There comes a time when you have to tell every new Pathfinder player the hard truth: Wizard-killing warriors simply do not exist.No matter how many feats you take, how many weapons you carry, and how high your attack bonus and CMD are, you simply cannot fight wizards, sorcerers, or even bards using just your sword, your bow, and a whole lot of attitude. Fighting a high-level caster with that load-out is a straight-up death wish, and that goes double for characters who try to do it without copious amounts of magical gear. If the mage has at least 10 in intelligence or wisdom, he will outwit and outplay any martial with ease, thrashing them before teleporting his way to safety as soon as the fight becomes anything other than an all-out curb stomp. There's simply no way around it: magic always trumps martial in the fields of tenacity as well as straight-up firepower. I've tried to circumvent this, but in the end there is simply no way to do it: a spellcaster will always win in an outright battle.
Which is a shame, because there are so many fantastic characters who don't use magic at all who may have a place in the setting. Conan, Moriarty, Han Solo, and so many other iconic characters operate without any magical aid, so there is good reason as to why GMs would want them in their games. Conventional means of power probably won't work, so unconventional ones will have to take the stage.
This means, amid other things, that GMs have to get creative in making non-caster NPCs potent. A monster of magical resources can scry on people from anywhere, escape from almost any trap, and overwhelm most parties with a horde of artificial minions. The best a barbarian or warlord can do with class abilities alone, on the other hand, is face the heroes in traditional means of warfare, giving them a substantially smaller set of tools. As a result, a big bad without innate magic has to think outside the box in order to make himself a threat to heroes who are packing sorcerers or clerics on their side. If the villain wants any chance of success, he needs to get his hands on some resources that go beyond the normal weapons and armor; he needs to be playing for the long term.
So let's say that you as a Game Master have dreamed up a really interesting villain who we'll call Commander Randall Wilhelm. Wilhelm has a hatred for mages after a lich killed his family, and he has made it his duty to free his entire country of mages at any cost. Now, Wilhelm is a smart man, so he's not going to just send his troops at every mage in town and watch as his forces are blown to smithereens. Instead, you as a Game Master have to think of some tools that Wilhelm can use to make up for his lack of arcane potency. Fortunately, there are plenty, as the likes of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe can demonstrate. Use this tools well, and they just might be enough to tilt the playing field against the tyrannical mages who have ruled warfare for so long.
Other 'Sophisticated' Tech
This is the most obvious solution for a character who fights mages, but many GMs and players will feel that it is a cop-out. If Wilhelm wants some intelligence and firepower to rival a sorcerer's, he could turn to an old psion, vizier, or alchemist friend to get some supernatural abilities of his own. Psionics, Incarnum, and Alchemy aren't technically magic, but they can simulate many of magic's best abilities, creating even ground between Wilhelm and his foes in certain regards. If the game uses advanced technology like that found in the Technology Guide, maybe the villain can have exclusive access to certain tech like reactors and plasma weaponry that scares the wizards enough to make them keep their distance. This issue with these approaches, however, is that it may not equate to a "nonmagical" opponent, just one whose supernatural powers work differently from those of the opponents. If you want a martial villain, then this probably isn't the advice you are looking for. Nonetheless, it is the trick that usually works the best.
Magical Friends
Just because Wilhelm wants to purge his town of mages doesn't mean he can't take advantage of them once and a while. Maybe he can hire out the sagest of the sages to get some things done for him, using them to drive the mystical rabble out of his nation while at the same time putting them deep enough in his favor that they will simply leave once the cleanup is done. He might even bind a few outsiders to his side, harnessing a little extraplanar temp help. If you have the coin and the charisma, why not buy out the most dangerous threats so that they serve you? The could do divinations for him, buff his soldiers, craft his gear, and maybe even start up a few bouts of infighting between local magical groups. Once again, this may be a no-no based on your villains ethics; he may hate mages to the point where he won't even work with them, or reject the use of magic to win on account of pride or principle. If he can't swallow these for the sake of victory, then he will be playing with a significant handicap, but all hope is not lost. Maybe a turnabout could well happen.
Top-Tier Gear
What makes a high-level character powerful? A fair amount of strength can be attributed to class features, or abilities that innately scale with level (hit points, save bonuses, etc.). However, the oft-forgotten determining factor of power at high levels is the gear that you can get your hands on. Armed with enough staves, scrolls, and wands, practically any character can gain the abilities of a caster, and a majority of useful spell effects can be obtained in the form of wondrous items (crystal ball, anyone?). Maybe a force can render oncoming fireballs irrelevant once it stocks up on enough cloaks of fire resistance, or block off any chance of enchantments with mind blank cloaks on all the most important members. If Wilhelm wants to go all the way, he could invest in a few golems, or rig some crucial locations in his city with antimagic fields so that he can gank unsuspecting spellcasters. If he wants to really pull out the big guns, he could get his hands on a mage's disjuction weapon, blowing away the competition with the arcane EMP that makes every player tremble in their boots. Weapons change the face of war, and cracking open the Core Rulebook's chapter on magic items shows that Wilhelm has plenty of tools that can alter the combat dynamic.
A Trump Card
Just a warning that there is no middle ground on this trick; it will either make things seem very interesting or incredibly cheap. As I've mentioned before, every bad guy should have an ace up his sleeve, and the card in Wilhelm's chain shirt may well be something that renders magic a moot point to his forces. Maybe he's got his hands on a powerful artifact that negates magic or causes it to act funny, a piece of equipment that prevents any spellcaster from taking him head-on. Maybe this antimagic tool is not a trinket but rather a disease, an airborne pox or poisoned water source that negates the magical abilities of people who come into contact with it (Vemeraks have an ability that does exactly this. Maybe he could bargain with a few). Perhaps he has the blessing of some war god that safeguards him from all harm that isn't delivered via weapon, or keeps some sort of pet with him that just soaks up the spells for him. If these sound like cheap railroady solutions, they kind of are. The trick is giving them enough intrigue or astonishment to genuinely impress your players when they find themselves handicapped. If you are pulling this trick, it needs to be something built up, a technique or tool that the players can catch hints of and maybe find a way around before direct conflict begins. That way, it will come across as a unique and devious plan rather than a punishment by an unfair GM. Use this tactic sparingly, but make it count when you feel you should and it will most certainly count.
Okay, I'm done with all of the suggestions that still require some sort of supernatural ability. If you want to go really hardcore and take over a magical world using no magical means at all, then I would advise you get your hands on at least a few of the resources outlined below. I must warn you that they must be used very well in order to achieve success on their own, however, and run the risk of crumbling into worthlessness if mishandled. However, these tactics aren't exclusively for martial characters, and a villain of any sort can make use of the sensibilities documented below.
A Keen Intellect
The Corleone family is one of the most dangerous and powerful group of villains in all of fiction, and yet they lack any sort of unnatural capacity to be such. They don't have any superpowers, or inhuman capabilities, and their resources are most certainly rivaled or surpassed by at least one of their opponents. What put them on the top of the heat was their intellectual capital, their capacity to evaluate situations intelligently and come up with tactics that are best suited to the scenario. They can detect patterns, predict how foes are going to respond, and take the necessary precautions (sometimes) to ensure that their business remains successful. Just like a great chess player can turn the tide of match by playing smart with scarce resources, so too can Wilhelm out-think opponents that he cannot outgun. A smart villain can fight with tenacity and strategy against tough opposition, utilizing tactics and deception to root out holes in the opponent's plans. Figuring out what resources the opponent is dependent on (sleep, for example) and cutting them off (maybe by blaring loud noises the entire night) can give a villain the edge that they lack in direct conflict. Sneak attacks, moles, hostages, false pretenses of surrender, and plenty of other tricks can be employed to throw a wrench in the opposition, enabling you to obtain whatever you need from them. In asymmetrical warfare, playing smart can beat playing hard a substantial percentage of the time.
Mountains o' Money
Money may not buy love, and it may not buy happiness, but it sure can buy fortresses, favors, weapons, and whatever else you may need to put your plans into effect. If a bad guy has a fat wallet, it will be very hard to stay outside of his reach. Even without magical aid, a rich villain has plenty of options in any given situation; he could hire every mercenary on the continent, create elaborate shells and diversions to protect his real identity, or even just bribe people into doing whatever he wants. It wouldn't be impossible for Wilhelm to fabricate some easy and lucrative quest to lure the heroes out of town while he takes over, or put some opponents on his payroll to ensure they don't cause any more trouble. When you are rich, you can do anything, and this goes double for the feudal governments that most Pathfinder games take place in. Who cares if your plans go south when you have the tools to try again? So what if your entire city gets burned to the ground when you can rebuild it with minimal dent to your coffers? A final villain can be a 5th-level aristocrat hiding behind his wallet because wealth is just that powerful. Money makes the world go around, even if that world is a fantasy one.
Well-Placed Connections
"Knowing is half the battle" has practically become a mantra on this blog, but it remains true as ever. If the character has a leg-up on information networks and the position to collect and capitalize upon intel, then he can be one of the most dangerous people in the setting regardless of his class abilities. If he has a friend who can feed him all of his opponent's plans, then he only needs to counter one set of tactics (infinitely easier than accounting for every situation). Similarly, if he knows exactly what spells, weapons, and strategies the PCs prefer to solve problems with, he can build up countermeasures or even sabotage them with a well-placed double agent. Heck, cut off supply lines and tinker with the item markets, seeing how well the opposition does when they can't get the metal to build new swords. Similarly, if you have access to the ears of a noble, the right suggestions can change the course of entire nations. Titles, money, resources, or just general likability are all tools that can be utilized to weave a massive web for a character, enabling them to tug on a string anywhere and get what they want.
A Solid Disguise
As crazy good as scrying and commune are, they both have one fatal flaw: you have to know what you are looking for. Connections that you don't see and shadows that you never acknowledge could be pulling the strings on a million different events that seem unrelated, and by the time that the players learn to ask the right questions their grips will be too firmly locked. This premise is the basis for all conspiracy fiction, and the paranoia that people have about "world orders" and "total control" shows that one doesn't even need magic to be a meglomaniacal organization capable of keeping dissenters up at night. The beggars on the street, the guards outside the castle, and the peddlers of cheap rope at the market could all be connected and ready to strike, but you won't even bother to ask about them until a barmaid decapitates you in the middle of the night and burns your buddy's spellbook while right after. When the heroes start seeing bad guys in every shadow and suspecting that every NPC could be out to get them, you have hit them with an enchantment that surpasses anything that magic could ever accomplish. If you play your cards right and leave enough red herrings, your evil plan could be 100% invisible.
Good Publicity
So let's say that you are a master assassin who wants to off a well-respected leader so that you can go through with some devious plan. All the cards are played right, you get in and out without trouble, and not a soul alive knows how the president was just taken down. Even if you do everything right, there is one obstacle that just became much harder to surpass: people liked the guy, and are going to be really pissed off that he's now rotting in his grave. A good portion probably won't care about "the greater good" or whatever "dastardly plot" the guy was working on in life; once they figure out who was responsible for his death they will hunt his killers to the end of the earth. In life, this principal applies to an even greater degree; a popular figure can simply announce his endorsement or distaste for something and thousands of otherwise neutral individuals will flock behind him to make sure that what he wants is put into play. If that means the persecution of a specific minority or the takedown of a specific person or organization, history has thousands of examples of situations where this has worked. Remember that the average NPC has average human intelligence, and they probably will get some fires going when they realize that the funny-looking dudes in the tavern are plotting to murder the lord who has kept out the orcs for the last decade. When people like you, getting them to support you in times of trouble becomes quite a bit easier. When the folks you offed were actually trying to help them, they fight even harder.
Obscene Numbers
If none of these other tricks float your boat, one remains: copious, copious hordes of creatures. A force the size of a nation is very difficult for a group of PCs to completely defeat, even if they have all the right connections and all the magical gear in the world. Be it a military force with more soldiers than most nations have people, a spy network that encompasses the globe, a tribe of barbarians who practically ooze from every glade, or a cult that grows so rapidly that it any headway the heroes make is irrelevant, a manpower advantage great enough can make it difficult for any power to be taken down. A caster only has so many spells per day, and even if they teleport the heck out of there, then thousand swords carried by ten thousand unhappy people may be enough to dissuade them from trying to come back. Similarly, recruitment tactics can make plenty of headway in a cause, encouraging large numbers of people to join your side simply because of how many folks you already have on the bandwagon. If a few people protest, the sheer numbers may be used to quell them. If they fight, the immensity of your hordes can trample them. There's a reason Sauron invested so many resources into building an army of orcs, as well as why every film shows a tracking shot of a huge legion when they want to show you that the baddies mean business: when your ranks are so swollen that your average barrack is packed like a clown car, not much is going to stand in your way.
