About recurring villians/antagonists.

[Yael]

During a recent playthrough, more specifically, at the Sunless Citadel, one sole goblin made it through the whole party and escaped. This goblin outmathched the Warblade in combat, and oversmarted the Fighter, just with his horsechopper and counter-tripping the tripper, and the Cleric wasn't doing that much, except for taking the full-defense action because she was "tanking", in the end, the goblin made it to drop the warblade to -4, the fighter was stuck in balance checks because he was kinda "dancing" over a dead goblin corpse, and the cleric just was taunting like: "Hey, you stu**d goblin, hit me if you can!" so the goblin ended up running away.

I want to use this very goblin as a recurring villian/antihero, but he was just a level 1 warrior, trained in fighting in groups. Because of what happened at the citadel, I'm thinking of using it as a tripper or something, we are using 3.5 rules with some pathfinder erratas and weapons (hence the horsechopper). Any kinda build or ideas to prepare this very character against a 4-6 party? He's seen them in combat, he fought them and mocked them during the fight, he KNOWS who's the cleric (or the dude that erases scars), he also knows who's useless and who isn't ("the warblade does nothing but run and take damage, and the fighter is just big and not-that-intelligent or good-looking, he could even be a goblin too".)

Also, if some lesser enemies with a mild intelligence score become recurring villians, how do you manage them? Just some tips for it?

[Flickerdart]

The goblin dropped a PC, which definitely earns him XP. Since it's likely not the goblin's first rodeo and he already had some XP, I'd give him a second class level in a PC class (with Elite Array). Maybe rogue, so he can set up traps for the party to trip over, and skulk around in the shadows.

Given that goblins are cowardly and sneaky, this goblin would probably convince some other monsters to attack the PCs, arming them with his knowledge. I'd say that the PCs should always be able to defeat the goblin in combat if they can get to him, and the goblin should know that, which means he should stay back and always run away when things turn sour. Ideally things will get to the point that the PCs are willing to do anything just to whack that goblin.

In the meantime, come up with some characterization for him; you never know when you'll need it. His entire home was destroyed by these adventurers, but did he have relatives elsewhere? Has he ever been outside the citadel's vicinity before? What motivations does he have beyond getting back at the PCs?

[LoyalPaladin]

We had a thread like this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388945-Recurring-Enemies) a while back. There is a lot of good stuff in there if you are interested.