Hey all. First time poster and tabeltop virgin here, just spent the last two weeks devouring all the PF literature I could get my grubby mits on and I have a question in regards to spell dance.
At 5th level, once per spell dance as a swift action, the spell dancer may use one of the following on himself as a swift action: blur, fly, or haste. These abilities last for 1 round. At 9th level, the spell dancer may instead take a swift action to use dimension door as a spell-like ability once during a spelldance. At 13th level, the spell dancer may instead choose to take a swift action to gain freedom of movement for 1d4 rounds.
Is the intention here that blur, fly, or haste are also used as spell-like abilities during a spelldance in the same way as dimension door or must a character have prepared those spells as usual?
Sorry if this has been answered before. I did try searching and read a load of intersting things, but none related.
do not need to prepare nor does it use up spells per day. It is simply the ability progressing by expanding the options.
Nice, that's what I wanted to hear.
Thanks.
Just as a side not what makes this pretty clear is Magus does not have dimension door as a spell at 9th level so it just flat could not work. Anyway happy dancing!
One point to mention: Don't take the dimensonal agility feat chain, you don't need it, as you already get dimension door as a swift action thanks to this class feature :D
true but with dimensional agility you can use your spell slots for it as well to up the number of times per day or for when you need it an don't have time to get spell dance started. Also spell dance does not remove the fact that Dd stops all other actions you have left in the round.
Nor does it get you the nightcrawler-ish teleport around whiel attacking and flanking with yourself goodness.
Yeah the chain still jives pretty well with spell dance.
You both appear to be contradicting each other. Spawning yet more questions.
If I use Dimensional door as a swift action during spell dance does it nullify the rest of my actions as the spell suggests or as Tryn suggests does the fact that it's a swift action have some bearing on this?
Secondly. WTH is with the flanking with yourself nightcrawler thing? I wants some of that goodness. Any chance of getting you to clarify how that works, Stome?
I can assume you attack from one side, then using dimension door as a swift action bounce around the other side and with dimensional agility you you make another attack using your previous self to get a flanking bonus. Is this legitimate?
You lose all the rest of your actions once you use DD. Full stop. Tryn like many people tend to forget that. I see it a lot. Dimensional Agility feat changes this.
As for the nightcrawler thing it is the Dimensional Dervish feat.
Though DD as a swift action is still very useful. Just plan out your actions to where you use it after attacking and such. Yes not as useful as using it as a way to rush in and attack but as i said there is a feat for that.
Thanks. I'll check that out.
That chain is a ton of investment for what is basically pounce.
See the BLADED DASH spell.
Uses spell combat to cast Bladed Dash (equals 1move+Attack) then take normal iteratives.
Pounce for just a 2nd level slot.
Save for bladed sash is not compatible with spellstrike as you already cast a spell when using it leaving you unable to cast a touch spell.
Dimensional Dervish on the other hand is useable with spellcombat/spellstrike. As it sates "You can take a full-attack action" and spell combat is a full round action. Meaning one can teleport, cast a touch spell, deliver it at -2 and take all their attacks at -2.
While how much investment this is worth might be questionable it is in fact basically a pounce. At least not for Magus.
Please, seriously consider the loss of buffing your weapon with arcana points and the bonus feat before you go Spell Dancer. If you're going to stick to Light Armor, the extra +2/+4 AC looks great, but otherwise, the archetype works against you.
It focuses on mobility, but the Magus bread and butter is Spellcombat, which requires a full round action. You should actually be looking for ways to avoid moving as much as possible. Force Hook Charge or Bladed Dance, for example, are good ways to get where you need without sacrificing attacks.
The Bonus feat is nothing to sneeze at, either, and the benefit you get instead (a bonus to skills for one round) is rarely going to help.
I'm not saying absolutely don't do it--but since you're new, I thought you'd want to know that Spell Dancer is widely considered one of the weakest Magus archetypes.
Thanks for the heads-up, but I'm definitely playing Spell Dancer, it's not so much about creating the uber character for me. It fits in very well with the RP aspect of what I wanted to do in the campaign. I realise it might not be the most powerful, but I don't think any of the folks I play with are overly concerned about that.
Dimensional Dervish on the other hand is useable with spellcombat/spellstrike. As it sates "You can take a full-attack action" and spell combat is a full round action.
While a full-attack is a type of full round action, not all full round actions are full-attacks.
While Spell Combat allows a magus to make "all of his attacks with his melee weapon" it's a specific full round action, not a full-attack.
This also means a magus doesn't benefit from the extra attack granted by haste when using Spell Combat. (Nor can you use natural weapons, TWF, etc.) There are some FAQ requests for this issue here.
I was just reading that thread. Interesting stuff. It would be nice to get a ruling, really. As I think you mentioned, for a class that has multiple ways to activate haste I can't think the idea was to have them unable to benefit in part.
I was just reading that thread. Interesting stuff. It would be nice to get a ruling, really. As I think you mentioned, for a class that has multiple ways to activate haste I can't think the idea was to have them unable to benefit in part.
I just hope they're careful if/when they answer. While I think a magus should definitely get the attack from haste with spell combat (JJ agrees), I also think they shouldn't get attacks with any other weapons (particularly natural weapons).
At my table I treat Spell Combat as a full-attack that is limited to one specific weapon. (or rather, one specific hand, if they get disarmed or something and can wield another light/1H weapon while keeping their spell-hand free -- quickdraw, wrist sheath, gauntlet, etc.)
For what it's worth my reading of the rules is the same, but you already have a thread on that.
While a full-attack is a type of full round action, not all full round actions are full-attacks.
While Spell Combat allows a magus to make "all of his attacks with his melee weapon" it's a specific full round action, not a full-attack.
Full-Round Action: A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. You can also perform free actions and swift actions (see below). See Table: Actions in Combat for a list of full-round actions.
This, to me, means you can use the feat "Dimensional Agility" combined with the "Spell Dance swift action DimDoor" to do a SpellCombatAttack on your enemy you just teleported to.
I'd do:
Round 1 - activate Spell Dance and cast some helpfull spell for me/group (Shock Shield, Impr. Invis, Glitterdust, Wall of [whatever], ...)
Round 2 - swift-DimDoor to the enemy's back and Intensified Shocking touch him with a full attack
While a full-attack is a type of full round action, not all full round actions are full-attacks.
While Spell Combat allows a magus to make "all of his attacks with his melee weapon" it's a specific full round action, not a full-attack.
This, to me, means you can use the feat "Dimensional Agility" combined with the "Spell Dance swift action DimDoor" to do a SpellCombatAttack on your enemy you just teleported to.Full-Round Action: A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. You can also perform free actions and swift actions (see below). See Table: Actions in Combat for a list of full-round actions.
The post you're quoting was in regards to using Dimensional Dervish feat with Spell Combat (which you cannot do), not using Dimensional Agility with Spell Dance (Su) (which you can do, assuming that using the dimenson door spell-like ability is considered to be "casting dimension door" for the purposes of the feat).