Starting a new campaign in the forgotten realms world. I've never played a magus before. (Or any other caster for that matter) Here is all the info I have: We get to roll for stats(4d6 drop lowest) No archetypes. No traits. Absolutely No Dervish Dancer. Starting at lvl 1. From a role play (rollplay?lol) perspective, my character will be waking up with Amnesia. The only way I'll remember my own name is because it will be on my spell book. My DM said he will be revealing my back story as the game progresses. I'm looking to be a melee fighter at first and role play my arcane magic getting stronger as more of my past life/bloodline is revealed to me. Our DM has also instructed each of the players not to reveal what kind of characters we have created until game time. I need help on a build that can be a strong/fun CHARACTER not just a combatant. Thanks in advance.
BTW I'll have creepy glowing eyes and no reflection.
No traits hurts; a Magus gets a great deal of use out of Magical Lineage and the like, but it depends how high-level you're going. Let's see what I can suggest.
Stats: Str > Int > Dex > Wis > Cha
Feat: Toughness
Spells: Color Spray, Enlarge Person, Message, Dancing Lights, Arcane Mark
Tiefling racial traits: Fiendish Sprinter, Maw (bite attack!)
Skills: K. Arcana, Spellcraft, UMD, Perception, Acrobatics (maybe)
Weapon: Scimitar or Kukri
Armor: Studded Leather
Tiefling Heritage: Default is decent enough; maybe Oni-Spawn
How to play a Magus: Magus tricky-s+@% only comes into play at level 2 (and maybe 3), so for level 1 you're essentially a squishy caster with a nice sword. I recommend not using Spell Combat as you won't have that many bonuses to hit, and copping the -2 might be overmuch. Move around, nail as many enemies with Color Spray then buff your sword and step in to mop up the rest. If you're up against something immune to Color Spray, hit your party tank/fighter with Enlarge Person and then move up behind the enemy to flank and whack.
GM Arkwright has done a fine job summarizing the starting magus. The only change/addition I might make would be to replace Enlarge Person with Shield, which will give you some more staying power in melee, which is where you said you want to start out as you "remember" your magic.
For the future:
Since your DM has thrown out Magical Lineage, you're probably going to want to go with Frostbite as your go-to spellstrike damage dealer, but you won't have the caster level or spell slots to make use of it for a few levels yet. But you'll definitely want to pick it up at level 2 or 3, when you're still limited to 1st-level spells for your level-up spell selections.
A warning: the low levels are fairly rough for a magus, before you get all of the base abilities you need to shine. Tough it out. Color Spray will still let you be the party hero every so often if you have a good eye for hitting multiple targets or the enemy leader with it.
This is the thread I started to discuss the magus. A lot of it won't be relevant to you since my magus makes use of both traits and Dervish Dance, but there should still be some good stuff in there for you to consider for the future.
I'd particularly suggest you take a look at my posts regarding Monstrous Physique. As a strength-based magus, you will get a lot of mileage out of that spell. Your strength will add damage to all your natural attacks in a monstrous humanoid form, and natural attacks can be used to deliver Frostbite charges at the same time.
I also recommend you check out Walter's Magus Guide.
Thank you kindly sirs
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1st) I would clarify with your GM whether Dervish Dance (the feat) is unavailable or if he just wants to ban all Dex->Damage conversions. You can take Weapon Finesse and then get an Agile weapon to give you Dex->Damage. By doing this, you will be able to put your highest stat in Dex (which is conveniently boosted by being a Tiefling). This also helps your AC, which I've found to be the biggest problem for the Magus.
2nd) I would take a look at the Hexcrafter or the Kensai archetypes. Hexcrafter is great fun as you get a ton of hexes to drop in addition to your spells, as well as being able to get flight at level 5. Kensai has great flavor for a master swordsman. I've been toying around with a build for Kensai that would dip Master of Many Styles for Crane Wing and would also give you Wis to AC and CMD. As that build, you would get Wis/Int/Dex to AC and be able to block an attack each turn.
3rd) Pearls of Power are your best friends and you want as many friends as possible. On that note, don't be afraid to drop a score below 10. I think that having some high scores and some low scores (negative bonuses) gives the character a niche and a personality. A low CHA or a low STR can give you an idea behind your character's personality and how they would tackle problems. My Hexcrafter has an obscenely low Cha (-2), but he makes up for it by focusing on his Intimidate score and using his Mask of Fear (+5 to Intimidate).
Also, I second Walter's Magus Guide. It was immensely helpful for building my magus.
Ac realy isnt the problem for a Magus all you need is a wand of shield up untill lvl 7 :-)
im using it all the time. and walking around with 20 AC :-)
Now that I lvled to 7 I'll probably use the wand less. i do have a ring or protection +1 and 12 dex