I'm making a character and I was wondering if I should take a 3 level dip into paladin. The character is going to be 10th level, with 1st through 3rd being paladin and from then on being magus with the archtype black blade (we are keeping black blade mechanically the same and repainting it as a "bright blade"). He is a worshiper of Iomedae and is an angel-blooded aasimar, is it worth taking the first 3 levels as a paladin and then taking 17 levels in magus?
Paladin and Magus have almost no synergy with one another. I wouldn't put them together under normal circumstances.
What are you trying to accomplish mechanically? What is your campaign going to be like? What is the group make-up? All are important questions to answer in order to help you.
Presumably he's looking to get the early dip advantages of being a Paladin, mainly Divine Grace, a Smite for occasional DR, and a slight injection of full BAB.
my advice, make a build at lv6 - lv8 for each. See what they look like and imagine the first 3-5 rounds of different kinds of combat and what your choices are. Also figure out how many fights you expect in an average day, I believe the norm is like 2-4 fights a day. Then see which you like or feels better.
this is why I'm not going to make a Mystic Theurge. at lv6 I'm looking at lv2 spells or level 2 spells. where if I was normal I'd have lv3 spells. And at 7 I'm still looking at lv2 spells or level 2 spells, when I could have lv4 spells. And it's not like the MT has more spells per day than a straight caster does, just different types. Hence why I don't feel it's worth it. Also the stats are rough, you're either a cripple or not as good of a caster.
Definitely not. As others said, Paladin and Magus don't synergize with each other and you're crippling both your Magus abilities and your Black Blade. If you want to be thematic, choose a longsword as your Black Blade and maybe take Deific Obedience (Iomedae).
Aasimar also don't lend themselves too well to being Magi, either, as there's no Int boost unless you're Peri-blooded, but that's less of an issue than taking Paladin levels.
this is why I'm not going to make a Mystic Theurge. at lv6 I'm looking at lv2 spells or level 2 spells. where if I was normal I'd have lv3 spells. And at 7 I'm still looking at lv2 spells or level 2 spells, when I could have lv4 spells. And it's not like the MT has more spells per day than a straight caster does, just different types. Hence why I don't feel it's worth it. Also the stats are rough, you're either a cripple or not as good of a caster.
You know you can make a Sorcerer/Oracle Mystic Theurge, right? Both are Charisma casters.
oh and only have 2nd level spells as my option at lv9, when a wizard can have 5th level, sorcerer/oracle have 4th and instead of getting 3rd level spells next level get 5th level spells.
yeah, the oracle/sorcerer for single stat is worse because it sets you back 2 more levels which is an extra entire spell level. I'm sure no one minds that scorching ray is doing 1 ray instead of more at lv9 and that I don't have access to haste or prayer or dimension door or... yeah...
If you want a theurge feel there are TONS of archetypes that can give you that, but you stay at full caster level and have class features too.
Paladin and Magus have almost no synergy with one another. I wouldn't put them together under normal circumstances.
This.
If you want a "paladin-ish" class combination with magus, either 3 levels of cleric (and the feats Alignment Channel and Channel Smite) or 4 levels of champion of the faith warpriest can fit the flavor. Also, with the magus arcana Broad Study, the character can Spellstrike with cleric or warpriest spells.
Re: mystic theurge
The cleric spell list can be a nice addition to a magus: strong self-buffing (which mostly offsets the BAB hit), the ability to heal (which offsets the smaller HD), and additional spell slots to use with Spellstrike. Granted, negative energy channeling clerics have more options in a lot of circumstances (spontaneously switching out cleric slots for inflict spells to add to weapon damage more often works against more foes than the same with cure spells in most campaigns), but for a campaign that's focused around undead (or evil outsiders) a good-aligned cleric 3/magus 7 or warpriest 4/magus 6 mystic theurge can work OK. I'd think about ditching the bladebound archetype if going mystic theurge, though; not being able to advance the black blade abilities is a huge hit.
Bladebound Kensai could work if you want to play up the 'devoted to the longsword" angle of Iomedae's faith, though I'd advise a Dex build and not being an Aasimar for that.
*note - I am playing a paladin magus* This multiclass can work, but to be effective IMO requires an archetype. The archetype Eldritch Scion turns the magus into a charisma based spontaneous caster. This is from the Advanced Class Guide and is PFS legal in case you need it to be :)
Eldritch Scion is incompatible with Bladebound, and still isn't particularly synergistic; it just shares an ability score dependency, which makes it better with Paladin, but not particularly complimentary. It also needs as many points as it can get for its Eldritch Pool, which gets gimped by multiclassing.