Which hand does Staff Magus use to hold staff?

[Phasics]

Just curious which hand dose the Magus hold a staff one handed ?

in other words can the "casting free hand" be used to hold the staff one handed leaving the other hand free to use a weapon or make an unarmed attack ?

[Sleet Storm]

When you hold a staff one handed with quarterstaff master you use it as a one handed weapon.So you can use other weapons and unarmed strikes as usual.Which hand you are using doesn´t really make a difference unless you are two weapon fighting, but in that case I guess you´re suposed to hold it in your main hand as its a one handed weapon.

[Nightskies]

Handedness (being main hand or off hand) ONLY matters when you are using two-weapon fighting to gain an extra attack on a full attack. With regard to the Spell Combat ability of the Magus, (s)he must have one hand free to cast a spell in this manner. That 'free hand' must literally have nothing in it (except spell components or focus). (S)He cannot use the free hand for an unarmed attack, as using the Spell Combat ability is a full-round action, not a full attack. The Staff Magus archetype gives the Magus the Quarterstaff Master feat, allowing the character to use the staff in one hand, which allows the Magus to use a quarterstaff with the Spell Combat ability.

Spell Combat (Ex):

At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.

In short, the staff magus uses the quarterstaff in one hand to make his full BAB at -2, and casts a spell with a 1 standard action cast time with the other, all together as a full round action.

Or, he could attack with two weapons as a normal full attack, and not cast a spell.

[LazarX]

Well it matters, because you need that free hand for spell combat. If you're not going to cast, you can two hand it all you desire.

[Phasics]

E.g. holding a staff in casting hand and sword in other hand, perhas it would also require the wand weilder arcana

becuase the staff magus can use staffs as quaterstaffs holding a staff in the casting hand gives the shield AC benefit without impeding whatever weapon you want to use for spell combat in your other hand

[Diego Rossi]

To cast a spell with somatic components you need a free hand.
To be free a hand should not hold anything.
If you are holding a staff in one and and another weapon in your other hand you don't have a free hand, so you can't cast spell with somatic components.

[Phasics]

Diego Rossi wrote:

To cast a spell with somatic components you need a free hand.

To be free a hand should not hold anything.
If you are holding a staff in one and and another weapon in your other hand you don't have a free hand, so you can't cast spell with somatic components.

so your saying a Magus who casts still spells doesn't need a free hand to perform spell combat ?

[Diego Rossi]

Phasics wrote:

Diego Rossi wrote:

To cast a spell with somatic components you need a free hand.

To be free a hand should not hold anything.
If you are holding a staff in one and and another weapon in your other hand you don't have a free hand, so you can't cast spell with somatic components.

so your saying a Magus who casts still spells doesn't need a free hand to perform spell combat ?

Why you try to make me say something different from what I am saying?

To cast a spell with a somatic component you need a free hand. Stop.
That is valid for all casters.

Spell combat has a more stringent requirement:

Spell Combat (Ex): wrote:

At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

So even with still spell you can't use spell combat unless you have a free hand.

As already explained a free hand is one not wielding anything.

Going strictly by the RAW it is questionable if a hand holding spell components is a free hand, but that is a bit excessive.

[Phasics]

Diego Rossi wrote:

Phasics wrote:

Diego Rossi wrote:

To cast a spell with somatic components you need a free hand.

To be free a hand should not hold anything.
If you are holding a staff in one and and another weapon in your other hand you don't have a free hand, so you can't cast spell with somatic components.

so your saying a Magus who casts still spells doesn't need a free hand to perform spell combat ?

Why you try to make me say something different from what I am saying?

To cast a spell with a somatic component you need a free hand. Stop.
That is valid for all casters.

Spell combat has a more stringent requirement:

Spell Combat (Ex): wrote:

At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

So even with still spell you can't use spell combat unless you have a free hand.

As already explained a free hand is one not wielding anything.

Going strictly by the RAW it is questionable if a hand holding spell components is a free hand, but that is a bit excessive.

Just trying to get my head around Wand Weilder, which lets you use wand or staff to cast the spell as part of spell combat which hand does the staff/wand need to be in ? do you still need a free hand ?

[Diego Rossi]

Sigh. so why you haven't asked that instead of going for this roundabout route? The quality and utility of the replies reflect the quality of the question.

PRD wrote:

Wand Wielder (Su): The magus can activate a wand or staff in place of casting a spell when using spell combat.

RAW? it is a mess.

RAI? I would say that the intention is to allow the use of a wand or staff in the secondary hand while using your primary hand to attack in melee, so I would allow it.
Note that you don't need the Quarterstaff master feat or to be a Staff magus for that to work. The staff is a 2 handed weapon, but when a magic staff is used to cast spells imbued in it there is no need to use it as a weapon and wield it with 2 hands.

Spellcasting staves are "anywhere from 4 feet to 7 feet long and is 2 inches to 3 inches thick, weighing about 5 pounds.", a combat quartestaff is "about 5 feet in length".

[Phasics]

Diego Rossi wrote:

Sigh. so why you haven't asked that instead of going for this roundabout route? The quality and utility of the replies reflect the quality of the question.

does a round about discussion bother you ? it doesn't bother me I find it often opens up other tangents I hadn't considered but ultimately find more useful than the original question.

as for RAI vs RAw guess I'll have to take it up with my GM