"In fact, he might never even meet the PCs. So he doesn't really need weapon skills or Sneak Attack."
The fact that you think this means that he needs weapon skills and Sneak Attack.
If he's a Master Spy, why even make the character? By not putting him on paper, you don't limit his capabilities. By not giving him a face, you don't limit his expression. By not deciding his size, he is as big and as small as you need him to be.
You see, son, the lions eat the cantaloupes, but we become the grass. And the cantaloupes eat the grass.
Why not make two NPCs? One rogue, one diviner? While a single spy master is a nice concept, spies working together get better results.
Why not make a whole bunch of characters, but it's all the same character.
Instead of mixing a rogue and wizard you may want to consider a bard. They have all plenty of skills and bardic lore means they can actually have higher knowledge skills than a wizard. Lore master gives them the ability to take 20 on knowledge skills.
Bards get a lot of divination and enchantment spells so they have the magic covered pretty well. They are also a charisma based character with UMD as a class skill so can potentially use any divination spell in the book including divine spells.
As an old timer GM I understand your need to map everything in your campaign. The longuest campaign I ever ran was a thieves guild set in AD&D Waterdeep and besides all multiple sourcebooks from the publisher, I had two thick binders of maps (including the Inside of shops, important houses, etc.), and NPC character sheets. I had to be prepared for anything because I had (and still have) players who don't follow the usual timeline of modules and get strayed into subplots of their own devices more often then not.
For devising powerful NPC, it help to think "how did he or she ended up in that position? What make him so important/powerful/feared? (beside his current position/role).
How did he gather informations before he became a manager of spies? Intimidation? Charm? Might?
He or she might have been the best agent/spy for the previous master, so he would have high skills and levels in rogue or bard, including fighting and sneaking abilities he might not get to use anymore. He would have accumulated the best Equipment/magic items available to him/her.
He or she might be a charismatic priest of a god of secrets? A former courtesan (now head of a prostitution house?) of Calistria maybe? A Norgorber cleric posing as guildmaster of the merchants guild?
A Sorcerer or Wizard (specialized in divining? Charm?) completely obsessed with knowledge, ALL knowledge, small an big, whose power resides more in information brokering than magical prowess.
Questions that might help you orient the build of your NPC.
Playing fair? What?!
Why not make two NPCs? One rogue, one diviner? While a single spy master is a nice concept, spies working together get better results.
The Sith always come in pairs. No more, no less.'So did we kill the master or the apprentice???'
But seriously making a spymaster out of a Bard is a very historically valid option not to mention a very nice skill monkey. If you make him/her a long-lived race you can get a feat that adds +2 on knowledge skills. And for flavor make sure he/she has a high disguise skill. That way can interact with the PC's and they won't even realize they were not dealing with a lackey, but the master him/herself. So a high int and cha and some equipment to add to stealth and disguise. Make sure that he/she has a perform skill that is high so he/she can hide in plain sight by performing anywhere he/she wants and add some groupies, who are in effect lackeys. And another idea is to create a fake identity that is the main artist, who can be performed by multiple persons (both lackeys and the spymaster himself), that way the spymaster can really cloak his whereabouts even if someone realises he/she is the main artist.A high profile disguise and a low profile task. Some travelling equipment like a flying carpet, invisibilty cloak or an item with limited teleportation and multiple layers or hideouts might make a chase interesting to impossible.
And as a personal favorite: the beggar disguise, as noone will be interested in giving a beggar more then one look or some alms.
A bard works okay. If I'm playing fair and using a 15 point build, the bard's need for Cha gimps the character a bit, and also bards don't get such great divination spells. It's not thematic but that's not a dealbreaker. Could be a bard.
Doug M.
A bard gets the really necessary divination spells and often gets them earlier. They get Scrying as a 3rd level spell, where a wizard gets it at 4th. They also get Legend Lore at 4th instead of 6th. If you focus on spells that mainly affect the caster or information spells you only need a charisma high enough to cast your spells.
Alchemist (Mind Chemist/Psychonaut)
Gets some good divination, situational boosts to Int or Cha, Double Int bonus on Knowledges, Bruising Intellect and Affable for traits. Making him middle aged would give bonuses to Int and Cha and would be thematic as well.
Nice bard build Ughbash, But I would take Sneak instead of handle animal.
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If you are looking to do something unusual for the actual spy master, you may want to consider making it an intelligent item (special purpose - preserve & secure the kingdom) rather than a person. Have it be a short sword or badge of office that selects the person who is the "face" of the office, but is actually just the item's secretary. This way it can have different "wielders" for different functions and still always seem to be in the right place at the right time for whatever you need them to do as the GM.
-TimD
Something like this might work for you:
The Spy Master
Race: Human (Focused Study and Silver Tongued alternate racial traits)
Class: 20 levels Rogue (Spy and Sanctified Rogue Archetypes)
Favored Class Bonus: Human 1/6 of new Rogue Talent and 2 Skill points
STR: 10
DEX: 10
CON: 10
INT: 18 [1st and 2nd Ability Score increase]
WIS: 10
CHA: 13 (15 after racial adjustment) [3rd, 4th, and 5th Ability Score increases]
Traits: Wanderer’s Shroud / Alchemical Intuition / Canter / Patient Optimist
Level / Feats / Talents:
1. Feat: Skill Focus (Disguise) / Feat: Additional Traits
2. Talent: Minor Magic – Detect Poison
3. Feat: Eldritch Heritage (Rakshasa - Silver Tongue)
4. Talent: Major Magic – Vanish
5. Feat: Deceitful
6. Talent: Guileful Polygot / Talent: Convincing Lie
7. Feat: Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
8. Talent: Coax Information / Skill Focus (Gather Information)
9. Feat: Leadership
10. Talent: Skill Mastery
11. Feat: Improved Eldritch Heritage (Rakshasa - Mind Reader)
12. Talent: Slippery Mind / Talent: Familiar (Rat or Raven probably)
13. Feat: Improved Eldritch Heritage (Rakshasa - Hide Aura)
14. Talent: Hard Minded
15. Feat: Combat Expertise
16. Talent: Hide in Plain Sight - Urban / Skill Focus (Bluff)
17. Feat: Greater Eldritch Heritage (Rakshasa - Alter Self)
18. Talent: Rumormonger / Talent: Weapon Snatcher
19. Feat: Improved Disarm
20. Talent: Feat – Master Alchemist
On a second look, I might change the Major Magic selection from Vanish to Charm Person. Also, if there is a feat in there you don't need or aren't interested in, or if you want to switch the focus of an existing Skill Focus feat, I might swap it for Skill Focus (Use Magic Device).