Magus tips? (I.E. Tear into my build, please)

[Orsyn]

So I've been working on this magus for a few days, and was hoping I could get the playground's thoughts on what I've got/where to go.



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Feats
Class Features


1st
Magus
+0
Racial Heritage (Gnome), Weapon Finesse
Weapon Focus (Scimitar), Canny Defense, Arcane Pool, Spell Combat


2nd
Magus
+1

Spellstrike


3rd
Magus
+2
Dervish Dance
Black Blade


4th
Monk
+2
Kirin Style
Unarmed Strike, Fuse Style, Stunning Fist


5th
Monk
+3
Dodge, Kirin Strike
Toughness, Natural Armor +1


6th
Monk
+4

Fast Movement +10', Maneuver Training, Ki Mystic


7th
Magus
+5
Crane Style
Perfect Strike


8th
Magus
+5
Crane Wing



9th
Magus
+6/+1
Lunge
Ki Arcana


(I used a modified Iron Chef table because it's convenient >.>)

I had a little fun seeing how many archetypes I could cram into this, and I feel I've got some decent synergies. The archetypes used are Kensai and Bladebound for Magus, then Ki Mystic, Master of Many Styles, and Monk of the Sacred Mountain for monk.

Pros:

Lack of weapon/armor reliance means more money for other gear.
Know ALL THE MONSTERS
Brilliant Energy makes me a jedi >.>

Cons:

I've slowed down my BAB progression a little compared to a pure Magus
Loss of Spell Recall and delayed casting progression means that extra gold will be going toward Pearls of Power >.>
The word "Synthesist" will probably get a book thrown at me at my table

As an additional thought, my DM -really- wants to see a wordcaster in play. How do you all think this would work in tandem with my build?

Thanks for taking a look! :smallbiggrin:

[Elricaltovilla]

Don't multiclass a magus. Especially with monk. Pathfinder as a system is very against multiclassing.

Just stick with Bladebound Kensai Magus. You're entirely DEX and INT focused, and you don't have to spend any money on the two most expensive pieces of equipment an adventurer has: Weapon and Armor.

Brilliant Energy is not very good, its completely useless against undead or constructs.

Kirin Style is a trap feat chain for Magi, because you only get the damage bonus if you spend a swift action. You need your swift action for your magus abilities.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Don't multiclass a magus. Especially with monk. Pathfinder as a system is very against multiclassing.

Just stick with Bladebound Kensai Magus. You're entirely DEX and INT focused, and you don't have to spend any money on the two most expensive pieces of equipment an adventurer has: Weapon and Armor.

Brilliant Energy is not very good, its completely useless against undead or constructs.

Kirin Style is a trap feat chain for Magi, because you only get the damage bonus if you spend a swift action. You need your swift action for your magus abilities.

Everything here.

Also, you should NEVER need more than two levels of Monk to get two good style feats. You just need to space those levels out so each time you take the monk level, you have the pre-reqs for the base style feat and then take the Monk level at an odd level (so you can use your general feat on the base style, and take the higher up one via Monk). That said....none of the styles are good for Magus* anymore. The only decent one for him, Crane, got nerfed into the ground to uselessness. Unless you're using it without the errata.
*Snake Fang is still awesome, but the AoOs are all unarmed so for you it wouldn't be that good.

[Orsyn]

Don't multiclass a magus. Especially with monk. Pathfinder as a system is very against multiclassing.

Just stick with Bladebound Kensai Magus. You're entirely DEX and INT focused, and you don't have to spend any money on the two most expensive pieces of equipment an adventurer has: Weapon and Armor.

I understand the sentiment behind your first statement; it's one I see a lot on these boards, and I generally agree that yes, Pathfinder devs don't particularly encourage multiclassing. However, in this instance I don't honestly believe I'll miss the abilities I'll miss out on by multiclassing for a few levels. Additionally, the particular setting that this character will be in places him as a member of a monastic order. And, honestly, I -enjoy- multiclassing. Having been primarily a 3.5 player before trying PF, one of the things that attracted me to it the most was that you aren't explicitly penalized for it.

I suppose my chart does suffer from not displaying ability scores; I'm not focused in Monk stats, I'm strictly dex and int, and require simply a +1 wisdom modifier, which is fairly easy to get.



Brilliant Energy is not very good, its completely useless against undead or constructs.


I know. That was more of a joke, though I like the versatility that it provides nonetheless.



Kirin Style is a trap feat chain for Magi, because you only get the damage bonus if you spend a swift action. You need your swift action for your magus abilities.
Which swift action powers do you recommend, outside of the obvious Arcane Pool weapon buffs? I browsed the Magus Arcana and saw that a few of them require swift actions, but as a whole I didn't see needing a lot of swift actions.


Everything here.

Also, you should NEVER need more than two levels of Monk to get two good style feats. You just need to space those levels out so each time you take the monk level, you have the pre-reqs for the base style feat and then take the Monk level at an odd level (so you can use your general feat on the base style, and take the higher up one via Monk).
The third level of monk is optional here. I liked it for the Ki Mystic ability, which I felt granted a significant amount of versatility combined with the Magus' Ki Arcana, and in my mind, a Magus is entirely about versatility.



The only decent one for him, Crane, got nerfed into the ground to uselessness. Unless you're using it without the errata.
*Snake Fang is still awesome, but the AoOs are all unarmed so for you it wouldn't be that good.
I wasn't aware that Crane stance had been nerfed. I just started playing PF a month or so ago, but from looking at it, the stance line seems solid enough from my perspective, barring potentially Crane Riposte.

Thank you both for the input! :smallsmile:

[StreamOfTheSky]

The stance is unchanged, but is not worth using on its own. Even at a -2 to hit for +4 AC ratio, it's not worth the loss to attack, especially when you're taking -2 for spell combat already and have a (multiclassed!) medium BAB progression.

What got nerfed is Crane Wing, the reason people took the stance. And in turn, it had the amazing effect of making Crane Riposte's bonus attack not work by RAW. But Wing is the one people cared about and it's the one that got nerfed. I hope you weren't taking Crane just for the stance.

If you do keep the monk levels, consider Tiger Style. The style feat and the 2nd feat in the chain utterly suck, but if you take the base style and use monk to skip the 2nd feat you can go right for Tiger Pounce which is good. Not actually pounce sadly, but still good.