I'd really like to get the most out of melee weapon attacks as a magus.
Which archetypes should I consider?
How should I build it?
To clarify - do you mean melee attacks without any kind of magic, or with buffs but not spellstrike, or does anything that a magus can do go?
Also, what level is your campaign likely to start at and go to?
To clarify - do you mean melee attacks without any kind of magic, or with buffs but not spellstrike, or does anything that a magus can do go?
Also, what level is your campaign likely to start at and go to?
Preferably, anything that can be done in one turn without casting and buffing in previous turns, the most likely example being using spell combat for a quick buff, then full attacking if possible. (I assume you can do that with bladed brush?)
Joining at 15th, likely getting to 20.
Kensai magus black blade adds to that quite nicely too.
If you want to use Spell Combat with a two-handed weapon, which is normally not allowed, you either need to be able to use it as a one-handed for all purposes, or pick an archetype that modifies Spell Combat to let you do this.
The wording of Bladed Brush does look like it does this with Glaives. As far as I can tell, Bladed Brush DOESN'T get you off the hook for Slashing Grace not working with Spell Combat, but on the other hand, even though it enables using Weapon Finesse with Glaives, you don't actually have to have Weapon Finesse to take the feat or have it make Glaives one-handed for the purpose of class features, so you could go Strength-based, worship Shelyn, take Weapon Focus (Glaive) and Bladed Brush (doable at 1st level if you are Human and dip in something full BAB, or don't even have to be Human if your dip is into Fighter), and call it a day. (When you get to 3rd level if you are Human or 5th level if you dipped Fighter, you could retrain the full BAB dip level into a Magus level, and you would still be able to hold all the feats as long as you didn't take a new feat at this level, since the feats only need to be legal at the level you are at when you retrain.)
The Mindblade Magus archetype 13th level ability Dual Manifest explicitly lets you do Spell Combat with a two-handed weapon -- while that's too far up in levels for most people to depend upon, you're already up there, so this is actually a practical possibility for you.
If you don't need to be a Mindblade Magus, but you use Bladed Brush or some other feat that does something like this (like Quarterstaff Master), Myrmidarch and Skirnir are martial-focused Magus archetypes. Myrmidarch gets Weapon Training and Armor Training, as the Fighter class features, except beware that Fighter Training gives you Fighter levels only for qualifying for feats, not for their effect. Skirnir gets to fight with a shield, and at the level you're at, you get to do Spell Combat with a shield, and you're not far below the level at which you don't even lose your Shield Bonus with non-Buckler shields when doing so; you're also past the most painful tradeoffs of the archetype (delayed acquisition of Spell Combat and tradeout of Spell Recall but not Improved Spell Recall, and having obtained the latter and gotten a decent Arcane Pool through leveling and possibly Human Favored Class Bonus, you can compensate for Diminished Spellcasting). If you want something incompatible with these archetypes, or if you want the Skirnir's abilities but also want Weapon Training and Armor Training, you could go VMC Fighter, and at the level you are starting at, all of its abilities would have kicked in (all you would be missing would be the second rank of Weapon Training).
People have also posted on these messageboards about doing something interesting with Staff Magus (which DOESN'T have Diminished Spellcasting, gets Quarterstaff Master as a prerequisite-free bonus feat, and can be combined with some other good archetypes), and then adding Spear Dancing Style and Spear Dancing Spiral to make any ability that works with a quarterstaff also work with your chosen Spear or Polearm, and eventually add Spear Dancing Reach to get Reach back -- terribly feat-intensive, but at your level you can pull it off as long as you don't try to do VMC Fighter in addition; also needs insanely high Dexterity.
The whole bladed brush thing was disputed when I last checked. I'll assume it works for now.
15th level was higher than I expected, I'm glad I asked. At that point you have 5th level spells, near 6th, and shocking grasp is becoming obsolete. Spell perfection just became possible. Spell blending with a couple of spells up to 4th is possible. Greater bladed dash is available. Hmm.
If you want to deal damage to multiple targets, greater bladed dash with spell combat isn't bad. You can attack everyone you pass during a 30' move and then deal a full attack at the end. Cast dimensional blade just before (it's a swift action) and all those attacks become touch attacks. Or if you prefer, spell blending for dazzling blade (or mass DB) to try and blind one of the targets.
Monstrous Physique III into a gegenees is undoubtedly effective, you'll need the natural spell combat (slam) magus arcana to take advantage of all those extra slam attacks in the same round. Of course, if turning into a huge giant is difficult in a given fight you might want to do something else.
The mindblade archetype gets to take a few spells off the psychic list. Like maybe plane shift, a 5th level spell for the psychic. Ever wanted to send your enemy straight to Hell? With spell perfection you might add on persistent spell to that as well. The mindblade archetype has the advantage of more certainly working with bladed brush too, you get an ability at 13th level to use a 2H weapon with spell combat.
Hmmm... bladed dash and dimensional blade seem fun, do I get to keep my glaive and do 4-5 slams as secondary with monstrous physique? I'm assuming they meld, which would be a shame.
1) Would spell perfection let me quicken Monstrous physique 3 without increasing time or slot?
2) As far as archetypes go, I'd quite like something that increases the damage of each individual attack, I plan to be hasted most of the time so every point of damage I can squeeze out of each attack will benefit from that, would Myrmidarch be best for that thanks to the fighter weapon training or does another archetype provide steeper static bonuses?
MP doesn't meld equipment. That happens 'When you cast a polymorph spell that changes you into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type' - monstrous humanoid isn't on that list.
1) Yes.
2) At 20th the answer has to be Kensai. They get the weapon mastery ability of the fighter then. Otherwise, yes myrmidiarch's weapon training will provide the best flat bonuses.
So, and this is purely theoretical, when I hit 6th level spells and after I grab feats/traits that increase caster level (transmutation where appropriate) I could:
1) Swift Action cast MP3 with spell perfection
2) Spell Combat cast Emblem of Greed (boosted by CL to give higher bonuses to atk and additional attacks)
3) Full Attack with Glaive (at -2)
4) 4-5 secnondary slam attacks (at -7)
5) Do it all over again next turn, but this time use another swift action arcane pool ability, spell combat and/or spellstrike for even more damage?
Does all that work?
Emblem of Greed will block a bunch of uses of arcane pool while it's active, and since you need an actual free hand that's 4 slams, but sure.
Emblem of Greed will block a bunch of uses of arcane pool while it's active, and since you need an actual free hand that's 4 slams, but sure.
Now if only I could add smite to those attacks... Anyway, back to the topic, given the lack of crit range on the glaive i'm not certain kensai would be the best archetype, so it looks like myrmidarch is my best bet for an archetype using that sequence of spells/attacks.
So, any other suggestions on how can I get the most static bonuses to damage on those attacks?
On that next round you might do spell combat with Sense Vitals for +5d6 sneak attack, maybe add Dazzling Blade or Mass DB (swift to cast, free to use) to try and blind an enemy if you can't set up a flank. Spell Blending would be required to get those two spells.
Edit: if you expect to use Sense Vitals a lot it might be worth getting the Press to the Wall feat.
Make sure you get the close range magus arcana so that when you get 6th level spells you can spellstrike with disintegrate.
Out of curiosity:
Aside from magi and maybe that one spiritualist archetype, are there any other classes/archetypes which can cast twice and full attack in the same turn?
Two spiritualist archetypes now. Um... Otherwise probably not. Though there are ways of changing form with a long duration (goliath druid, any full caster with shapechange), and with a trait to reduce the cost of metamagic it's possible to quicken the emblem when those full casters get 9th level spells. Or they could use a metamagic rod of quicken spell a bit earlier of course if they can spare 75 500 gp.
Ectoplasmatist & Phantom Blade. Both are on d20pfsrd.
It occurred to me that there's at least two other ways to achieve all that. A contingency spell to activate one of the spells (quicken the other) would do, or using share spells for MP3 on a familiar, quickening emblem (spell perfection or metamagic rod, or trait as above) and then having your super-sized familiar deliver the full attack would work. You'd probably need a familiar which could hold a glaive in its usual form, likely some improved familiar.
Bladebound kensai is a very effective melee combatant.
The phantom blade is essentially a magus, though the spells are slightly less offense orientated and two-world magic trait for Touch of Fatigue is almost required.
Ectoplasmatist & Phantom Blade. Both are on d20pfsrd.
Thanks, i'd missed the ectoplamatist :)
Shame they're both spiritualists though, I dont really enjoy the spell list / class abilities compared to the magus.
