Why assume a single manipulator. Particularly if you're going with a Rainbow Six theme, have a whole evil conspiracy. A Druid to manipulate natural forces, a bard or rogue to manipulate people, a few guys who took Wisdom as a dump stat to serve as heavy muscle.... And you're all set to have an enemy adventuring party!
Straight druid seems more likely for the true fanatic.
But a true fanatic would not seem to be as capable of running a world wide conspiracy.
Maybe he has a minion (leadership feat) to run the conspiracy for him?
A few bard, inquisitor, or assassin levels seems as likely to give good manipulator capabilities as rogue.
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I believe that a druid is very appropriate as a doomsday cult leader. Neutral evil alignment is probably appropriate. Don't forget that you can get an animal companion. I think that druids make a lot of fun as villains, and as a small druid I believe they can manage to be effective ranged combatants while the companion clogs up melee.
In order to make this encounter more tactically challenging (and therefore more memorable) One of the best things you can do is have the encounter in some sort of twisted grove. Be sure to use entangle in order to further clog up the melee situation. If you want something neat you could have both the Druid and the Companion be birds and strike around the entangled party.
Straight druid is a great class for a final boss, not least of which because he can make his own combat support in the form of animal companion and summon spells.
Do not multiclass him. Look at the druid's high level spells, and think shambling mounds. Yes. And call lightning
Also, a truly bad-ass animal companion will really stick in the players' minds.
The number one rule for climactic boss fights in Pathfinder is that you need multiple credible threats or the players will just pile on. The druid should excel at providing this.
Druid + Awaken animal = Best spymaster in the game. Take leadership and have tons of level 1 (whatever class) birds/squirrels/cats to bring you all the information you could possibly want.
In our high level game we just went up against a "survival of the fitteest" druid. It was pretty cool.
If one of the party is a druid or a cleric of a nature god there could be some interesting motivation to counter the evil druid's pernicious doctrines.
Druids mame good enemies and can easily fill a cult role. Just be aware if your players are not ready for it etangle and spike stones can easily reduce them to a crawl. I found this was better as a haha now i will let my forest minions kill you encounter ( maybe tbe awakened animals soeone suggested abvove. Nothing like having a rock in your foot while vines wrap your feet as inteligent squirrels try to kill you)
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I'm obsessed with Druids. Playing them and thinking up Druid villains. A couple ideas I've been wanting to get around to are 1) Druid as mount for another NPC or 2) a Druid in elemental form which is in the form of a humanoid.
Of course with Wild Shape barding/armor should be considered as it does not protect the Druid without the expensive Wild enchant. The Druid simply does not have the needed items on his person and equips them, or has help equipping them, after Wild Shape. If the form taken is outside of small or medium I would avoid giving barding/armor too much value (i.e. no magic) in case the PCs must leave it behind or cannot use it because of size.
1) Unless the PCs can see through the disguise (Wild Shape), they won't actually know that the animal is actually a druid. This will especially be a problem if the form taken is a low CR creature and the PCs fail to recognize before being clawed with a held frigid touch charge. The rider could look like a Druid, but not actually be one. A nature worshiping cleric or barbarian, for example. This could really add to the deception because the Wild Shaped Druid might be mistaken for a weaker animal companion. Animals with unexpectedly high Will saves, ouch.
2) By RAW a Druid Wild Shaped into an elemental can speak, make gestures with their digits, manipulate objects and wear items. Elementals can be a real pain, but one armored, wielding weapons and pulling spell components out of a pouch? Don't forget about the possible immunity to bleed damage, critical hits, and sneak attacks and DR 5/—.
Anyway, my two cents.
In the wilderness, there's nothing as bad as a druid. Hard to fight and very hard to catch.
He can turn into a bird and fly away if he's losing, or cast tree stride and disappear that way. Frustrating for the PCs, but that's just how they are.
I have a bbeg druid as one of my main villains in my homebrew River Kingdoms campaign. I'm actually wondering how my players will fare against him when the time comes.