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One of the things that frustrates me about 3.x/PF is the necessity of expending resources on a finesse weapon that is mechanically inferior to a two-handed weapon (yes I know Curveblade is finesse but it's a special snowflake that I choose to ignore).

The TWF finesse fighter concept is something I think a lot of people like to play (I blame Driz'zt among others) but it's something that is mechanically difficult to pull off without taking a substantial hit vs the THF build.

My goals are as follows:

1)Reduce the number of feats necessary for finesse fighter builds.

2)Make TWF closer to parity with the THF build.

3)Increase DPR for Rogue/Monk builds.

I've run a couple scenarios with somewhat unsatisfying results, so I thought I'd list them and the issues I've encountered thus far.

Solution 1) Make finesse a quality of the weapon. You use a short sword you can use Dex to hit or Str to hit. Basically this eliminates the feat tax for a finesse fighter build.

Problem 1) However it really doesn't do anything about shoring up the offensive production of a finesse build. I'm not really sure the increase in AC associated with a higher Dex is a good trade off.

Solution 2) Make finesse a quality of the weapon but have dex modify damage as well as to hit. This eliminates the feat tax associated with finesse fighter builds plus it substantially shores up the DPR of finesse fighter builds. Because the finesse fighter is spending less to boost strength for damage purposes they can focus on dex primarily. This reduces the MAD nature of finesse builds.

Problem 2) While this makes dex TWF competitive with THF builds in terms of DPR this tends to boost TWF rogues past the base DPR of the THF. In theory I'm not completely opposed to this as I feel that rogues should have situational burst damage > average base damage of fighters but it might be too much. My primary concern is that dex-shifted small-tiny monsters will receive a massive increase in power. I don't want a scenario where a tiny housecat is a significant threat to PCs.

Solution 3) As per Solution 2 but make Weapon Finesse a feat. This increases DPR and makes weapon finesse less of a tax. It also allows the GM the ability to turn this feature on and off. This helps in regards to all the small creatures.

Problem 3) It's a bit kludgy and gets back to two many feats required.

Solution 4) As per Solution 2 but apply negative strength modifiers to the dex modifiers. This solves the small/tiny dex focused creature problem but is pretty kludgy. It also requires a psuedo-derived number. But effectively it brings the DPR closest to what I want to achieve.

Ideas, concerns?

For the sake of comparison this is an elite array Gunslinger and some sample DPR numbers.

Str-13
Dex-17(15+2 Racial)
Con-12
Int-10
Wis-14
Cha-8

This is a shooter first and foremost, I'm pretty much assuming two pistol ranged attacks or rapier + pistol. Swapping Strength with Int should be easy enough though. I'm going with TWF Pistols

Feats
1st-Rapid Reload
Racial- Lightning Reload
3rd- TWF
4th- Point Blank Shot
5th- Weapon Focus: Pistol
7th- Deadly Aim
8th- Vital Strike
9th- Weapon Specialization
11th-Signature Deed: Lightning Reload
12th- Greater Weapon Focus
13th- Greater Weapon Specialization
15th- Improved Vital Strike
16th - Penetrating Strike
17th - Greater Vital Strike
19th - Greater Penetrating Strike
20th - Disrupting Shot

Yikes, gunslinger is feat intensive like crazy. Not sure if this is the optimum feat selection (especially if I'm taking them in the optimum order). I'm also assuming that any GM in their right mind will houserule quick draw free action spam out of existence.

1st level Attack Bonus- +4 (BAB +1, Dex +3)
5th level Attack Bonus- +12 (BAB +5, Gun Training +1, Dex +4, Enhancement +1, Feat + 1/+2 if PB)
10th level Attack Bonus- +20 (BAB +10, Gun Training +1, Dex +5, Enhancement +3, Feat +1/+2 if PB)
15th level Attack Bonus- +30 (BAB +15, Gun Training +1, Dex +7, Enhancement +5, Feat +2/+3 if PB)
20th level Attack Bonus + (BAB +20, Gun Training +1, Dex + 9, Enhancement +5, Feat +2/+3 if PB)

Damage: Basically since the gunslinger is using Ranged Touch Attacks and has a ridiculous BAB she's going to hit with attacks. I'm going to assume that the gunslinger is doing the John Woo guns akimbo school of shooting as well. I'm also not adding any average damage from frost, flaming, holy, etc.

1st level Average Damage- d6 (3.5)
5th level Average Damage (Single Attack)- d6 +5 (+6 if PB) (8.5)
10th level Average Damage (Single Attack)- 2d6 + 10 (+11 if PB) (17)
15th level Average Damage (Single Attack) - 3d6 + 16 (+17 if PB) (26.5)
20th level Average Damage (Single Attack)- 4d6 +18 (+19 if PB) (32)

1st level Full Attack Damage- d6 x2 (7)
5th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +5) x2 (17)
10th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +10) x2 (27)
15th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 + 16) x2 (39)
20th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +18) x2 (43)

with Lightning Reload (free usage with Signature Deed at level 11)

10th level Full Attack Damage- (d6+10) x3 (40.5)
15th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +16) x4 (78)
20th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +18) x5 (107.5)

Hrmm, Vital Strike clearly isn't going to work with this build.

If I replace Vital Strike with Improved TWF at 8th and Greater TWF at 12th (postponing feats by one selection) I can generate the following.

10th level Full Attack Damage- (d6+10) x 4 (54)- Requires 2 grit points
15th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +16) x 6 (117)-Requires spamming lightning reload on two guns
20th level Full Attack Damage- (d6 +18) x 7 (150.5)- Requires spamming lightning reload on two guns.

Haste and Bonus damage adders should help with DPR. I'm also not factoring in any inherent bonuses from manuals or wishes as those tend to show up late if at all.

Basically unless the capacity on guns is changed to allow full attacks I think the only viable build strategy is predicated on using grit points to fuel Lightning Reload like crazy.

I think it's abundantly clear that the Magus is designed with 2 major goals in mind.

1) It has to be designed on a 3/4 BAB bard equivalent chassis. While a full BAB paladin progression arcane knight class might be an appropriate addition for a future class it's pretty clear that within the minds of the designers Full BAB d10 HD Bard progression is not going to happen with this class. Yes, clerics and druids are poorly balanced but they shouldn't necessarily be the yardstick by which new classes are designed.

2)It cannot be better at a core class(fighter,cleric,wizard, rogue) competency in their central schtick (damage dealing, healing/buffing, control, skill monkey) except on a limited duration basis. It's a hybrid not a specialist and as such pays a premium for it's increased versatility and utility.

Given those 2 design goals how can the 3/4 BAB progression Bard Casting Martial character find a unique schtick and be useful in a party?

Borrowing what has already been designed it seems clear that there are several key features that Paizo wants to highlight. Spellstrike, Spell Combat and Arcana are the key features of this class currently and should be retained (but heavily modified). Additionally as single weapon specialists it's clear that in their given field they should be fighter equivalents.

Design Element 1- Spellstrike: It's clear that this ability is poorly worded currently. I think the primary goal is to allow a Magus to spam touch spells in conjunction with melee attacks. Unfortunately this is currently limited to spamming shocking grasp.

Solution 1 - People already seem to be assuming that this is in effect imbuing the weapon with a spell. Go ahead and make it equivalent to imbue rather than a held spell. That way the Magus can hold a touch spell charged in his weapon and release it as needed while still being able to cast other needed spells. If unlimited duration is too much then limit it to 10/min a level.

Solution 2 - Arcane casters generally benefit more from having access to status effects, debuffs, and control effects. Additional touch spells that allow higher level magus characters to spam status effects (stun, shaken, fear, slow, etc) and other debuffs (touch of idiocy, enervation, etc) would go a long way towards helping the Magus live up to his potential.

Design Element 2- Spell Combat: If the core concept is to allow two-weapon combat where spell casting is equivalent to a offhand weapon go ahead and make it so.

Solution - The off hand casting hand is equal to a light weapon, spell combat should be equivalent to having TWF feat. Thus the penalty to the base attack should be -2 to the primary hand. If the caster chooses to cast defensively (not always required) he takes a -2 penalty to the concentration check (this penalty reduces over time). As a committed melee character he needs combat casting as a bonus feat either given at level 1 or whenever spell combat shows up.

Design Element - single handed weapon use: Let's face it we are aiming for a elven F/MU like Melf and the 2e bladesinger with this class.

Problem- Single handed weapon usage generally blows. 3/4 single handed weapon blows harder. If we are committed to limiting the Magus to a single handed weapon there should be ways of reliably boosting the Magus base DPR to acceptable levels even if it's a limited duration effect.

Solution part 1- These guys are weapon specialists, allow them to function as fighter of equivalent level when purchasing feats for one weapon (single handed like a long sword). That way you generally will be seeing WF: Long Sword, GWF: Long Sword, WS: Long Sword, GWS: Long Sword on any given Magus.

Solution part 2- Even moreso than the duelist these guys should be the lightly armored striker. Give them precision damage (+1 at 1st, +1 for every 2 to 3 levels past that), Give them a defense bonus equivalent to their intelligence. Combined with two handed grip when not using spell combat and this should get the magus closer to a martial character in terms of DPR.

Solution part 3- Considering making a magus only arcane variant of Divine Power. The ability to boost BAB to full progression even if it's only for limited duration would allow the Magus to buff to the point where he can hit really hard but that would come at the cost of limited duration. So just like the Paladin can outshine the fighter in a limited number of scenarios this would allow a mid-tier magus to boost his DPR into the stratosphere for a limited duration.

Magus Arcana - While I haven't looked to much at these, it seems that in generally they should offer similar utility to metamagic due to the magus largely being restricted from using metamagic like quicken (to expensive) or metamagic wands (no free hands).