Spellstrike + Trip

[Starcoffin]

Can a magus use the free basic attack from spellstrike and make a trip attempt (or any other combat maneuver that can be made in place of a basic attack) and have the spell trigger on a successful trip?

[Majuba]

I don't know - same question for any held-charge during a combat manuever (grapple?), tough call.

[Grick]

Starcoffin wrote:

Can a magus use the free basic attack from spellstrike and make a trip attempt (or any other combat maneuver that can be made in place of a basic attack) and have the spell trigger on a successful trip?

To rephrase your question:

If a magus casts a touch spell, and uses Spellstrike to replace the free touch attack granted by the spell with a melee attack with his weapon, can he then replace that melee attack with a trip, disarm, or sunder combat maneuver?

Citations:
Touch Spells in Combat: "In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) as a free action."

Spellstrike (Su): "At 2nd level, 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."

Trip: "You can attempt to trip your opponent in place of a melee attack."

Disarm: "You can attempt to disarm your opponent in place of a melee attack."

Sunder (PRD not yet changed, but Sunder FAQ: "the text should read "in place of a melee attack"")

[Xaratherus]

The question has come up before. From a purely RAW standpoint, I believe this would be allowed, but it's never been confirmed.

[Grick]

As to what happens if you do perform a combat maneuver with an active touch spell, there was a FAQ Request thread here, but it was marked "Answered in the errata." I assume that would be core rulebook errata, which means waiting until the next printing to find out if this is actually answered in the errata, or if it was just un-flagged to clear out the FAQ queue.

[Majuba]

If you *can't* deliver a touch spell with a combat manuever, you won't be able to replace the free attack from spellstrike to perform a combat maneuver (as that will not deliver the spell).

If you *can* deliver a touch spell, I agree with Grick's quotes that point to 'yes, you can replace it.'

Edit: Nothing in the Core Rulebook errata from 1st to 5th printing.

[Xaratherus]

Just cuz, I FAQ'ed Grick's question (again).

Note that unless you are built for maneuvers, if this is allowed, replacing your free melee attack with a maneuver could provoke an additional AoO.

Related but separate question: At the point where you would provoke an AoO in the above scenario, would being hit lose your spell or would it already be cast? I would say it is probably already 'active' and so the AoO wouldn't cause spell loss.

[Kazaan]

PRD wrote:

Tripping Staff (Combat)

You can make a trip attack with your quarterstaff.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff), base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: You treat quarterstaves as if they had the trip special feature.
Special: If you are a magus with the staff magus archetype, you can use spellstrike on any trip combat maneuver you make with the staff.

If we presume that this feat is properly written, it implies that you don't discharge a touch spell by combat maneuver, regardless of whether that maneuver involves touching or not. It's a similar situation to something that came up recently regarding using a command to activate special properties (ie. Flaming) on weapons. The way the rules are written seems to imply that speaking (a free action) could trigger a command-property on a weapon. But we got dev feedback that it requires a standard action to activate a property so even if you use the activation command in casual conversation (as implied by the rules), it won't outright activate the item unless you spend a standard to "say it right", presumably involving intonation and maybe dramatic gesticulation of the weapon. By the rules, you must deliver a touch attack via a melee touch attack. That's a free action on the turn you cast the spell, and a standard action any other time. Further, it permits you to deliver via Unarmed Strike or a Natural Attack using a normal melee attack. But trip replaces your melee attack so you are no longer meeting the "melee attack" requirement to deliver the charge, thus you don't deliver it. This is backed up by the existence of the special clause for Tripping Staff.

Conclusion: You can replace your free melee attack with a trip, but it will not deliver the charge unless you have a special ability/feat that permits you to do so on a trip maneuver. Tangentially, you don't deliver a touch charge via unarmed trip nor grapple because neither is a melee attack.

[Grick]

Xaratherus wrote:

At the point where you would provoke an AoO in the above scenario, would being hit lose your spell or would it already be cast?

Casting a touch spell grants you a free touch attack. So if you fail to cast a touch spell, you don't get to make a free attack.

Since, in your example, you're making the attack, you've already successfully cast the spell, so getting hit won't change anything (unless it makes you unable to complete the attack).