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I keep seeing builds with a dervish dancing magus.

The probelm is that Dervish Dance and Spell Combat should not work together. Just like dervish dance and free hand fighter abilities do not work.

In dervish dance you are required to have a free hand. This is for balance if you ever watched the dancers the ability was created off of. You have to have a free hand so no weapon, shield (including buckler) or potion or anything in your palm. When your drinking a potion, that off hand is not free. Though RAW you could still have the potion while using dervish dance.

Spell Combat functions like two weapon fighting, except your casting a spell rather than holding a weapon. Since it functions as two weapon fighting, the. The off hand is not free. It is being used for combat as if you had a weapon in it. Thus, you have two weapon fighting styled penalties that get better as you go up in levels.

The same problem with free hand fighter, as soon as you start using that off hand for something other than dervish dancing, you lose the dervish dancing ability because your disarming or what not with hand.

So is this how the rule gurus feel? Or has this post already been answered somewhere else?

I hate rules lawyers as much as the next guy, but unless they have added errata or there is a rules clarification that i have not seen.You can not combine spell combat with dervish dance. As it is written, spell combat works like two weapon fighting but you use a spell rather than a weapon. Meaning that hand is being used for a purpose of casting a spell as your fighting. So your off hand is not free when you are using that ability. Both of them require the off hand to be free. One used it to cast spells and use touch attacks. The other requires it for balance. You can't even use both your hands to use the scimitar as a two handed weapon and have it work with dervish dance because your off hand has a weapon it it even if its the same as your main hand. Spell cstates the spell is being cast. So the round you use spell combat, you do not get the benefits of deverish dance. It's the same idea you can not use a two handed weapon with spell combat, your off hand is not free.

Spell Combat (Ex): At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. [Bold]This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. [/bold] To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.

Dervish Dance (Combat)

You have learned to turn your speed into power, even with a heavier blade.

: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.

: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.