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I'm currently playing book four of the Kingmaker AP with a group of 6, sometimes 8, players. Most of the group is new to Pathfinder, so our GM has been very lenient as far as power level goes. Initially, this was no problem, since most of the group, (including me), didn't have enough exposure to options to make minmaxed builds, but a year of gameplay has led 3 or 4 of the players (all League of Legends lovers) to really learn how to mix-max their characters. They've encouraged another player, originally a vanilla Summoner, to change to a Synthesist. Needless to say, they've also made him a force to be reckoned with, at the cost of all flavor and characterization. Because of our large group, we're under-leveled for the content we're playing, due to experience sharing, and our GM even throws more extreme challenges at us occasionally, since everyone is so minmaxed. So far, 10 characters have died in our campaign, four of them being mine. Three of the minmaxed characters have been here since level one, and most of the rest of the deaths belong to players who have quit playing. I've GMed (4E) myself, and I play Pathfinder for the roleplaying more than anything else, so I really am loathe to create a minmaxed character just so he'll survive more than a few sessions. From the beginning of book four on, will a skills character have any chance to shine? The other six players are a permanently enlarged barbarian, a fighter/stalwart defender, a cleric of Sarenrae(healing and fire spell focused) , zen archer monk, and a synthesist summoner. The only kind of character I think could possibly fill a gap is a skill-focused character, but I need to know if that ever becomes useful in Kingmaker, which so far seems very very combat focused. No spoilers, please.
Short version, unfortunately no.
Kingmaker is not a very skills- and traps-heavy campaign. There's a couple of dungeons coming up with one or two traps in them apiece, but beyond that, not really much. You're getting into the levels where being "the guy with Survival and Knowledge (nature, geography, etc.)" no longer makes you a highly valuable party resource on its own, and I imagine the Barbarian has that stuff covered already anyway.
By "skill focused character" I presume you mean something like a Rogue or Ranger. In which case, looking at your party, you have:
> Barbarian
> Fighter
> Cleric
> Archer Monk
> Synthesist
Heavy on the front-line beatsticks, with only one full caster, who is divine, and another archer already in play. Either one of those classes, or any other class like them, is going to be competing with a lot of already-in-place party tactics come combat, so unless you plan to do nothing when fights break out and just sit and wait for your (increasingly rare) opportunities to make use of your skills, you'll want to look elsewhere for a role to fill.
If I had to recommend something for that, it would be full arcane caster - Wizard, Sorcerer, Witch, or Arcanist. The Synthesist gets a few good tricks on its spell list, but it's not going to keep up with the expectations of a full caster.
Witches especially are very fun in Kingmaker, and fit the flavor of the area and the campaign very well, and give you something to do even when you don't/can't use a spell, by way of their Hexes. And being INT-based, they'll have plenty of skill points to go around, so you can dabble in being a heavy-skills character in addition to your casting.
My 2cp.
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A full caster is a good choice for this party.
You know who else?
Bard. You get skills, spells and because of the abundance of beatsticks are a magnificent force multiplier. Bard will let you play a skilled character, add a little more arcane magic to the mix and will give you a niche that nobody else is filling.
As far as kingdom roles are concerned, Bards make great Diplomats, Spymasters, Counselors or even Generals. Also because you're building the character after first level you can save a bunch of skill points with Versatile Performance and throw some into Profession (Soldier) to further increase the morale bonuses if you ever need to lead an army.
Bard.
Bard is also an excellent option. And it's heavy on the skills.
Bard or Witch would definitely be my go-to suggestions. Both get you what you want, work well with the party you already have in play, and provide something for you to do even when you can't do your skill tricks.
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I've considered playing a caster, for sure, but the fact that we're facing higher level content has ruined that plan multiple times. I've had a Sorcerer, an Oracle, and even a Dragon Disciple who ended up dead the instant one of the harder hitting monsters found his way to me.
Honestly, this may be more due to the fact that the rest of the party has high AC due to class features and expensive armor and equipment. They've basically used the kingdom's treasury to buy whatever they want, and the GM hasn't enforced any limits. This has made the group dynamic very self focused, with little cooperation, since they very rarely have a situation when they honestly need help from anyone else.
I've tried to draw attention to this mentality, in and out of character, but, after I lost my first character, my resources and the influence my character could have on the group dynamic have plummeted. Due to the nature of Kingmaker, the other characters feel like rulers, so any character I've rolled up to join the game has always been largely ignored. I also get the feeling that these players are too obsessed with maxing out their wealth, stats, and exp that they aren't willing to make any decision for their character that isn't in their best interests as a player. The GM has sort of giving up trying to separate character knowledge and player knowledge.
I was hoping that something in the later books might be impossible to resolve just by throwing numbers at it, or having a very min-maxed build. Otherwise, It may just be time for me to drop out of the campaign.
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That honestly sounds like a bigger problem than just a class choice. I'm sorry the other players and GM are ignoring what seems to be some major issues in your campaign.
I would try one more time to have a serious discussion about the issues at hand, and let the others know that if your input continues to be ignored you will have to leave the campaign. There's plenty of great moments for roleplaying, and clever tatical combats (book 5 has some great stuff), but if your GM and fellow players don't know how to play cooperatively then I would probably walk away. Find a different group, run Kingmaker the way you wish it were run.
As for high level casters getting squished:
Improved Invisibility, Flight, Silent Spell, Major Image, Dimension Door. It should be rare that you're even noticed let alone attacked, and if you are you should have answers for escaping.
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That honestly sounds like a bigger problem than just a class choice. I'm sorry the other players and GM are ignoring what seems to be some major issues in your campaign.
I would try one more time to have a serious discussion about the issues at hand, and let the others know that if your input continues to be ignored you will have to leave the campaign. There's plenty of great moments for roleplaying, and clever tatical combats (book 5 has some great stuff), but if your GM and fellow players don't know how to play cooperatively then I would probably walk away. Find a different group, run Kingmaker the way you wish it were run.
As for high level casters getting squished:
Improved Invisibility, Flight, Silent Spell, Major Image, Dimension Door. It should be rare that you're even noticed let alone attacked, and if you are you should have answers for escaping.
My last character was a Dragon Disciple, which I thought would make me a little more resilient, but i guess I would've been better off with higher level spells than the bigger hit die and nat armor boost.
I'm going to talk to the GM before I make my new character, and we can hopefully work together to make a character that will work for everyone. He seemed frustrated with how things have gone, too, and maybe talking to him about this will make him feel like he has a good reason to take back some of the control over his game that he gave to the party when we didn't know how to exploit it.