need a little GM Help

[JuliusCromwell]

My players are being given a choice from their guild as what job they can do, and the Guild keep track of the monsters slain and uses it to rank guild members based on how strong the monsters are

well It'll be my players first time fighting something that is not a Human/elf/dwarf or something like that

there all level 8 consisting of A, Eldritch Archer Magus
A Martial artist monk A occultist that is not always around do to work and a Brawler who is the most experienced player and actually Knows what he is doing.

I am giving the choice of three mission

1: Getting the Merchants threw the swamp, its home to a lot nasty stuff but i can't think of what

2: a desert mission were they need to Find a item of lore that was said to last be seen in the Area

3: The plains a creature of some sort has been eating the villagers cattle and even destroying some of there houses

I need help picking out monsters.

The first one should be easy to normal, the second should be bit of a challenge and the plains should be a challenging one for them

I have the rewards listed as 5000 gold per person for the mission
the second one is one item out of the guild shop worth up to 15,000 gold

and the last mission is worth 25,000 person

[Guardianlord]

1: Swamps are half the danger itself: Disease, Poisoned stagnant waters, Insect swarms, goblin/Grippli hit and run tribes (they can navigate the hidden pits, natural root traps, difficult terrain, and pass climb check and avoid toxic mushrooms easily - Both can shoot poison from afar and flee), trolls, Lizards, surprise aquatic creatures, plant creatures, plant creatures (Mosses and Mushrooms), vanishing roads (either from fog, toxic belches of gas, flooding, or deliberate covering), shifting landscapes making navigation through the dense foliage nearly impossible. I suggest reading an Elder Scroll ingame book about this "The Argonian Account Books I-IV" great portrayal of moving through a living swamp world.

2: I just did this with my players, make it a religious item guarded by Sandmen beholden to an evil spellcaster who also seeks this hidden item.
Make a fort locked, trapped, and occupied by Gorgoni whom then can fight, trade, or barter with (Maybe they have a foe they would like to see dispatched).

3: Ankheg Nest. Seriously these may seem weak, but the fluff text gives them so many combat options and natural hazard options. Plus they can have fun setting a trap for these damned things. (And maybe some predator that eats Ankhegs is also drawn to the area).

[Mark Hoover 330]

For swamps you can never go wrong with a dragon, but that might be a bit tough for the easiest of the 3 missions. If you choose to go that route a Juvenile Black Dragon is a CR 8 Medium creature with 105 HP, an 8D6 acid breath weapon, and the ability to speak with reptiles, breathe underwater, and move through Swamp terrain unhindered. Making it the apex of apex predators in your swamp, communicating with local reptiles to harry the PCs and keep tabs on their abilities, and then after a couple days rampaging from the marsh waters could be fun.

As for the desert adventure, I've always been partial to undead and beetles, real classic flavor. There's a Mummy Lord on the PFSRD; CR 10, undead cleric 9, who can dominate mindless undead, make sandstorms, and is extremely hard to permanently kill. This would not only bring prestige within the guild for ending the Mummy Lord but the return of the item (perhaps a rare scarab beetle diadem or something that contains a sliver of the mummy's original, divine power from it's life) completes their mission delivering even greater renown.

In the plains, for a monster hunt, maybe try a curve ball: a Greater Verdurous Ooze. These mindless slimes individually are pretty tough but they can seep into one another to create a CR 11 Greater variant with Large size, 175 HP, plenty of immunities/defensive abilities, surrounded by a 60' sleep aura with a DC 24 Will save on it, Slam attacks laced with Acid, and a secondary aura out to 15' that makes all squares with plants into an Entangle spell.

Essentially with the Ooze you've got a powerful mindless predator that can move with surprising stealth (Stealth +12 in Plains), and trigger the foliage to rustle and dance. This in turn attracts grazing animals to draw closer and they fall prey to the Sleep aura. As the slime then begins to absorb it's meal any herder foolish enough to try and inspect the area can't get any closer than 60'. It might appear to the hapless villager that the very ground itself is simply coming alive and rotting it's animal to nothing.

Your monk should have no issue getting close with their modes of movement, abilities and likely high saves, but punching a slime is usually a bad idea. The brawler may be in the same boat. The eldritch archer will have fun, but might end up at 65' from the creature which removes a couple 30' feats' effects. Finally the occultist if they're at the game will probably be okay.

[djdust]

We have this wonderful tool available to us on this very site. You can set parameters such as APL and appropriate CR, climate and terrain, and even creature type and subtype to help you comb through the bestiaries for appropriate encounters.