[3.P] Building an Anti-Party

[Novawurmson]

So my level 8 party is chugging through a 3.P run of Rise of the Runelords, and I've been adding little bits to put my own style to it (most notably psionics). The party currently consists of a Human Cleric of Iomedae (focused on buffing/healing), an Elf Ranger (focused on ranged damage), a Tibbit Rogue (TWF with a little bit of Tob), and an Aasimar Summoner (brutal Eidolon with a lot of useful buffs and CC). So far they've steamrolled the majority of the opponents they faced with a mixture of good build choices, intelligent strategy, and luck.

What are some bits of advice for running a "mirror" match combat?

One of the characters I've added is a (spoiler alert) lamia matriarch who has been coordinating the lamias' actions. The party has heard of her several times, and seen her on one occasion. They've already seen some of the effects of her knowledge of them, even if they haven't quite recognized it for what it is (i.e. the mooks are killing all cats on sight, etc.).

My current idea for a "Linear Guild" for my party is as follows:

A Catfolk Marksman
A Drow Wilder focused on summoning astral constructs
A Tiefling Vitalist (Soulthief method) focused on draining the party's HP
A TWF Human Dread

[gomipile]

Well, keep in mind that this encounter is, by definition, 4 EL over the party. If you play it at all intelligently, you WILL kill or incapacitate at least one of the PCs in the first round or two.

[Coidzor]

A dread? A dread what? Dread commando? Dread necromancer? Dread pirate?

[deuxhero]

Dread Witch?

As for opposites. My suggestions

Human Buff Cleric - ??? "Battle" Cleric
Elf Ranger with ranged damage focus - ??? (Un)holy gun Anti-Paladin.
Aasimar Summoner - Tiefling Malconvoker Wizard (note you should wait till 10 to sic them on the PCs if you use this, as the Malconvoker's signature ability comes online at that point)

For the Unholy gun, the race has a few options
Dwarf: Classic anti-elf and makes sense for gun user. Needs some subrace that avoids cha and (preferably, but less importantly) dex penalties or blow a feat on Zen Archery and buff Wisdom in place of dex.
Tengu: Fast and frail. One is forest dwelling, the other mountian or urban. One Tolkien ripoff derived and based on western myth, the other on eastern myth.
Dhampir: Typically "modern" and "aristocratic", qualities in sharp contrast to elves.

Another alternate for the Summon is Slyvian Sorcerer (or 3.5 Druid, but you get some intresting buffs to share with the sorc/wizard list) with a feat to fix the animal companion level. The build is comparable to a Summoner.

[Azoth]

I have never been a fan of my anti - party being the same but different from the party. I find it works better if they can shut down the party's usual strategies and make them sweat and think on what to do to win/escape/survive.

Personally I would go battle field control wizard to hinder the summons usefullness and the archers ability to hide in the back and plink arrows. A debuff cleric to cancle the benefits of the buffer. A swift hunter for voley fire to act as cover fire and be a hard to pin down target. An unseen seer to counter the rogue and strategically lay down ability effects and shut down a target or two before the party can effectively stop the swift hunter.

[Novawurmson]

Probably should have prefaced: Dread, Marksman, and Vitalist are from the released portion of the upcoming Psionics Expanded (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8krr?Psionics-Expanded-Advanced-Psionics-Guide-Work-in-Progress) from DSP.

Marksman is a ranged specialist (random thought: Make mine throw instead of an archer), Vitalist is usually a healer, but it's got a specialization for stealing health, and Dread is a rogueish fear-based class.

[Particle_Man]

Use a half-orc barbarian, a succubus and a kobold, led by a fighter/rogue/magic-user that specializes in enchantment. :thog: :sabine: :smallannoyed: :nale: