Hi
I was counsidering making a Hexcrafter with the Hexstrike feat.
But spellcombat says:
"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)"
So I have to have wield a one handed melee weapon.
Is there anyway a round this? Besides asking the GM to bend the rules?
With a monk dip i can use arcane pool to enhance unarmed strike.
Spellstrike says:
"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"
Does a monks unarmed strike count as "any weapon he is wielding"?
Or is there any way to a) use a weapon to deliver unarmed strike b) another way to get around this problem?
Or could I as full round action cast a spell using the hand without a light weapon and then make a full attack using unarmed strike - and just happen to have a light weapon in the other hand...
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Unarmed Strike is counted as a light weapon. You can normally deliver a touch attack by Unarmed Strike or Natural Attack; Spellstrike isn't necessary to do that.
Not completely true... you can deliver a touch spell using Unarmed Strike or a Natural attack, yes, but you don't get a FREE unarmed strike or natural attack to do so, you only get a free touch attack. You can't cast shocking grasp and then use an unarmed strike to deliver it in the same round UNLESS you're using Spell Combat (in which case you could deliver it with an unarmed strike and still get your normal full attack action with unarmed strikes). You're right, though, that Spellstrike isn't necessary at all if you're going to use an unarmed strike anyway.
I don't think by RAW Hex Strike would work with either Spell Combat or Spellstrike.
Can a Magus use prehensile hair during a full round attack utilizing Spell Combat? If so, that'd be the way to do it.
There a feat that allows me to use natural weapons to deliver unarmed strike abilities (Hexstrike).
Hair - yes can be used to deliver the touch spells. But can I use spellcombat with natural attacks? let's say i have 2 claws and the Hair hex - no weapon in hand - can I still use a full round action to make a full attack + cast a spell? And then use spellstrike to deliver the spell with a natural attack - hex strike demands I use unarmed strike/natural attack so I can't use a weapon...
Not sure if you can use the hair hex to deliver actual attacks while delivering touch attacks as in spell combat/spellstrike
The upside to a monk's unarmed strike is
A monk's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
so you can use arcane pool to enhance your monk unarmed strike.
I was actually idly debating a crane style monk/hexcrafter, maybe 1-2 levels of monk, maybe 1 level or even up to 3 of fighter (brawler, at level 3 gets +1hit +3dam to close range weapons including unarmed). Not sure why the brawler's armor enchantment disappeared from the SRD, as that gives a nice +2hit/dam to unarmed as well and a monk splash magus using unarmed would really benefit from that.
If I did go 1 monk/3fighter/xmagus, definitely worth looking at snake style and crane style, free AoO every time someone misses you (from snake style, need 1st and 3rd feats only), combined with the extra AC from crane (fighting defensive) and the extra damage from brawler archtype and brawler (armor enchantment) plus hex strike it would be very fun (evil eye hex, only 1 swift action a round so you can only use it once for free, but even if they save you could drop their AC by 4 for the rest of the attacks or their AB so they miss more and you hit back more)
Well I had Master of many style build on the drawing board for some time:
Magus4/master of many styles2/More magus
Feats: Human (Extra traits or Duel talented (+2 int) lvl 1 (dodge) lvl 3 (weapon focus) Monk 1 (Crane style) lvl 5 (Hex strike:slumber) Imp Unarmed Strike (1d6) monk 2 (at lvl 6 crane wing) Evasion, Magus bonus 5 (at lvl7:?) Lvl 7 (Ability focus: slumber) lvl 9 (?) lvl 11 (?) Magus bonus 11 (at lvl 13:) Lvl 13 (crane riposte or Hexstrike Icetomb)
Traits (4) +2 CL (magic), -1 metamagic (wayang spell hunter, (regional), adopted (social)→ dwarf (race) Militant merchant +1 peception and perception becomes class skill)/or (faith) Eyes and ears of the city (same benefit),
Magus Arcana lvl 3 (Arcane accuracy) Lvl 4 (slumber) lvl 6 (at lvl 7:Hex: flight or enduring blade)
lvl 9 (at lvl 10:flight or enduring blade) lvl 12 (at lvl 14:Ice tomb)
But I ran into some problems
a) Style feats need to be activate as a swift action, arcane blade also swift action, Arcane Accuracy, swift action.and The whole point was to use Hex strike - also a swift action...
b) To hit. loses a bab to monk, magus loses some more, don'ht have enough swift action to activate arcane accuracy, -2 from spell combat -2 from crane style (-1 at lvl 13), can use arcane pool on to hit, but then he doesn't do much dam. Monk problems with unarmed strike - amulet of mighty fist cost a fortune..
c) The whole can I even use unarmed strike, which started this tread.
d) Magus have so few spells - losing a single or even 2 levels for a dip hurts. Losing more... Pretty sure it's gonna hurt more.
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There a feat that allows me to use natural weapons to deliver unarmed strike abilities (Hexstrike).
Hair - yes can be used to deliver the touch spells. But can I use spellcombat with natural attacks? let's say i have 2 claws and the Hair hex - no weapon in hand - can I still use a full round action to make a full attack + cast a spell? And then use spellstrike to deliver the spell with a natural attack - hex strike demands I use unarmed strike/natural attack so I can't use a weapon...
I don't see why this question keeps coming up. Yes, you can use spellstrike and spellcombat with your hair. All natural attacks are considered light weapons by RAW and are valid for spellstrike.
Benefit: With a light weapon, elven curve blade, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls.
Special: Natural weapons are considered light weapons.
Now that that is cleared up here is another fact for you. Natural weapons are always wielded and never held so you are always armed. Why does this matter? Simple, take a claw/claw magus and give him spellstrike/spellcombat. He is considered armed even when both hands are empty so he can cast, use a rod and still attack that round.
A normal magus has to have a weapon in 1 hand, one hand free and another hand using a rod which is impossible for most (alchemist dips and hexcrafters excluded)
You don't have to be a monk (though you might want to be for Arcane Pool). Unarmed strikes are valid for Spell Combat and Spellstrike.
FAQ
Magus: When using spell combat, can the weapon in my other hand be an unarmed strike or a natural weapon?
Yes, so long as the weapon is a light or one-handed melee weapon and is associated with that hand. For example, unarmed strikes, claws, and slams are light melee weapons associated with a hand, and therefore are valid for use with spell combat. A tail slap is not associated with a hand, and therefore is not valid for use with spell combat.
—Pathfinder Design Team, 04/05/13
You could go Marital Artist monk to avoid the Lawful alignment if that doesn't fit in your build.
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i was hoping to go all Magus. But not being able to use arcane pool to enhance unarmed strikes holds me back for that, to at least 1 level dip in monk.
but i'm seeing the technicality that Hexcrafter Magus doesn't get Hex class feature, they get Hex Magus, and Hex Arcana. barring that i don't know if they even qualify for ANY hex feats, since most require the Hex class feature, which only witches get. While I can get around that with 1 level dip in Witch.
so i'm already looking at monk 1/witch 1/hexcrafter magus. i was hoping to go all magus, for favored class benefits, more arcana/hexes, and Hex DC's. It looks like the feats are there so that you can do it. but it doesn't line up propperly RAW. =(
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Now that that is cleared up here is another fact for you. Natural weapons are always wielded and never held so you are always armed. Why does this matter? Simple, take a claw/claw magus and give him spellstrike/spellcombat. He is considered armed even when both hands are empty so he can cast, use a rod and still attack that round.
A normal magus has to have a weapon in 1 hand, one hand free and another hand using a rod which is impossible for most (alchemist dips and hexcrafters excluded)
Correction: Any hand holding an item cannot be used to make claw attacks, and rods must be held in the hand to be used in PF. So you would only get one claw attack if the other is holding a rod.
but i'm seeing the technicality that Hexcrafter Magus doesn't get Hex class feature, they get Hex Magus, and Hex Arcana. barring that i don't know if they even qualify for ANY hex feats, since most require the Hex class feature, which only witches get.
Your hex explicitly comes from the witch's Hex class feature, so you're good to go.
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with spell combat/spellstrike, he'd still get two claw attacks.
regular claw.
claw to deliver touch spell.
it would be with the same claw, not left claw/right claw.
which is better for Greater Magic Fang anyway, you can choose to just enhance one claw.
Your hex explicitly comes from the witch's Hex class feature, so you're good to go.
its a hex from the witch's class feature. but does that qualify the hexcrafter magus as having the Hex class feature?
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I would say yes. Ruling otherwise is just being overly-pedantic for no reason.
its a hex from the witch's class feature. but does that qualify the hexcrafter magus as having the Hex class feature?
The correct answer is no, you do not qualify for the extra hex feat since you don't have the hex class feature.
NOW, with that said it doesn't matter. You have the ARCANA class feature which lets you take the extra arcana feat. Add that to the Hex Arcana ability,
A hexcrafter gains access to the following magus arcana, or may select any witch hex in place of a magus arcana.
Simply take extra arcana and spend it on a witch hex you want. At 12th level you can then spend them on any hex, major hex or arcana you qualify for.
Or you can a 2 level dip into Witch and grab the White Haired Witch Archetype. Normally, it is a bad archetype for the witch, but when used a dip for Hexcrafter Magus it actually works pretyt well. There is a guide for it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fSJuL1O4hs15NMk-y4MXbH9D_qt9V7iwhY2y9HD rs74/edit?pli=1#
I'm fairly new to PF but will be GMing a new campaign this Sunday. As such, I've been absolutely poring over every resource available to familiarize myself with the game. That being said, and maybe this was already covered, but the answer seems fairly obvious to me -- you would at least need improved unarmed strike to use spellstrike or spell combat with unarmed:
Improved Unarmed Strike (Combat)
You are skilled at fighting while unarmed.Benefit: You are considered to be armed even when unarmed—you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you attack foes while unarmed. Your unarmed strikes can deal lethal or nonlethal damage, at your choice.
Normal: Without this feat, you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike, and you can deal only nonlethal damage with such an attack.
EDIT: Of course, if hair counts as a natural weapon, then you can ignore the requirement of this feat.