Was just looking over the fine print of Absorbing touch when it occured to me the rules had changed .... but no acutally I was thinking of the rules for shrink item.
Got me thinking about these two spells , both 3rd so technically of equal power, both transmutation. But there's a massive difference in what they can do.
At 7th
On the one hand Shrink item can shrink 14cu ft of stone, lava, water ,whatever into a piece of cloth. which can then be stored and thrown later to make instant terrain, very useful
Compared to
Absorbing Touch
Absorb 8lb of material into your hand, limit one per hand.
maybe I'm not seeing it but what can absorbing touch do that shrink item can't thats worth the massive reduction in material you can modify.
(yes absorbing touch melds the item in your body so its hidden vs a piece of cloth you keep in a pocket, but it that worth going from 2cu ft/level to 1lb a level ?)
Thoughts ?
there are two differences:
first one is hiding it, as you said, something quite important
second is, one is limited by space, the other by weight.
often the difference isn't that big, but if you can talk your GM into "Air is material, as it has matter", then you can store quite a bit of air in your hand :)
okay, silly argument, and shrink item is way better (space > weight), but this happens, some spells are better than other spells of same lvl.