How to make a Magus Cha based instead of Int?

[Seeker1728]

I spent way too many hours trying to google a solution for this after searching through the various rulebooks failed me, and as a newly minted PF GM I've run out of time to devote to this and figured I'd ask this wonderful resource here.

I got a player who wants to play a Magus but wants to run it based off of CHA like the Sorcerer. I figured from what I know that this shouldn't be too difficult since I knew Sorcerers have the option to shift their spell casting stat from CHA to INT or even WIS by selecting a certain bloodline. But I couldn't find squat on how to do this for a Int based character to go to CHA. Normally I'd just make the swap and be done with it, but we're using Hero Lab alot and ideally I want to use a more official feature than my whim. So basically my question is, am I missing something? Is there no option to flip INT to CHA for a Magus?

Also, the player said he'd prefer if he could be a "Sorcerer like Magus", meaning spontaneous casting with fewer spells, etc. I considered building a archtype to do this, but as I said in the beginning, I'm newly arrived to PF and some advice would be appreciated.

[MrSin]

Raise the skillpoints to 4+, and consider giving him more spells per day. The summoner has a 6 level spontaneous progression of its own, but I think its a little slow. It also keeps him from using pearls of power, but you can houserule otherwise.

[GeneticDrift]

I think there is a 3rd party option for this. Or at least I was talking to a friend who did this too. Unfortunetly I don't know.

[Seriphim84]

There are no Paizo magus options that use charisma. The sorcerer is the only class who can make the leap into other mental stats.

I would recommend a magician bard. Cha based, good skills, solid combat abilities and can add wizard spells as he levels.

In lieu of that you might encourage him into the Elderith Knight Prestige class class. Sorcerer/fighter gives you many of the same spells and feats that a magus gets. He can take arcane armor training to wear light and medium armor and still cast spells. Buy some mithril fullplate at higher levels and go to town.

[Thaliak]

If you're comfortable with third party material, you could let him play this spontaneous Magus archetype, bump up the skill points per level to 4, and change the casting stat from intelligence to Charisma. Alternately, you could allow him to play the Vanguard, a third party class that blends magic and combat like a Magus but draws from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list, casts spontaneously, and uses Charisma as its casting stat.

[Azten]

EpicMeepo has a thread of archetypes for pathfinder classes that includes different casting stat magi. It's here on the boards somewhere...

[Matthew Morris]

I was going to mention the Vanguard, also my Dammascarran is an Int based spontanious caster (amusingly developed independently of the Magus and the Vanguard, but similar. I need to make an arcane pool archtype for it though)

Edit, forgot the Arcane Duelist archtype for the bard.

[Kyoni]

Alternately you could point him to the Bard Archetype "Arcane Duelist" which seems to fullfill most of what you want. :-)

[Seeker1728]

Thanks all! Plenty of good suggestions for me to put before him. Made my day :)

[Kolokotroni]

+1 for the vanguard (note it is not as powerful as a magus, but it has its own cool abilities that give it some variety). Or you could just do the cabalist archetype by super genius games and change int to charisma for the magus, but that would be a house rule.

[Bardess]

There's Super Genius Games' Cabalist magus who casta through Charisma and gains sorcerer powers.