Remember your Crit fishing so you've got to account for that as well.
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A standard magus can manage 10+ shocking grasps per day by level 7 if he's using spell recall and a couple pearls of power.
While I don't have a build for a standard magus in the level range you are asking about, here is the google doc for a level 8 bladebound kensai. Link
When going nova she will have an attack sequence of:
+13/+13/+8 (1d6+14/15-20/x2) +3 keen, arcane strike, black blade strike, spell combat.
If any attack hits add: (8d6/15-20/x2)
If hasted add: +1 to-hit, +1 ac
It is possible to precast shocking grasp, hitting with two in a single round.
With the right traits, a Magus can also be casting his SG a level over his class level as well. If he's expecting the fight, he can cast one shocking grasp and hold the charge. And then he'll cast a second one after his normal attacks. Assuming he's got a keen weapon (which he should, it's the first thing a Magus should be doing to his weapon), that's a 30% crit chance on each spell. If he's going for an all-out nova attack, there's no reason that he's going to hold back, so he'll be using his 3rd level slots to cast Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasps (8d6x1.5 w/ 30% chance to double that). Or, assuming he's built to allow him to cast cold shocking grasps, he'll instead use one Empowered Intensified SG as above and follow it up with a Intense Rimed Cold SG and use his 1/day arcana to Empower the second one. So that's somewhere around 16d6x1.5 (with a 51% chance to threaten at least one critical) - around 110 points of spell damage, plus a bit more from the weapon.
And no, a Magus absolutely doesn't want to spend a feat on Arcane Strike, he's got better things to do with his slots.
Arcane Accuracy (Su)
Benefit: The magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant himself an insight bonus equal to his Intelligence bonus on all attack rolls until the end of his turn.
There isn't a better Arcana out there, IMO.
A magus doesn't need more than a straight +X weapon, since they add all the special properties as needed. Also, Craft Wondrous Item is probably the best feat a magus can take at level 6. Getting +[Str/Dex], +Int, and pearls of power at half price is WELL worth a feat.
Also, I agree the overall "nova" potential for maguses is the critting with SG on a 15+. A kensai at level 9 will fail a confirmation roll only on a 1. Maximizing or Empowering the SG for that BBEG pretty much makes it a joke of an encounter, unless the BBEG is resistant/immune to magic/electricty.
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A magus can use spell recall to recover his shocking grasps.
At 8th level, it is not difficult to have an 8 point arcane pool and 1 pearl of power.
You only need to memorize intensified shocking grasp once to get 10 uses.
If your spamming shocking grasp, you don't have any points left over for arcane accuracy, so you might as well take arcane strike.
The kensai cannot pull the spam trick. They don't have spell recall. What they do have is critical perfection. Spend 2 arcane pool to increase the crit multiplier after you confirm a critical hit.
Do you have a build? A magus has one extra feat by level 7, which doesn't leave much room for all sorts of feats, so I'm curious to see what your build is like. I went for a Dex build because I feel that having a high AC is a must for a melee combatant with D8 HD, but I could be wrong...
There's a few ways; here's one that's designed to maximize the versatility of Shocking Grasp regardless of a given opponent's energy resistances:
Admixture Wizard 1 / Magus 6
Str 14, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 21, Wis 8, Cha 13
Traits Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp), Precocious Spellcaster (Any Cantrip, Shocking Grasp)
Feats Scribe Scroll (W1), Heighten Spell (1), Rime Spell (H), Power Attack (3), Preferred Spell (5), Intensify Spell (M5), Empower Spell (7)
SQ arcane bonds (object [masterwork rapier] [1/day]), arcane pool (+2) (9/day), intense spells +1, opposition schools (enchantment, illusion), specialized schools (admixture), spell combat, spell recall, versatile evocation (8/day)
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TRACKED RESOURCES
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Arcane Bond (Masterwork Rapier) (1/day) (Sp) - 0/1
Arcane Pool (+2) (9/day) (Su) - 0/9
Empowered Magic (1/day) (Su) - 0/1
Versatile Evocation (8/day) (Su) - 0/8
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Admixture Associated School: Evocation
Arcane Accuracy +5 (Su)Arcane Bond (Masterwork Rapier) (1/day) (Sp)
Arcane Pool (+2) (9/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Empower Spell
Empowered Magic (1/day) (Su) 1/day, cast a spell as if Empowered without altering the casting time or level.
Intense Spells +1 (Su) Evocation spells deal listed extra damage.
Intensified SpellMagical Lineage (Shocking Grasp)
Power Attack -2/+4
Precocious Spellcaster (Any Cantrip, Shocking Grasp)These spells function at one caster level higher than your actual caster level.
Preferred Spell (Shocking Grasp) The chosen spell may be cast spontaneously, and metamagic can be added to the spell without increasing its casting time.
Rime Spell
Spell Combat (Ex)
Spell Recall (Su)
Spellstrike (Su)
Versatile Evocation (8/day) (Su) Change the damage type and descriptor of a spell from acid, electricity, fire, or water to any other of those types.
Zachariah's Magus level is only six, but he's still casting his shocking grasps (and some random cantrip) at caster level seven. He's casting them spontaneously, choosing both the damage type and what metamagic he wants apply when he casts them, as a standard action. And the metamagic cost is reduced by one level.
Assuming that he knows that there's going to be a fight soon, he'll pre-cast one shocking grasp (sacking a second level slot for either an Intensified Rimed SG or an Empowered SG for slightly higher damage) (after making sure his mage armour and whatever other long-duration Wizard spell he wants are up). He'll use a swift action to activate Arcane Pool at the start of the fight, likely as +1 Keen. If he can get a full attack in the first round, he'll use Spell Combat right away, finishing the round with an Intense (and maybe Rimed as well) SG using his Empower Arcana on it. In the second round, he'll activate Arcane Accuracy with his swift and begin power attacking.
After the fight's over, he'll use Spell Recall and/or Pearls of Power to recover whatever spells he burned off to cast Shocking Grasps during the battle.
So do you think Kensai is worth it despite losing Spell Recall?
Personal taste really.
Your AC will be higher as a Kensai and you've more fightery with feats, but it will have far less nova potential(can't recall) but higher peaks on damage(increasing crit multiplier).
So do you think Kensai is worth it despite losing Spell Recall?
Personally, I think it depends on what type of game your in, and what type of character you want to play. Pearls of power can get you plenty of intensified shocking grasp(1k a piece.) Another thing to remember is it locks you out of other archetypes, if your interested in something like hexcrafter.
The kensai and standard magus have very different play styles.
My bladebound kensai is currently level 7 and I have enjoyed playing him.
Do they play differently? How so? The kensai looks like it just has less options(knowledge pool/spell recall) but in turn gets a lot of great bonuses for throwing those out and his proficiencies.
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I have frequently played at a table with a standard magus.
My kensai is more reliant on buffs and deals higher sustained melee damage. His higher AC allows him to take point more often. He bursts less frequently due to lack of spell recall and fewer spells.
The magus I have played across from uses shocking grasps more frequently, but tends to use very little in the way of buffs. He is more reliant on spells for direct damage. With a lower AC.
While not min/maxed for damage, the character I actually use in PFS is here. I like my generalist builds and have made some very deliberate choices to slow my damage after one-shotting quite a few BBEGs.
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@ Shifish: I am aware that only weapon damage is increased.
@ ender: Yes, I mean self buffs. I also used an arcana to pick up a couple of wizard spells. I spam touch of fatigue, not arcane mark. Buffs include alter self -> goblin form, cat's grace (will stop using after my next game when I pick up a +4 DEX belt) blur, mage armor, shield, mirror image, haste.
I tend to start with just mage armor up and progress my buffs as we move through the scenario. I generally top out around 33 AC by the time we reach the BBEG. With all buffs running I have also added +4 DEX and +4 to-hit.
Don't bother with mage armor once you can afford darkleaf cloth studded leather. At +1, it's an even AC to mage armor, and 0% SF. IIRC, even if you don't have proficiency (such as in case of a kensai), you can still wear it without penalty, since the ACF is 0.
So do you think Kensai is worth it despite losing Spell Recall?Personal taste really.
Your AC will be higher as a Kensai and you've more fightery with feats, but it will have far less nova potential(can't recall) but higher peaks on damage(increasing crit multiplier).
How do you have higher peaks of damage? Increasing the crit multiplier only applies to the weapon, so it wouldn't help with Spell Strike at all.
Losing Spell Recall is a huge blow and I really don't think Kensai's Perfect Strike comes close to being a fair replacement. 1 point for max damage on one die instead of an extra Intensified Shocking Grasp per point or two points to increase your weapon's crit modifier by 1 (but not both effects) is just meh in my opinion.
Losing Spell Recall is a huge blow and I really don't think Kensai's Perfect Strike comes close to being a fair replacement. 1 point for max damage on one die instead of an extra Intensified Shocking Grasp per point or two points to increase your weapon's crit modifier by 1 (but not both effects) is just meh in my opinion.
IMO, the trade off for kensai is all the other goodies you get, such as +Int to AC, Init, AND eventually to crit confirmation rolls. Spend one arcane pool, and getting +Int to attack rolls is that much more gravy. Gaining access to fighter feats and the crit feats is just that much more awesomesauce.
Sure you get fewer SGs, but honestly, I rarely NEED to use a SG except on the BBEG, and one is usually enough. I typically crit on average of once a round, and with the statics I'm doing acceptable damage. Throw in a critted SG, and sure, the damage soars, but dead is dead, and one good crit kills most standard critters. Overkill doesn't help in any way, so using SG on your average critter is usually just a waste.
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i see you dont have spell specialization. that knocks up your damage by 2d6 at 7th. then you dont have a spell storing weapon wich adds an adition 9d6 aditional nova damage with no save. if you have the 2 traits for your meta magic reduction then you can have a third level maximized 9d6 shocking grasp, 2 attacks from spell combat and a second maxamized + intensified shocking grasp in your weapon. that makes you hit for 90+ dex + weapon bonuses + feats, all on a 15-20 crit range. also you NEED to get rid of arcane strike as at 12th level when you crit you get to cast ANOTHER shocking grasp that is maxamized and intensified.
you need to build for a nova character and magus does it the best.
