I'm trying to play a more martial/tactical minded magus, and trying to avoid over-reliance on touch damage spells. However I've been having a hard time figuring out a mental model for grading the utility/efficiency of my options.
The character jumped into a RotRL campaign at level 6, has had two encounters. My current 'favorite' spell for flavor (Tactical Acumun) did nothing for the party -- seemed like a battle with the most opportunities for flanking & cover, but instead the party never took advantage of it. I think it could still be worth it -- its similar to a bard song, slightly more situational, slightly longer lasting.
Twisted Space also looked interesting,but even weak willed things saved easily. And its only trading one action for one action, so only useful on a brute/boss type thing.
Enlarge person on our brute was highly effective, so effective that they're investing in their own method of becoming enlarged.
Web & obscuring mist look useful, but weren't used last session, but that's fine.
The other debuffs I've looked at are spread out across schools so Spell Focus doesn't seem useful for pushing up the spell DCs.
Haste and Fly are coming next level which are obvious.