Melee classes can use two-handed and polearm weapons to get a sweeping arc, or special attacks (shield bash and whirlwind attack come to mind) for multi target. Also, depending on the game, melee classes (like pirate) can carry AoE items like grenados or Molotov cocktails. Though they're technically ranged, they are splash damage at short range and can be tossed by any skilled character (pirate, thief, or even demolitionist). AoE also has many purposes, as does the definition of melee. What kind of melee character are we talking? Tank? DPS (or DPT, for turn-based)? Then we have to assess the purpose of the AoE. Is it to weaken a group of foes that are approaching, or is it to harm a group of foes you're tanking so others with weaker attacks can finish them faster? Is it meant to harry and occupy/overwhelm healers or to break weaker targets? Different roles will have different types of attacks.

I'm thinking like the SaGa games, particularly Romancing SaGa onward, where your characters can learn weapon techniques from using the weapon, and some (like the bow's random shot in some games) do hit multiple enemies. The Alliance Alive also takes this approach. (Axe has a nice AoE in this game, whereas in SaGa Frontier 2 (which I've been replaying lately) it does not.)

Or, something like Stranger of Sword City, where the Samurai gets skills that do physical damage to an entire row of enemeis.

Even Dragon Quest does this, starting with Dragon Quest 5's whips and boomerangs. (Before anyone mentions DQ3, that game did not have such weapons until the SFC version.)

What if the game doesn't follow the usual tank/DPS role division that was popularized by World of Warcraft? (Before that happened, RPGs would use mechanics like the first character being targeted the most (Final Fantasy 1, SaGa 2), or use row mechanics where the front row characters are more vulnerable but back row characters can't effectively use short range attacks (Wizardry series, Final Fantasy from 2 onward).

The roles were always there, just never as carefully defined as the MMORPG games made it. You had your high HP guys at the top of the formation, in the front row because they could wear the best armor and take the most hits. They were still tanks, if not called that.

But they were also the best at single target damage, unlike modern tanks which typically do nothing but tank.

SaGa 1/2 might be the earliest games I can think of where pure tanking was viable (put a character in slot 1 and give them a shield, which the character is to use all the time), but even then SaGa 2 has the agility robot build, which can do tremendous physical damage while being impossible for enemies to hit (by attacks that can miss, so machine guns and magic will still hurt badly, and chainsaws will still kill).

A 'physical adept' of some description might work.

Although they are effectively magic users all thier magic is either intrinsic, or cast on self only.
Thier only means of attack is still purely physical.

They don't need any weapons, although they can use any melee weapons they find.
But the magic they use may or may not work through thier weapons (depending on setting), so bare fists are often preferred.

As for AoE, adepts will usually have either some means of drawing aggro from multiple hostiles and using that to thier advantage.
Or an ability which lets them directly damage multiple hostiles at the same time.

You may wish to interpret this as "you should put Jackie Chan in your game".

I've found that it's far more common to see "enchant weapon" mechanics than "enchant fists" mechanics.

The game I'm playing right now, SaGa Frontier 2, has "Hybrid Arts", which combine weapon attacks with magic, like Fire Wheel which combines an axe attack with fire magic. (There's only one AoE Hybrid Art, however.) Final Fantasy 5 lets you use Spellblade, but it only works with certain weapon types (and fists aren't one of them).

Dragon Quest 6 and later typically have a multi-target unarmed (at least in flavor, if not mechanically) physical attack. (I know it's in 6 and 7, though it might not be in 8 with its more limited moveset.)

In SaGa games, unarmed doesn't tend to be good for multi-target attacks; in the SaGa 3 remake, martial arts are the only weapon type to *not* get a multi-target attack! (This is not counting monster attacks.)

Succinctly put, thank you. Any physical tools and equipment in one's profession can be weaponized as melee or ranged. And as others have stated, it's very easy to come up with creative ways to make them AOE based. Might have to forego realism to achieve it, though.

That's OK.

I don't mind it when games have things like Dragon Wars's Gatling Bow that aren't realistic, but are interesting and fun.

Take inspiration from Lord in Fell Seal. Convert his "call ballista Strike" skill into a "call onager strike" and you have one. Or reskin the "call cavalry charge" skill as a "chariot charge" and he can do AOE on his own. Its equipment can be "retinue" and it's implied they always have a pile of underlings following them.

I never actually really used that class, for a couple reasons:
* I had other uses for Coronal Plumes (namely Princess and Fell; Warden is also good except that you can catch a monster that already has that variant).
* The class is only available to male generics, and I tended not to use that character type. (Plus Princess's skill set looked better to me, with being able to doublecast powerful healing and holy magic.)

Edit: On the other hand, I do remember using the Firedrake variant to give multi-target normal attacks to monsters, and combining Sylvan to make the attack heal allies that are in the area (while damaging monsters); probably the most powerful monster build I found.

(Note for those looking to buy this particular Final Fantasy Tactics clone: Monster recruitment and the whole monster variant system is only available with the DLC installed.)

I dunno, some kind of long slashing weapon like Guts' sword in Berserk.

Well, the problem may be that you seem to be the only person in this forum familiar with the "SaGa" games, or the NES version of Ultima IV. :)

Well, Pathfinder: Kingmaker has tsunami as Level 9 spell which deals Bludgeoning (physical) damage.

But, since we are talking about warrior type - speaking from real life perspective, AoE physical damage is out of the question because you can't just cleave through multiple opponents armor and all, at least for humans who don't have lightsaber. An elephant could do it by ramming and trampling; probably horse as well.

So, my answer:

Classes: elephant, horse, Jedi, Space Marine.

Weapons: natural attacks, natural attacks, Lightsaber, power weapons.

NES Ultima 4 doesn't have any AoE physical attacks.

The only AoE attacs in NES Ultima 4 are the following:
* Defeat spell (*not* Destroy): Damages enemies that are adjacent to the caster (no counterpart in Ultima 4 PC)
* Sqush spell: Damages enemies in proportion to their current HP (no counterpart in Ultima 4 PC)
* Tremor spell: Has a 50% chance of hitting each enemy for 200+ damage (which is, in practice, instant death) (PC version of this spell differs in that it fails to work on high HP enemies, and affected enemies are sometimes injured to the point of fleeing rather than killed outright)
* Enemy Tremor spell: Similar to the one you cast, but the damage is *much* lower, to the point where it really isn't a serious threat.

By the way, NES Ultina 4 is worth playing (but expect it to be different from the PC version); NES ULtima 5, on the other hand, is not.