One of our campaigns is ending soon, within a week or two according to the DM, and I wanted to come roll a magus for the next campaign.
I was wondering, outside the normal Str/heavy armor Magus build and the Dex focused Dervish Dancer, what are your favorite Magus builds?
I was looking into Eldritch Archer or Bladebound for fun. I've always liked the idea of a Mage using a bow to shoot his mage rather than just casting magic/enchanting the bow on the fly to help in battle, mainly due to old Final Fantasy stuff where the black mage can use a bow. The Bladebound just sounds like tons of fun to RP as, having a LG Paladin blade try to control a TN or CN Magus or a cursed blade from a LE Anti-Paladin trying to seduce a LG/NG Magus.
I like strength-based Hexcrafter with Hex Strike, so that between weapon strikes you can punch with Evil Eye. Throw in Rime Frostbite and you can utterly ruin a target with a single unarmed strike. At level 7 you can turn into a gargoyle with Monstrous Physique and gain more strength, more AC, flight, and bonus natural attacks that also trigger Frostbite.
Somehow a hex-Magus that fights in the form of a sword-wielding gargoyle that resembles their own features just seems like a perfect theme.
I'm looking at building a Mindblade Magus for Hell's Vengeance when I play it some time next year. I really like the ability to create weapons on the fly, and do it as a swift action starting at level 8, with the only real downside being the +10 to the DC for concentration checks imposed by casting with thought components instead of verbal. It should work nicely though, particularly with the party rogue that's taking Butterfly's Sting. Starting at level 8, whenever he crits (Keen Edge is going to be a must), he can pass that crit off to me so on my turn I can turn my weapon into a scythe for the x4 crit multiplier with that, as well as an automatic x2 crit on shocking grasp or whatever I decide to Spellstrike with.
Deep Marshal construct crater, using your spells to make that happen and heal your golem (plus mining to get the materials!) and then you get s%*# like Nex's Secret Workshop to hide your robot sweatshops.
Plus you are great in combat thanks to free caster levels.
Dervish Dance works poorly or not at all with multiple attack types. Strength-based allows two-handing for AoOs, standard attacks, and whenever you don't need Spell Combat, since Frostbite can carry over multiple rounds. It also works better with Monstrous Physique. Since a Magus can wear heavy mithral armor by 7 if they want and Monstrous Physique grants bonus AC, AC isn't really an issue.
Once you reach 3 attacks on a normal Haste full attack, swinging a weapon in two hands with high strength, Power Attack and Frostbite will generally out-damage the usual Spell Combat even without extra natural attacks.
Can you post your build please?
Sure, if I can find it... It's pretty straightforward anyhow.
I have a Staff Magus/Hexcrafter that I'm very fond of. Also a Myrmidarch. They are especially fun now that the Weapon Master's Handbook and the Armor Master's Handbook are out. I've been toying with an Esoteric. I haven't played it yet, but I really like the flavor.
I want to try out a switch-hitting maneuver-based Myrmidarch, potentially with a Gunslinger (or similar) dip -- also see following posts (including the next page of the thread) for additional thoughts and errata. Myrmidarch got a LOT more potential with the release of the Weapon Master's Handbook (and to a lesser extent with the release of the Armor Master's Handbook), and a dip in Gunslinger or something similar even lets you make the otherwise lacklustre Ranged Spellstrike (you DON'T need this to do ranged combat maneuvers) somewhat useful (would otherwise be better if you could somehow avoid trading out Spell Recall and its Improved version).
Also interested in ways of getting two-handed weapons to work decently with a Magus so as to not need the insane amount of feats and specialization of a Whip build.
Also wondering about a Card Caster Magus again focusing on maneuvers, possibly with a dip into Shield Champion Brawler, but I haven't gotten as far on that.
The latter two options have the added interest for being able to combine with Hexcrafter (which you can't do with Myrmidarch).
Also interested in ways of getting two-handed weapons to work decently with a Magus so as to not need the insane amount of feats and specialization of a Whip build.
Quickened Frostbite would basically allow a Magus to bypass needing Spell Combat completely and just ride two-handed spellstrike all day long; though at minimum it's a level 3 spell. For reach, Amateur Swashbuckler plus a Swordmaster's Flair: Blue Scarf gets you a reach-rapier.