Magus and Spell Combat

[OldSkoolGamer]

Can a Magus strike with weapon, take a 5 foot step and then cast his spell?

[MrCharisma]

Yup.

A 5-foot-step can be taken at any time with 2 caveats:
- Only during your turn (no immediate action 5-foot-steps)
- You can't take a 5-foot-step if you make any other movement (you can't 5-foot-step to avoid AoO, then run away).

So an 8th level Hasted Magus could go: Cast-spell, attack, 5-foot-step, attack, attack. You can throw the 5-foot-step in there anywhere.

If you cast a Touch Spell you get to deliver it as a free Touch Weapon attack with Spellstrike, and you can even 5-foot-step in between casting and delivering the spell (You can actually take a whole move action and swift action, and a 5-foot-step between casting and delivering the spell if you want to, provided you use the move action to do something other than "move").

[Diego Rossi]

MrCharisma wrote:

Yup.

A 5-foot-step can be taken at any time with 2 caveats:
- Only during your turn (no immediate action 5-foot-steps)
- You can't take a 5-foot-step if you make any other movement (you can't 5-foot-step to avoid AoO, then run away).

So an 8th level Hasted Magus could go: Cast-spell, attack, 5-foot-step, attack, attack. You can throw the 5-foot-step in there anywhere.

If you cast a Touch Spell you get to deliver it as a free Touch Weapon attack with Spellstrike, and you can even 5-foot-step in between casting and delivering the spell (You can actually take a whole move action and swift action, and a 5-foot-step between casting and delivering the spell if you want to, provided you use the move action to do something other than "move").

In the last example, you can take the 5' step only if the move action was something different from moving.

With spell combat, the spell should be the first or the last thing you do. There is an exception if the spell generates a free attack, you will resolve that free attack as the first attack after casting the spell.

So, with spell strike and spell combat, it can go:

Declare spell combat (you must declare it first as it imposes a -2 to all your attack in the round and locks you into a full-round action);
- make your first iterative attack;
- if available make your second iterative attack;
- if available make your third iterative attack;
- cast shocking grasp;
- resolve the free attack as a weapon attack.
You can take the 5' step before or after any of the bullet points.

Or:

Declare spell combat (you must declare it first as it imposes a -2 to all your attack in the round and locks you into a full-round action);
- cast shocking grasp;
- resolve the free attack as a weapon attack;
- make your first iterative attack;
- if available make your second iterative attack;
- if available make your third iterative attack.
You can take the 5' step before or after any of the bullet points.

[OldSkoolGamer]

Makes sense, thanks!