Hi guys i want to play a Magus Archtype Kensai in my new group but my problem is i dont know how to build a really good one. I am new with the Pathfinder Rules and hope u can help me. I want a little bit survivability do nice damage and some nice spells to have an ace in my sleeve when there is a critical situation for me or my group. My exotic weapon will be a Katana cause i dont like the scimitar + dervish dance build which is the only one i found in this forum.
So what do u say can u help me to pick the right feats and some nice magus arcanas???
Would be great when u could post the MUST HAVES for a nice Kensai Magus.
Thanks guys
Xaryel
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Another exotic wep you might be interested in is the Aldori Dueling Blade with the Aldori dueling mastery. The Sword is a 1d8 1 handed blade you can use weapon fineness with. the feat gives you a +2 initiative and a shield bonus to your AC (or +1 if your using the sword 2-handed also counts it as a piercing wep if you get any duelist abilities.)
As far as stats Intelligence is what almost all of your abilities are basses from. Str will be important for your damage, but if you go with a high dex build, Agile Weapon enhancement makes up for any lack of strength.
Dervish is nice for the Kensai because then you can use two main stats to AC. Otherwise, just do the standard magus build should be fine.
Here's a link to the guide, I'm sure it has a Str build. Kensai isn't very different.
Edit: Whoops forgot to link http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/advice/waltersGuideToTheMagus
Must haves for arcana IMO are arcane accuracy, ghost blade, and bane blade. Arcane accuracy is a very big boost to your attack, ghost blade allows you to deal with very annoying thing and bane blade is pure numbers goodness since you declare the bane on use. I think Dex builds are better for the Kensai because they are already not wearing armor. If you go Aldori Dueling blades, then be sure to get the Agile weapon ability to give Dex to damage at cost of a +1. Even for a Dex build, you will still want 13 Str for power attack.
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There is a pretty good guide to the magus on this boards. I belive its called walter's guide to the magus. It has its own thread but its also linked on the guide to guides thread.
Quick note, most magus builds that dont go dervish dance focus on STR. Katana is nice and so is falcata.
EDIT: Just noticed you are looking for kensai stuff. With that archetype dumping DEX is not a very good ideia but STR is still the way to go with INT as a close second than DEX and than CON.
I consider the trait Magical Lineage: Shocking Grasp together with the feat Intensified Spell excential for any magus builds at middle to higher levels.
For a Strength-based Kensai Magus, katana is an outstanding choice. Rapier and scimitar are often chosen because they combine well with Dexterity-based feats, Weapon Finesse and Dervish Dance, respectively. The katana deals more damage than either of them, and a Kensai Magus can get katana proficiency via chosen weapon.
There is a pretty good guide to the magus on this boards. I belive its called walter's guide to the magus. It has its own thread but its also linked on the guide to guides thread.
Here is another link to Walter's Guide to the Magus.
This guide does not cover Kensai Magus, so you have to adapt the advice to that archetype. The Kensai gives up a lot of spellcasting (one spell at each level, spell recall, improved spell recall, knowledge pool, etc.) in exchange for proficiency, Weapon Focus, maximized weapon damage, iaijutsu, and better crit confirmation in the chosen weapon and gives up armor for Canny Defense.
This means that the Kensai is more of a fighter than a standard Magus. He would use his spells for buffing himself and his allies, for battlefield control to choose his foes, and for debuffing his foes, but he would damage his foes with his katana. Therefore, much of Walter's advice about spells that deal good damage and the feats that make them better can be set aside in favor of spells and feats, such as Shield and Dodge and Weapon Specialization, that defend your magus and make him better at combat.
Due to Canny Defense, Intelligence improves Armor Class almost as much as Dexterity for the Magus. And Intelligence boosts the arcane pool, helps make up for that lose of one spell per level, and gives extra skill ranks. Dexterity should be at least 13, in case the magus wants Dodge before he can afford a Belt of Dexterity, but other than that, Strength and Intelligence are the two key stats. I would favor Intelligence over Strength, since the Magus won't want his arcane pool to run dry after several combats. Arcane Accuracy, a strong magus arcana, and the 4th-level Perfect Strike spend arcane pool points.
The Magus cannot learn Mage Armor (except via the Spell Blending arcana, which probably isn't worth it), but he could gain skill in Use Magic Device and make UMD rolls use a Wand of Mage Armor. That would stack with his Shield spell for a strong low-level defense. Or if the party also has a Wizard, talk the Wizard into casting it on him.
Eh, with dervish and agile weapon available, I don't see much reason to go Str over Dex. Just the 13 in str for power attack, and you get to use Dex for to-hit and damage. That way you get better reflex saves (your bad one), AC, and initiative.
Eh, with dervish and agile weapon available, I don't see much reason to go Str over Dex. Just the 13 in str for power attack, and you get to use Dex for to-hit and damage. That way you get better reflex saves (your bad one), AC, and initiative.
I'm sure it works well, but with Strength you save two feats and can use your weapon two-handed for extra damage when not actively using your hand to cast. Also the Katana is statistically better than the Scimitar if only slightly.
Of course the DEX advantages are certainly there, but I can see plenty of reason why one would personally choose STR over DEX, even if their AC suffers for it.
When I looked over the Kensai I thought it was a pretty good class until I seen that it had no Armor. Considering this is supposed to be a front line fighting class it seemed like a crazy trade off. If starting at higher levels where you can sink gold into alternate defense items it seems so so but at low levels it looks like a suicidal class.
Kensai is low level suicide for levels 1-3.
Likely AC at level 1 is 14 and SLOWLY ramps to 16 by level 3. Get a wand of mage armour asap or die.
Katana takes a Strength build and that leads to less points for Dex.
The Kensai is not that suicidal.
Given a 20-point build, no stats below ten, and a +2 racial bonus for human, the Kensai can have STR 16, DEX 14, CON 10, INT 16, WIS 10, CHA 10. He takes Dodge as a feat. That would give him AC 14 without spells or armor, as Helaman said, but he could cast Shield once a day for AC 18 for one minute.
A human Fighter who has DEX 13, takes Dodge, and buys chainmail had AC 18 all day. He also wields a two-handed weapon and has STR 18 rather than the Kensai's 16, but we expect a Fighter to be a better combatant. The 1st-level Kensai Magus has a few cantrips and a lot more skill ranks to compensate.
At second level, the Kensai buys wands of Shield and Mage Armor, cheaper than the +1 shield and the +1 breastplate that the Fighter buys, and has two battlefield-control spells available during combat. At third level, the Kensai Magus can take the Wand Wielder magus arcana, buy a wand of Shocking Grasp, and start to use his Spellstrike ability effectively.
When I looked over the Kensai I thought it was a pretty good class until I seen that it had no Armor. Considering this is supposed to be a front line fighting class it seemed like a crazy trade off. If starting at higher levels where you can sink gold into alternate defense items it seems so so but at low levels it looks like a suicidal class.
Yes, I don't understand losing light armor proficiency (and the magus's no arcane failure in light armor) either.
The Kensai Magus does seem more limited than the standard Magus. He has to put more effort into staying alive and has fewer spells to do so.
The point of the Kensai is to be totally rad. Wearing armor is a limiter to one's radness factor, so the kensai provides a non-monk alternative. It's true that it does start slow though. It's annoying the precautions some classes have (like Zen Archer's Wis to hit) to avoid dips, I guess.
Question to the OP, are you permitted 3rd party products? Both super genius games and rite publishing put out great products expanding magus options, and some of them could be of great help in putting together your magus.
The point of the Kensai is to be totally rad. Wearing armor is a limiter to one's radness factor, so the kensai provides a non-monk alternative. It's true that it does start slow though. It's annoying the precautions some classes have (like Zen Archer's Wis to hit) to avoid dips, I guess.
The original Japanese kensai, the sword saint, was totally rad. The concept as I learned it was that the kensai would master swordmanship to such a degree that he could focus his mind on other things in the middle of combat. Thus, he could compose epic poetry about the battle in his head while swordfighting an enemy soldier. The practical use of this was that the kensai could lead from the front line, assessing the battlefield situation and giving orders despite the distraction of being in combat.
This would have been fun to translate into the Magus class as a Magus who specialized in battlefield control spells while fighting in the front line.
Copying the Canny Defense from the Duelist Prestige Class means that a Witch or Wizard would not dip one level of Kensai Magus for the AC bonus, but it does leave the Kensai with weak defenses at first and second levels. A Duelist had no problem with that, because the character already had defenses from his previous class.
It would have made more sense for the Kensai to lose Spellstrike rather than the Light Armor proficiency with no arcane spell failure. That would force the Kensai into more emphasis on battlefield control. The Canny Defense could start at second level, replacing Spellstrike. Eventually, the Kensai would strip down to leather armor or no armor in order to maximize the Dexterity+Intelligence bonus to AC.
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Eh, with dervish and agile weapon available, I don't see much reason to go Str over Dex. Just the 13 in str for power attack, and you get to use Dex for to-hit and damage. That way you get better reflex saves (your bad one), AC, and initiative.or not.
LinkedMy current magus have an amazing 7 in strength and works perfectly. Nice stat to dump, and allow you to keep a not-so-bad Wisdom for you will saves if you go with Stats Buy (which we did)
Though my best advice for Kensai would tend to be "don't be Kensai". Spell Recall is really the most amazing thing ever done. :P
Not really. If you're going Dervish Dance, Piranha Strike doesn't work with the scimitar, as it is a one-handed weapon, and Piranha Strike only works with light weapons.
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For the record, I do NOT believe dex-builds need te 13 Str for power attack. Their damage comes from spell combat, not from power attack... 1 to hit for 2 damage will pretty much never be worth the tradeoff, and costing a feat, 6 build points (compared with 7 Str) makes it that much worse
Assuming 20 point buy.
Ideally elf, with 19 Dex and 18 Int and Str/Chr dumped, with 10 Wis 12 Con. Get a wand with Mage armor quickly, by level 4 your AC with Mage armor should be in the 25 range (22 Dex after +2 item, 18 Int, dodge, Mage armor) Get the +1 agile weapon as soon as you can afford, your damage will be fine @ 4 thanks to spell channeling, before that you'll be a bit weak, after that you should be a high-defense high-damage machine.
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For the record, I do NOT believe dex-builds need te 13 Str for power attack. Their damage comes from spell combat, not from power attack... 1 to hit for 2 damage will pretty much never be worth the tradeoff, and costing a feat, 6 build points (compared with 7 Str) makes it that much worse
Assuming 20 point buy.
Ideally elf, with 19 Dex and 18 Int and Str/Chr dumped, with 10 Wis 12 Con. Get a wand with Mage armor quickly, by level 4 your AC with Mage armor should be in the 25 range (22 Dex after +2 item, 18 Int, dodge, Mage armor) Get the +1 agile weapon as soon as you can afford, your damage will be fine @ 4 thanks to spell channeling, before that you'll be a bit weak, after that you should be a high-defense high-damage machine.
OP wants to use a Katana, which is not finessable, making it an invalid choice for the Agile enchantment.