Reduce Person As An Offensive Spell?

[K-kun the Insane]

I am leveling up my (PFS) Nagaji Eldritch Scion Magus to 2nd and am in need of a new 1st level spell. As this character is a very Atypical Magus, I'm more interested in unusual spells one would not see often on a Magus but that can still prove useful.

Reduce Person sounds like fun and would definitely fit her haughty personality, and the 1 round casting time is workable in the 1st round of combat, but do the bonuses outweigh the penalties? It's good on bruisers, but they typically have high Fort saves and my DC at 2nd level is a mere 15 (level 1 spell, 18 Charisma). Low Fort saves are more in line with Archers/Casters/Rogues, but they seem to benefit from this spell...

Is this spell ANY good offensively?

[Selvaxri]

If you're more dex based, Reducing yourself gets you bonus to AC, to hit, and more damage if you do the "dex-to-damage" thing.

I have an Ifrit Ranger going Dervish Dance, and i plan on having himself reduce person to get more damage as a small fry.

You're using the spell offensively; but as an offensive spell itself- you can't use it with Spell Combat/Spell Strike as it's a full round to cast it.

[K-kun the Insane]

I can only Spell Combat for 2 rounds at a time anyway.

Using it on my 10 DEX Magus is a no go but I was thinking of it more as a debuff to cast on a foe during the 1st round of combat before melee

[kadance]

Reduce Person only drops damage by a couple points on average while increasing your enemy's AC by +2 and reflex save by +1. This, added to the fact that it can only target humanoids... ugh. Useful for taking reach away from large giants, but they have good fort saves.

Now, if you got Ascendant Spell and Spell Perfection, you could (at level 15!) cast Mythic Reduce Person, and get some real offensive use out of the spell. Medium humanoids now have a reach of 0'. Still need it to stick, so invest in that spell DC and work on inflicting save penalties (via shaken, sickened, etc.)

[K-kun the Insane]

PFS play typically stops upon reaching 12th. By 8th level with a +4 headband of alluring charisma and a +2 charisma from leveling, I'd be looking at FORT DC18