Magus / Samurai

[Singer]

Is there any way to build a relevant and reliable Magus/Samurai that can contend with going straight Magus or Samurai?

To add further complication, the character has plans of wielding Suishen in the Jade Regent AP so blackblade might not be a viable option.

[Marthian]

The Eldritch Knight might be something to consider, but honestly, I'm not sure if you can make a Magus/Samurai that can contend with pure Magus or Samurai. A good thought about it is to maybe focus more on the weapon aspects, and get feats to boost damage such as Arcane Strike and Power Attack.

[Ryu Kaijitsu]

hm, I can only suggest try to play this build/concept in a gestalt game :)

[Darth Grall]

This isn't like 3.5 where you can multiclass and it just works. While I fondly remember playing a OA Samurai/Duskblade who's "spells" were ancient sword techniques, trying something like that in this just won't work. Spells scale differently, and you don't get nearly as many spells as you'd need to pull it off with a cross classed Magus/Samurai. Also, Samurai(even a Sword Saint) has all their abilities scale and build off class level. It's honestly not worth it imo.

If you're looking for a Samurai-eque Magus, there is the Kensai which fulfills much of that kind of flavor.

[Michael Sayre]

I was also going to suggest the Kensai Magus archetype.

[GeneticDrift]

Sohei monk and qigong (spelling?) archetypes might work well? Flurry with katana at lvl 6 with weapon training.

[PSY850]

I'd suggest asking your DM for a little adjustment to make your straight magus oriental themed unless the mount was something you specifically wanted. The way I've adjusted it for a player in my game that wanted to play an eastern magus was to remove most of the martial weapon proficiencies in exchange for proficiency with the katana and the like.

As part of the deal I made sure he followed the code of bushido at least to some point. He had to seek out a lord of honor to pledge his services to, which worked with the campaign very well, he had to act in honor and uphold the laws, which somewhat dictated his alignment. In essence he was almost as restricted as a paladin but not quite, and if he would have had an alignment change or lost his way from the code he would have become a ronin and been shunned by most of the npc's and possibly by the party as well. All this of course to balance out giving the player direct access to slightly more powerful weapons for his class and make for some very interesting RP opportunities.

Asta
PSY

[proftobe]

It really depends on what they are looking for out of the magus/samurai combo. Paizo has done everything they can to make dual classing less attractive. Unless its a small dip for a martial or skill monkey characters or to get into a prestige class then I suggest you stay single class for anything with 6+ spell levels.

If its just to be a badass swordsman with a few spells and buffs; Kensai.

If he just wants to play a katana wielding caster in armor: magus with EWP katana maybe play a half elf to off set the feat.

If he's looking for a martial artist blade master with mystical powers; either sohei(quigong) monk or hex blade magus again with EWP katana

mysterious swordmaster; iajitsu samurai

if he's not focused on the sword or he really just wants a mount; straight samurai

If he's looking for a spellcaster with samurai levels; I'd go samurai/wizard/EK, he's gonna suck until about 9th level, but after that you're gold.