MeatForTheGrinder's page

I would argue that the reduction of a penalty is a bonus. I originally thought otherwise, but my DM convinced me when I tried to take two traits that both reduced armor check penalty and was told "bonuses from the same source don't stack".

I think the distinction between something beneficial and a bonus lies in the ability to be numerically quantifiable. If something says "you can do this special thing" it is a benefit. If it says "you can do this thing with this number added or subtracted" it is a bonus.

I'm fairly sure that the Black Blade upgrades without the need for the player to spend gold on the purchase the new abilities. This weapon is more of a familiar than a weapon in that respect. Otherwise, there would be very little point to it, since you could simply not take the archetype and purchase a magic weapon in the standard method, and gain full Arcane Pool progression.

The description of Black Blade does state that the weapon is a masterwork weapon for everyone but the magus. It also lacks the language that Arcane Pool has that allows bonuses to stack. Since it is a MW weapon, it could be used as a sword by anyone for the standard purposes of a weapon. This should include being enchanted by someone that can craft magic weapons. I would argue that if this was done, the enhancement bonus gained would not stack with the innate enhancement bonus of the weapon gained by the magus (but would still function normally with Arcane Pool enhancements). I guess if you paid for a +1 and then added additional abilities, you could let those abilities stack. In most cases, I'm guessing character wealth's limits would very probably mean that the weapon's innate enhancement in the hands of the magus would be better than the crafted bonus, and lead to no gain.

For example, a level 5 magus has a +2 innate enhancement on his Black Blade. He could have the blade enhanced to a +1 Agile weapon for the standard cost. When anyone else wields the weapon, it is a +1 Agile, but in his hands the larger innate +2 would override and the weapon would be +2 Agile. This would still stack with Arcane Pool weapon enhancements, but you still need to observe the +10 rule (max +10 effective level on any magic weapon).

Although it is debatable that it is RAI legal, I would argue that it is a waste of character wealth anyway for someone who can customize weapon qualities such as a magus.

I wanted to see how hard it was to get 32 AC with a level 4 Monk. Other people have posted builds since I started, but I did my build without much gear. This how I got there:

+8 combined Wis and Dex to AC (not hard)
+1 Dodge [L1 bonus feat]
+1 Monk AC [L4]
+2 Fighting Defensively (-4 attack)
+1 Crane style [L1 feat] (+2 back to attack)*
+1 3 ranks in Acrobatics*
+2 Barkskin [Qinggong, L4]
+1 Bracers of Armor (1000g)
+1 Blocking weapon
+4 Monk ki point used each round

+22 AC total (* activates off of fighting defensively)

Getting to this AC requires casting Barkskin (1 ki) before combat or as a first action. You would then need a swift action to pump AC each round (1 ki). This could be maintained for only 5 rounds per day at level 4 with an 18 Wisdom (6 ki pool). You would also need to become proficient in the blocking weapon wielded, perhaps via Hierloom Weapon trait. Monk of the Four Winds could be used to gain Elemental Fist, so that it would scale.

I don't really see this as being extremely munchkin. You do need to start with one 18, and one 17 that goes to 18 at 4. It only needs a single 1000 gold item (1/6th of WBL, so you can get that Agile AoMF). It even has one unused feat and one unused bonus feat.

Not used but considered:
Ring of Protection +1 (2000g)
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (2000g, does not stack with Barkskin)
Tiefling +2 Natural Armor via feat
Size +1 to AC (obviously, not usable with Tiefling)
Combat Expertise +1 to AC with trait to remove -1 to hit.
other feats

Damage for the build above would depend on the other feats and gear, but would have 1d8+str base, with +1d6 Elemental Fist on a few attacks. Attack bonus would be somewhat weak, but maybe your guy picked up Weapon Finesse?

At level 4 my Tiefling Magus with Dervish Dance has a base AC of 21: Mithril Shirt +1, a Ring of Protection +1, Natural Armor +1, +4 Dex bonus to AC. I also have a Wand of Shield, so 15g per use to go to AC 25 for 10 rounds. The Mithril Shirt allows for up to 6 Dex to AC, so my own Cat's Grace adds in to take me to 27 AC fully buffed, while also adding to +2 to hit, damage, and initiative. Saves are +6 Fort, +5 Ref (+7 buffed), +5 Will.

If I had a Strength based build instead of Dexterity build I could instead have a Mithril Breastplate on at my current level with no armor check due to the Armor Master traits reduction to ACP, but it caps Dexterity to AC at 4 and I wanted to make best use of the Cat's Grace buff.

I've already got the DM approval to add Celestial Armor as a template to a Breastplate (compared to chain it allows for 1 more Dex to AC, one less ACP). Upon acquiring a Celestial Breastplate I would theoretically have AC 33 or so with buffs and a new Dex belt: +5 armor with +3 enhancement bonus, +5 Dex base, +2 Dex belt, +2 Dex cat's grace, +4 shield spell, +1 natural AC, +1 ring of protection. Upgrades to natural armor amulet and ring could push that up a bit more for not too much extra cash.

For Ale and Whores!

Overly Optimized Outsiders (Tiefling and Aasimar)

The Atta Boys

Negative Perception (works in at least two ways)

Any class with Summon Monster IV on the class spell list and wand with a single charge (420g?). Dexterity, Improved Initiative, and Reactionary to go first. Use the wand to summon something appropriate, then run. Come back later to claim victory and spoils.

The Back-up Characters
What's a THACO?
The Dump Stats
Face and the Meatshields
Attacking the Darkness
Godmode (all divine casters and paladins and such)
Kneehigh Coolguys (all small races)
Evocation 101
The Grassy Gnolls

Wizards not being able to cast healing spells.

Which I think is just fine.
But I'm an "old guard" D&D player (almost 30 years now).

Infernal Healing on a Magus is fun. Until my DM ruled that the evil descriptor would taint my soul, and be readily observable as such while casting. Oh well.

I think he meant that the best armor in the game that can be theorized by combining existing items and templates. Otherwise, yeah, I've gotta give it to the awesomesauceness plate.

Bloody (50% health or less) is a 4th edition state that I personally think was a good idea.

Going up against skeletons at level 1 with a character who is not trained in religion I continued to use my scimitar to hack away at them, knowing full well that my attacks were going against DR/bludgeoning. This just seems like good roleplay to me. It was up to my DM to share the information that my attacks seemed less effective than expected, which he did. "You cut hard into the femur bone and leave barely a scratch." On a 7 damage swing I got "Your blade bites into the skeleton's rib bones ejecting a few flakes of shattered bone. This is the first sign that your attacks are having any effect." Note that we don't get such descriptions all the time. At this point I decided that my character has enough information to make an informed decision that his weapon may not be as effective as he hopes, and switched to alternate methods of attack. And when next given the chance, I acquired a mace.

Aasimar.

Aasimar get two +2 bonuses to stats without any negatives. Various sub races make it pretty easy to customize to a specific class. With alternate race features you can even get a +4 and a +2, or a third +2 Stat, with DM approval. Aasimar can also be Small, picking up a +1 AC and +1 to hit. They gain wings and can fly for a feat after level 10. Some of the best racial SLAs in the game, and a feat that can bonus the base version spell Daylight to gain Sunbeam (7th level Druid Spell) as a SLA at 9th level.

Still want to be human? Just take the Scion of Humanity alternate race trait and you count as human.

I'd actually go with option 1 here, because it seems the coolest (winter witch humor), so rule of cool applies. Seriously, Fireball is a great spell. There is no reason why any character can't make a new spell based on that called Iceball that emulates it in every way but energy type, so why restrict the descriptor at the time you learn the spell? Just restrict casting of fire descriptor spells, and call it a day. My perspective is more RAI, than RAW, but if you need a RAW basis for this, the clause "She uses the bloodline to convert them to cold descriptor and damage." could be applied to say that the spell descriptor is converted for all spells she knows at all times that have an energy type, including when learning them, casting from spell completion items, spell trigger items. All the time.

To qualify to become a mystic theurge, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 3 ranks.

Spells: Able to cast 2nd-level divine spells and 2nd-level arcane spells.

So first off, you need level 3 at least for the skill ranks. No big deal.

The second requirement is where you were focused though, and the wording is tricky here. You need to be able to cast "spells" of both types. Not spell. Spells. As in more than one. You could argue that repeated casting of the same spell counts as spells, but I am thinking it means more than one spell of that level.

All that being said, if I was your DM and you had a Wiz 3 / Cleric 1 that had a second level SLA of divine origin, I'd let you in early, and see it as a rule bent instead of broken.

Edit: I just realized Daylight is level 3, so it would not qualify as a 2nd level spell, unless the answer to my question above is a "yes" as well.

Assuming SLAs qualify if they are arcane spells, would Darkness as a spell like ability (tiefling) qualify for Dragon Disciple since it is not level 1?

Yeah, that was the combo I mentioned in my original post above.

Why, so it is. That's what I get for reading this stuff on a busy day at work.

One issue is, high level creatures have such ridiculous Fort saves that, even with Hex powers and Int boosts, it's possible to still only have a 1/3 or 1/4 chance of fully landing the spell, and isn't it also effected by SR?

I think all you can do other than Hex debuffs and buffs to your own casting would be Spell Focus, and Greater, which would be +4 to the DC if you have Spell Perfection, since it doubles any numeric bonuses boosting the spell. You can get +8 to the SR check for Spell Pen and Greater. If this also works on Piercing Spell (it should, right?), that's another +10 on the SR check. If that all stacks, +4 DC on save and +18 to SR check should get the spell through. Of course that is six feats. You could also drop a Bestow Curse on them first to apply a -4 to saves, but that spell has a will save.

I'm really wondering if the Frostbite + Monstrous Physique (STR Ranger's Melee Transmogrofist) build isn't better. Plus you could use Haste since you would be taking full attacks.

Snowball + Close Range seems to not work.

At level 16 you can start with Disintegrate + Close Range for 32d6. Maybe on a Hexcrafter so you can debuff Fort save before the attack? With Spell Perfection used on a free Maximize that is +192 damage, +384 with crit. At level 20 it would be +240, with +480 damage on crit.

I could take two levels of Alchemist, but I am not sure I like that

How about the Vivisectionist Alchemist for two levels instead of the base class? You trade Bombs for Sneak Attack, stacking with rogue Sneak Attack and keeping your progress at the same pace as just using rogue, but would add in a bunch of class features that could be useful. This includes a spell list that would allow you to use many of the best level 1 wands without a UMD check, such as CLW, Enlarge Person, Shield, and True Strike. You can even take Bleeding Attack as a Discovery for extra rogue like flair.

I'm curious now. Why only those three races? Are you required to be small?

With 32 PB you can bite the Str penalty and be a Str-magus if you like.

Most point buy builds stop at 18, so the racial -4 caps you at 14 strength. I'd worry about the lack of a bonus to hit.

Dex based build you can have STR: 6 DEX: 22 CON: 10 INT: 18 WIS: 8 CHA: 8
Finesse and Dervish Dance, and you are good to go.

Summoners don't ride their large edilons.

Maybe they should? I could see a summoner with a few levels of Cavalier so that they can ride into the fray.

What's interesting is that people always say not to use a cavalier due to size concerns, but then the Large evolution is almost always recommended for Eidolons. You'd think that if Large is a concern in one case, it'd be a concern in the other.

Eidolons get Large to have reach. A lance already has reach.

edit: didn't meant to sound snippy, just a fast reply

I would point out that a non-multiclassed druid cannot have power attack before level 3. It has a BAB requirement of 1.

Whoops, missed that. Too late to make edits. Still, you can see where this is going.

So, not to rain on your "beatstick" parade, but the extra d6 of damage absolutely does not make up for the -2 to hit and never will. Totally don't do this, trust me.

What about on that Half Giant druid I was thinking about who can use large weapons without the -2? Let's say he has a 14 strength, took Power Attack at level 1, and is using the large club two handed. He could use this weapon for 3d6+1+(1.5*STR)+3 and no penalty other than power attack. That's a +2 to hit and 3d6+7 (average 17.5 per hit) at level 1, Or +3 to hit 3d6+3 without the feat and using a shield. If we pushed his strength up to 18 we could get a +5 attack for 3d6+7 without power attack.

This actually seems pretty viable to me up until the level where you would expect to have better than a +1 weapon.

Animated shields (minimum 8000g) and ring of force shield (8500g) would still be cost prohibitive in comparison to a Potion of Shield at 50g a pop.

I actually had some story line fluff from level 1 on where I had a "black metallic stone of unknown origin" in my inventory. I'd roleplay taking it out and holding it while I memorized spells each day, or when sitting around on watch, sort of like a security blanket. Upon reaching level 3, I wrote up about a page and a half of story where my character is holding the stone and feels a void of energy that reminds him of his innate ability to enhance a weapon using his arcane pool. He then pushed an arcane pool enhancement into the stone as if it was a weapon and it... hatched.

Unfortunately, since then my DM has been disappointing me by not picking up any role play at all with my intelligent weapon. Hmmmmm.

Oh, I agree that this shield swapping is broken, but is it legal and broken is my question.

I briefly looked over the ring of force shield and I see no reason why it wouldn't work, honestly. Keep in mind that you can't use the hand or arm holding the shield for anything else, so a two handed weapon fighter would not even threaten with that greatsword when the shield is up. Since there "are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free, as decided by the GM." I'm thinking that that ring probably can't be activated as a free action just before you are the target of an attack.

I'm not sure why you would want to do any of this. Much better to just take the Accelerated Drinking trait with Prehensile Tail. Then take a swift and a move action to drink a Potion of Shield and gain +4 AC shield bonus for 10 rounds that requires no hands and does not keep you from swinging that greatsword.

Based on what Peet has said, the answer tho the original question gets more complex, because you may be able to effectively use the shield at almost all the times you would need it.

Ready or Drop a Shield

Strapping a shield to your arm to gain its shield bonus to your AC, or unstrapping and dropping a shield so you can use your shield hand for another purpose, requires a move action. If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you can ready or drop a shield as a free action combined with a regular move.

Dropping a carried (but not worn) shield is a free action.

For an example, let's use a level 1 Tiefling Fighter with 18 Strength, a Bastard Sword and a Light Shield, and EWP Bastard Sword and Power Attack as feats. He has a +1 BAB, so he can equip a shield as part of a move. He starts the first round with his sword held in two hands, and his shield stowed on his person but not readied. If adjacent to a target at the start of his turn (delay?), he attacks, dealing 1d10 plus 1.5x strength and +3 from Power Attack, then a swift action to move the shield to his tail, and a move action that includes a free action that readies the shield. He now threatens using the Bastard Sword in one hand, and also gains the defense bonus of the shield until the start of the next round.

Now stick with me... If the shield readied on his arm counts as "a small item stowed on his person", then he should be able to start a round by moving the shield to his tail as a swift action, then taking a free action to grip the sword two handed to make an attack, then a move with combined free action to again ready the shield. In fact he could have started round 1 with the shield readied, and done the same thing.

This shield swapping seems like a lot of work for what works out to 3 damage above normal, but at level 1 this is appreciable. In truth any class can probably get benefit from using a Mithril Buckler that only takes up a hand outside of the player's turn. I could see it being more effective in use by a class that mechanically needs a free hand, such as the magus.

How it works:
It does not, for the reasons you stated.

How it is probably supposed to work:
Level 20 myrmidarch casts Scorching Ray as part of a full round action, gaining iterative weapon attacks as a full attack. The first three ranged weapon attacks that hit deliver the damage of one ray from the spell in addition to the weapon damage from the ranged attacks.

I'm in a Kingmaker game with a Cavalier using a Lance and he seems to be having fun. He ended up taking a small size character with a medium sized mount. We are almost 5, and he is waiting on Ride-By Attack, which should be a great boost to his combat ability.

I would also think a druid could be a good fit for your group and the setting.

Hey Zog, check out this from Dervish Dancer archetype:

Battle dancing is treated as bardic performance for the purposes of feats, abilities, effects, and the like that affect bardic performance, except that battle dancing does not benefit from the Lingering Performance feat or any other ability that allows a bardic performance to grant bonuses after it has ended.

That is from the same source, using the same language, except that it specifically spells out that Lingering Performance does not work. I think the omission of that language under Archaeologist is enough evidence that it does work for Archaeologist.

Don't work.

PRD wrote:

Accelerate (Time)

... This move action can come before, after, or between other actions, but not during a full-round action.

I disagree with your interpretation which seems to state that this spell has no effect when used with a full round action. Typically, yes, a full round action takes up all your effort, but then a standard round only lets you make one move action unless you give up your standard action. This gives you an additional move beyond that. By that interpretation, you can use the bonus move action in the same round, just not between attacks in a full attack or spell combat. I believe this was added to differentiate this movement from other movement that is expressly allowed during a full round action, such as the 5 foot step: "You can take a 5-foot step before, during, or after your other actions in the round." This leaves you the options to take the additional movement before or after your full round action, because you can not do it during.

So a Half Giant druid could one hand this 3d6+1 weapon at a +1 rather than a -1. Or he could go up a weapon size, two hand wield, and take the -1 for... would that be 4d8+1 damage at level 1?

As it seems everyone in this thread is aware, the most recent errata on Spell Combat says that Haste does not grant a magus an extra attack. For those that feel this is a bit unfair, here is a possible option:

Words of Power Accelerate grants an additional move action per round as a level 2 spell. Use of this spell isn't a new idea, but it should be revisited due to the errata. In light of that, Accelerate now seems better for a magus than Haste. This additional move action could allow positioning that facilitates Spell Combat with Spell Strike every turn. This would probably end up being a far greater number of attacks per combat than Haste would have granted. Note that you don't have the other bonus effects of Haste, but you can trade that move action in for another attack, which would bring your count up to what most magi were taking before the Spell Combat errata, and it is still legal. Since Accelerate does not have a "no double dipping" clause, it would even stack with Haste by RAW.

Getting Accelerate as a Word of Power is going to be easy enough if you have a feat to spare, but that's not the only way to gain the effect. Accepting Accelerate as a separate spell effect, you could research a spell that does the same thing but is not a Word of Power. This is fully supported by the core rule book, but subject to DM approval. The process just takes in game time and money, but if starting above level 4 then you could possibly have this done before the game begins.

Thoughts?

234. A small fairy flits into the camp, asking if there are any children in the party who have recently lost teeth. If told there are none, she seems sad, but will stay for a brief chat before she leaves. She knows the locations of all nearby farms and settlements within two days ride, but is reluctant to share such information if she feels the party may mean to harm any children.

Wand of Mending (or even Make Whole). Fairly cheap, should be readily available, saves you from having to memorize the spell all the time for that one time you need it NOW. Also available in Eternal Wand (uses per day rather than charges) for those with constructs and the exceedingly clumsy.

As for Dervish Dance, that is indeed one approach.

I'd advise against Dervish Dance, even with a strength based build. If not for you who is already going Strength then to others who stumble upon this thread.

Starting at level 1 and using a Dervish Dance with low strength, you spend a level or two doing sub par damage. I've been through that on my Dervish Dance Tiefling Magus and those first two levels were painful.

...Piranha Strike doesn't work with a scimitar.

By RAW, you are correct, but then Weapon Finesse can't be used on Scimitar and that is a prereq for Dervish Dance. Dervish Dance applies the effect of Weapon Finesse to Scimitar just as if it is a light weapon, even allowing it to count as piercing where needed. The case could (and has) been made that the Scimitar could be considered a light weapon in the hands of someone with Dervish Dance. My DM allowed it (not PFS though, so YMMV).

I think I'd still prefer your STR/WIS based build for this, even if Piranha Strike was available. The +2 natural armor from Armor of the Pit on a DEX/WIS monk would be great to see though...

If you have already established that Celestial is a template that you can apply to any armor, why not toss it on a breastplate, which has a reduced ACP compared to chain. This would bring the ACP down to -1 and also bump the Dex to AC by one. Then you can stack a trait on that such as Armor Expert or Armor Mastery which reduces all ACP by 1 to get ACP of 0. Note that this would allow you to wear such armor even lacking the proficiency without taking a penalty to attacks or checks, or rather you take the penalty but it is zero.

Have you considered recommending the Archeologist archetype for Bard, with Lingering Performance?

I'm not sure this works.

Bardic Performance: Archaeologists do not gain the bardic performance ability or any of its performance types.

... Archaeologist's luck is treated as bardic performance for the purposes of feats, abilities, effects, and the like that affect bardic performance.

The effects of your bardic performance carry on, even after you have stopped performing.

Prerequisite: Bardic performance class feature.

Just because Archaeologist's Luck is treated as bardic performance for things that effect bardic performance does not necessarily mean that it satisfies the prerequisite requirement. Otherwise, it could be stated that this is a change to the class feature of bardic performance, rather than a replacement. It's one of those "all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares" issues. Is there errata or something that I am unaware of that clarifies and legalizes this?

I originally did recommend the Archaeologists, but with a melee heavy party I told him that the normal bard song's ability to help out the rest of the party would be greatly appreciated. For a one level dip in bard, it's worth it to just grab the base class here, and share the benefit at the cost of a standard action. Or not. It's the player's decision now that I have helped to clarify his options.

I have a non optimized gamer in my circle who had a character die at low level and came to me for advice. After a bit of my help, he is now playing a fairly well optimized level 4 Orc Two-Handed fighter. He loves having a minimum damage of 21 at level 4.

As we are approaching level 5, he asked me if I thought he should continue with Fighter or branch out, and I offered the possible route of a single Bard level and then Dragon Disciple for at least 4 levels. The bard song bonus for 4+ rounds per day seems worth it for a party of three melee guys and an alchemist that's tossing bombs and handing out Enlarge Person shared infusions.

He is now debating if it is worth going back into Fighter for three levels after he has all the strength and armor from Dragon Disciple to get Backswing for double strength on any iterative attacks in a Full Attack. Do you think it is at all worth it, or should he just stick with Dragon Disciple and maybe get Fly-By Attack (DM is okay with this) and never worry about Full Attacks? Suggestions?

By the rules for magic item creation, you could actually have a CL other than 7 on this item. See this thread. The only stipulation that I can see is that the CL on the item could not be higher than the character level of the item's creator. CL7 is just typical for this item, probably because that is the lowest level when you could get the Forge Ring feat.

@PapaZorro - Nice!

Right, what you draw to your GM's attention "as a player" is likely to be "in your interests". ...Ethics aside ;-)

I will do this with a clean conscience, feeling ethically correct (no insult taken thanks to your smiley).

If I had a dagger in my hand instead of a spell and took a Full Attack action I'd get my normal main hand attacks, with an extra for haste, and an offhand dagger attack (all at -2 for TWF). Replace the dagger with a spell and call it Spell Combat. That's what I see when I read "This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast."

RAW does say that Spell Combat is functioning like 2WF, which means things like 2 Weapon Defense and 2 Weapon Rend can be triggered by it...

I'm not sure I'd agree there, but that's just my take. TWF is also a prereq for both of those, so maybe if you actually had TWF on a magus I could see a DM allowing it. There would be no question (to me) as long as you had more than two arms, a weapon in each of at least two hands, and another free to cast any spells.

Everybody acts like the Magus should be Spell Combating non-stop. ... If Paizo intended Spell Combat to be used with Haste, and for Spell Combat to be used every single time you Full Attacked, they would have made it a modification of the Full Attack Action. They didn't. They've answered a FAQ directly dealing with Haste/Spell Combat compatability (negative). I think they know what they intended with the rules.

I am fully convinced now of the intent of the designers, as clarified in the FAQ.

That being said, I don't agree with it.

As a player, I see no reason to draw my DM's attention to anything other than the phrase within Spell Combat that states...

This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast."

Knowing my DM, he will let me have the extra attack, because it just makes sense.

I agree with your implied position that Spell Combat should *not* be every round for the magus. I do believe that (for my magus) Spellcombat would be every round possible if he received an extra attack from Haste (with Arcane Accuracy on all of them). The following combat, with Haste expired, he may just move from target to target taking each one out with a single Spellstrike blow. The combat after that, he may stand back and just cast Fireball a few times.

Also Shield, after level 8 I have memorized this twice everyday.

I agree, Shield is great for everyone.

I find that at 15g per charge, a level 1 Wand of Shield is a great investment. If used just before combat, you have 10 rounds to finish the fight before Shield drops. You can also loan it out to others who can use the wand (including anyone trained in UMD) to have a go.

I exclusively use the wand on those days where I expect to burn all of my Shocking Grasp spells, such as when entering a dungeon. At other times (random encounters, typically one a day), you can use Shield cast from memory and save the wand charges. A Pearl of Power (or a few of them) can facilitate recalling the spell if needed for a second encounter that same day.

The magus has an optional arcana that allows him to grant (only) himself Haste. One of his primary class features is incompatible with the best benefit granted by the spell. That seems incongruous.

It seems to me that the clarification from James Jacobs confirms the way I always intended to play it: a magus with haste would get the same attacks as a Full Attack using his main hand (with any bonuses and penalties) with the addition of one spell (also with penalties). The attack rolls would probably be the same as a Full Attack with a dagger in the offhand, only rather than a weapon the magus wields a spell. The FAQ entry also clarifies that Spell Combat does not count as a Full Attack, so it would not work with any feats that require that specific full round action.

Too bad there isn't a feat such as Improved Two-weapon fighting that allows for more than one spell to be cast in a Spell Combat action. Maybe you could homebrew one, with the requirement being that it only functions while under the effect of Haste. That sounds fun.

You guys are having too much fun ripping on EldonG's rogue and my poor Featherhammer rogue is growing lonely sitting there waiting for you to turn your scrutiny upon him. If you have a spare moment, check him out. Tell me where I went wrong, and what I could do to improve. I promise not to defend him too strongly.

Thanks Nicos (and others).

The spreadsheet I have puts my guy at 74.8 DPR on a full attack, with 48.4 DPR with a single attack. Scout Archetype means he can pretty much always get Sneak Attack on the first attack, but I think it's assuming SA on any iterative attacks as well.

Hate to get in the way of you guys having fun poking each other, but I was wondering what AC I should use to calculate DPR for the guy I posted. Is it 10+level+4 for average AC? 23 AC seems a little low to me for level 9.