The Premise
I tried out the Warlock Vigilante as an evil baddie who had escaped from a local prison and gone into hiding. The party split up to search for him, and one portion happened upon him by blind luck. They met back up and decided to follow the baddie out into the woods. I decided not to make the terrain particularly favorable for either party to get a good baseline (basically both sides ignored the trees and bushes after an initial ambush).
The Baddie
The NPC was a level 4 human warlock. He used the heroic caster stat array, put his level 4 point into int, and his racial bonus into dex for a final stat array of 8/16/12/16/10/13. Talents were Tattoo Chamber and Mystic Bolt (Fire). Feats were Toppling Spell (Trait to keep MM at SL 1), Lingering Spell (Trait to keep color spray at SL 1), and PBS (probably should have picked something else, but I figured he'd want Precise Shot eventually). Felt his damage was low so I also gave him Havoc of the Society as a bonus trait. LVL 1 spells prepared were Magic Missile, Mage armor, Color Spray, and Infernal Healing. He had 3 spells/day, and noticed the party following him so he prebuffed with Mage Armor (I should have also prebuffed with IH in retrospect -- honestly would have been better off with Shield or Grease).
Stats:
HP: 31 AC 18, Touch: 14, FF: 15, CMD: 15, FFCMD: 12
Fight Synopsis:
He got off a surprise round color spray, and did not have to use lingering spell since the party was very nicely lined up right next to his bush. The Cleric (who started raging at his dice) and Swashbuckler went down, but the Fighter got a lucky roll and stayed up. Warlock lost initiative badly, so the fighter went before he could follow up on the initial surprise. Warlock had decently high AC and the Fighter missed. Warlock stepped back and threw down a smoke stick from his tattoo, gaining total concealment and stealthing. Fighter charged, made his perception vs stealth and landed a grapple despite concealment and provoking (Mystic Bolt missed due to the str penalty). Warlock decided to trade blows rather than escape and barely hit with Mystic Bolt (str/grapple penalty really hurt, in retrospect would not give the Warlock a caster array). Fighter pinned him, Warlock tries to escape (bad fail). Fighter Tied him up with rope. Thankfully Mystic Bolts (Fire) > Rope, so he escaped bondage, quickly running away and provoking (miss). Party called BS on this, but meh Mystic Bolts don't have a somatic component and he didn't roll a 1 on his attack. He hid in the bushes. Cleric/Swashbuckler finally recovered from CS at this point, and PCs all charged about wildly -- cleric got lucky and ended right next to the Warlock, discovering him. I had not expected this, so the Warlock only had the one smokestick and was now caught out. He Kited for a few rounds, poking people with his Bolts, generally missing in melee and hitting at range before the party was nicely lined up for another CS. All made their saves (17+ on the die for everyone). At this point he was pretty much screwed, but spent a couple more rounds chucking out alchemist's fires and mystic bolts before going down. All in all a fun little fight lasting approximately 10 rounds, and he did well despite the numerical disadvantage. Mystic Bolt would have been a lot more effective if it were finessable in melee (unsure if it is or not). Did not end up using MM/toppling spell so I probably could have picked a better feat. Had intended to have him heal periodically but he never got the chance so the Warlock definitely needs some love in the escape options department (or I need to remember grease and invest more in smoke sticks). End result: Fighter was at about 1/2 HP, Cleric took 1 splash damage from alchemist's Fire, and the Swashbuckler was unscathed. Warlock was a CR 3 opponent, could have played him smarter, will probably try Ifrit next time with a heavier smoke stick emphasis. Party enjoyed the fight, but ended up killing him (Cleric is negative energy aligned, prepares no healing spells, and no one could make their heal check to stabilize the warlock in the 5 rounds it took him to bleed out). So they lost the bounty but won the fight.
Our Heroes:
The party consisted of 3 lvl 3 PCs; a Two Handed Fighter, a Swashbuckler, and a Cleric with an 18/16/14/13/12/8 stat array. Fighter has Full Plate he killed off a bandit and had reworked in town; other two PCs have about 300 gp in equipment wealth (and a lot more tied up in businesses/land). None are optimized; it's overall an RP themed campaign and their tactics trend towards flavor over crunch so I gave them slightly better stats than normal to help compensate. They've recently decided to start a life of bounty hunting, and are much better against targets they can just kill. Fighter would not have taken nearly so much damage without his grappling attempts. Arguably Elemental Armor could have been a better selection for the warlock, but I'm pretty sure the party would have just hit him instead of attempting to grapple at that point and the fight would have lasted maybe 3 rounds.
