i have created a home-brew summoner archetype that is kinda overpowered, but i made it that way purposefully
its basically a half fighter half summoner
it has a beefed up eidolon and a lot of fighter stuff, but i was considering instead using the Gestalt rules to just create a fighter-summoner
my other option ,which seems ALOT worse, is a paladin-summoner combo
with maybe a bit of hand waving involved with alignment
but oh well
as long as its scary, dangerous, and a true BBEG
i love a summoner as a BBEG because they are never just out done base on action economy
they have the eidolon to help as well as any other things they summon, and they have great battlefield control spells
giving it lots of HP AC and other stuff seems like it might make it much harder
but i have 5 players and this will be a mid-late game encounter when they're strengths really start to shine
the PC's are very new, but they are going to be backed up by a lot of GP
none of them have played a campaign before, at least not using real PF rules, so i wont go extremely hard on them, but they will have to try hard to get the best results
ANYWAYS
I've spent a lot of space ranting, and i just wanted to ask you guys, which path do you think i should take with my players?
we don't have a dedicated "tank" yet, but one character might end up as one if she plays it right. its looking like A LOT of DPS, and little- no healing.
i want to make this a challenging fight, but when they do encounter this, they will be at full strength, and the rewards for successfully completing it will be well worth it
if you guys have any similar alternatives that i haven't mentioned, please feel free to post them
If they're new, I'd recommend just sticking within regular rules. They'll be having enough trouble getting everything sorted out without having to face a powered-up BBEG, especially if you're going to use the homebrew archetype you mentioned.