Hello Pathfinder Forums,
I thought I should make this thread to clearly put out what I believe the basic concept the Magus Class should be built around. Feel free to disagree.
First off the key difference between this class and a magic using class will of course be its ability to go into melee combat.
Second is that the class, while able to be in melee, is able to cast spells.
So we probably have a class that is to be designed for casting during in melee. The simplest way to accomplish this is the ability to combine a spell into a melee strike so it is nether a ranged attack or actually casting a spell so provoking attacks of opportunity isn't that big of a problem.
Role in Combat
So we already have a list of melee combatants each ether having a role, or niche, in combat.
Fighter: Damage anything
Barbarian: (best I can guess) Take the damage
Paladin: Destroy the big or major evil villain
Ranger: Destroy select target
Spells
I purpose that we have the Magus be the Damage Dealer by exploits. The class will primarily deal damage by taking advantage of damage type weaknesses, or be able to do damage due to a lack of protection of the target to that type. Now there can be some utility spells thrown in, like fight feats.
How is this balanced? One of two ways really, ether by spell selection or amount of use, ether would work as a point of deficiency. As for the damage bonus. Like the barbarian, a limited number of uses with a bonus to damage is not uncommon. A barbarian gets a +4 Strength , +4 Constitution, -and 2 AC, with a maximum of 9 rounds. So a spell that can grant +2 to damage,+2 hit points per level, combat maneuvers, strength and constitution based skills, -2 to AC with becoming fatigued after use is not out of the question. However this is supposed to be more focused, and something a bit more unique. So cut out some of the bonuses to eliminate the negatives. No fatigue effect could be balanced by the removal of +4 constitution. The -2 AC effect could be removed with the removal of +2 combat maneuvers, strength and constitution skills, and the increase in damage when using a weapon two handed. This leaves with a +2 damage and +2 to hit, which can be used 9 times. Unlimited uses of a spell that grants something like this is in melee or ranged seems reasonable when compared to a Acid Orb or Ray of Frost, which deals 1D3 damage as a ranged attack of 25ft +5ft/2 levels. So to make this act more like a spell, remove the +2 to hit from this effect. Each +2 to hit generally is worth +2 to damage when looking at the effects of weapon specialization and weapon focus feats. So if we focused this theoretical spell we would be looking at +6 damage. Elemental damage tends to be more of a benefit than a hindrance, so drop the damage to +4 to balance this? Converting this to a variable a D6 can get you and average damage of 3.5 damage with an equal possibility of getting only a 1 or 6, or something more unique like 2D3 with a minimum of 2, but still a maximum of 6, but with an average of 4. Note we still haven't excluded being used in both melee and ranged like barbarian rage, or that it is a swift action like rage, to be used period. Being able to use it in melee with a weapon or not is balanced by the fact it needs to hit their AC not their touch, like a ray of frost.
Armor restrictions could also add to giving the spells and class abilities to balance. Medium armor training is a must, as it is an arcane caster heavy for free would be too far off the mark of flavor, but being able to cast while wielding a shield and sword in had is a probable need. Tower shields are obviously out though.
Now this is a little higher than a wizard spell, but the class isn't supposed to be as versatile as a wizard, and need to do something like a fighter. So to be to-par with a straight barbarian rage this is probably what it should look like. Perhaps not unlimited use though, but the equivalent of 9 uses with a 20 starting caster stat is very reasonable especially considering that the casting stat may not help as much in combat as constitution, and will not help a saving throw, as being arcane which will also entail a large number of counter-ability past what is needed from rage, such as spell resistance, or possibly even verbal components.
Se we are left with this theoretical spell:
Imbued Attack of (Energy Type)
School evocation; Level magus 0
Casting Time 1 swift action
Components V, S
Range melee, close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect special
Duration 1 round
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
A rush of (energy type) rushes over your melee or ranged weapon. The spell effect can be added to any held weapon when the spell is casted. You must succeed on a melee or ranged attack with or without a weapon to deal damage to a target. The spell deals 1d6 points of (energy type) damage with +1 per 4 caster levels. Alternatively you may use this spell to create a weapon for the duration of the spell, but it does not benefit from an feats not focused toward the spell itself. This spell can be used as many times per round as they have attacks for that round.
Honestly, how does this compare to 1 round use of barbarian rage?
However this would be with a class that granted no bonus to hit, so a 1D3 of 1D4 damage would probably be better, leaving room for a class ability or long lasting spell granting such a bonus. However I will admit I am not a master of balancing so things at this point have gotten deluded.
Skills: I think differing from other melee classes, the Magus should have all knowledge skills, excluding those that do not include monsters, such as nobility, local, and probably engineering. Spellcraft is a must as well.
The mechanics:
Base Attack Bonus: "Full" 1:+1 level:bonus ratio
Hit Points: 1D10 (Ideally I would do a D8, but those are the rules. Also note that the barbarian used to make the level 0 spell has a D12)
Casting Progression: "Unknown" but spells at level 1 is a necessity. Probably due to the lack of selection for this class, I would say bard progression.
Saving Throw Progression: Good Fort and Will save are a must.
Now a lot of people have/are saying we need a 3/4 base attack class with bard spell progression for this. Well with the talk about the coming bard variants, this is probably already on the way.
So that just leaves full base attack bonus melee caster class.
Okay, finished editing, sorry for the confusion.