tanglang's page

Nice guide.
One thing.
I´M not sure because the book belongs to my brother in law and i have read it some time ago.
But i think that in orcs of golarion is some kind of feat or trait that enables you to do 1 point of non lethal damage ( in addition to the normal lethal damage)with any hit with an orc profiency weapon ( greataxe,orc double axe,etc.).
So a half orc would not need to do stun damage with the merciful blade trait or get a merciful weapon.
You might want to have a look in this.

Hi.
I actually managed to remember the password on this never used account. Just to answer you :-)

I am planning a Hexcrafter/Staff Magus combo too. So this thread has great interest for me. Sadly due to my studies and two of the players in my group having gotten a lille baby boy i do not have time to play my concept. ubt i´m planning for more than a year.

Magus is a class that apparently ( the internet tells me so) burst like hell with one meatbuild or be a frightening good controller with another one.
But for me it really shines in having options, even in this " cliché" builds.
I would not necessarily avoid mechanically good builds at all costs.
It´s the same with the ,feared by some GMs, Sleep Hex. It can be strong but why use it all the time. Boring. But really good to have if you need to coup de gracé this evil guy to power up your wyrood handled weapon something like this.

And in my mind your combo gives even more options. What i always liked ( in theory because of my no game situation)are a few of the following points. Maybe the help to inspirate you.

- staff magus opens up staves as rechargable magic items even with spells from other spell list ( just need to have a magus spell on it, oh the options...)
- makes you last even longer in an adventuring day because of easy staff use
- other longetivity sources are hexes (take sleep/ice tomb)and brand as acool source for spellcombat
- if you are a elf, or a half elf with ancestral arms you can still do the highcrit weapon (possibly with shocking grasp, just take the trait for it, it´s fun)routine.
- you can full gandalf style with magic stave for spellcombat (take wand wielder arcana) and rapier/longsword (from elf proficiencies) in the other hand for stabbing.
- i guess it will even look like magic force effect if you add your staves enhancement bonus too your AC with quarterstaff defense. that´s a winner because of rule of cool right there
- bonus points you if take a magic stave that counts as a magic 1+/1+ quarterstaff ( higher for you due to quarterstaff defense)and add the defending magic weapon property (thats +10 to AC if you wield the staff in combat)
- maybe get glove of storing for even more combat flexibility.
- flight hex for maneuvering
-hair hex for holding rods/wands
- and for 10foot reach, you have true strike and can use it for combat maneuvers with a +20 bonus without any feats and enemys cant AOO you because of the distance, many new combat options right there and no need to invest in tripping staff or whirling staff feats.
- flight and hair hex for the evil kung fu witcher look. refluff your rapier as a chinese jian and you are a BBEG straight out of a shaw brothers movie. impale or grapple people with your hair.
- there is some belt in i think ultimate combat that can get your strikes a garb attack, but i am not sure that this actaully work.
Found it http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/belt- anaconda-s-coils Get this and maybe you are allowed to take the grab feat by your gm, now take the hair hex and be really mean to people.( but i am still not really sure if it works, comments are appreciated)
- get the new flamboyant arcana and the other one that gets you your level as precision damage. now the flying kung fu witcher can actually fight, no more need for power attack.
- do not take evil eye. you want swift actions two 1. upgrade your weapon, 2. too use arcanas like arcane accuracy or other useful ones you might have. 3. for quickend spells if s%@% hits the fan.

That is mostly staffm/hecr. specific and gives you nive damage, longetivity and options, options, options ( sure, you just could shocking grasp the guy but why would you when you just got flame blade on your new stave and want to go jedi on him while hitting him on touch AC)

Also the normal magus fun stuff might prevent you from playing to the cliché too much:
- pull yourself to a bad guy with force hook or blade dash and poke him with whatever weapon you prefer.
- poke him again in the next round and use vanish before he retaliates, just because you can.
- cut him some more while he isn´t looking ( you are invisible, remember?) and then get rid of him with force push
- get a rod of daze and abuse the hell out of dazing aqueous orb or similar spells
- get a monkey familiar and and use aforementioned rod to give him a dazing burning gaze ( now that´s what i call evil eye).

So you have thousands of fun things to do. Just experiment, be creative, have fun. I would not worry about some feats/traits being overused because you have so much to do.
And i personally still want to take the metamagic trait/shockinggrasp/rapier combo for my palnned elf staffmagus/Hexcrafter. Because i can!

And if you do not like something you can swap out feats with retraining for a small fee. I personally recommend getting Craft Staff or Craft wondrous item to have enough spare money for retraining and nice items.

Also i would not go the agility to hit/dam, dervish dance route with your stats ( might come up as a recommendation in this thread). Just hit people hard or blast or curse them. You have between enough feats to choose, so do not waste them on this.

Hope i could help a bit, i really would like to play something like this right now. So you have to do it and tell about it later in this thread ;-)
Regards,
Fangschreck.

But who says you need to have two "blades" to two weapon fight? The feat only says "weapon" and as a monk my unarmed strikes count as both manufactured and natural. True, there is some debate as to whether you can use your hand and a weapon (kukri) during spell combat but you can always hold the charge on your touch spell and forgo the potential failed casting defensively check.

But why invest in TWF?

Kysune wrote:

Spells I'd realistically focus on are ones with no save, magic missile, stone call, etc that just can't be avoided by my typically low int save.

Those can be useful, but it might be better to focus on Personal spells that aid your melee performance. Shield and Mirror Image for surviving with d6 hit dice and no armor, and the various spells that transmute you into monstrous creatures with strength bonuses.

Your spells per day will be a little lower than normal, so wands will be your friends.
Your damage isn't going to be as good as a regular melee attacker, but with a Wizard's flexibility out of combat you're unlikely to be a useless member of the party.

Good points, and since i still recommend the staff magus option:

My resistance to Magus was I didn't know that they had the same spell lists, also magus may work TOO well for this concept. My concept is a student that's father has encouraged him to learn arcana and eventually go into the same business as his father. The out of game concept is a unique character that has a 'shock' value of "Did I just see an arcane caster just charge that orc and destroy him?" Only other thing with Magus is people expect them to get into melee and they typically excel quite well at it.

I may go with the Magus as it works well, but I may consider some other method as it can sometimes be more fun to be the underdog and climb to the top instead of starting out on the top to begin with. Hope no one takes that the wrong way, as I'm asking advise for a melee arcane caster. I'm not sure I want to make him "perfect" though via going Magus. Trying to develop an interesting underdog character in inspiration of one of Ander Wood's videos (from youtube).

Well,the in charcter view for some NPC here would be that they look on your characters appearance, not his class. There will no little green interface box over your head that says "Kysune- Magus lvl xy".

That said, you do not want to look into magus, you do want to look specifially into Staff Magus. No Armor profiency for you and efficient Staff use. That means you look like a wizard,talk like a wizard and sling spells like a wizard ( Well, at least when you get your hands on staves with spells of levels 7+, staff magus can recharge them),
you basically ARE a withard.
BUT- you hit way harder than a wizard.

You will only have simple weapons as proficiencys, but that is easy to solve. Take the heirloom weapon trait and refluff it as the one weapon the captain of the university guard gave you because you always secretly trained with him and the guys and he got to became like a surrogate father for you,... or something like this.
Or be a human looking half orc ( dad always suspected your mom wasn`t that good a wife....) and get greataxe proficiency for free.

And with a few pearls of power lvl 1 you can most of the time play like wizard. Color spray , grease, haste the rest of party, etc.
Then surprise the BBEG with the rimed frostbite,enforcer combo or something. The one thing Magus exel at is going Nova at bad guys once or twice a day.
That leads us to: " Did the wizard guy with the hat and the wizard stick just grow to 10 feet, charged the bad guy and electrocuted him with a giant axe? WTF" or one of the many other ways to go over the top with a magus.
Looks pretty much like what you want. A bit like fantasy Harry dresden without the .38 special. Or a dual bachelor in spellsling/asskicking instead of a single master in wizardry ( hey, dad never cared for your schedule, just the title)as another way to view it.

( I,m planning for a elf Staff/Hexcrafter magus that´s probably the most efficient because of Rapier prof for elves and the high crit shocking grasps. He will use a stave from lvl 10 on as a shield and abuse one or two gloves of storing, but a glove of storing will surely also work for a giant axe and spelltrike use)

Give it a go, Magi are fun.

I would not invest in the torch and besides, technostuff might not fly with some groups.

<just get a staff or wand with the lasersword spell from the druid spell list or even better use this one http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/divine-trident.
It even is a P weapon and you could use it with Precise strike.
And elemental spell it to any other energy type if required.