Is there any way to make familiars useful at higher (10+) levels of play?

Question

Here's my problem.

I'm playing an Arcanist, currently level 12, Mythic 1 (fresh after level-up), so called god-wizard build (plenty of CC and pre-combat buffs for fights and swiss-army-knife for everything outside combat).

I have a familiar, Faerie Dragon (taken with Improved Familiar feat) that was a switch from my initial Thrush (which I gave to my cohort when I was taking Improved Familiar Feat).

Before Improved Familiar my Thrush was there just for occassional skill assists (especially diplomacy since I'm party's face), after Improved Familiar my Faerie Dragon was the best scout any party could ask for.

Then come level 10+. Planar Binding and my new best scout Zebub comes into fray. Does everything that Faerie Dragon can but better. I also have Prying Eyes for when I need to scan large area quickly. My familiar became completely redundant and there's nothing else on the Improved Familiar creatures list that can do what I don't have already covered. Familiar on my cohort (witch) is even worse, if it wasn't also the witch's spellbook it might as well not exist.

Now, I know there are archetypes, but apart from Figment, that I'm considering now (effectively a Paragon Surge spell every morning, better than a non-familiar I have now) there's nothing even remotely useful there. Valet could be acceptable in campaigns with tight time constraints (half the crafting time) but we closer to open world than story driven campaign so that doesn't apply to us.

What I expect from familiar? One of the:

• Utility. Some spells and SLA's that could lessen the burden on, my already strained, spell slots (Arcanist has fewest spell slots of all 9/9 spellcasting classes).
• Statblock that allows it to do things on it's own. Let's say send it as an advisor to local king would require familiar to have similar Diplomacy to me, alongside some usefull SLA's for social encounters.

Examples of what I would consider a usefull familiar (this wouldn't be RAW but just showing my expectations):

• Familiar leveling like a class, accumulating feats and possibly new SLA's,

...OR...

• Improved Familiar list that scales to like 10 HD or 10 CR at level 20 with full access to entire bestiary, not just a couple of selected creatures. On my current level Zebub would make a perfect familiar but in a couple levels this will also be too weak to consider.

[DISCLAIMER: We're talking RAW, well optimized play although not cheesy play.]

If there's a good familiar-centered content in 3pp books I'd love to get answers based on those. Easier to sell 3pp to GM than accept defeat and throw familiar class feature right into trash can.

Answer 1

Protector Familiar

My preferred use for a familiar at high level is the Protector archetype familiar. An improved familiar can not take it because they never get Speak with Animals of It's Kind, but at it improves your AC, at level 5 it increases your effective HP by 50% and at level 11 it increases your effective HP by 100% while also giving you an emergency "Stay alive" with In Harm's Way. With the damage numbers that can come out in high level play these abilities have saved my character from death a couple times.

Buff Monkey

Another effective use for a familiar at high level is getting one capable of using wands and scrolls. For the cost of a little gold it halves the time required to get your buffs up in an emergency.

I have never been able to find a solid consensus on familiars being capable of activating wands and scrolls, but from our interpretation of the rules, my DM has ruled that a familiar with hands, the ability to speak (or a ring of eloquence), and a master with enough ranks in UMD can use one.

Also there is no reason these two can't be combined effectively since your protector familiar should never be far from you.