A merchant of monsters

[Danny Morrison]

I'm working on a campaign where there will be a major NPC who deals in captured monsters, mostly for sale to various villains. This is the person who sells the chimera to the coliseum so they can pit it against the champion gladiator, who sells gremlins to the industrial saboteurs, and who sells the chuul for the mad wizard to keep in a tank and feed those who have displeased him.
What I'm looking for advice on is: what would be a good character class for this NPC? If they were just dealing in captured animals I'd say ranger or druid, but is there any way of getting something like Handle Animal for a broader range of creatures?

[Meirril]

Handle Animal has rules for using the skill on non-animals.

"Low Intelligence Non-Animals You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do."

Any creature of intelligence 3 or higher you use social skills. So a combination of intimidation and diplomacy. Such creatures being more intelligent should be treated as a normal slave.

Rangers and Druids are natural for this sort of thing, but lots of other classes are well suited. Any charisma based class of course, especially Bards considering their spell selection and class abilities. Wizards and Sorcerers of a high enough level to cast Charm Monster. Alchemists that use strange new potions to break the will of a monster would be an interesting story as well. And dark clerics devoted to deities that encourage enslaving others would work.

A fighter that breaks the will of monsters by beating them with his bare hands until they submit to him. Really, just let your imagination go where it will.

[OmegaZ]

Ranger, druid, enchanter, any archetype that specializes in taking enemies alive, and Lamashtu worshipers for flavor.

[Danny Morrison]

This character would probably also keep a few monsters of her own as personal bodyguards, most likely either charmed or dominated. What's a good option for that?

[Arcasus]

Danny Morrison wrote:

This character would probably also keep a few monsters of her own as personal bodyguards, most likely either charmed or dominated. What's a good option for that?

look into a kitsune sorcerer that specializes in mind control/diplomacy.