Your physical training encompasses unarmed combat forms. The damage die for your fist changes to 1d6 instead of 1d4. You don't take the normal -2 circumstance penalty when making a lethal attack with your fist or any other unarmed attacks. Your unarmed attacks gain the arcane trait, making them magical. At 5th level, you also gain the critical specialization effects of unarmed attacks in the brawling group and weapons in the brawling group.
You make an assessment informed by your knowledge of how a creature fights. Attempt a check to Recall Knowledge about a creature. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your check if you previously hit the creature with a Strike this turn. If your check is successful, recharge your Spellstrike. The subject of your check is temporarily immune to Magus's Analysis for 1 day.
Requirements You're holding a book.
You raise up the book you're holding and flip it open to defend yourself and expedite your studies. The book remains raised until the start of your next turn. While you have a book raised, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and a +1 circumstance bonus to Recall Knowledge to identify creatures using a skill related to the subject of the book (Arcana if you're using your spellbook). This bonus is in addition to any item bonus the book normally gives to the check.
If you have Shield Block, you can use the tome for that feat (Hardness 3, HP 12, BT 6) as though it were a shield. Whenever you use an ability that allows you to Raise a Shield, such as Emergency Targe, you can Raise a Tome instead, changing any requirements that normally require a shield to apply to your book.
(Magus, Sorcerer, Wizard) An animal serves you and assists your spellcasting. You gain a familiar.
(Thaumaturge) Whether by following occult rituals, piecing together scraps of arcane theory, or some other method, you've called forth a creature that now serves as your constant companion in your studies of the supernatural. You gain a familiar.
You can turn your attack into an unerring blur of force. You learn the Force Fang conflux spell.
Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
You've magically constructed an extradimensional sheath for your weapon that you access through your clothing, typically through a pocket, sleeve, or seam. This sheath is hard to notice, granting a +2 circumstance bonus to your Stealth checks to Conceal an Item within it. A spirit sheath can hold only one weapon at a time, and the weapon must be 1 Bulk or less.
During a Spellstrike, you can Interact to draw the weapon before you Cast the Spell. You can draw or return a weapon in a spirit sheath as an Interact action, as can anyone else holding or wearing the clothing that contains the sheath. A Dispel Magic spell or similar effect can be used against the spirit sheath to expel the weapon. The counteract check is made against your spell DC and uses the sheath's counteract level of 1. The weapon is also expelled if you become Unconscious.
Requirements You have one or more hands free.
You infuse magical power into your body or armaments to parry both physical and magical assaults.
You raise your guard, gaining a +1 circumstance bonus to AC and to saving throws against spells that target you until the start of your next turn, as long as you continue to meet the requirements.
Dedicated study allows you to prepare a wider range of simple spells.
You can prepare two additional cantrips each day.
You've adapted a wider array of spells to work with your attacks. Rather than needing to use a spell that has a spell attack roll for a Spellstrike, you can use a harmful spell that can target a creature or that has an area of a burst, cone, or line (abiding by any other restrictions of Spellstrike). When you Cast a Spell that doesn't have a spell attack roll as part of a Spellstrike, it works in the following ways.
(Druid) You infuse your familiar with additional primal energy, increasing its abilities.
(Magus) You infuse your familiar with more magical energy.
(Sorcerer, Wizard, Witch) You infuse your familiar with additional magical energy.
(Thaumaturge) By applying the best of multiple traditions of magic, you've found a more efficient way for your familiar to store its energy.
You can select four familiar or master abilities each day, instead of two.
Requirements You are in Arcane Cascade stance and your Spellstrike is charged.
Your Spellstrike sweeps are so wide and devastating, they splash onto nearby foes. Make a Spellstrike. Foes adjacent to the target take splash damage equal to 2 + the extra damage from Arcane Cascade. The damage type is the same as Arcane Cascade; if the spell already deals splash damage of the same type, combine the damage together before applying weaknesses or resistances.
Confident in your technique, you don't easily lose your concentration when you Cast a Spell.
If a reaction would disrupt your spellcasting action, attempt a @Check[type:flat|dc:15] check. If you succeed, your action isn't disrupted.
You've studied the staff extensively to learn the hidden capabilities of your chosen weapon. When you critically succeed at an attack roll using a staff, you apply the critical specialization effect of the club group. While you're in Arcane Cascade stance, your staff gains the deadly d6 trait, with the damage from the deadly die being the same damage type as the extra damage from Arcane Cascade.
In addition, you can place property runes into a magic staff you prepare, even though a magic staff can't typically hold property runes. You must first inscribe the property runes into your spellbook, using the same process as transferring a rune. The rune takes the form of a specialized diagram in your spellbook, occupying one page. You can't inscribe runes that can't be placed on a non-magical staff, nor can you inscribe the Shifting rune. When you prepare a staff, you can impart any number of property runes from your spellbook into the staff, up to the limit imposed by the staff's weapon potency rune.
Requirements You're in Arcane Cascade stance and have a hand free.
You weave distracting magic with one hand to enhance your Spellstrike. Make a Spellstrike and Feint against the target of your Strike. Do this immediately before making the Strike, but after choosing your target.
The Feint gains the arcane, illusion, and visual traits, and it always has the basic effects of a Feint, rather than applying any adjustments or alternate effects from other feats or abilities.
Trigger An enemy hits you with a melee Strike or a melee spell attack roll, or you fail a save against an enemy's spell.
Requirements You are wielding a shield or have the Shield spell prepared.
You immediately Raise a Shield or cast shield. The circumstance bonus applies to your defenses when determining the outcome of the triggering attack or spell.
You can attach a scroll to your weapon or Handwraps of Mighty Blows to blend its spell into an attack, carefully folding it around a part of the weapon or sealing it to the weapon's surface. Attaching a scroll requires using the Affix a Talisman action. You can have only one scroll affixed to a weapon at a time, and you can't have both a talisman and scroll attached.
You can Cast the Spell from the scroll as part of a Spellstrike, assuming the spell is one you could normally use with Spellstrike. You can't Cast the Spell in any other way while it's affixed, though you can use Affix a Talisman again to remove the scroll and use it as a normal—if a bit crumpled-scroll.
Starlight shines in your sight, enhancing your perception and range.
When you make a ranged Strike while in Arcane Cascade stance, you lower the DC of your flat check to target a creature that's Concealed or Hidden from you. The DC is reduced to @Check[type:flat|dc:3]{3} instead of 5 against a concealed creature and to @Check[type:flat|dc:9]{9} instead of 11 against a hidden one.
When you cast shooting star and target a hidden creature, you don't have to attempt the flat check for targeting a hidden creature with a ranged Strike.
Trigger A creature within your reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it's using.
You swat a foe that leaves an opening. Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If your attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a manipulate action, you disrupt that action. This Strike doesn't count toward your multiple attack penalty, and your multiple attack penalty doesn't apply to this Strike.
When you critically succeed at a Recall Knowledge check about a creature, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your next attack roll against the creature, to your AC against its next attack roll, and to your save against its next effect requiring a save.
If you share this information with your allies, they gain the benefits as well. If not used, these bonuses end after 1 minute.
During your daily preparations, you can magically fuse a shield into your favorite book, where it appears as an elaborate bookmark. While the two are fused, the book shares the Hardness, Hit Points, and Broken Threshold of the shield, and it can be used to Shield Block if you have that reaction, with a requirement of "You have Raised the Tome" instead of the usual requirements.
You can switch the fused item's form from a book to a shield with a book-shaped motif as a single action, which has the concentrate trait. When the item is in book form, you can read the book and Raise the Tome, and when it's in shield form, you can Raise the Shield, Activate it, and gain any other benefits or effects the shield normally has (such as a Spellguard Shield's bonus to saving throws against magic).
The fusion lasts until your next daily preparations.
When in Arcane Cascade, you can make yourself resistant to magic. You learn the Cascade Countermeasure conflux spell.
Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
Trigger You succeed at your save against a foe's harmful spell, or a foe fails a spell attack roll against you from a harmful spell.
When you resist a spell, you capture some of its magic for your own use. You enter your Arcane Cascade stance, using the triggering spell to determine what damage type your Arcane Cascade deals.
Alternatively, if you're already in Arcane Cascade, you can instead amplify its effects temporarily. Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +2 status bonus to the damage from your Arcane Cascade.
When you prepare a staff, you can hold it up to a weapon to merge the two items. You can switch the fused item's form from the weapon to the staff or vice versa as a single action, which has the concentrate trait. When the item is in staff form, you can Cast the Spells from the staff and benefit from any other abilities the staff grants. The staff and the weapon share their fundamental runes, using whichever weapon potency and whichever striking rune is higher level. They don't share any other runes or specific abilities.
You can Cast Spells from the staff as part of a Spellstrike even when the staff is in weapon form. Otherwise, you can't cast the staff's spells while it's in weapon form.
The fusion lasts until your next daily preparations, though you can spend 10 minutes to separate the two items and meld the staff into a different weapon. The melding works for you alone. A different wielder can use the staff in its current form but can't transform it, get the benefit of the shared runes, or use its spells for a Spellstrike if it's in weapon form.
Requirements Your Spellstrike is charged.
You attack in an arc and enact your spell against everyone you hit. Make a Spellstrike, but roll separate Strikes to attack two creatures, each of whom must be within your melee reach and adjacent to each other. If your spell could affect two or more targets, your spell affects whichever foes you hit, not just the first target; otherwise, choose one target to affect with the spell. A Spell Swipe counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but the penalty doesn't increase until after you make both attacks.
If you're using a weapon that has the sweep trait, its circumstance bonus applies against both targets. You can use this activity with only melee Strikes, even if you have the starlit span hybrid study or a similar ability.
If you use Expansive Spellstrike to Spellstrike with an area spell, apply the area as described in Expansive Spellstrike, choosing one of the creatures you Strike to determine the area and whether the spell fails due to a critically failed Strike. If you use Expansive Spellstrike to Spellstrike with a targeted spell, the spell is lost completely only if both Strikes are critical failures.
You've honed one spell as your favored combat technique, and you've practiced it enough that you no longer need to prepare it to cast it. Choose a spell in your spellbook that you could use with Spellstrike and that has a level no higher than the highest-level magus spell slot you have. You can Cast this Spell without having it prepared ahead of time by expending a spell slot of a sufficient level to cast your chosen spell. You can change this spell whenever you add new spells to your spellbook, or by studying your spellbook for 1 hour.
You can temporarily replicate the effects of a property rune for your weapon or unarmed attacks. You learn the Runic Impression conflux spell.
Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
You take advantage of teleportation to better hide your position. When you cast Dimensional Assault, you're affected by an Invisibility spell at the end of the teleport.
You can choose not to make the Strike that is normally part of dimensional assault. If you do make the Strike, your invisibility ends after the Strike, as normal for invisibility.
Requirements Your last action was a successful Spellstrike, and the spell you cast dealt energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, force, negative, positive, or sonic).
Magical energy spills out to extend beyond the creature you struck. The flowing energy forms a ray with a range of 60 feet from the creature you damaged. You can't target any of the creatures you damaged with your Spellstrike with the ray. Make a spell attack roll against the new target's AC, at the same multiple attack penalty as the Strike. On a hit, the target of the ray takes 1d4 damage per spell level of the same type of energy damage the spell deals (double damage on a critical hit). If you cast the spell in your Spellstrike from a spell slot, the damage from Cascading Ray increases to 1d8 damage per spell level.
If the spell deals more than one type of energy damage, you choose only one for the ray. This ray has the attack trait, the school and tradition traits of the original spell, and the trait matching the damage type.
Trigger You Cast a Spell using a spell slot.
Requirements You're in Arcane Cascade stance.
You pull magic into your weapon, using its substance to transform the magic into restorative energy. You regain Hit Points equal to double the spell's level and roll to end any Persistent Negative Damage you have.
If the spell was of the necromancy school, any persistent negative damage you have ends automatically, and you can change the damage type from Arcane Cascade to positive if you wish. (Positive damage typically damages only undead or other creatures with Negative Healing.)
Frequency once per day
You tap into an arcane trick to recover your ability to meld spells and attacks. You recharge your Spellstrike.
Requirements You are in Arcane Cascade stance.
When you use Shield Block, you can create a flash of brilliant, multicolored light in a @Template[type:cone|distance:15]. Each creature in the area must attempt a @Check[type:fortitude] save, with the following effects.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is Dazzled for 1 round.
Failure The creature is Blinded for 1 round and dazzled for 1 minute. The creature can spend an Interact action rubbing its eyes to end this blinded condition.
Critical Failure The creature is blinded for 1 round and dazzled for 1 hour.
Requirements You're wielding a ranged or thrown weapon, or have a ranged unarmed attack.
A trail of energy flows from your target back to you. Make a Spellstrike with a ranged weapon or ranged unarmed attack against a target within the ranged weapon or unarmed attack's first range increment. The spell you cast for the Spellstrike can't be a cantrip or focus spell. Each creature in a line between you and the target, excluding you and the target, takes damage equal to double the spell's level. Determine the damage type as described in Arcane Cascade.
Requirements You're wielding a staff.
Your spell unwinds the structure of your staff to make it exceptionally long, or even separate it into shards held together by magical power.
Make a Spellstrike with a staff, with a spell that isn't a cantrip or focus spell. Increase the staff's reach by 5 feet × the spell's level.
You have a literal sixth sense for ambient magic in your vicinity.
You can sense the presence of magic auras as though you were always using a 1st-level Detect Magic spell. This detects magic in your field of vision only.
When you Seek, you gain the benefits of a 3rd-level detect magic spell on things you see (in addition to the normal benefits of Seeking). You can turn this sense off and on with a free action at the start or the end of your turn.
You imagine how you'll weave magic and combat into future battles, improving your focus.
If you have spent at least 2 Focus Points since the last time you Refocused, you recover 2 Focus Points when you Refocus instead of 1.
Requirements Your Spellstrike is charged.
You pierce through your foe's resistance. Make a Spellstrike. The spell you cast as part of the Spellstrike ignores an amount of the target's resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage equal to your level. This applies to all damage the spell deals, including Persistent Damage and damage caused by an ongoing effect of the spell. A creature's immunities are unaffected.
You can speed yourself up to move and attack more swiftly. You learn the Hasted Assault conflux spell.
Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
Trigger You're targeted by a Strike or a spell attack roll, or you're about to roll a saving throw against a spell effect.
Requirements You have one or more hands free.
You snap your weapon or limb into place to ward off harm at the last second. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and saving throws against the triggering effect until the start of your next turn.
Frequency once per turn
Requirements Your most recent action was to Cast a Spell from a spell slot or make a Spellstrike with a spell from a spell slot.
Your spell has a powerful aftereffect, briefly granting you a certain spell depending on the spell you cast. You use Arcane Cascade and are subject to an additional aftereffect spell depending on the school of your most recent spell. This aftereffect spell's duration lasts until the end of your next turn or its normal duration, whichever is longer. Using Arcane Shroud again ends any existing spell you gained from Arcane Shroud.
Requirements Your Spellstrike is charged.
The spell you deliver tries to force out magic affecting your enemy. Make a Spellstrike. If it hits, you also attempt to counteract a single spell (of your choice) active on the target.
The counteract level is half your level rounded up, and the counteract check modifier is the standard modifier for counteracting with a spell (your Intelligence modifier plus your spellcasting proficiency bonus, plus any bonuses or penalties that specifically apply to counteract checks).
Trigger You use Arcane Cascade.
When you enter your Arcane Cascade, you disperse the magical reinforcement to nearby allies. You grant the extra damage of Arcane Cascade in an aura affecting all allies in a @Template[type:emanation|distance:5]. This uses only the base damage of the stance, based on the ally's weapon specialization; it doesn't use any increase you get from bonuses, the laughing shadow hybrid study, or the like.
As normal for duplicate effects, multiple Arcane Cascades affecting the same creature aren't cumulative.
You've achieved perfect magical and physical balance, allowing magic to flow into and through you more easily.
You can recover 3 Focus Points when you Refocus instead of 1 if you have spent at least 3 Focus Points since the last time you Refocused.
You can channel the entire realm of possibilities of your spellbook into an attack.
Once during your daily preparations, you can use a spell slot to hold that infinite potential, rather than using it to prepare a spell. When you make a Spellstrike, you can expend this special spell slot to immediately prepare and cast a spell from your spellbook at 2 levels lower than the slot's level. (As normal for preparing spells, you can use a spell of an even-lower level, heightening it accordingly.)
You don't have any spell prepared in that slot until you cast from that slot.
You've made it almost effortless to combine spells and attacks. You're permanently Quickened. You can use your extra action only to Strike or to recharge Spellstrike.
Requirements Your Spellstrike is charged.
You combine the might of a multitarget spell with a whirling flurry of attacks. You use Spellstrike, making a melee Strike against each enemy within your reach instead of against one enemy. If your spell can affect multiple targets, your spell affects all foes you hit, not just the first target, up to the spell's normal maximum targets. If you Strike more foes than the spell could target, choose which foes are affected by the spell. Each attack counts toward your multiple attack penalty but doesn't increase your penalty until you've made all your attacks.
If you use Expansive Spellstrike to Spellstrike with an area spell, apply the area as described in Expansive Spellstrike, choosing one of the creatures you Strike to determine the area and whether the spell fails due to a critically failed Strike. If you use Expansive Spellstrike to Spellstrike with a targeted spell, each creature you critically fail to Strike is unaffected by the spell, but the spell isn't lost completely from a single critical failure.
You can use this activity with only melee Strikes, even if you have the starlit span hybrid study or a similar ability.