PFS Magus build help please

[Gwaedh]

Hello,
I'm have trouble deciding on a level 3 feat for my society magus.

He is Bard (dawnflower dervish) 1, magus 2 (hex crafter)
str 10, dex 18, con 14, int 15, wis 9, cha 12.

His first level feat is extra performance..to get maximum use out of battle dance from the bard level.

I want him to be consistently effective at dealing out melee damage. Since he isn't strong enough for power attack and pirhana strike won't work with a scimitar I'm not seeing alot of options to add damage until weapon specialization.

At the moment i'm considering arcane strike or weapon focus (since there is no damage if you don't hit).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Matt2VK]

Arcane Strike requires a swift action to use. Magus has a good number of Arcana that use a Swift action to activate. If you're planning on going with those Arcana (or any other abilities that use Swift actions) you will not want Arcane Strike.

With Weapon Focus, that +1 to hit helps out a bit from taking the -2 to hit with Combat Casting but you have the Dervish dance to balance that out.

You actually have a lot of choices you can make and I suggest you take a look at the Guide section in the forums to look through the Magus thread/post. As a Magus is a very flexible class and can be designed to fit most play styles. So it's hard to give you advice since we don't know where or how you want your character to go.

[master_marshmallow]

Weapon focus is your best bet, since to-hit really matters to you. I would like to remind you that the spell Magic Weapon is a thing, and it is a good thing at low levels before you have a magic (or even masterwork) weapon as you can cast it, use your Arcane Pool, and still make a full attack all in the same round. Combining Magic Weapon with Arcane Pool gives you +2 to hit and damage which is actually a huge difference at earlier levels, mathematically it puts you on par with BDF types.

I would also like to remind you to pick up Combat Casting as most people seem to forget just how difficult it is to make a concentration check at those earlier levels, especially with the fact that you have a lower than average INT for a magus because of the bard dip and DEX focus. It is another reason to take Weapon Focus, as you will want to take that penalty to hit in favor of a bonus on that Concentration check. Arcane Accuracy will also be all but necessary at 4th level since it essentially let's you tank your attack bonus for 'free' so you can add double your INT on those concentration checks.