Staff magus and staff recharging


Rules Questions


Hello all.

I’m posting this question since I’ve been unable to find an official answer (the only thread I’ve managed to find in the Rules section is dated from 2011).
It’s a question that has recently arisen in our game table and it’s quite unclear how to resolve it due to the discrepancies (apparent at least) in both available descriptions about it.

The general rule says that a staff can be recharged by expending a spell slot equal to the level of the highest spell stored in the staff during the spell preparation in the morning.
It also says that only one staff cannot gain more than one charge and a caster can only imbue a staff per day.

Then comes the Staff Weapon (Su) trait from the Staff Magus:
A staff magus can restore 1 charge to a staff by expending a number of points from his arcane pool equal to the level of the highest-level spell cast in the staff, as long as at least one spell in the staff is on the magus spell list. The magus cannot restore charges to more than one staff per day. This ability replaces fighter training.

Nowhere says that it’s an alternate way to recharge a staff (other class abilities usually mention this when they complement or replace general rules), and it can be interpreted as an addition to the general ruling improving it.
There’s also the bolded phrase… “cannot restore charges to more than one staff per day”.

RAW, it’s implicit that the magus can restore charges, plural, to a single staff.
RAI, I don’t know.
Given the fact that it’s a class feature, it’s reasonable to think that it’s an improvement to the general rule, but I’d like an official answer if possible.


A Staff Magus is still limited to restoring one charge to one staff per day like everyone else. Hence the sentence that you bolded.

Unlike everyone else, she has two methods for doing so: the standard method and Staff Weapon. The advantage of Staff Weapon is that she can recharge a staff even if she doesn't yet have spell slots as high as the highest level spell in the staff.


Damn, was going to edit the title and now I can't :)
Thanks for the answer. That was also my thinking, but I've seen confronted opinions about it. That's why I was hoping for something official here.

Now, the reason for the edit.

There are two more questions that, as far as I know, have not yet been clarified.

First one: The frostbite-enforcer combo.
It's well known the debate about it (I, myself, see it clear given the fact that the feat specifies that you have to deal nonlethal damage with a weapon without entering into the carrier-carried damage thing)

Second one: Touch spells with multi use capabilities (the mentioned frostbite or chill touch). A post in Ask JJ thread ended with an answer from him saying that this kind of touch spells stop being touch spells after being cast. Charges are not held but subsumed to the caster as "special" abilites that he can use when making a touch attack or weapon attack (if magus) meaning another spells can be cast and such. Yet, this goes against the basic touch spells rule.
Again, I don't know what to think.


On the Frostbite-Enforcer combo, I'm of the opinion that you can't use Enforcer unless the weapon itself is dealing non-lethal damage, but I think that is very much a minority opinion on these boards. If your GM agrees with me, there are always the Bludgeoner or Stage Combatant feats to let you deal non-lethal damage with staves.

Without a link to that post, I'm not sure what JJ was trying to say, but he has said many times that his statements aren't official rules statements. This FAQ makes it clear that if you have charges remaining you can use Spellstrike to continue delivering the spell touch attacks.


The referred post is this post
Also this post


A single hopeful bump

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