Looking for Fun Npc build to give my players a challenge in a fight

[JuliusCromwell]

I am Doing an Academy Style game about learning to fight monsters.

I am planning for there to be a Fight between a higher level Npc

and my players. My problem is I am not sure what i should build

The Race must be Human as the other races are treated badly and i want
this character to be a popular guy in the academy

My players consist of a

A Magus
A Monk
A Lore-warden Fighter
A occultist

This is will net them a good amount of money for their level
and a piece of info (plot i want to drop on them) (Plot comes either way, but winning will give more info)

The Magus has a little trouble understanding his class
as dose the occultist as i have to handle them with kid gloves

but the real threat is the lore-warden as he Gm's most of are other games.
the monk is fairly decent to and has an Ac of 32 making her hard to hit usually.

The magus tends to forget he has spell and has never used spell combat or spell strike

I want a good fight so i know i should use a lower level character or 2 to off sit the balance

i'm just not sure what to go with?

[Heather 540]

I haven't been able to play-test him yet, but I have a Cleric/Unchained Barbarian gestalt NPC. I built him like a PC since he's super important to the story. The feat Mad Magic allows him to cast spells while raging. The War and Rage domains work well with a Barbarian. He has a natural attack build from his rage powers and an item.

[Scott Wilhelm]

What level is the party?

Since this is Academy Style, well, I'm not 100% sure of what that means: this is some kind of fantasy adventurer school? Hogwartz School of Treasure Hunting and Dragon Slaying? It sound like you have lots of ability to split up the party, give the Lore Warden detention. The Monk has dance team practice, and the Magus has to meet the school bully in the playground with only the occultist for company.

This sounds like an encounter that should be nonlethal. Maybe some kind of fighty rogue that does nonlethal sneak attack damage, or a Grappling Monk, a Paladin that heals the party after beating them up.

[JohnnyWhoa]

If you want this guy to be a recurring NPC who can hold his own against a party, I might recommend a Kineticist. Select Aether as his first element and air as his second at level 7.

They're somewhat complicated to make, but the abilities are very interesting and may prove a unique challenge to your party, especially if you make him take advantage of the human favored class bonus for Kineticists (gain 1/6 of a Wild Talent Feat).

[MageHunter]

I really like that kineticist talent foe throw. I don't care that there are better options, I am still picking that up every time!

An important note, having just one opponent makes them really vulnerable to dog-piling. They'd have to be a LOT more powerful than them to compensate, which kind've polarizes it in bringing them to death a lot easier. Maybe bring that to same level, and have some lower level mooks, and total have it like CR equal their level plus 2.

[Shiroi]

I'd consider something like this.
Shadestep, Mage Knight

That is a 1-20 prebuilt mage knight from Spheres Of Power. He focuses on the dark sphere with aoe debuffs, steps through the bubbles of darkness he creates, and has decent close range combat made terrifying against foes who can't see him in pitch black.

It doesn't include rules for the abilities, you'd need to go get the wiki for SoP and figure him out a bit. It's a feat/class features list by level and original stat allocation. Pick a level (7 for example) and follow the list to build him to that point. Then buy some equipment and clean up the notes.

Aoe darkness and debuffs, and choosing to give him a weapon enchanted by the school for non-lethal, will make him more adept at handling several characters at once than most builds. Flunkies are still nice, but his personal style is suited for the situation, and he's built thematically not for raw power so he'll be appropriate for an NPC CR scale if you don't equip and play him at top tier.