ChildofChalk's page

Back to the case in point: A person with a spiked gauntlet threatens squares while a person with an unimproved unarmed strike does not. There's not a reach difference here from which to speak. Rather it is a boolean adjudication.

I didn't realise this. I am primarily a player after all, and one coming back from an extended hiatus at that.

I wasn't trying to imply that a person with a sword would hypothetically have better reach and thus potentially get hit with less AoO's than dagger wielder when I was talking about the comparison of an armed or unarmed person diving into an enemies reach to deliver an attack(too much logic for the game, I think).
I was more talking about how open to attack they are, and how the weapon wielder would mostly be pushing the weapon itself into the person's square, rather than fists or feet(which can be opportunistically stabbed/bitten/whacked with a club, if the unarmed combatant is untrained).

But your arguments do make sense. And I was mostly positing the AoO idea because of how close I figure someone would have to get to make an attack without using an arm or a leg. Hence the chest bump joke. The matter of how the spikes threaten makes sense in this context though, now that I think on it.
Someone would likely be to preoccupied with trying to dodge the spikey should-check of death flying towards them to take an AoO against the armour-wearer.

A character with improved unarmed strike has their unarmed strikes count as 'armed' and thus can take AOOs with them.

So thinking on it this way- A trained character can knee someone without provoking an AOO because they are more threatening than an untrained person. A character with sharp spikes on their knee is just as threatening (if not more so frankly).

I've always viewed it more as a matter of getting in and out of people's reach without provoking.

A trained unarmed person though is much more accustomed to not leaving themselves open as they strike at someone.

I didn't know it was about how a person threatens and such.

Yeah, I started him out with 16 Dex. My highest stat right now. Hahah.
Going to need to work on my Int if I'm going to get my caster levels as a Magus.
The fighter level was mostly because I was late in joining the group, and didn't have Ultimate Magic available at the time. Ended up helping the group out of a TPK during their second encounter because I built my character fast.
A side effect to having that fighter level is that I have proficiency in all armour types before I get said proficiencies through my Magus levels.
Meaning that the character can potentially wear a mithral breastplate right now and still cast spells.
At seventh level(when the Magus levels grant him medium armour proficiency/casting), he will be able to wear mithral full plate and still cast spells. Correct? Mithral counts as one category lighter in regards to movement, so could I apply that to spell casting as a Magus?

Without the fighter level, I would not be able to wear these mithral armours because one still needs to be proficient with the armour as if it weren't made of mithral.

Thank you guys for all the advice!
I'm looking forward to trying out two attacks and getting the two handed 1.5 strength damage on one of them. My mind is suitably blown.
Also, all this just at level 2! My first level was as a fighter(a human one at that), so I had a hefty feat boost.

As to the secondary question, two-weapon fighting gets you an extra attack whenever you meet the requirements. So you'll get both your regular attacks from BAB +6/+1 AND one extra attack, BUT you pay the "to hit" penalty on all of your attacks. This penalty varies depending on your feats and the class of the weapons involved and is beyond the scope of this answer.

Well, as armor spikes count as a light weapon, the "to hit" penalty would be -2 to all attacks, correct?

I'm working out my attacks with my Magus right now, and considering all options.
I have a bastard sword, and a great sword for when I want to enlarge myself and go all melee, sacrificing my ability to cast spells until I free up one of my hands.

In regards to wielding my great sword (or my bastard sword two-handed), am I able to also make an off-hand attack with my armour spikes?
Armour spikes don't occupy a hand, so I could potentially hold a two-handed weapon while still wielding the spikes, correct?

(Nevermind the fact that armour spikes allow you to attack someone 5 feet away with ambiguous parts of your body. Does the character execute a friendly chest bump? And one way or another, how does this not provokes AoO's the way unarmed attacks would?)

I have Two-weapon Fighting so this possibility is quite desirable in plain melee combat.

As a secondary question, how does Two-weapon Fighting interact later on with a +6/+1 base attack bonus?

Hmm, that's another thing to think about. It's generally okay to take two archetypes in one class?
If so, that's another thing I'll have to clear with my GM.
Food for thought. Thanks Edgar!

you can learn every magus spell you are capable of casting, by preparing the spell, and subsequently writing it down into your spellbook.

I suspected something like this would be possible for knowledge pool. Thanks for confirming it. And indeed.

But as a Cabalist, it naturally wouldn't be handy, since a Cabalist doesn't have a spellbook.

I could do the alternative, and take a sorc level to qualify, but that would set back a lot of the perks for this build (aside from my BAB).
My bloodline levels would start at that level, rather than getting the seven level boost they would with the Cabalist.

I would basically miss out on half of the special and lovely dragon powers, for the sake of knowledge pool(and being a bladebound magus).

I'm wanting to gain access to the Dragon Disciple Prestige class via the spontaneous casting Cabalist Magus archetype.
My GM has approved the basic INT based Cabalist Magus system, so I have the go ahead for that.
I could dip into a sorcerer level even if he didn't, but that would be to the detriment of my DD levels, by the end of it.
But my big question is, do the Cabalist levels in the draconic Bloodline count as sorcerer levels when it comes to the DD Blood of Dragons ability?

"Blood of Dragons: A dragon disciple adds his level
to his sorcerer levels when determining the powers
gained from his bloodline. If the dragon disciple does
not have levels of sorcerer, he instead gains bloodline
powers of the draconic bloodline, using his dragon disciple
level as his sorcerer level to determine the bonuses gained.
He must choose a dragon type upon gaining his first level
in this class and that type must be the same as his sorcerer
type. This ability does not grant bonus spells to a sorcerer
unless he possesses spell slots of an appropriate level. Such
bonus spells are automatically granted if the sorcerer gains
spell slots of the spell’s level."

As a secondary question; the Cabalist is stated as gaining a sorcerer bloodline at 7th level instead of his knowledge pool, treating his magus level as his sorcerer level.
Does he retroactively gain the powers that he has so far missed? In this case, does he gain claws attacks that are considered magic and deal 1d6, DR 5 for his energy type,and a natural ac +1? All at 7th level?
Does this seem an excessive trade off in replacement of Knowledge Pool to any of you?

I would love some advice with these two questions. Also, by the by, first time poster, here(be gentle).