Magus Handbook: PF2 Class Guide

Introduction

Following the tradition established by DnD 3.5’s Duskblade, the Magus is a medium-armored hybrid martial caster. Their signature feature, Spellstrike, allows you to deliver spells at the end of a weapon, combining the damage of your weapon with the damage of a spell. However, in exchange for this exceptional martial capability you give up much of the versatility and magical might of a typical spellcaster.

With a huge amount of damage output, the Magus is a natural Striker. They lack the built-in durability and “stickiness” of a Defender, but with the right subclass and if you take the Attack of Opportunity feat, you can come to class to matching the Fighter’s capacity as a Defender. The Magus needs high Intelligence to back up their spells, so the Magus also makes a natural Scholar, covering the party’s need for knowledge skills. Depending on your build you could also serve as a Scout, but the Magus won’t match a rogue and the Magus doesn’t have the Wizard’s magic to fill the gap. Your limited spellcasting also means that you’re not an effective support or utility caster, so the Magus fills a role similar to the Fighter, but without the Fighter’s durability.

The Magus’s spellcasting is extremely unusual. You prepare spells from aspellbook just like a wizard, but you have at most 4 regular spell slots (notcounting Focus Spells), split between the two highest-level spells you cancast. In a way, this feels similar to DnD 5e’s Warlock. The Magus also gets afew lower-level slots from Studious Spells which can be used for a handful ofspecific buff spells, but these are few in number and limited in scope. TheMagus also never gets 10th-level spells.

Because leveled spells present an opportunity for a big power spike, theMagus benefits greatly from additional sources of spell slots. Archetypes,scrolls, and staves are all extremely useful for the Magus.

You may also find these supporting articles helpful:

Magus Hybrid Study Breakdown
Arcane Spell List Breakdown

Introduction
Disclaimer
Magus Class Features
Magus Ability Scores
- Strength-Based
- Dexterity-Based
Ancestries
Backgrounds
Magus Skills and Skill Feats
- Magus General Skill Feats
Magus Feats
- Class Feats
  - 1st Level
  - 2nd Level
  - 4th Level
  - 6th Level
  - 8th Level
  - 10th Level
  - 12th Level
  - 14th Level
  - 16th Level
  - 18th Level
  - 20th Level
- General Feats
Magus Weapons
Magus Armor
Magus Focus Spells – Conflux Spells
- 1st-Level Spells
- 3rd-Level Spells
- 4th-Level Spells
- 7th-Level Spells
Archetypes

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Magus Class Features

Key Ability: Strength or Dexterity. For a martial classthat’s perfect.

Hit Points: 8+ won’t compete with durablefront-line martials like the Fighter.

Proficiencies: Your proficiencies aren’t asimpressive as the Fighter’s, but you make up for it with magic.

Perception: Below average Perception,and with little dependence on Wisdom your Perception will likely bepoor.
Saving Throws: Good Fortitude and Willsaves, middling Reflex saves. Dexterity-based builds will have excellentsaves across the board.
Skills: 3+ skills from your class atfirst level and standard increase progression. With high Intelligence youshould start with plenty of Trained skills.
Attacks: Simple and Martial weapons, andtypical proficiency progression for martial classes like the Barbarian andthe Ranger, but you don’t get weapon critical specialization effects from theMagus.
Defenses: Only up to medium armor, butyour proficiency progression is as good as the Fighter, placing you amongthe best in the game. You never get armor specialization effects.
Spell DC: Your spellcasting proficiency won’t increase asquickly as the Wizard’s. You also don’t have a class DC to use as a basisfor Weapon Critical Specialization Effects, so if you find a way to getaccess to them, you’ll need to stick to weapontypes that don’t allow a save.

Arcane Spellcasting: Similar to the Wizard, the Magus uses the Arcane spell list, and they are prepared spellcasters so you need to prepare a spell in each of your spell slots during your Daily Preparations. However, the Magus’s spell slots work very differently from other classes. Rather than accumulating a growing number of slots across your full range of spell levels, the Magus maxes out at 4 spell slots of two spell levels (not counting Studious Spells).

Heightened Spells: Heightening spells is an importantmechanic in Pathfinder 2e. Many important spells scale with spell level, allowingthem to stay relevant long after you first learned them. Since the Magusdoesn’t use a Spell Repertoire, you only need to learn a spell once, thenyou can prepare it at any level that you can cast.
Cantrips: The Magus can prepare 5cantrips, and they start with 10 in their spellbook so you have lots of roomto customize your arsenal every day. Cantrips will do a lot of work withSpellstrike, so cantrips are a much more central part of your spellcastingthan they are for most spellcasters.
Spellbook: Your spellbook is your mostvaluable possession. Guard it jealously; if you lose it, you’ll be unable toprepare spells. You don’t need to hoard new spells quite like a wizard does,but you likely still want to learn more spells than what you get forfree.

Spellstrike: Spellstrike is the Magus’scentral feature, and much of how you build your character will be to get themost out of Spellstrike. To briefly summarize: you cast a spell and hit your target with a weapon in order to deliver the spell, combining the damage of both. If you choose to ignore Spellstrike, you’re basicallyjust a disappointing fighter.

Because Spellstrike is so central to the class, let’s really dig into how it works and how it fits into playing the class. Understanding the action economy, the recharge mechanics, and how Spellstrike works with your spells will make you much more effective. The book draws attention to this issue in the “Combining Your Abilities” sidebar, and you know it’s complicated when the rules text gives you hints on tactics.

Using Spellstrike is a 2-Action activity. It typically uses your melee reach,but Starlit Span offers ranged weapons as an option. Using Spellstrike countsas two attacks for your Multiple Attack Penalty, so making additional strikesin the same turn is generally both difficult and ineffective. If you score acritical hit, you score a critical hit with both the weapon attack and thespell. Of course, that also means that it’s very “hit or miss” and sinceyou’re unlikely to make additional strikes in the same turn youreally need Spellstrike to hit.

Your choice of spell is crucial, and you want to have enough options available to cover whatever you might face. That’s hard to do with at most 4 spell slots, so you need to lean heavily on your cantrips. You’re limited to spells which make spell attacks, but some class feats can expand that and we’ll discuss tactics in the assessments for those feats. Gouging Claw (published in Secrets of Magic (affiliate link)) is your go-to option, providing good damage, good scaling, and an excellent critical hit effect. If you use anything else with Spellstrike it needs to beat Gouging Claw to justify consideration.

Recharging Spellstrike is easily the most challenging part of playing theMagus. You want to use Spellstrike as often as possible, but you need to dosomething to recharge it after each use, and this will typically requirespending an Action of some kind. You can just spend an Action to recharge, butthat effectively turns Spellstrike into a 3-Action activity, and whileSpellstrike is really good, that’s a steep action cost. More likely, you’llrecharge it by casting a Conflux Spell (the Magus’s Focus Spells). The optionsin Secrets of Magic all cost one Action, so you can reliably use them at noextra Action cost in order to recharge. You can also recharge with certainclass feats, including Magus’s Analysis and Rapid Recharge. These options areimportant because your Focus Pool is limited in size, so you may not haveenough Focus Points to keep recharging.

Positioning is an immediate problem for the Magus. The 2-Action cost plus the Action cost to recharge means that you typically can’t move, recharge, and use Spellstrike on the same turn. Generally that means that you can expect to use Spellstrike once every other turn unless you’re using the Starlit Span Hybrid Study so that you can attack at range. Using Reach weapons can mitigate this somewhat, as can the Laughing Shadow’s Dimensional Assault. But for everyone else, if you need to move to get to a new target you likely need to give up Spellstrike for a turn.

Magus Ability Scores

Strength-Based

Inexorable Iron and Twisting Tree builds will typically need to beStrength-based, though there are a few two-handed Finesse weapons soInexorable Iron can be built around Dexterity.

Str: Your key ability score.

Dex: You need 12 to fill out medium armor,but that’s all.

Con: Fortitude saves and hit points.

Int: Powers your spellcasting to somedegree, but since you’re delivering spells at the end of a weapon attack youtypically don’t need your spellcasting ability to be as high as a full caster.However, if you plan to rely on spells that you can’t put behind an attackroll (fireball, etc.) you still need the Intelligence to back it up.

Wis: Will saves, Perception, Nature, andReligion. If you’re planning to rely on Raise a Tome, you’ll need a bit ofthis, but make sure you get your Dexterity to 12 first.

Cha: Dump.

Dexterity-Based

If you plan to use Finesse weapons or fight at range, build aroundDexterity.

Str: If you’re going to fight in melee oruse a Propulsive weapon, you want a little bit for the extra damage, but yourdamage output comes primarily from Spellstrike, so don’t strain yourself toget one or two more points of damage from your Strength.

Dex: Your key ability score.

Con: Fortitude saves and hit points.

Wis: Will saves, Perception, Nature, andReligion. If you’re planning to rely on Raise a Tome, you’ll need a bit ofthis, but make sure you get your Dexterity to 12 first.

Cha: Generally this is your dump stat, butthe Laughing Shadow needs a bit to support feinting.

Ancestries

Your choice of Ancestry is frequently a very important build for manyclasses, but for the Magus it can often be an absolutely defining builddecision. Because the Magus can be built around either Strength or Dexterity,whichever of the two is easier to boost is one in a series of benefits whichcan greatly influence your build. Avoid Intelligence Flaws, but otherwise youcan do fine with many races.

For a magus planning to fight unarmed, look for an Ancestry that can get you a better unarmed attack or consider a Versatile Heritage which can get you one, such as the Changeling’s Hag Claws ancestry feat. The Arcane Fist class feat is the Magus’s only built-in option if you want to fight unarmed, and it is outright inferior to whatever option you can get from your Ancestry.

For a magus planning to use a weapon, weapon familiarity feats are a greatchoice. The Magus doesn’t get access to Critical Specialization Effects (withthe exception of the Student of the Staff class feat), so getting it from yourAncestry is helpful. Unfortunately that does limit you to a small set ofweapons, but those weapons are often very good. When considering what weaponsto use, be sure to consider the advice under Magus Weapons, below.

Access to innate spellcasting from your Ancestry can also be very helpful. While the Magus can prepare as many cantrips as other spellcasters and gets access to the Cantrip Expansion feat, your limited pool of spell slots means that you don’t have as many magic options as most spellcasters. Adding an extra cantrip or a leveled buff spell can expand your options significantly. However, remember that innate spells are typically Charisma-based, so you don’t want anything that cares about a spell attack or a saving throw. Stick to utility spells, buffs, and defensive options.

Catfolk^APG: Use the Optional Flaw rule to dump Charisma in exchange for another Boostso that you can boost Dex/Con/Int. Catfolk Weapon Familiarity can get youaccess to the Whip Claw, and you can get a good natural weapon from either theClawed Catfolk Heritage or from Saberteeth if you want to build an unarmedmagus. Catfolk Weapon Rake gets you Critical Specialization Effects, but theBrawling category (which is typically what you use for unarmed strikes,including the Catfolk’s claws/teeth) relies on your Class DC, and the Magusdoesn’t have one. In many ways, the Catfolk’s options resemble worse versionsof the Gnome’s, with the exception of unarmed strikes.

Dwarf^CRB: With high ancestry hit points and Mountain’s Stoutness, the Dwarf is verydurable, making them a great option for front-line builds like Inexorable Ironand Sparkling Targe. Dwarven Weapon Cunning gets you access to criticalspecialization effects with a few weapons, but your only two-handed option isthe Dwarven Waraxe, so Inexorable Iron’s options aren’t fantastic. Considerusing the Optional Flaw rule to dump Wisdom in exchange for an IntelligenceBoost.

Elf^CRB: Dex and Int boosts are great, but low ancestry hp and a Constitution Flawmake melee builds hard, so you’re likely going to stick to Starlit Span anduse a bow. You can take Elven Weapon Familiarity to get access to the ElvenBranched Spear, which is a bit like an upgraded whip, but melee is still hard.Elven Weapon Elegance offers access to critical specialization effects withbows and elven weapons, so if you went either route you’re in good shape.

Gnome^CRB: Use the Optional Flaw rule to dump Charisma in exchange for another Boostso that you can boost Dex/Con/Int. Gnome Weapon Familiarity is hard becauseall of your best weapon options are Strength-based and the Gnome has aStrength Flaw which is too costly to reverse. Instead, build around Dexterityand look at other feat options. The Wellspring Gnome Heritage and First WorldMagician both get you additional cantrips, Animal Accomplice gets you afamiliar, and eventually First World Adept can get you some additional innatespells.

Goblin^CRB: The Goblin offers surprisingly little. Goblin Weapon Familiarity gets youaccess to the Dogslicer, which is mildly useful for the Laughing Shadow, butnot so good that it makes a big difference. Burn It! can make Produce Flame amore effective go-to cantrip for Spellstrike, but Gouging Claw will still bemore effective since fire damage resistance is so common.

Halfling^CRB: Use the Optional Flaw rule to dump Charisma in exchange for another Boostso that you can boost Dex/Con/Int. Halfling Weapon Trickster gets you CriticalSpecialization Effects with the Shortsword and the Sling Staff, but the SlingStaff relies on your class DC, and the Magus doesn’t have one. Thatessentially limits you to the shortsword, and there’s little else from thehalfling the that’s directly helpful for the Magus.

Human^CRB: Fantastic and versatile. Natural Ambition can get you access to another ofthe Magus’s excellent 1st-level feats, and Unconventional Weaponry can get youaccess to cool weapons like the Gnome Flickmace. Unfortunately, the Humandoesn’t offer much beyond their 1st-level Ancestry Feats.

Kobold^APG: The Kobold’s boosts and flaws strongly resemble that of the Elf, and likethe Elf, your best bet is to fight at range. You don’t get any good weaponoptions with Kobold Weapon Familiarity, so stick to generally useful optionslike Grovel and Cower. Eventually, you can get Dracomancer. Spellscale Koboldcan get you an extra cantrip and Strongjaw Kobold can get you an unarmedstrike. The Kobold Breath feat tree is tempting, but too hard to fit into youraction economy consistently.

Orc^APG: Very similar to the Dwarf for the Magus’s purposes. Decent for aStrength-based melee build. Tusks can get you a better unarmed strike, butBloody Blows is redundant with Gouging Claw so it’s not worth the feat. OrcWeapon Familiarity can get you the Butchering Axe and Orc Weapon Carnage canget you Critical Specialization Effects with it.

Ratfolk^APG: Perfect boosts for a Dexterity-based build, but not a lot of featoptions.

Tengu^APG: Great boosts, and you can use the Optional Flaw rule to get a third if youwant it. Tengu Weapon Familiarity gets you access to the Katana and the TempleSword, though neither is significantly better than the Longsword or theRapier. You do get to pick two other swords, but that won’t get you anythingthat the Magus doesn’t get anyway. Tengu Weapon Study gets you CriticalSpecialization Effects, including the two additional swords which youpicked with Tengu Weapon Familiarity, so you can get it with the Longswordand/or the Rapier. The Dogtooth Tengu Heritage and Dogfang Bite give you anunusually effective unarmed strike.

Backgrounds

You generally want boosts to your Key Ability Score (Strength or Dexterity)and either Constitution or Intelligence.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

Academy Dropout^SoM
Scholar^CRB
Student of Magic^SoM

Magus Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

Acrobatics (Dex): Only situationallyuseful until you learn to fly, and even then it’s likely enough to beTrained.
Arcana (Int): If you plan to use Magus’Analysis, this is absolutely essential.
- Arcane Sense^CRB: Save yourself a cantrip.
- Unified Theory^CRB: Save yourself the trouble of increasing Occultism, Nature, andReligion, plus you get to use your Intelligence modifier and whateverelse you’ve done to optimize your Arcana modifier (items, etc.).
Athletics (Str): Even if you’re builtaround Strength, Athletics can be a hard choice. The Magus’ action economyis already challenging, and spending actions to grab or shove creatures ishard to justify. You might be Trained for stuff like climbing and jumping,but don’t expect to use this in combat.
Crafting (Int): You have the Intelligenceto make Crafting very effective. If you’re going for Sparkling Targe, thisis essential for repairing your shield/book/shieldbook/bookshield.
Deception (Cha): Charisma is the Magus’only safe dump stat, but the Laughing Shadow relies on Feint, so if you’re aLaughing Shadow you need Charisma and you need to invest in Deception.Unfortunately, Distracting Spellstrike doesn’t benefit from anything thatimproves the effects of Feint, so there’s no unique benefits to investing inDeception skill feats.
Diplomacy (Cha): Charisma is the Magus’only safe dump stat.
Intimidation (Cha): Charisma is the Magus’only safe dump stat.
Lore (Int): Too vague, too specific, toonumerous.
Medicine (Wis): Someone in your partyneeds it, but hopefully that someone has more Wisdom than you.
Nature (Wis): Essential if you plan touse Magus’ Analysis.
Occultism (Int): Essential if you plan touse Magus’ Analysis, and you have the Intelligence to make it work, so evenif you’re not using Magus’ Analysis you should strongly consider at leastbeing Trained.
Performance (Cha): Charisma is the Magus’only safe dump stat.
Religion (Wis): Essential if you plan touse Magus’ Analysis.
Society (Int): The closest you’ll get toa social skill.
Stealth (Dex): If you’re built aroundDexterity you can be good at Stealth.
Survival (Wis): Too situational.
Thievery (Dex): Someone in your partyneeds to be good at this, and if you’re built around Dexterity you’re adecent candidate.

Magus General Skill Feats

Recognize Spell^CRB: If you plan to use Magus’ Analysis, you already have all the skills thatyou need to support this. Even if you don’t use Magus’ Analysis, beingTrained in each of the four relevant skills is easily achievable.

Magus Feats

Class Feats

1st Level

Arcane Fists^SoM: Get natural weapons from your race. They’ll almost certainly be moreeffective than this.
Familiar^SoM: Familiars are awesome, but the Magus doesn’t have space in their actioneconomy to spend actions commanding their familiar.
Magus’s Analysis^SoM: This is good, but it’s a gamble. If you fail the check, your action iswasted. You need to invest skill increases in arcana, nature, occultism, andreligion to make sure that you can always use this, and even then you can’tguarantee success. If it works, this is certainly better than just spendingan action to recharge Spellstrike, but the fact that you can fail shouldheavily influence your decision.
Raise a Tome^SoM: The stats for your book match those of a wooden shield, and while that’sfine at low levels it won’t scale.
Do not use your spellbook for this.DO NOT USE YOUR SPELLBOOK FOR THIS.

2nd Level

Cantrip Expansion^SoM: More cantrips means more options to combine with Spellstrike. Notessential, but an easy go-to option.
Enhanced Familiar^SoM: Making your familiar better won’t solve your action economy problems.
Expansive Spellstrike^SoM: The Magus’ best option for handling crowds, and this allows you to expandyour spell options beyond buffs and spells which make attack rolls. Beextremely cautious about bursts unless you’re using the Starlit Span HybridStudy because bursts will frequently include you in their area, and don’t use spells that target a number of creatures (unless that number is one) because you only get to target one creaturewith your Spellstrike. And remember that your save DC won’t match a real wizard.
The interaction with Reach weapons and with Starlit Span is odd. You getto pick any square adjacent to the target as the origin point forcones/lines, so you’re free to make those AOEs point in weird directionslike straight back toward you.
Force Fang^SoM: Increasing your Focus Pool size means that you can use Conflux Spells torecharge Spell Strike more often. Force Fang is also a decent spell, so ifyour Hybrid Study’s Conflux Spell isn’t working for you, Force Fang is easyto fit into any build.
Spell Parry^SoM: You need a free hand, which means that this is mostly for LaughingShadow. The +1 bonus is consistently useful, but I don’t know if it’s goodenough for the feat and action costs. It’s almost certainly better thanusing a weapon with Parry, but you can also learn the Shield spell which hasthe same Action cost. Sure, a Parry weapon and the Shield spell won’t giveyou a +1 to saves against spells targeting you, but you need to weigh thoseopportunity costs.
Spirit Sheath^SoM: Too situational.

4th Level

Devastating Spellstrike^SoM (Inexorable Iron): This isn’t a lot of damage, but it’s guaranteed damage with no saveagainst an unlimited number of possible targets, and it specifically only affects foes, so you can easily drop this on enemies even if they’re in melee with one of your allies. You can also use spells which deal splash damage (Acid Splash, etc.) and the splash damage from the spell is added to the splash damage and applied with no save.Your enemieswill likely figure this out quickly and stop clustering together, but if you’re being swarmed in melee that might be exactly what you want..
Distracting Spellstrike^SoM (Laughing Shadow): Feint can make your target Flat-Footed, which reduces their AC by 2,which has a 1 in 5 chance of increasing your degree of success. This doesn’tadd any extra Action cost, it doesn’t require complex tactical thinking, andas long as you can invest a bit in Deception this can be consistentlyuseful.
Emergency Targe^SoM (Sparkling Targe): Since this consumes your Reaction you can’t use Shield Block, buthonestly that’s fine. Fitting in the Action to Raise a Shield can bedifficult for the Magus, and this dramatically reduces that tax on youraction economy. The circ*mstance bonus applies to the triggering attack, soyou have a 1 in 5 chance to reduce the attack’s degree of success,potentially negating a hit or turning a critical hit into a regular hit.You’re still using the Raise a Shield action, so the bonus stays in placeuntil your turn just as if you had used Raise a Shield on your own turn.
Starlit Eyes^SoM (Starlit Span): Unless your DM really likes to use Concealment, Shooting Starshould be sufficient.
Steady Spellcasting^SoM: Not reliable enough. If you make this check you have a 3 in 10 chance ofsuccess.
Striker’s Scroll^SoM: A great way to get some extra leveled spells to use with Spellstrike,provided that you can pay the cost to buy or craft enough scrolls to keepthis useful. You also need to strike a balance between spending too muchmoney and conserving your scrolls to the point that you shouldn’t have takenthe feat. If you’re the sort of person who hoards consumable items to theend of a video game, skip this.
Student of the Staff^SoM (Twisting Tree): Crucial for Twisting Tree. A magic staff is a great source of additionalleveled spells, allowing you to perform those big power spikes more oftenand to expand your available pool of leveled spells. The challenge you wouldnormally run into is that you need to hold the staff to use it, and holdinga staff in each hand is going to become a problem which this neatly solves.You also get critical specialization effects, which the Magus normally can’tdo, and you add Deadly d6 to your staff. This feat is reallygood.

6th Level

Attack of Opportunity^SoM: Excellent on any melee character.
Cascade Countermeasure^SoM: See Magus Focus Spells.
Knowledge is Power^SoM: This is a good improvement if you plan to use Magus’ Analysis, butotherwise I wouldn’t bother. Tracking the effect of the feat is massivelyannoying since it provides three distinct single-use benefits to each memberof your entire party.
Shielded Tome^SoM: Ask yourself “why do I need to have a book in my hand?” and “is thatimportant enough that I have now spent two class feats for this novelty?”and then email me if you have a good answer because I haven’t come up withone.

8th Level

Capture Magic^SoM: You want to get into Arcane Cascade as quickly as possible in combat, sounless you get hit with a spell before your first turn, the only consistentbenefit is the +2 damage bonus which you’re likely only going to apply onceeach time you activate this.
Fused Staff^SoM: Staffs are a great way for the Magus to get additional leveled spells, andTwisted Tree has had a monopoly on using magic staffs until this point.
Runic Impression^SoM: See Magus Focus Spells.
Spell Swipe^SoM: 3 actions, melee only, the targets need to be adjacent, and if you use aregular Spellstrike with an attack spell, it still only affects one target.In most cases, this is just an extra Strike against another creature and youdon’t apply the Multiple Attack Penalty until this 3-Action activity isdone, at which point your turn is probably over. This is good if you canmake it work, but it’s very difficult to set up.
Standby Spell^SoM: Buy a scroll or a magic staff if you want to have more options for whatspells you can cast in a day.

10th Level

Cascading Ray^SoM: A decent way to get some extra damage, but the action economy may behard. The damage is similar to many cantrips which take 2 Actions tocast.
Dazzling Block^SoM (Sparkling Targe): Amazing crowd control. You should work to use this as much aspossible.
Dimensional Disappearance^SoM (Laughing Shadow): Use Spellstrike, then use Dimensional Assault to teleport and turninvisible. On your next turn, use Dimensional Assault again while you’reinvisible. Repeat until you run out of Focus Points or your target moves andyou need to walk around.
Lunging Spellstrike^SoM (Twisting Tree): Not always useful, but this could easily save you some actions spentmoving, and if you have a magic staff you likely have plenty of suitablespells to trigger this.
Meteoric Spellstrike^SoM (Starlit Span): The damage is too small and having creatures between you and the targetmeans that your target likely has cover.
Rapid Recharge^SoM: Helpful, but once per day isn’t going to suddenly solve all of yourproblems.
Sustaining Steel^SoM (Inexorable Iron): Not a lot of healing considering that the Magus gets so few spellslots.

12th Level

Conflux Focus^SoM: Using Conflux Spells to recharge your Spellstrike is a central tactic, sothis is crucial to remaining effective throughout an adventuring day.
Magic Sense^SoM: Neat, but you can get Detect Magic from the Arcane Sense trait and thevast majority of magical things can wait to be scrutinized until aftercombat. I think the intent here is to help you find magically concealedenemies, but that’s too situational to justify the feat.
Overwhelming Spellstrike^SoM: Since the Magus has so few spell slots, simply choosing to use adifferent spell to get around resistances isn’t always a choice. GougingClaw deals slashing damage and persistent bleed, so those are fine, but foryour leveled spells this is great.

14th Level

Arcane Shroud^SoM: You’re going to use Arcane Cascade anyway, and this gets you some moremileage out of that Action to activate the stance. Many of the spells are very good, butcoordinating the spell you cast to trigger this will take some effort. It’snot stated, but I assume that you get the benefits of these spells at theirlowest level.
Hasted Assault^SoM: See Magus Focus Spells.
Preternatural Parry^SoM: Broadly and consistently useful. With a +2 bonus you have a 20% of chanceof moving the effect’s degree of success in your favor, which is huge. Thiswill compete for space with Shield Block, but that only matters if you’reusing a shield, which most magi don’t do.

16th Level

Dispelling Spellstrike^SoM: The action economy on this is objectively hard. If you’re not usingStarlit Span, you likely need to start your turn in melee with your targetand also have Spellstrike charged. Provided you meet those conditions, thecounteract effect is on top of your normal Spellstrike, so you’reessentially adding one action to also try to counteract a spell. I’m notsure how you pick which spell to counteract, but that’s a discussion foryour GM.
Outside of combat, this is dispel magic for free as often as you want. Isthere a spell protecting a door you need to get through? Grab a weapon andhit it until it falls down. The counteract effect is as good asheightening Dispel Magic to the highest level spell you can cast (possiblyhigher since it can hit 10th level, but the Magus doesn’t get 10th-levelspells).
Resounding Cascade^SoM: The damage is decent since by this level your allies will have weaponexpertise of some variety, but the 5-foot radius on the aura makes it verydifficult to keep allies in the aura.

18th Level

Conflux Wellspring^SoM: Considering that Conflux Spells are among your best choices forrecharging Spellstrike, you really want to be able to recharge all of yourFocus Points.
Versatile Spellstrike^SoM: The versatility is nice, but not always necessary, and the cost issteep.

20th Level

Supreme Spellstrike^SoM: Solving the need to recharge your Spellstrike leaves that action open forthings like moving, which goes a long way to address the Magus’stightly-constrained action economy.
Whirlwind Spell^SoM: In encounters with multiple enemies, this can be a great way to handlecrowds. Of course, you can also cast Fireball, which is considerably easierand less costly than spending your 20th-level feat for a tactic which isn’talways usable.

General Feats

Toughness^CRB: 8+ hit points can be hard for a class that’s almostly exclusively builtfor melee.

Magus Weapons

The Magus relies heavily on Spellstrike for damage output and for interacting with their class feats. As such, the use of Spellstrike greatly determines both your action economy and your best weapon options. Most importantly: expect to spend most rounds in combat devoting two Actions to a single Spellstrike, and any further attacks are made at the maximum Multiple Attack Penalty, and choose your weaponry around that assumption.

Because making multiple attacks in one turn is such a rarity for the Magus, weapons that make doing so easier or more beneficial are less useful. Weapons with the Agile, Backswing, Forceful, and Swipe properties are less useful than comparable weapons without those traits. Similarly, weapons which need an action to be reloaded will place too much strain on your action economy to justify, so most crossbows and firearms are a poor choice.

Bo Staff^CRB: Tragically, it’s not a “Staff” (which is a specific weapon), so TwistedTree can’t use this effectively.
Greatsword / Maul^CRB: A good go-to for Inexorable Iron builds if you don’t want Reach. Considera Maul if you plan to use Shove.
Halberd / Guisarme^CRB: The go-to reach option for Inexorable Iron. Consider a Guisarme insteadif you plan to use Trip.
Longbow / Composite Longbow^CRB: Volley is a problem, and the Magus doesn’t get Point-Blank Shot Stancelike the Fighter does.
Longsword / Warhammer^CRB: The go-to for Strength-based, one-handed weapon users. Consider aWarhammer if you plan to use Shove.
Rapier^CRB: The go-to for Dexterity-based, one-handed weapon users.
Shortbow / Composite Shortbow^CRB: The go-to option for Starlit Span. Use Composite if you have enoughStrength to get bonus damage from Propulsive, but it’s not going to be a tonof damage so don’t stress about it.
Whip^CRB: One-handed, but you still get reach. You’ll need to deal with Nonlethal,but it may be worth the cost for the ability to use Spellstrike fromslightly further away.

Magus Armor

Depending on your subclass, you may be able to use light or medium armoreffectively, though Starlit Span should stick to light armor and aDexterity-based build.

Explorer’s Clothing: Once you reach 10thlevel, your Dexterity could reach 20. At that point, Explorer’s Clothingprovides the same AC as Leather Armor, but without a check penalty and withless Bulk. You’ll still want to put runes on it to boost your AC, buttransferring runes from your previous armor is easy.
Leather: The go-to starting armor forDexterity-based builds.
Hide / Scale Mail: 14 Dexterity is aweird choice. You should probably stop at 12 if you’re going to be in mediumarmor
Chain Mail: Your best medium armor option.Flexible prevents your check penalty from affecting Acrobatics/Athleticschecks (not that the Magus makes many of those).

Magus Focus Spells – Conflux Spells

1st-Level Spells

Dimensional Assault^SoM: Massively better than taking a Step, and you get a Strike after castingit.
Force Fang^SoM: Basically Magic Missile as a Focus Spell. Automatic damage is great, andit’s 1 Action that doesn’t care about your Multiple Attack Penalty, so thisis a great way to reliably recharge Spellstrike.
Shielding Strike^SoM: Two actions for the price of one.
Shooting Star^SoM: Technically situational, but cover and concealment come up fairlyoften.
Spinning Staff^SoM: Two Strikes in one Action.
Thunderous Strike^SoM: The damage is pitiful and the cone is small, but it’s 1 Action and alsoallows you to make a Strike, so the action economy is good, and if you’relucky you might knock some creatures prone.

3rd-Level Spells

Cascade Countermeasure^SoM: Spellcasters are a small subset of the enemies you’ll face, so this isonly situationally useful.

4th-Level Spells

Runic Impression^SoM: Since the Magus relies so heavily on a single big attack fromSpellstrike, you’re not making numerous attacks to make the damage from thisrune meaningful.
Also: You can add the Returning rune, but the effect ends when you ceaseto hold the weapon, so if you throw it, the spell ends and the rune goesaway. I don’t think that’s the intended behavior, but it appears to bewhat the rules say.

7th-Level Spells

Hasted Assault^SoM: The Magus’s damage output comes primarily from Spellstrike, which countsas two attacks for the purposes of your Multiple Attack Penalty, which meansthat you’re likely going to make this Strike at your maximum MAP (-10, or -8with an Agile weapon). Another action is great, and the action cost here isexcellent, but the attack will be consistently unreliable.

Archetypes

Witch / Wizard: Access to moreIntelligence-based Arcane spellcasting. This can get you the extraversatility that typical spellcasters enjoy plus additional leveled spellsto feed into Spellstrike.

Magus Handbook: PF2 Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)