I'm wondering if a monk multi-classed into magus, would the character be able to use his arcane pool on his unarmed attacks? He is considered armed, after all.
I would say no because the Magus very specifically says "held weapon". You're not holding your own fists. You could, however, be holding one of the many monk weapons and channel your arcane pool through that.
The quick answer is yes, the long answer will involve several posts and many arguments and maybe some expletives. but as far as I see a Magus/Monk Multiclass character should be able to use all of his maguc Abilities with his Unarmed Strikes.
As per the Faq's and the note that a monk's unarmed count as both manufactured and natural .... yes
As a note, I posted a monk/maagus (kensai) build in the advise forum.
Aurea Simia wrote: I would say no because the Magus very specifically says "held weapon". You're not holding your own fists. You could, however, be holding one of the many monk weapons and channel your arcane pool through that. While correct in a janky rules as written sorta BS way you could get around it easily by just using brass knuckles in one hand, BAM all your Monk Damage plus your Arcane Pool.
Brass knuckles don't do unarmed damage anymore.
Joseph Greenspoon wrote: I'm wondering if a monk multi-classed into magus, would the character be able to use his arcane pool on his unarmed attacks? He is considered armed, after all. yes, you can do this because an unarmed strike (say, a fist) is a light, one-handed weapon so it can be used as a Magus' weapon. Note that the base class magus doesn't state that you have to choose a weapon to apply your abilities towards other than the normal rules for casting a spell with a hand free. With the exception of the Kensai archetype which has you choose a single weapon to use with your magus abilities, you can use any qualifying light and/or one-handed weapon with your Magus abilities.
Even with the Kensai, you can use your baseline magus class abilities with any weapon. The kensai limits kensai archetype abilities to a single type of weapon.
Artanthos wrote: Even with the Kensai, you can use your baseline magus class abilities with any weapon. The kensai limits kensai archetype abilities to a single type of weapon. You don't play a kensai if your intent is to use a variety of weapon types, the whole design of the character is the intense focus on a single weapon.
Now mind you, that weapon could be a monk weapon as long as that fits within the limitations for spellcombat. Monk-magi who want to play with sticks should probably go the Staff Magi route.
Hypothetically speaking, if a kensai chooses a simple weapon (such as dagger) as their weapon of choice, do they still get the one martial or exotic weapon profiency?
While I dont see a multiclass magus/monk work, a gestalt would be awesome. You could entirely avoid the need for the amulet of mighty fists. But the stat distribution would make that a bit hard. You'd lose most of your monk abilities.
gourry187 wrote: Hypothetically speaking, if a kensai chooses a simple weapon (such as dagger) as their weapon of choice, do they still get the one martial or exotic weapon profiency? The proficiency they get is that of the chosen weapon. The line you're reading refers to the fact that the weapon they choose can be simple, martial,or exotic.
Actually, multiclass monk/magus can work (depending on what you want, of course) - with the ever-awesome Master of Many Styles archetype. A 2 level dip + human, nets you 3 style feats, and applying those to the Crane style tree, lets you boost your AC by 3 by fighting defensively, with only a -1 penalty. Even better, it lets you deflect one hit per round, plus gives you an AoO. Add in good saves, flurry, stunning fist, and evasion and that combo is one of the few dips that makes up for the loss of 2 Magus levels, IMO.
It also works nicely with Kensai due to the whole "no armour" thing - grab yourself a Katana and go to town :)
While Unarmed Strikes are an abstracted weapon that could use any bodypart or even remain unspecified. You could just hit with "unarmed strike" and it doesn't matter what body part is actually being used or even multiple body parts combined into one discrete "attack". However, according to the FAQ, it still retains the ability to be designated as a particular body part such as a fist if it's advantageous to you so even an Unarmed Strike using the fist or a Claw attack count as your "handheld" weapon for the purpose of Spell Combat. What doesn't count, however, would be having a longsword in one hand and the other hand empty and declaring unarmed strike with your open hand as your "handheld" weapon because then, your "other hand" isn't free (it's holding the longsword) and you can't use the same hand for both your attacks and your spellcasting hand.
However, keep in mind that Flurry of Blows is a modification option to the Full-Attack action, which is a specific full-round action. Spell Combat isn't the full-attack action, it's a full-round Use Special Ability action so it can't be modified by Flurry of Blows. This means that, in any given round, you must choose to either use Spell Combat or use Flurry of Blows; you cannot combine the two. This can still be viable if you leverage persistant spells that ride on attacks such as Chill Touch or Frostbite which can ride on any weapon via spellstrike, or Elemental Touch which can only ride on unarmed strikes or natural attacks (contrary to its name, it isn't actually a touch spell; it's a personally targeted buff). For example, if you cast Frostbite or Chill Touch with sufficient caster level to have 9 uses of the charge, but only 3 iterative attacks, you could cast it with Spell Combat in round 1, getting a free delivery attack when you cast it, plus 3 iterative attacks for a total of 4 potential deliveries (we'll assume they all hit for the sake of example), but still 5 charges remaining and, even if you use spell combat next round with the spell at the end, you only have 3 attacks before the spell wipes all remaining uses of the previous spell. Alternatively, you could use Flurry of Blows in the subsequent round and could get 4 iteratives and 2 extra attacks from Flurry which gives you enough to deliver all remaining charges with higher BAB from flurry and an extra attack worth of buffer in case one attempt misses, at the expense of not getting the spell from spell combat.
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