Yosharian What are your thoughts on the following, if you don't mind?
1. Valerie: I'd like to go Stalwart Defender 1 but I'm not sure it's worth more than that. I want to keep her as a Tower shield tank, and I'd rather not have her cast anything to keep things simple. I'm planning to have her get Cornugon Strike and Shatter Defenses, but beyond that I'm not sure. I'm looking at Fighter 7/SD1-3/Fighter X, Fighter 7/SD 1-3/Thug 1-3, or Fighter 7/Thug 1/SD 10/Thug 3.
2. Linzi as an Eldritch Knight Archer?
3. Regongar as a Dragon Disciple?
4. Feats for a Dex Magus Baron beyond Fencing Grace and Piranha Strike? Is Arcane Strike worth it, since your Swift actions are generally used for other things anyway? And how should I raise my Int vs raising my Dex?
1: I don't have a lot of experience with this class but it seems that you get a lot of decent stuff at the first level, so yeah, one level could work. Still, the Defensive Powers are quite nice, so it's not a bad thing if you go further. I personally don't think Power Attack is worth it on a shield tank, but it's alright I guess, especially if you're using Cornugon Strike. Does she have a decent Persuasion bonus?
2: Her strength isn't very good, so she won't be able to use Bows. Crossbows are gonna make Eldritch Archer difficult.. I think. Not sure about this one. Bard isn't a bad class, I'd just keep her as a Bard honestly. Too bad she has shit strength, or she'd make a good archer. 14 Con on a ranged character.. facepalm.
3: Dragon Disciple is a pretty bad class, but I guess it could work.
4: I wouldn't go for either of those feats, personally, I'd just use an Agile weapon. Arcane Strike isn't worth it, because you're often using your swift actions to do other things. There's an excellent Magus guide here which is where I get most of my info from:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/show...-and-Steel-Kurald-Galain-s-Guide-to-the-Magus I haven't played the game yet, so I can't really say for sure, but I suspect its better for this kind of character to avoid getting married to a specific weapon type, and instead just get Weapon Finesse and then use whatever weapons are available. That way you're pretty much guaranteed to come across an Agile weapon sooner or later.
This is the ability score distribution and feat progression I'm going to use on my Magus, but he's an Eldritch Scion and an Aasimar so obviously there will be some feats you won't want to take here.
Eldritch Scion 17/Scaled Fist 1/Divine Hunter 2
Str: 11
Dex: 19 (+2)
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 07
Cha: 19 (+2)
1: Weapon Finesse
3: Deflect Arrows, Dodge*
5: Spell Focus: Evocation
6: (Arcana) Wand Wielder
7: Spell Specialization
8: (Bonus Feat) Metamagic: Heighten
9: Outflank
9: (Arcana) Enduring Blade
11: Wings
12: (Arcana) Hasted Assault
13: Crane Style
14: (Bonus Feat) Spell Penetration
15: Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
16: (Arcana) Arcane Accuracy
17: Crane Wing
18: (Arcana) Ghost/Devoted Blade?
19: Crane Riposte
20: (Bonus Feat) Greater Spell Penetration
Anyway, Magus is a pretty versatile class, so anything can work really. I just prefer to focus more on the spellcasting than little bonuses here and there to physical weapon damage.