Has anyone tried making a Magus / Arcane Archer?


Round 3: Revised Magus Discussion


It seems like a flavorful option to your standard wiz/fighter/AA. I could see spell strike stacking with the melee attack you get in stabbing shot.


imjohnnyrah wrote:
It seems like a flavorful option to your standard wiz/fighter/AA. I could see spell strike stacking with the melee attack you get in stabbing shot.

I've actually played around with a Magus/Arcane Archer build but have yet to actually play it. The build looks great on paper. You essentially can become an arcane switch hitter. It looks like the best time to start taking AA is at about level 9, to get an extra arcana. If you want to go the switch hitter route it will be pretty feat intensive, but in my opinion the concept is interesting enough to warrant it. There also may be a more ranged focused archetype for the Magus in one of the Ultimate books, which would definitely lend itself to a ranged focused Magus/AA.

Scarab Sages

it seems stabbing shot will not work with spell combat as it does not fulfill the "To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free, while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand." statement of the spell combat ability. All bow descriptions specifically state "You need two hands to use a bow, regardless of its size.".


I would LOVE to see an archer archetype. As for now I'm writing a sheet up for a new campaign and I plan to use the majority of my feats for ranged combat save for finesse and scribe scroll.

Mcarvin wrote:
it seems stabbing shot will not work with spell combat as it does not fulfill the "To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free, while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand." statement of the spell combat ability. All bow descriptions specifically state "You need two hands to use a bow, regardless of its size.".

I agree but that’s for spell combat, not spellstrike. Spellstrike allows the magus to deliver any touch spell through a melee weapon. In stabbing shot you use an arrow as a melee weapon for the first of your full attack. By all means, if I'm misinterpreting this somebody please correct me.

Scarab Sages

imjohnnyrah wrote:

I agree but that’s for spell combat, not spellstrike. Spellstrike allows the magus to deliver any touch spell through a melee weapon. In stabbing shot you use an arrow as a melee weapon for the first of your full attack. By all means, if I'm misinterpreting this somebody please correct me.

Looks like you're right on this one. I'll warn you however that you'll be neither an effective ranged damage dealer (because of less bab and less feats) or an effective caster (because of a slower spell progression and spells per day). You'll be somewhere in between. Which is fine I just want to dispel any false ideas.


Mcarvin wrote:
it seems stabbing shot will not work with spell combat as it does not fulfill the "To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free, while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand." statement of the spell combat ability. All bow descriptions specifically state "You need two hands to use a bow, regardless of its size.".

JJ clarified that for bows, you need two hands to use but only one hand to wield.

It was on the thread we were discussing about arcane bonded two handed weapons and whether one can cast while holding a two handed weapon.

JJ said to wield a two handed weapon meant you need to have both hands on it, meaning 2 handed weapons make horrible arcane bonded items. Someone pointed out that would kill the arcane archer PRC, then he chimed in and said, bows need only one hand to be wielded, but to use it you need two hands. So I think you can use spell combat with an arcane archer provided you are within 30 feet.


Mcarvin wrote:
imjohnnyrah wrote:

I agree but that’s for spell combat, not spellstrike. Spellstrike allows the magus to deliver any touch spell through a melee weapon. In stabbing shot you use an arrow as a melee weapon for the first of your full attack. By all means, if I'm misinterpreting this somebody please correct me.

Looks like you're right on this one. I'll warn you however that you'll be neither an effective ranged damage dealer (because of less bab and less feats) or an effective caster (because of a slower spell progression and spells per day). You'll be somewhere in between. Which is fine I just want to dispel any false ideas.

Yeah that seems to be my biggest issue with the arcane archer as a whole. You either have to sack BAB, feats, or caster lvls. Magus has a slower spell progression but gets a higher caster lvl. Of course this is a bit trivial at this point, being so close to the release date of the finalized magus/archetypes. I'll probably just ask my DM to let me use this as a placeholder until UM is released.

Fingers crossed for archer magus!!!

Scarab Sages

Gignere wrote:

JJ clarified that for bows, you need two hands to use but only one hand to wield.

It was on the thread we were discussing about arcane bonded two handed weapons and whether one can cast while holding a two handed weapon.

JJ said to wield a two handed weapon meant you need to have both hands on it, meaning 2 handed weapons make horrible arcane bonded items. Someone pointed out that would kill the arcane archer PRC, then he chimed in and said, bows need only one hand to be wielded, but to use it you need two hands. So I think you can use spell combat with an arcane archer provided you are within 30 feet.

Sorry you're wrong... Regardless of how many hands it's still not a " light or one-handed melee weapon" emphasis on LIGHT or ONE-HANDED MELEE weapon. No bow is a light weapon. No bow can be USED to attack ONE-HANDED. Even if you can use it as melee attack with stabbing shot.

IDK were you're getting this 30 foot thing from either.

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