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On my magus my preferred spells are ones that allow multiple touches opposed to things like shocking grasp. For example, my primary spell is Frostbite which allows 1 touch per level, deals 1d6+1 per level nonlethal cold damage, and fatigues the target. The problem is I can only find a very few spells that are multi-use touch spells and they are all level 2 or lower.

The only 3 I have found are:
Frostbite
Chill Touch
Elemental Touch

Are there any other such spells in splash books, or any spells you have created for your campaigns that you wouldn't mind sharing?

I've looked around on the forums a bit and seen a few questions but not much in the way of answers on these. Perhaps my search skills just aren't up to par, in which case I'd greatly appreciate any links anyone does have. That said, here are my questions:

If you animate an object that is a material other than wood, say adamantine, how is it handled? Does the object become wood unless you spend the points to make it adamantine, does it remain adamantine (and thus DR penetration) but have wood's hardness, or are you required to spend the points and cannot animate it if it doesn't have enough points?

If you use Possess Object to possess a table it appears the attacks of the table would become your new natural attacks? Considering the table is a manufactured item, though, would you gain iterative attacks instead/in addition to? I assume no with the clarification that the object becomes treated as a creature and no longer an object for things like energy damage reduction. If I animate a statue can I pick up a weapon and use it? Assuming you could, if I have a statue with 4 attacks (normal statue with 2 hands) and use a 1h sword, could I still take the 4 "natural" attacks?

How do you determine the size of a "creature" you animate? If I animate a 100 foot chain what size would it be considered? It would only weigh like 20 lbs but is weight a requirement of size?

In the case of Possess Object, how does the "creature" see? According the bestiary entry it has darkvision 60' and low light vision so it obviously CAN see, but could it be blinded? What is it's vision range normally? (low light just says you can see twice as far as human in low light conditions)

Since an Animated Object is considered a construct with construct traits, do you gain that quality when using Possess Object?

The Possess Object spell does not list a material component but says it functions as Magic Jar. Does your 'soul' move to a gem and you can switch between multiple objects or do you just cast it and take over one creature? It actually doesn't show ANY components, material, somatic, verbal, or otherwise, is that intended?
(http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/spells/possessObject.html #_possess-object)

Is a corpse considered an object? Can you take over objects smaller than tiny (tiny is the smallest size listed in the bestiary entry)? If so do you just treat it as tiny? Could you animate the gem your 'soul' is in (assuming it goes into one, as in Magic Jar)?

Does damage scale with the size of the animated object or is it 1d6 no matter if it is tiny or gargantuan? If the form you animate has only 1 attack, either by choice or by point limitation, is it treated as a primary natural attack with the 1 1/2 str modifier (The bestiary seems to imply it does since it has a 14 str and gets +3 damage with 1 attack). Assuming it does, that seems to fully confirm these are just treated as normal natural attacks so what about a monk who is in possession of an object, can he flurry and use natural attacks (with appropriate feats of course)?

Sorry for the long string of questions, I just saw the Possess Familiar spell for the first time today and it has me quiet excited by the possibilities.

***edited for grammar and spelling

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any advice/assistance.

I found a ton of threads on awakened cohorts but none of them had any real definitive information so I'm really just looking for advice here.

I have a dream of an ape dragon disciple cohort and I'm wondering on the numbers of making it come true. The first issue is converting the gorilla to a cohort. The layout for monstrous cohorts makes it really hard to decide where it would fall:

Worg(CR2) is a level 5 (4d10+4)
1 bite attack +7 (1d6+4) + trip
Str 17, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 10

Blink(CR2) dog is level 4 (3d10+6)
1 bite attack +4 (1d6+1)
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 11
dimension door (quickened) at all
blink permanent

Ghoul(CR1) is a level 5 (2d8+4 hps)
3 attacks +3 (1d6+1)
Str 13, Dex 15, Con —, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
paralysis on each hit
undead type

Giant Vulture (CR4) is a level 7 (5d10+20)
1 bite attack +9 (2d6+9)
Str 22, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 7
Flying

Based on those examples I'm just not sure where the Ape would fall base, before awakening. The vulture does seem to be about the best comparison since it is also an animal It's only special quality is rend but it does have solid base stats, also like the vulture (though weaker in about every area). It's a CR3 which probably puts it at like a 5-6 and then adding awaken increases it's int/wis/cha and gives it 2 more HD (it does use animal d8 instead of magical beast d10). That would seem to put it up 1-2 levels so 6-8.

But then when I look at like the Giant Owl I am thrown for a loop again.
It is a CR5 creature that has amazing stats (6d10+24 hps) and is level 8
Str 20, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 9
It has 2 attacks +9 (2d6+5)
can speak with all animals
flies
gets an initiative bonus based on it's wisdom
can use true seeing 3/day for 1 round

Then the hound archon is also level 7 with 6d10+6 hps, decent stats, and some powerful at will spells (aid at will??).

Looking at that I just can't figure out how to determine the starting level of my awakened Ape. Once I get to class levels I assume it would be a 1/1, even though monster advancement mentions 1/2 if it's not it's focus. So would it be 1/1 if I gained the companion before it took it's first sorcerer level and 1/2 if I gained it after it was already a few levels in?

Sorry for the really long post, just wanted to give some reference information in addition to the question.

Simple question, can you cast Spiritual Weapon at someone while blinded? The spell doesn't have a "target" field so I cannot determine for sure if I could cast it at all or if it would be a blind cast at a square or what.

The Magus Arcana Accurate Strike lets you use two arcane pool points to make "all of his melee weapon attacks" until the end of his turn as melee touch attacks. Does this include natural weapons, such as claws and bite? I think I read somewhere that "weapon attacks" includes any type of attack, be it sword, unarmed, or natural, but just wasn't sure how that interacted with the arcana (and I can't seem to find where I read it either...). Arcane accuracy specifically says "on all attack rolls" and makes no mention of a weapon, so I'm just not sure. Can I get a comment on both RAW and RAI?

The arcane pool ability says specifically that it only enhances his weapon and can only enhance once weapon at a time but I don't see that same restriction on the arcana.

I've become interested in trying to create an unarmed, or at least no weapon, oracle and was hoping for a little advice. I'm planning to go elven Ancient Lorekeeper and using polymorph spells for my combat prowess, starting around level 8 (6 if I take alter self and go with a Trog or something similar). Combining that with spells like frostbite I should have pretty solid damage potential and still good BAB with forms like the charda granting 5 attacks a round. I'd prefer to deliver the spells through a high crit weapon but short of going level 6 Magus I don't think that is possible.

For my level 1 stats, on a 20 pnt build, I'm looking at:
15
10
12
10
10
16

Still leaves 2 points I'm not sure where I'll put (as you see I'm not going for a min/max approach). I'm planning to take the nature oracle Mystery and nature's whispers for the AC boost. I had considered taking the Lame curse and lowering my dex to 7 (base, 9 modified) and taking str to 16 but not sure I want to go that route.

So does anyone have any advice on anything that can be added or done differently for this type of character? I had considered a 1 level monk dip for their improved unarmed combat that allows using body parts other than hands/feet I just wasn't certain how that would play with natural attacks.

I'm curious on a couple of points with the attack action and full-attack action and why they interact with some abilities the way they do.

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First is on combat maneuvers. In the description of combat maneuver you have this:
When performing a combat maneuver, you must use an action appropriate to the maneuver you are attempting to perform. While many combat maneuvers can be performed as part of an attack action, full-attack action, or attack of opportunity (in place of a melee attack), others require a specific action

But in the description of Charge it says this:
Some combat maneuvers substitute for a melee attack, not an action. As melee attacks, they can be used once in an attack or charge action, one or more times in a full-attack action, or even as an attack of opportunity. Others are used as a separate action.

So does it mean you can actually do a combat maneuver even if you aren't using an attack action or full attack action? I ask this specifically in regard to spell combat, which was recently ruled a full round action. I assume you could use abilities like tripping strike or grab even if you cannot do an actual trip maneuver?

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Second is on fighting defensively. Fighting defensively is worded as:
Fighting Defensively as a Full-Round Action: You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full-attack action. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for until the start your next turn.

The description says as a Full-Round Action but the description says as a full-attack action. So can you choose to fight defensively when using a full-round action that involves attacking or only when doing an actual full-attack action? Again I will use spell combat as an example. If the wording is still meant to imply a full-attack action, why is it excluding the few situations like this one?

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Lastly is on abilities like Combat Expertise. The ability says:
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every +4 thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the dodge bonus increases by +1. You can only choose to use this feat when you declare that you are making an attack or a full-attack action with a melee weapon. The effects of this feat last until your next turn.

This one is fairly straight forward but comes with a question as well. This specifically says you have to use it during an attack or full-attack action but why? Why can you ONLY do this as an attack or full-attack action but something like power attack has no such requirement? Again I'll use the magus as an example as he seems the character most likely to want to use combat expertise on a regular basis. Why is he specifically excluded form using it with spell combat? I mean it seems like you want the magus to do everything pure offensive and use no defensive abilities, was that the design intent?

There aren't a lot of attack type actions that are actual attacks that don't fall into either an attack action or a full-attack action so I'm wondering if all of these are specifically intended for those special circumstances.

I'm currently playing a bladebound/hexcrafter magus and was hoping I might get a little insight from the community on the prospect of going with crane style.

My progression would end up going something like this:

Feat BAB Feat
1 0 Arcane Strike
1
3 2 Weapon Focus (Katana)
3
5 3 Dodge
5 4 Improved Unarmed Strike
7 5 Crane Style
6
9 6 Crane Wing
7
11 8 Crane Riposte
11 Improved Critical (Katana)

I've read a few posts on various forums that go both ways, some saying the feat investment is too large and others saying it is worth it. My reasoning on wanting to go this way is mostly for the extra survivability, especially in the low to mid levels where I do not yet have the heavy armor. Even into the later levels the ability to completely counter an attack is really nice, and I would gain a "free" attack out of the deal as well so a two fold benefit.

In the above build I could swap dodge to level one and for the level 5 feat take hex strike with slumber or evil eye as my hex. Seems like it would be a nice option once I get crane riposte, though probably wouldn't see much use before then, so not sure it'd be worth it. Might be better to take it at 15.

So what are your thoughts, would it be a viable front line fighter/tanky character or would I just be over-all better off going with a few arcane pool/arcana feats?