Help updating the build for my backup character? (lot of prep before fights, refuses to fight fair)

[Rfkannen]

Hi, a white back I made a backup character for if my pc dies in any of the campaigns one of my dm runs (since they are all set in the same setting). I still like the character, but feel like my old build could be updated for modern options and remaster.

The character is an adventurer hunter. The kingdom he works for has noticed that adventurers can grow in power quickly, and can cause major political commotion, so they made an organization to secretly keep adventurers in check. His job is to join adventure parties, and try to help aim them in the direction of the enemies of the kingdom. If they refuse to do so, or start causing problems, he will report back to the kingdom, become an enemy npc, and come back as an assassin trying to whipe out the party (he would not actively make any moves against the party while a pc, and the party has been warned he would be a traitor and are cool with it)

The whole concept of the organization he works for (which a past pc of mine established) is that they are used to targeting threats much more dangerous than they are, and refuse to ever be in a fair fight (his department handles adventurers, but other departments handle, or set up other people to handle, high level threats like demonic incursions and dragon invasions). They always come into a fight with all the knowledge they can get, they like to sneak into encampments and posion food and sabotage equipment, trick people into unwinnable situations, attack from far away and then run before being caught, etc. They are annoying, and will slowly wear down their prey. Not sure how to represent that in a pc, since this organization was mostly formed as npcs (gm's suggestion to make a pc one, I liked the idea)

The organization also worships a "desert spirit", and has strong ties to the elemental planes of earth and air, with some fire connections as well.

What builds do you think would fit this type of character? I am interested in different versions, since I don't know what campaign he would wind up being in (since I don't know when my character will die). However, one campaign he could be for has a thief rogue and a scoundrel gunslinger, and I am interested in if their is a way I could get the concept without stepping on toes mechanically.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[gesalt]

If knowledge and subterfuge are something you want to emphasize, you can pick tome thaumaturge, grab diverse lore. Maybe commune with the desert spirit thing with the sleepwalker dedication for advantage on skill checks out of combat. In combat, dex builds (which I'm assuming here for the sabotage angle) aren't the best, and the wand implement is aggressively bad, so you'll need to find a way to make that work. Maybe a jezail if you grab risky reload with unexpected sharpshooter or something.

Since a very knowledgeable character that isn't a thaumaturge is surprisingly impractical in this system, you can instead emphasize the desert spirit connection. Desert wind kineticist is one of the class's best builds to begin with and between the at will flight and invisibility you can reasonably push them toward scouting and sabotage in the mid levels.

With the new subtle trait coming you can probably force any spellcaster to work too since the feat is easily poached.

And rogue, but you already knew that.