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For context, I'm running the Mummmy's Mask AP. The party is currently in the Sightless Sphinx, the final dungeon in the fourth book, and the party is currently half-intentionally underleveled at lvl 10.

While the party is not out to build the most out and out broken combos that are possible, a lot of them are veteran Pathfinder players that manage to get the best out of their builds, and they managed to put together a group that works together incredibly well.

Consisting of a monk, paladin, bard, synthesist summoner, sorcerer and ecclesitheurge cleric.

The monk has insane damage output with flurry of blows, the Stunning Strikes that target Fortitude, and incredibly high AC (currently 31 with buffs) and mobility. Obviously the frontline, and one that manages to take out any enemy frontline before they can even make a dent in the monk.

The Paladin is similarly tanky, with built-in sustain with the lay on hands. Not as mobile and as many attacks as the monk, but high single target damage with smite.

The Summmoner (Synthesist) is built for grappling, with about a +30 bonus to any grapple attempt, and a CMD to match. Unless the enemy is specifically built for being able to escape that (particularly demons with their at-will teleport, or a Freedom of Movement buff), no enemy has a realistic chance of escaping that grapple. At best, they can squirm out of the pinned condition back into grapple and at least keep the Summoner busy for half the fight.
And the summoner has an insane HP pool and AC.

This is an absolutely lethal combo with the bard's favorite spell: Cacophonous Call. No standard action to free one-self from the grapple. No escaping when you only have one move action and the monk's base speed is already twice your own. And that for 10 turns? That enemy is basically gone from combat. Oh, also, it's a dirge bard, so not even undead are safe.
Followed up by Blindness, especially on the enemy casters.

Bard and Cleric are also great at undoing any CC put onto their party or getting them out of sticky situations with Saving Finale and Dispel Magic and Ethereal Jaunt. (And if the Cleric has nothing to heal, that's just a free +2 AC buff to whoever needs it the most right now.)

The sorcerer is fine enough damage output from the backlines.

Inbetween the monk, paladin and cleric, the party also generally has great wisdom saves, and overall solid saves.

The bard-ecclesitheurge-sorcerer backline is very squishy, but it's often hard to reach those, especially with melee enemies, because the three frontliners (especially the large-to-huge Synthesist) can block hallways and grapple-pull enemies away from the squishies with a ridiculous range.

I am more and more struggling to have encounters feel challenging and meaningful.

I basically run no encounter by the book. Every enemy by now - at least the standard minions - already get an advanced template and their HP set to 100% by default.
(Boss encounters may get some more fine tuning. Hell, I'm about to add Legendary Resistances and Legendary Actions to some of them.)
I also tend to just adding in two or three more minions at least.

And sure, as mentioned above, some encounters naturally come with buffs against certain effects of the party, like the teleport out of a grapple.

Obviously I don't want to blanket negate any of the player builds. But I also don't think that slaughtering their way through 30 nameless minions just to use up some of their resources is particularly thrilling gameplay, especially in the long run. Especially with the time combat tends to take...

The flipside would be to overtune an encounter so much that they basically just assassinate the squishy backline in some way. (See problem above - encounters of primarily/solely melee creatures rarely manage to even get into the ballpark of the backline).

I have a hard time justifying any intelligent creature facing the party to not try to run away after they mowed down the first two enemies, while the enemies in turn barely got to touch the party.

Now I'm looking at the next upcoming encounter: Rathos, a Broken Soul. The abilities and stats are well suited to actually leave some dents in the front line, especially with that Torturous Touch, and the Baleful Gaze can majorly debuff the entire party, depending on their rolls.
I look over to his will save and..... +1. You gotta be kidding me.

One Cacophonous Call and that combat is over.

Sure, Rathos is just a mini boss, but that would be so anti-climactic, especially after I build him up as the 'once second-in command' over the last couple of sessions.

I will be buffing that will save for sure. He's also not fighting alone, as survivors of previous skirmishes have gathered around him. Will add two or so spellcasters to his side with dispel magic at the ready. Maybe Haste too? That base speed of 20 feet is underwhelming.

Even so, I worry about whether the combat will feel dramatic enough. And after that? How would I stop the party from just retreating to rest up again so they're rejuvinated for taking on the big boss? Or should the boss just leave at that point? Because obviously, fleeing from the party seems like a reasonable action at this point, unless the enemies outnumber the party by 1:3.

Mind you, it's never my goal to kill the party, but I want them to feel like they could, in fact, die. And I want to get there without constantly having to target the squishy backline as an opening move. That doesn't seem feasible for every combat scenario, especially ones where the party barges into a room of enemies and manages to engage first.

I'd love to keep this campaign filled with tension, without having to just throw out and completely redo every encounter and dungeon planned in the remaining two books.

The bard has an audible Inspire Courage started, cancels it, has it linger via Lingering Performance.

An enemy then casts Silence on the area the bard is in.

Does the effect of the bardic performance continue or is it immediately drowned out by the silence spell? It seems that RAW is not very clear (I'd be happy to be correct), but would you say RAI the effect is still echoing from the bard, or is it just that the party members are still feeling inspired after the performance ends?

Would you consider "such as range or specific conditions" to include "the targets must be able to hear the bard for the performance to have any effect"?

Relevant rules texts:

If a bardic performance has audible components, the targets must be able to hear the bard for the performance to have any effect, and many such performances are language dependent (as noted in the description). A deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use a bardic performance with an audible component. If he fails this check, the attempt still counts against his daily limit. Deaf creatures are immune to bardic performances with audible components.

A 1st level bard can use his performance to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive the bard’s performance. An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. At 5th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +4 at 17th level. Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability. inspire courage can use audible or visual components. The bard must choose which component to use when starting his performance.

The bonuses and penalties from your bardic performance continue for 2 rounds after you cease performing. Any other requirement, such as range or specific conditions, must still be met for the effect to continue. If you begin a new bardic performance during this time, the effects of the previous performance immediately cease.

Hello people!

I have a Leshy Warden druid that I very much enjoy playing, but I am unfortunately a bit lost on the actual cost of creating new Leshy (via ritual, not summoning).

Here are the various excerpts that are relevant.

Leshy Caller (Ex)

A leshy warden is an expert at summoning and growing leshies. She counts as a plant creature for the purpose of growing leshies.

[source]

Leshy Creation Summary

• [...]
  
• Time: 2 weeks per HD. Plant creatures take half the time required to grow the leshy.
  
• Cost: never less than 1,000 gp. Plant creatures reduce the cost to create the creature by 25%.
  
• [...]
  
• Tougher Leshys: Each additional Hit Die adds 2,250 gp to the cost (and thus 4,500 gp to the overall price), increases the Knowledge check DC by +2, and requires an 2 additional weeks to grow. Attempts to create leshys larger than Small always fail—the strange spiritual energies that animate these creatures are only capable of doing so to a body no larger than that of a human child.
  

[source]

[Growing a Leaf Leshy

Leaf leshys are usually grown under the shade of fruit or nut trees. To grow a leaf leshy, the maker plants an acorn and pine cone together, then mounds up leaves, sticks, and needles around them. When first born, a leaf leshy has no armor, leafy cape, or weapon, but can construct them from available materials given a day and left to its own devices (no Craft check required).

CL 5th; Price 1,000 gp

RITUAL REQUIREMENTS

Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks, magic stone, plant growth, summon nature’s ally I; Skill Knowledge (nature) DC 12; Cost 500 gp

[source]

For a simple level 1 leaf leshy, is the base cost for a ritual I am doing 1,000 GP or 500 GP? Do I pay 750 GP or 375 GP? Can I at all, even though it says "never less than 1,000 gp"? Would the price automatically default to 1000 GP? Or can I only create a lvl 2 one? (That's a steep cost rise)

Please help, I need my little plant soldiers..

Many thanks!