Either way it doesn't change the fact that a Simitar is the best weapon to use for a Magus. And shockmagus has very little to do with your weapon of choice. That has to do with a specific Trait and Intensify Spell. A very sound choice I agree. But not exactly broken. Its what... an average of 35 extra damage a round at 10th level. I suppose you could go super cheesy and dip Sorc for the Orc Bloodline that would add +10 damage at 10th. But at that point you have an issue of the player building a cheesy character... not the weapon choice.
I just hate the limited choices offered to a Magus when it comes to weapon choice. I would much rather be a STR based Magus and give up the extra AC from using Deverish Dance... but the benefit of using a Katana or Bastard Sword(Using a Light 1 handed weapon in two hands) is wasted because your off hand has to be empty for the entire round. If you could use a 2h weapon I could see two equal paths for a magus
Dex build - Deverish dance gives you added AC and makes you less MAD.
vs
Str Build - Less AC, more MAD, and it cost you a exotic weapon feat but you get to add 1.5 Str to your attacks.
It would be a good path either way. But as it stands the STR build is subpar. Because Deverish Dance only works with Simitar... it limits a Magus to one weapon choice. I know this has been harped on before but Deverish Dance should not be limited to only Simitar. It should be all light and 1-handed weapons imo.
I dont see the point either way.
With the recent FAQ's on Spell Combat and such it has made using anything other than a Simitar pointless. Deverish dance is basicly the only optimized path for a Magus now. The STR build Magus is dead because you cant use two hands and still cast a spell. Pretty lame because I never liked the Deverish builds.
Ignore my post if you care nothing about optimization... but then you wouldn't care about using a feat to get an exotic weapon if you didnt care about optimization.
Not that this is salient to the discussion, but could someone please link me to the FAQ he is referencing?
Edit: Based on Xaratherus' comment I'm guessing it stated outright that you couldn't use Spell Strike to deliver your touch spells?
You can use Spell Strike with any weapon. Its Spell Combat you cant use in conjunction with a 2H weapon. Katana and Bastard Sword are both considered 1H weapons as long as you have the Exotic Prof. You could use either because of that. Because they can be used in one hand it was assumed that you could use both hands to attack and then remove your off hand from your weapon (Free action) use spell combat, return your hand to weapon (Free action) and then use spell strike. However it was clarified that you must have your hand free during the entire full round action for spell combat to be used. This means you have to weild the Katana or Bastard Sword with one hand. That eliminates the whole point of using those weapons... other than them being cool.
I tried looking up the FAQ but Im at work and dont have access to all my links. It might have just been a Dev response in the forums because its not in the FAQ under Ultimate Magic.
No, it had no effect on spell strike directly. It said in order to use spell combat, you could only attack with the weapon in the hand you are not using to cast a spell. If he's referring to the FAQ I think he is, anyway.
You can use spellstrike to deliver your touch spells. You can even do so through a two-handed weapon. You just can't use spell combat when holding a two-handed weapon in your other hand (unless you have an ability that specifically allows you to treat a two-handed weapon as a one-handed weapon).
I dont see the point either way.
With the recent FAQ's on Spell Combat and such it has made using anything other than a Simitar pointless. Deverish dance is basicly the only optimized path for a Magus now. The STR build Magus is dead because you cant use two hands and still cast a spell. Pretty lame because I never liked the Deverish builds.
Ignore my post if you care nothing about optimization... but then you wouldn't care about using a feat to get an exotic weapon if you didnt care about optimization.
Not that this is salient to the discussion, but could someone please link me to the FAQ he is referencing?
Edit: Based on Xaratherus' comment I'm guessing it stated outright that you couldn't use Spell Strike to deliver your touch spells?
I assumed that he was referring to the FAQ from back in April regarding spell combat\spellstrike, and the statement that you must use the light or one-handed weapon in your free hand to deliver the spell. I'm not aware of any other FAQs on the topic, though; as far as I am aware, you can still deliver a touch spell using a two-handed weapon, you just can't use a two-handed weapon in conjunction with spell combat.
Because they can be used in one hand it was assumed that you could use both hands to attack and then remove your off hand from your weapon (Free action) use spell combat, return your hand to weapon (Free action) and then use spell strike.
For what it's worth, I never assumed that to be true, and since spell combat rather explicitly states "light or one-handed weapon", it seems like reading it to allow, or intend to allow, two-handed weapons at all was a (near-intentional) misreading on the parts of those playing it like that.
So I don't see that anything's changed, or that this has drastically altered the power of the magus. STR magus still has the same place it always has had, and is still just as effective.