PF, Level 5, Meele challenge for party of 3 casters

[Man on Fire]

ANY of ŚKF Pathfinder group, do NOT read the following post.

I'll be dming soon a party of 3 casters
* Wizard specialising in Creation with banned Necromancy and Transmutation, summoner/blaster^
* Bonded Witch with a wand, blaster/debuffer^
* Druid with animal companion, buffer/summoner^
Who might be aided by either Ranger or Bard as fourth player.

^ - I give these describtions vaguely really, they're not strongly optimized and focus more on roleplay.

Plot in spoiler

An important character here is general in charge of defenses of important city, experienced, wise soldier, his people love him and he really loves his wife, young but wise and caring woman with weak magical talent.

A year ago, his wife started undergoing horrible, grotesque transformation and slowly turning into giant spider. General ordered his men to turn his castle's dungeons into labirynth in which he trapped the creature, unable to kill what had remained from love of his life.

Months later he had meet the wizard, who walked into the town, claiming to be transmutation specialist. General told him his horrible secret, and wizard promised he will find a cure. Genaral made him his personal court mage and followed wizard's instructions.

First of all, wizard claimed he needs material for his experiments, if he is to find a way to reverse the process. For this reason every young man or woman in the city who had shown signs of magical talent has been given to Wizard, officially so they can be trained in using magic to defend the kingdom. In reality, Wizard performs sick experiments on them, turning them into monsters and torturing for his own entertainment. He later throws them into labirynth, as "fodder for dungeon-crawling fools". You see, general was feeding his monster wife criminals, but once he had realized he is running short of people deserving death penalty, Wizard suggested spreading rumors the dungon contains general's "greatest treasure", so greedy adventurers would try to raid it, slaughter failed experiments and then gets eaten by a giant spider.

The truth is, Wizard is really agent of kingdom antagonistic towards the one who put general in charge of the city. It was he who turned general's wife into a monster, in order to estabilish himself as court mage. Now he is estabilishing web of agents both in the city and far deeper into the kingdom, slowly increasing his influences in the city, so in future his superiors can take over the city without use of force, removes all magically gifted beings, who would be a niusance in case forcible takeover was necessary and eliminating people who would be even worse niusances in case of invasion - adventurers.

Wizard also has a Young Gug he kidnapped, imprisoned and experiments on, in order to gain it's abilities and knowledge - in this setting there is connection between various kinds of Aberrations, connection wizard is trying to explore.

Players will be requested to save a girl kidnapped by the wizard, and suggested to enter the dungeon in order to infiltrate the castle. There are several ways it may go from here. PCs may decide to kil lthe general, they may expose the wizard to him (in which case he will immiediatelly attack the guy), free the Gug, who will force the wizard to flee, but may then turn against them (in which case General might come to aid them, if persuaded to) or fight the spider (in which case, if they persuaded him enough, general might come to aid them, being unable to bear the guilt anymore).

There is also the kidnapped girl. Which wizard had turned into a drider and drove so insane that she might come to aid almost any side (generally, my wild card in case ecounter would be too hard or too easy), unless PCs will outright kill her.


Generally, what I need is some sort of important figure, who is a meele class to provide challenge for them and I have no idea what class he should be. Could you guys help me a little?
Few things to keep in mind:

* He isn't the strongest challenge in the adventure, but high one. I would say that fight with him is CR 7
* He is important figure, so he might have aid of soldiers (they count to the ecounter's final CR of 7).
* We don't use psionic.
* I would rather avoid Barbarian, if possible, doesn't feel right for person liek him.
* He cannot know much about arcane magic, so Magus is out of question.
* There is possibility he might aid the party against one of three possible final boss options, all of which are CR 8, and I would want him to be significant help, but not overshadow the players.

So guys, is what I'm asking for een possible?

[Feralventas]

Well, making a melee challenge for
>two casters who can burn them down or slow them with AOE
>Someone who can summon other melee combatants to help them out.

is going to be a challenge without magical means of mitigation.

>Cleric, lots of dispelling and counter-spelling effects.
>Cavalier with cadre of soldiers to help out and take advantage of their Teamwork feat buffs.
>Anti-Paladin with high charisma, debuff the party with their 10ft anti-fear-immune and -4 penalty on fear saves effect, then use said fear effects and intimidate skill to keep them dispersed and desperate. Still should have backup on this one.
>Monk/Rogue, slinks around in the shadows, Flurry of Sneak Attack when the opportunity presents itself, then runs like hell. If you hadn't required Melee, Zen Archery Monk for Flurry of Sneak Attack Arrows.

Just to name a few options.

[Silus]

Well, seeing as there's three casters, and their Fort saves are probably in the tank, why not a Wildshaping Druid that drops Fort-Based debuffs?

Ray of Sickening, Pox Pustules, Contagion, ect.

Have'em be joined by disease-immune Fey or something.

[Man on Fire]

Thanks for responses. Sadly, I don't think that Cleric or Druid works, I think such characters would know too much for the plot I described above works
I mean, Druid, who specializes in turning into an animal, should clearly see that the wizard turned his wife into a spider, Cleric probably wouldn't be so blind either.

Monk combos won't do either - I forgot to mention that Monk, Ninja and Samurai are banned classes here, they're anticlimatic.

Refluffed Anti-Pladin and Cavalier might work, through.

[VanIsleKnight]

Level 3 Elven Vampire Rogue.


This gentleman/lady would get:
-Immunity to a -lot- of stuff, magical and mundane
-DR 10/Magic or silver
-Fast healing 5
-(+6) Natural armor
-Once per day, a vampire can call forth 1d6+1 rat swarms, 1d4+1 bat swarms, or 2d6 wolves as a standard action.
-Dominate
-Energy Drain
-Change Shape
-Gaseous Form
-Spider Climb
-Evasion
-stupid high bonus to Perception
-Str +6, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4
-Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Toughness as bonus feats for being a Vampire
-2d6 Sneak Attack damage
-A Rogue talent


If you don't want to use a vampire though, because honestly I think that this might be a -touch- too powerful for them, there are other templates that I highly suggest you take a look at.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/indexes-and-tables/templates-by-cr-adjustment#TOC-CR4



EDIT: I know you said no Barbarian, but consider an Urban Barbarian. They get a controlled rage that gives a slightly lower bonus, and the following skill changes:

An urban barbarian does not gain Handle Animal (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), or Survival (Wis) as class skills; instead, she gains Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Linguistics (Int), and Profession (Wis) as class skills.



Last few things I can think of.
-A Rogue 2/Fighter 1(2) with either the Half-Dragon or Half-Celestial/Fiendish or Fey templates.

You'd get the skills for a military leader, the physical prowess to be remarkable in combat, and various other abilities that would serve as a major boon for the city-state/kingdom he serves, depending on the Lore.

Fit him with a mithril Breastplate so he can wear medium class armor and still dodge. Then give him 4-6 City Guards (Human Warrior 2, CR 1/3) to back him up and you're golden.

[Man on Fire]

Urban barbarian sounds interesting, so does Half-Celestial, thanks.
I rather won't make him a vampire, they just meet two in the previous adventure.