How would you go about building a character around having a Shikigami Kami Familiar designed to be as effective as possible in combat?
Perhaps (but not necessarily) tag-teaming with the character him/herself?
For reference:
LN familiar, among other things it has Throw Anything, Catch off Guard, and can add its Cha instead of Str to attacks with improvised weapons, and doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity for attacking someone like a Tiny creature normally would.
Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to make the Kami an effective combatant. Familiars don't get extra feats or stat boosts, and even with its special abilities the damage a Shikigami can inflict is basically meaningless by the time you can get it. Not being able to flank or take Attacks of Opportunity just makes it worse.
The one thing you can do is use it to deliver touch spells. That is sort of like a tag-team effort, right? You should also consider going Eldritch Knight, as your little guy could use the extra HP and BaB. Being a Beast-Bonded Witch would let you give him feats, which would really help his combat ability, but would also open you up to losing your spellbook and familiar in one go. Probably not worth it, but an option that exists.
i posted a combat familiar build for the witch earlier, but the basic concept is this: mage armour, ward hex and false life add to survivability. reduce person (can be cast due to shared spells) increases to hit and defences and also buffs Dex (the cat familiar i was using as an example had weapon finess, which is standard with that race). as the combat starts you cast transformation on your familiar, which buffs attack str dex con and natural armour. then cast a Rime metamagic frostbite with the familiar as the toucher, and you have an almost unhittable furry ball of doom. it was claw claw biting to get three touches a round (the cat had something like +20 on all attacks, and after the first one hits the target becomes fatigued and entangled with no save, dropping its dex by 6 and strength by 2 and giving it a -2 to all to hit rolls. plus it can't run or charge and can only move at half speed. kitty was dealing 1d6+11 nonlethal cold damage and 1 nonlethal damage per hit, just to add icing on the cake. if you were to add greater magic fang or something then the to hit would be even more rediculous.) add fly for greater manuverability, and you're onto a winner.
not certain how much of this can help your Shikigami Kami, but i'm sure some of this can translate for you.
Awesome, sounds cool.... maybe I should just try for something like that instead of the Kami...
Thanks :)