Magical Child Vigilante; Help and advice

[Togath]

So I was considering trying this archetype, but I'm a little confused about how some aspects function.
The familiar in particular. Can it take familiar archetypes?(such as mauler) It's base form is a normal familiar, and while it takes the form of a creature that someone with improved familiar could choose...
It never says it is an improved familiar or follows the rules for one, or that the character gains the feat.
If I'm reading it right... Does that means that it's improved forms could also use mauler abilities?

For more general aspects of the class, how viable is a melee one? I'm not planning to keep my social and vigilante personas separate, and I'm taking the archetype for the pet, not the mahou shoujo theme.
Current thought was a strength based vital strike build wielding a greatsword, likely with a human or changeling as the race.

[Serafina]

Right now it's a mess, yes. Whoever let that through editing...
At any rate, here's how I read it:
- it never says that it actually becomes, or counts as, an Improved Familiar.

This is in favor of it being allowed to take Familiar Archetypes that replace "speak with others of it's kind"
- it says that the damage reduction it gains does not stack with any it might already possess.

This indicates that it's supposed to gain the supernatural (DR is usually supernatural) and likely the spell-like abilities of it's new forms
- there is nothing about it gaining different ability scores

However, it's reasonable to just assume a complete transformation, at least IMO.

Mind you, it's completely unclear and I'm just running with the most favorable, most fun interpretation.


As for melee: I already made a build here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20628824&postcount=8).
The basis of it is pretty simple: Your familiar is a small-sized aether elemental. This allows it to flank for you. You have two levels of Eldritch Guardian, which means you share your feats with it. You use the Paired Opportunist/Outflank combo to give your familiar extra attacks, and have your familiar grant you extra attacks. Your familiar has the Protector-Archetype, and thanks to some feats and equipment grants you a nice bonus to attack and AC. Your familiar being permanently invisible allows it to easily trigger Startling/Frightening/Stunning Appearance.

It's a pretty good build that actually gets a lot out of the familiar, and the Vigilantes class abilities.
The only shaky parts of the build are "how the heck does a magical childs familiar work" and whether you can re-train the feats your familiar has (it has at least one, after all) into Extra Traits to give it the helpful trait.

As an addition to the linked build:
- you should take the "Fools for Friends" trait yourself. It'll effectively give you +1 to attack and +1 to AC as long as your familiar uses aid another on you
- buy Rings of Tactical Precision for the other melee combatants in your group (or rather, have them buy them themselves) and they can get in on the AoO-fun
- take a weapon with high crit range. You can go for reach or not, but reach fits well for a spellcaster
- actual exotic weapon proficiency is not as important as I portrayed it, since you will go with a familiar that won't use weapons.


Alternatively, you can just do the same thing with a mauler - but the small aether elementa (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-aether/aether-elemental-small)l is honestly just that good. It doesn't do supreme damage, but it has full BAB for combat maneuvers and is permanently invisible.