Bladecaster POW Opimization

[Nosta]

what is a really good level 20 Build using this?
I want to play a cool Gish with martial abilities and spells

[Tuvarkz]

Magus 6/Harbinger 1/Bladecaster 10, then a level of Harb followed by two of Magus
Take the metamagic-cost reducing trait for Cosmic Ray and Practiced Initiator for traits, tradition into Piercing Thunder, grab the 8th level stance when you can so you end up running +1.5 Int to attack and Int to damage.
Get the x3 and x4 damage Scarlet Throne strikes and get a rapier with the new Versatile Design weapon mod so you make it into a spear or polearm for Piercing Thunder (Adventurer's Armory 2, get a opalescent white pyramid ioun stone for the proficiency without a feat).
Get the arcana that lets you use ranged touch spells as melee touch ones with spellstrike.
Spell Perfection on Cosmic Ray. This lets you unleash a 6th level Empowered Maximized Cosmic Ray for 15d6 maximized times 1.5 for a total of 135 untyped damage.
Your combo wombo is to move in, then use Arcane Assault on that superspell so you chain it into the x4 Strike delivering it through your weapon, then trigger Battlecaster's strike to swift-action launch another Cosmic Ray like the one before and Arcane Assault it with the x3 strike, which about kills most things. Alternatively, if you are already within melee at the start of your turn, bake this in into a Spell Combat to launch those extra iteratives.

[Serafina]

Strikes really shouldn't multiply the damage of the spell, just like they don't benefit from a weapons critical multiplier (spells always have a x2 multiplier).
Granted, that's not strictly needed since you get a ton of damage anyway.

And if you're not using Spell Combat, you might be better off going with a Blade Adept (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/arcanist/archetypes/paizo-arcanist-archetypes/blade-adept) Arcanist. You can still grab Spell Combat there, but get full casting instead of Magus Casting.


If you actually want to use Spell Combat, you can start out with Magus, then grab Boost maneuvers that allow you to move as a swift or immediate action. These can be:
- Piercing Thunder offers Hastened Leap (2nd level, 20 foot move), Repositioning Leap (Counter, 4th level, negate an attack and jump a distance based on acrobatics) and Ligntning Rush (6th lvl, get +30 foot speed and then move your full speed)
- Veiled Moon offers Altered Penumbra (3rd lvl, counter, negate an attack and then teleport 10 feet), Phantom Penumbra (6th level, counter, negate an attack and then teleport 20 feet) and Fade Through (7th, teleport twice your movement speed)
- Shattered Mirror offers various maneuvers that allow you to follow enemies that try to move away from you, and also Mirror Demon Waltz (7th, teleport up to long range as a swift action)
- Mithral Current offers Ride the Wake (2nd, move after drawing a weapon as part of an attack, best for switching between enemies), Disruptive Wave (4th, counter, charge a spellcaster that targets you), Ride the Current (4th, counter, move 10 feet when targeted by an attack), Following Stream (5th, Counter, negate an attack, then move your speed and possibly attack), Endless Current (6th, boost, move 10 foot after each attack for 1 round), Flowing River (7th, counter, just move adjacent to someone attacking you and attack them), Dance of the Silver Hurricane (9th, counter, for 1 round move 10 foot after each attack against you, then get tons of attacks)
- Black Seraph has Unfettered Progression (3rd, move 10 feet, get +2D6 damage on the next attack and ignore DR), which admittedly isn't worth taking the discipline just for that

The trick here would be to use mostly boosts and counters instead of strikes, and use those to get into melee range so that you can use Spell Combat as a full-round action. You can already deal plenty of damage via spell combat. Since you'll be using a lot of counters, I highly recommend taking Chronal Fission from Riven Hourglass for one free counter per round.
Of course, you can still take some strikes to use with Bladecaster maneuvers, but very often your full attack + spell + extra attack will actually out-damage your strikes.

The Magus doesn't really have mobility-problems once they get Bladed Dash, but with this you can basically zip all across the battlefield and dish out full-round attacks at the same time. Swift-action movement of any kind is extremely good for the Magus, and maneuvers can provide just that.
Plus, having lots of counters just makes you a lot more resilient.


Overall, this option will work much better if you actually play the character from low levels - all the Bladecaster features that blend magic and strikes only come online pretty late.
The build here would be: Magus 2, Harbinger 1 (to get Int-to-damage and 2nd-level maneuvers ASAP), Magus 3, Bladecaster X, Magus X. Make sure to grab Practiced Initiator and swap out Cursed Razor for Mithral Current. You'll be able to grab your swift-action movement at third level, and yourfirst fourth-level maneuver at eight level.
If it's allowed, you should join a Spellcaster Guild as described in Inner Sea Magic and get to 35 fame - that'll make up for three lost caster levels, even advancing your spell progression.
Make sure to grab Advanced Study several time to get more and higher-level maneuvers.