Notice, this thread is a SPOILER for anyone playing with me as their DM. You know who you are! Bugger off!
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With that taken care of: I have an NPC who's the latest in a long line of custodians of a massive bridge built by the now long gone dwarven empire.
The custodian - chosen and educated by her predecessor - maintains the bridge and deals with those travelling upon it. The bridge upkeep should at least in part be a magical endeavour.
The player characters are unlikely to end up in combat with the bridge custodian (or are PCs really ever unlikely to fight anyone?) so I don't really need a complete stat block. Nor to I expect the game to provide exactly the powers and spells needed, this NPC will and should rely heavily on GM fiat.
But I think it would be nice to at least base her in existing game rules. I cleric have a different flavour than a wizard or alchemist. Maybe an adept (I'm a fan of using NPC classes whenever I can) would suffice.
So, what do you think is the most appropriate class for this bridge engineer? Any items, spells, feats or other things that you can recommend me to look up?
I'd say either the Sapper with a different name or the Expert Blacksmith, switching all the crafting from weapons to stonemasonry and other appropriate changes.
Oracle of the Monument Mystery (new mystery, focused on repair, knowledge, and warding) w/ Site-Bound or Lame Curse.
Alchemist (w/ discoveries pertaining to precision replication of materials, negative/positive energy bombs for fighting marauders without risking damage to the bridge, and creating patrolling golems)
Or Wizard 'cause Wizard.
Clerics tend to be more flavored towards still remaining cultures. A long-gone empire would most likely not still have strong proponents of it's faith so much as admirers of its wonders, I'd think (Cleric = Priest of Roman pantheon, Oracle = Patron of studies into ancient Roman architecture and culture.)
Honestly, I think this NPC should have player classes. If they're the lone curate (or head of a small band) over such massive structure, they're already well and beyond normal, and adventurers in their own right.
Prestidigitation: the all-purpose cleaning tool. Can clean 600 cubic feet of space per casting. Great for removing minor lichens and the like for that freshly carved from elemental earth look.
Make Whole: 2nd level basic repair spell. Per the spell, Mending only works on small, light weight objects, and can't be used on an area of a structure.
Those strike me as the two spells you must have access to, if you plan to use spell-casting.
Oracle was quite cool and I liked the Site-Bound curse. I'm not sure if I want to, but it would allow me to go crazy high level on this custodian without having an NPC who'd be capable of dealing with every problem herself.
While the Dwarven Empire is long gone, dwarfs are not and their gods have some cults even in human lands. I was thinking Artifice domain, maybe even have the bridge be the focus of worship rather than a god.
And you're probably right, Anonymous Warrior, about giving this NPC player classes.
Maybe one or a few levels in Expert to boost skills would be warranted, though.
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Couple ways you could go with this, depending on how you want to flavor it.
You said that you want this NPC to have at least some magical ability (presumably to maintain the bridge themselves) so I am going to throw away the default NPC class of expert.
1) priest of Torag. Torag gets the artifice domain, which helps them with construction. A trait could give you access to knowledge-engineering. Also pretty thesmatic for a dwarven-made bridge.
2) Wizard. Stone shape, fabricate, mending, make whole, there are a number of wizard spells that can help build stuff. The alternate 'metal' or 'earth' schools could be of use as well. A sorc would also work, with those selected spells, though the character would have to be somewhat high level in order to get all the spells he needs.
3) Investigator. If you want someone to just have a redonkulous amount of knowledge-engineering, then the investigator is your guy. Their extracts can't do much for bridge repair, but they can drink extracts of fly to get to tight spots, and can get mutagens to up their strength for the heavy lifting. Plus he could UMD scrolls as needed.
Going off the rails: summoner) Now hear me out, a summoner could be useful here. Their eidolon could do some heavy lifting, especially after enlarge person is applied. The have knowledge-engineering as a class skill, and they could use summons to make their own work crew that lasts for min/level (instead of rounds). They have magic, and a high charisma for UMDing spells that aren't on their spell list. Just an option.