I heard someone mention that the Magus seems entirely melee based. And certainly, a number of aspects deal with melee, or at least heavily suggest it. But I think there is room for a bow focus, especially if used as a gateway to Arcane Archer.
Any thoughts? I do have some leeway with my DM about rule of cool and custom items, and I would see if I could make spell strike similar to charging the bow with a touch attack and delivering it either as a ranged touch or delivering it with the arrow.
I heard someone mention that the Magus seems entirely melee based. And certainly, a number of aspects deal with melee, or at least heavily suggest it. But I think there is room for a bow focus, especially if used as a gateway to Arcane Archer.
Any thoughts? I do have some leeway with my DM about rule of cool and custom items, and I would see if I could make spell strike similar to charging the bow with a touch attack and delivering it either as a ranged touch or delivering it with the arrow.
The Magus is meant to be a melee focused class. Spell Combat requires one hand free (even for a spell without somatic components). By RAW, I don't think a bow would qualify, although using a crossbow one-handed might. Spell Strike could work with a ranged touch attack, but you would not be able to use it in concert with Spell Combat.
Stepping out of the RAW box, I think this could be a fun class to play with a bow focus - just come up with sort of reasonable explanation to how the Spell Combat ability works with bows. Maybe even get your DM to help you with it.
Don't worry about going arcane archer - just stick Pure Magus. Everything scales really nicely and I believe myrmidarch reduces your spells/day already so the loss in CL isn't going to do you any favors. Plus with the BAB req of 6, you wont be getting into thR PRC until level 9 anyways.
The mymidarch helps, but the problem is its meant to be a switch hitter not a dedicated archer. You can get spell strike with a bow, but you can never use the magus' primary class feature, spell combat. By the rules that MUST be as part of a melee full attack. You cant ranged spell strike with it, and thus have to choose between full attacking or spell stricking when using a bow.
If you can talk to your dm into allowing a version of spell combat that works with ranged attacks then there isnt even a need for the arcane archer at all. There would actually be alot of redundancy untill you get to seeker and phase arrows since the magus can already enhance his bow including with special properties (as he gets higher in level) and those stack with a magic weapon where as the arcane archer would be mostly wasted in a normal campaign for the first few levels.
The Magus has one class advantage as an archer: his arcane pool. At first level, it can give +1 to a weapon he yields. That includes a bow. It is like having the Arcane Archer's Enhance Arrow ability at first level, for a few minutes each day. That means that the magus can afford to short his Strength by 2 in order to boost Dexterity or Intelligence.
For example, a first-level Archer Fighter with Strength 16 and Dexterity 14 would use a composite longbow made for Str 16 at +3 to hit for 1d8+3 damage. A first-level magus with Strength 14 and Dexterity 16 would use a composite longbow made for Str 14 at +4 to hit for 1d8+3 damage as long as his arcane pool held out.
Any character with a decent Dexterity and a decent BAB can become an archer by feats alone. The magus qualifies. Most archery archetypes help the character obtain the feats, so a magus archer will be feat starved.
The fun of a magus archer would be in combining archery with the magus's magic. To cast spells via arrows, your magus will need the Myrmidarch's Ranged Spellstrike or the Arcane Archer's Imbue Arrow. The Myrmidarch has the contradictory effect of shortchanging the magus on spells, which reduces the fun. And by the time a magus can become an Arcane Archer, he is already throwing Fireballs, which undermines the point of Imbue Arrow. (The most fun I had with an Arcane Archer was a D&D 3.5 elf Cleric 9/Wizard 1/Arcane Archer 3 who used Imbue Arrow with short-range cleric spells.)
The mymidarch helps, but the problem is it's meant to be a switch hitter not a dedicated archer. You can get spell strike with a bow, but you can never use the magus' primary class feature, spell combat. By the rules that MUST be as part of a melee full attack. You can't ranged spell strike with it, and thus have to choose between full attacking or spell striking when using a bow.
Kolokotroni was giving a warning, but I think that switch hitter offers some interesting potential. Switch hitter is a concept from Treantmonk's Guide to Rangers. It is an archer who starts combat with archery and then drops his bow and draws a melee weapon once the party closes in on the opponents. The switch hitter can skip the Precise Shot feat, because he won't be shooting into melee, and is fully prepared for enemies who like to close in on archers and spellcasters.
I myself hated the "drop his bow" part, especially with an expensive +1 longbow, so my only switch hitter character was a ranger/monk who held onto his bow and fought in melee with unarmed strike. The Spellblade archetype of the magus has a similar option. He can sacrifice a prepared spell in order to create a dagger of force as a swift action. The dagger has an enhancement bonus equal to the level of the spell sacrificed and even lets him use Spell Combat with the dagger hand counting as the free hand (provided that he is not attacking with the dagger that round). A Spellblade loses Spellstrike but a Spellblade/Mymidarch dual archetype would still have the Ranged Spellstrike.
If your GM cooperates, you could have a stranger option than that. Imagine that your magus researches an arcane version of the divine spell Bowstaff, which temporarily transforms a shortbow into a club or a longbow into a quarterstaff. As a homebrew spell, it would be inferior to the original, so assume that Magus Bowstaff spell requires a standard action to cast rather than the swift action of the Inquisitor/Paladin/Ranger Bowstaff spell. But the magus has Spell Combat. When the enemy closes in on the seemingly-vulnerable archer magus, the magus uses spell combat to defensively cast Bowstaff and hit the enemy with the transformed melee weapon, all without provoking an attack of opportunity. And the spell transforms the arcane pool bonus, too, which would not happen if the magus simply used the bow as an improvised club. This won't be especially useful at first level, since Bowstaff lasts only one round per level, but it would be more effective at higher levels. If the GM allows Magus Bowstaff as a swift spell like the original, the magus could get a full Spell Combat and Spellstrike combination attack on the fool that dared attack him.