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I've played a polearm-wielding frost-magic specialist. It works great. I have a few suggestions:
Consider replacing the completely-not-needed Polearm Expertise feat with the Rime Spell feat. Combining Rime Spell with, say, Ice Slick, gives you some very potent frost-based crowd control. Ice Slick also gives you additional +4 AoOs, because foes will try to stand up from prone. Note that Rime Spell gives no save if foes takes any damage!!!!!!
Many players are concerned about the polearm 'can't-attack-adjacent' issue. This issue seems like it should be important, but in my experience it hinders fewer than 1% of attacks. This issue gets attention drastically out of proportion to its impact. It's totally not worth spending a feat to mitigate. In my opinion it's not even worth the (trivial) cost and (non-trivial) extra-weight of Armor Spikes. This after years of experience playing reach builds in Pathfinder.
Consider the trade off between making a full attack and using reach tactics. When fighting a foe with a strong full attack (e.g. ghouls, gargoyles, trolls, giants, etc) you can generally avoid the foe's full attack by using reach tactics and staying out of full attack range. This can drastically reduce incoming damage against these foes. Anytime you can do this is a win for your team. The main failure-point for this approach is your allies, who will tend to blunder into the full attacks you avoid.
As a caster fighting with a reach weapon, consider reserving your Standard Action for spell casting and relying on your AoOs for inflicting damage. When a Cleric uses this approach the build is called a 'reach cleric'. The approach works well for other casters, too. If you go this approach consider dropping some of your higher-level combat feats for spell casting feats. By about 7th level your spells will become more valuable than your melee attacks. Take some spell feats instead.
Oracles have a "Winter Mystery" option that seems decent. It won't give you martial weapon proficiency like the popular warrior oracle mysteries (battle and metal), but this is not insurmountable.
Magus would be a natural choice. Rimed Frostbite is great. Wield a Cruel Fauchard and pick up Power Attack and Cornugon Smash for Shaken/Sicken combo and you'd be a debuffing monster. Entangle/Fatigue/Shaken/Sicken all off one hit. Grab Greater Trip for additional shenanigans.
I'd go Kensai, Black Blade, or maybe just non-archetype Magus tbh. And if those don't interest you, just go with anything that doesn't modify your spellstrike or spell combat.
Isn't the problem with a polearm magus that you can't use spell combat? I mean, without 3 levels of phalanx fighter, as spell combat requires a light or one-handed weapon, and polearms are neither.
I guess 13 levels of mindblade would work instead.
Half elfs who aren't multiclassing have no need for Multitalented, see if your GM will let you get Fey Thoughts (1RP) instead?
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Funny! That's now a completely different character from what OP Julius originally asked for. Also, imho, considerably downgraded. :-)
Primary Battlefield weapons (primary weapons): warbows, polearms, shield & anything, rifles
Sidearms (Secondary weapons): thrown weapons, most swords, buckler & anything, pistols
The Sidearm, aka secondary weapon, is what you use when you don't have your primary weapon. Pathfinder game mostly represents this difference pretty well.
Btw, if you want to do a 1h reach build with a Magus, I recommend using a Scorpion Whip (15ft) with Lunge (20ft) and Enlarge Person (25ft), and then definitely get Greater Trip and Combat Reflexes.
Your Scorpion Whip can threaten 20ft with Enlarge Person, and you can Trip in lieu of any one of your attacks.
Rimed Frostbite synergizes with this so well because you can Entangle/Fatigue from such a long range and Frostbite lasts for multiple charges.
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Warpriest or an Inquisitor of Shelyn wielding a Holy Ice Weapon polearm. Properly outfitted you should be doing (with Power Attack) 1d8/10 or 2d6+20ish at level 5.
Exactly. My PFS Inquisitor-5 of Erastil (Plant[Growth] domain) typically stabs (with a longspear) at +10 to hit for 2d6+17 (no Power Attack) and averages more than 1.5 attacks per round. That's without any combat feats: the PC is a summoning specialist of the Monster Tactician archetype.
@OP: Little need to do that much damage, although it's nowhere near the upper limit if one has feats to spend. I offer it only as a point of comparison.
Can you elaborate a little Magda and JiaYou how you generate those numbers? I have been thinking of making a ranged or reach inquisitor or war priest for our next campaign.
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The 'something special' is just Bane.
I previously said +10 to hit for 2d6+17 damage [average 24]. This is slightly incorrect, as damage is actually 4d6+10 [average 24]. I simplified numbers for Bane.
18 STR +2 for swift action enlarge person & +1 longspear & swift action Bane
That's two Swift Actions, so this is either 2nd round or we have some advance warning.
To Hit:
BaB +3 STR +4 Weapon +1 Bane +2 = +10 to hit
Damage
2d6 for Large Longspear + 7 for STR + 1 for weapon + [2+2d6] for Bane
I averaged Bane to +9 damage for simplicity, when it's actually 2d6+2 damage
Thus longspear damage is actually 4d6+10 [average 24 hp per hit].
Again, that's with no feats. Two intrinsic swift-action buffs are slightly problematic.
Those not familiar with the Plant(Growth) domain should check this out. As well as swift-action Enlarge Person, the domain also gives free virtual 5' steps ~5 times/day. Hardly ever take an incoming full attack unless you want to, hardly ever take an AoO, and you can almost always full attack. From a standing start you can Full Attack a foe who starts the round 30' away.
The extra attacks are just AoOs, which this build is apt at generating.
Lack of Combat Reflexes occasionally results in a lost AoO, or the average number of attacks per round would be higher.
Thanks Magda! That archetype seems really interesting. What teamwork feats would you choose for the summoned monsters? Paired opportunist, outflank? You say no combat feats, did you use them on summoning feats then?
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@WagnerSika: The great thing about the teamwork feat[s] is that the Inquisitor can change it. Here's a thorough Summoning Guide. [Why work when others can do it for you ...].
Rather than detail how my particular PC is built, I'll show the build template. Here's the minimum build resources (without stat dumping) to do this sort of PC:
Martial Inquisitor (Monster Tactician)
STR:15+2+1 == 18 DEX:10 CON:10 INT:10 WIS:13 CHA:10
Feats Available at 5th level: All of them! You're a total badass even without combat feats. Build for any specialization or whim you want and still be highly effective. For example, perhaps you want to be the very best in the land at Craft(Weave baskets underwater) while still more than holding your own in battle. This build is one way to start down that particular Path to Mastery, as all your feats are available to improve your Craft (weaving) expertise.
Domain: Choose one.
Primary Weapon (at 5th level): +1 Longspear at +10 to hit for 1D8 + 2D6 + 9 ~= average 21 hp per hit @ 10' reach
Primary Weapon (at 5th level, with Plant(Growth) Domain): +1 Longspear at +10 to hit for 4D6 + 10 ~= 24 hp per hit @ 20' reach
My PC is having good luck with Tandem Trip as a Teamwork Feat. I'm still exploring the other good options.
Other specializations that might work well:
* Ice Magic
* Summon Specialist
* Melee Specialist
* Whimsical specialist
* UMD specialist with lots of toys
My favourite teamwork feat for Monster Tactician is Snapping Flank.
You're a total badass even without combat feats.
This is only sort of true. At 5th level you have 5 rounds of bane per day. With 13 Wis you have 4 rounds of growth. Since you have to activate bane a round before you use it with growth, at most you get 4 rounds a day with that damage.
That isn't to say this is a perfectly good character. Your primary focus of the character can be summons or something and the growth/bane just gravy, but this won't be a full time melee character without additional investment.