Need some CR9-ish mobs for a nighttime attack

[Firechanter]

Hi playgrounders,

for a sudden turn of events in my PF game, I need some buggers to throw at my heroes on Friday.
The "party" only consists of 2 PCs, a Warder and a Ranger, freshly promoted to level 11.

I have decided to cannibalize some good parts from the Ironfang Invasion (IFI) adventure path. Of course, at that level I don't need to throw hundreds of CR1/2 hobgoblins at them. That's fine, I mean to make the horde more menacing anyway. For starters, in my game they won't be hobgoblins but something like monstrous bugbears. Wild, dark, strong but stealthy.



Ofc I could just pull some stats and abilities out of my axx, but I'd prefer to keep it as rules-legal as possible. Reskinning an existing race or monster would be fine.

What's also important is that these creatures need to be easy to use. I'm not the most routined of GMs and easily get overwhelmed when there are too many special abilities to keep track of. So ideally they'd just have a particular M.O. and I can just use the stats as they are.

I'm imagining something that can prowl around in dim light or darkness, hit hard, and hide again before they can get their punishment.
The PCs actually are pretty well equipped to deal with them as they have very good Perception and one of them even has Blind-Fight.

Some drafts:

Race: Monstrous Bugbear (Medium Monstrous Humanoid)
Str +2, Dex +2, Natural Armour +3, DR 5/Cold Iron, HD 3d10, Darkvision, Bonuses to Stealth and Perception
(would it be too much to give them 1d6 Sneak Attack as well, or some other ability that resembles the 5E Bugbear special?)

A) Racial 3 / Fighter 3 / Slayer 3 / Shadowdancer 2
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Combat Reflexes, Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus, Power Attack, Furious Focus
Special Abilities: Hide in Plain Sight, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge

Their M.O. would be to Study Target, sneak up on their victim with their high Stealth check, strike with PA and Sneak; target is flat-footed and thus easily hit.
(Note: the PCs are actually pretty well equipped to deal with this kind of attack; they have pretty high Perception and at least one of them has Blind-Fight. So it's not like I am seeking to tailor these enemies specifically to counter my players' strengths.)

Stealth check roughly +20 --> 50% chance to beat the PCs' Perception
Main Attack (Str 18) ca +17 --> Hit Chance vs PCs roughly 20-30% in the open; up to 60% if caught by surprise
Damage w Power Attack, Vital Strike and Sneak: ca 6d6+12
AC ca 22, HP ca 85

Gear should be consistent with Treasure for the resulting CR. Since that is just around 4500-5500gp for CR9-10, there won't be room for much in the way of magic items.

But that's really just a first draft, and probably an amateurish one at that. I just wanted to get the ball rolling. Do you have any other suggestions for race / classes / feats?
Or is that maybe already overdoing it for a pair of level 11 martial characters with no full-caster support? Since I mean to use these in gangs.
Thanks =)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Firechanter
Reskinning an existing race or monster would be fine.

Have you looked at the wikkawak? Sort of a cold-adapted, wild-woodsy bugbear.

[Arkain]

Where prowling around in the dark is concerned, you could consider templates. In particular I'd recommend nightmare creature, as it should be relatively uncomplicated all things considered and leaves a lot of space open for customization, being only CR+1. There are also shadow creature and shadow lord, if that is more to your liking. Fiendish is a bit vanilla, but might also work. For races that are highly customizable, fetchlings and wayangs are naturally attuned to the shadow plane and as a player race you can give them whatever you want in terms of classes and levels. Might make for good named villains.

Now, let's look at bugbears, because why not. If we go by Classic Monster Revisited, bugbears are all about fear, skulking around in the dark. Literally the monster in the closet or the bugbear under the bed, if you will. Let's add the suggested feats Sow Terror and Scent of Fear to the mix. Now add nightmare creature, or do so only for particularly fearsome bugbears. They stalk people in the dark, scare them half to death, sniff out the very fear they thrive on and when their victim falls asleep from exhaustion, they haunt their dreams until they die. Sounds creepy enough to me. Maybe add something like faces painted to resemble skulls, as the white face stepping out of the darkness heightens the effect by just the right amount.
For actual threats the PCs end up fighting you could divide them into a couple categories. One might be Primal Disciple Barbarians, give them the lesser undead blood rage power to drive home the point about fear some more, maybe some intimidate stuff. The racial hit dice should allow for maneuvers that aren't complete garbage at this level. You could switch around some disciplines here just because and go for something like Black Seraph, Cursed Razor, Unquiet Grave and Veiled Moon, depending on the "point" you want to make. I'd probably go with like 6 levels to test things, Power Attack + Furious Focus just as a wakeup call to take them seriously. Alternatively, maybe Primalist Bloodrager with a fitting bloodline?
Another option, if you like the fear angle, might be to go Thug Rogue, but be careful to not overdo it, maybe. Besides that, the whole idea with Slayer and Shadowdancer seems solid for nighttime attacks. Maybe do something like Slayer 4 to get going with sneak attack and Accomplished Sneak Attacker as a feat. Hellcat Stealth could also help you to circumvent the whole Shadowdancer thing and have the enemies plain disappear during ambushes at night. Combine it with the Stealth Synergy feat and it might be really difficult to ever notice them unless they want you to, which might just be the point.
If you include nightmare bugbears, the PCs might find they can't stop their regeneration - in that case, they just might retreat. Be sure to play up the part where they are tracked by fear, start hearing things and such in that case. Even surprisingly weak foes (run of the mill 5hd fodder bugbears for example) can seem threatening that way.

[Firechanter]

Some great suggestions there, cool. :)
Nightmare or Shadow Creature might be a good fit. The Nightmare regeneration is rly nasty, I'll have to check the PCs' abilities if they can suppress it at all. :o At least until they get their hands on Monster Bane properties for their weapons.

I'm rly staying away from Initiators for my NPCs, it's just too much bookkeeping for fluid gameplay, especially as I mean to use these in groups of 4 or so.
Thanks for pointing out Hellcat Stealth, I wasn't aware of this feat at all. So that's basically "HIPS for everyone, but at -10 penalty", might work in conjunction with the Synergy feat. ^^

That said, I really feel that Bugbears haven't received enough love in 3E/PF. Honestly the whole traditional concept of "Bogeyman in the dark" totally eluded me until recently -- before, I had mentally saved Bugbears just as "goblin brutes" with no discerning features. So I decided to upgrade them a bit and use them as the rank and file villains in the next campaign segment. ^^

[Arkain]

Oh yes, there is definitely some interesting stuff to be done with bugbears. Just using them as scruffy goblin brutes gets boring very quickly.

I can relate to wishing for a bit less bookkeeping to keep things fluid. If you wanted to play up the fear and unnatural bit, you could maybe try something like giving them 4+ levels of Bloodrager with the abyssal bloodline. Prebuff with Long Arm, maybe Shield and/or True Strike (if you can get an ambush). Just incorporate everything into the statblock, done. As they enlarge while enraged, you could emphasize how strangely the bulk comes to be, making it almost dreamlike. As they charge the character with their bizarrely long arms, the features grotesquely distort further, everything is completely out of sync until the moment a weapon comes swinging down that's about twice the size of the player character. You can reuse that in an even more exaggerated fashion if you want to go down the dream/nightmare route some more to hopefully leave a lasting impression, particularly when considering that people without about a dozen levels in a player class have to deal with them, too. Maybe really blur the lines between dream and reality there.