hehe...crap unless your mage has mad wrasslin skills. better to pin.then move...up then drop...if they cant fly. telekinesis is long range.
edit:you changed your post.
unless there is some ruling somewhere i haven't seen. telekinesis is not good for direct damage if used in combat maneuver mode. you have to get creative. Luckily they gave you other options to use the spell for damage if you chose to do so. if you just want to telekinetically grab and squeeze someone there is a better spell for that.unfortunately it is 9th level crushing hand. there is also grasping hand that is a dedicated grapple hand..also higher level than telekinesis at 7th. might give you an idea of what kind of power level the fifth level telekinesis is supposed to have by looking at those.
edit: also forgot for a second, the new constricting coils spell from sanctum of the serpent god is only fifth, and combines a hold monster effect and a crunching grapple flavored type of continuous damage.
I've made use of TK's other uses in the past, but i was planing to bind an outsider in the near future, and thought it would be amusing if i could slowly squeeze it to death until it agreed. in that situation, i cant really move him around or he might get free from the circle. Guess I will go with my original plan of having a dozen silver weapons in the room to impale it with violent thrust.
there are also spells designed specifically to inflict such pain on summoned outsiders that are less than fully compliant.
the one that comes to me offhand is agonize from book of the damned-volume 1: demon princesbasically a 4th level torture spell for use against outsiders.