Staff Magus build; rate and advice on making it better?

[Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer]

Idea behind this build is a sort of Sun Wukong character who fights with a staff and uses magic to augment it. Optimized fighting defensively also provides an AC boost that Combat Expertise could never compete with, and tripping feats for control.

I'd like to hear all sorts of feedback, especially how I can make it better. Going to be using this character within a couple weeks for a Rise of the Runelords game.

Rolled Ability Scores (after race modifiers) (Heroic method; 2d6+6; races allowed up to 20 RP, if published race is 12 or less, gain two free +2 ability score increases)
Str 18, Dex 20, Con 15, Int 18, Wis 15, Cha 9

Race: Vanara
Class: Staff Magus 5/Monk 1 (Master of Many Styles); then remaining levels all put into Magus

Starting Spellbook: Blade lash, color spray, grease, magic weapon (for when the party fights DR/magic before they have +1's), shield, shocking grasp, true strike

Feat Progression
1st: Dirty Fighting
Magus 1: Quarterstaff Master
3rd: Stick-Fighting Style
5th: Combat Reflexes
Magus 5: Improved Trip
Monk 1 (6th-level): Crane Style, Stunning Fist, Improved Unarmed Strike
7th: Stick-Fighting Counter
9th: Stick Fighting Maneuver
11th: Intensify Spell
Magus 11 (12th): Greater Trip
13th: Fury's Fall
15th: Extra Arcana
17th: Extra Arcana
Magus 17 (18th): Improved Critical (quarterstaff)
19th: Craft Staff

Magus Arcana
3rd: Wand Wielder (prehensile tail racial trait means he can use his staff two-handed and use a wand for spell combat, yes?)
6th: Familiar (was thinking either a compy for initiative, a weasel for Reflex, or an ioun wyrd)
9th: Arcane Accuracy
12th: Maneuver Mastery (trip)
15th: Bane Blade
15th feat: Hasted Assault
17th feat: Accurate Strike
18th: Quickened Magic

Traits
Aldori Caution: Gain an additional +1 dodge bonus to AC when fighting defensively or using total defense.
Pragmatic Activator: Int to UMD.
Keleshite Trader, and Pride drawback (for flavor)

Other Build Notes
Investing in Acrobatics ranks (3 ranks increases AC bonus from fighting defensively by 1, and total defense by 2)
Blocking weapon quality: When using this weapon to fight defensively, gain +1 shield bonus to AC.
Crane Style: reduces attack penalty for fighting defensively by 2 and increases AC bonus for fighting defensively and total defense by 1.

All in all, defensive fighting is -2 attack, +6 AC. Once Quarterstaff Defense is gained at CL 9th, the quarterstaff then grants additional shield bonus to AC.

Armor-wise, will probably rely more on bracers of armor or mage armor, and Wis bonus to AC from the singular monk level, paired with a belt of incredible dex.

[zza ni]

wand winder and tail won't let you use the wand you hold in the tail. the tail can retrieve items or hold them, you can not manipulate them unless you hold them in your hands.

tripping is nice and all for low to mid level, but by level 10 it's harder and harder to ether make the roll or to find enemies you can trip.

also speaking of enemies you can't trip, what is your attack plan for fighting flying or mobile+ranged enemies?

[VoodistMonk]

zza ni wrote:

wand winder and tail won't let you use the wand you hold in the tail. the tail can retrieve items or hold them, you can not manipulate them unless you hold them in your hands.

tripping is nice and all for low to mid level, but by level 10 it's harder and harder to ether make the roll or to find enemies you can trip.

also speaking of enemies you can't trip, what is your attack plan for fighting flying or mobile+ranged enemies?

All of this.

[Temperans]

To use the tail you want the Mischivieous Tail Feat. Which requires the Grasping Tail feat, you could argue with your GM that the special clause should also apply to other races with a prehensile tail.

A Rod of Balance would probably be useful, it increases the base of Fighting Defensively to 4. Similarly, the Stalwart feat tree is good since it gives you a lot of DR. Quarter Staff of Vaulting is also useful to make acrobatics easier (lean into the monkey king flighty fighting style).

1 level in Monk is good. But you might want more depending on the archetype you choose. On that note going with Master of Many Styles is always useful but there are a lot of good archetypes.

To fulfill the "expanding pole", you can add the flensing shadowcraft weapon enchantment. If you don't mind spending the feat and money you could also go with Spear Dancing Style, to allow you to treat spears/polearms as Quarterstaffs and maybe give then reach. Why am I mentioning this? Because you can use the transformation enchantment to transform your normal range quaterstaff (short) into a reach polearm (medium) or into a sarissa (long). With the addition of flensing shadowcraft and maybe longarm spell and you are making melee attacks from 15-30 feat away.

Finally, do not forget the Blade Tutor's Spirit spell. That spell decreases the penalty of using Fighting Defensively by 1 +1 for every 5 levels, so at level 5 you take no penalty from Fighting Defensively. By level 20 you can fight defensively while using spell combat at no penalty.

[TxSam88]

What's your goal? As built you won't hit the bad guy very often, and you won't do much damage when you do. you'll have a good AC (but can't wear much armor)

I'd add in the typical Magus build, Magical Lineage (shocking grasp) and intensified spell metamagic feat. Also figure out a way to make the Quarterstaff a Ki Focus weapon, so you can stunning fist through it.

Quarterstaff Master is a free feat, you still have a Magus 1 feat slot open.

That's also a 58 point build (totally insane IMO) You rolled considerably above average for stats.

[Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer]

Ah, okay, so I can't use tail to activate wands unless I have Mischievous Tail. Looked at the rules for wands to verify and it does specify they must be held in hand.

For flying and mobile/ranged enemies, I don't have an exact attack plan currently except probably some sort of spell so I can engage fliers in melee (maybe just fly, or have the oracle learn air walk to cast on me). Before I get access to some flying spells, I have a handful of darts on-hand, and returning weapon is a 1st-level spell for magi. Any suggestions beyond that?

The main reason I went for Master of Many Styles was so I can use Stick-Fighting and Crane Style at the same time, and Stick-Fighting Style is amazing because Stick-Fighting Counter allows an AoO if a designated target misses me when I fight defensively, and Stick-Fighting Maneuver grants a free combat maneuver at full BAB when making a full attack, which stacks with the extra attack from haste or a speed weapon.

The Stalwart feat tree sounds like a pretty big feat investment, requiring me to remove four feats from the current build. Don't know if I can really afford that.

I can't find the flensing weapon enchantment anywhere on d20PFSRD, but I'm also not a fan on relying on disbelief to deal more than minimum damage.

The Blade Tutor's Spirit spell though is an excellent suggestion.

[Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer]

TxSam88 wrote:

What's your goal? As built you won't hit the bad guy very often, and you won't do much damage when you do. you'll have a good AC (but can't wear much armor)

I'd add in the typical Magus build, Magical Lineage (shocking grasp) and intensified spell metamagic feat. Also figure out a way to make the Quarterstaff a Ki Focus weapon, so you can stunning fist through it.

Quarterstaff Master is a free feat, you still have a Magus 1 feat slot open.

That's also a 58 point build (totally insane IMO) You rolled considerably above average for stats.

Goal was ultimately to act in the front-lines of combat, drawing attacks away from squishier allies with super-high AC, mirror images, displacement, etc., occasionally dealing extra damage with spellstrike. I already have Intensified Spell at 11th-level.

Making a Quarterstaff with Ki Focus would be easy enough, just requiring Craft Magic Arms and Armor, since the only requisite is that the creator be a monk. That or just find a friendly NPC with the feat while I provide the requisite of monk by being present during crafting. Of course, there's nothing stopping me from using an unarmed strike with Stunning Fist, or even spellstrike for that matter iirc.

I actually do not have a feat slot open at 1st-level, as the free Quarterstaff Master is that Magus 1 slot. Regular magi don't get a bonus feat at 1st-level. And yeah, the abilities were the first result I got on PCGen, so I was quite pleased with that.

[TxSam88]

Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer wrote:

TxSam88 wrote:

What's your goal? As built you won't hit the bad guy very often, and you won't do much damage when you do. you'll have a good AC (but can't wear much armor)

I'd add in the typical Magus build, Magical Lineage (shocking grasp) and intensified spell metamagic feat. Also figure out a way to make the Quarterstaff a Ki Focus weapon, so you can stunning fist through it.

Quarterstaff Master is a free feat, you still have a Magus 1 feat slot open.

That's also a 58 point build (totally insane IMO) You rolled considerably above average for stats.

Goal was ultimately to act in the front-lines of combat, drawing attacks away from squishier allies with super-high AC, mirror images, displacement, etc., occasionally dealing extra damage with spellstrike. I already have Intensified Spell at 11th-level.

Making a Quarterstaff with Ki Focus would be easy enough, just requiring Craft Magic Arms and Armor, since the only requisite is that the creator be a monk. That or just find a friendly NPC with the feat while I provide the requisite of monk by being present during crafting. Of course, there's nothing stopping me from using an unarmed strike with Stunning Fist, or even spellstrike for that matter iirc.

I actually do not have a feat slot open at 1st-level, as the free Quarterstaff Master is that Magus 1 slot. Regular magi don't get a bonus feat at 1st-level. And yeah, the abilities were the first result I got on PCGen, so I was quite pleased with that.

So, here's the deal, in our games, you won't be much of a threat since your damage/hit frequency is pathetic, so you won't be pulling attacks away from frontline fighters. I'd shift focus away from being defensive to being offensive.

[Temperans]

If you want to go for melee that draws in attacks that requires a lot of investment. You either need to deal enough damage that enemies take you seriously, or you make it so inconvenient to get around you that they choose to fight you.

* The first is easy if you go with typical magus shocking grasp cheese. But that is boring.

* The second has a few possible ways to achieve it. You can go with antagonize and other taunt effects. Or you can go with combat patrol and combat reflexes.

Your current build is not bad, but it will rely heavily on your spells working.

**************************

Regarding the shadowcraft enchantment, I said it mostly as an option if what you wanted was "full on most reach". That enchantment being one of the few ways to get it on a weapon.

I understand why you went with master of many styles. What I said was I reference to going with more levels in monk. Which has a lot of archetypes that stack. The spear fighting style is only relevant if you want to do the transforming quarstaff trick.

[FraVit]

If I would start at lv6 with a build like yours in mind I wouldn't go straight for two styles at once but would stick to the Crane Style at first.

A second level of Monk could grant Evasion and another bonus feat, I would use a regular feat to get dodge and a regular feat to get the first Crane Style feat and the Master of Many Styles bonus feats to get the other ones.

1 1-Staff Maus: Dodge, Quarterstaff Master
2 2-Staff Magus
3 1-Master of Many Styles: Crane Style, Crane Wing
4 2-Master of Many Styles: Crane Riposte
5 3-Staff Magus: etc.

Then take the other feats with ease with just -1 on attack rolls while fighting defensively.

[Kurald Galain]

The problem with Many Styles is that it requires a swift action to activate the first style, and then another swift action to activate the second style; and as a Magus you also want to use swift actions on other things.

Note that spell combat requires a free hand (and as a Magus, you want to use spell combat as often as possible) so you can't two-hand your staff. That said, the quarterstaff master feat lets you one-hand a q'staff anyway.

Finally, check out the Magus guide for more suggestions. HTH!