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Lubella Heathertoes is my Hells Rebels character: a halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard (currently lvl 7). She is primarily a melee fighter.

Her essential spells are Good Hope, Mirror Image, Heroism, Moment of Greatness and Liberating Command. She focusses on both Perform Dance and Perform Sing (Both play an important part in the AP.)
She doesn't use Masterpieces.

The AP gives bonus Rebellion feats, which are included in her progression. She is a holy warrior of Sarenrae, and will eventually take the Sarenrae's Mercy feat.

Action Economy: Move Action: start Battle Dance, Swift Action: Arcane Strike, Standard Action: Attack
At 8th lvl, Standard Action: Cast Mirror Image (replacing destroyed images), Move Action: Meditative Whirl, Swift Action: Quickened Cure Moderate Wounds.

She is equipped mostly with found items (cash is in very short supply) She did save up for a mithril scimitar (important to by pass devils' DR/silver). Arcane Strike makes a magic weapon a low priority.

She took Leadership at 7th lvl, to advance roleplay goals. Her cohort is a healing-focussed human Hidden Priest of Sarenrae. He is deliberately meant to play a mainly background role, so as not to overshadow other PCs.

Good Hope is too good to pass up, IMHO.

I think a Buffering Cap is a good idea for a melee character, to guard against an unfortunate critical hit.

Shaman -- let's assume that everyone takes this racial FCB, but maybe not Arcane Enlightenment (or is it so good that everyone ought to take it?)

I played a half-orc Speaker for the Past Heavens Shaman, and did NOT take Lore/Arcane Enlightenment. I was still able to cast Heroism (Ancestor Mystery), Haste (Speed or Slow Time Revelation from Time Mystery), and Contingency (Time Mystery), not to mention Overland Flight and Chain Lightning (Heavens Spirit). And of course I used the half-orc FCB to grab Blessing of Fervor from the Cleric spell list.

I did all that with Charisma 8. The Guiding Star hex allowed me to add my Wisdom modifier (+10 late game) to charisma-based skill checks when I could see the open sky at night (as this was Strange Aeons, this was fairly common at higher levels).

You could incorporate 4e style skill challenges into an encounter. Perhaps the party needs to disable a portal before something comes through: eg 3 successful Arcana checks before 2 failures, with a time limit. You can also have crossbow traps that need to be similarly disarmed in combat.

[EDIT] The key here is that failing the skill challenge doesn't make the combat impossible, just harder.

I'm playing a halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard; she's the party striker in our Hell's Rebels game. The recent underwater section has cramped her style a bit though.

Please note that The instructions to clear cookies on Chrome were not sufficient to resolve the issue for me (after several attempts).

When on the paizo website, I had to click on the padlock icon in the browser bar, which gave me the option to clear the cookies in use. Afterwards, I was able to log in without resorting to an Incognito window.

How about Irrepressible, to use charisma instead of wisdom for Will saves against charm and compulsion effects?

You should absolutely be worried about a low will save. You should consider Iron Will and Improved Iron Will mandatory for a class with a poor will save progression. Indeed, most characters would do well to consider taking Iron Will.

I consider the 1e Rogue to be a failed class. I've enjoyed playing a Rogue in D&D 4e and Pathfinder 2e, but I won't consider paying one in 1e.

It's built into the Strange Aeons AP, where the PCs start out in an asylum, with several years of missing memories.

Strange Aeons… that's the one with Aberrant creatures, right? Are there lots of undead in that one? If so, pad300's advice is spot on. If you're looking to control aberrations, there may be bigger challenges at play. It may simply be that foes are afflicted with either an alien mind or some form of madness that immunizes them from "mind control" type spells, and I don't know of a work around for that.

Correct: plenty of aberrant creatures and undead.

FWIW. I'm playing a caster focused half-orc Speaker for the Past Heavens Shaman in Strange Aeons (currently in Book 6). While very suitable for the AP, this might not be the best choice for you girlfriend: there's a lot of complex things going on with this combination.

EDIT: It's OK to have Mind Affecting spells, but you need to have a plan B for when you run into immunities.

EDIT: Another player is playing a Madness domain Witch, based on the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. While limited at times, it's certainly thematic: his character IS insane!

You also only have one set of stats. Along MrCharisma's line of thinking, you could consider something like a Kensai Magus | Intelligence based caster. That gives you Spell Combat to help with action economy, along with better defences (Int to AC).

I'm playing a Ratfolk Bladebound Kensai Magus | Silksworn Occultist that, while not a full caster, has good utility, can fight in melee, has plenty of Ocultist powers and a decent selection of spells.

Past 1st lvl, I always buy cold iron ammunition instead of regular.

Wind Walk allows a 12th lvl party of five with a cleric or oracle to fly at 60 mph for 12 hours (up to 720 miles).

My PC in Hell's Rebels has officiated over funerals for two NPCs:

Funeral #1

Funeral #2

She's a bard, not a cleric; bards can be priests in the Church of Sarenrae (although she's not ordained).

Repurposing a PC after several levels usually results in a weak character that's a drag on the party, IMHO. I would ask about retraining some or all of you class levels.

If you get swallowed whole, you need a light slashing or piercing weapon if you want to cut your way out. Your greatsword won't help you.

Also, some weapons don't work very well underwater.

I think that the intent is that the total damage healed is capped at 35 hp. I agree that it's badly worded.

I played an elven alchemist in Mummy's Mask that was an amalgam of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and Richard Francis Burton, with a splash of British Indian Department agent thrown in. It worked out to be a very memorable character.

Well, there is a DC 41 Will save in Strange Aeons at lvl 8! An extreme case admittedly. :)

My characters usually have something like a trait and one saving throw feat (rising to 2 feats later on). I usually spend about a quarter of wealth advancing a cloak of resistance. Once levels get into the teens, failing a saving throw is often quite painful.

Halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard: I can still hit with my bad rolls. :)

I successfully filled the party healer role in Ironfang Invasion with a high strength reach Shaman, from 1-17th lvl.

In an ultra low-wealth campaign like this, pet classes are indeed very powerful. So a summoner would indeed be very strong, but the power imbalance in the group would only get worse. Unfortunately that's pretty much inherent in the type of game that the GM is running.

When I played an Inquisitor, I found Judgement Light very useful, since it has so many different possible effects, depending on which Judgements you have active (you will typically have 2 active, giving you 2 different effects). Overall, I found it to be my best 4th lvl spell. IMHO. the amount of versatility in that one spell is invaluable for a spontaneous caster.

I have had GMs that DO track encumbrance; I personally pay fairly close attention to it.

I've occasionally encountered important strength checks. In Ironfang Invasion there was a very heavy door that required a high DC strength check to open in order to progress. In another campaign, my Halfling Bloodrager recently bent the bars of a portcullis to allow several PCs to escape an otherwise-deadly trap.

My PC for Curse of the Crimson Throne was a private investigator, so may not be what you're looking for.

I played a Halfling Aldori Swordlord in the Pathfinder Kingmaker computer game, where it worker pretty well. Cautious Fighter is quite effective for a PC that wants to fight defensively all the time. I can't remember my exact progression, but it involved a single level of Scaled Fist Monk, 2 levels of Paladin and 4 levels of Thug Rogue.

The Dawnflower Dervish is rather different from the Dervish Dancer (better IMHO).

Here's my current lvl 8 Giantslayer character: a halfling dawnflower dervish bard (20 point buy). I think she would likely be suitable (without knowing the details of your other party members). This character is a melee fighter with good social skills.

Equipment is a mix of found and purchased items (mostly found), so isn't necessarily optimal, or average WBL.

Defences: AC 22 (often with Mirror Images), 75 HP
Fort +8, Ref +14, Will +7 (+5 vs. charm and compulsion)

Note that Inspire Courage's hit and damage bonuses are competence, not morale.

Suggestions:

Cilclet of Persuasion (occupies head slot, not headband slot).
A metamagic rod of extend for use on Good Hope.
Buffering Cap (more for melee PCs).
Page of Spell Knowledge.
Quick Runner's Shirt (not as strong as it used to be, but still useful).

Niche Items:

Ring of Maniacal Devices.
Vest of Escape.

A Dawnflower Dervish has such a high attack bonus, that you can sometimes still hit on a 2, even when fighting defensively!

The disadvantage of Enchantment is that immunities to mind-affecting are relatively common, depending on the campaign. Conjuration is more reliable that way.

Halfling is the race you're looking for: small size has very little downside for +1 to hit and +1 AC.

I prefer pure Dawnflower Dervish, aiming eventually for Celestial Armor (+9 Armor Bonus, +8 max dex).

Halfling 20 point buy (after racials):
Str 8
Dex 18
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 8
Cha 16

Alternate racial trait: Fleet of Foot

Traits: Irrepressible, one other

Feats:
1. Toughness
3. Arcane Strike
5. Improved Initiative

The Dawnflower Dervish Bard spends the least amount of feats to get Dex to damage: none. :)
It's a different style of play however, so may not be for everyone. It does tend to be the tankiest of all the bards. The feat tax rules certainly do reduce the Dawnflower Dervish's feat advantage.

By the time you get 9th lvl spells, presumably you should have a +6 Wisdom headband.

IMHO, a potential melee character would want to use a reach weapon, hanging back and letting the enemy move in. As others have pointed out, you can't count on the other PCs for support. If it were me, I'd make a high-strength human or half-orc Speaker for the Past Shaman, with the Battle Spirit.

Suggested stats:

Str 16+2
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 8

Inital feat(s): Combat Reflexes, Toughness if Human

If you put maximum ranks into Diplomacy, you can be OK at it, even with 8 Cha. The Speaker for the Past archetype adds Heroism to you spell list, so that helps, and you can also buy a Circlet of Persuasion at some point. The Shaman list has a full range of healing spells for dealing with conditions. I wouldn't try to cover dealing with locks and traps, however.

Note that this build has a lot of moving parts, so it's not good if you suffer from option paralysis.

I suggest taking Improve Initiative. It reduces the times that you get caught flat-footed (and thus at lower AC) on the first round. I regretted not taking it earlier for my Dawnflower Dervish, for just that reason.

An important difference is that bards can cast Mirror Image.

A human or half-orc Speaker for the Past Shaman has a much broader available spell selection than does a Cleric, in my experience.

I've played a couple of Shamans: a human Flame Spirit all the way through Ironfang Invasion, and a half-orc Speaker for the Past Heavens Spirit in Strange Aeons (currently in Book 5). I've found them to be very versatile. The Speaker for the Past archetype in particular is very good, and makes a strong tier 1 caster. You could argue that the Speaker for the Past is too good.

I personally feel that Arcane Enlightenment is a trap option. The Speaker for the Past archetype gets you a good selection of "arcane" spells without being MAD.

Shaman is arguably my favorite class.

With that in mind, I thought that knights, paladin and nobles clinging to traditional era could have developed a way to keep their traditional form of peasant wacking in melee by developing magical power suits or mecha.

Maybe allow Dreamscarred Press' Aegis class? They get an Astral Suit.

You can explicitly cast Primal Scream while paralyzed.

2. Elves. I just can't bring myself to play anything other than elves 90% of the time. I suffer from Elvaddiction Pls halp :(

Please call the Foundation for the Tragically Elf at 1-800-555-5555. You are not alone. :)

Being small is especially good for classes with dex to damage. At higher levels, the average -1 damage is more than made up for by the +1 to hit. The +1 AC is just a bonus on top of that.

The Steel Hound Investigator is a possibility, although it takes a lot of feats/talents to make it work. In general, melee/range switch hitters don't work very well in Pathfinder.

Halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard.

Partially equipped (8,350 gp not spent):

I'm personally also very fond of Good Hope, since it is Heroism on steroids for everybody in the party in range. Also, you can use a cheap Extend metamagic rod to get around the shorter duration somewhat.

And Good Hope can be further augmented with Moment of Greatness.

Glass Cannon?

Link: The Glass Cannon Podcast.

I'm a big fan of the Sudden Speed Transmutation power (Swift action +30' speed).

Sudden Speed seems like a standout to me, especially if you're in heavy armor.