Gun Mage Build High level In need of Feat Advice

[Nosta1300]

So I am going to a short High level Game and I am rehashing one of my old ideas

The Gunmage (Spell-slinger wizard 1) + Eldritch Archer Magus 14

and I'd like some Feat Advice on it

I am unsure what ones would be necessary to function and would I need to make it a good build

I am thinking I want to Build toward spell perfection but unsure what way to take

[avr]

The brawler wasn't quite the last then? Good.

Anyway, starting at 15th you have 8 general feats and 2 from magus, a budget of 10 to work with. 11 if human of course. Spell perfection and its 3 required metamagic feats take 4 of those, your basic gunslinger package (PBS, precise shot, rapid reload, rapid shot) is 4 more, that leaves you a couple for more gunslinger (deadly aim, amateur gunslinger) or for feats to work with spell perfection (spell focus, spell penetration), or for whatever weird feats catch your eye.

Quicken spell is a must-have metamagic feat, if you're working at long range then reach spell might be handy, empower spell and/or intensify spell improve damage, elemental spell or benthic spell allow your favourite spell more damage types, various other feats add interesting rider effects to that favourite spell.

[Kaouse]

Spell Cartridges is pretty good, lets you deal force damage and you never have to worry about ammo. I'd also suggest considering the possibility of NOT dipping Spell Slinger Wizard, and instead just going all 15 levels in Magus. Level 15 Magus gets some great stuff, like the ability to enhance his weapon with Bane, or the ability to Reflect enemy spells.

[Zepheri]

I suggest piercing spell as 1 of the metamagic it will help to reduce the sr of the target by 5 and since your caster lv is 14 it will help a lot vs powerful enemies

[Dasrak]

So that gives you 10 feats total (including magus bonus feats) to work with, with a possible 11th if you're human. Spell Perfection will require a total of four feats on your build, leaving 6-7 for everything else.

Given how tight you'll be on feats, I think using Shadowshooting and (Greater) Reliable weapon properties to handle reloading and misfires respectively is a good idea. Given that you have access to the Mending cantrip, even if some rare effect does increase your misfire chance you can at least still fix it between combats. This lets you avoid having to pay for feats to reload your weapon and fix misfires, freeing up feats for other things (like Spell Perfection).

Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are always necessary on any obligate ranged attacker build, so you definitely want those. Damage-wise you definitely want Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot. So that's four obligatory feat taxes right out of the gate. That leaves 2-3 more feats; I'd say the Snap Shot feat line makes most sense to pursue.

In terms of metamagic, Intensified and Empowered are kinda obvious picks for a Magus, and since you're going for Spell Perfection you'll be able to make use of Quicken quite effectively so that makes an obvious choice for the third.

TL;DR:
1 - Point Blank Shot
3 - Precise Shot
5 - Deadly Aim
6 - (Magus bonus feat) Rapid Shot
7 - Intensified Spell
9 - Empowered Spell
11 - Quicken Spell
12 - (Magus bonus feat) Weapon Focus
13 - Snap Shot
15 - Spell Perfection

Aside from that, make sure to Magical Lineage as one of your traits. You can go with the always popular Shocking Grasp (using the Reach Spellstrike Arcana to deliver it through your weapon) or with something else; Shocking Grasp is the standard for a reason, but it's by no means the only option.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should be very cautious about using the arcane gun to enhance range or area spells. Overloads are not misfires, and thus abilities that lower misfire chance or fix misfires do not work on overloads. Moreover, you can't carry backup weapons since the eldritch archer class features only work with your bonded weapon. If you do intend to use the arcane gun class feature, ensure you have the mending cantrip prepared and have numerous copies of the Jury Rig spell prepared (which suppresses the broken condition for 1 round/level). The Mage Bullets class feature is much safer and more reliable, and notably stacks with your arcane pool's enhancements.

Kaouse wrote:

Spell Cartridges is pretty good, lets you deal force damage and you never have to worry about ammo.

Spell Cartridges costs an extra feat tax (arcane strike) and eats into your swift action economy which is incredibly problematic on this build since this build already has a lot of things that rely on swift action activation (arcane pool, mage bullets, quicken spell, possibly other magus arcana). Spell Cartridges is one of those feats that looks amazing in isolation, but when you try to fit it into an actual build it has severe opportunity costs. It's still a good feat on the right build, but this build has a lot of dissonance with it and I strongly recommend against it as a result.

Zepheri wrote:

I suggest piercing spell as 1 of the metamagic it will help to reduce the sr of the target by 5 and since your caster lv is 14 it will help a lot vs powerful enemies

Also a good option

[baggageboy]

If you do decide to go for spell cartiges consider picking up riving strike as well. You're usually hitting them anyways so getting the penanlty to saves is great.

[Meirril]

I think the spell you want to focus on isn't Shocking Grasp, but Snowball. That saves you from needing to rely on Reach Spellstrike. Not that you are going to avoid Reach Spellstrike.

While a common magus build would focus on a 1st level spell...you could focus on Vampiric Touch instead. Bonuses would be that you more or less know what is immune to it, and when they aren't immune you get huge benefits from it. Or you could go with the equally good Battering Blast which is easier to use. Though if you want to blast all day a 1st level spell is your best choice.

Going with Wand Wielder arcana you'd want to pack a few wands to let you blast all day. 2 CL5 wands of Shocking Grasp and Snowball would be inexpensive and effective for common spell attacks.

Instead of Snap Shot, let me encourage you to get Preferred Spell. Being able to channel any spell into your chosen Perfection spell will give you a ton of flexibility. Instead of being forced to have all of your spell list filled with metamagic'ed versions of your perfection spell, you can instead prepare other spells that would be useful and then give them up to spontaneously cast them. This does cost 2 feats, but its totally worth it. Change Dasrak's build to replace his 11 and 12 feats with Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell.