Currently i am playing an epic level campaign with a brand new Magus that i built last week (my previous character payed the ultimate price) and after one session i quickly realized that spell combat/spell strike really limit what you can do in a round if you chose to use them. although when you DO use them, you can be very dangerous, you leave yourself open to many dangers if you use some of your arcana's in the same round as spell combat. mainly this is because most arcana require either a swift or imidiate action to use.
i have discovered a few things that give me a little more leway to deal with this, but i am still at a loss for the most part on how best to gain maximum potential from a single round.
so far what i have done is:
-taken EWP(Kitana) so i can use a 2h weapon while still using spellcombat/spellstrike
-added spellstoring to my weapon to effectively get a second spell in a round as a free action
-always have a touch spell held indefinitely prior to combat
-taken 1 level of Time Thief to gain 'Motes of Time' to grant an extra swift action in a round if i need it.
-Always have Intensified Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Touch spells prepared to use with spellstrike to supplement HP in frontline combat.
i cant ever seem to get the Critical Strike Arcana to work when i crit because i never have a swift action to activate it with. and given that its a 1/day ability, i find that it is highly over-rated. i get more out of maximize magic arcana and maximized spellstrike feat then i do from critical strike.
any ideas on how to get more actions per round, or utilize more arcana/spells in a round would be appreciated.
Always have a quickened spell ready so you can deliver the one you have already charged as a free action melee attack, then quicken one for another free action melee attack, then spell combat for another spell/free action melee attack, then spell storing for another one, then iterative attacks follow, you are looking at delivering 4 touch spells per round, if you are already epic, I'd say go for Spell Focus Necromancy and Thanatopic Spell and use Vampiric Touch, Take Spell Perfection on it, and you can quicken and intensify it, and maybe even empower it also, with Magical Lineage and get all of the damage.
action economy is verry important in a magus if you chose to many options wich use a swift action then it is a build error. you can chose more pasive arcana's or more pasive feats depending on your build ofcourse.
a tiefling can hold a metamagic rod in its tail this way you can easily quicken spells and honostly the difrence in a 2 handed weapon and a scimitar is neglagable a scimitar stil get 1.5 times STR only the dice is difrent but as you know a maxemized intensefied shocking grasp doese 120 damage a crit (25% chance to treathen) what doese the difrence on 1 dice make!
having 1 hand free makes some things alot easyer than the advantage you get from wielding a two handed weapon as you can use wands with that hand aswell using wands of vanish/shield/true strike with the wand wielder arcana! or just have a CL5 wand of shocking grasp and cast shocking grasp on every attack!
oh and that feat you wasted on ex. w prof you can put into arcane pool!
The only thing you should be preparing with Quicken is whatever your spell of choice for Spell Perfection. Even better is to have Preferred Spell for the same spell so that you never actually prepare your main damage spell. (In fact, if I was building a Magus starting at sixth level or better, I'd seriously consider a first level dip of Admixturer Wizard so that my Preferred Spell can be any energy type I chose as needed; Rimed Cold Shocking Grasp is a nice default in my opinion)
I'd suggest leaving your Quickened Spellstrike until the end of your attack sequence so that you can decide if it's actually necessary and leaving the swift action available for Critical Strike Arcana if the opportunity presents - not having to use Perfection to get Quickened for free means getting a damage boosting metamagic for free instead.
I don't see much advantage to having more than one swift action arcana and maybe one immediate action one; you're only going to get one swift per turn, and once you're at fifteenth or better, that's frequently going to be a quickened spell.
(25% chance to threaten)
30 percent. 15-20 is 6/20 possible rolls.
my apologies :-)
thats even better!
i love my black blade at lvl 5 i got a +3 keen scimitar !! thats just amazing :-)
thanks for all the input guys.
as far as the EWP (katana), i dont feel that it's a waist, since its also a 15-20 crit and has higher damage dice, plus i can wield it as a 2h weapon for more damage while still having a hand free for spell combat when i need to because it counts as a 1h weapon for that purpose.
the tiefling tail holding a metamagic rod is a genius idea, but i made a human without thinking about this, so fail on my part. also, i didnt take the quicken metamagic feat because i didn't like the idea of preparing a vampiric touch as a 6th level spell, or a shocking grasp as a 4th level. as far as spell economy goes, this is a terrible trade. but i might just have to grab it next time i level judging by what you guys have been saying.
thanks for all the input guys.
as far as the EWP (katana), i dont feel that it's a waist, since its also a 15-20 crit and has higher damage dice, plus i can wield it as a 2h weapon for more damage while still having a hand free for spell combat when i need to because it counts as a 1h weapon for that purpose.
the tiefling tail holding a metamagic rod is a genius idea, but i made a human without thinking about this, so fail on my part. also, i didnt take the quicken metamagic feat because i didn't like the idea of preparing a vampiric touch as a 6th level spell, or a shocking grasp as a 4th level. as far as spell economy goes, this is a terrible trade. but i might just have to grab it next time i level judging by what you guys have been saying.
Does Alter Self let you grow a limb like a tail? May be worth the go around to do so, keep your stats, gain a stacking +2 str, and get that tail for rod usage. Also dark vision.
And what spells at higher levels are you concerned with? Personally I love shocking grasp because of the +3 attack bonus, that doubles with spell perfection. Magical lineage and spell perfection let you (afaik) prepare it quickened and intensified as a level one spell, or cast it spontaneously and quickened by giving up any spell slot one or higher if you take greater spell specialization, or preferred spell. Empowering it on top of that is just cake. Spell perfection should also double the values of any weapon focus feats you have since that is the method by which you are delivering the spell. Vampiric touch and shocking grasp are just the best two spells to work with here.
Hmmm. I never thought of that. I guess I'm gonna have to rethink my next few levels. Thanks.
Spell perfection should also double the values of any weapon focus feats you have since that is the method by which you are delivering the spell.
That seems like an awfully ambitious interpretation to me. But it does nicely boost (Greater) Spell Penetration, which is very worthwhile.
Spell perfection should also double the values of any weapon focus feats you have since that is the method by which you are delivering the spell.That seems like an awfully ambitious interpretation to me. But it does nicely boost (Greater) Spell Penetration, which is very worthwhile.
It specifically states that Weapon Focus (Ray) doubles, so why wouldn't the respective weapon by which you are delivering the spell?
biggest thing... after nova, what are you going to do. remember, standard day is 3 encounters... is why alot of people mistakenly believe magi are gods...
lolz my black blade magus has 7 points in his arcane pool and 3 pearl's of power
right now i can cast intensefied Shocking grasp 14 times in a day!
ofcourse i never need it so many times! and 7 of those times are most of the times used to enhance my blade but lets distract 3 thats stil 11 times a day and 3 encounters with a +3 keen scimitar!!
I just love to see a mob go up in smoke when i do 12d6+2xSTR on a roll of 15! at lvl 5
oh and im not counting the 2 points in my black blade for now as i use it in emergencies only when I got to change my weapon damage to something difrent!
And what spells at higher levels are you concerned with? Personally I love shocking grasp because of the +3 attack bonus, that doubles with spell perfection.Shocking grasp has created a ton of one trick pony magi, who are utterly useless against electrically immune opponents.
There are plenty of ways around that. Without level dipping, Elemental Spell comes to mind. There is also the possibility of using something else on them. Corrosive Touch? Vampiric Touch? You have options.
frigid touch
and indeed elemenatal spell is also a must!
If you can get a strong, survivable mount by some means (like leadership or from another PC), at high levels Mounted Skirmisher is a pretty nice feat for a Magus. Sure, you could just Bladed Dash into melee and full attack, but the mount means you can full attack with any spell you want basically any round of combat.
It worked surprisingly well for my friend's Magus in the last high level PF game I was in.