Like the title suggests do attack spells that go off saves incur MAP? Like if a character shoots a bow for his first attack and attacks with Electric Arc on his second what penalties are applied to Electric Arc?
Only spells with attack rolls suffer and cause MAP. Spells with a Save are not affected by MAP at all (and don't affect it in turn). For spells with an attack roll and a save only the attack roll is affected by MAP.
So you can shoot a bow and use Electric Arc attacking 3 people in a round and suffer no penalties? Alright then lol.
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Yes, you can. It gets even more interesting if you use a non-cantrip spell before attacking with Magical Striker.
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Electric Arc has the "Attack" trait, so it contributes to and suffers from MAP. It is what that trait does - see page 414.
Except it has no attack roll, so that doesn't make sense. It would imply that the order in which I cast and attacked with a weapon in the same round would matter.
The trait is there to state that it is an attack so that, for example, it clearly counts as "acting hostile", but MAP itself really only makes sense when attack rolls are involved.
This needs to be clarified by Paizo as the rule as written is problematic.
Electric Arc has the "Attack" trait, so it contributes to and suffers from MAP. It is what that trait does - see page 414.
In what way does it "suffer" MAP?
The traits are defined on page 414, and ”Attack” says:
“Attack This ability grants an attack. For each attack you make beyond the first on your turn, you take a multiple attack penalty (see page 305).”
I edited my post above to state that Paizo needs to clarify this because it is nonsensical as written.
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Electric Arc has the "Attack" trait, so it contributes to and suffers from MAP. It is what that trait does - see page 414.In what way does it "suffer" MAP?
It looks like assigning the Attack trait to Electric Arc was an error, as it requires a Reflex save rather than an attack roll.
Fire Bolt has the reverse problem, as it lacks the attack trait but requires an attack roll.
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Yeah, the Attack trait is messed up for some of the cantrips. They probably had slightly different effects at some point in development. But I stand by the RAI "If it doesn't require an attack roll, it doesn't affect and is not affected by the MAP."
Some possible things the devs were considering (that then got scrambled across edits):
1) Strike first/ spell second with an Attack Trait (but roll-less spell) -- Just in case the foe has an AoO, try to kill it with your stirke, then target at range, etc
2) Spell first (with an Attack Trait/rolless)/strike second -- interact with Magical Strike, or various self buff/target debuff in a way that's worth the possible AoO and the -5(-4 agile) to hit on the attack.
So I could see the germ of the idea in the rule set about MAP-affecting, but not MAP affected spells... but its a little corner case.