The jist is that I want to find a way to used ranged unarmed strikes to make a competent Starlit Span Magus. After seeing the Automaton feat "energy beam" I immediately knew I needed to fire magical lasers at dudes. The main issue I see is that the range increment is 20ft and it starts at a d4 and only advances to a d6. It doesn't add half strength and doesn't have deadly d10 like, say, a composite shortbow. Is there any way to get a better ranged unarmed strike or even improve this one? Preferably with a way to perhaps get phase bolt from psychic dedication(assuming any GM out there would let me go all Metroid wave beam on dudes). I saw one thing, the far shot feat from the ranger, and I know the monk has some ranged unarmed strikes somewhere but idk what they look like at all
Any help in turning this into a real build that can keep up would be appreciated
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Looking into it, one thing that I realized doesn't work is Hunt Prey itself. It only lets you ignore the penalties in the second range increment - it doesn't change where the first range increment ends, which is what Starlit Span Spellstrike is looking at.
20 feet increment and d4 damage that can later be upgraded to d6 is already pretty good for an ancestry unarmed ranged attack. Kitsune Foxfire and Leshy Seedpod are both less powerful than that.
The Monk Wild Winds feat at level 8 will give you a 30 foot increment d6 unarmed attack that does have the Propulsive trait (so adds half strength bonus). But Monk archetype won't be getting that until level 16.
Looking into it, one thing that I realized doesn't work is Hunt Prey itself. It only lets you ignore the penalties in the second range increment - it doesn't change where the first range increment ends, which is what Starlit Span Spellstrike is looking at.
20 feet increment and d4 damage that can later be upgraded to d6 is already pretty good for an ancestry unarmed ranged attack. Kitsune Foxfire and Leshy Seedpod are both less powerful than that.
The Monk Wild Winds feat at level 8 will give you a 30 foot increment d6 unarmed attack that does have the Propulsive trait (so adds half strength bonus). But Monk archetype won't be getting that until level 16.
So presuming I already archetype into ranger for far shot at level 8 the upgrade here is +2 damage, ignoring concealment, which is already the starlit span magus's thing, moving from 40 feet to 60 feet, bludgeoning over fire damage, and the agile trait which is not very useful for spellstrike, but maybe it would come up here and there. The ignoring concealment might also not be great if a GM rules phase bolt gives the ranged attack the properties of the spell. I also lose persistent damage on crit. Not sure level 16 is worth any of this necessarily when automaton is getting 1d6 at level 9(I think I said 5 in the op, this was wrong)
Effects of a spell only affect the spell, not the attack. If you Spellstrike with Shocking Grasp, the +1 from the spell only applies to the attack roll of the spell, not the attack roll of the Strike, though bonuses that apply to the Strike also apply to the spell result.
Nothing in Spellstrike says that effects which alter the results of the Spell alter the results of the Strike, and vice-versa, unless such a condition applies to both (such as being Flanked and using a Melee Attack Roll). If using a Ranged Attack Roll via Spellstrike with a Melee Spell Attack in Melee range, the spell would benefit from Flanking, but the Strike would not. The inverse is also true, since a condition on an enemy only affects the DC of the target, not the value (AKA result) of your attack roll.
Effects of a spell only affect the spell, not the attack. If you Spellstrike with Shocking Grasp, the +1 from the spell only applies to the attack roll of the spell, not the attack roll of the Strike, though bonuses that apply to the Strike also apply to the spell result.
Nothing in Spellstrike says that effects which alter the results of the Spell alter the results of the Strike, and vice-versa, unless such a condition applies to both (such as being Flanked and using a Melee Attack Roll). If using a Ranged Attack Roll via Spellstrike with a Melee Spell Attack in Melee range, the spell would benefit from Flanking, but the Strike would not. The inverse is also true, since a condition on an enemy only affects the DC of the target, not the value (AKA result) of your attack roll.
This has been a debate, so it's a thing I would probably still bring up with this hypothetical GM assuming I run this character, which I might actually do. Put this in my back pocket. You're probably right it doesn't work with raw, but it is something people like adding to spellstrike regardless because otherwise you are trading damage for no benefit
The build for this character looks disgusting btw. So much archetyping in and out to get features to being this up to par. At the moment it's something like level 2 free archetype wizard(because more slots), level four class feat for wizard archetype feat and free archetype for another one to get out of the class, level 6 ranger dedication+ranger feat, level 8 far shot and then getting into psychic at 10 to grab the distortion lens spell at 12 for another +10 feet, sitting me at 50 feat at level 12. Very very gross looking sheet, but it all works
This has been a debate, so it's a thing I would probably still bring up with this hypothetical GM assuming I run this character, which I might actually do. Put this in my back pocket. You're probably right it doesn't work with raw, but it is something people like adding to spellstrike regardless because otherwise you are trading damage for no benefitEffects of a spell only affect the spell, not the attack. If you Spellstrike with Shocking Grasp, the +1 from the spell only applies to the attack roll of the spell, not the attack roll of the Strike, though bonuses that apply to the Strike also apply to the spell result.
Nothing in Spellstrike says that effects which alter the results of the Spell alter the results of the Strike, and vice-versa, unless such a condition applies to both (such as being Flanked and using a Melee Attack Roll). If using a Ranged Attack Roll via Spellstrike with a Melee Spell Attack in Melee range, the spell would benefit from Flanking, but the Strike would not. The inverse is also true, since a condition on an enemy only affects the DC of the target, not the value (AKA result) of your attack roll.
I would suggest you do so before any issues come up which compromise your plans, and at the end of the day, what the GM says for your table is all that matters and should be good enough for whatever play you do with the character, but I'm pretty certain about my statement being applicable to most every table, since it's expressed in the ability that Spellstrike is basically two independent effects (a Strike and a Spell with an Attack Roll) put into one activity.