Does anybody have an idea on how to get the magical child archetype to function?

[Malik Gyan Daumantas]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and a lot of people say its a lost cause but i still wanna give it a try, as it stands now the only things i can think of are to either give it an animal companion via exotic heritage or focus on summon monster, what do you think?

[ErichAD]

This is one of those cases where the usually cheesy Chuspiki familiar option ends up balancing out the classes limitations somewhat. At the very least you have a fully leveled kineticist attack coming from your familiar to backup your otherwise lackluster abilities. You could also take a homunculus and dump all your money into it.

You also have the option of picking typically lackluster familiars as your lower level options. The Sin Seeker has some unique abilities but is typically not worth the feat, and the Coral Capuchin has a curse that requires a con check to resist, which should be lower than targeting a save.

But really, you're losing an awful lot of a summoners power for a secret identity.

[avr]

What does a magical child vigilante have?

class abilities:

You're a 6-level spellcaster with a shockingly bad spell list - some of the few good spells on it can't function because you don't have an eidolon. What remains comes down to buffs and battlefield control, a bit late because the spell levels are as those of a full caster but they're on a 6-level casters list. You have the standard 2 good saves, 3/4 BAB of such.

You get vigilante talents at levels 2, 6, 12 and 18 which are worth a couple of feats each, and vigilante social talents at all odd levels which are worth a feat to a trait or so for non-combat stuff.

You get a familiar with forms like free improved familiar feats (which means the familiar archetypes you can take are restricted) and some odd abilities when attacking from surprise which the familiar shares.

OK, what can you do with that? The familiar is a focus of the character but you'll need to keep it out of melee for its own safety. Wands, SLAs, ranged weapons, the chuspiki's kinetic blast (if you're not using PFS rules), something like that. Focusing your spells on battlefield control will help.

You do still have ~half the vigilante talents tho' options which require stalker or avenger vigilante are out. You can make a half-decent melee character that way.

All the social talents are intact. You can get some solid skill bonuses here and you are a cha-based spellcaster; maybe an intimimancer is an option? If you go that way you won't have the feats to be an effective summoner (not a good idea on a 6-level caster without special tricks anyway) or to get an animal companion, IMO.

[avr]

I tried putting together a few ideas. Maybe one of them will appeal.

melee/trickster:

LN goblin magical child vigilante
1: Roll with it feat, owl's sight social talent, sawleg locust familiar - it may scout, but doesn't get involved in combat.
2: Lethal grace (weapon finesse, +1/2 level damage) vigilante talent
3: Combat reflexes feat, always prepared social talent, resolute skunk familiar - at this level your familiar only gets involved in emergencies, but when it does the enemies regret it.
4: -
5: Bodyguard feat, mockingbird social talent, brain mole familiar - your familiar can use illusions and your social talent backs them up.
6: Fantastic stride (spring attack) vigilante talent
7: Weapon trick (one-handed) feat, ancestral enlightenment social talent, arbiter inevitable familiar - The arbiter is more or less safe to send into melee because it has regeneration (chaotic). The toxic blood spell makes enemies regret hitting one of you, weapon trick makes them regret missing.

From there you can continue to gain spells and feats to mess with the enemies. I don't promise you'll hit that hard but you should be survivable and noticeable.

Trying to make a scary magical child ran into their BAB being less than full and their lack of bonus feats or helpful vigilante talents. It could work but it'd be slow to come online. Getting an astonishingly high intimidate skill was easy.

melee w/ranged support:

CN kitsune magical child vigilante
1: Amateur swashbuckler (dodging panache) feat, morphic mask social talent, ravenous tumbleweed familiar - it stays out of the way 99% of the time and gives you a speed bonus
2: Lethal grace (weapon finesse, +1/2 level damage) vigilante talent
3: Piranha strike feat, social grace (+4 disguise) social talent, pyrausta familiar - it can be handy to have a flying familiar and the pyrausta looks cool. Also it can talk, sneak, and probably handle things like wands and has flyby attack.
4: -
5: Shapeshifter style feat, hidden magic social talent, social grace (now also +4 bluff) social talent, sprite familiar - an actual ranged weapon which it can use. Sprites should be able to use alchemical weapons and arrows too.
6: Morphic weaponry vigilante talent
7: Realistic likeness feat, quick change social talent, faerie dragon familiar - the dragon can use wands without UMD checks, and has greater invisibility.

You can get into melee and back out again, and morphic weaponry plus a bite w/piranha strike is a reasonable number of attacks with a fair amount of damage. The familiar can support you from range. Disguise is pushed a bit with social talents.

battlefield control:

NG human magical child vigilante
1: Improved unarmed strike feat, improved grapple feat, renown social talent, king crab familiar - maintaining an aquarium is necessary.
2: Favored maneuver (improved grapple) vigilante talent, retrain improved grapple to bushwhack
3: Savage slam feat, celebrity discount social talent, coral capuchin familiar - you can lose the aquarium. Also your familiar has hands now and can handle various environments.
4: -
5: Fleeting spell feat, social grace (+4 diplomacy, intimidate) social talent, katroome familiar - webs for BFC and a few useful SLAs.
6: Living shield vigilante talent
7: Scribe scroll feat, great renown social talent, cyphergull familiar - a second spellcaster when you set it up right. Try to avoid spells with saves on the gull's scrolls obviously.

You can wrap the enemies up with hands or spells; fleeting spell helps prevent the BFC getting in the way of your allies. Also you're a famous luchador which should be fun.