Spell Combat+spellstrike Ruling

[Odgar]

Basically, I need some sort of official ruling on this, because I know that I get 2 sword swings and a touch attack for this, but my DM is convinced that the free action sword swing consumes my 2nd sword swing so I only get one touch and one sword swing. I was originally just going to show him like 3 different posts all agreeing with me that, that is how it works, but I wouldn't be surprised if he said since those aren't from paizo themselves it doesn't matter what they say. So if someone could show me to the appropriate thread or link, or what ever I need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that these work together that way, I would be most appreciated.

[Drachasor]

Spellstrike grants you a weapon attack instead of the free touch attack that all touch attack spells get. So you get that attack for free. So with spell combat you get your normal iterative attacks + spellstrike attack.

Combat Section wrote:

Touch Spells in Combat: Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) as a free action. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

and

Spellstrike wrote:

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. 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.

The fact you get an extra melee attack to deliver the touch spell above and beyond any other attacks is quite clear. If you are using it with Spell Combat, you suffer the standard -2 penalty to-hit with all attacks (including this free one).

I don't see how there's any room for confusion. Perhaps your DM just didn't read up on how this works.

If it makes him feel better, you can assure him that a fighter would still be outdamaging you regularly at low levels, even when you use Spell Combat with Spellstrike.

[Avianfoo]

Happily you (in OP) are both (slightly) wrong.

You get to cast a touch spell which gives you an attack (at -2) with the touch spell riding it and then you get your normal attack at -2.

[Gjorbjond]

Grick made the most complete guide to what you can do with Spellstrike and Spell Combat. You can find it here

[Cheapy]

Here's the lead designer explaining it, briefly. All the information is in the rules, but it's important to note that you get all your attacks, the touch spell, and the free attack to deliver the touch spell.

[Cheapy]

And just adding further support for Grick's guide. It was painstakingly researched, and it's high quality.

[Kazaan]

Presuming your Magus still only has 1 iterative attack from BaB (ie. he's below +6), you can do Spell Combat to get 1 spell and your 1 iterative attack. You can cast a Touch spell as your spell and this spell grants you a free touch to deliver it. Spellstrike allows you to "swap out" this touch for a melee attack with the spell effect riding on it. So you no longer have the Touch, you target them with a melee weapon attack (targeting normal AC, not touch AC) to deliver the spell, then continue with your normal iterative attack. So you get two normal attacks and no touch in this case.

On the other hand, if your BAB is high enough to get two iteratives, you could get three melee attacks. Say your BaB is +8/+3; you get two iterative attacks, the first at +8 and the second at +3. You use Spell Combat and cast a touch spell. This grants you a free touch which you make a free melee via Spellstrike; you make your melee attack with your sword or whatever at +6 (because of Spell Combat penalty) against normal AC which can deliver the touch spell effect. Then, you get your normal iteratives at +6/+1 for a total of 3 melee attacks.

[Redneckdevil]

Thought I may ask here.
When a magus is using spell combat with spell strike, what is the exact penalty for the actual spell strike? I no theres a -2 to all atks when using spell combat, but what exactly does the free strike bab go off of?
For example when a magus has enough bab to do 2 atks, and lets say magus uses spellstrike with spell combat and uses the free atk as last, does it go off the the bab for the 1st swing, 2nd swing, OR does it go off the bab for a 3rd swing at that level? Like we will use the example above the +8,+3. Since its a minus 2, would the rolls go off a +6,+1,-4 then? The -4 being the bab for the spell strike since its the 3rd atk?

[Kazaan]

The attack to deliver a Touch spell, regardless of whether you leave it as Touch or make it a weapon attack, is done at highest Bab regardless of what order it happens in. If your Bab is +8 and you get +5 from various other benefits, you could Spell Combat with (Spell/+11/+6) or (+11/+6/Spell) and, if your Spell is a touch spell, it translates into an attack at your highest BaB so (+11/+11/+6) or (+11/+6/+11) with the spell's attack in italics.

[Jiggy]

Redneckdevil wrote:

Thought I may ask here.

When a magus is using spell combat with spell strike, what is the exact penalty for the actual spell strike? I no theres a -2 to all atks when using spell combat, but what exactly does the free strike bab go off of?
For example when a magus has enough bab to do 2 atks, and lets say magus uses spellstrike with spell combat and uses the free atk as last, does it go off the the bab for the 1st swing, 2nd swing, OR does it go off the bab for a 3rd swing at that level? Like we will use the example above the +8,+3. Since its a minus 2, would the rolls go off a +6,+1,-4 then? The -4 being the bab for the spell strike since its the 3rd atk?

It's right there in the ability description:

Spellstrike wrote:

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.

[Dragonchess Player]

Redneckdevil wrote:

Thought I may ask here.

When a magus is using spell combat with spell strike, what is the exact penalty for the actual spell strike? I no theres a -2 to all atks when using spell combat, but what exactly does the free strike bab go off of?

The "penalty" of using Spellstrike instead of a normal touch attack is that the Spellstrike attack targets normal AC instead of touch AC; if the weapon misses, so does the Spellstrike spell effect. On the benefit side, the Spellstrike attack gains all of the bonuses to attack rolls from the weapon used and does normal weapon damage in addition to the effect of the touch spell (and many weapons have a better chance of a critical threat, if the spell is a damaging one).

[Odgar]

Cheapy wrote:

Here's the lead designer explaining it, briefly. All the information is in the rules, but it's important to note that you get all your attacks, the touch spell, and the free attack to deliver the touch spell.

Thanks for the link, now if I can't convince him of it's proper mechanics next time we meet up, I'll just whip that link out :D