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This came up in a concept and character discussion the other day.

A Dwarven Wizard, of the Earth Element School, Neutral or CN. Pure Wizard, straight through. Take the Familiar to get the elemental improved familiar at level 5. Spell book focusing on mastering the elemental magics. Planar Binding for Mephits, creation of Homonculi, etc. Elemental Spell feat, lots of acid damage spells, Elemental Body, and the summons.

Character has an overriding obsession with the end goal of 'transcending' to an elemental being.

Now this is where the discussion went all sideways. RAW, ain't no way it'll ever happen. No combination of any of the spells in the CRB, APG, or UM, that we could come up with, would result in an elemental transformation longer than 17.6 hours a day, that's with a complete spamming of Elemental Body II both extended and echoing. without serious spell storing/scroll work, and stopping to drop a spell every 20-40 minutes. This would leave him no time to rest to recover spells, so it would only work once every other day.

So we turned to 'endgame' scenarios, things that would essentially retire the character, or push him into the realm of Epic play.

Any ideas for the spell combinations that might be required for a transcendence type ritual to take the elemental obsessed dwarf to the ranks of elemental beings?

My thoughts were along the lines of a days long thing involving the repeated casting of Elemental Body, Magic Jar, Endure Elements, Planar Binding, Geas, and involving a Ring of Elemental Command.

Or is this just a case for a judiciously applied casting of Wish? or is it in the realm of Handwave events?

Alright, I'm actually at a loss here. I wanted to put together a decent playable spear fighter to make use of reach. Playing with an attempt at Greek Hoplites. Trying not to go super optimized, because, well, it won't happen with spears.

I'm struggling with feat selection for some reason. Here's the build thus far.

Level 6 Fighter [C/APG/UC/UM)

Archetype: Phalanx Fighter

Traits:Militia Veteran
Dirty Fighter

20 point build
Str:18 (16+2 Human)
Dex:14 (13+1 level increase)
Con:14
Int:13
Wis:10
Cha:9

Skills: Intimidate +8(6+3-1)
Climb +13(6+4+3)
Swim +13(6+4+3)
Profession: militia/guard +10(6+3+1)

Feats:
human:
CL1:
F1:
F2:
CL3:
F4:
CL5:
F6:

Equipment:
+1 Keen Longpear (+6/+1bab,+4str,+1enh,+1foc[+12/+8]1d8+7)
Masterworked Shortsword
+1 Bashing Large Metal Shield
Masterworked Breastplate
2 3rd level Enlarge potions
2 3rd level Bull's Strength potions
2 3rd level Bear's Endurance potions

I was thinking something along the lines of

Human: Combat Expertise
CL1: Combat Reflexes
F1: Weapon Focus: Longspear
F2: Improved Shield Bash
CL3: Power Attack
F4: Weapon Specialization: Longspear
CL5: Improved Reposition
F6: Improved Dirty Trick

I'm thinking of the feat slots going out like this, going forward.

CL7: Quick Reposition
F8: Improved Trip
CL9: Critical Focus
F10: Vital Strike
CL11: Bleeding Critical
F12: Greater Weapon Specialization: Longspear
CL13: Pin Down
F14: Improved Vital Strike
CL15: Greater Dirty Trick
F16: Quick Dirty Trick
CL17: Greater Vital Strike
F18: Impaling Critical
CL19: Improved Impaling Critical
F20: Skill focus or a dump feat. I have no idea.

I'm probably going for using the low bab on the 5' square bash attack to be a reposition or trick. step back, FA, then reposition again. Always working to keep the enemy on the tip of the spear. But the shield doles out as much damage as the spear, so it's trivial. Until the Vital Strikes come out later.

So what I'm missing, is how far behind the curve is this in regards to the average DPR from an optimized level 6 fighter? and/or any suggestions to maybe squeeze a little more out of this build, without a complete optimization.