I have a dark vision for a character: The incredible gargoyle magus. The plan is something like this:
The spell Monstrous Physique lets you transform into a gargoyle:
A: I don't know if natural attacks can be taken as part of a spell combat attack action, but if so that is awesome.
B: Gargoyles have the freeze ability, which Monstrous Physique II lets you retain: Sit still and gain a +20 to stealth to hide in plain sight to appear as a statue! That sounds useful.
C: I GOT WINGS!
Is this awesome? Effective?
Awesome? Yes.
Effective? Not sure, but certainly can be if your Dex is good.
moar!
:(
I could be wrong, but I can't see where a natural attack can be used in combination of spell combat.
While appearing as a statue could help you hide, I as a GM would rule that this wouldn't work everywhere. A main street, a dungeon, inside some buildings would work if 'hiding' in statue form. However, many places would not be appropriate nor expected to find a statue, so this tactic wouldn't be universal, IMO.
Being able to fly is always a good thing.
I'll bump, since I can't do much else.
Yeah... Also, even a magus doesn't have to spell combat every turn. With my arcana enhancing my weapon and all those fancy natural attacks I might want to save my spells once in a while and go insane with the sword, one claw, bite and gore. By level twenty (three sword attacks alone), that's six attacks in a full attack action!!!
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I could be wrong, but I can't see where a natural attack can be used in combination of spell combat.
While appearing as a statue could help you hide, I as a GM would rule that this wouldn't work everywhere. A main street, a dungeon, inside some buildings would work if 'hiding' in statue form. However, many places would not be appropriate nor expected to find a statue, so this tactic wouldn't be universal, IMO.
Being able to fly is always a good thing.
The only pre-req for spell combat is that you be wielding a one handed weapon in your other hand. All natural attacks are considered light one handed weapons so it qualifies.
Using one of the charge spells (frostbite, chilltouch, etc) on a creature with 4 natural attacks (5 if you play a hexcrafter) will let you deliver an absolute insane amount of spell damage every round. Now with that said Gargoyle is the second best monstrous human form to turn into. The best is to turn into a Calikang, this gives you 6 arms and 4 natural attacks instead and still leaves two arms free so you can make normal weapon attacks as well. Also since the Calikang is a large sized creature you get reach and a boost to your CMB/CMD as well.
Normally you will want to be the Calikang unless you need to be able to fly and fight RIGHT NOW then you'd switch to the Gargoyle instead.
The only pre-req for spell combat is that you be wielding a one handed weapon in your other hand. All natural attacks are considered light one handed weapons so it qualifies.
The other pre-req is that one hand is free of weapons, so does a natural attack (claw) mean that the hand is both free of weapons and is considered a light weapon - this is what I find confusing, so I didn't make the point you make.
Luckily for my group, we play humans as the primary race of our characters, and rarely elves. We never use other races, so it's never an issue in our game.
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The only pre-req for spell combat is that you be wielding a one handed weapon in your other hand. All natural attacks are considered light one handed weapons so it qualifies.The other pre-req is that one hand is free of weapons, so does a natural attack (claw) mean that the hand is both free of weapons and is considered a light weapon - this is what I find confusing, so I didn't make the point you make.
Luckily for my group, we play humans as the primary race of our characters, and rarely elves. We never use other races, so it's never an issue in our game.
Thats kind of the point of having natural weapons, your hand is considered free while still having the ability to attack.
Depending on your (or your GM's) definition of "wielding" a weapon, a claw attack might still work in conjunction with the magus' other signature class feature: the spellstrike.
Nothing stops you from carrying a sword when and where spell combat would be most effective. You only get a standard action in the surprise round, anyway. Assuming your GM will allow you to "wield" your claws, why not make that standard action a claw-delivered spellstrike?
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
moar
MOAR!!!
Dude. Check out the Hexcrafter guide.
The melee transmorgifist specializes in using either Gargoyle or Calikang for lots of attacks. Do that and cast Rime Frostbite for 6 attacks + COLD SMITE!!