A player in my current group just told me that he would like to run Kingmaker. Haven't read that myself, so at least I'm "unspoilt" in that regard. But reading the Player's Guide for it, it seems to be all about carving out your own kingdom (duh).
My first idea was some Henry V. (play/movie) type of character, but encouraging my natural ham tendencies might drive me into the realms of showboating. It's good if you're doing the BBEG, but as a player…
So having recently watched "The Thief of Bagdad" again, I thought about making some kind of "anti-Jaffar", giving good advice to the leader. Not the one doing most of the talking, though. Sensible advice, common sense and Sense Motive…
I think we'll already got a cleric, so that's out. A diviner or other wizard would be an obvious choice, but I'm looking for other options. A monk might be okay. Skills would be okay, and I could use the Wisdom bonus for class features, too. This might also allow me to do some moderate bodyguard duty ("Look, an assassin!" *swoosh* "Hi-keeba!"). This obviously won't be the str-focused build, so I wonder how well I'd do on actual adventure duty… Multi-classing into bard and rogue could be an option. (Of course, I might as well just play a pure bard or rogue, but I kinda like the "mystical advisor" role, and it would finally give me the option of playing a semi-interesting monk)
Any ideas on how to make this work, or other suggestions for this archetype?
Unless you're playing an Arabic-flavored court, rather than a wazir or vizier, the title you're probably looking for is "seneschal." Alternately, "chancellor" could work, as both are more European-flavored and don't come with an automatic assumption of plotting and mustache-twirling--though certainly weren't immune to it either.
As for what class to express this, I'd think good old Aristocrat could work, especially if this character is some minor noble from somewhere (refugee from Galt, perhaps) with no other marketable skills. They've got Sense Motive, Bluff, and Diplomacy all as class skills, good hit dice, weapon proficiency, and can wear armor if need be.
Their motivation can be fairly simple: Trained for rulership, they're not that great at this "carving out a kingdom" business, but attaching themselves as part of the loyal retinue of the PCs? Not a bad idea at all. After years of loyal service, the PCs might settle lands and titles on them as one of their loyal vassals if they don't decide beforehand that prince or princess charming makes a really excellent royal consort.
You want to make them a little more mystical? Give them a couple levels of witch to round things out, plus give them a familiar which works as a stylish spy. No one's going to blink at a prince with a noble falcon or princess with a pet cat (though a prince with a pet cat starts to step into villain tropes even stronger than your average plotting wazir).
I would say it looks like a job for an Inquisitor. Wisdom based with some martial skills and abilities. Can be a investigator or bodyguard type character. Just don't dump int...