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Androids are humanoids and there is nothing in the description that says they do not eat. They are not immune to poison but do have a +4 bonus on saves vs poison. That would limit how exotic their diet can be.

They have no DR and their bodies are no tougher than any other humanoid. The description also states their internal organs mimic those of humans and have the same flexibility, and density as a human. That means they would take the same damage as a human from things that would damage their digestive system.

Their internal organs so closely mimic humans it requires close examination to notice they are not human. That means they do not have internal furnaces or other exotic means of extracting energy. They do not have any special attacks, so they cannot chew up materials a human could not

Androids also heal, which means they have to be able to rebuild and replace damage tissue.

They cannot eat anything that would be considered poison on a regular basis. The materials they do consume must be similar in composition to what other humanoids can eat. It also must contain energy and be able to be broken down for building material to heal themselves. Putting all that together seems to indicate they consume similar food as other humanoids.

Elf gives him +2 DEX, and +2 Caster level to overcome spell resistance. It also gives him elf weapon familiarity, but that really does not do much. He could take Elven Spirit at 1st level, but that costs a feat he does not need to spend as an elf. Multidiciplined does overcome most of the caster levels issues for the wizard, but he still is two levels behind in spell access and has fewer spells. At low levels the extra spells form the level of wizard will help, but once he is higher level they will become mostly useless.

He could remain elf, drop the level of Wizard and use an exploit to gain the rabbit familiar. Keep the improved Initiative. That drops his Initiative bonus to +15, which should still be high enough. That would put him with full caster level for all purposes except vs spell resistance, which would be two levels higher than his actual level.

The half elf is an improvement on the original build but is still behind in access to high level spells and number of spells. For an arcanist that is already behind in both those areas that is a steep price.

I am not sure that the +4 bonus to Init is worth a caster level on an arcainist. They are already behind in gaining spell level, this puts you down 2. In addition, the access to the higher-level spells, you also get fewer spells and they are less potent. Normally a spell cast by and arcainist is just as powerful as those cast by a sorcerer or wizard because they have full caster level.

The arcainist gets the best of both worlds for spell casting, but they also in a way get the worst of both worlds. They can spam out spells like a sorcerer, but also have the sorcerers slower progression. They have the flexibility of the wizard in changing out spell, but also have the wizards lesser number of spells per day. This means anything that increases a negative is worse than normal.

If you are playing an elf for access to warrior of old, you do not need to do so. Reactionary gives the same bonus to Init but is available to all races.

Even without the level of wizard, you would still be at +15 Init.

The idea behind the alternative racial trait is that the character is trading abilities of equal or near equal power. It is not to upgrade the power of the character. Giants are a lot more common than dragons so the dodge bonus is lowered for balance. Orcs and goblins are more common but at higher level they are usually not threats, dragons are threats at almost all levels. The bonus to identify Dragons is about as powerful as stone cutting. So, if the bonuses only apply to dragons, it balances out what you gain against what you lose fairly well.

If you get a +1 on all attacks and a +2 dodge bonus to your AC against all foes that is significantly more powerful than what you lost.

What you are describing sounds like the Tier 1 Archmage path ability Flash of Omniscience.

Perfect Preparation is more learning a new way to understand spells, than increased memory.

If you go strictly by RAW that means you could line up enough characters and move the item to the next galaxy in a single turn. Now this would require a nearly infinite number of rogues, but that is still absurd.

The game abstracts some things especially in combat. But in some cases, the abstraction leads to absurdities. When that happens the GM can and should step in and evaluate the situation based on real world mechanics and then translate that back into game terms.

The game allows each character to take their full turn of actions regardless of the other characters action. This usually does not create problems because all characters are acting simultaneously. That is not what is happening in this situation. In this situation each character is waiting for the previous character to complete their turn before they act. So, to solve the problem we suspend the rule that each character gets their full turns worth of actions.

If the characters are moving to the next character and handing the item off. I would simply count up the total distance a character can move in a turn including using their standard action for a move action and have that be the distance the item can travel. Assuming all the characters are human with nothing reducing their movement that would mean the item can travel 60 feet.

If the characters are throwing the item without moving it gets more complex. You can throw an improvised weapon a maximum of 50 feet (10 range increment x5). But characters with a high BAB can throw multiple items per turn. What I would do would be to take the number of attacks per round that one character gets and use that as a multiple of 50 to determine the maximum range. This option is going to be harder than the simple hand off so each character would need to make an attack roll against an AC 5 (credit to Tom Sampson) to get it to the next character and have the receiving character make a Dex roll of 10 to catch it.

All this is a house rule, but I think it is reasonable.

Earthgliding simply allows you to move through stone while burrowing. Burrowing is a form of movement so you can use as much or as little of it as you want, including zero. You can still breathe when doing so. People are trying to limit earthgliding way more than it should be. This is a druid that is using an ability that lasts hours. He does not need to change back and forth between normal and human form because he stopped moving while underground.

How about creating an illusion of an extra dimensional space and making it real?

Dead Magic: These planes have no magic at all. A plane with the dead magic trait functions in all respects like an antimagic field spell. Divination spells cannot detect subjects within a dead magic plane, nor can a spellcaster use teleport or another spell to move in or out. The only exception to the "no magic" rule is permanent planar portals, which still function normally.

At first this seems like it would not work because portal to an extradimensional space would be considered magic. But the section on magic dead planes specifically states the permanent planar portals still function normally on magic dead planes. That establishes that nonmagical portals do exist. What you would be doing is creating an illusion of a permanent planar portal and making that into a real object. The GM might decide to veto the idea, but it does not hurt to ask.

If it works, it would be a good way to create a safe spot that make it extremely hard to find with divination. Only divination spells that work across dimensions would be capable of locating you. You could even use it to create a portal to a dimension with favorable traits. For example, you could create a portal to plane with minor positive energy that times flows at a rate of 1 day spent on the plane equal 1 round. That would give you almost 3 years of time before the portal became nonfunctional.

If the form grants a swim or burrow speed, you maintain the ability to breathe if you are swimming or burrowing.

The section on Polymorph specifically states that a spell that grants a burrow speed allows you to breathe when you are burrowing. If you can breathe speaking should not be a problem. It does not state that you no longer need to breathe.

If the unchained monk gets 1.5 STR when using a two-handed weapon, it also means he does only .5 STR when using a second weapon. This does not apply to his unarmed strikes as that specifies he gets his full STR bonus on all unarmed strikes. But it would apply when using two manufactured weapons or a manufactured weapon as a second weapon.

That is why I suggested parade armor. Parade armor allows you a great deal of flexibility of what it actually is. Using mithral parade armor would give you +3 AC, with a max dex bonus of +7, and would cost less that the piecemeal option.

Why not simply summon an earth elemental and have them fetch the object for you. While the druid wildshaped into an earth elemental does not have tremor sense a summoned earth elemental does.

Druids not only have all the summon natures ally spells they can spontaneously convert any spell to equivalent or lower level summon natures ally. That means they can spam summon natures ally until they run out of spells. A small elemental is on the summon natures ally 2 list. So you can use the higher level spells to summon more elementals. Your 4th and 5th level spells can summon 2-5 elementals, your 3rd level spells can summon 1-3 elementals, and your 2nd level spells summons a single small elemental.

The general rules for Polymorph state “If the form grants a swim or burrow speed, you maintain the ability to breathe if you are swimming or burrowing.”. Earth Glide specifies you are burrowing, so wild shaping into an earth elemental does grant the ability to breathe while using earth glide.

Druids are prepared divine casters so get access to their entire spell list including 0 level spells. Know Direction is a 0 level druid sspell that allows you to know the direction north of your current location.

So, while he cannot see and wild shape does not grant tremor sense he can (assuming he memorized it) simply cast know direction.

I was thinking more of helm, kilt, bracers and greaves. It does not match the movie but is a reasonable compromise to keep the aesthetics of the movie while offering some protection.

A miithral chain shirt is not the only option for a high DEX character. Dark Leaf studded leather would also be a good choice. It has a lower armor bonus but a higher max DEX bonus and is even cheaper. Parade Armor has the same stats as studded leather so that could also work.

Parade Armor might be the answer to the OP problem. Parade armor has no real defined look or even material. The description allows the armor to be nearly anything the player wants. There is no reason parade armor could not leave the chest bare to satisfy the aesthetics of the spartan armor from the movie.

At 24 DEX the DEX bonus is +7. A mithral chain shirt has a +4 armor bonus and a max DEX bonus of +4. Combined that equals +10. Add a +1 enchantment bonus and the total armor bonus goes up to 11, which raises the total AC bonus to 11. That matches the bonus of the 24 DEX + Mage Armor. Raise the enchantment bonus to +2 and the armor is still more beneficial even with a 24 DEX.

How is the martial character other than a bloodrager gaining mage armor? If they are relying on a magic item, it is only fair to allow the armor to have the equivalent gold to increase the enchantment bonus. Consumable magic items are expensive and create a constant drain on the characters resources.

Mage armor can also be dispelled and does not work in an antimagic field.

If the character is a fighter then armor training makes wearing armor even more optimal.

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Don’t forget to factor in magic armor when you are comparing a DEX based character without armor to a character using armor. The enchantment bonus of armor is just as important as the base AC. The AC bonus of a +1 mithral chain shirt has a max AC bonus (including DEX) of +11 not +8. It costs a bit more than full plate but is a lot more effective. To achieve the same result with DEX alone is going to take a 32 DEX. The enchantment bonus is also what makes using a shield worth it. The +2 bonus for a large shield is ok, but when you factor in the enchantment bonus it becomes a lot more powerful.

But you could spend the coin you would spend on +1 mithril armor and spend it on rings of protection, or amulets of natural armor, or bracers of armor, or belts of dex (or all of the above) etc. and be better than wearing the mithril +1 shirt. and most of them will apply to touch and possibly flat footed, plus the dex increase will help your initiative, skills, and possibly your to hit and damage as well.

once you get up in those realms, it's no longer a zero sum game, and other variables start to take precedence.

Magic armor and shields are cheaper than any of those. A +1 mithral shirt costs 2,100 gp compared to 2,000 gp for a +1 ring, amulet ect.. The +1 mithral shirt gives you a +5 AC instead of +1. The game already assumes you are using other magic items to boost your AC. You could use bracers of AC of Armor instead of armor, but that uses up a wrist slot.

While the DEX based character does have a higher touch AC, his flat-footed AC is going to be lower.

Even if you get your AC up as high as someone wearing armor by other means that does not change the fact you have one less magic item slot. If you are also not using a shield that puts you down 2 slots.

The point where it becomes more advantages to not use armor is a lot higher than people in the thread are saying. Until your DEX bonus alone is higher than the combined AC of the armor (including enchantment bonus) and maximum DEX bonus of the armor you are usually better off using the armor. A character with a 28 DEX is still better of using a normal mithral chain shirt than not wearing armor. 30 DEX would be the point where the AC would not matter. If you bump the chain shirt to +2 the break-even point becomes 34 DEX.

The condition does not specify how you have to fight so limiting it to not using spells is overly restrictive. If I can pull out a sword and attack, hey can I not pull out a holy symbol or spell component to cast. The condition specifies it can use spells to flee, so obviously the condition does not prevent spell casting.

Shadow: A shadow spell creates something that is partially real from extradimensional energy. Such illusions can have real effects. Damage dealt by a shadow illusion is real.

The only illusions that are mind affecting are Pattern and Phantasm. All other sub schools of illusion including Figment and Shadow are not affected by immunity to mind affecting effects.

Shadow spells are partially real. True seeing allows you to ignore the part that is not real but does not allow you to ignore the spell. You would still be affected by the real portion of the spell. For example, if you had true seeing up and were hit with a shadow evocation you would take 20% of the damage. Each shadow spell usually details how much is real.

Baleful Polymorph specifies that it is a polymorph effect, therefore immunity to polymorph makes you immune to the spell. The spell does not have the mind affecting descriptor, but the description of the spell does imply it could be. On the other hand, it does cause a physical change. This is going to be a GM’s call.

Shades is not actually casting the other spell; it is mimicking its effect. Therefore, the casting time of the other spell is not relevant. The only exception is if the casting time were somehow due to how the spell works. For example, if the spell’s casting time is the time it takes to change an item, then it could be considered part of the effect and therefore shades would also be subject to the same constraint.

Don’t forget to factor in magic armor when you are comparing a DEX based character without armor to a character using armor. The enchantment bonus of armor is just as important as the base AC. The AC bonus of a +1 mithral chain shirt has a max AC bonus (including DEX) of +11 not +8. It costs a bit more than full plate but is a lot more effective. To achieve the same result with DEX alone is going to take a 32 DEX. The enchantment bonus is also what makes using a shield worth it. The +2 bonus for a large shield is ok, but when you factor in the enchantment bonus it becomes a lot more powerful.

Another benefit of using armor is that it can grant you abilities beyond just AC. Having an extra magic item slot that can give you things like energy resistance, bonuses to skills like stealth or acrobatics, damage reduction or spell resistance is also a benefit of wearing armor or using a shield.

So, if you are not wearing armor you will have a lower AC and have 1 fewer magic item slot available to the character. Some classes or archetypes can make up the AC bonus, but that does not give you the extra magic item slot.

If you want light armor and shield a brawler is the natural choice. They get a bonus to AC when using light or no armor but do not have the M.A.D. of the monk. You are not going to find a perfect fit but can probably make something work by using feats and race to get what you need. A half elf for example and trade away skill focus for proficiency in a martial or even exotic weapon. Or you could simply spend a feat to gain proficiency in the weapon you plan to use.

During that period the actual Spartans did wear armor. Hollywood never gets the armor worn right.

If the attack deals fire damage immunity to fire would negate it. Attacks can and do have multiple descriptors. The fact this is considered both fire and silver does not mean it is not fire.

Other than the opening paragraph nothing on that page mentions the aquatic creatures not being subject to the penalties. Even the opening paragraph does not explicitly state the penalties do not apply to aquatic creatures.

Realistically aquatic creatures should take those penalties most of the time. I can see allowing things that do crushing damage like claws and tentacles to do full damage, but having gills should not mean you can use a hammer underwater and deal full damage. Nor should an aquatic creature be able to use non-magical fire under water.

Most humanoids live in some sort of settlements. You could consider that most humanoids are native to the urban terrain. That would cover most of the core races, most other humanoids do have bestiary entries.

Boosting his caster level above 25 will not make any difference. The maximum dice on an intensified mythic fireball is 25 dice. You could have a caster level of 50, and it would not do more than 25d10.

In theory the Daring Champion with the VCM paladin could get over 4x his level to damage. That would require several rounds of swift actions to achieve. The first round he uses to start his challenge; on this round he can attack without problems. The second round he declares a smite evil but does not attack, this is to preserves the double level damage from the smite. In the third and final round he spends a point of panache to activate the double precision damage. On his next hit to an evil outsider, evil dragon or undead he will get his twice his level in precision damage, His level in damage from challenge and twice his (level -4) from smite. He also gets CHA to hit and AC and ignores all DR. This is without factoring in other bonuses like stats, power attack or magic weapon.

Since he has the superior feint deed, he can use that in the round he declares smite evil to deny his opponent their DEX bonus to AC.

This does require 3 rounds to setup which means it is probably not going to happen often.

Benefit: An intensified spell increases the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels. You must actually have sufficient caster levels to surpass the maximum in order to benefit from this feat. No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat. An intensified spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.

Intensified Spell only increases the maximum number of dice by 5. Spending a mythic point does not do anything to increase that limit. Mythic Fireball has a maximum number of dice of 20, a intensified mythic fireball has a maximum number of dice of 25.

Also Empower spell and Channel power do not actually increase the number of dice, they multiply the results of those dice including any bonus to those dice. Doing it this way actually does more damage because it also multiplies the bloodline ability damage. The extra damage from furious spell on the other hand would not be increased. So, assuming you can get your caster level up to 25 you will do ((25d10 +50) x2) +6.

How about the daring champion cavalier? They get both the swashbuckler's precise strike and the cavalier's challenge. That allows them to add twice their level to damage, even if half of it is not multiplied on a critical. After the second round they can spend a swift action to double the bonus of the precises strike so they are adding three times their level. If you really want to get absurd use the VMC to gain the paladins smite evil. Now they get twice their level that does multiply on a crit, plus their level that does not multiply and it gets CHA to hit and ignores all DR. They also get another benefit depending on their cavalier order.

Multiplying: When you are asked to apply more than one multiplier to a roll, the multipliers are not multiplied by one another. Instead, you combine them into a single multiplier, with each extra multiple adding 1 less than its value to the first multiple. For example, if you are asked to apply a ×2 multiplier twice, the result would be ×3, not ×4.

Pathfinder does not follow normal math when it comes to multiplying. So, subtract 1 from all the multipliers and then add those numbers together for the final multiplier. Both Empowers spell and Channel power multiply the damage by 1.5, so combined they multiply it by 2.

Furious Spell does not multiply the damage it adds twice the level of the spell as a flat bonus to the damage. Intensify Spell only adds +5d10 not 10d10.

That should put your damage to (25d10 +56) x2. So, it will do between 162 to 612 HP of damage.

At low HD the bonus from the feat skill focus is going to be a better choice than increasing the limit of how many points can be put into the skill. Up till 3 HD the bonus for skill focus is higher than you would get by putting 2 skill points in the skill, at 4 HD the bonus is equal. After that putting 2 skill point is better but not by much until about 6 HD when it is up by 3. If you use 1.5 points (rounding down) skill focus has the edge until 6HD and remains equal until 8 HD. But when you reach 10 HD and the extra bonus from skill focus kicks in it has the advantage again and keeps it till 12 HD where it becomes equal till you reach 14 HD.

This is without factoring in the secondary feat like Scholar. When that is taken into account 1.5 skill points per level remains behind till 14 HD where it is equal and does not pull ahead until 16 HD. At 2 point per HD the character is behind until it reaches 5 HD when the bonus is equal, and does not gain the advantage until 6 HD.

Your premise is wrong because increasing the limit to a higher multiple of the HD still limits the bonus by the HD. It also means that characters that actually have high HD will have bonuses so high that they become overwhelming. With your system the character can still use the feats I am suggesting so the character can achieve bonus higher than the game is designed to handle.

Some of the skill unlocks are actually quite good, but usually they require 15 or more ranks in the skill. Bluff allows you a chance to ignore magical means of reading your thoughts, detecting your alignment or detecting when you are lying. Diplomacy is actually quite good as it allows you to change a creature’s attitude in 1 round which only requires 10 points. 10 points of sense motive allows you to read a targets surface thought and has no limit on how often it can be used. Perception is one of the better skill unlocks. Eventually you can spot an invisible creature sneaking up on you at an absurd distance from you while you are sleeping.

I have to agree with the wish or miracle would be needed. Direct intervention of a deity could also work. From the sound of the template the broken soul has to willingly become a broken soul. The torture can push a creature to accepting its fate, but they had to choose to become what they are.

It might be possible to convince the broken soul to be healed, but that might require several things. Probably at least an atonement and heal. But that would be after you convinced it to be “healed”.

A class skill already gives you a +3 bonus for putting a single point in the skill. Feats also can increase that. Skill focus gives a +3 to a skill, so your first level character that has skill focus and put a point into a class skill is already getting a +7 bonus to that skill. A human or half elf could also take a feat that gives +2 to two background skills (scholar), for a +9 bonus to one skill and a +5 to the other. This does not include the Stat bonus or traits.

I can get a 1st level human adept with a +11 to Knowledge History, +8 to Knowledge Local, and +6 any other 2 knowledge skill. This assumes a human with 12 INT that takes the traits giving a +1-trait bonus to two skills and puts a single point into each knowledge. Make that character a 5th adept those go up to +15, +15, +13 and +10 by taking skill focus two more times. The adept will have a +2 BAB at that point which is not enough to solo a single wolf without weapon much less a pack of them.

Expert is a medium BAB class with some combat training. They are a medium BAB class with proficiency in light armor and simple weapons and d8 HP. That nearly matches some lesser combat focused PC classes. Adept is a better fit for the scholar type the spell would represent technical skill or abilities.

If you want to build a noncombat character that has decent skills it is quite possible, but not with PC classes.

Meta-Rage does not increase the level of the spell. That means that using heightened spell with it does nothing. Heightened raises the spell level to the level of the slot it occupies.

One of my favorite builds is what I call the “Voice of the Goddess”. It is a half orc inquisitor of Sarenrae, with the reformation inquisition. Tade out orc ferocity and orc weapon familiarity for skilled. Dump CHA and boost INT to 12 which gives you 8 skill points per level. Focus mostly on WIS and DEX, but have at least 13 STR and a decent CON. For feats the main ones are Weapon Finesse, Dervish Dance, Power Attack and Cornugun Smash. At 8 skill points per level, you can easily max out intimidate and a few other skills. Use the half orc FCB to gain +1/2 on intimidate and to identify monsters. This is going to give you a huge bonus on intimidate. Cornugun smash allows you to use intimidate for free when power attacking.

Despite dumping CHA, you are the party face. Being able to use WIS instead of CHA for Diplomacy, Intimidate and Perform Oratory is good. But being able to roll twice for those skills and take the better result makes it even better. At 8th level you can use Charm Person a number of times per day equal to your CHA modifier. You take a slight hit on bluff and disguise due to dumping CHA, but your sense motive more than makes up for it. You can also detect alignments at will and can use discern lies for 1 round per level as an immediate action.

Judgments give you incredibly versatility in combat. Whatever you need in combat there is usually a judgement that can help. Even a single point in the relevant KS is going to give you a high enough bonus that identifying what you are fighting is easy and allows you to utilize bane effectively. Spells can either do direct damage or boost your combat ability further. Heroism is on the inquisitor spell list and is a long-lasting buff that not only boost your chance to hit and saves but also boost all skills.

Being DEX based means you effectively have all good saves. Stalwart also means if you make your fortitude or will save you ignore the spell. If you can manage to get evasion you are nearly immune to any spell that allows a save. Spell Resistance is an inquisitor spell, so you can even avoid spells that do not offer a save.

In addition to getting a lot of skill points the inquisitor has bonuses to multiple skills. WIS is your primary stat so you will probably track better than a ranger and have a perception that few can match. Your intimidate and sense motive will be the best in the game bar none.

Solo tactics can also be a big help. Pack intimidation gives you a +2 to your intimidate for every ally within 30 feet. This is on top of the highest intimidation in the game. If you pick up signature skill for intimidate at high level, you have a good chance of removing a target from the combat with a single hit. At worst you give every target you hit the shaken condition if they are not immune to fear.

This spell brings into being a shimmering, sword-like plane of force. The sword strikes at any opponent within its range, as you desire, starting in the round that you cast the spell. The sword attacks its designated target once each round on your turn. Its attack bonus is equal to your caster level + your Intelligence bonus or your Charisma bonus (for wizards or sorcerers, respectively) with an additional +3 enhancement bonus. As a force effect, it can strike ethereal and incorporeal creatures. It deals 4d6+3 points of force damage, with a threat range of 19–20 and a critical multiplier of ×2

Arcane weapon only works for weapons the arcanist is actually wielding. The wording of Mage’s Sword states the sword attacks, not that the caster wields the sword. So, Arcane Weapon does not work with Mage’s Sword. It is also not an actual sword so that also means it does not work.

Another thing to consider is that while blinking your opponents have a 50% miss chance vs you. From a mathematical stand point that gives you a huge advantage. The fact that a Yurei has fewer attack makes it even stronger. The Yurei has a 20% chance to lose one attack per round, but any attack against him only has a 50% chance of working. That means every attack from every creature has a 50% failure rate.

From a tactical standpoint you are better off while blinking.

While fused, the synthesist loses the benefits of his armor. He counts both as his original type and as an outsider for any effect related to type, whichever is worse for the synthesist. Spells such as banishment or dismissal work normally on the eidolon, but the synthesist is unaffected. Neither the synthesist nor his eidolon can be targeted separately, as they are fused into one creature. The synthesist and eidolon cannot take separate actions. While fused with his eidolon, the synthesist can use all of his own abilities and gear, except for his armor. In all other cases, this ability functions as the summoner’s normal eidolon ability (for example, the synthesist cannot use his summon monster ability while the eidolon is present). This ability replaces the class’s eidolon ability, bond senses, and life bond

The armor you cannot use is the physical armor you are wearing, not AC. You still use all of your other abilities that increase your AC.

The synthesist archetype does not explicitly restrict what stat bonus is used for AC. Normally a character has no choice of what ability modifier they use for AC. But in your case, you have an ability that alters that. The bolded section from the description of the synthesist explicitly states you can use all of his own abilities and gear except his armor. The oracles revelation is not armor so you can still use it. Forcing you to use your DEX bonus would be denying your ability to use the revelation. The DEX modifier of the Eidolon is not important in this case because the revelation changes what ability you can use for AC.

Painful Grasp is a special attack. Considering it is a touch attack that deals 12d6 untyped damage and cause sickness for 1d6 rounds. I would not consider that weak.

A spell-like ability usually has a limit on how often it can be used. A constant spell-like ability or one that can be used at will has no use limit; unless otherwise stated, a creature can only use a constant spell-like ability on itself. Reactivating a constant spell-like ability is a swift action. Using all other spell-like abilities is a standard action unless noted otherwise, and doing so provokes attacks of opportunity. It is possible to make a concentration check to use a spell-like ability defensively and avoid provoking an attack of opportunity, just as when casting a spell. A spell-like ability can be disrupted just as a spell can be. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.

Blink is listed as a spell like ability. The section on constant spell like abilities says that reactivating it is a swift action. The that and the wording on constant spell like abilities indicates it can actually be turned off.

The Magus is the class that has the best short term power boost at the expense of longevity. This archetype makes it even worse. Doing that is not balancing the archetype it is doing the opposite. Now instead of just going nova the archetype is going super nova.

Giving up medium and heavy armor proficiencies on a DEX based class is not that limiting. The combined DEX and AC bonus of most armor ranges between 8-10. A chain shirt has a combined AC bonus of +8 (+4 from armor, +4 from DEX), full plate has a +10 (+9 from armor, +1 from DEX). That is without factoring in special material. A mithral chain shirt has a maximum AC bonus of +10 and costs less than a suit of full plate.

The most powerful magus builds are usually DEX based because they want to use a one-handed weapon with a high critical range. Spellstrike allows the magus to use the critical range of the weapon instead of using 20. That is a huge advantage especially when you add in improved critical or a keen weapon. Almost all those weapons can be used with weapon finesse. Add in a DEX to damage feat and the magus only needs enough STR to avoid encumbrance penalties. Almost every magus build I have seen for a magus that is even mildly optimized is DEX based.

Even without the DEX to damage, graceful weapon is much better than weapon finesse. Being able to use weapon finesse with any one-handed weapon is too powerful. In addition to allowing, it to be used with higher damaging weapons with a high critical range, it allows those to be used with DEX to damage feats. A magus with a Falcata and slashing grace gets 1d8 damage with a critical range of 19 -20 and a multiplier of x3. That would require a feat or being a half elf and trading out skill focus.

This archetype still gets a lot more than it gives up. All of its later abilities are much more powerful than what they replace.

The spell dancer archetype was mentioned mainly to show that there is actually an archetype that allows for what that OP wanted. While it does not give a lot of abilities it also does not lose many of the magus class features. It gives up the ability to enhance your weapon, a single feat and medium and heavy armor proficiencies.

Losing the medium and heavy armor proficiencies is not really a loss for an archetype that is obviously intended to be DEX based. The fact that you replace the armor proficiencies with an insight bonus to AC make mean you are not really losing anything and will in fact have a better AC than most magus, and will also boost your touch AC.

Spell dance does sacrifice some offensive ability but gives a scaling movement bonus as well as a dodge bonus vs AoE for moving. But more importantly it gives you the ability to gain several useful abilities as a swift action. One round of fly, haste or blur are not great but are still useful. Being able to use dimension door as a swift action is much more useful especially if you are using the dimensional feats. Freedom of movement for 1d4 rounds as a swift movement is extremely good. That is well worth what you give up.

The archetype gives both acrobatics and perform dance as class skill. This fits the idea of a dancer and also makes it fairly easy for the character to pick up dervish dance at 3rd level. While it does use two of the characters feats it comes online almost as soon as the proposed archetype gives. You are tied to using a scimitar but that is actually a very good weapon for this build. If not, slashing grace would mean DEX to damage will not be available till 5th level.

The only drawback for this is that it requires you to play an elf or half elf.

Saying AC based on armor scales by level is kind of meaningless, because nearly all aspects of the game scale by level. A 1st level character has very little resources but improve in almost every aspect as they go up in level. About the only thing that does not normally improve with level are things like size, special senses and movement. Even then there are usually ways to improve them at higher levels if a character wants to. Even most static bonuses are to things that can increase as the character levels up. For example, a druids nature sense is a flat +2 to Knowledge Nature and Survival, but as the druid goes up in level, they can put more points into those skills to increase the bonus.

All AC scales based on level. The DEX based character continually improves their DEX as they level up. Those that do not wear any amor gain access to things like bracers of AC, and improve those as they level up. The character that does not increase their AC as they level up will not survive.

From a quick glance it seems to be very unbalanced. You give up very little but gain quite a lot.

The Spell Dancer archetype from the APG is a lot more balanced.

The two abilities never directly interact. So, the resistance from elemental bond will never change.

The only way they interact is through a spell being cast. Elemental Conversion does change the descriptor so if the new descriptor matches that of your Elemental Bond it gains the benefit of the extra levels. But that also means if that if the new descriptor does not match that of the Elemental Bond it does not gain the benefit of the extra levels even if the original descriptor did.

For the most part A symbol spell that does not specify otherwise will have the limit assuming it says it functions like symbol of death. But it also depends on what exactly the symbol does. Many of the spells have effects other than damage and a HP limit would not make sense. Symbol of Striking last until the duration runs out of it makes a number of AoO equal to your caster level. Symbol of Dispelling has a duration of Instant and specifically states it affects every creature in the area. The only way to tell is to read the description of the individual symbol spell.

RAW also do no prohibit a dead creature from taking an action. RAW being dead does not impose any other condition, including unconsciousness or helpless that would prevent you from taking and action. Sometimes you have to use common sense.

If you are maintaining the grapple obviously you are touching the grappled creature therefore it can still attack you. You would need to impose the pinned condition to render it unable to attack you. Even then it could try and escape by attempting a combat maneuver, or escape artist check.

I have to disagree with the idea of AC based on armor scaling with level. While an extremely low-level character may not be able to afford heavy armor, by the time a character reaches 4th level or higher that ceases to be true. AC based on armor may be restricted at low level, but once you get past low level it no longer is a factor.

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

In the early days of Pathfinder before DEX to damage became available DEX based builds were almost non-existent. The only ones who bothered with them were standard rogues. During that time rogues were considered a useless class.

Fundamentally disagree - I've been building Dex based builds without Dex to DMG since day one, TWF rogues are can be devastating builds.

I do not know how long you have been playing, your earliest post I can see is Nov 2nd 2015. That is several months after Pathfinder Unchained came out. Prior to that rogues were considered to be the worst class in the game. The earliest DEX to damage was Dervish Dance in 2011, followed by Agile enchantment in 2013, 2014 added slashing/fencing grace and in 2015 unchained rogue gave made DEX to damage a class feature of the unchained rogue.

The unchained rogue fixed a lot of problems of the core rogue and is a viable class. Sneak attack can be deadly but it is not reliable, without DEX to damage a rogue has very little way to increase their damage when sneak attack is not available. As a ¾ BAB class using feats like power attack that trade accuracy for damage is not a good idea. A core rogue is still a very weak class.

By early days I was referring to prior to 2014.