an adventurer who mixes martial prowess with magical talent. You can play it using the Player’s Handbook with the Eldritch Knight archetype for fighter, using the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide with the Bladesinging Arcane Tradition for wizard, or using one of the 6 billion homebrew and 3rd party versions available on the internet. Given that there are so many versions out there a case could be made that another version is just unnecessary.

What the magus does that other versions of the concept don’t do is broadens the concept out to be more inclusive. D&D 5e classes do a great job of covering really broad strokes that can then be refined into compelling archetypes with…err…archetypes. The magus’ archetypes define the type of magic they use allowing players to be a more traditional arcane spell casting sword mage or replicating 4th editions seeker class with druidic magic, bow, and arrows. Between a magus’ Eldritch Society, which determines the magic they practice, and Martial Magic Style, which determines their combat style of choice, the magus class can hold a lot of different character concepts normally unavailable in the swordmage concept.

With that out of the way, check it out!

the Magus, Early Draft

UPDATE: the Magus Class Now Available on the DM’s Guild

If you’re interested in following along with edits as they occur throughout the next week, check out the thread on the Magus at our subreddit.

/r/sterlingvermin the Magus, Early Draft