[Pathfinder] Magus or Sorcerer?

[SuperJudge]

Hi I am starting a new campaign soon, it will be mostly PF but some 3.5 will be aloud. I don't know what the other classes will be yet. We will probably have the typical rogue and healer and fighter type as well and possibly another spell caster.

So I am free to pick pretty much whatever and at first wanted to make wizard/incantrix but then I saw Magus and that class really interested me. I especially like the shocking grasp cheese you can pull off. I was thinking of Cabalist and going Orc for the bloodline and using Spontaneous Metafocus to get around the spontanius casting metemagic spells with spell combat.

While I was looking into bloodlines I noticed humans get bonus spells as a sorcerer which eliminates the reason I always hated sorcerers. And with the extra spells the Battle Sorcerer variant seems more appealing to. I have always liked the idea of spell caster being able to melee as well.

I want to DPS mainly and use control secondary and both classes appeal to me about the same. So should I stick with cabalist magus or try out the crossblooded(orc/darconic) sorcerer and blast everything to crispy bits ? Or combine the the 2 and try out a Battle Sorcerer?

Edit: hexcrafter added to the magus and taking slumber seems pretty dam useful too. 3.5 stuff from complete mage and complete arcane will probably be aloud Everything else I would have to run past the DM, he is pretty accepting.

[deuxhero]

Two are entirely separate beasts.

What exactly do you want to do? Blast some fools with fireballs? Deal high damage in general? Control the battlefield and watch your slaves party members clean up?

Exactly what 3.5 stuff do you have? For example: If you are using the entire spc with no spells added to the new PF classes (bad idea) Sorcerer is going to come out a long way ahead.

Magus I will say is the best written class in PF, powerful enough to do its intended job, enough flexibility to help the party a great deal when its main job isn't needed, but it doesn't break the game or make people specialized in a field useless, and it works without any serious optimization. It is also pretty flexible in build options.

Sorcerer is MUCH more powerful than Magi can ever hope for with just some smart spell selection, but that power allows it to break the game and make specialist irrelevant.

Given you mentioned you will have a healer, your group seems fairly low op, so I'd go with the Magus baring anything exceptional being learned

Also: LINEBREAKS!

[SuperJudge]

Two are entirely separate beasts.

What exactly do you want to do? Blast some fools with fireballs? Deal high damage in general? Control the battlefield and watch your slaves party members clean up?

Exactly what 3.5 stuff do you have? For example: If you are using the entire spc with no spells added to the new PF classes (bad idea) Sorcerer is going to come out a long way ahead.

Magus I will say is the best written class in PF, powerful enough to do its intended job, enough flexibility to help the party a great deal when its main job isn't needed, but it doesn't break the game or make people specialized in a field useless, and it works without any serious optimization. It is also pretty flexible in build options.

Sorcerer is MUCH more powerful than Magi can ever hope for with just some smart spell selection, but that power allows it to break the game and make specialist irrelevant.

Given you mentioned you will have a healer, your group seems fairly low op, so I'd go with the Magus baring anything exceptional being learned

Also: LINEBREAKS!

Breaking the game in terms of mass damage would be ok once in awhile kind of like an "OH SH*T!" option as long as I don't abuse the power.

[Certified]

While I can't speak to power levels I can say I've had an absolute ton of fun playing a Kensai, a Magus Archetype. There are a lot of fun things that can be done in the Magus, weird little tricks and such.

[Chromascope3D]

Best of both worlds, Go with a sorcerer and dip into fighter so you can take Eldritch Knight.

Go with elf, which grants you magic bonuses and the Elven Curve Blade, which, with expanded crit, has a range of 15-20. It looks real nice with the Knight's 'Spell Critical' capstone achievement (allows you to immediately cast a spell after confirming a critical hit). For this I'd also recommend a fighter friendly bloodline like Orc or Abyssal. Also the feats that reduce arcane spell failure, so then you can wear your mithral breastplate with no problems. :smallcool:

Because, y'know, that isn't overly complicated. :P

[deuxhero]

EK is closer, but still different from the Magus


Magus can do something most gishes can only dream of: Use spells and melee at the same time. EK is more of a buff monkey

Elf is honestly pretty awful for a Magus (con penalty is always bad, but on a d8 front liner it is painful), especially if you aren't going Dervish Dance.