Magus Spell Combat vs. Touch Spells Holding the Charge

[Dark Netwerk]

OK. I decided to start a new thread on this specific aspect of things that has begun to confuse me.

Core Stuff:

Touch Spells in Combat - Holding the Charge wrote:

If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

Magus - Spellstrike wrote:

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. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon’s critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.

FAQ stuff:

FAQ: Can a magus use spellstrike (page 10) to cast a touch spell, move, and make a melee attack with a weapon to deliver the touch spell, all in the same round? wrote:

Yes. Other than deploying the spell with a melee weapon attack instead of a melee touch attack, the magus spellstrike ability doesn’t change the normal rules for using touch spells in combat (Core Rulebook page 185). So, just like casting a touch spell, a magus could use spellstrike to cast a touch spell, take a move toward an enemy, then (as a free action) make a melee attack with his weapon to deliver the spell.

On a related topic, the magus touching his held weapon doesn’t count as “touching anything or anyone” when determining if he discharges the spell. A magus could even use the spellstrike ability, miss with his melee attack to deliver the spell, be disarmed by an opponent (or drop the weapon voluntarily, for whatever reason), and still be holding the charge in his hand, just like a normal spellcaster. Furthermore, the weaponless magus could pick up a weapon (even that same weapon) with that hand without automatically discharging the spell, and then attempt to use the weapon to deliver the spell. However, if the magus touches anything other than a weapon with that hand (such as retrieving a potion), that discharges the spell as normal.

Basically, the spellstrike gives the magus more options when it comes to delivering touch spells; it’s not supposed to make it more difficult for the magus to use touch spells.

—Sean K Reynolds, 02/07/12

FAQ: When using spell combat, can the weapon in my other hand be an unarmed strike or a natural weapon? wrote:

Yes, so long as the weapon is a light or one-handed melee weapon and is associated with that hand. For example, unarmed strikes, claws, and slams are light melee weapons associated with a hand, and therefore are valid for use with spell combat. A tail slap is not associated with a hand, and therefore is not valid for use with spell combat.

—Pathfinder Design Team, 04/05/13

FAQ: When using spell combat, do I specifically have to use the weapon in my other hand, or can I use a mixture of weapons (such as armor spikes and bites) so long as my casting hand remains free? wrote:

You specifically have to use the light or one-handed melee weapon in your other hand.

—Pathfinder Design Team, 04/05/13

So does all this mean that, during the round the Magus uses Spell Combat, he may only use the weapon/natural attack/unarmed attack in the non-casting (typically main) hand? But outside of Spell Combat, he may use whatever weapon/natural attack/unarmed attack to deliver the spell, just like a regular caster holding the charge? This seems to invalidate the use of other natural attacks (like the Prehensile Hair Hex). What happens to the magus monster (or polymorphed magus) that has no hands (maybe tentacles, maybe hooves) or has several hands? Spell Combat doesn't work with the former (or it only works on a specific limb), and the Magus has to pick one of the other hands not involved in the casting in the latter?

What about the "picking up a weapon in that hand" work, mentioned in the first FAQ? Even though the charge is held in his body, he can pick up a weapon only in a specific hand (presumably the main, non casting hand) to transmit it through that weapon and otherwise risk discharging it if he grabbed the weapon with a different hand? I guess the a similar question on multi-armed Magi, comes to mind here too.