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I've got a few questions for you guys.
1) Why is the blade adept archetype of the arcanist frowned upon?
2) What would be a few ways to shore up the blade adept's weaknesses (races, feats, traits, etc.) in order to increase the archetype's functionality?
3) How might one turn a one handed piercing or slashing weapon into a utility? (I'm not too familiar with improved maneuver feats, and considering that arcanist has the lowest bab in the game, I'm not sure what you could do with it besides utilizing the spell strike exploit.)
I would frown on it because you trade stuff that could be useful (good exploits) for something that really isn't (a powerful magic weapon on a 1/2 BAB 9-level casting class).
Gestalt it with a AG LoreWarden/Steelbound Fighter and dual wield two sentient magic weapons with full BAB. Or make them the same weapon if you can, just for fun. Schizophrenic sentient weapon, what's not to love about that?
Why is it frowned upon? Because an arcanist has poor defence as well as poor BAB by default, and unlike a magus they can't bring up defences at the same time as they attack. They don't have spell slots to burn on touch spells the way a sorcerer gish does, or the fastest spell access the way a wizard does (and they actually have less spell slots than a wizard too).
I guess an arcanist can have more in their arcane reservoir (& more easily replenished) than a magus does in their arcane pool. Arcane accuracy might work quite well for them. Trying to build a blade adept you run out of exploits fast (since you can't take extra exploit until you have at least one exploit) so a halfling with their FCB might help.
I don't see how the blade adept lends itself to utility at all. You don't have the feats to go after combat maneuvers and needing a few touch attack spells to justify taking it at all you're going to be short of spell slots for utility stuff. The black blade is for killing not utility.
Gestalt it with a AG LoreWarden/Steelbound Fighter and dual wield two sentient magic weapons with full BAB. Or make them the same weapon if you can, just for fun. Schizophrenic sentient weapon, what's not to love about that?
Gestalt it with a bladebound kensai