Starting a Magus with a level of Monk maybe

[Zellsantal]

On the compain I'm doing now is basely we started as slaves in a mine unstil me and the party deside to get us and out familys out which we did. We basely later found out that basely the world is run by orc, I played a half orc barbarain which shortly after got killed, so now making a new level 3 character. I looked at some of the other class's and seen the Magus, love the idea of a mage/fighter all in one and thinking maybe a level of monk for the defence bonus but I'm not sure.

I like being the tank/dps type of person, to have a high defence and doing a lot of damage and again I think the magus would do well for me but a few things I cant seem to understand such as what is the main stats for a magus, because what I figure right now I would need 4 main stats just to do what I'm thinking, STR- for damage and attack, DEX- for defense, WIS- defense bonus and INT- for spells. 18, 18, 16, 14, 10, 10 are my numbers for my stats I have yet to put on so my question is should I try doing a level of monk or just go pure magus and if so what main stats should I be going for?

The other thing I am having a hard time understanding is the spell combat and spell strike class ability's. With spell strike I at first thought of using a 2-handed weapon to go along with it sense it doesn't word that you need only a one handed weapon but Spell combat state for its own thing you do. So my question for that is can you still do the spell strike fully with a 2 handed weapon and still able to use the spell at the same time or because of spell combat dose it have to be a one-handed weapon?

Other then that if you have some suggestions of what I could or should do I be happy to hear it.

[Weables]

Taking a level of monk (and forgoing the light armor granted by magus) for a 3-4 ac boost instead seems...well, counterproductive. Have you considered just going Kensai Magus instead, if what you want is an unarmored Magus? That will alleviate some of the MAD. 18 Str, 18 Int, 16 Dex is probably the way to go with that. 14 con, 10 wis/cha

[Zellsantal]

I dont know what Kensai Magus is or MAD for that matter, the class is new to me sense the most I played is from the core rules and the only class I have played is the bararian class. Could you tell me about the MAD and Kensai?

[Squawk Featherbeak]

MAD- Multiple Ability (score) Dependency
Kensai- an archetype of Magus that focuses on using magic through his/her weapon.

[Mort the Cleverly Named]

With those stats, I strongly recommend straight Magus.

18 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Wis, 18 Int, 10 Cha

Your will save is already pretty good from your class, so you don't need to pump wisdom like crazy. The armor class bonus you would get would almost certainly be less than just plan old light armor, let alone something fancy like enchanted Elven Chain.

To answer your specific questions, MAD stands for Multiple Attribute Dependent. It means a class that needs several (usually 3+) attributes to do their job well. It contrasts with SAD (Single Attribute Dependent) classes, like the Wizard.

The Kensai is an archetype for the Magus. They get their Intelligence bonus to Armor Class and are particularly good with a single type of weapon, but are less skilled casters and suffer normal spell failure in armor.

Oh, and Two-Handed Weapons and the Magus don't mix. As you seem to have figured out, you can't cast the vast majority of your spells without at least one hand free. You can still wield a one handed weapon with two hands for extra damage when you aren't casting, though.

[erik542]

Well if you go Dervish Dance, that does allow you to effectively dump Str. This will allow you to bring it down to 4 stats (Dex, con, int, wis). If you focus enough on AC, you don't need that high of a con either. Having three stats to AC certainly outdoes any armor out there.

[Zellsantal]

Hmm well I guess i can try a pure one and see what happens, hopfuly ill still be doing a good admont of damage.