Here is the story.
Race human
Class Magus
Level 5th
Point buy for stats 15
Books being used; core rule book, advanced players guide, ultimate magic, ultimate combat, and adventurer armory.
Traits, only if I buy the feat that provides traits.
Concept, a 30 year old minor noble whom has decided to go adventuring.
The adventure, ToEE converted to path finder.
I'be never been good at optimal character builds, normally our gaming group plays roleplaying heavy games with light combat. However, our st has switched things up a bitwith running temple of elemental evil. After he did some of the conversions he has recommended fine tuning the characters in order to survive. It is after all a classic dungeon crawl. The base concept of the character is strength based with a bastard sword..
I have played with the idea of a Magus, Kensi, Bladebound. However to keep some armor I dip to fighter levels and purchase light armor mastery to remove spell failure.
I'm just not sure what is the best way to keep the concept (magic, armor, cool looking sword). While still being effective in the group..
I would love some advice, I have looked at the guide but it currently does not include ultimate combat archtypes.
Any help would be great.
The feat you are looking for is "Arcane Armor Training" and that lowers the failure rate by 10%, getting the armor made out of mithral will lower it another 10%. But as a magus it's not a good idea to get Arcane Armor Training since it takes your swift action to activate it. And it's only active until your next turn, so you would need to activate it whenever you want to cast something.
A better idea I would suggest doing is get a Haramaki or a Silken Ceremonial Armor (both are found in UC) since both have no penalties and 0% chance of spell failure, anyone can use them. Of course they wouldn't give as much AC as other armor, but they give 1 AC (+ enhancements) and you can use them without dipping lvs or feats.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/armor
Who else is in the party? What role isn't being filled? What role do you really want to play/are good at playing?
Dipping into Fighter sounds like a bad idea. The Medium and Heavy armor will come over time. If there are full casters and/or fighters already in the party, you're going to start lagging behind big time if you multiclass a magus (which is already a gish fighter/mage). The most shining feature of this class is the fact that you can make a full attack and cast a spell in the same turn; you don't want to water that down by siphoning off spell power and putting it into AC that will slow you down.
Personally I would dump CHA way down to get yourself some extra ability points in Dex (boosts AC!), and Con. Magus has a decent Will save, so Wisdom can stay down at 10.
In my experience, the magus can more or less fill the tank role if you play him right, and you get the added benefit of utility spells (though maybe not too much at your level). If you're tanking, make STR your prime requisite, but keep INT high for bonus spells.
If you're going to go tank, go all the way with it (without dipping into fighter) I would mainly stick to buffing spells - you're going to want to put your feats into things like power attack, weapon focus, tankish things. This means you won't be able to spare spell focus. Therefore you want to stay away from debuff/blasting/controlling spells. Load up on touch attacks, which you can deliver through your sword.
Corrosive touch, enlarge person, shield, shocking grasp, true strike are your friends. And expeditious retreat. As are Blur and Bull's Strength. Elemental touch and frigid touch are nice, but you can kind of do that with the Black Blade's energy attunement (so only invest if you KNOW you'll need it, like if the invites you to Rise of the Firelords or In the Lair of the Ice Demon or something). Haste and Vampiric Touch are must haves when you can get them (which won't be for a while).
If the party already has a tank, you can invest in a few blasting spells (scorching ray, magic missile) and utility spells. Alter Self, minor image, obscuring mist, glitterdust can all be very useful in the right circumstance.
Combat Casting is an absolute must.
Combat Casting is an absolute must.
I tend to agree with that.
As to the party, we have 1druid (battle control) , a shield and sword fighter. And me. We are filling the rest of the slots with NPC,s like Zert from the module
I like the idea of the silk armor, would that work with s kilt (mithral) ?
Combat Casting is an absolute must.I tend to agree with that.
As to the party, we have 1druid (battle control) , a shield and sword fighter. And me. We are filling the rest of the slots with NPC,s like Zert from the module
I like the idea of the silk armor, would that work with s kilt (mithral) ?
I think it should, but together it would be considered medium armor. I don't think you would take any penalties from that since both items have no penalty or failure rate.