Magus Spellstrike/Spell Combat Questions

[Gertak]

If this has been asked before, I apologize. I did do a search on "spellstrike" but came up with no results. I also searched on "spell combat" but it didn't seem to return any relevant results.

In a game I am starting next week I decided to make a staff magus, just because I love the magus and thought it would add some interesting flair. I feel it's going to be a bit weaker with the 20 only crit instead of the 18/19/20 from the scimitar/rapier but figured it was worth trying anyway, as I've always loved the staff as a weapon.

Now to the questions:
Jim the Staff Magus starts the fight 20' from the Hill Giant and has initiative. During his turn he casts shocking grasp and then moves up to the giant. Giant does his thing. Second round Jim attacks with his staff, using full attacks from twf. This works without issue, correct? For a Magus they can touch a weapon, just not anything else, when using spellstrike, correct? Here's the relevant section I pulled that from:

"Can a magus use spellstrike (Ultimate Magic, page 10) to cast a touch spell, move, and make a melee attack with a weapon to deliver the touch spell, all in the same round?

Yes. Other than deploying the spell with a melee weapon attack instead of a melee touch attack, the magus spellstrike ability doesn’t change the normal rules for using touch spells in combat (Core Rulebook 185). So, just like casting a touch spell, a magus could use spellstrike to cast a touch spell, take a move toward an enemy, then (as a free action) make a melee attack with his weapon to deliver the spell.

On a related topic, the magus touching his held weapon doesn’t count as “touching anything or anyone” when determining if he discharges the spell. A magus could even use the spellstrike ability, miss with his melee attack to deliver the spell, be disarmed by an opponent (or drop the weapon voluntarily, for whatever reason), and still be holding the charge in his hand, just like a normal spellcaster. Furthermore, the weaponless magus could pick up a weapon (even that same weapon) with that hand without automatically discharging the spell, and then attempt to use the weapon to deliver the spell. However, if the magus touches anything other than a weapon with that hand (such as retrieving a potion), that discharges the spell as normal.

Basically, the spellstrike gives the magus more options when it comes to delivering touch spells; it’s not supposed to make it more difficult for the magus to use touch spells"


Second question is on spell combat:
The staff magus gets staff mastery for free, allowing him to use the staff 1 handed and thus benefit from spell combat. If he activates spell combat, casts shocking grasp, takes his 5' step, and then attacks is it possible to use his free action to switch to using the staff 2h for his TWF fighting? Or does spell combat assume you keep a free hand throughout that entire round? I know that normally holding a charge from the spell would disperse the spell when touching a weapon, but that doesn't apply for the magus, so just from the consideration of what is allowed.


Last question:
If a staff Magus takes the "Wand Weilder" arcana can he activate it while using his TWF? For example Jim the Magus has a staff of shocking grasp. Can he have the staff held in both hands, activate the staff to cast shocking grasp, and then use his TWF normally?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Malkavian_Andi]

on the first question:
Is there still anything you need to know about that? From what I see, what you postet clarifies it quite well.

on the second question:
Spell Combat works like Two-Weapon fighting, with the off-hand weapon being a spell. Also, the Quarterstaff Master feat says you have to choose whether you want to wield the staff in 1 or 2 hands at the start of your turn. So you can either use normal Two-Weapon Fighting or Spell Combat.
You can, however, cast Shocking Grasp (or any other spell granting a free touch attack), use Spellstrike to deliver it with your quarterstaff (wielded in 1 hand), and then make a regular quarterstaff attack using Spell Combat.

on the third question:
First of all, you'll have to be 10th level to pull something like that off, because that's when the Staff Magus begins treating magic staves as quarterstaves.
You could hold in both hands, then activate it as the off-hand attack of Spell Combat, making an attack with one end of the staff if you activated it to cast Shocking Grasp. Then, you'd attack with one end of the staff as your main hand attack.
But you don't get to cast Shocking grasp, make the free attack, then attack with both ends.

[Gwaihir Scout]

Now to the questions:
Jim the Staff Magus starts the fight 20' from the Hill Giant and has initiative. During his turn he casts shocking grasp and then moves up to the giant. Giant does his thing. Second round Jim attacks with his staff, using full attacks from twf. This works without issue, correct? For a Magus they can touch a weapon, just not anything else, when using spellstrike, correct?

Better to ask these on the Paizo forums, but I'll give it a go. Jim casts shocking grasp and moves up to the giant. The giant has reach and gets an attack of opportunity. If Jim can still move, he continues up next to the giant and gets a free attack as part of casting the melee touch spell that round. Since he's a magus with Spellstrike, he can make that attack with his staff. If he misses or doesn't take the attack, he gets only his normal attacks next round. The first attack that hits discharges shocking grasp. If he casts another melee touch spell that round instead of TWF, he gets another free attack, but if shocking grasp hasn't been discharged yet, he loses it ("it" being shocking grasp).


Second question is on spell combat:
The staff magus gets staff mastery for free, allowing him to use the staff 1 handed and thus benefit from spell combat. If he activates spell combat, casts shocking grasp, takes his 5' step, and then attacks is it possible to use his free action to switch to using the staff 2h for his TWF fighting? Or does spell combat assume you keep a free hand throughout that entire round? I know that normally holding a charge from the spell would disperse the spell when touching a weapon, but that doesn't apply for the magus, so just from the consideration of what is allowed.

I think adding or removing the second hand on the weapon is a free action, so you can cast the spell, grab the weapon with two hands, and swing two-handed. (You cannot do this with a weapon you're using with Weapon Finesse, since it can't be swung with two hands.) The nice thing about having the Quarterstaff Master feat is that it lets you hold a wand in one hand and use the staff with the other to deliver the wand's attacks. Not sure on this; the wording's confusing. As for TWF, it is a full round action, and so cannot be used with Spell Combat. Spell Combat only lets you use all the iterative attacks from one weapon (or one side of a double weapon).


Last question:
If a staff Magus takes the "Wand Weilder" arcana can he activate it while using his TWF? For example Jim the Magus has a staff of shocking grasp. Can he have the staff held in both hands, activate the staff to cast shocking grasp, and then use his TWF normally?

Oh, so that's how you get what I said about the wand in my last answer to work. As for your question, same answer as above, no TWF with spell combat.

[Gertak]

Thank you both for the information. I was afraid that was going to be the case but wanted to make sure. Seems my staff magus is going to be a bit weaker from the combat casting end than I had hoped.

[Malkavian_Andi]

I think adding or removing the second hand on the weapon is a free action, so you can cast the spell, grab the weapon with two hands, and swing two-handed.But that's only true if you're wielding a one-handed melee weapon, because you can't wield a two-handed weapon with 1 hand in combat. And aren't we talking about the quarterstaff?
In the Quarterstaff Master feat, it says you have to decide at the start of your turn whether to wield it as a 1-handed or 2-handed weapon, so I suppose you can't just use a free action to add 1 1/2 your STR-modifier in this case.


(You cannot do this with a weapon you're using with Weapon Finesse, since it can't be swung with two hands.)Are there any wepons other than the rapier that say that? btw, as far as I'm reading the rules for a rapier, it doesn't matter if you're using it with Weapon Finesse or not, you just can't wield it in 2 hands.