So I had a concept for a Black Blade magus that will primarily use 'Dark Magics' IE necromancy, shadow and cold magics and am looking for help on the best spells and feats to use to accomplish it.
I am using a custom human race from my GM's campaign that has access to Mystic Past Life so I can choose any 6 spells to add to my Magus spell list but they must all be either Arcane or Divine. I am tying to do a debuffing style character.
I know I want Enervation and Ghoul Touch as past life spells and was also thinking of Ray of Sickening, Touch of Fatigue, Vampiric Touch and Bestow Curse.
I was planning on doing Rime Spell with Frostbite to cause additional de-buffing during combat since Frostbite gives a number of uses equal to my level and automatically causes fatigue which would combine with Entangle from Rime Spell.
Looking for suggestions on build, spells and feats. So far I have the following but none of it is set in stone beside the race (homebrew human) and the Black Blade Archetype:
Trait: Magical Lineage: Frostbite
Trait: Seeker
Human: Combat Casting
1: Extra Arcane Pool
3: Metamagic Rime Spell
5: Spell Focus Necromancy
Not sure if I am making the optimal choices on feats and am not the best with spell based builds. Any help in the stated guidelines would be much appreciated.
I'm not gonna be much help on the spells, but thematically Hexcrafter could fit (and stacks with Bladebound). You'd have to jump through some hoops to use a Hex with Spell-Combat but you might think of a good standard action Hex to open with before the enemies get close enough for Spell Combat. Just a thought, it might not be the most optimal choice.
Another combo I like if you're married to one spell (like Rime Frostbite) is to take Heighten Spell and Preferred Spell at level 5. This lets you prepare all your utility spells and switch to your damage spell spontaneously when needed, and with Spell Recall you can always get your utility spells back if needed (obviously doesn't work as well woth Hexcrafter). This works better with the Shocking Grasp Magus, but if you snagged Elemental Spell as well as Rime Spell this would give you more versatility with Frostbite. Since you're diversifying your spell list a bit more this might not be the most powerful option either, but it's an option.
Oh, one spell I love that Magi don't get access to is Heightened Awareness (level 1), so there's my input to your actual question =P
Consider a Phantom Blade Spiritualist. Their spell list is a bit more of the dark side you were looking for, and with that custom race you can get back frostbite/etc pretty easy. Spiritualist gets you almost all of the spells you were trying to add into Magus already (not ray of sickening or touch of fatigue).
And you can spell strike a Harm at higher levels if you want.
Thank you for the suggestion but the class and race are locked in at this point, as stated in the first post.
Sure, I took the Black Blade itself as the lock as opposed to the specific archetype. Reading comprehension for the win. Phantom Blade uses Black Blade rules with a little adjustment.
But if you have time, might as well stat them both up and check advantages/disadvantages.
As far as Magus spell suggestions go, run through that guide Kurald Galain linked. It even has a section on spells from other lists.
A common suggestion for a Frostbite build is Enforcer for another debuff (demoralize). Add in a Cruel enchantment on your weapon and you are adding in Sickened as well. At that point a -4 to saves makes it more likely that you can land your curses. Keep in mind that any creature immune to non-lethal or cold basically shuts you down.
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! Do you know of any way to add Cruel to a black blade?
You could ask for a custom item based off of Demonic Smith Gloves or Deliquescent Gloves, both are 8k gp and give a +1 effect(flaming or corrosive) and another minor bonus(smithing vs ooze resistance). Call it Torturer's Fist or something.
I could probably swing this in my GM's game. Thanks again! :-)