Just to clarify a disagreement. The way I read it a magus can attack then five foot step to a square that's not threatened then cast his spell without worrying about an AOO or a concentration check. Am I right?
You are right. A magus taking a full-round action to use spell combat can take a 5-foot step at any point during that full-round action. It's no different than a figher dropping a creature with the first attack of his full attack, taking a 5-foot step, then taking his remaining iterative attacks on a different target.
You can take a 5-foot step before, during, or after your other actions in the round.
A 5-foot step is essentially a nonaction you can take during any round you don't take any other sort of movement.
The way I read it a magus can attack then five foot step to a square that's not threatened then cast his spell without worrying about an AOO or a concentration check. Am I right?
A magus can take a 5-foot step during Spell Combat, assuming he hasn't (and will not) otherwise moved that turn.
If the magus is not threatened when he casts the spell, he won't provoke.
If the magus is not casting defensively, or distracted, or taking damage, (etc), then he does not need to make a concentration check.
You can't hit.... take a 5 foot step to cast shocking grasp,and then go back in to spellstrike that shocking grasp in the same round.
If you're saying you can't take two 5-foot steps in the same turn, you're correct.
Otherwise, it depends on the situation. If the magus has (or can get) greater reach than his opponent, he could step out of a threatened square and still make an attack.
Lunge is an awesome feat for a Magus once he has the BAB for it.
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Lunge is an awesome feat for a Magus once he has the BAB for it.
Or just use a whip.
It depends on what the character is designed to do of course, but since the magus is really great delivering touch AC damage, who cares about non-damage from the whip? The critical hit build is legit, but it's a lot more difficult trying to actually get it off. I've failed enough casting defensively checks that I bit the bullet and took Combat Casting.
Or just use a whip.
It depends on what the character is designed to do of course, but since the magus is really great delivering touch AC damage, who cares about non-damage from the whip?
The old Scorpion Whip was a solution to that, too. Works like a whip, but lethal damage, better die size, and no reduction from armor.
Ask your DM first, as there's a new Scorpion Whip that... is kind of broken, depending on how you read it. I summed up the differences here (and there's a FAQ Request thread for it here).
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Or just use a whip.
It depends on what the character is designed to do of course, but since the magus is really great delivering touch AC damage, who cares about non-damage from the whip?
The old Scorpion Whip was a solution to that, too. Works like a whip, but lethal damage, better die size, and no reduction from armor.
Ask your DM first, as there's a new Scorpion Whip that... is kind of broken, depending on how you read it. I summed up the differences here (and there's a FAQ Request thread for it here).
It's pretty good as well, but it doesn't qualify for bladebound, which is really sick archetype. At magus 5, the character has a +4 weapon for all intents and purposes. Kind of hard to beat that. Totally worth losing 1 magus arcana and your arcane pool changing to 1/3 from 1/2 level.
It's pretty good as well, but it doesn't qualify for bladebound
The old scorpion whip is a one-handed slashing weapon. It fully qualifies for a black blade.
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It's pretty good as well, but it doesn't qualify for bladeboundThe old scorpion whip is a one-handed slashing weapon. It fully qualifies for a black blade.
Bolded. That's why we have errata. Paizo made the scorpion whip into a light weapon, for reasons not entirely clear to me. But whatever those might be, the scorpion whip is now a light weapon, so it doesn't qualify for bladebound archetype.
Although there's nothing to prevent a magus from using a scorpion whip until opponents are inside his reach, and he draws his black blade then.
That's why we have errata.
There has never been errata on the Scorpion Whip.
Paizo made the scorpion whip into a light weapon
That's one way to look at it. The other is that they created a brand new (and mostly non-functional) weapon with the same name.
Errata for the first printing of the Adventurer's Armory was released in July, 2011 and did not change the scorpion whip. The Ultimate Combat playtest was released in January, 2011, and the book was released in August. So, while UC was released (a few weeks) after the AA errata, it seems strange that they would change an existing weapon so significantly by releasing a new (optional) book than by simply making the change in the actual errata of the book it was released in.
-edit- And according to the Additional Resources page, the old scorpion whip is still legal in PFS. Both weapons can co-exist in the campaign.