Hi.
What the title says.
Playing in a DEMON heavy campaign with a bladebound hexcrafter.
See avatar for build.
My problem is demons are pretty resistant to most energy spells and Frostbite and SG are my bread and butter. So far I am mainly using BRAND with a spell combat full attack as my gotto spell.
We already have an Admixture Cyphermage so little pressure on me for blasting.
Against demons, you may want to shift focus from spells that damage over to spells that help you deal weapon damage. A Holy weapon will reliably damage any demon in Bestiary I except a Balor (Cold Iron and Good) or a Shadow Demon (Incorporeal). Brand for TWF is a perfectly valid way to inflict more weapon damage to demons.
All demons are immune to electricity, if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't that suck for magi?
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Use a metamagic rod to change your electricity damage to other
Not as viable as you would think in this case, you would need 3 hands to pull it off. I would suggest movement spells that add attacks so as to stay away from the big scary ones. force hook charge and bladed dash being 2 of my favorites. just use them carefully to avoid AoO's and full attacks and you will be fine. Full attack plus bladed dash hit plus 30ft away == only one shot on a lot of rounds plus forcing the demon to move to get you. should result in a lot of hits with less damage to yourself. I would also suggest the arcanas that add bane and duration to your blade, they will make your job a lot easier.
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Focus on boosting your ability to penetrate spell resistance (Feats Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration should help) and focus on spells that do not allow Spell Resistance checks.
Spells like Glitterdust can be quite effective when the save is failed. Geyser, Shout, Sleet Storm, Black Tentacles and Mislead would also be rather effective in a lot of situations and do not allow for spell resistance.
EDIT:
Agreed on adding Bane to the weapon in hand as it will aid in boosting your melee output.
Also, you should look into the close Range Arcana at higher levels. While the Magus does not have a huge number of ray spells (Ray of: Frost, Enfeeblement and Exhaustion as well as Scorching Ray and, most importantly Disintegrate). You would need to boost your ability to penetrate SR, but delivering any of these through your weapon with the extended threat range for a critical would be a definite advantage.
Additionally, while it is affected by SR, do not discount keeping Magic Missile handy. Kinetic (Force) energy is not usually on a creature's list of immunities and resistances, so if you get passed the SR, you can do a little damage at range.
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Focus on boosting your ability to penetrate spell resistance (Feats Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration should help) and focus on spells that do not allow Spell Resistance checks.
Spells like Glitterdust can be quite effective when the save is failed. Geyser, Shout, Sleet Storm, Black Tentacles and Mislead would also be rather effective in a lot of situations and do not allow for spell resistance.
EDIT:
Agreed on adding Bane to the weapon in hand as it will aid in boosting your melee output.Also, you should look into the close Range Arcana at higher levels. While the Magus does not have a huge number of ray spells (Ray of: Frost, Enfeeblement and Exhaustion as well as Scorching Ray and, most importantly Disintegrate). You would need to boost your ability to penetrate SR, but delivering any of these through your weapon with the extended threat range for a critical would be a definite advantage.
Additionally, while it is affected by SR, do not discount keeping Magic Missile handy. Kinetic (Force) energy is not usually on a creature's list of immunities and resistances, so if you get passed the SR, you can do a little damage at range.
He is also already an elf so built in spell pen already, just the first one should do the trick to penetrate SR most of the time. Close range is not bad if you can find a spell that ignores SR and saves, even at low damage. And personal buffs are great for you, look into the polymorphs for the undead and giant forms to grant immunities and stats you need as your gear will change with you for most of them.
Vampiric Touch.
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He is also already an elf so built in spell pen already, just the first one should do the trick to penetrate SR most of the time. Close range is not bad if you can find a spell that ignores SR and saves, even at low damage. And personal buffs are great for you, look into the polymorphs for the undead and giant forms to grant immunities and stats you need as your gear will change with you for most of them.Focus on boosting your ability to penetrate spell resistance (Feats Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration should help) and focus on spells that do not allow Spell Resistance checks.
Spells like Glitterdust can be quite effective when the save is failed. Geyser, Shout, Sleet Storm, Black Tentacles and Mislead would also be rather effective in a lot of situations and do not allow for spell resistance.
EDIT:
Agreed on adding Bane to the weapon in hand as it will aid in boosting your melee output.Also, you should look into the close Range Arcana at higher levels. While the Magus does not have a huge number of ray spells (Ray of: Frost, Enfeeblement and Exhaustion as well as Scorching Ray and, most importantly Disintegrate). You would need to boost your ability to penetrate SR, but delivering any of these through your weapon with the extended threat range for a critical would be a definite advantage.
Additionally, while it is affected by SR, do not discount keeping Magic Missile handy. Kinetic (Force) energy is not usually on a creature's list of immunities and resistances, so if you get passed the SR, you can do a little damage at range.
With demons and devils though, the more powerful they become, the higher their SR gets; at the PC's current level the demons around the appropriate CR would be running with SR of 17-20. Currently, the PC is at a 1d20+8 when going against SR, which means that, on average, his spells won't penetrate about 50% of the time. If he had the two feats already in place, he'd be looking at 1d20+12 which would reduce the chance of his spells not penetrating to about 30-35% of the time; having those extra 4 points is a big deal when fighting critters with good SR.
As to Close Range, there are no ray spells that ignore both SR and saves. As they require a ranged touch attack, they do not impart a save, but they all have to overcome SR. Hence the importance in bumping up the ability to overcome the target's SR. ;)
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The Demon Hunter Feat is both super flavorful for what you want to do and "extremely" good it's basically a Magus version of favored enemy and you're the only class that can really benefit from all of it's bonuses. If more than 50% of your enemies are Demons is basically better than 2 feats, if almost 100% of your enemies are Demons well you get the idea...
If you need to be able to deliver multiple types of energy damage consider a single level dip into Admixture Wizard.
Demon Hunter feat looks awesome.
+2 to attack and +2penetrate SR?
Hell yes.
Rime Spell Frostbite should still work I guess (for entangled anyway)
I was gonna take the Hair Hex specifically to carry the Elemental Rod.
I was gonna take bane Arcana (but not available till 15, currently level 6)
I didn't think you could pay to enchant the black blade...
I was mainly after advice on spell selection, to see what you thought would be most effective.
When I origonally came up with this guy, the Idea was to cast a concealment spell and use Moonlight Stalker for +2 to hit and damage.
Story concept is claiming territory in the worldwound so their is lots of Demons.
I am an elf so +2vs SR is locked in.
Current: LOCKED IN
Traits- Wayang spellhunter (frostbite), magical lineage (SG)
1- Arcane pool, cantrips, spell combat,Rime Spell
2- Spellstrike
3- Black Blade +1, Power Attack
4- Hex Magus-,Slumber Hex
5- Black Blade +2, Bonus Feat: Intensify Spell, Extra Arcana: Hex Arcana- Flight
6- Arcane Accuracy, Racial: Hex Arcana- Evil Eye
Planned Progression: ADVICE NEEDED HERE.
7- Extra Hex: Hex Arcana- Cackle
9- Black Blade +3, Hex Arcana- Prehensile Hair, Blindfight
10
11- Combat Exp, Moonlight Stalker
12- Hex Arcana- Ice Tomb, Racial: Hex Arcana- Retribution or MajorHealing
13- Black Blade +4, Extra Arcana: Devoted Blade
14
15- Arcana- Bane Blade, Craft Rod
16
17-Black Blade +5, Quicken Spell, Spell Perfection:Shocking Grasp
18- Hex Arcana- Summon Spirit, Racial: Lifegiver
19- Maximize Spell
20
No thoughts
Huh?
No one else has Ideas on PWNing demons?
Damn.
Gonna have to scour the Magus spellist when I get a chance
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In general, Force and Sonic based attack spells would be best when considering resistances; cold, fire, electricity and acid tend to appear more frequently as far as resistances go.
Spells that do not allow SR would be your top pick, but those are not numerous (several were mentioned earlier). Hence the advice to boost your ability to overcome SR via Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration (and with Demon Hunter, you are looking at a +8 modifier as an elf with overcoming SR against Demons and +6 vs everything else). If you can overcome SR pretty regularly, then touch spells (ranged and melee) would be pretty awesome ... and spells like Vampiric Touch and Disintegrate can be devastating when delivered through a high crit range weapon (since the spell crits if delivered through a weapon that confirms a crit hit).
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I don't have much experience with Magi I admit, but I'm a bit curious as to why you want Combat Expertise. You don't seem to be picking up any feats that use it as a prereq, and I somehow doubt that your AC is hurting that badly compared to your attack bonus.
Have you considered fighting defensively? The bonus doesn't scale with your BAB but it also doesn't cost a feat.
Or did you mean Combat Reflexes?
MOONLIGHT STALKER requires combat expertise and Blindfight.
1st rd Spell Combat+ Gtr Invisible or displacement and you now get +2 to attack and damage(another +1for invis), you deal with miss chance heaps better and can tank if you want.
Vs
Gtr Wpn fcs, Wpn Spec and Gtr Weapon focus, which only works with one weapon, is only giving the same bonus Moonlight Stalker does and takes longer to come online (can't get Gtr focus till 16 and Spell Perfection or Quicken is far better at that level.
