I am a lvl 7 magus and i have 8 arcane points to enhance my weapon. Now my question is can you add multiple things at once? Eg. Could i add +2 enhancment plus speed plus flaming as a swift action then charge in.
No.
At 1st level, a magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.
As a 7th level magus you can use it once and add a total of +2 bonus however you want to do that. You cannot use it more than once a round and, even if you could, they don't stack if you use it multiple times.
at lv7 you can add +2 worth of enhancement to your weapon. So no, you can't do all you said.
Also the ability doesn't stack with itself. You can't use it multiple times to get more abilities.
But it says at 5th lvl i gain access to speed. All i need to do is speed 3 arcane points for it. I have 8 points to spare so to gain a +2 flaming speed sword i'd have to spend 6 points. Thats how i read it
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You also gain access to Vorpal. You still need the requisite bonus from your Arcane Pool to add it on. You cannot put speed on until you have a +3 bonus from your arcane pool. It only ever costs 1 Arcane Point to enhance your weapon. Your level determines how much of an enhancement bonus you gain.
In this case, at 7th level you could either give your weapon: a +2 enhancement bonus, +1 Keen, or Keen Flaming (Provided your weapon already has at least a +1 enhancement bonus). Also, I believe the enhancement bonuses stack with existing enhancement bonuses on your weapon; someone please correct me if I am wrong.
You are very mistaken as to how that ability works.
"At 1st level, a magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute."
So you can only ever spend 1 point as a swift action.
"For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level."
Then as you level the bonus it gives increases. +2 at lv5 and +3 at lv9
"These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves."
Here we see that you can't use this ability multiple times to add more enhancements, so you can't use it to get a +2 and then use it again to get flaming.
"At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property’s base price modifier."
At lv1 you can only increase your weapon by 1. You can't add special things. At lv5 you now have the option of adding special things, but you need to spend enough "enhancement points" to get them.
Since speed is a +3 enhancement price you'd need to be able to convert 3 enhancement points to be able to use speed. If speed weren't on that list you could never do speed, regardless of how many enhancement points you have available.
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To clarify what it would take to add Flaming Speed to an existing enchanted weapon here's another example.
Jimbob McWizardblade is a 9th level Magus. He wants to have a fiery sword of doom so he buys a +1 Flaming Longsword from Ye Olde Magic Marte™ So when he flies into glorious melee against the Evil and Unpronounceably Named Dragon, he spends a swift action and 1 point from his Arcane Pool before attacking. Now, he can choose to just add a +3 enhancement bonus to his +1 Flaming Longsword, but Jimbob wants a little more bang for his buck. He looks over the Arcane Pool weapon enhancement list and spots the Speed ability. He checks, and Speed does in fact cost exactly a +3 bonus. Jimbob knows that having a whole extra attack per turn is far more valuable than a mere +3 to attack and damage, so he opts for that instead. He is happy because his buddy God Wizard doesn't have to burn a spell slot making sure he is relevant in combat.
Because Jimbob is incredibly smart and wears a Headband of Vast Intellect he has an intelligence of 20, netting him 9 points in his arcane pool which will be more than enough in a given day. Which he will also be spending on certain Magus Arcana on later turns.
Jimbob will never, Nay, can never spend more than one Arcane Point on his normal uses. Only with the secrets of specific sorts of Magus Arcana can he spend more than one point, and usually it isn't worth it.
To be a bit more dangerous in combat lets take a look at Jimbob at 17th level. He can now add up to +5 bonuses-worth of enhancements to his already impressive +2 Ghost Touch Impact Scimitar (Jimbob found out about the Dervish Dance feat and realized that Scimitars were decidedly better than longswords for Magi because of the Dex to Damage and 18-20 crit threat; Magus Spellstrike spells can crit on weapon crits).
Now that his effective enhancement bonus from his Arcane Pool is +5 Jimbob can add Flaming and Speed to his weapon at the same time! He can, if it tickles his fancy, add Keen Flaming Speed to his magnificent +2 Ghost Touch Impact Scimitar of murderhoboing justice. Or any other combination of +5 abilities from his list. (Still only costs 1 point)
(Its alright if you didn't learn anything new from this post, I had fun making it.)
I know that a lot of people are just giving examples, but in general isn't it better at level 5 and higher to just buy as much enhancement bonus as you can afford for the weapon and use the Arcane Pool for the specials?
I would think it is better to buy a +2 weapon rather than +1 Flaming. Use your pool when you hit a creature that is vulnerable to fire, cold, or electricity.
It's actually "best" to buy a bunch of +s and then use the magus pool to add more +s till you reach +5. "Very few" weapon enhancements are "better" or even "equal" to the equivalent +s.
At 5th level can you add +2 to an existing +1 to get +3? I was thinking that the arcane pool could at most bring a weapon to +2.
Also notice I specified saving the elemental damages for when a creature is vulnerable.
The ability stacks with existing enhancements of the weapons.
Also, keen is usually better than just another +1 if you are a crit-fishing shocking grasp or other damage spell magus. If you don't have a reliable source of haste, speed is often better as well. If there's something that you're always putting on your weapon with the arcane pool, it may be worth adding that to your weapon directly to give yourself more flexibility in what to add with the pool.
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It took me quite a while to understand this.
You can now spend one arcane pool point on your weapon, to add +2 worth of enhancements for 1 minute (10 rounds). You can have only one enhancement active at any given time.
If your weapon is not magic, then 1 point of enhancement has to make it +1 (at least) before you can add any other enchantments. The highest bonus the weapon can ever get is +5.
Suppose you have a nonmagical weapon.
You could spend an arcane pool point to have a +2 weapon, or a +1 weapon with some other special property equivalent to a +1 enhancement (Shocking, for example).
Suppose you have a +1 weapon.
You could make it +3, or +2 Shocking, or +1 Shocking Burst.
Let's assume for the moment that you have a +1 weapon.
Suppose in the first round you make your weapon +2 Frost. You then discover that your opponent is vulnerable to fire. You can spend another point to change your weapon from +2 Frost to +2 Flaming.
What you cannot do is add an enhancement equivalent to +3 or more. The Vorpal property is equivalent to +5 enhancement, so you cannot add it until level 17.
i have a +2 mithral bastard sword. If that helps anyone
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From the magic weapons tables here are the enhancement equivalences for the abilities that a standard Magus can add.
+1: flaming, frost, shocking, keen
+2: flaming burst, icy burst, shocking burst
+3: speed
+4: dancing
+5: vorpal
Your weapon already has a +2 enhancement bonus, so what can you add with your Arcane Pool? At 7th level your Arcane Pool lets you add +2 worth of enhancement equivalent bonuses. These can be used to increase your sword's enhancement bonus, add affordable special abilities, or a combination of these.
Speed, dancing, and vorpal are all out of your reach at 7th level. But by spending one Arcane Pool point and using a swift action you can turn your +2 sword into a...
+4 sword
+3 flaming sword
+3 frost sword
+3 shocking sword
+3 keen sword
+2 flaming burst sword
+2 icy burst sword
+2 shocking burst sword
+2 flaming frost sword
+2 flaming shocking sword
+2 flaming keen sword
+2 frost shocking sword
+2 frost keen sword
+2 shocking keen sword
All of those have a total enhancement equivalence of +4 (the original +2 enhancement bonus with an additional +2 from your Arcane Pool).
Spending that one Arcane Pool point will make the enhancements last for one full minute (10 rounds). You can't spend more than that one point to add enhancements (except when using a couple of Magus Arcana). If you spend another point to add other enhancements during those 10 rounds, the first set of enhancements end. So at your level there is no way to have more than +2 worth of Arcane Pool additional enhancements at a time. As your level increases you will eventually be able to add up to +5 enhancement equivalents to your weapon. (Potentially more if you use the aforementioned Arcana.)
It may have helped to add the Enhancement limitation to the special abilities chart of the Magus. I read it the wrong way at first glance too.
If added, it would look something like this:
1...Arcane Pool +1
2...
3...
4...
5...Arcane Pool +2
6...
7...
8...
9...Arcane Pool +3
10...
11...
12...
13...Arcane Pool +4
14...
15...
16...
17...Arcane Pool +5
18...
19...
20...
Actually, after re-reading Arcane Pool, I've got a dumb question. Does adding -just- the enhancement bonus only consume 1 Arcane Point, regardless of how high the enhancement is?
I.e. Can a level 17 Magus make a Masterwork Dagger suddenly become +5 with just one Arcane Point spent?
Yes.
You get +5 of whatever for 1 arcane point. That could be +5 of enhancement bonus, or +5 of special abilities, or any combination of the two. (A weapon must always have a +1 enhancement before any other special abilities are applied though, so a Mwk dagger could not be made a mwk vorpal dagger, it would have to be +1 dagger +4 specials).
Huh, silly me. I've been doing it wrong this entire time! I've been spending it on a 1-to-1 basis. Egads, my poor level 13 Magus has suffered to my own stupidity
(i.e. to get said Masterwork Dagger to +5 or +1/Dancing, or +2/Speed, it would consume 5 Arcane Points. Whoops.)
yeah, the ability ever and only costs 1 point.
I think spell recall had the scaling arcane point cost based on spell level. Most magi I've made give up spell recall, though, so I'm not terribly familiar.