Azuroth's page

You could always wear some studded leather (or chain shirt if you take the armor expert trait) for a level or two. This will give you a +3 ac with a -1 to attack rolls. You would also have a 15% spell failure, but since you are likely only casting one spell a day, it's not a huge deal. When your AC catches up, take off the armor, or get mithril chain and live with a 10% spell failure.

Even with a fumble, the Magus wouldn't discharge into the wall.

...a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell....

His attack was not successful, being a natural 1, therefore the requirements for spellstrike were not met.

It's feat intensive, but with a high AC, high dex, and Kensai, Snake Fang could be quite handy.

If you happen to be carrying a charge (or charges in the case of frostbite / chill touch), so much the better.

Considering the Ankh-Morpork City Watch has a Feegle that rides a vulture, I think you should take the bird companion.

You should either get a pair of silk underpants for a parachute, or a helm of feather fall that screws you into the ground headfirst, requiring the rest of the round to get unstuck. :)

Also, you only get 1 AoO per round unless you have the Combat Reflexes feat and then it is maxed at whatever your Dex modifier is.

Off topic, but Dex Mod + 1.

The attack of opportunity is triggered before the action that triggered it is resolved.

The AoO does not come before the triggering event happens, it occurs before the trigger completes.

In the case of Greater Trip, this means that you successfully make your trip attempt, but before the results of that action (opponent getting the prone modifier applied) you take an attack of opportunity. Think of it as tripping them and smacking them with your weapon on their way down.

For Vicious Stomp, the trigger is an opponent receiving the prone modifier. In the normal case of falling down, there is nothing else that happens after the modifier is applied, so after your AoO, you move on to the next action. This could be the next character, the rest of your actions, or the tripped characters remaining actions for the round depending on when the trip occurs.

If there was some spell or feat that said "An opponent is knocked prone and then blinded" Vicious Stomp would happen between the becoming prone and the blinding.

Enlarge Person doesn't work on Tieflings, but there is no reason a wizard couldn't research a new custom spell, Enlarge Outsider.

With the research rules, it seems like a perfectly fine 1st level spell to make.

When holding a charge you count as armed, so if you have no natural attacks and no Improved Unarmed Strike feat, you can make AoOs unarmed until you hit. You cannot, however, make an AoO as a touch attack.

Sort of. You do not count as armed when making an unarmed attack with a held charge. You only count as armed when making a touch attack while holding the charge. I'm not sure if you could make a melee touch attack as an AoO.

Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack.

Fury's Fall Add Dex to CMB for Trip attacks.

He has an extra arm from the Alchemist class Mathwei... while it doesn't get an extra attack on its own, it can be used as the 2nd arm of a two-handed weapon, leaving his other (main) arm free for spell casting.

Extra hands are irrelevant for spell combat.

To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

The one flaw I see with the Snake style is that all my AOOs it grants need to be unarmed strikes.

True, but it makes Chill Touch and Frostbite significantly more interesting. All touch spells can be delivered by an unarmed attack.

I've not seen an official ruling on whether you can enchant a black blade, and I'd rather not spark the discussion.

You cannot.

-Improved Unarmed Strike/Crane Style/Crane Wing (UC). These feats were made for magi, duelists, and monks! If that one wayward shot gets through, you have an instant deflection....

As a Kensai, I prefer the Snake Style tree. With Snake Fang every opponent that misses provokes an AoO. With an 18 int 18 dex, you have 9 AoOs a round. You won't get that one deflect, but they will probably already be dead.

Haste for another 30 feet, and expeditious retreat for another 30

Haste and Expeditious Retreat are both enhancement bonuses, so they don't stack.

Hmm kind of low, guess I should invest in combat casting.

Don't.

If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check.

When you cast a melee touch spell, and you don't hit with the free attack you are allowed to make(or if the touch spell has multiple charges), you can keep attacking with it the following rounds to try and get it off.

My question is, do you have to make each touch attack as a standard action, or can you attempt to two-weapon fight with the touch spell, effectively giving you two chance to hit, for a small penalty on that roll.

Additional, can you make multiple touch attacks if you base attack bonus is high enough to allow for iterative attacks?

The question specifically relates to Chill touch, which has multiple charges based on caster level, but i guess it's the same for a touch spell like Vampiric Touch, at least until you hit the first time.

As a non-magus, you can choose to deliver the charge as a melee touch attack, against the opponents touch AC, as a standard action. You can also choose to deliver the charge with an unarmed strike or natural weapon attack against an opponents full AC. This would follow all the normal rules of unarmed strikes (provokes without a feat or ability that says it doesn't, iteratives based on BAB, TWF, whirlwind, whatever).

As a magus, you have all the above options, but you can also spellstrike to deliver the charge with a wielded weapon.

Again, what, exactly, is that plain/common-sense reading? Does Spell Combat allow for Iterative Attacks even without utilizing full-attack as a sub-component of the Spell Combat full-round action and Haste is being changed to work with Iterative Attacks rather than Full-Attack? Or is Spell Combat being changed to allow for Full-Attack as a sub-component so that Haste, along with fight defensively, flurry of blows, and any other ability that comes into play when making a Full-Attack, is remaining the same but now works with Spell Combat because Spell Combat is being changed?

The general intent is: if an ability implies that you're making a full attack (whether or not you're specifically using the full attack action), then haste should work with that ability.

This doesn't seem to touch fighting defensively, FoB, Natural Attacks, or anything else you can additionally do when full attacking.

Relevant new design team post here.

This is how I would have read this FAQ, if I was not aware of all the threads on it.

You can make as many weapon attacks as you would normally be able to make with a full attack.

If I were not using Spell Combat, and just had my blade in one hand, how many attacks would I get on a full attack? Iteratives + haste would seem to be the answer, but posting that in this thread prior to the above decision would have certainly invoked my Flame Resist 5.

I also assume that since it says weapon attacks, a Magus with natural weapons (say a bite and a tail slap) and a sword in hand could not spell combat, cast, take full sword iteratives, haste if applicable, and also make natural weapon attacks?

However, if the above Magus had Frostbite running, and did an actual Full Attack Action, would Frostbite go off on all sword attacks, and the natural attacks?

Also if I cast another spell, any other spell, the charge is lost. This is the rule that frostbite and chill touch ignores. The charge of these spells is not lost from the casting of other spells, and you can continue to make touch attempts in order to spend the charges.

In theory they would continue to discharge all the other normal reason's as well. If this holds true, and you cast shocking grasp and make your touch attack, does frostbite go off?

Says who? I don't see anything in the rules that says Frostbite or Chill Touch ignore the Holding a Charge rules.

However, if you are making unarmed attacks anyway, you could cast Elemental Touch before Frostbite, and discharge both of them.

xeratherus wrote:

the scenario reads---after the second failed save or if the party exerts itself, they are exhausted.

Not quite. The scenario as you posted it says after the first night, you make a save or are fatigued, and after a second night, you make a save or are exhausted. That second save is not dependent on the results of your first save. Anyone who goes without sleep for two days under this variant rule must make a fort save on the second night or be exhausted.

Well if being Evil is a problem, look at:

Ice Spears

Mad Monkeys

or the more Iconic

Hold Person

I have been trying to come up with sor/wiz spells I'd really like at level 12 (1 4th or 2 lower-level spells) and haven't found much in the way of amazing, but at 17 that'd bump the options up to 6th-level spells. :)

I like:

Excruciating Deformation

Touch of Slime

Enervation

Calcific Touch

This was definitely my plan. Lots of first level pearls of power for lots of Intensified shocking grasps, and later 3rd level pearls of power for Intensified Empowered shocking grasps.

I'm not entirely convinced you need a 3rd level pearl for IESG. It's still a first level spell.

See the rules discussion

My brother plays one in a campaign we're in. He's actually retraining out of it because taking those two archetypes really hurts your spellcasting. You have one less spell per level and can't dump arcane points to reprepare shocking grasp with Spell Recall. You also can't spellstrike with wands or scrolls, so ultimately the bladebound kensai ends up being very auto-attack focus, basically a fighter who can't wear armor with a very limited spell resource.

Of course, with both archetypes you are no longer spending money on a weapon, and probably not on armor. Spend some of that extra cash on Pearls of Power and recall spells without using points, to keep those points for weapon buffs.

I have considered the kensai. But I really don't like to give up any of my casting. I'm kinda on the fence about that. I keep switching back and forth. i will have to decide after the next session with this guy because he will be 2nd level and set at that point.

Pearls of power are pretty cheap.

Take some levels of Kensai to get Superior Reflexes for more AoO's.
Not to mention you could cast Frostbite/Chill Touch the round before to add magical effects to every one of those attacks.

Attempting to leave a square does not provoke an AoO. Leaving a square does. If the player fails their acro check to move through the enemy, their movement immediately ends. They haven't left any threatened squares, so the only AoO would be from the opponent they tried to tumble through.

Though, you'd be crazy to fight unarmed with anything other than a Monk or Fighter.

I have a magus with the snake style line, trip feats, vicious stomp, and IUS. Cast Frostbite, Chill Touch, etc. for multiple charged touch attacks, and go to town.

TL:DR - a spell is not an actual arm, just like spell-like abilities are NOT spells.

That bold part is not true. Recent FAQs have said that they are, and they count for PrC requirements.

To the OP: Nope, as mentioned several times.

The PrC requires a character to be "Able to cast 3rd-level arcane spells." Note: "spells", not "spell". So you'd need at least one additional spell or SLA.

Are you suggesting then that a Ftr 1 / Wiz 5 with 14int is not eligible for Eldritch Knight? They would only have one 3rd level spell per day.

Or is it that they don't qualify unless they have two third level spells in their book?