PFS Ninja (magus dip?) help

[Gwaedh]

Hi All,

I'm hoping for some advice. I'm trying to put together a combat effective ninja for pathfinder society. I've been toying with a two level dip in magus to open up the spell list, pick up an extra attack/round (hopefully with Sneak Attack) from spell strike, a nice damage burst (4d8) from shocking grasp a few times a day, and the swift action +1/+1 which helps make up for the multiclass BAB hurt. But I keep wandering in circles.

I have been trying not to make his damage dex based for a few reasons.
1. dervish dance is feat intensive and leaves you without access to either pirhana strike or power attack
2. Waiting till I have enough gold for a +1/agile weapon would mean a long slog of games where I wouldn't be effective. And by the time I could afford it would my additional dex bonus be high enough to make agile worth more than the average 3.5 dam a hit from adding shocking or flaming anyway.

So I've arrived at..Aasimar for +2str/+2chr

Str 16, dex 16, con 14, wis 7, int 12, chr 14

I've pondering Magus 2/Ninja x wielding a katana.

I'm worried about AC, low to hit with spell combat, and lots of failed concentration checks even with cantrips => no additional attack from spell strike.

I've considered going Kensai to pick up weapon focus for free and the extra AC from int. Which of course leads me to think I should try to squeeze out 14 int to take full advantage of the 2 magus levels getting 2 AC from int. Losing the spell a day hurts, but pears of power are cheap.

I like the idea of this build a lot, but its just not gelling in my mind.

I've also thought..if I'm just trying to get the extra attack, which I'm not..I like the spells and access to wands, maybe I should just pick up a level of monk for flurry. But what weapon would I go with..and is their any flair there?

Is the ninja/magus idea just a dead end? if not, any thoughts on how to make it work? If it is a dead end, how about pulling off a heaving hitting sneak attacking ninja monk?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I've dumped a lot here.

[Gwen Smith]

My husband runs a rogue/magus combination in PFS, and he's pretty effective. He took a dip into rogue for the sneak attack and the class skills/skill points. He took Wand Wielder at magus level 3, so he can use a wand in one hand and a weapon in the other. (The nice thing about wands is that they don't provoke in combat.)

You can't use spellstrike with wands, but you can use spell combat. This lets you combine a buff spell and attack in the same round (cast Shield and attack, attack then cast vanish, cast true strike then attack, etc.).

One problem with a magus/ninja combination is that you are dependent on way too many stats (str for damage, int for spells and arcane pool, cha for ki pool). You might consider dropping your Str by one point and put the three points you save into Int. You can bump your Str back up to 18 as your 4th level ability point, so you'll only be "weaker" for the first three levels.

If you went with the monk/ninja, your levels would stack for your ki pool, and you'd use the same ability stat for both ki pools. That would reduce the number of stats you depend on.

If you mostly want a strong martial character with access to a spell list, you might look at ranger. You get access to a spell list, and you can use wands from ranger level 1. You can also get TWF at level 2 without meeting the Dex prerequisites.

If you mostly want two attacks a round, monk is your strongest starting point. You can attack twice a round with a two-handed weapon, or you can use unarmed strikes to get full Power Attack bonus on each attack (because you won't have an offhand).

[MrSin]

Gwen Smith wrote:

You can't use spellstrike with wands, but you can use spell combat.

Contingency though, you have to use wand wielder to do so, which takes at least 3 levels in magus.

Imo, its not worth it and its a lot of hoops to jump through. Is there something about ninja you really love? There are alternative classes, like slayer, or straight magus, that might be more viable.

[Gwaedh]

I'm really partial to the idea of an arcane sneaky type character. I currently have an arcane trickster (rogue/wizard) who is great fun, but not generally very combat effective.

I also have a dervish dancer magus who is great fun and very effective in combat.

I guess I'm trying to revisit the trickster idea but this time make it more effective. I've also determined that a touch of magic is enough for the feeling I want so there isn't a need to work at getting into the AT class. Even with the SLA ability ruling to qualify, you are still walking into a .5 BAB class, which just isn't feasible if you want to have some martial impact. I've regretted going rogue rather than Ninja w/ my AT. One big reason is the vanishing trick for impromptu sneak attacks. I also like "pain points" combined with two sneak attack a round while flanked.

I'd rather not go the two weapon route either by dipping ranger or taking the feat because of the cost of maintaining two magical weapons.

I'm struggling to come up with something effective that has flair. I don't need to hit as hard as everyone's favorite 2-handed fighter waving around an earth breaker, but I want to have a punch.

I wanted to avoid going dervish dancer. But being able to drop strength to 8 or so makes this seem much more feasible. I could go str 8, Dex 18, Con 14, Wis 10, Int 12, Char 14 to start.