Daniel Langton's page

...From what I can tell the arcana pool budget is just the right size to last a Magus through a day of carefully judged encounters, not every move he makes needs to be fired from the pool after all...

I agree completely.

I have been playing Council of Thieves as a Fighter.wizard from 1-4, retooled as magus V1 from 4-8, and now magus V2. As the magus stands currently, i have not once run out of spells per day.

Normal encounters go.
round 1: Enhance weapon + buff or attack spell
round 2: Spell combat + buff
round 3-5: 2hand my bastard sword and go to town, occasionally 1handing and casting either magic missile or Shocking grasp through my sword.

in extremely difficult fights i normally will spell-combat every round

Arcane Pool gives me the flexibility and longevity i lacked during magus V1

the day i see an apg class solo an adult dragon thats 2 CR above it, i will believe any of them are overpowered, however to date, only a cleric, paladin, sorceror, and wizard in my gaming community have managed to pull it off

So i changed my Ftr1/Wiz3 into a Magus4 today for council of thieves

Stats(rolled):
Human
STR:18
CON:15
DEX:15
INT:15
WIS:12
CHA:10

Feats:
(Human) Exotic Proficiency Bastard Sword
(1st) Combat Casting
(3rd) Power Attack
(5th) Arcane Strike*

Skills:2+2+Human+FC
Swim:8
Climb:8
Spellcraft:8
Use Magic Device:8
Craft(Weapons):8
Knowledge(Arcana):8

Prepared Spells:
0Light
0Daze
0Mage Hand
0Open/Close
1Shocking Grasp*
1Shocking Grasp
1Shocking Grasp
1Enlarge Person
1Expeditious Retreat
2Bulls Strength
2Mirror Image
2Elemental Touch*

Equipment:
+1 Cold Iron Bastard Sword(Arcane Bond, Shocking)
MW. Chain Shirt
Pearle of Power 1
Slippers of Spider Climb
4x Scroll Scorching ray
4x Scroll of Mage Armor

*were not used in play test

The stats are not so important except starting with a 15 in str and a 15 in int(+2 Str for human, and +1 str for lvl 4)

Party Consisted of: Magus4, Cleric4, Inquisitor4, Wizard4

Anything i didn't see as a threat i would use my bastard sword as a 2-handed weapon Bab+3+4+1-1 1d8+1d6+6+3+1, with bless from cleric, i missed two times through the entire dungeon.

As far as the concentration check during spell combat, i never failed it. however the -4 to attacks did worry me at times, but as i said, i only missed twice.

During the final fight, i was enlarged, and using spell combat to cast shocking grasp as well as buffed with bulls strength. so my attack rolls were more like this: Concentration: 1d20+4+4+2-2 (needing a 9 for lvl 1 spells, and an 11 for lvl 2) 1Handed Bastard Sword: 1d20+3+6+1-4 for a total dmg of 2d8+1d6+4d6+6+1 per hit, the boss creature (some kind of demon otyugh) went down in 3 rounds of attacks.

It is definitely a fun class, but i really think it would be nice to get Bastard sword as an automatic proficiency, or combat casting as a class feature

two words, Bastard Swords.