Advices for my first magus

[Osian Oisìn]

Magus:

Human magus (staff magus) 8/monk (master of many styles) 2 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 59, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9, 49)
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +4; Senses Perception +13
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Defense
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AC 26, touch 15, flat-footed 23 (+8 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural, +2 shield)
hp 76 (10d8+28)
Fort +14, Ref +10, Will +12
Defensive Abilities evasion
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks arcane pool (+2, 9 points), improved spell combat, magus arcana (arcane accuracy, wand wielder), spell recall, spellstrike, stunning fist (4/day, DC 15)
Magus (Staff Magus) Spells Prepared (CL 8th; concentration +13)
. . 3rd—fly, haste, monstrous physique I[UM]
. . 2nd—alter self, glitterdust (DC 17), empowered shocking grasp (3)
. . 1st—frostbite[UM], grease, shield, shocking grasp (2), true strike
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, light, mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 7
Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 26
Feats Cleave, Cleaving Finish[UC], Crane Riposte[UC], Crane Style[UC], Crane Wing[UC], Dodge, Dragon Style[UC], Empower Spell, Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Quarterstaff Master[UM], Stunning Fist
Traits magical lineage, reactionary
Skills Acrobatics +9, Climb +9, Escape Artist +9, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +12, Knowledge (history) +11, Knowledge (planes) +11, Knowledge (religion) +11, Perception +13, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +14, Swim +9, Use Magic Device +11
Languages Common, Elven, Gnome, Sylvan, Undercommon
SQ fuse style, knowledge pool, quarterstaff defense, spark staff
Combat Gear spark staff( +2), wand of infernal healing (50 charges); Other Gear +2 mithral breastplate( +2), handy haversack, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hemp rope (50 ft.), ink, black, inkpen, mess kit, pot, soap, spell component pouch, torch (10), trail rations (5), waterskin, 11,378 gp
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Accuracy +5 (Su) 1 Arcane Pool: +5 to attack rolls until the end of your turn.
Arcane Pool +2 (9/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Cleave If you hit a foe, attack an adjacent target at the same attack bonus but take -2 AC.
Cleaving Finish Make additional attack if opponent is knocked out
Crane Riposte When you deflect an attack, you may make an attack of opportunity
Crane Style Penalty when fighting defensively reduced to -2 and dodge bonus increases by 1.
Crane Wing May deflect one attack per round while fighting defensively or using total defense
Dragon Style +2 vs sleep, paralysis, and stun, first unarmed strike in a rd deals 1.5x Str, and can ignore difficult terrain/allies when charging.
Empower Spell Numeric effects of a spell are increased 50%. +2 Levels.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Fuse Style (2 styles) (Ex) At 1st level, a master of many styles can fuse two of the styles he knows into a more perfect style. The master of many styles can have two style feat stances active at once. Starting a stance provided by a style feat is still a swift action, but whe
Improved Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Knowledge Pool (Su) Spend Arcane Pool points to prepare a magus spell that is not in your spellbook for 1 day.
Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp) A chosen spell counts as 1 level lower when metamagic feats are applied to it.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Quarterstaff Defense (Ex) At 7th level, while wielding a quarterstaff, the staff magus gains a shield bonus to his Armor Class equal to the enhancement bonus of the quarterstaff, including any enhancement bonus on that staff from his arcane pool class feature. At 13th level,
Quarterstaff Master Use a quarterstaff one-handed
Spark Staff (1/day) When the weilder is dealt 10 pts elec dmg, regain 1 chg.
Spell Recall (Su) Spend your Arcane Pool to recall spells you have already cast.
Spellstrike (Su) Deliver touch spells as part of a melee attack.
Stunning Fist (4/day, DC 15) You can stun an opponent with an unarmed attack.
Wand Wielder (Su) The magus can activate a wand or staff in place of casting a spell when using spell combat.

we are going to start a new adventure with the revised action economy and the auto bonus progression rules( both from Pathfinder Unchained).

Do you think is a good build or i must change some feats/arcanas? I also have 11378 golds left, what can i buy?
In the group we are: a druid, a sorcerer( areally good-one), a 2 weapons fighter and another guy( he hasn't yet decided).

[Covert Operator]

I've been playing a Dervish Dance magus up till level 4, so my advice might be less applicable to this, but you look like you've got all the bases covered.

Have you got something to deal with swarms (if you are expecting the campaign to have them)?
If you want to avoid ranged entirely (lower dexterity for more pt buy), you can get a staff of nethys (I don't know the real name) that lets you cast CL3 magic missiles at will (5500 gp for the unique staff, then add the shocking staff to it using the 'combining magic items with the same slot' rules.

[Osian Oisìn]

Covert Operator wrote:

I've been playing a Dervish Dance magus up till level 4, so my advice might be less applicable to this, but you look like you've got all the bases covered.

Have you got something to deal with swarms (if you are expecting the campaign to have them)?
If you want to avoid ranged entirely (lower dexterity for more pt buy), you can get a staff of nethys (I don't know the real name) that lets you cast CL3 magic missiles at will (5500 gp for the unique staff, then add the shocking staff to it using the 'combining magic items with the same slot' rules.

Thank you for the advices... Quarterstaff of Entwined Serpents, do you mean this staff?

I know the Dm he bever uses the swarms, i can try to dump dex, but i wnat a good AC.

Where can i finde the combining magic item rules for pathfinder?

[Covert Operator]

yep, that's it.

Have you considered being a dex/finesse character?
you can finesse with the back end of a double weapon you know.

[Covert Operator]

last paragraph on the bottom of the page.

[Osian Oisìn]

Covert Operator wrote:

last paragraph on the bottom of the page.

At first i would play a finesse magus, but i read staff magus and i love the fluff

[kestral287]

In terms of what to buy: Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Cloak of Resistance.

What exactly are you trying to get out of the Monk dip? I see a lot of ways that it hurts you but no real gains.

Power Attack is generally a trap for Magi.

You don't seem to have Intensified Spell on your feat list. That's a cornerstone of the Magus if you're using Shocking Grasp.

[LazarX]

Covert Operator wrote:

Have you got something to deal with swarms (if you are expecting the campaign to have them)?

My magus has a wand of fireball with 4 charges left. Swarms are what she saves it for.

[Matt2VK]

Can you change your +2 enchant on your armor to a +1 spell storing?

While this will drop your AC by one, there's a number of very good spells you can put in it. My favorite is Frigid Touch. Grab a couple scrolls and use those to recharge the spell storing if it looks like you'll face multiple encounters.

[LazarX]

You realize that as a staff magus, you do not gain medium armor proficiency? Mithral may make the armor light, but proficiency is still an issue. Also wearing armor means you do not get the Monk AC bonus.

Overall though, I like the approach... it's refreshingly different.

[LazarX]

kestral287 wrote:

In terms of what to buy: Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Cloak of Resistance.

What exactly are you trying to get out of the Monk dip? I see a lot of ways that it hurts you but no real gains.

Power Attack is generally a trap for Magi.

You don't seem to have Intensified Spell on your feat list. That's a cornerstone of the Magus if you're using Shocking Grasp.

The cleaving feats he wants, requires Power Attack. With his strength, if he uses two handed strikes that gives him a rather nice damage bonus. I see where he's going with the monk dip though, with his style mastery, it gives him a variety of attack style, alternating stick attacks with the occaisonal powerful unarmed strike. Note the combination of Crane and Dragon styles. Also note that he has intensified shocking grasp covered with his staff.

I may actually crib with this build a bit myself. As to what you spend your spare change on... A Dex belt would give you better AC, jack up the reflex save, (making evasion more handy) you might just have enough spare after that to get Boots of Escape.

[kestral287]

If he's using two handed strikes he's not using Spell Combat-- that's typically not how you're effective as a Magus.

And I see Dragon Style. I just don't see the benefit of it. Crane Style, I can understand (I don't think it's good, mind, but I understand). But he's got... no reason to ever use an unarmed strike and not a lot of benefit to it anyway, so Dragon Style's only there for its minor save bonuses. He'd be better off as straight Magus, or one level of Monk, and taking Iron Will for the save bonuses.

Intensified Grasp coming from the staff is great, if horrendously inefficient. But he took Empower Spell and Magical Lineage, which implies he'd like to cast and metamagic his own Shocking Grasps too... but taking Empower before Intensified doesn't make a lot of sense.

[LazarX]

kestral287 wrote:

If he's using two handed strikes he's not using Spell Combat-- that's typically not how you're effective as a Magus.

And I see Dragon Style. I just don't see the benefit of it. Crane Style, I can understand (I don't think it's good, mind, but I understand). But he's got... no reason to ever use an unarmed strike and not a lot of benefit to it anyway, so Dragon Style's only there for its minor save bonuses. He'd be better off as straight Magus, or one level of Monk, and taking Iron Will for the save bonuses.

Intensified Grasp coming from the staff is great, if horrendously inefficient. But he took Empower Spell and Magical Lineage, which implies he'd like to cast and metamagic his own Shocking Grasps too... but taking Empower before Intensified doesn't make a lot of sense.

Dragon Style: Able to ignore difficult terrain when charging. First unarmed strike in a round yields 1.5x str damage... and need we forget Stunning Fist? And spellstrike works just as well with unarmed strike.

And of course, those two levels of monk give him evasion. The feat he needs to to take is not Iron Will, but Lightning Reflexes.

[kestral287]

Magi don't need to charge. Moreover, they don't want to charge, they have all kinds of awesome pseudo-pounce mobility spells that will do more for them with Spell Combat than charging and hitting somebody once. I'll trade a second-level spell for getting off three more attacks in the round in a heartbeat.

Stunning Fist with 10 Wis might as well not be there so... yeah, we do need to forget that one.

Evasion on a low-Reflex, middling-at-best Dex class isn't worth much.