[PF] Magus

[TranquilKnight]

I have been playing DnD and PF for awhile now and the idea of a Magus to me has always been thrilling. A BA that can walk around in armor, swing a sword, and throw out spells to me sounds like he is going to be a walking tank with a freaking missle launcher. However, anytime I have thought of building one I start to think of building one I become discourage because,
(and maybe its because I don't understand how a magus works) I don't see how or where I am going to be able to throw out awesome damage nor do I see him being a great tank combared to other tanks or damage dealers.

If anyone could help me out or give me some ideas I would appretiate it, aesthetically I think the magus is amazing, in actuality I think I just may be missing something becuase it doesn't it would do as well as I thought.

[Andreaz]

It's all in the spells. Like any other gish you'll want to have a few defensive buffs up.
Mirror Image alone greatly improves your life expectancy!
Enemies not attacking you are enemies "tanked": Black Tentacles, Grease, Fogs, Flight.
On the damage side, you can trust on your spells and spell recall (spell recall is orgasms all over). Start with the simple Shocking Grasp. 5d6 damage on top of your weapon damage, doubled if you crit! (this is why scimitars are all the things for the magus). Then for a single metamagic(intensify spell) you are now doing 10d6 extra damage with a level two spell :D

Its spell selection is more limited than a wizard gish, but fairly broad (and with good stopgaps) and more spammable. Every strategy you saw on a wiz gish build works for the magus (often made easier too)

[Psyren]

You can full-attack and cast spells at the same time. What's not to love?

Status effects are your friend, especially the saveless ones. Frigid Touch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/frigid-touch) will give your DM fits.

[TranquilKnight]

Thanks for the advice, and I think my flaw is really in the fact that I am not greatly familiar with any of the pure arcane users. I think like you're saying I just have to spend a little more time in the spell section and see what I can do there. It's more of an intimidation factor I guess for me. I am great with melee and non-casters making them insanely powerful for no reason really, so when I start to look into casters I just feel a little overwhelmed and like I am not going to do as well as my group expects me too or something to that effect.

[BRC]

You clearly have not been reading the Magus very closely.

First of all: Arcane Pool means you basically get a free magic weapon you can shift. At Level 5 you can get a +1 Flaming of whatever masterwork weapon you happen to be holding.
And this stacks with existing Weapon bonuses.
This means that if you already have, say, a +1 weapon, and you are a 5th level Magus, you can now have a +1 Flaming Keen weapon, all for the Cost of a +1 weapon.
Yes it's limited to 1 minute per arcane pool, but few combats last longer than 1 minute, and it's a swift action.
Plus, it can be shifted depending on what you're fighting. Grab a Silver, Adamantine, and Cold Iron weapon of your choice for bypassing DR. Fighting trolls? Pick flaming. Fighting Fire elementals, pick Cold.

That leaves you with tons of extra cash to spend on stuff like armor or nifty magic tricks.


Now, as for damage. The Magus is a lot like 3.5's Duskblade, which means the secret is To channel Touch Attacks. Shocking Grasp is always a favorite, first level spell slot for up to 5d6 on a single attack.
So a Fifth level Magus with, lets say, a +1 Longsword and Str 16 can deal
1d8+6d6+5 on a standard action.
Is that not enough? Lets say you have one round of prep time. Cast Enlarge Person. You take a -1 on attack rolls, but you get a +2 str which cancels that out.
Now you're dealing 8d6+6 as a standard action with that +1 longsword.
but you're worried about tanking? Take another round of prep, hit yourself with a Blur spell, now you've got a 20% miss chance.

Now, I've never been super clear on the rules, but if I understand it.
Spell Combat lets you cast a spell as part of a full attack.
Arcane Chanelling lets you use a weapon attack instead of the free touch attack you get for a Touch spell.

So (And somebody correct me if I'm wrong), our theoretical Duskblade could, having enlarged themselves, make an attack at 3d6+6, then use Spell Combat to cast Shocking Grasp, and Channeling the free touch attack for a second attack dealing 8d6+6.

That's 2 1st level spells, 16 Strength, one round of prep, and a +1 longsword getting you 11d6+12 damage (Math tells me that's about 50 damage on average) at 5th level.

[Zubrowka74]

Don't forget the archetypes. Bladebound basically gives you an enhanted weapon.