Trying for a switch-hitter varisian magus?

[ohako]

So, it looks like you can combine Kapenia Dancer and Card Caster together. The last build I made using Kapenia Dancer and Spell Dancer, well, seemed like a good idea at the time, but perhaps the universe isn't ready for Arcane Deed (Precise Strike) just yet. Anyway, how about this build?

race: human
class: kapenia dancer card caster magus 12
traits: Harrow Chosen, Heirloom Weapon (bladed scarf, choosing a +2 to steal with it) (which I know isn't strictly legal, sub in Arcane Temper as appropriate)

feats
1 Weapon Finesse
1 (B) Weapon Focus (bladed scarf)
1 (H) Quick Draw
1 (B) Deadly Dealer
3 Slashing Grace (bladed scarf)
5 Point-Blank Shot
5 (B) Precise Shot
7 Extra Arcana (Spell Blending, getting detect thoughts and false life) (at this level you gain medium armor proficiency, so rock that mithral breastplate and get a good divination spell that you can use with Harrow Chosen)
9 Combat Expertise
11 Improved Steal
11 (B) Greater Steal

magus arcana
3 Role Dealer (effectively)
6 Spirit Fingers
9 Rakshasa's Fortune
12 Manuever Mastery (steal)

So, let's see

1. Steal things with your scarf
2. Shoot cards reasonably well, and spellstrike with them.
3. If you're a jerk, use a 'deck' of cards that only matches your alignment (that's 6 cards), enchant them with returning, and enjoy darts with a 19-20/x3 crit range.

what do you think?

[Dave Justus]

I like the concept and theme a lot. I'm not sure the execution really comes together though. For example, you end up spending a lot of feats on your bladed scarf, but card caster is taking away the ability to enhance it. Then you lose the ability to spell strike with your scarf.

Meanwhile, besides your feats, Kapenia Dancer has also taken away some of your spells per day. And steal as a maneuver is occasionally awesome, but often entirely useless.

I'm pretty sure that you can't stack your harrow deck like that either. It would a) no longer be random and b) no longer be a harrow deck.

[ohako]

Dave Justus wrote:

I'm pretty sure that you can't stack your harrow deck like that either. It would a) no longer be random and b) no longer be a harrow deck.

yeah, I'm with you on that, but this gets into weird card-counting with your 'throw' deck.

Clearly you need one full deck for a) casting augury and b) Rakshasa's Fortune. However, you also need another deck for throwing at people, and those cards (barring returning, possibly) are destroyed after being thrown. Sure you start with a full deck, but it doesn't stay that way.

Let's say you start with a full deck. Instead of purposefully cheating, you could count cards (counting how many matched cards or aligned cards are still in the deck), and either

a) throw away the deck and replace it if the ratio gets too low
b) keep putting returning on the cards if the count gets high enough

so, kill people with blackjack. that ought to work, right?

[Dave Justus]

I haven't put a whole lot of thought into it. Although Gambit is awesome, I haven't tried to make him in pathfinder.

I'm not seeing anything that prevents the card from being destroyed when you throw it, returning or not, even though returning is specifically something that card casters can do.

As a GM, I'd probably arrange it somehow that between each encounter you needed to restore your deck to normal, both to save on needing to keep track which cards were there (possibly in multiple decks) and to get rid of any card counting shenanigans. That would of course fall into the house rules territory, but I think it keeps the flavor intended a lot better.