Dwarf fighter to magus, dip or switch?

[aglondier]

I am playing a Dwarf level 4 Fighter (foehammer) in a Crimson Throne adventure path, and have been looking for a splash of spellcasting to add flavour. Our DM suggested Magus (deep marshal).
My dwarf, Durigal Thundercask, the lateborn youngest son of a cooper and a blacksmith, has set his eyes on wedding a dwarven princess. Assured by all and sundry that he is in no way worthy of her hand, he has set himself the epic task of becoming a hero of legend. First, delving deep to place a marker far deeper than reasonable (trait: deep marker), and then walking the path of a Foehammer. (fighter 4, dwarven longhammer +8 to hit 2d6+14 damage, reach). Deep Marshal would be an honourable step towards his final goal.

I have seen feat/arcana combos that would let him cast with his longhammer, and sticking with fighter would see some absolutely ridiculous damage rolls later, but my question is: should I just do a brief dip into magus, or leap in whole hog.

[Kurald Galain]

If you want "a splash of spellcasting to add flavour", then you should dip cleric with a good domain or wizard with a good school, so you have a bunch of extra powers and can use wands and scrolls. Maybe a familiar. If wizard, you don't really want combat spells (because of spell failure) but you still have class powers like teleportation or diviner rerolls, and can use downtime/prep spells. Frankly most of my martial characters have a dip of caster for this reason.

If you want "absolutely ridiculous damage rolls later" then you should do a full retrain to Magus, which can do much higher spike damage than the fighter. Obligatory guidebook link (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?423754-Myrrh-Frankincense-and-Steel-Kurald-Galain-s-Guide-to-the-Magus).

[aglondier]

Thanks for the response. I would have been happy with a feat that gave a single cantrip or orison to give me the splash of casting. However, the idea of adding the magus capabilities to the current character fits the character better, even if it doesn't stack up to the optimal magus build. I'm just not sure if 15-16 levels of magus will trump a 2-3 level dip before going back to fighter.

[Gruftzwerg]

Thanks for the response. I would have been happy with a feat that gave a single cantrip or orison to give me the splash of casting. However, the idea of adding the magus capabilities to the current character fits the character better, even if it doesn't stack up to the optimal magus build. I'm just not sure if 15-16 levels of magus will trump a 2-3 level dip before going back to fighter.

If you intend to only dip a lil casting and focus later on pure fighting again, maybe the Hammer of Moradin is an option. Requires 2lvl divine spells to enter but doesn't progress spellcasting and insted gives you special warhammer abilities. It's a nice Dwarf flavored prc, that lets you do a cone Quake attack to force reflex save roll or trip all enemies affected. You get 2x Str mod for using your warhammer 2h and can even throw your hammer (which can be optimized further if that is appealing to you).