Quote Originally Posted by Castilonium View Post
Without knowing anything about your group of level 5 players, it's impossible to say. But here are some general tips.

Have the Zealot have lower HP than what a PC would have. Like, say, 10 constitution. Dip a level of Rubato Bard for a bit less HP, 1 less BAB, 1 less IL, but more minion support and Flowing Creek. Take the Combat Training trait to grab Leaping Dragon (TD) for some mobility. Use lots of minion-supporting boosts and counters like Pride Movement (GL) and Fear the Reaper (EG). Use strikes that don't directly do bonus damage, but lightly debuff the players or enable the minions, like Harmony-Shattering Strike (SG) and Disarming Shot (TG). Make it obvious that the Zealot is a threat that exponentially makes the fight harder so that the players will decide it's worth the risk to shove past the minions and attack the Zealot.
ah yes, i forgot to provide context again. This is actually a 3.5 game at the moment, but i sometimes use path of war material for bossfights, so far it has given the party tough and exiting challenges.
The party is all level 5. A blasting sorcerer, a melee heavy phycic warrior, an archer ranger, a goliath barbarian and a throwing focussed scout. Solution to propblems so far are almost always by destroying the problem, ignoring it, or somehow performing a warcrime.

My idea was for the zealot to stay at a distance, using the martyr feature to keep the minions allive through the fight. The combat would have a goal besides killing the other party, like grabbing something important. That way if the fight proves too difficult the players can still win, and maybe have a recurring bad guy.
Would level 6 or 7 be too high for a party like mine? depending on the ammount of smaller targets/members of the collective of course.