Stats:
str- 16 dex- 14 (12) con- 14 (16) int- 14 (12) wis- 10 cha- 7
You basically put your whole point buy into str/con, then get points from cha and combine them with your racial bonuses to get your other important stats up to par. These stats are good enough for a basic gish- I usually use something similar (except I don't need a dump stat) for my other gishes.
After that, just grab a scimitar, and have fun with it. Probably use the str magus. Walter's Guide to the Magus is old, but good for the basics of feat selection and such.
Maybe grab a bit of hex crafter for a couple of good hexes (evil eye and flight are good, and don't rely much upon the save DC).
Since strength is your highest stat and your tanking dex, you can use full plate. Mithral Full plate counts as medium so you can wear it at 7th and get some extra dex to it or you can go armored battlemage which heavy at 7th and medium at first.
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Shocking Grasp is a spell that obviously goes well with the class, bu5 Chill Touch and Frostbite are also reliable Spellstrike canidates, especially since they give you X attacks per caster level for each cast. Lot of mileage out of your lkmited spells per day.
Chill Touch in particular is a brutal main spell. Rime Spell metamagic feat lets it entangle people, and the Enforcer feat (when paired with the trait that lets you key intimidate off of intelligence) also lets you demoralize for free with each attack. Slap a Cruel enchantment onto your weapon and suddenly you'll be throwing half of the Condition Card deck at every opponent.
It isn't flawless. Things immune to cold/nonlethal/intimidate are harder to shut down, but that's what Shocking Grasp is for.
Regardless of your approach, I strongly suggest picking up a favorite spell, taking the Magical Lineage trait to make it easier to modify, and building around it accordingly.
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Rapier is a great weapon thanks to the crit range, but scimitar slightly outperforms it. DR/Slashing is a more common kind of Damare Reduction and when you're not casting spells you can 2-hand the scimitar for 1.5 times your strength modifier in damage.
Plus, if you get Power Attack, the bonus damage is even better when 2ha ding it.
But at the end of the day, just go with what seems fun. Hell, was planning a strength Magus with a mere 19-20 range crit weapon for funsies.
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Since strength is your highest stat and your tanking dex, you can use full plate. Mithral Full plate counts as medium so you can wear it at 7th and get some extra dex to it or you can go armored battlemage which heavy at 7th and medium at first.
Something to keep in mind: You don't get heavy armor proficiency until 13th level, so you'd still have the armor check penalty to attack rolls and movement checks unless you spent a feat on proficiency or picked it up from another class.
Oki, it just crossed my mind, is it possible to make additional 5-foot steps?
What do you mean by this? More than one 5-foot step per round? No you can't (possibly you can with specific items/spells).
What exactly are you trying to achieve? There might be a way to do something similar that will suit you ...?
You can't take a 5ft step and movement. BUT you can totally cast a touch spell and then reguarly move into combat, which doesn't provoke.
A decent strength is almost always required IMO, because carrying capacity is just that annoying. That looks fairly decent, consing what you're doing. Maybe dump Cha a bit to get more points to spend elsewhere.
Check out the alternate racial traits Arcane Focus and Overwhelming Magic:
Arcane Focus
Advanced Race Guide
Some elven families have such long traditions of producing wizards (and other arcane spellcasters) that they raise their children with the assumption each is destined to be a powerful magic-user, with little need for mundane concerns such as skill with weapons. Elves with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks made to cast arcane spells defensively. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
Overwhelming Magic
Inner Sea Races
Some elves obsess over the fundamentals of magic, training for decades to add layers of potent spellwork before they ever begin practicing true spells. This builds a foundation that makes their magic increasingly difficult to resist. These elves gain Spell Focus as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces elven magic and weapon familiarity.
You can’t take them both, because they both replace Weapon Familiarity. But unless you really have to have an elven racial weapon, you probably want to pick up one or the other.
My plan would be to cast a spell, 5 foot step closer, attack, 5 foot step out.Oki, it just crossed my mind, is it possible to make additional 5-foot steps?What do you mean by this? More than one 5-foot step per round? No you can't (possibly you can with specific items/spells).
What exactly are you trying to achieve? There might be a way to do something similar that will suit you ...?
Sorry it's been a little while.
Short answer: No it's not possible.
There is LUNGE. It won't come online quickly, but it'll help.
Also LONG ARM is a 1st level Magus spell. I think it's a decent choice for a wand with WAND WIELDER. Get yourself a SPRING LOADED WRIST SHEATH and open every combat with Long Arm. You can just drop the wand and pick it up after the fight.
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Well, go dex, then, because IMHO you cannot be truly good as a STR magus with those archetypes.
I would like to offer a counterpoint. Nothing in either archetype is counterproductive to Str-based weapon wielding. The extra feats saved would lets you pick up metamagics or extra arcana more freely.
Alright.. so what if i go like this
Elf, Bladebound Hexcrafter magus
Str: 17, Dex: 14, Con: 12, Int: 14, Wis: 8, Cha: 10.
Traits: Magical Lineage: Shocking grasp, Seeker?
Feats??
Hexes: Flight at 4th level.
Weapon: Black blade rapier. (I dont see a reason to go scimitar, since im not going dervish dance)
I will try to get a belt of strength
To pump up my int i will get a headband at the later levels.
Personally I'd grab slumber at 4th and flight at 6th, so actual flight is already online when you grab it. But that's a style choice. I would recommend magical lineage: frostbite over shocking grasp; frostbite lasts longer and will do more damage over a couple full attack than shocking grasp will. You can still keep 1-2 shocking grasps prepared for boss-type enemies. The shenanigans Rosc mentioned are very effective indeed, and rather than seeker you'd want bruising intellect to have intimidate key off Int.
I would like to offer a counterpoint. Nothing in either archetype is counterproductive to Str-based weapon wielding. The extra feats saved would lets you pick up metamagics or extra arcana more freely.The Magus class itself is counterproductive to a Str base.
You basicaly play an arcane spellcaster, which is prone to the armor spell failure chance, and which goes in melee.
Which means you need AC, but you cannot truly wear an armor going beyong a mithral chain without just gimping yourself by screwing your spellcasting abilities.Dex is almost the only good way to build a Magus, except if you make it a Mindblade, which cancel the armor penality entierly.
And there's nothing stopping you from wearing mithril chain as a str-based magus. Especially with all the defensive spells you have access to. One can even buff and attack at the same time with spell combat if necessary.
I would like to offer a counterpoint. Nothing in either archetype is counterproductive to Str-based weapon wielding. The extra feats saved would lets you pick up metamagics or extra arcana more freely.The Magus class itself is counterproductive to a Str base.
You basicaly play an arcane spellcaster, which is prone to the armor spell failure chance, and which goes in melee.
Which means you need AC, but you cannot truly wear an armor going beyong a mithral chain without just gimping yourself by screwing your spellcasting abilities.Dex is almost the only good way to build a Magus, except if you make it a Mindblade, which cancel the armor penality entierly.
I don't know where you're getting your info but a magus can wear medium armour at level 7 and heavy armour at level 13 without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.
I help put together a Bladebound Hexcrafter magus for another player in our group and it's a very good combo. Blade Tutor's Spirit is a useful spell for reducing/negating the voluntary attack penalties incurred from using Spell Combat and Power Attack.
In addition to Flight I'd take at least the Evil Eye hex with which you can further offset any penalties to hit/being 3/4 BAB by lowering you target's ac.
The Wand Wielder and Wand Mastery arcana can further offset the loss of spell recall form the Hexcrafter archetype, save your spell slots and unleash a little magic when you can't make concentration checks/cast defensively.
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things I've picked up playing my current Magus (Kensai) to level 16;
don't waste feats or traits on anything that bumps up Concentration. As a reduced level caster, your Concentration DCs never get high enough to justify the feat or trait, plus you can eat off your accuracy if a spell is really clutch.
Intensified Shocking Grasp is your best friend, get the Magical Lineage trait so you can still cast it as a 1st level spell and pick up a Ring of Wizardry I ASAP, ZOT some people!
The Lingering Pain arcana is really all you need for magical opponents, don't feel like you need Disruptive or Spellbreaker
Remember that Spell Combat is not just for blasting/shocking grasp, use it to cast buff spells and attack. The most annoying probably being FA + Spell Combat with Vanish at the end, but Shield, Resist Energy, Bull's Strength, etc...also up your effectiveness in combat greatly.
also Corrosive Consumption is pretty gross with the swift Maximize arcana at higher levels...
I would put the starting stats: 16 str, 14 dex, 13con, 16 int, 10 wis, 7 cha. Normally I don't really dump stats, but your stats are working against you enough to rationalize it.
If you are really dead set against dumping then I'd go:
15 str, 13 dex, 13 con, 16 int 10 wis, 10 cha
If you don't mind a 9:
15 str, 14 dex, 13 con, 16 int 10 wis, 9 cha
lvl 4 +1con, equvalent to 3 point buy. All other +stats to str. If the first point buy
lvl 4 +1 str, lvl 8 +1 con the rest str. If the second or third.
You don't need amazing strength as a magus, so I wouldn't bother starting with 17, I can understand why you want to, but it's a real pity to have an elf magus starting with less than 16 int. The stat does a hell of a lot for you, it's a lot more than just save dcs, trust me you want it.
Also you will really want the 14 con no magic items, as a d8 front liner 12 con is really pushing it without incredible AC, and you aren't really there.
So you mentionned that the rest of the party is still level 7 and you are level 1? You should discuss things with your GM, you won't be able to acomplish very much, and you will die if hit once, or caught in one AoE. Most people start at the same level as the rest of the party, if that isn't on the table, see if your GM will let you at least not start at 1.
There is an arcana that would really benifit from 16 int, you can add your int to attack for a round, it's pretty nice.
First I'll jump in to the STR/DEX argument and say I think the Magus works perfectly well as a STR or DEX based character. Play whichever you prefer. If you have a lot of feats you want then STR is better, if you want to have better skills/initiative then DEX is better (Or go with what suits your character portrait).
I recently played a level 7 Bladebound Magus in a 1-shot and I took PREFERRED SPELL (Shocking Grasp) and heighten spell as my 5th level feats. With Preferred Spell and Spell Recall it basically turned me into a pseudo-spontaneous caster who could learn every spell - it was glorious!
Hexcrafter loses Spell-Recall (but secretly gets it back at level 11), but what you get instead is Hexes - which are amazing!
The way I've always thought of Hexes is that they should either be something that you can't otherwise do, or should be something that you want to do all the time. For example, the Flight Hex. A Magus can fly, but since they want to do it all the time the Flight Hex will save your spell-slots. It's probably the most used hex until level 13 (when you can get Overland Flight). The Flight hex also fulfils my "do something you can't normally do" criteria since it gets you flight 2 levels earlier than a Magus would normally get the spell.
Another Hex I really like for a Magus is the Healing Hex. Magi are fairly limited healers, but the Healing Hex lets you be a backup healer and save the party some resources.
Some people already mentioned Evil Eye. I think this Hex is great for a Hexcrafter for 2 reasons. First, if it lands it'll affect the enemy for the entire combat (which is good coz you probably want to get in there and fight, rather than standing back and hexing). And second, it has an effect even on a failed save. Since hexes are designed around the Witch class they expect you to have a higher INT, which means they're balanced around (probably) having a higher save DC than a Hexcrafter is likely to have. If you're going Evil Eye, I also like the Soothsayer Hex, it's like 1 free round of Cackle when you use Evil Eye - if the enemy fails their save they're still affected by the hex on your next turn when you attack/cast/etc at them.
First I'll jump in to the STR/DEX argument and say I think the Magus works perfectly well as a STR or DEX based character. Play whichever you prefer. If you have a lot of feats you want then STR is better, if you want to have better skills/initiative then DEX is better (Or go with what suits your character portrait)....The monster will use the rather low AC (even lower due to being caught flat footed) of the STR magus to land 2 slam attacks of 2d6+5 damage each, when you're unbuffed...
Wouldn't a Strength-Magus and a Dex-Magus have the same flat-footed AC? That's how flat-footed AC works, you lose your Dex bonus.
Also the next bit about being Grappled. You can make a CMB check to escape a grapple (no escape artist needed). If you're dex based your CMB will likely be lower, and even if you have Agile Maneuvers you still take a -4 penalty to Dex for being grappled.
Long story short: Everything you just described sounds like it would have been easier with a Strength-Magus.
I'm happy for you that you've found a build that you can play and enjoy, but it's 100% not the only viable option - even in highly optimised games.
With all that out of the way, let's get back to answering the OP's question (I will say it's easier to make a Dex-Magus as an elf. Those Stat bonuses just speak for themselves).
Dex Magus isn't the answer to killer DMs, the answer is a different table ;) You can't win if the DM is determined. Putting that aside, STR magus can still cast cast shield, vanish and mirror image, that really ought to tide you over through difficult fights. It also doesn't have to wait to level 3 to come online.
That's exactly what happened to our barbarian: he escaped twice, and he saw that because his AC was too low, he was just wasting his turns in vain: that doesn't even slow down the damage, since the monster don't have to chose between attack and grapple... he's doing both.
Sorry, but this sounds more like a tactics problem than a build or encounter problem. Instead of desperately trying to escape, a barbarian should rather do it the barbarian way: Grapple the foe himself, or beat the crap out of it. The former has a solid ~50% chance to succeed (CMB +11? vs. CMD 22), the latter works even with unarmed strikes (1d3+5? is a serious increase to grapple DC).
And it needs a standard action to maintain a grapple - if the creature fails the check, it can't attack during this round. Well, it can do AOO again.
Hence I'd join the "play the STR magus, if you like" choir. Tactics and rule knowledge matter more than build - as it should be.
That's exactly what happened to our barbarian: he escaped twice, and he saw that because his AC was too low, he was just wasting his turns in vain: that doesn't even slow down the damage, since the monster don't have to chose between attack and grapple... he's doing both.Sorry, but this sounds more like a tactics problem than a build or encounter problem. Instead of desperately trying to escape, a barbarian should rather do it the barbarian way: Grapple the foe himself, or beat the crap out of it. The former has a solid ~50% chance to succeed (CMB +11? vs. CMD 22), the latter works even with unarmed strikes (1d3+5? is a serious increase to grapple DC).
And it needs a standard action to maintain a grapple - if the creature fails the check, it can't attack during this round. Well, it can do AOO again.
Hence I'd join the "play the STR magus, if you like" choir. Tactics and rule knowledge matter more than build - as it should be.
Agreed, barbarians are grapple monkeys, not as good as monks but the barbarian could reverse the grapple and tie the monster up with and unbreakable dc due to barbarian stats.