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I play-tested a magus villain yesterday
RotRL spoilers
Turned Koruvus into a Magus 4 and gave him a Sinspawn ally.
So our 4-armed mutant goblin magus wielding medium-sized weapons was a real challenge for a party of four level 2 unoptimised players.
His damage was good with his primary attack (put highest stat in strength, with mutation he had a +4) doing 1d8+1d6+4 (+1 longsword, flaming Arcane Weapon, +4 strength) and with a +4 to hit or +0 when spellcasting there was quite a lot of flailing around.
The mwk hand-axe and silver dagger in his third and fourth hands barely ever hit (but I don't think they should).
His main advantage was economy of action. Despite being outnumbered he could burn off a lot of actions. His Colour Spray halved the party and although web and grease both failed he kept on firing of daze spells, which occasionally caught someone.
He was an effective villain and could have been a TPK without some bad rolls by me as GM.
Conclusions -
1. He burnt through his spells very fast, which is better for a villain than a PC.
2. Of the spells he used, colour spray worked but grease, shocking grasp and web all failed - that's a 25% success ratio, even with combat casting.
3. His weapon could dish out the damage when it hit but it didn't hit often enough (partly due to the odd character).
4. An interesting/entertaining character whose mass of actions caught the players off-guard "Wow, how much stuff can he do!"
5. If his spell-casting was 100% effective he would have taken down the whole group on his own (CR4 magus vs. level 2 party).
My thoughts
1. Casting and fighting at the same time should be presented as an option of last resort. Otherwise Magus is better off being a character who casts one/two spells and then charges in.
2. Arcane weapon is the coolest thing. Not simultaneous casting.