Building 3 NPCs I never built

[Hyperversum]

So, hi there guys!

I was preparing to restart my "main" campaign after 2 months of "hiatus" because of college and various jobs of my friends, and they are starting to go "up" in the levels. Since today was a good day to write a bit of the plot and preparing things I was thinking about doing the maths behind these 3 NPCs they met through the campaign.
This because they may see an "encounter" between them.

1) A Level 13 human Wizard, (3 Wizard/ 10 Mage of the Arcane Order, nevermind the PRC before level 5) who gave them their first job and that is anyway positive towards them.
I was thinking to make a "scheming" guy out of him, since he is also a politician, but making him an Illusionist would be pretty out of place.
Any suggestion to give this feeling of "I was 3 step ahaed of you" without abusing Divination which would feel to cheap?
I would have used a Conjurer ground-controller with also a focus on counterspelling, but I didn't want to just use the same build I did for my personal wizard in another campaign ahahah!

2) Another human wizard, same level same classes. These two are supposed to be rivals in their private lives but allies in politics (studied under the same teacher, and magic is a pretty big political deal in our setting). I wanted to give him an "*******" feeling, without making him an outright villain, since he indeed put some mercenaries to take away an item from the party, but didn't try to kill them actively.
I had already some ideas for this guy: Conjurer who uses Planar binding to get some critters in front of him and that then tries to take down people with Negative levels (Enervation or similar effect) but I am not exactly an expert in necromancy.

In general, for these two I would like to hear some tricks or combos, general ideas on how to make look the high level spellcaster impressive more than dangerous (The party is mostly of new players, and they are new to the setting), in particular since the party will need to take some decisions after seeing their "encounter", which may end in fighting depeding on their actions.

3) Another NPC, who they meet but didn't interact much with.
A counselor of a count, the "guy that gets the job". And actually is a cultist of Asmodeus behind all the devilish cults in the region, and manipulates even some demonic cults.
I was planning him to be a cleric, in order to make him a more "general" possible encounter (the "noble wizards" of our setting generally doesn't go gishing, it's more an elven thing), but while I was writing him I realized that while I used a lot of divine spellcaster personally, I never built one that uses this power in a covered and "stealthy" way.
I am without many ideas, probably an Archivist would be better?

Any idea will be appreciated!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. For this guy I'd go for a few strong enchantments and a mundane spy network. I'd actually make him a specialist Enchanter with Social Proficiency (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#enchanterVariants) from UA to get Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive as class skills. As an enchanter I'd make his prohibited schools evocation and necromancy.

If you don't want him to be an Enchanter, consider using the Filidh alternate Wizard class in Dragon 324 page 90, if he could have originally been from a barbarian society perhaps which was absorbed into the current nation decades ago. It replaces the Wizard feats including Scribe Scroll with Bardic Knowledge, and a bonus on Divination spells starting at 5th which he won't get. It has different weapon proficiencies including shortbow. It gets Gather Information, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Survival as class skills, but loses Profession which is worthless anyway. He won't need Survival but the other three are absolutely perfect for this character. Still give him Survival ranks and make him an avid/obsessive hunter and he'll always have his bow with him.

Consider giving him Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) which is brokenly good but should give him necessary advantages. The item should be a quarterstaff, or if you go Filidh make it an Elvencraft composite shortbow from RotW, which counts as both a club and a shortbow. In any case it needs Masterwork to be purchased twice, it can have two wand chambers from Dungeonscape, and the two portions would be upgraded separately like a double weapon. If he takes Item Familiar at 3rd level he can invest his 4th-13th level skill points into it to get a fantastic return in skill bonuses to those above social skills.

It can also be enchanted like an intelligent item (per item creation rules, regardless of the item familiar level requirements), and as an intelligent item it counts as a construct, it gets actions in combat, and it can activate its own abilities. For example, Darkness 3/day is 6,500 gp, so any 2nd level spell should be that price, give it Wings of Cover in Races of the Dragon which the item can activate as an immediate action, but limited by the item's own senses or possibly their empathic link.


2. Take some pointers from my posts in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?353631-Sorcerer-BBEG-fight-help-for-my-game-tonight), I'm still quite fond of what I came up with that day.


3. Thaumaturgist (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/thaumaturgist.htm) would be very fitting. Invisible Spell with summoned creatures may not be what the designers intended, but it's unbelievably good. Give him a weapon with Sudden Stunning in DMG2 and a decent Cha. You may want to use Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) for skill points, and use domains that grant additional class skills like Trickery.

I'd even consider making him a variant Half-Fiend (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a) based on something like a Barbed Devil (+4 Str, Dex, Con, Cha, +3 natural armor, two claws, no wings, DR/Good, replace a few of the default spell-like abilities). Give him a high mundane Disguise check and supplement it with a Hat of Disguise. A low DC Gather Information check about him will reveal a rumor that he has many burn scars that he tries to hide, a rumor he originally started, in case anyone sees through the illusion and also notices the mundane disguise. He'll wear gloves to conceal the claws, but they can rip right through the gloves if he decides to start swinging.