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I have a Kapenia Dancer 6/Occultist 1 for PFS. I'm trying to decide on a magic item for the little used Chest slot. Mainly, I'm trying to decide whether the Quickrunner's Shirt (Gain a Move action by using a Swift action) or the Corset of Delicate Moves (Gain a Swift action by using a Move action) is better for my build. Both are 1/day items. Or, is there another item I should be looking at?
Here is my build at this point:
CN Human (Varisian)
STR 10 DEX 16* CON 14 (+1 4th) INT 20 (+2 Human, +2 Headband) WIS 10 CHA 12
* w/+2 from Physical Enhancement Focus Power, so technically not permanent.
HP 58 AC 20 (22 w/Mage Armor, 26 w/Shield) Touch 18 Flat 12 (14 w/Mage Armor, 18 w/Shield)
Fort +10 REF +6 WILL +8
BAB +4 CMB +4 (+7 with finesse weapon) CMD 17
Bladed Scarf +9 (1d6+4)
w/Arcane Pool (+2) +11 (1d6+6)
w/AP and Legacy Weapon (Bane) +13 (1d6+8+2d6)
Trip w/Blade Lash +23 (+21 w/Spell Combat)
w/True Strike +33 (+31 w/Spell Combat)
Feats: B1) EWP: Bladed Scarf, B1) Weapon Focus: Bladed Scarf, 1) Weapon Finesse, H) Dirty Fighting (Retrained from Combat Expertise), 3) Improved Trip, 5) Extra Arcana: Elasticity, B6) Combat Reflexes, 7) Improved Familiar (Brownie for now, Faerie Dragon via a boon next level)
Arcana: M3) Wand Wielder
Feat) Elasticity
M6) Familiar
Special Abilities Magus: Arcane Pool (7/day, +2), Spell Combat, Spellstrike, Canny Defense (+Int to AC), Spell Recall
Special Abilities Occultist: Mental Focus (6/day), Third Eye, Sudden Insight, Physical Enhancement, Legacy Weapon
Traits: Two-World Magic (Touch of Fatigue), Harrow Born
Combat Gear: Bladed Scarf +1 Agile, Haramaki +1, Wands: Blade Lash (wrist sheath), Infernal Healing, Shield (wrist sheath), Truestrike, Magic Missile, Mage Armor (UMD), Invisibility (6chgs), Shocking Grasp (CL4 12chgs), Lead Blades, Heightened Awareness
Other Gear: Cloak of Resistance +1, Pearl of Power Lvl 1, Ioun Torch, Headband of Intellect +2 (Fly, Infernal), Handy Haversack
Typical Magus Spells:
0 3/day: Detect Magic, Acid Splash, Touch of Fatigue, Read Magic
1 5/day: Grease, Longarm, Shocking Grasp, Shield, True Strike
2 2/day: Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Ablative Barrier
Occultist Spells:
0: Guidance, Mage Hand
1 3/day: Heightened Awareness, Lead Blades
As a Wand Wielder, one of the biggest issues I run into is having out a Wand I use a lot, like Blade Lash, but needing to cast a different spell or use a different wand. There's no good way in the game (that I'm aware of) to store a wand quickly. So, I end up dropping them. Now that I have the Brownie following me around, he can pick them up and even use them with a decent UMD. Eventually the Faerie Dragon will serve the same roll, just much more effectively.
Things I use swift actions for:
- Activate Arcane Pool to Enhance my weapon.
- Retrieve a Wand from a Spring-loaded Wrist Sheath
- Recover an expended spell using Spell Recall.
- Activate the Elasticity Arcana to give my Bladed Scarf reach until my next turn.
- Activate Sudden Insight for a +1 on a single Ability roll, Attack roll, or Skill roll
- Eventual additional Magus Arcana? Accurate Strike is likely for Magus level 9/Character level 10.
Things I use move actions for:
- Move up to be able to attack. (full-attack if it's an extra move action)
- Put a Wand away.
- Pick a Wand up off the ground.
I'm sure there are lots of useful things I'm missing from the Move action list.
Why don't you just drop your wands and retrieve them after the fight is over? That's what I do with my magus and I've never run into an issue with it. Of course, if you end up running away then you've lost the wand, but in that case you probably have bigger issues.
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I do that with some of them. Things that I only cast once, like Shield, aren't an issue. Blade Lash or Truestrike are more of a problem. My main schtick is tripping opponents (when they can be tripped). Since the Bladed Scarf doesn't actually have reach, I mostly use Blade Lash to do that. Aside from giving the free trip attempt at +10, it lets me target anyone within 20 feet.
The problem comes in when I need to cast something else, like Shocking Grasp if I decide to hit someone for damage. I then have to drop the Blade Lash wand to cast the spell. If I want to go back to using Blade Lash, I either have to carry a second wand (a definite option, that I'll probably end up doing anyway), or I need to pick the wand back up, or I need to switch to Truestrike. True strike is a much better bonus, but it doesn't offer the free attack, so I end up spending a full round to trip someone.
Other Wands I might want to use more than once a fight are Invisibility, Shocking Grasp, Enervation (I'll be buying a partial wand of that soon), Scorching Ray (I'll eventually buy that wand), or others. Having the familiar that can use wands or hand them back to me definitely helps in that regard. I run into table variation about whether or not I still need to take an action to take the wand from the familiar (or whoever) when they hand it to me, though.
The utility of Wand Wielder helps me make up for having Diminished Spellcasting (1 less spell per level), but when I drop wands and can't retrieve them until after the fight, some of that utility goes away.
Anyway, the familiar mostly solves that issue, and eventually I'll buy Gloves of Storing. The chest slot item is more about situations where I need to do more than one of the things on the list in the same round. EDIT: For swift actions, that's mostly using my Arcane Pool twice or with Spell Recall, since generally retrieving a Wand can be done with a Move action or as part of a move anyway. For example, swift action activate Elasticity for reach, swift action (by way of Move action) Recall Shocking Grasp, Standard action cast it and deliver it with Spellstrike from the safety of reach (over the frontliner, etc.).
Ah, that makes sense. My magus is a tiefling with a prehensile tail so that helps with the wands. I also find that I just assume that I won't use any given wand more than once a fight. Between my spells and my collection of wands I still have a lot of options, even if a wand that I'd like to use is momentarily lying on the floor. I'd almost never want to burn my action picking it up mid-battle.
Don't have any suggestions for you about the chest slot but will be interested to see what others suggest.
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Monk's Robe is a body slot item, so I could get that with either the corset or shirt. I'll keep that in mind. It will be a while before I can afford something that expensive. I don't have another good candidate for the body slot.
Unfortunately Permanency is not legal in PFS, and with multiple GMs, I'd expect table variation on the charm bracelet.
That did remind me that I could try to make use of a weapon cord. Assuming it works with a Wand, I could drop the Wand of Blade Lash to cast, then use a Move action (or convert my Swift to a Move with the shirt) to retrieve it on the next round. I don't know what happens with the weapon cord while the Wand is in the wrist sheath, though, and I could see running into GMs who disallow using a second wand while the weapon cord is attached. If that works, though, it's a point in favor of the shirt over the corset.
I don't believe a weapon cord will work with a wand (since it's not a weapon).
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Having a place to put the wands isn't the issue. Right now a mundane bandolier or adventurer's sash is enough. I could also use an Efficient Quiver. It's more about what to do with them once they've already been drawn. Nothing lets you store a wand faster than a Move action except Gloves of Storing as far as I know. Even the relatively new Scabbard of Many Blades excludes Wands (though it works with Rods, which has potential for a caster).
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Note that the QR shirt has been errata'ed, and that weapon cords are not legal in PFS. I wouldn't really recommend either of the shirt or the corset, although they are cheap enough to just buy for the heck of it. Generally speaking, dropping your move action to use spell combat is a better deal.
The item you're looking for is a Glove of Storing (store wand as a free action). A bit expensive though. For the chest slot I recommend a Corset of the Vishkanya; the monk robe strikes me as pretty pointless on a Magus.
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I'm aware of the Quickrunners Shirt errata. All that did was basically make it work like the Corset of Delicate Maneuvers (must wear 24 hours to be able to use). That just keeps you from being able to carry a wardrobe around and swap to keep getting used out of it.
I get what you're saying about Spell Combat. With Diminished Spellcasting, though, I often don't have enough spell slots to take things more than once. If I get in a situation where I need to actually cast instead of using a wand, I rely on Spell Recall to be able to get spells back in the middle of a fight. A 1/day swap of a move for a swift would let me get a spell back when I don't have the one I need. It's not an all them time tactic. It can't be, since it's a 1/day use. But it would help when I really need it.
Needing an extra move might come up more often, though. There's a reason pounce is so powerful.
I'd glanced at the Corset of the Vishkanya before. I can see that being situationally helpful for getting out of grapples. I'm not sure what else I would use it for. I feel like there might be other items that could help that situation, though. Like a potion of Gaseous Form. Or I might be able to find a Wand of Dimension Door with limited charges (I know one's out there somewhere on a chronicle). I'll consider this corset in the meantime, though.
EDIT: I've looked through Additional Resources, and I don't see anything banning Weapon Cords. They were errata'd, I know, to be a move action instead of a swift. I'm not sure if they were banned before that happened, but I'm pretty sure since then they've been legal (again). There's too much potential for table variation around using one with a wand, though, so I'm not going to go that route.
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Ok, I looked up the squeeze spell. I do occasionally use enlarge person for super long reach combined with long arm and Elasticity Arcana. It's not my first choice, since it lowers my DEX, but I've had occasion to do so. The Corset of the Vishkanya would be useful in those situations, to squeeze past enemies or down narrow hallways without penalty.
However... The Corset of the Vishkanya is a body slot item, not chest slot. I think there might have been a misprint somewhere listing it as chest. The PRD has it on the Body slot table, with the description listed there as well. So that means there's the potential for her to wear both corsets, or the Corset of the Vishkanya and the shirt.
The Otherworldly Kimono would likely be the body slot item I would target, but it's going to be a long time (if ever) before I'd be able to afford that, so wearing something else there in the meantime is certainly an option.