I'm considering a phantom blade with the variant multiclass option for magus, I'm not sure what race would be best or what direction to go to optimise it. Any pointers?
And is call spirit a lame ability or am I missing something?
Isn't that going to be dependent on at least 4 attributes? Wis and Int for casting and the VMC, Con because you want to survive melee, Dex or Str to fight with (& at least some dex if you go strength-primary). Since most offensive spiritualist spells rely on saves you need a fair bit of wisdom.
Assuming that you use dervish dance then the ideal race has bonuses to dex & wis and penalties only to strength or charisma. This means vanara, grippli, undine, dual-talented human or garuda-blooded aasimar.
Once you have weapon finesse and dervish dance then you could go for a combat maneuver, or just keep getting feats to improve your main combat ability. Weapon focus & greater WF, maybe the crane style line work for the latter. Toppling spell may be useful, there are a few force spiritualist spells.
I'm thinking a svirfneblin. Luckily stats are the 4d6 method so I should be okay in that department. And would dervish be worth the feet when I could get an agile weapon? Also I would be getting spellstrike twice so would the vmc spellstrike just revert back to a feat?
An agile weapon? For the phantom blade which gives its name to the archetype that's not an option at all. I guess you could pick an agile weapon up when you can afford it and then just never use the phantom blade again, but that seems like a huge waste.
4d6 best 3 can result in the wrong stat distribution entirely, especially when you have some pretty tight restrictions as here. 4 stats you want bonuses in, two of which you want high.
A svirfneblin is another option. I didn't consider it because the 24 RP puts many GMs off. It suggests you want to be very sneaky, and don't expect to get many buffs from the party - spell resistance is a pain sometimes.
You don't get to trade unwanted/duplicated VMC powers back for the feats, no.
Well if I have the sword inside me, I have improved unarmed strike and monk damage. Agile weapon idea was a brain fart ill admit. But is it better to use the weapon or go unarmed?
If you're using dervish dance then the weapon for sure. It also works better with spellstrike - 18-20 vs. 20 crit range.
IUS and monk damage is possibly useful if you're going to invest heavily in a style feat chain, or as a backup. It's not naturally better than using a weapon though.
Astetic strike with improved critical would be great but scimatar isn't a monk weapon. Is there a way around that without multiclassing?
If it's just for the increased base weapon damage I wouldn't bother with Ascetic Strike. I think there's a way involving customising weapons in Adventurer's Armory 2, but it's not going to make a noticeable difference to the damage until character level 16. Save the 2 feats you'd have to spend on that style and put them elsewhere.
Isn't that going to be dependent on at least 4 attributes? Wis and Int for casting and the VMC, Con because you want to survive melee, Dex or Str to fight with (& at least some dex if you go strength-primary). Since most offensive spiritualist spells rely on saves you need a fair bit of wisdom.
Assuming that you use dervish dance then the ideal race has bonuses to dex & wis and penalties only to strength or charisma. This means vanara, grippli, undine, dual-talented human or garuda-blooded aasimar.
Once you have weapon finesse and dervish dance then you could go for a combat maneuver, or just keep getting feats to improve your main combat ability. Weapon focus & greater WF, maybe the crane style line work for the latter. Toppling spell may be useful, there are a few force spiritualist spells.
Go with a Dervish Dance build, don't need to invest in strength. Scimitars are already an optimal weapon for spellstrike, might as well take full advantage.
Plumekin Aasimar is a good racial choice.
VMC is a tough choice, you're eventually giving up a feat for spellstrike, which you already have.