How would I go about building a Medium?

[Skreeeeeeeeee]

Now, I think I'm the farthest thing from an optimizer, but I have a general grasp on what each class favors. Intelligence and spells for a Wizard, Dexterity and weapon finesse for a Rogue, Paladins with good Strength and Charisma, etc. Each class tends to lean itself in one or two directions.

But the Medium has me completely stumped. Their day-to-day ability to swap their entire focus with spirits leaves me wondering how to build a Medium that's even remotely effective. Do I favor martial abilities or spells? Should I aim for a jack-of-all-trades type? What feats do I even begin to consider?

Sorry if this question has been answered before. I've only recently done my reading up on the Medium, and haven't found any answers that could help give me a direction with character building.

Thank you for your time!

[Chess Pwn]

I feel the medium has 2 styles of play
1) You go with the spirit dancer to be able to use all the spirits in one day. If you do this then you need to build a generalist that can use all the different things as needed.

2) You go with one main spirit that you prep every day and only use the other spirits as backups when they'll be needed for a day and you're sure you wont need your main for that day.

[Helcack]

Stat-wise I think it would go(before racial/age modifiders):

Melee Focus
15 PB Str 16 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 7 Cha 12
20 PB Str 16 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 7 Cha 14

Feats
Power Attack
Spirit Focus(Champion)

Caster Focus
15 PB Str 10 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 7 Cha 16
20 PB Str 10 Dex 15 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 7 Cha 17

Feats(personally I think the Hierophant is much better than Archmage)
Spirit Focus(Hierophant)

Mix(dex based jack of all trades)
15 PB Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 7 Cha 14
20 PB Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 7 Cha 16

Feats
Weapon Finesse
Spirit Focus(Whichever you use the most)
Weapon Focus(Rapier)
Fencing Grace

And for races I would go halfling

[Markov Spiked Chain]

I'm building something like Helcack's Mixed build, with a high Dex and Weapon Finesse. Getting up to Dex to Damage is less pressing, when you get +3 damage at level 1 from Champion. I also picked up Two Weapon Fitghting, to get the most out of the straight damage buff. Halfling's a great race, although I went Human since I'm already playing a similar Halfling.

I'd recommend getting a Crack Purple Prism Ioun stone or three, (2k each) which you can fill up during downtime with your choice of level 1 spells.

I can't really see when I'd pick Archmage, except during downtime, or possibly at level 17 when you can crank a 9th level Wizard spell. If you had a party full of Blasters, you'd still want to go Guardian, Champion, Marshal, or Hierophant (depending.) You can make a cut rate bard with Storyteller+Archmage, but Storyteller really loses out on Marshal and Champion Seance Bonuses.

Hierophant looks rough until level 6 when you get channel and Cure spells. But I can definitely imagine sitting down at a melee heavy table with a bunch of melee and giving it a go. The problem is that the Seance Boon only really helps one person. And if you did sit down at a full table of melee, you'd probably still want ot give them all +2 damage (via Champion or Marshal), at least before like 13th?

Guardian's lesser ability is hard to use (you have to own and drag around good heavy armor) so I doubt you'd take this before 6th. But at 6th, I could definitely see you shoring up a party full of casters.

Trickster is much more task specific, and probably less useful in PFS (although I've had a couple of multi-day skill check scenarios lately that they would have shined in.) I *really* wish the Seance Boon gave 1 rank instead of a +1 bonus, though.

Marshal's great for a crowd that's melee heavy with one reasonable support person. Lots of surge opportunities. I'd channel your level 6 ability for extra surges until 11.

Champion is probably the best overall spirit, at least at the levels I care about. The attack and damage buffs are huge, the Seance Bonus is great for most people, and you can channel away the lesser power if you haven't bought a special exotic weapon.

I don't think you *have* to specialize, but it sure seems like outside of PFS, you're going to end up specializing. Your group composition just doesn't change that much in a home game that you'll need a healer for a day, and know it beforehand. So where are you planning on playing?