[PF] Dex magus core only

[kabreras]

Hello playground,

I plan to play a level 7 magus goblin in PF, but we are limited to core (+UM +UC) only so no dervish dance.

Any hint on how to make it work ?

[Kudaku]

Dex-based magus is still playable without dervish dance, just not quite all that it could be. You'll be relying more on spells to do damage than you normally would, but at 7th level you'll have plenty of spell slots anyway.

I realize you said core+UC+UM but is there any way you'd be able to get a hold of the Agile enhancement? It's a +1 weapon enhancement that grants dexterity to damage with a melee finesse weapon. A +1 agile rapier or the like would help your character concept out a lot. It's available for perusal on PFSRD.COM - id put up a hyperlink but I'm not typing this up at the pc at the moment.

Other than that your build will be fairly unsurprising. Weapon finesse is obviously good, consider intensify spell and so on.

Edit: Dang, Intensify Spell is from APG. Disregard that.

[BWR]

If you can wrangle it out of your GM, think about picking up Intensified Spell (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/advancedFeats.html#_intensified-spell). Not all that useful at 7th level, but afte that it quickly becomes very useful. The magus in my group spams Intensified Shocking Grasp all over the place. Get that with a high-crit range weapon like a rapier (arcana pool for Keen is a no brainer) and you will be dealing a lot of damage.

[Talieth]

You can go for a Whip Magus :

if you can, use the alternate racial trait : Hard Head Big Teeth : Give you a bite attack (1d4)

Trait 1 : Prehensile Whip
Trait 2 : I would go for Bouncy ... but i guess Magical Lineage (shocking grasp) is standard on magus

Kensai build
1 : (kensai) Exotic Weapon proficiency (Whip)
1 : (kensai) Weapon Focus (Whip)
1 : Weapon Finesse
3 : Whip Mastery (no AA for attacking with you whip, can do lethal damage to all)
5 : Roll With It : transform damage from melee attack into movement : 1 damage = 1 feet ... you take 1d4 damage from this movement (see with your DM if this go with the Bouncy trait...)
5 : (kensai) Arcane Strike
7 : Improved Whip Mastery

If you begin play at level 7, then you have a 15-foot reach weapon that threaten at 10-foot, can attack adjacent ennemies with no AA ... from there, the Combat Reflex feat is good (you can take it at lvl5 in place of Roll With It.


Normal Magus build
1 : Weapon Finesse (use a liht weapon until lvl3 ...)
3 : Exotic Weapon proficiency (Whip)
5 : (kensai) Weapon Focus (Whip)
5 : Whip Mastery
7 : Improved Whip Mastery

Same as before, but you loose 2 feats, and retain Light Armor, and no diminished spellcasting.
Until you got Whip mastery, use your whip when ennemy is not close, and bite them (Hard Head Big Teeth) when they are !