Magus confusion

[Rune of Hermea]

Hey, guys! I'm pretty sure I'm reading this wrong, but I had a question concerning Magus rules.

I'll go ahead and post the abilities listed so people aren't bothered looking the abilities up :)

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.

Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of "touch" from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range (20, 19-20, 18-20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals x2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier

So my question is this: Under the spellstrike ability it says that delivering the spell through your weapon is a "free melee attack" And can be used in concert with the Spell combat ability. It sounds as if the Magus can get 2 melee attacks with his weapon in a round prior to getting his extra attack for BAB+6 by merely casting a ranged touch spell and sending it through his weapon. To me it reads as though I could do this:

Chill Touch -> free attack with melee weapon to distribute spell at -2 penalty to attack -> attack normally with -2 penalty to attack

Am I completely confused on this or what? :)

[Edgar Lamoureux]

With your edit, you are correct, although you mention ranged touch in your "So my question is:" section. A Ranged touch cannot be used for spellstrike unless you are a Myrmidarch Magus, using the Ranged Spellstrike class ability.

[Bertious]

You can also use rangedd touch in melee if you take the close range arcana.

[Thefurmonger]

yep,

thats how it works.

A lot of people make great use of "Arcane mark" for this.

Please remember this is no better then TWF (+1 attack/-2 to all) or Rapid shot (+1 attack/-2 to all).

You are having to make a concentration check DC 15 for a cantrip for the honor of getting....... (+1 attack/-2 to all)

Happy gaming and enjoy your magus.

[james maissen]

Rune of Hermea wrote:

Hey, guys! I'm pretty sure I'm reading this wrong, but I had a question concerning Magus rules.

The way to understand this is to see each ability separately and understand them as well as the normal, basic, rules.

So first the basic rules:

When a character casts a touch spell they can, on that turn, make a melee touch attack to deliver that spell as a free action. Thus they could:

1. Standard action: cast shocking grasp.
2. Move action: Move 20ft to get adjacent to a target.
3. Free action: Make a touch attack to deliver the shocking grasp.

So here a caster has been able to cast a spell, move, and make a melee touch attack.

Now the magus spell strike ability:

A magus can make a normal melee attack with a weapon to deliver a touch spell.

Thus if the basic case above were a magus they could elect to have step 3 be a normal melee attack with a weapon that would also deliver the touch for the shocking grasp.

In this case the magus has been able to cast a spell, move, and make a melee weapon attack.

Finally the magus also using spell combat:

A magus can make a full round action to cast a spell and make their full attack action (with constraints/penalties).

Now the magus won't have the move action as in the first two cases.

But they can:

1. Full round action: declare spell combat
1A. Cast a spell (say shocking grasp).
2. Take a 5' step (not an action).
1B. Make a touch attack to deliver the shocking grasp (free action).
1B (alternate). Make a melee weapon attack to deliver the shocking grasp (free action).
1C Make their normal full attack routine.

Note here that they can either do 1B or 1B (alternate) depending on their desire to use spell combat.

Hope this helps,

James

[Lily Orlovsky]

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the clarifications! :)