Magus - Arcane Weapon Enchantment is incredibly strong

[Xerand]

(I have the game on GoG) Well, I didn't really notice it before, but it is spelled out right in the abillity description too. So, I just hit level 5, and got second level of it. I was suprised and shocked how strong this abillity is practically from the start.

To explain. You gain overall 5 general points in this abillity on Level 20 (the overall abillity still costs only 1 Arcana Point). You can use them to Enchant your weapon to plus +5 (considering normal mundane one). Those upgrades do stack, so if you have a Scimitar +1 and use Enchantment with +2 it will result in Scimitar +3 (although I think +5 is a maximum one).

On Magus Level 5 however it gets interesting. Now you can add Magical Attributes to it. Things like Keen - increased weapon threat range (more crits, but doesn't stack with Improved Critical) or Fire (+1d6 of fire damage, there is also Shocking and Frost enchantment, and from what I've seen they stack. this damage also ignores physical damage reduction). Any of this upgrades detracts 1 point from general 5 points of this abillity (you have 2 general points on Level 5). So yes from Level 5 you can suddenly have, AT WILL I may add, a weapon that is Keen and have elemental damage bonus. The only prerequisite is that this weapon must be at least +1. You can't add Magical Attributes to a mundane weapon (you can upgrade it with your Arcane Wapon Enchantment to +1 giving it at the same time one of the attributes though). I would like to remind that the overall abillity - Arcane Weapon Enchantment still costs only 1 Arcana point

If that wasn't enough, there are also Magus Arcanas (on a side notion, one of those Arcanas is At Will Self-Haste O_O....) that can modify it, like giving better and stronger magical attributes (although, I don't know if they still cost only 1 general point). Plus there are two that caught my eyes. One is Enduring Blade. For 1 bonus Arcana Point you can prolong the Enchantment duration to, I think, 1 minute per Magus level + Intelligence modifier. It can easily mean more than 10 minutes duration. Another is Bane Weapon (I think). For another 1 Arcana Point you can add a Bane special abillity to the weapon (from what I've read it is + to attack and damage against specified type of enemies, something along the lines of Favoured Enemy of Ranger. Normally it would be hard to choose, but since you almost always cast Arcane Weapon Enchantment before a fight...). And from what I know they also stack...

So, to conclude, on the higher levels you can AT WILL enchant your weapon (assuming the weapon itself is already pretty good magical one) to the monstrosities like Bane of the Demons (or any other type of Enemy), Keen, Shocking, Fire, Frost, Fast Scimitar +5 of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DOOOM and have it for a looong time.

[Pan Kromka]

Yes

[Nachtmeister]

None of this is "At-will"!
Perhaps you mean as a "Swift Action"? - "At will" in D&D/Pathfinder means endless charges and can theoretically be kept up 24/7 if you are so inclined. The Magus's Arcane Pool has daily charges that can and will run out.

[Frostfeather]

Just wait until you try it with Elemental Barrage in Wrath...

[Steffan]

Regongar is incrediby powerful too. Spells make him tanky and he can make some of his attacks as either touch or to deprive his enemies from their dex bonus (think of Will O'Wisps)

[Xerand]

Originally posted by Nachtmeister:

None of this is "At-will"!
Perhaps you mean as a "Swift Action"? - "At will" in D&D/Pathfinder means endless charges and can theoretically be kept up 24/7 if you are so inclined. The Magus's Arcane Pool has daily charges that can and will run out.

It was just a figure of speech :) I meant that it's pretty much free, without much restrictions and very fast to boot. I am aware of intricacies of all the different types of actions and resource managment

[Doombringer]

Bane ability in this game is vs all enemies.
It is really funny on the Eldritch Archer with hellfire rays.
You can Hellfire Rays with ranged spellstrike and it adds 2d6 to each damage packet, hellfire rays is 3 rays which each do 50% fire and 50% unholy, so 6 damage packets per cast.
And you can use the quicken ability to cast twice per round, so bane weapon adds 24d6 to spells that round, in addition to what is adds to weapon attacks...