Imbicatus is right. You really can't make this work with the Magus class. It sounds like you'd be better off making an eldritch knight.
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Hmm that gave me an idea, what about someone wielding a double sword, darth maul style. Then to cast a spell they just hold their weapon in one hand since such a weapon would take two hands to use but only one hand to hold while your other hand casts a spell.
Though then your not so much using a spell and sword but sort of flip flopping? But, is that feasable? As it feels entirely possible.
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Pretty Much. There are many threads in the rules forum on this that have hundreds of posts. If you read Spell Combat, the restrictions are pretty clearly stated in the ability.
Spell Combat (Ex): At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.
You could - round 1, cast chill touch and beat them with sword cane twice. Round 2 - draw sword from cane and beat them with TWF using chill touches. Will have a problem when trying to cast a new spell, will need to resheath cane or drop half of it. Easiest scenario is to have a non-sword cane, but use a cane as a staff and be a staff magus, switching between 1 and 2 hands on the rounds you need to cast. Bonus, you can take weapon specialization! :)
Edit, lost a word
Isn't a double weapon treated as a one handed weapon while you hold it in one hand? The Double Axe Fury in the NPC Codex has tactics that spell out that he can even take a two handed grip to get the extra strength bonus on one head of the axe while charging.
In any case, I would rule as a GM that he could hold a double sided sword in one hand and treat it as a one handed weapon. Mechanically, it's no different than having two swords and having to choose between one or the other. You gotta take EWP, may as well make it worth it.
It's a very good question for your GM, he'll have the final say.
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Isn't a double weapon treated as a one handed weapon while you hold it in one hand? The Double Axe Fury in the NPC Codex has tactics that spell out that he can even take a two handed grip to get the extra strength bonus on one head of the axe while charging.
In any case, I would rule as a GM that he could hold a double sided sword in one hand and treat it as a one handed weapon. Mechanically, it's no different than having two swords and having to choose between one or the other. You gotta take EWP, may as well make it worth it.
It's a very good question for your GM, he'll have the final say.
A double weapon is either treated as a two-handed weapon, or as a one handed weapon and a light weapon, but it is always held with two hands.
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The double/two-handed weapon doesn't work, because spell combat requires you have one hand free for the entirety of spell combat, not just while casting the spell. The only exception would be a Staff Magus (or just someone with Quarterstaff Master) using a Quarterstaff as a one-handed weapon.Which is not really an exception because the staff magus is still keeping one hand free.
True, but a staff is normally a two-handed weapon, so I felt it was worth mentioning.
Basically the devs said there will be no actual TWF for the magus, and they tried to make the rules in such a way as to make it impossible. Even if someone finds a loophole they will just close that loophole later on.
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which kinda sucks because I thought the idea of fighting with a double weapon, then holding your double weapon in one hand, and casting a spell with your open hand pretty cool. Of course you wouldnt be fighting and casting in the same turn. Kinda like cast this turn. Next turn fight, next turn cast another spell, like mage armor, and then next turn fight again.
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which kinda sucks because I thought the idea of fighting with a double weapon, then holding your double weapon in one hand, and casting a spell with your open hand pretty cool. Of course you wouldnt be fighting and casting in the same turn. Kinda like cast this turn. Next turn fight, next turn cast another spell, like mage armor, and then next turn fight again.
You can do this normally. You just can't cast and fight in the same turn with the Magus Spell combat.
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ok that was what I was getting at, that I cant cast and even carry my weapon in my off hand.
I figured I cant cast with a double sword slashing about due to its sheer size and the awkwardness of blades on both ends.
I just thought that now I would essentially have to drop the sword on the ground, cast, and then pick it up to start using it.
You could try to use the Spellblade archetype, I think that lets you TWF with a force dagger you summon and your mainhand weapon. No idea if it works though, I've never really looked into it much.
Spellblade was an attempt to recapture the flavor of the old 3.5 psionic Soulknife class. Yes, Spellblades can TWF and use Spell Combat with the Force Athame that they summon in their offhand. The main problems with the archetype is that the athame is stuck in the form of a 1d4 dagger and Spellblades can't use Spellstrike to deliver a payload on an attack. They can still do touch attacks, they just can't stack the touch spell on top of a melee hit. Not really a huge deal if you're looking for flavor over optimization, but it tends to be a deal breaker for min/maxers.
As a slight side tangent, the old 3.5 Soulknife was consider by many to be a craptacular class mechanically speaking. Dreamscarred Press did a pretty good job revamping Soulknives for Pathfinder while keeping in line with other tier 3-4 classes.
Yes, Spellblades can TWF and use Spell Combat with the Force Athame that they summon in their offhand.
Whoopies, I made a slight grammatical error about Spellblades. While using the Force Athame, Spellblades can either TWF or Spell Combat. The way I wrote it their makes it sound like they have the option of doing both in the same round.
A double weapon is either treated as a two-handed weapon, or as a one handed weapon and a light weapon, but it is always held with two hands.Isn't a double weapon treated as a one handed weapon while you hold it in one hand? The Double Axe Fury in the NPC Codex has tactics that spell out that he can even take a two handed grip to get the extra strength bonus on one head of the axe while charging.
In any case, I would rule as a GM that he could hold a double sided sword in one hand and treat it as a one handed weapon. Mechanically, it's no different than having two swords and having to choose between one or the other. You gotta take EWP, may as well make it worth it.
It's a very good question for your GM, he'll have the final say.
According to the SRD, "A creature wielding a double weapon in one hand can't use it as a double weapon-only one end of the weapon can be used in any given round."
So Yes, you can use it in one hand. I had an Orc Warmage in 3.5 who one handed the double axe.
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A double weapon is either treated as a two-handed weapon, or as a one handed weapon and a light weapon, but it is always held with two hands.Isn't a double weapon treated as a one handed weapon while you hold it in one hand? The Double Axe Fury in the NPC Codex has tactics that spell out that he can even take a two handed grip to get the extra strength bonus on one head of the axe while charging.
In any case, I would rule as a GM that he could hold a double sided sword in one hand and treat it as a one handed weapon. Mechanically, it's no different than having two swords and having to choose between one or the other. You gotta take EWP, may as well make it worth it.
It's a very good question for your GM, he'll have the final say.
According to the SRD, "A creature wielding a double weapon in one hand can't use it as a double weapon-only one end of the weapon can be used in any given round."
So Yes, you can use it in one hand. I had an Orc Warmage in 3.5 who one handed the double axe.
Double weapons are still a two handed weapons. If you are wielding it in one hand it is either because you are using a class ability like Titan Mauler to one hand a two handed weapon, or because you are using a weapon for a smaller character.
How about a staff magus?Its similar enough to a double sword, and short of fits the cane idea.
If 3rd party material is permitted the rogue genius games product ultimate options New Magus Arcana has arcana that allow you to use either 2 weapons or a 2handed weapon with spell combat/spell strike for an arcane pool point.