Sources of Shield

[Eradhain]

Hello, everybody!

I am in the middle of trying to build up a solid magus in a campaign, aiming for a powerful melee hitter in both terms of damage and AC. Damage is covered with the Dervish Dance feat and said character's +5 scimitar of frost/defending. Now, a previous build of this character (made originally in 3.0, then to 3.5, finally transitioning to Pathfinder) had a mithral buckler/melee weapon combo which is no longer viable (due to Dervish Dance, which requires you to have your off-hand empty) so I was wondering: what other reliable source for a Shield bonus is out there? Something that I wouldn't need to hold in my off hand all the time. The spell Shield is of course very effective, and I'll go with that one if I have no other options available, but I like the idea of not having to waste actions to bring up my defenses.

Bad grammar/typing? Sorry, English isn't my primary language. Wall of text syndrome? Sorry again :P

[Byrdology]

Buckles keep your off hand free.

[donato]

In a pinch, the spell shield arcana works.

Spell Shield (Su): The magus can expend a point from his arcane pool as an immediate action to grant himself a shield bonus to AC equal to his Intelligence bonus until the end of his next turn.

[Belafon]

Realistically the spell shield is your only reliable choice. A physical shield with the animated enchantment would get you a bonus as well, but it takes a move action to animate and only remains animated for 4 rounds (before requiring 4 more rounds to animate again).

Two archetypes can get you a shield bonus:
-The Skirnir can use a hand holding a shield to cast magus spells, but loses the shield bonus when he does so (until 19th level).
-The Staff Magus gains a shield bonus equal to the enhancement bonus of his staff at 7th level, and gets another +3 on top of that at 13th. (But you have a scimitar.)

The spell is a reliable +4 and you can cast the spell as part of spell combat. It's probably your best bet.

[Eradhain]

Byrdology: Dervish Dance and the Magus' spell combat state you can't use shields and gain the benefits of said abilities.

donato: Thank you for pointing that out, but it's a very short duration effect and would burn through the arcane pool way too fast to be considered a reliable source of a shield bonus.

Belafon: I suspected as much, the good old Shield spell shines through again :) The Skirnir's ability interferes with aforementioned Dervish Dance feat.