[PFS] Tiefling Kensai Magus with wakizashi

[RainyDayNinja]

This is a build idea I've been toying with for my next GM credit baby. I wouldn't be playing it until 5th or 6th level (whenever I get my +1 agile wakizashi), but I'm unsure of what to take at higher levels.

Tiefling
Magus (Kensai)
7/19/14/18/10/5
Traits: Bruising Intellect/Student of Philosophy/Focused Mind/Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp)

1: Weapon Focus (wakizashi), Weapon Finesse
2:
3: Piranha Strike, Magus Arcana: Familiar (compsognathus)
4:
5: Combat Reflexes, Armor of the Pit
6: Magus Arcana: ???
7: Arcane Strike/Intensify Spell/Weapon Specialization?

That's what I have so far. So he's going to have great initiative, AC (including touch), and damage will be solid with an agile weapon and piranha strike, even before spells.

I've never played a Magus before, so I'm not sure what arcana would be best to take. Since Kensai lose Spell Recall, I'll probably have more arcane pool points than I know what to do with, so something that will spend those would be nice. And if it uses up my swift action, I can drop Arcane Strike from the build.

I've got a few traits I'd like; taking one to use Intelligence for one or two social skills would make up for my abyssmal Charisma. Magical Lineage would help me get great damage on shocking grasp, but with reduced spellcasting and no Spell Recall, I feel like this build shouldn't invest that heavily into it.

Any suggestions?

[Matt2VK]

I grabbed the Arcana: Empower Magic. While it's only usable once per day, at the level you get it, used with the spell Scorching Ray, can ruin someone's day while giving your magus some range flexibility.

Arcana: Spell Shield will help you stay alive after you unload a shocking grasp crit. This takes a immediate action which allows you to keep using your arcane strike.
This is a shield bonus which you might have plans on getting elsewhere.

These are my two favorite s that work with your build.

[GM Arkwright]

Improved Familiar feat will open up a world of out-of-combat utility for you.

Much agreement with Spell Shield, but I wouldn't go for Empower Magic, it's only 1/day, hardly worth it.

Doesn't the magus get a bonus feat at level 4? Grab Combat Reflexes, definitely.

Might be worth grabbing Combat Expertise, Improved Trip and the Maneuver Mastery arcana; you'll have a ton of AOOs per round, might as well spend them causing some havoc.

[RainyDayNinja]

@Matt2VK: I was planning on keeping a wand of shield in a spring-loaded wrist sheath. But Spell Shield would save me a round of buffing that way, so maybe...

@GM Arkwright: I considered Improved Familiar, but nothing about it wowed me, especially for costing a feat AND losing my initiative bonus from my original familiar. Then again, I've never played with a familiar of any kind. Can you sell me on it?

Magus gets a bonus feat at level 5, and I already included it in the build as Combat Reflexes.

And I don't think I have room for two more feats, just for tripping.

[Mergy]

A familiar should be considered an extra turn, for better and for worse. For worse, because it takes up table time and needs to be invested in almost like it's an extra player. For better because with some investment you have something to activate wands and other magical items for you.

A mephit gets a few SLAs that can be used frequently, can fly if you chose air or dust, and can throw haste on a party if you invest in a wand of it. An imp can go invisible at will, which makes it an amazing scout. A lyrakian has truespeech and can remove fatigue from everyone once per day.

I think having what is essentially an extra turn, albeit a lesser one, is worth losing your bonus to initiative.

Looking at your stats, you are drastically ignoring social skills, which come up quite a bit these days in PFS. Of every season 5 adventure I've seen, social skills have either bypassed an encounter or made them much easier. Consider moving some stats around if you can.

[RainyDayNinja]

Hmm, I'd forgotten about the possibility of familiars using wands. However a wand of haste is prohibitively expensive (although I know where to find one with 6 charges...); what other wands would be good?

And as far as social skills, one of the leading candidates for one of my traits is Student of Philosophy, which lets me use Int instead of Cha for Diplomacy to persuade AND Bluff to lie (which are the main uses of those skills, of course).

[GM Arkwright]

Things good familiars have:

-Telepathy
-Flight
-High perception modifiers
-High stealth modifiers
-Handy SLAs (Greater/Invisibility! Grease! Silent Image! Detect good/evil! Dimension Door!)
-The ability to use wands (Obscuring Mist! Glitterdust! So much handy stuff!)
-Senses (Darkvision! Blindsight!)
-Immunities and Resistances (Mind-effecting! Petrification! Fire!)

In short, a wonderful sack of handy skills and abilities that protect against the many hazards in the typical adventuring day.

[kankuro Kurosaki]

Pathfinder has ruled that no one can use a wand with out the spell on the known spell list Familiars can no longer use wands.

[Matt2VK]

GM Arkwright wrote:

....but I wouldn't go for Empower Magic, it's only 1/day, hardly worth it.

I would disagree with you here. While it is only usable once a day, you can use it on any spell you have, including the max spell level you can cast. This can seriously improve the magus alpha strike ability.

In my example of arcana empowered scorch ray, hitting a single target with it at 7th level, you'd be doing 12d6 fire damage.
Then there' also using it with the other Magus favorite, Vampiric Touch. My damage to target and more temp HP for you.

[RainyDayNinja]

kankuro Kurosaki wrote:

Pathfinder has ruled that no one can use a wand with out the spell on the known spell list Familiars can no longer use wands.

Uh... no. That's just not true.

[Mergy]

Well familiars of course need to use UMD, but that's fine. Invest a rank every level and give the little guy a circlet of persuasion.

[RainyDayNinja]

Yeah, but I'm still not sure there are any wands that would be worth the investment and not break the bank.

[GM Arkwright]

Here are some good ones I've equipped one of my characters with.

Wand of Endure Elements 50/50
Wand of Haste 50/50
Wand of Grease 50/50
Wand of Invisibility 50/50
Wand of Swallow your Fear 50/50
Wand of Weapons against Evil (CL2) 50/50
Wand of Magic Missle (CL2) 50/50

[RainyDayNinja]

...Yeah, that's just not doing it for me. I think I'll keep looking.

[Mergy]

Wand of ill omen - 750 gp or 2 pp - Persistent all your spells, no save!
Wand of faerie fire - 750 gp or 2 pp - Cover invisible and concealed enemies more easily!
Wand of glitterdust - 4500 gp - The same, but wider radius and with a small chance of blindness!
Wand of vanish - 750 gp or 2 pp - Cover your escape by having your familiar tap you with this. Of course, now your familiar is a target, but better it than you! Can also be done by an already invisible familiar, such as an imp.

But in any case, it is your choice, and it does require some investment.

[ArmouredMonk13]

Am I missing something, or shouldn't you have additional traits in you list of feats. You have 4 traits listed at the moment. In society, I think you only get 2. Other than that, make sure you buy a bag of holding/handy haversack so you can carry all your gear (because 7 strength, ouch!). Don't bother with the wand of glitterdust. The save DC is sucky, and invisibility can be countered by spark+a 2cp. sack of flour, and should have about as good (if not better) radius.

[RainyDayNinja]

That was just a list of possible traits I'm considering. I'm only going to choose 2 from that.

[Chromnos]

... Any useful wand the party isn't currently using...

Cure light wounds to bring people back from negative is always a good choice.

In one game, we picked up a wand of vampiric touch, lvl 6. Though it was a good item, no one wanted to use it. The familiar did wonders turning itself into a non-squishy target and sucking hp away from enemies. On rest days, we recharged the wand with spell slots.

The other thing to use a familiar for is a bomber. Have a druid to cast fire seeds?? Alchemical bombs? Fun fun.

[XMorsX]

I would go like this:

Tiefling
Magus (Kensai)
10/18/14/18/9/5 (+1 wis at 4, then mix dex and int according to taste)
Traits: Focused Mind, Reactionary

1: Weapon Focus (wakizashi), Weapon Finesse
2:
3: Piranha Strike, Magus Arcana: Familiar (compsognathus)
4:
5: Blind Fight, Combat Expertise
6: Magus Arcana: Arcane Accuracy
7: Moonlight Stalker
9: Armor of the Pit, Magus Arcana: Spell Shield
11: Arcane Strike, Intensify Spell

Favored class bonus every time, Prehensile Tail and Vestigial Wings if they are allowed. Check out moonlight stalker, just cast blur on yourself and you have permanent bonuses to your attack and damage rolls. Much better than wpf/wps. Darkness spell-like works well for this trick too.

[IQuarent]

GM Arkwright wrote:

Here are some good ones I've equipped one of my characters with.

Wand of Endure Elements 50/50
Wand of Haste 50/50
Wand of Grease 50/50
Wand of Invisibility 50/50
Wand of Swallow your Fear 50/50
Wand of Weapons against Evil (CL2) 50/50
Wand of Magic Missle (CL2) 50/50

RainyDayNinja wrote:

...Yeah, that's just not doing it for me. I think I'll keep looking.

If you're in the qadira faction you can get a spendy wand for 10% off.

[XMorsX]

XMorsX wrote:

I would go like this:

Tiefling
Magus (Kensai)
10/18/14/18/9/5 (+1 wis at 4, then mix dex and int according to taste)
Traits: Focused Mind, Reactionary

1: Weapon Focus (wakizashi), Weapon Finesse
2:
3: Piranha Strike, Magus Arcana: Familiar (compsognathus)
4:
5: Blind Fight, Combat Expertise
6: Magus Arcana: Arcane Accuracy
7: Moonlight Stalker
9: Armor of the Pit, Magus Arcana: Spell Shield
11: Arcane Strike, Intensify Spell

Favored class bonus every time, Prehensile Tail and Vestigial Wings if they are allowed. Check out moonlight stalker, just cast blur on yourself and you have permanent bonuses to your attack and damage rolls. Much better than wpf/wps. Darkness spell-like works well for this trick too.

If Big Game Hunter is allowed in PFS you should take it instead of Arcane Strike.

[RainyDayNinja]

Moonlight Stalker is tempting, but we're talking about investing 3 feats in a +2/+2 bonus that still requires some kind of spell first to activate.

[XMorsX]

Blind Fight is useful by itself, and as a Magus, having a blur at hand is not a big deal. It can even be done with Obscuring Mist. It is still the most efficient way to buff your to hit/ damage bonuses.

[Jiggy]

RainyDayNinja wrote:

Moonlight Stalker is tempting, but we're talking about investing 3 feats in a +2/+2 bonus that still requires some kind of spell first to activate.

Suddenly I'm having an idea for a Moonlight Stalker ninja with a one-level dip into waves oracle...

[XMorsX]

Jiggy wrote:

RainyDayNinja wrote:

Moonlight Stalker is tempting, but we're talking about investing 3 feats in a +2/+2 bonus that still requires some kind of spell first to activate.

Suddenly I'm having an idea for a Moonlight Stalker ninja with a one-level dip into waves oracle...

I don't believe that it is worth it for the Magus, because he has plenty of ways to activate Moonlight Stalker. But it is a very nice dip for mundane fighters that want to make use of the feat before magic items that grant concealment come into play. Water Sight is a very nice ability.

[Frenir]

RainyDayNinja wrote:

Moonlight Stalker is tempting, but we're talking about investing 3 feats in a +2/+2 bonus that still requires some kind of spell first to activate.

A cloak of lesser displacement qualifies for this feat to be always active unless the target has true sight.