I am curious as to which primarily melee characters can pick up a Familiar as part of their class/archetype.
I am aware that any class can pick up a Familiar by expending a few feats, but I am not interested in spending feats to get one.
I know there is: Duettist Bard and some kind of Bloodrager. Anything else?
All bloodragers, not just some, can take a bloodline familiar by surrendering their first level power and slowing their bloodline spells.
The Eldritch Guardian, a Fighter Archetype, gets a familiar and can share his combat feats with it.
A magus can get a familiar for just one magus arcana.
Explanations on how the Magus does it?
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(Edit: Ninja'd. Adding corrections.)
Actually can't find a Bloodrager archetype that does this, although Bloodline Familiar will do it. But I do know:
Alchemist (or other class that can take the right Alchemist Discoveries) with Tumor Familiar
Bard with the Duettist archetype (as you mentioned)
Bloodrager with Bloodline Familiar
Cleric/Druid/Inquisitor built for melee with the right choice of Domain
Daivrat prestige class (however, this is badly in need of an update from D&D 3.5 to Pathfinder)
Diabolist prestige class (sort of -- gets an Imp Companion that is sort of a cross between a Familiar and Animal Companion, and you can even have a separate normal Familiar along with it)
Fighter with the Eldritch Guardian archetype
Magus that picks the Familiar Magus Arcana (not compatible with the Black Blade archetype)
Paladin with the Chosen One archetype
Rogue with the Carnivalist archetype or the Familiar Advanced Rogue Talent (the latter requires Minor Magic and Major Magic)
Shaman built for melee (Spirit Animal = Familiar)
Sorcerer built for melee with a Bloodline Familiar and/or the right Bloodline(s) (if you don't use a Bloodline Familiar, you'll have to go Cross-Blooded to have a Bloodline that gets you a Familiar and a Bloodline that makes you sufficiently non-squishy for melee)
Souldrinker prestige class (gets Cacodaemon Familiar)
Vigilante with the Magical Child archetype
Witch if you can travel back in time to take the Pre-Errata Scarred Witch Doctor archetype (R. I. P.) or have a high enough point buy or set of ability score rolls to make it work in melee Post-Errata
Theoretically (but in practice doesn't scale right or otherwise doesn't really work):
Arcanist that picks the Familiar Arcane Exploit (but this isn't compatible with the Blade Adept archetype that you really need to be a melee Arcanist)
Any familiar-using arcane caster into Eldritch Knight.
Maguses get a class feature named 'Magus arcana' every 3 levels. One of the options is a familiar.
Carnivalist rogues get a familiar as a class feature. So do Chosen one paladins.
Magical child vigilantes get a very nice version of the familiar.
Courtly hunters get a sort of cross between an animal companion and a familiar. It looks pretty good.
Some of the druid animal domains give a familiar, and a druid can be very into melee.
Chosen One Paladin...interesting.
Aberant bloodragers with tumor familiars
Fiendish vessel clerics get a free improved famiar at level 3.
Mauler eyeballs.....what the?
A Battle Spirit Shaman gets a familiar with an AC bonus, and a Battle Shaman can get pretty deadly as a melee character.
If you want a different kind of eyeball familiar, you can also use an Augur. It's a kind of Kyton. It's description is slightly... freaky.
A Battle Spirit Shaman gets a familiar with an AC bonus, and a Battle Shaman can get pretty deadly as a melee character.
How so?
It doesn't even get Divine Favor...
Eldricht Guardian with a high strenght tiny familiar.
Pick the mauler archtype, and maybe the "eye for talent" human alternate racial trait.
Forexample you pick the Compsognathus ( 8 strenght, and tiny )
So at 3rd level with Human Racial Trait: +2str, Mauler Progression: +1, battleform +6 you have a familiar with 17str and share all of your combat feats.
Battleform is +6 with the +4 str bonus from going from tiny to small ( small to medium does nothing ) and a extra +2 as a part of battleform.
This ability uses the polymorph table for its size mods.
at lvl 5 you get 18strenght, and if you kill something while your familiar is watching it gets +2 to hit and damage for 1 round. Not sure how often its useful, but hey its a thing.
But: You can do this with every familiar, the only difference is 1: Human if you dont pick the Eye for talent feat. 2: Eldricht Guardian is the class that share combat feats with its familiar. 3: There might be better familiars out there, but the little raptor is my favorite... be careful not to pick a small familiar, as they dont get the size bonus to strenght.
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A Battle Spirit Shaman gets a familiar with an AC bonus, and a Battle Shaman can get pretty deadly as a melee character.How so?
It doesn't even get Divine Favor...
Some races, including Human, may pick up Cleric spells with FCB.
Battle Spirit grants an Inquisitor-style Bane effect, free Weapon Specialization, and access to Enlarge Person, while it's also fairly easy to grab Heroism.
Battle Shaman have a lot of potential, mostly starting around 8th with Bane+Weapon Spec.
Speaker for the Past with Battle Spirit and one level of Unchained Monk is a seriously awesome combo, since you can combine the Spirit Shield Revelation with Wisdom AC while using Flurry of Blows. You also get Heroism as a bonus spell, and the Temporal Celerity Revelation, and the ability to use Hex Strike: Evil Eye if so inclined. What you don't get is a familiar though.
Eldritch Guardian Fighter and take the Wasp Familiar feat, the wasp gets the stats of an imp without having to take Improved Familiar and then can still have the Mauler Archetype
This plus the shared combat feats thing makes eldritch guardian probably king of this question. mmmmmm teamwork feats.
Battle Shaman have a lot of potential, mostly starting around 8th with Bane+Weapon Spec.Speaker for the Past with Battle Spirit and one level of Unchained Monk is a seriously awesome combo, since you can combine the Spirit Shield Revelation with Wisdom AC while using Flurry of Blows. You also get Heroism as a bonus spell, and the Temporal Celerity Revelation, and the ability to use Hex Strike: Evil Eye if so inclined. What you don't get is a familiar though.
Hmm sounds kinda sexy...gotta look into this a bit more...
Aberrant Sorcerer and Bloodrager have a unique feat to get familiars.
Dont need a feat for that, its actually a option to change out your first level ability for a familiar.
At 1st level, a sorcerer, bloodrager, or any other character with one of the following bloodlines can choose to gain a bloodline familiar. The character gains a familiar (as a wizard's familiar), treating her class level as her wizard level for the purposes of this ability. This familiar has an additional ability listed below based on the master's bloodline.
This replaces the 1st-level bloodline power granted by the character's bloodline; in addition, the character gains bonus spells from her bloodline one level later than she normally would. For example, a sorcerer with the aberrant bloodline who takes a bloodline familiar would not gain the acidic ray bloodline power, and she would gain her first bonus spell at 4th level, her second bonus spell at 6th level, and so on.