It's a lot more doable in wotr, since there is no real way to get to 0% ASF in heavy armor without a hellknight signifier, but if you have to, just go human, take both ASF feats and use mithral armor. Undead bloodline sorc would probably be best since having some natural DR would go a long way, but I guess a scroll savant would also be fine. conjuration/necro F1/Savant19 will be fine. You can safely toss out divination and enchantment since you won't have a use for either of the two.

Wow, I really have chosen something that the game's mechanics do not support. Thank you!

5% ASF is not the end of the world. It's just a bit annoying when you need the spell to work and it fizzles. Certainly won't be a dealbreaker on challenging since there's a lot of slack there. What will likely get pretty tedious is removing armor before the buff routine so you wouldn't lose spells out of combat and then putting it back on.

Hello InEffect

First of all thanks a lot for all the support you provide. Your insights really help a lot,
Can you give me some opinions on a character I want to build? I want to be Lawful or Neutral Good, STR based, preferably two handed wielder (probably Fauchard for the crit and long range). I liked how the Magus class plays and been wanting to play a hybrid caster/melee heavy hitter, more oriented to the melee side of things. Since it's the MC I think persuasion will be important, so I'm thinking about going for CHA as my caster attribute.
Been seeing a lot of opinions (pros and cons) on Eldritch Scion/Scaled Fist/Dragon Disciple.

Since I like to be more melee oriented I thought about going for a few levels in Fighter (or Two Handed Fighter) and even add Eldritch Knight levels to try and get the 4th attack per round, get Greater Wepon Focus/Specialization and keep gaining caster Levels. How's the best way I could make that work?

I think the most logical choice for race would be Aasimar Angelkin for the STR and CHA bonus with no disadvantages. Thinking my starting attributes should be:

STR 19 / DEX 13 (for Dodge and +1 to AC) / CON 14 / INT 13 (for bonus skills, 13 because of a last spare point) / WIS 7 / CHA 16
All extra attribute points would go to STR (24 at level 20)

Here are a few options for multiclassing I thought about:

ES (Abyssal) 7 / Scaled Fist 1 / Two Handed Fighter 2 / EK 10: gets Greater Focus/Spec, 4th attack, loses most ES later abilities, medium armor, 6th level spells, lower AC than dragon bloodline, very low bloodline progression

ES (Abyssal) 10 / Scaled Fist 1 / Two Handed Fighter 2 / EK 7: gets Greater Focus/Spec, 4th attack, gets Improved Spell Combat (but since I'll be wielding a Fauchard it's useless, right?), gets third arcana and fighter training (to help reach Focus/Spec faster), medium armor, 6th level spells, lower AC than dragon bloodline, low bloodline progression (+2 STR)

ES (Draconic) 5 / Scaled Fist 1 / Dragon Disciple 4 / Eldritch Knight 10: no Greater Weapon Spec, 4th attack (later), least ES abilities, only gets one arcana, low bloodline progression but gets 2x breath weapon and second AC increase, higher AC, 6th level spells, +4 STR from DD

ES (Draconic) 15 / Scaled Fist 1 / Dragon Disciple 4: no greater Focus/Spec, no 6th level spells (if DD doesn't count towards spells learned/per day), no 4th attack, high bloodline progression (although not that useful here since I already get wings from being Aasimar, high AC increase from bloodline and Dragon Disciple, heavy armor (but would lose AC bonus from Sacred Fist, right?), +4 STR from DD

ES (Abyssal) 13 / Scaled Fist 1 / Two Handed Fighter 6: greater weapon focus/spec (very late), 4th attack only at level 20, no 6th level spells, medium bloodline progression (+4 STR, +2 AC), heavy armor, third arcana

Things I don't know and would like some help understanding:
1) Do Eldritch Knight and/or Dragon Disciple levels count towards the bloodline to get the specific abilities?
2) Can I still level gain levels in Dragon Disciple with the abyssal bloodline? (I know it was possible in 2018 but i don't know if it was a bug or intended and if it was patched)
3) Is wearing light armor or robes my only option here?
4) Do I get a good Fauchard to use with this build?
5) Do I really make Spell Combat useless if I wield a two handed weapon (like Fauchard)?
6) If I get the DLCs can I get to level 20? Or does the game in fact end at about level 17?
7) Do fighter training (Magus) rounds your magus level up or down to count towards feat requirements?
8) Do Dragon Disciple levels counts towards caster levels and spells per day?
9) If I plan on using heavy armor (with Arcane Heavy Armor) is it worth it do ditch Scaled Fist dip and go for more levels in ES or fighter? Anyway to retain the AC bonus from Scaled Fist while wearing light/medium/heavy armor?
10) Is dumping WIS that bad (early/mid/late game)?

Anyway, sorry for the long post but understanding and combining mechanics is something that I like a lot.
Thanks in advance!

1. DD does, EK doesn't
2. no
3. kinda. Since you either want to use protector robes or oak(with varn DLC completed and imported).
4. The good fauchard is serpent prince. There is no way to guarantee it, apart from save-scumming tulips stat milestone gift.
5. spell combat is kinda a net negative on damage anyways, so nothing of value is really lost
6. depends. You don't have to have DLCs to get to 20, but it involves what could be described as creative use of mechanics.
7. neither. it's a flat count, no rounding required.
8. yes, although it's 3 CL for 4 levels.
9. if you have to have heavy armor, you get the ability to cast in it from ES anyways, so no need for feat investments.
10. not if you are proactive with the buffs. It's pretty easy to be immune to the effects instead of rolling dice to resist them and then there's bestow grace from a local cleric if you are LG.

from your builds I see there's a fundamental misunderstanding on how scion operates.
1. Scion really-really wants to have 19 levels of it for the spell access. It's just way too big of a power spike to ignore. And bab doesn't matter to scion in the slightest since he gets transformation and will fight using it, for the most part, the moment he gets it.
2. From that one can easily deduce that Abyssal is the way to go for a str scion, since DD comes with too many drawbacks.
3. fauchard is not the best way to go around. Scion doesn't have a good way of stacking crit, so stacking flat damage is way better. What you want is a vanquisher. It's guaranteed, can be gotten early with some more creative use of mechanics and it frees up a feat slot. And if you don't want to abuse the game, greataxes are still the most plentiful artisan weapon group.
4. From what I see, it seems like you actually want to play a melee sorc. that one does have DD and EK and it doesn't suffer any losses for it.

Both melee sorc and abyssal scion can be found in the unfair guide. it'll make a good starting point to devise your own take on it.

After reading a lot about the class I think I'm beggining to understand it's mechanics better. Since we're on the topic, can I ask you a few more questions?

1) As a two handed Magus or a Scion, can I cast a touch spell (and deliver it through the bonus attack with Spellstrike) and proceeed to do a full attack on the same turn as long as I don't move? As far as I understand I can only do that through Spell Combat, which would require me to wield a light one handed weapon.
2) In that case, you said Spell Combat is a net negative DPS. Why's that? With Spell Combat I would be effectively gaining a free extra attack every turn that I don't move at the cost of about 10% absolute less accuracy with every attack. As a two hander I have to sacrifice a full attack turn to cast, which means 2-4 less attacks in a round, right?
3) Since Spellstrike uses my weapon's crit range to crit with the spell, and it always does x2 damage with the spell, wouldn't it be overall better to have more crit range instead of more crit multiplier?
4) Is Sword Saint an option here? I mean, if I want a more melee/STR inclined character Sword Saint seems to do more on that side. Are there any good multiclass/dip good options for Sword Saint? Is DEX Saint much better than STR Saint?
5) Anyway to get DEX to damage with two handed weapons? In that case do I get 1.5 for being two handed like happens with STR?
6) You mentioned fighting transformed. Isn't relying on it too much a drawback? You only get a maximum of 5 casts of it per rest, and resting every 5 battles is not an option in this game, as far as I know, mainly because of time restraints. Is there something I'm missing on that subject?
7) Can you elaborate more on why is the Greater Spell Access such a power spike? simply having one more spell learned per spell level is that much powerful? All it does is give you more options but you're still limited by spells per day.
8) In a situation where I wouldn't be able to fight transformed most of the time would BAB be that much important? I mean is having the 4th attack really that important since it will be at about only +1 or +2 BAB?
9) Is Spell Recall as good as it seems? I mean having a ton of extra spells per day (using the arcane pool) seems really really useful, in a game that pushes you to the limit before resting to recover.

1. With a quicken rod you can do the spellstrike part, but you won't get an exta attack. Not that it's very useful, but the option is there.
2. because to use it normally you give up 2AB and won't receive 1.5 str bonus. It's ok in the earlygame, but the more additional attacks and str you get, the worse the trade-off becomes.
3. yes, if touch spells were the MO, which it isn't. Burning slots on a 15-30 damage thing is not exactly a good trade when average damage from a single attack should be around 70 by midgame.
4. saint is an option, yes. it's vastly superior to scion and him having less spells never really comes into play since burning slots on offense was never the plan either way. That said, scion is perfectly servicable. You can only oneshot things so hard, so even if you won't sport the impressive 400 damage crits it won't really matter.
5. Dex melee is simply losing damage for no good reason. At the best of times you'll be 1 AC ahead of str variant of the class. So basically you trade around 30% damage for 1AC in the earlygame. This is because str doesn't need to waste two feats to take slashing/fencing grace, does get 1.5 mod and legendary proportions are a thing to further boost damage and str. As to the way to add dex to damage, there's grace feats, swordlord lvl 1 thingie, and rogue level 3 finesse training. That's pretty much it.
6. Not really. Extended transform is 38 rounds or almost 4 minutes. That means you have around 20 minutes of non-stop combat in you per rest. Chances are your other party members will run out of resources faster than your transforms.
7. sense vitals alone is 5d6 on every attack. giniekind is another d6, angelic for DR/evil bypass, echolocation so you have a free blindfight(granted local alchemist can give it out to everyone, but easing the strain on him is not bad) and as such free protection from gaze attacks. Good stuff.
8. With proper buffs we hit on 2 with 4th iterative, so yeah, having a 4th attack is a big deal.
9. No, not really. Spellcasting is not what magus really does. It's really much a fighter on arcane steroids not a mage that sometimes fights. Offensive magic and melee don't mesh well together. It's just a simple fact that things that actually do damage require investment that melee-focused character can't afford. If you want to mix magic damage and phys you best bet is scoundrel archer.

Man those answers were enlightening! Thanks a lot.

I looked up your Saint Viviscector build and I'm liking it for my purposes. Do you think there are better ways to deal two handed damage and be able to have a few other tricks up my sleeve out there?

I'm thinking about slightly altering that build to play on my first playthrough. Can you give me a few insights?

Thought about starting with:
STR 18 > 22 / DEX 14 / CON 12 / INT 16 / WIS 7 / CHA 14
This way I still get the same AC (+2 DEX, +3 INT, +2 CHA) for the first few levels as your build (+2 DEX, +2 INT, +3 CHA) and don't risk hitting an odd number STR value if I don't reach level 20. If I do however, I'm wasting a stat point.
I could drop CHA to 12 and DEX to 13 to pump STR to 19 and hit 20 STR earlier, but I'm sacrificing 2 AC and one wasted stat point in each DEX and CON. What do you think?

Also I even thought abou doing a dip in Bard or Sorc to grab DD and get a +4 STR and +1 AC, but that would mean sacrificing level 6 SS spells and counterstrike, That would be way too much of a drawback, right? (Also is there a stat cap in the game, which I could hit using items/buffs?).

Also another thing I wish clarified: that 13th level feat that adds INT to damage on flat-footed enemies only works on surprise rounds or for everytime I attack a flat footed enemy or make an AoO?

Any other way to add my INT mod to my damage rolls?

Thanks a lot for all the tips/clarifications!

Also what are your thoughts on Arcane Strike? It seems to be a good way to get extra damage early on... Does it stack with Arcane Weapon? I mean, can I activate Arcane Weapon on the first turn, attack and on the next turn activate Arcane Strike and attack getting benefits from both abilities?

Saint doesn't want to dip either. at the very least you want 18 saint levels if you go there. The 1 vivi level in my build is entirely for the purpose of facetanking prologue on unfair bit more comfortably. It's quite a bit better past the prologue without.
As to what has better utility - that'd be a melee sorc since it also provides frightful and is almost entirely self-sufficient on buffs.
Another use for int is technically a duelist, but it's just a bad saint with no spells, so meh.

Sorry for overasking ;)

Probably my last two questions:

1) Think it's viable/worth it to ditch the scaled fist dip in abyssal scion and go for 1 level on vivi? Mutagen is very tempting and the possibility of getting 2d6 sneak dice is cool. Would it go to waste at level 19 if you go for sense vitals?

2) How exactly could I save scum to get Serpent Spine like you said before? I like the fact that it's a reach two handed with high crit range and increased multiplier and I don't mind doing some scumming... Is it too time consuming (meaning do I have to reload a much earlier save to try again)?

1. absolutely not. Even with oak you don't get much on a scion from vivi. The only consideration for the mutagen is finishing prologue more comfortably. Abyssal scion monk or not will have to rely heavily on sleep and grease either way so vivi is no a good career path for him. At least with monk he can tank ok-ish by mid A1, Without monk he's out of luck till midgame which is when he can get oak and that's way too long.

2. it's in unfair guide. Basically every artisan has kingdom stat thresholds where they bring gifts and those can be save-scummed by saving before the stat level-uo and repeating the process till you get the desired item. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MiCvkSx_fZsgz4156K8weP6gMgwVv7y5pgSfHzr2T04/edit#gid=0 last tab is the one in question.
tulips first artisan gift is at IV espionage and serpent prince is t1, so it can be scummed pretty much as soon as you can rank up espionage to IV,

Hello again seer of pathfinder,

Do you have a necromancer build anywhere? either a wizard or a sorcerer? (not a cleric) Thx!

Sylvan sorc from unfair guide is as much of a necro as it gets. It's a merc build since casters don't need stats, but it's obviously pretty good on MC just as fine.

Thank you.