Battle Caster Help Me Decide

Hi all I'd love your help with my delema. I'm trying to decide on my next char, who'll be some type of battle caster/Gish. I normally play martial fronliners and wanted a BIT of a change, but not too much. Ranged and full casters need not apply, I have to be in the mix smashing things or I get bored. I also don't want another fighter/barbarian/ranger and hate paladins.

My concept is a world weary veteran mercenary who'll do most things asked if the contract calls for it, possibly a veteran of the Mercenary League or "Black Jackets".

My choices I'm stuck on are magus, oracle (battle or metal) or bard (probably arcane duelist). I think I can fit my concept to any of these.

The game will likely be SLOW leveling and cap/stop at maybe lvl 8-10. So I'm looking for something interesting to play at early/mid levels. We also have fairly long days.

Here's where I'm stuck. I'm used to charging in right away so the round of buffing the Oracle/Bard seem to need will bother me, while I worry about the magus' ability to handle a long day.

TL:DR, sell me on bard, oracle or magus

Battle oracle does not "need" a round of buffing, it has strong support skills from the start and is a capable melee combatant with just the weapon mastery revelation. Safe curing is a handy ability for back up and getting eldritch heritage for the orc bloodline would be a powerful addition. Consider dual cursed and picking up extra revelation for misfortune at level one as well because the rerolls are very powerful.

One thing to get out of the habit of when playing a battle caster is moving, unlike fighter types you have very good options for standard action which makes charging a bad idea, once you get iterative attacks or haste your better off spending your first round stood still or moving slowly and casting a buff over than running in and making one attack as long as your party are on the same page. This is also the reason i would recommend a reach weapon such as bardiche or if you don't mind ewp fauchard for the crit range.

What do you want to do besides fight in melee. There is a bard whose performances only buffs the bard. Inquisitors are also nice.

Thanks for the info.

Now I'm kinda thinking I want to try a blaster melee combo (yay for impossible dreams) so I'm wondering if there's some reason other than it being less optimal that I wouldn't be able to run a magus as more of a range/blaster, then arcane pool/power attack/melee afterwards. Seems like everyone is all about the spellcombat shocking grasp as the only way to play a magus.

Or would maybe thinking about the old school Fighter/Wizard (possibly EK if we get that high level) maybe work here, stand back and cast until I can't then draw and charge. Probably won't work well, but its a thought.

Blaster / melee is exclusively the domain of the magus.

Shocking grasp isn't the only way to play a magus, and no one would ever say it is. It is, however, the most optimal low level damage spell a magus gets and thus should seriously be considered as part of the magus's arsenal.

That aside, what does it matter if "that's how everyone else does it?" They don't do it at your table do they? I mean, I can understand not wanting your character to be the same as that of the buddy next to you, but if it is the same as someone in the state next to you, what's that matter?

Strength cleric/holy vindicator could be nice. Heavy armor, lots of hit points, useful buff spells, absurd AC with vindicator's shield...

I'm a big fan of wizard/fighter/eldritch knight, too. Armor becomes a bit of a pain, but you could always go dervish dance and not need to focus on strength.

Inquisitor has a lot of class abilities that work together very well, if you don't mind the gish-in-a-box classes.

Arcane Duelist is a great archetype, and I love bards in general.

One interesting option, if you want to have ranged "Blasting" as an option, would be to try out the Sound Striker archetype. You really only need Power Attack and Furious Focus, pick up any weapon you can (I recommend playing a Half-Orc for Falchion Proficiency, or a Half-Elf for free Weapon Proficiency), and use the Weird Words bardic music for ranged blasting.

It wouldn't be optimal, but it'd be an interesting way to get an effect close to what you're looking for.

Sound striker seems awesome in terms of flavor, not sure how effective it would be but I'll put that one on the back burner for a later build, kinda reminds me of the movie version of Dune.

I think that I've decided on a magus, pretty much has everything I'm looking for.

Thanks for the suggestions.