Magus and long lasting spells


Round 3: Revised Magus Discussion

Shadow Lodge

Elemental Touch last more than one round. The first round you could Spell Combat but how do you handle the second round? The same with Fire Breath and Flaming Sphere, can you Spell Combat the next succeeding rounds?

Liberty's Edge

If it's a touch spell, I don't see why you would use Spell Combat when you could just channel the touch spell through your weapon and attack normally.

Fire Breath and Flaming Sphere are a little different, and I suppose it wouldn't hurt the game much to do it that way (as you suggest) with the magus.

Shadow Lodge

The idea is to get as many attacks as I can with Spell Combat. You can still Spell Strike and Spell Combat at the same time. I suppose you are going along with the idea you can spell combat the succeeding rounds. Thank you

Liberty's Edge

I am, although there is no place in the rules where it is explicitly said that you can.

Shadow Lodge

Because it doesn't say that you can I was hopping that many would say something along the lines as to why I can or can't. So far, I've been asking DM's if I can and so far, so good, I've been given permission. I was wondering what the masses would say. Thanks for your input.


ShadowDax wrote:
The idea is to get as many attacks as I can with Spell Combat. You can still Spell Strike and Spell Combat at the same time. I suppose you are going along with the idea you can spell combat the succeeding rounds. Thank you

Depends on what you are trying to do:

IF you are trying to use chill touch with spellstrike (which allows you to attack with it through your weapon) while using spell combat you might end up highly disappointed -- Chill Touch is specifically a 'touch spell' that you hold the charge with -- if you cast a spell with that charge remaining you'll lose the chill touch as you cast the other spell.

Elemental touch has a duration so I think you might be in the clear (so you could attack with it using spellstrike during a round you are using spell combat to full attack and cast a spell -- however you'll need to attack then cast so you don't lose the charge on elemental touch for the round due to casting a spell).

This is all in the "IIRC" column though -- ask me again tomorrow when I've slept.

Shadow Lodge

Oh, please get your sleep and then tomorrow, tell me about this column.


This is it.

Liberty's Edge

I think the idea is that you use Spell Combat not to cast a new spell, but to get an extra touch attack (or concentrate on a spell already cast). Which I have no problem with.


Um... no. A touch attack eats up one of your iterative attacks (or your main attack) every time. Nothing anywhere suggests that you gain extra attacks from having spell combat (in fact spell combat almost prohibits you from gaining extra attacks while using it), or that you can somehow use it to gain an attack when you didn't cast a spell.

Again, all spell combat does is let you full attack and cast a spell -- possibly increasing the penalty on the attack roll to increase your concentration check if you want to.

It in no way allows you extra attacks, especially when you are not even casting a spell.


Abraham spalding wrote:

Um... no. A touch attack eats up one of your iterative attacks (or your main attack) every time. Nothing anywhere suggests that you gain extra attacks from having spell combat (in fact spell combat almost prohibits you from gaining extra attacks while using it), or that you can somehow use it to gain an attack when you didn't cast a spell.

Again, all spell combat does is let you full attack and cast a spell -- possibly increasing the penalty on the attack roll to increase your concentration check if you want to.

It in no way allows you extra attacks, especially when you are not even casting a spell.

Yes, it can. Even without going into whether a held spell can be used with spell combat, you can absolutely use spell combat to make a full attack, cast shocking grasp (for example) and make your free touch attack. That may be an inferior tactic to just using Spell Strike, but it is still a valid one.


That attack is part of the spell -- as such I count it as part of casting the spell -- but I will agree that is legal and it is an extra attack of sorts.


ShadowDax wrote:
Elemental Touch last more than one round. The first round you could Spell Combat but how do you handle the second round? The same with Fire Breath and Flaming Sphere, can you Spell Combat the next succeeding rounds?

Flaming Sphere works normally but you can't redirect it when you use spell combat (you don't have the move action), and fire breath does not interact at all with Spell Combat.

Flaming Touch can be used normally with spell combat, since they are normal (touch) attacks.


Synapse wrote:
ShadowDax wrote:
Elemental Touch last more than one round. The first round you could Spell Combat but how do you handle the second round? The same with Fire Breath and Flaming Sphere, can you Spell Combat the next succeeding rounds?

Flaming Sphere works normally but you can't redirect it when you use spell combat (you don't have the move action), and fire breath does not interact at all with Spell Combat.

Flaming Touch can be used normally with spell combat, since they are normal (touch) attacks.

Well you could cast the fire breath spell -- but yes you wouldn't get to actually use the breath weapon it gives you in the round you cast the spell.


casting wall spells with spell combat would work for setting up area control.

big fight put up a wall at your back so you can't be flanked

by the same token a flaming sphere at your back would also protect your flank anyone wanting to flank is going to take damage.

If you not going to use spell combat to add damage to your melee I'd say you be better off using control spells on the battlefield

Shadow Lodge

Synapse wrote:
ShadowDax wrote:
Elemental Touch last more than one round. The first round you could Spell Combat but how do you handle the second round? The same with Fire Breath and Flaming Sphere, can you Spell Combat the next succeeding rounds?

Flaming Sphere works normally but you can't redirect it when you use spell combat (you don't have the move action), and fire breath does not interact at all with Spell Combat.

Flaming Touch can be used normally with spell combat, since they are normal (touch) attacks.

I'm confused, I'm assuming then that I can use Spell Combat and cast Fire Breath then use my normal amount of attacks in a round at minus two. The next round I can use Spell Combat and breathe using the breath weapon from the spell as my spell portion of Spell Combat then get my normal amount of attacks at minus two. This repeats for the next two rounds as the breath weapon gets weaker as I use Spell Combat, or can I?

I get I can use Spell Combat for Elemental Touch using Spell Strike as my spell part in Spell Combat in each round and get my normal amount of attacks at minus two. I'm combining Spell Combat and Spell Strike with Elemental Touch, or am I wrong?

I'm not thinking I can cast two spells in the same round using Spell Combat, I'm thinking of using one spell then getting my normal amount of attacks at minus two.


I may have expressed it wrongly, but I never talked about spellstrike. Here's the deal:

Flaming/Elemental Touch. This gives you a touch attack instead of being a touch spell with a bunch of charges like Chill Touch. This means you can cast it and, using spell combat, use those touch attacks as your full attack routine instead of whatever else you have (as in: you cast a spell and do a bunch of touch attacks)

Fire Breath does not require attack rolls at all, and so it doesn't fit anywhere in spell combat's "do all your attacks and cast a spell". You can, however, cast fire breath through spell combat. You just can't attack with it through spell combat.
(The latter is subject to defining what an attack really is)


ShadowDax wrote:


I'm confused, I'm assuming then that I can use Spell Combat and cast Fire Breath then use my normal amount of attacks in a round at minus two. The next round I can use Spell Combat and breathe using the breath weapon from the spell as my spell portion of Spell Combat then get my normal amount of attacks at minus two. This repeats for the next two rounds as the breath weapon gets weaker as I use Spell Combat, or can I?

Well, that's certainly how it ought to work. Unfortunately the Spell Combat rules say "cast" a spell, so by a strict interpretation I don't think it does. Hopefully the UM will clear things up a bit.

Community / Forums / Archive / Pathfinder / Playtests & Prerelease Discussions / Ultimate Magic Playtest / Round 3: Revised Magus Discussion / Magus and long lasting spells All Messageboards
Recent threads in Round 3: Revised Magus Discussion