I am glad I'm not the only person who thought the Magus having one fate was some sort of typo! I think the ability to initiate psychic combat and one more fate would probably fix him IMO.

As for spells, I will have to agree with the Warlock on this one. Mostly because you can ruin someone's day from long range without having to hunt them down.

The Elf I think should be able to teleport to any woods, although that may be too powerful considering the Woodlands.

Am I the only person to find the Philosopher to be rather underwhelming?

Am I the only person to find the Philosopher to be rather underwhelming?

I think the same as you. His abilities are interesting but difficult to put to good use. He can cycle Spells better than anybody else, but he has no way to gain Spells regularly. A Spellbook can fix his problem, but as Uvatha said a trip to the City can solve anybody's problem.

Replacing known cards with unknown ones is risky and it's useful only when you don't have any other option Otherwise, it can be used to remove a card that will benefit others but not the Philosopher. A very situational ability.

Moreover, he's Neutral and gets neither free healing at the Chapel, nor free fate at the Graveyard. I saw him winning a couple of times, but only because the player was very lucky with card drawing. He almost didn't use his abilities.

It could be nice to open a new thread just to discuss the 61 characters published so far by FFG. It has been done a lot of times over the years, but there's less feedback about the recent expansions.

It could be nice to open a new thread just to discuss the 61 characters published so far by FFG. It has been done a lot of times over the years, but there's less feedback about the recent expansions.

Get to it .

As for the Magus maybe a increase in Fate from 1 to 3 might be a good answer.

He's basically the Craft version of the Gladiator. Much like the Necromancer is the Craft version of the Ogre Chieftain.

I don't get why his Fate is so low either.

If you look at the Wizard, and give the Magus Psychic Combat, Then you have roughly the same character except.

Magus has 1 less craft and 2 Less Fate.

The Magus gets the follower ability.

The Wizard starts with one more spell.

Justification to why the Magus should have psychic combat? The Necromancer has it, I guess.

Giving the Magus a Destiny would make me pick him every game.

I also don't think he's the worst character, because he does have spell draw. While I don't think spell draw is as overpowered as people give it credit for, I do think it is a top of the line ability and it also makes for fun games. As Warlock says characters are built around it.

Which is why I don't think the magus is a bottom line pick.

People love the Minstrel. LOVE him. I like Fate 5 characters, but not when they are Good alignment and the rest of what he does is not for me. To me, He's a bottom line pick. I will take the Magus over him, as much as Fate 1 hurts.

Though our table plays with Draw three, so if I draw both of them, chances are I'm playing the third option

Magus is great character with the City expansion. Spell draw generates gold, gold generates wins.

Magus is great character with the City expansion. Spell draw generates gold, gold generates wins.

The city give advantages to every character its not like the Magus is the only charater that can enter?

Magus vs Wizard I think is the best comparison.

I'd rather have the Wizard every time. They're very similar characters, but the Wizard's ability to fight in psychic combat is generally more useful than getting better in psychic combat that you can't start. Add in his terrible Fate and lower stats and the Wizard blows him out of the water imo.

Death Knight and Monk are kind of in the same boat, though there are a lot of cool weapons and armor nowadays so the Monk's drawback is actually a drawback - as opposed to the days of Sword, Axe, Runesword, Holy Lance - oh no I can't get +1 to my attacks, I'll have to settle for this free Psionic Blast every turn. Also Armor NEVER works anyway (I swear we actually are stunned anytime it works for anyone in a game, if it happens twice we declare witchcraft).

Magus should be able to fight in Psychic Combat. Then he would be powerful and deserving of his low Fate. As it is, you basically want to head to the City ASAP and get yourself the wand or whatever that lets you do it so you have a complete character. I mean you can't count on drawing followers to begin with, but I have seen him become insane when he does get them, followed by a trip to the Dungeon to vaporize the end guy and head to the end.

A Destiny would be too good, but I think if you REALLY feel the need to buff him, let him initiate Psychic Combat. Now he's fine, really good even, maybe even a little too good, instead of a crappier Wizard.

Edit: All that said, I'd love to hear a defense of the Priest. He's bad at everything. Oh no weapons because killing a Spirit with a Craft character is totally equal to a permanent Psionic Blast. His only prayer (/rimshot) is to get to the Middle and camp the Temple, because he's terrible at everything.

I don't own Sacred Pool so I've never got a chance to play with the Magus, but I've never understood why so much hate for the this character. He seems ok to me.

Following ShivaX's comparison, he's less reliable than the Wizard is, because you can't actually choose to draw Followers, while the Wizard immediatly benefits from his higher Craft, Fate, and ability to attack in psychic combat. However, if he does get his hands on some Followers, I think his ability makes him better than the Wizard, especially if you play with the Dungeon or Highland Regions, or random endings (that extra attack in psychic combat means you can head to the Crown of Command sooner even if you know some final boss could come up).

If you have gold, you might be able to buy some Mules eventually.

I think people should focus on what character can do, instead of what they can't. Just because the Magus has a bonus in psychic combat, it doesn't mean he's bad because he can't start one with other characters. Just because the Necromancer has starting Spells and a pointy hat, it doesn't mean he's bad because he can't gain new Spells. This kind of criticism has nothing to do with how the characters work.

The Necromancer is completely different than the Wizard though.

The Magus is very similar to the Wizard. They have the same core ability. One gets better stats and the ability to fight in psychic combat. He CAN be a powerhouse as far as going for a win via Dungeon or the like, but that requires Followers.

I've never seen him be very effective. He's not the worst thing in the world (I reserve that for the Ghoul and Priest), but he's very bland and usually not much of a threat on the table. The Wizard might gank a high Strength character, or kill off a Warhorse in Psychic Combat. The Magus... is just there. He's not that great in PvE or PvP, unlike say the Gladiator is far more effective with an inverse ability - because most fights are Strength, he starts with a 5 iirc and he can maul other characters once he gets rolling.

At the end of the day he's not terrible because always having a spell is a good ability. He just gets penalized for having a mediocre at best second ability for some reason. I really does feel like they stopped half way on him and he was supposed to have Psychic Combat and then in playtesting it was too much so they cut it out, but didn't adjust his other stats accordingly.

The Magus is very similar to the Wizard.

But they aren't, they are just both spellcyclers.

The Wizard is PvP focused. His main advantage is that he can attack both with Strength and Craft, and he has high starting Craft, so he's pretty much garanteed to start with a +1 advantage against any other player in the very worst case scenario.

The Magus is PvE focused. His advantage is that he can gain Craft trophies more easily and can rush to defeat the Eagle King or the Lord of Darkness. And his only disadvantage is erased if you play with the City expansion: you can buy Followers at the Menagerie and the Stables.

This is why I say I feel like you guys aren't focusing on what he can do, instead of what you think he should do. Giving him the ability to attack other players in psychic combat turns him in a completely different character, it doesn't really play with this character's strengths.

Besides, if you gave him that ability, then he would just turn into an improved version of the Wizard, same abilities plus Follower bonus.

This is why I say I feel like you guys aren't focusing on what he can do, instead of what you think he should do. Giving him the ability to attack other players in psychic combat turns him in a completely different character, it doesn't really play with this character's strengths.

Besides, if you gave him that ability, then he would just turn into an improved version of the Wizard, same abilities plus Follower bonus.

This is well written. It's true that having psychic combat seems a bit "natural" if you compare the Magus with the Gladiator, but it will make him a Wizard with a less effective Spell cycling ability and a great focus on Craft PvP. Probably the designers thought this was required not to make the character too powerful if compared to the base set ones, which is a postulate that has often been disregarded throughout the expansions.

The same "obsession" for balance encompasses all Sacred Pool characters: the Cleric received a life value of 3, the Chivalric Knight cannot attack weaker characters and the Dread Knight has miserable fate value, considering how easily he can lose the Warhorse.

The Magus probably lacks only 1 or 2 more points to his fate value.

Right... Magus hmmm get gold buy followers "before anyone else" run around fight the Eagle King or the Lord of Darkness in psychic combat... Preatty lame as characters go.

Alot of "If's" there indeed but he can do it.. Not well but he can. Still can be a well better designed character and still the worse in the game.