I heard some rumors of people rabidly defending the power of familiars during the pf2e playtest, however, this diverges significantly from my own play experience.
What are the usual, concrete combat uses of a familiar, assuming using specific familiar abilities, and assuming no specific picks or combo?
I can’t quite parse what you mean by that, do you mean with either or?
You could give it Masters Form and a shield to have it bodyblock, and Lifelink to keep it alive when it takes hits. This strategy is best used on a Champion or Monk, rather than a wizard or witch.
You can use it as a 1-day “Quicken Spell” with the Spellcasting ability.
You can load it up with Skilled (Specific Lore), Independant, and Speech abilities to act as a free-action enemy scanner.
A familiar can’t quite activate an item, but it can release an item from a high distance using Manual Dexterity + Flier, breaking open jars containing items affected by Shrink Item, or Inhaled Poisons.
yeah I meant a/ what can you do using specific ability and then b/ what can you do in general without them