Recommendations for Melee NPCs

[Kesnit]

My gaming group got tired of World's Largest Dungeon, so we switched to a setting based on Skyrim. (I'm the DM.) There are 3 players, and each player has 2 PCs. Stats (before racial mods) are 16, 16, 14, 14, 10, 10.


Human Bard 6
Human Fighter 3/Barbarian 3

Fey-touched (from BoEF) Human Warlock 5
Human Cloistered Cleric 6

Elf Scout 3/Ranger 3 (TWF tree)
I can't remember the last PC

What I would like to do is make some NPCs to serve as bandits, and level them up with the party. (The bandits would obviously be a few levels behind the party.) The caster bandits will be either SORC, or SORC/Warlock/Eldritch Theurge. (Makes it easier, as they have a set spell/invocation list.) I am not sure what to do with the melee bandits, though. I don't want to make them pure Fighters, as that will be boring. I'm thinking of Barbarians, but they can also become boring. ToB could be an option, but keeping track of which NPC has used which maneuver is going to become difficult as the party reaches higher levels.

Does anyone have some suggestions for what I can do for a melee class that does more than "I hit it with a pointy stick," but that I can use multiples of in a given combat?

[Jack_McSnatch]

First thing that comes to mind is Duskblade. Make the grunts fighter/barbarians or fighter/rogues, while the tough customers are duskblades.

[Flickerdart]

Well, what are the goals of a melee NPC? Well, what are the goals of monsters in what's essentially random encounters?

1. To fight valiantly
2. To die gloriously

For 1 - these guys should not be DPS people. Their presence should threaten - they should attack the people who don't want to be attacked, prevent the party from firing off their usual strategies, and generally do everything but OHKO people.

For 2 - these guys should know how to take a hit, and keep standing. Random encounters that crumple like paper are boring. The NPCs need a chance to reveal their cool abilities, and the PCs need to feel like they are fighting a real threat.

I recommend Totemist as the class to use. They are super customizable, they have ways of getting tough with AC- and DR-boosting melds, they have great mobility including flight and teleportation, and they can hit hard without needing long lists of spells or abilities. They also don't need magic items (so there's no loot), don't have the damage output of ridiculous chargebarians unless you really know what you're doing, and can run away to fight another day if need be.