I had the idea of making one of the enemies for my group a toymaker.
Someone that builds all kinds of constructs, small and big that he sends to steal stuff or assassinate people.
There are feats that allow non-casters to create magic items, so it could be a rogue. But is that the best option? I'd prefer a non-caster or at least not a full caster for flavor reasons.
Could a rogue build a construct with sneak attack?
And a second idea for a character (for playing though) is inspired from Naruto and also falls into this category. A Ninja and/or Rogue that uses puppets (controlled via strings?) to fight, giving himself and/or his puppet flanking to gain sneak attacks.
Maybe there is a Ranger that gains sneak attack and we just say the animal companion is the puppet?
You could roll a summoner, but actually make the effort to "craft" your eidolon....and any potential Summon Monster mobs as well.
Make him a bard; a very twisted bard. He loved puppets, performing for the children, making them laugh. Now for whatever dark reason his love has turned to hate and he'll make them all pay for what they've done.
So he's got SOME casting but right now no SA. Give him a couple level dips into rogue for that if you need it. Otherwise just surround him w/rogue minions and add puppet assistants.
You could also go full on wizard. I know you don't want casters but hear me out. Your familiar is a puppet. Then from there you add all kinds of mayhem; before the heroes realize this puppet is evil they find it and handle it like a piece of loot. Then suddenly the thing delivers a maximized shocking grasp, fries one of them and snags a sack of gold before flying away.
Also - give one of your puppets no other powers but whatever the PF equivalent of repair spells as its powers. I had a puppeteer character in another game and had a little fairy puppet that would flit about healing my constructs as her only function - saved a lot on construction costs.
If you go full rogue think about assault leader as one of the basic rogue talents; opportunist as the advanced. These assume he'll be fighting among a cloud of homonculi and directing traffic in melee for sneak attacks and such.
A rogue can not make a construct. Master Craftsman doesn't allow that, unfortunately.
The sandman bard does get sneak attack, albeit fairly staggered.
If you want to use homebrew stuff, then there's a thread in that forum called List of Artificer Classes. That has a fair number of spell-less construct makers in it.
