7th Ed. Question on the Staff of the Lost Sun

This is a magical weapon, a staff, and goes off in the shooting phase, so it's like a bow/gun etc.

Now a character can only use their magic weapon in combat, but is this a melee weapon as well as a ranged one? Must a character who takes this use this Staff in close combat, or can the character take a mundane weapon, such as a spear as well?

Essentially I want a Skink Chief on Terradon who is shooty with the Staff but packs the +1 str on the charge from a spear.

Thanks in advance!

You can take a mundain weapon if you take a magical one. You just can't use them in concert. This mostly only comes into concern if your using a magical sword or other one hand weapon and an additional hand weapon. But if you want to take the staff for ranged attacks and then use a regular spear for close combat your good to go!

Yea the staff is esentaly a magic short bow with 3x multishot.
(and it's not poisioned)

yea you can use another weapon for close combat, and a spear is a prety good choice.

Thanks, I assumed it worked this way but I wanted to be sure. The Army Builder software I use marks it as invalid when you select the Staff plus a spear. I will email them and let them know.

if you have a magic weapon you have to use it in combat. you have no choice in this matter [BRB magic weapons section]. you can combine some magic weapons with mundance weapons (dark elf whip comes to mind and i think here is a dagger somewhere else that allows teh same thing). bretonian heroes may use lance in the 1st turn and the magic weapon from teh second turn but those are exceptions.
i doubt this was inteded for the staff of the lost sun but it is a magic weapon. BUT is it a magical close combat weapon? i doubt magiccal shooting weapons suffer from the same rules (all elves have them and some other races). we know the staff is a bow bascially so this leaves room to argue.
my suggestion is to talk it over with your friends/gamer group and set a house rule that it can be used with a mundane spear to avoid useless and endless arguments