Swashbuckler or Paladin are both fine. Swashbuckler(especially inspired blade) or any of the swashesque archtypes Daring Champion, Virtous Bravo can all do fine with a 10 or even 8 in strength. And you really don't care much at all about the step down weapon size.
EDIT: Melee only, losing my mind. Any fighter or barbarian can honestly do fine as a small race. Maybe not quite as decent as their human counterparts, but honestly they do fine.
The Mouser Swashbuckler archetype is built around being smaller than your opponent.
Slayer with dervish dance and take the feat multiple times that gives you extra sneak attack dice up until you match a rogue of the same level.
Simple easy, nasty. :)
Dawnflower dervish dard. Throw away your scimitar, and then grab brass knuckles and punch everyone to death as revenge for being smol.
Seriously though- it has double inspire courage, which means +8 attack/damage on every hit, and you add +5 damage with arcane strike. That means TWF and archery are very, very powerful options because that is a lot of static bonus to damage.
I've played a halfling hunter from level 3 to 17 and she was a melee killing machine. I used the animal companion as a mount and focused the build around flanking and AoOs. Outflank, Pack Flanking, Paired Opportunists, and Combat Reflexes are a golden combo. I also took 4 levels of Unchained Rogue to get dex to damage and used the talents Combat Trick and Weapon Training for extra feats. Slap Keen on a rapier or cutlass and get crits on a 15 and boom. Everything around you is dead.
A magus whose damage is mainly spells works fine. Similarly with a bad touch cleric.
Along the same lines as the swashbucklers mentioned there's a daring champion cavalier; if you get to add twice level to damage an ability bonus as well is superfluous.
Warpriest. No need to worry (much) about weapon damage dice, plus all the other nice tricks that a warpriest gets (like using Fervor to cast a swift action divine favor at 2nd level).
Not a pure melee class but Rage Chemist Alchemist combo works. Mutagen adds +4 to his strength add Enlarge Person he isn't some small weakling. Take a few levels in a martial class say fighter for the feats or maybe Monk if you Wisdom is high enough.
Goblins have a racial alchemist archtype which is almost better then a cavalier. The mount is either a Dire Bat or Giant Vulture. When given the chance to enlarge the critter take the stat bump instead to keep it medium size. Their is a feat which allows you to take four levels of a different class where you still get to level your companion. So go fighter for feats. You become a skirmisher with your mount. Take discoveries that change and enhance your bombs.
Never play a ragechemist alchemist. Having your Int drop so you can't use extracts is bad enough, but the penalties to Int can stack high enough to make you take a nap in the middle of battle. Which is as suicidal as it sounds. And those penalties are largely incurable except by time - no swigging a potion of lesser restoration to get rid of them.
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My wife's first PFS character was a halfling underfoot adept monk. At low levels, she did very little damage, but excelled at tripping foes to provide easier targets for the other melee PCs. With judicious use of ki and a mage armor wand (bought so an ally could use it on her), she almost always had a good AC for her level.
Her AC and damage output significantly improved around level 7-8(?), when she could afford a monk's robe. Around the same time, she discovered that a merciful vicious amulet of mighty fists was a lovely tool for taking enemies out quickly without killing them.
Sadly, Greater Trip was omitted from the archetype's bonus feat list, so she had to qualify for it the hard way. But by 11th level, her usual opening tactics were pretty darn devastating:
Round 1: Move straight into the middle of the enemy ranks, using ki, Spring Attack, and Mobility to avoid hits. (She usually didn't bother with Acrobatics, because it slowed her down, and her AC was that good.) Trip the most dangerous-looking foe, then take the AoO for Greater Trip.
Round 1, allies' turns: The melee types move up to threaten and flank as many enemies as possible.
Round 2: Whirlwind Attack (possibly with Lunge?) to trip as many enemies as she can reach, granting AoO's to herself and her allies.
Round 3: If anyone's still fighting back, rinse and repeat.
Yell, BOOMURFACE! at the horse lovers as you play a Goblin Gunslinger!
Get Dex to damage with guns at level 5 and enjoy the carnage that comes with your +4 Dex racial bonus. Sneaking up on them with that Dex bonus and another +4 for being small size. Surprise Snipe them and Stealth with that mega Stealth you should have. Or just win initiative with that Dex score and Full attack the flat footed suckers at the start of the round. I recommend the Musket Master archetype.
You can leave Gunslinger to multi class after 5. Unchained Rogue will get you Sneak attacks and Debilitating Injury. Ranger will get you Favored Enemy, feats, and you can take the Boon Companion feat after 4 levels of Ranger to get an Animal Companion that's just 1 level lower than a Druid of your level.
Halfling hunter with a wardog mount and the outflank shenanigans probably.
This is a great example of how that works out. I'd look at wallace the whirlwind.
Halfling paladin/uRogue multiclass with a level of urban Bloodrager and the Extra Rage feat. 18 in dex by 4th (raging to a 24 w/belt), and at least a 16 in charisma. Skill points for days. Feats are a bit thin, but you don't need much.
I want to say 2 ratfolk slayers (cohort or bring a friend :D) using swarming with blade and brush style for finesse reach sneak attack action.