The Medium is the most interesting of these classes to me, as it allows a lot of variety in what the character can do.
It is closely followed by the Kineticist, as I like its elementalist/warlock/bender flavor of being committed to an element (or element(s), later on).
Kineticist* > occultist** > medium*** > etc
* is a completely different approach to a class; i think i said somewhere that pathfinder has three classes (and hybrids thereof): d20+modifier attacker, pseudovancian caster, and kineticist.
** lots of options, flavor, function
*** is fully functional as a martial and has advantages over alternatives (i.e., has a niche)
Pretty much this. 100%
Mesmerist is super fun. So is the psychic I just love the feel of a more mystic version of the old psionist...a mind mage. Granted you could do a psionist moderately well depending on the discipline.
Kineticist is probably last mainly due to clunky rules but otherwise fun.
The rest are all about equal in my eyes with lots of neat things to do.
I think the Occult classes were probably the best thing Paizo has done in the last few books.
I haven't gotten a chance to actually play any of them. But I really like the feel of the few Mesmerists I have theorycrafted.
Dipping one level of Medium to start with Spirit Focus, followed by three levels of Weapon Master Fighter for Weapon Training is a stupid effective low level martial build. Spirit-Bonded medium armor and the Gloves of Dueling really round out the build, if your campaign continues long enough to afford such items.
From everything I have seen posted, the freaking Occultist has to be the most versatile class in PF1. Although, I must admit I am kind of intimidated to really dive into it. As it stands now, I know nothing about it, though.
I don't know anything about the Kineticist, either... but I most certainly look forward to gestalting one with a pre-errata, Constitution-casting Scarred Witch Doctor...
I'm in love with the Occultist, it's my new favourite class. It's super flavourful, it's versatile and it's powerful enough in whatever niche you want to go for. I also love the fact that you can have 2 Occultists with almost NOTHING in common without even going into archetypes.
I find the psychic most interesting among them. The disciplines are a fresh new take, I prefer spontaneous casting and you can fiddle with your spells, thanks to amplifications. Thematic SLAs don't hurt either.
So far I got only to play a kinetic knight, in the Kingmaker computer game. The damage output was obscene, he easily walked through the generated dungeon that was intended for a whole party. Failing a save did hurt, though, as usual with just one PC.
Occultist is at the very top for me, followed by Medium. Both allow vastly different options from other classes, and I love experimenting with them.
It's hard for me to not see Mesmerist, Spiritualist, and Psychic as variations on Bard, Unchained Summoner, and Sorcerer respectively. This isn't a bad thing -- I actually enjoy every occult class, but these each have a clear place where they fit into the overall class hierarchy that isn't too far apart from where the "similar" classes do. I like Spiritualist more than Unchained Summoner and Psychic more than Sorcerer, but I like Mesmerist a bit less than Bard.
Kineticist is strange in both good and bad ways. I think classes with a high optimization floor aren't bad for the game -- almost anyone can build a Kineticist that will deal great damage at a table with an overall mid optimization level. I'm not crazy about the low optimization ceiling, though. Kineticist looks complex on paper and is difficult to digest, but ultimately ends up feeling like the opposite of Occultist: Choices and decisions end up narrow and pigeon-holed. Still, even though I would have liked a less restricted variation, Kineticist allows for a lot of moment-to-moment decision-making each round like Magus, and that's something Pathfinder can obviously struggle with for many classes. It explores new space, and for me that's laudable even if it's not always a perfect fit. I am still not the biggest fan of how Burn or any of its archetype replacements functions, though.
My overall ranking of just the occult classes would look like:
Occultist > Medium > Spiritualist > Kineticist > Mesmerist > Psychic
I really like the medium but also think it kinda falls way short of what it should be. The medium is a really good martial with some limited spellcasting moreso that it is actually good at being what the Medium says it is.
Psychic definitely feels like a variant sorcerer, especially with how much Disciplines look like Bloodlines, but phrenic amplificatons are a really great concept and I sort of wish that's what spontaneous metamagic looked like in general.
Occultist is definitely my favorite of the bunch, it succeeds at being flexible and having a lot of build paths in a way most PF classes can only pretend to do. Still have some quibbles with the way its spell progression works, but it's really fun in general.
Occultist, it's role flexibility makes it a bit easier to support otherwise awkward character concepts. It also has a strong theme on its own, and the abilities fit into the game without shaking things up too much.
I also like mesmerists improved enchantment support which allows you to feel like an enchanter at all times rather than only when the stars align and enchantment spells can work.
I like spiritualist mechanically, but only with a few specific choices in archetype and usually with some dipping. I think it would be a great class if built from the ground up with a decreased reliance on spells, and the phantom's ability to walk through walls was moved to level 6 or so. I like specific builds of spiritualist more than I like occultist or mesmerist, but not the class as a whole.
I've played kineticist and didn't care for it, am heavily biased against medium's theme, and feel like psychic has too many unimportant choices to make. I'm sure other people could like them though.
Kineticist is my favorite class, love the flavor, at will blast(that does full damage vs swarms), at will powers, elemental defense, etc. I do wish this class got more love...especially wood and void.
I have only ever played a Kineticist, but it was a blast!
I cast rimshot...
I have also played the Psychic and Spiritualist.
I like the psychic but I do have some issues with the class's spell list(could have used healing spells and/or area effect damage spells and elemental spells in general).
As for the Spiritualist, I played the archetype that replaces your phantom with a ghost touch intelligent magic weapon.
I've played two kineticists in the past, both were really fun. Other than that, I just killed my first PC in our Ruins of Azlant game with
I am pretty keen to explore the others, but time, as always, restricts what one can do.
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I did up a mesmerist for a game of Strange Aeons that we never ended up playing. Liked the concept so much I used the class as a gang leader BBEG the party had to track down and get rid of. I set him at 7th level.
After the build up of speaking to NPCs and "former" gang members to gain info, the party (all 5th level) was terrified, not knowing exactly what this enemy was. But they were determined. Even though he was a solo encounter (no minions), two of the four PC's were down and out of the fight before he was defeated. He very nearly got away.
I still have a soft spot for mesmerists, even though others might be more optimized.
Yeah I like the look of the Mesmerist.
The Occultist is my favourite, bit it's also the only one I've played =P
Of the rest, I like the look of the Mesmerist best, then probably the Medium, the Spiritualist then the Psychic.
I have a few character concepts for the Mesmerist and Medium that I'd like to try eventually. The Spiritualist is more 1 concept that seems fun. The Psychic seems the least unique - 9th level casters are 9th level casters, so there's no concept I can think of that couldn't be done with another class .
I didn't include the Kineticist because it looks like a well designed class that's completely in it's own design space. If I want to play a particular type of character there is no replacement for the Kineticist. If I don't want to play that type of character then it's basically useless to me. So far I haven't wanted to, but the day I do I'll know where to look.
I really do like the psychic casting components and how it works.
My first (and so far only) psychic character is a magus with the mindblade archetype. I've enjoyed playing her a great deal--the versatility of the psychic weapon alone is amazing!--but the increased concentration DCs for casting psychic spells defensively makes spell combat stupidly hard to pull off. (And, sadly, centering jewels aren't PFS-legal.)
1) Occultist because Object Reading is awesome
2)Medium/Mesmerist
3)Spiritualist(Cool Concept, but done somewhat awkwardly)
Psychic and Kineticist I just have no interest in. Kineticist stuff is done better with Spheres of Power and the Psychic just doesn't inspire anything that wouldn't be better done with Psionics or another full caster.