Pool Strike (Su): The magus can expend 1 point from his
arcane pool as a standard action to charge his free hand
with energy. He can make a melee touch attack with that
hand as a free action as part of activating this ability. If
the touch attack hits, it releases the charge and deals 2d6
points of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire,
chosen when he spends the arcane pool point to activate
this ability). He can use this ability with the spellstrike
class feature. If he misses with this attack, he can hold the
charge for up to 1 minute before it dissipates. At 6th level,
and every three levels thereafter, the amount of damage
dealt by this attack increases by 1d6.
Pool Strike, Arcing (Su): The magus can expend 1
additional point from his arcane pool when using the
pool strike arcana. If his attack hits, the magus can target
a number of enemies within 15 feet equal to his Intelligence
modifier (minimum 0) with a ranged touch attack as a free
action. Those struck take the same energy damage as the
primary target of the pool strike, including increased
damage on a critical hit. The magus must be at least 12th
level and must have the pool strike magus arcana before
selecting this magus arcana.
I have been under the impression that pool strike ability for the Magus was pretty lack luster and I initially thought that the Arcing magus arcana would provide a small reason to make use of the pool strike ability but after reading it again I noticed that it uses a ranged attack role meaning that you have now provoked an attack of opportunity and paid an extra pool point for the privilege. I really want to like the idea of summing elemental energy that leaps from your blade to strike other enemies around you as you strike at a foe but honestly from a crunch point of view it seems like a poorly written arcana on top of a so so arcana. Making it a tough sell, but maybe I'm not seeing their true potential and wanted to see what others on the boards thought.
He would only provoke against an enemy within reach. The arcing aspect of it reaches out to 15 ft. They'd have to have an attack that can reach that far. At level 12 its 5d6 damage to those enemies.
Unless your using a reach weapon you will at least be subject to an attack of opportunity from the enemy you just hit with your Pool Strike at least from what I see in the Arcana's description. It only snowballs from their if you have multiple opponents within reach around you. Considering a Magus isn't a high hp class adding abilities that open you to be hit by enemies seems counter intuitive. Since honestly the only time you would use this ability is if you are surrounded by enemies.
Speaking of reach weapons The Arcana is vague on the point of reference to measure from while using the Arcing ability. In most cases this isn't a problem but if you have a whip wielder for example is it 15 feet from the enemy struck or is it 15 feet from the Magus? Thematically I would think it should be from the point of impact but its not very clear to my reading of the Arcana.
However free actions rarely provoke attacks of opportunity, so it's not clear those attacks would.
Ranged touch attacks specifically DO provoke.
@Narrater - the language makes me believe it arcs from the point of impact ("If the touch attack succeeds") so it would be from the point of the whip's strike. So from 15 ft you could whip a guy, pool strike, and arc out 15 ft from there.
With that build...not a bad little thing to have.
Ranged touch attacks specifically DO provoke.
I agree that ranged touch attacks that are standard actions or part of spell casting provoke, but is there a rule somewhere saying they ALWAYS provoke?
After looking a little more I see, RAW, the most important thing here is that the arch(s) coming from the pool strike are being caused by a supernatural ability (from Feat description) and thus will not provoke.
Supernatural Abilities (Su): Using a supernatural ability is usually a standard action (unless defined otherwise by the ability's description). Its use cannot be disrupted, does not require concentration, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Also
Free Actions
Free actions don't take any time at all, though there may be limits to the number of free actions you can perform in a turn. Free actions rarely incur attacks of opportunity. Some common free actions are described below.
I overlooked the fact that Arcing is a supernatural ability. That does make me feel a little better about the Arcana. It also makes me reasonably comfortable with your interpretation GreenMander.