Help with an NPC [3.5 D&D] (my players keep out)

[Fortuna]

So I'm going to be DMing a big, long, site-based set of adventures. I don't need help with those. My problem is that I want the PCs to be the first ones in millenia to get anything useful done about them. For that reason I have decided to have an NPC who has spent a long time working out how to bypass assorted things in these dungeons, as well as what is actually in the dungeons, and who can serve to get the PCs in so they can kick monster butt.

So what I want from this guy is this

• Huge store of knowledge, preferably justified by game mechanics, but only on one small subject
• Nevertheless somewhat dim, so the PCs have to solve the odd puzzle from his notes and memories
• Nearly useless in combat, but vaguely survivable nonetheless
• Must be able to move quickly
• Must scale with levels

So what race, class, feats, etc. should I give them? Thoughts?

[pffh]

Human expert. With skill focus in knowledge dungeoneering (and possibly history too) and with those knowledge skills and survival maxed.

He has enough skill points as a human expert to have less then 10 int and still be able to have a few skills maxed. Beyond that no idea.

[Eloel]

So what I want from this guy is this

• Huge store of knowledge, preferably justified by game mechanics, but only on one small subject
• Nevertheless somewhat dim, so the PCs have to solve the odd puzzle from his notes and memories
• Nearly useless in combat, but vaguely survivable nonetheless
• Must be able to move quickly
• Must scale with levels

So what race, class, feats, etc. should I give them? Thoughts?

Archivist with 10ish Wis should work out for you.

Knowledge-based class abilities, alot of skill points, all knowledge skills as class skills.

What else would you want from the build?

[Chrono22]

Double on the expert suggestion, but with some additions:
make him a ghost (as per ghostwalk). He retains his creature type, but gains the incorporeal (str -) and native outsider subtypes. The flight speed and ability to phase through matter granted by the incorporeal type are just icing on the cake... magical attacks against him suffer a substantial miss chance, and nonmagical attacks have no risk of harming him.
He can't eat, doesn't sleep, and can't contribute substantially to combat, but he also doesn't hold the PCs back.

[Fortuna]

Alright, after some thought, I have come up with the following build. This game is running from 4 to twenty or so, so this is what I thought might work. The book was neat, but just didn't gel with my idea of him. Using the elite array, at level 4:

Dwarf Expert 4

Str: 13
Dex: 12
Con: 15
Int: 8
Wis: 15
Cha: 10

Skills: Decipher Script 7 ranks -1 ability modifier
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 7 ranks +2 ability modifier +3 Skill focus
Knowledge (History) 7 ranks +2 ability modifier
Knowledge (The Planes) 7 ranks +2 ability modifier
Survival 7 ranks +2 ability modifier

Feats: Ancestral Knowledge [Races of Stone], Skill Focus (Knowledge: Dungeoneering)


At level 20:

Dwarf Expert

Str: 13
Dex: 13
Con: 16
Int: 9
Wis: 16
Cha: 10

Skills: Decipher Script 23 ranks -1 ability modifier
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 23 ranks +3 ability modifier +3 Skill focus
Knowledge (History) 23 ranks +3 ability modifier +3 Skill focus
Knowledge (The Planes) 23 ranks +3 ability modifier
Survival 23 ranks +3 ability modifier

Feats: Ancestral Knowledge [Races of Stone], Skill Focus (Knowledge: Dungeoneering), Breadth of Knowledge, Skill Focus (Knowledge: History), [No idea what to fill these later levels with]

[Kelb_Panthera]

If you wanna make him hard to kill, without making him dangerous, you could give him levels in the survivor PrC from savage species. 5 levels nets improved evasion, improved uncanny dodge, and mettle (I think,) but without increasing BAB.