The only classes that have VMC options as of yet at the Core and Base classes; Occult classes, Hybrid classes, the Vigilante, and presumably the Shifter don't have them yet. Maybe in Pathfinder Unchained 2, if it happens.
So if you wanted to be a VMC vigilante, you would have to work with your GM to come up with something.
Well, the other way round works: VMC monk, monk dip, Monastic Legacy, Ascetic Style chain. The vigilante talent Fist of the Avenger might be interesting, too.
What do you want to achieve?
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so play a monk class that has the personality aka style/flair of a vigilante?
If you weren't planning on juggling two identities (i.e. Bruce Wayne buys the orange juice, Batman fights the criminals) you can get a lot of the "nobody knows who you are" mechanics with the Nameless One feat.
Can't. Character concept at my table always has to have things that back it up. I want be a super hero, I need dual identity for it.
You couldn't play someone with a secret identity before Ultimate Intrigue came out a year ago? That seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Some non-vigilante secret identity options: master of disguise rogue, masked performer bard, master spy prestige class (which any class can go into). Additionally, literally any character with the disguise skill can have a secret identity. Even the vigilante uses that skill, but it gets bonuses and oddly magical class features that are marked (ex).
Note that I'm not saying your group is BadWrongFun, but that you should take a step back and see that you don't need to take swashbuckler to be a "swashbuckler"; nor take medium to be a "medium"; heck, you don't need to take rogue to be a "rogue." So it shouldn't apply to vigilante either.
I was hoping to never reveal to the party, my characters actual identity unless forced to.
In this case, I'd say vigilante and dual identity are not what you want anyway. Just always play your character in hero mode and just don't tell anyone who you are.
Honestly though, playing a vigilante would be fine if I could somehow get monk scaling unarmed damage as that's my hero's "shtick".
Shielded Gauntlet Attack gives you scaling gauntlet (or spiked gauntlet) damage as a warpriest. Is that close enough?
So if you're looking for vigilante class features outside of dual identity, how far into the class do you need to go? Something like this might work for you:
1: Vigilante (start off using a gauntlet, perhaps flavor: "I'm holding back my true power")
2: Monk (ditch the gauntlet and punch for 1d6)
3+: Vigilante
At some point buy Monk's Robes (aka, an upgrade to a better super hero suit), bringing your punch to 1d8. Optionally, add two more levels of monk somewhere in there to get evasion, a bonus feat, fast movement, and up your punch to 1d10 (with monk's robes). You don't get up to the 2d10 monk dream, but you hit hard enough and in pathfinder it's the modifier that tends to do the most efficient high damage.
For another idea, depending on your character concept and how much you're willing to multiclass, inquisitor, paladin, and ranger are all great ways to get surprisingly high bonus damage.
Do you mean with their favored deity?Honestly though, playing a vigilante would be fine if I could somehow get monk scaling unarmed damage as that's my hero's "shtick".Shielded Gauntlet Attack gives you scaling gauntlet (or spiked gauntlet) damage as a warpriest. Is that close enough?
Shielded Gauntlet Attack lets you do gauntlet damage as a warpriest's sacred weapon, with your warpriest level equal to 4 less than your level. So d6 immediately, d8 at 9th level, d10 at 14th, 2d6 at 19th. It's not as good as monk damage, but if you take "Fist of the Avenger" you're adding half your vigilante level to your damage (and again a second time if you're using lethal grace to use your dex to attack with).
So an 8th level Vigilante with Signature Weapon (Gauntlet), Fist of the Avenger, Lethal Grace, and the full Shield Gauntlet style tree does d6+StrMod+10 damage per punch. Add the Quain Martial Artist trait for another +1. You'll need to take the TWF feats yourself to mimic flurry of blows.
(N.B. before you start down this road, you will want to clear with your GM that you can enchant gauntlets, as is suggested by the text of Shielded Gauntlet Master.)
Someone recently suggested variant multiclassing into monk from vigilante as my main. Class, doesn't that still give me unarmed strike damage of a monk only 2 levels bellow me? If that's the case it might end up being my very best bet.
Yup, and you could just use gauntlets for the first two levels
It doesn't mention it in the monk variant multiclass so no. If that's important to you, you could take a level of warpriest, sacred fist archetype. I'm not sure if you can do normal multiclass and variant on the same character though.
Wasn't there a player companion a while back that talked about how anyone can have a dual identity?
Edit: Found it! Inner Sea Intrigue, page 12. Gives you options for maintaining a masked identity even when not a vigilante.
There's the Masked Symbol feat, which gets you some dual identity flavor and minor bonuses.
VMC Vigilante wouldn't be that difficult to design in a homebrew game.
3: Dual Identity and Seamless Guide
7: Social talent at level-6
11:Vigilante Specialization, Vigilante talent at level-6
15:Social talent at level-6
19:Vigilante talent at level-6
Is there a link somewhere to the section of note? We don't have that book.Wasn't there a player companion a while back that talked about how anyone can have a dual identity?
Edit: Found it! Inner Sea Intrigue, page 12. Gives you options for maintaining a masked identity even when not a vigilante.
Took a bit of digging, but found it on the d20 pfsrd here.
Honestly though, playing a vigilante would be fine if I could somehow get monk scaling unarmed damage as that's my hero's "shtick".If that's the case though I'm going to have issues, the vigilante gets a lot of boons from their fame. My wording was poor when I said flare, i wasn't talking about rp, I was talking game mechanics. When I mentioned class features earlier I was talking about the second identity, and the extra abilities and perks to gaining fame as a hero.Can't. Character concept at my table always has to have things that back it up. I want be a super hero, I need dual identity for it.You couldn't play someone with a secret identity before Ultimate Intrigue came out a year ago? That seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Some non-vigilante secret identity options: master of disguise rogue, masked performer bard, master spy prestige class (which any class can go into). Additionally, literally any character with the disguise skill can have a secret identity. Even the vigilante uses that skill, but it gets bonuses and oddly magical class features that are marked (ex).
Note that I'm not saying your group is BadWrongFun, but that you should take a step back and see that you don't need to take swashbuckler to be a "swashbuckler"; nor take medium to be a "medium"; heck, you don't need to take rogue to be a "rogue." So it shouldn't apply to vigilante either.
I was hoping to never reveal to the party, my characters actual identity unless forced to.In this case, I'd say vigilante and dual identity are not what you want anyway. Just always play your character in hero mode and just don't tell anyone who you are.
That's not a shtick, that just a mechanical bonus which while helpful isn't necessary by any means. Besides, Vigilante has some good support for unarmed combat anyways. I say just play a vigilante and you'll be be fine.
For example:
Fist of the Avenger (Ex): The vigilante gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, if he doesn’t have this feat already. In addition, whenever he successfully attacks with his fist or a gauntlet, he gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to half his vigilante level (minimum +1, maximum of +5). Only an avenger vigilante can select this talent.
If a spike gauntlet is suitably punchy enough for you, it normally deals 1d4 damage.
A monk of 4th level deals 1d8 on their attacks.
A vigilante with the above talent will deal 1d4+2. Which is an average of 4.5. A monk will deal 4.5 avg damage as well. This keeps up for a while against the monk scaling damage.
He can also get lethal grace, which:
Lethal Grace (Ex): The vigilante combines strength and speed into incredibly deadly attacks. He gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, and if he already has the Weapon Finesse feat, he can immediately swap it for another feat for which he qualified at the level he chose Weapon Finesse. When using Weapon Finesse to make a melee attack using his Dexterity bonus on attack rolls and his Strength bonus on damage rolls, he also adds half his vigilante level on damage rolls. This bonus damage is not reduced or increased if the vigilante is wielding a weapon two-handed or in an off-hand.
And don't forget you can wear brawling armor, which gives +2 to attack and damage with unarmed strikes.
You can also get a monks robe to fake it some too.
Also Vigilante's get a talent that basically gives them pounce.
If you're down for homebrewed stuff, here's what I whipped up for my table:
A character who chooses vigilante as her secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Vigilante Specialization: At 1st level, she must choose to either be an avenger or a stalker (she does not gain the vigilante specialization class feature or the benefits normally associated with this choice.)
Dual Identity: At 3rd level, she gains the dual identity class feature.
Improved Vigilante Specialization: At 7th level, she gains a benefit associated with her vigilante specialization. If she chose avenger, she increases her base attack bonus by 1, to a maximum of her Hit Die. If she chose stalker, she gains hidden strike as a vigilante of ½ her character level -2.
Talent: At 11th level, she gains a social talent or a vigilante talent. She may select avenger or stalker talents based on her choice at level 1.
Improved Talent: At 15th level, she gains an additional talent. If she chose a social talent at 11th level, she must choose a vigilante talent; if she chose a vigilante talent at 11th level, she must choose a social talent.
Greater Talent: At 19th level, she gains an additional talent.
If you're down for homebrewed stuff, here's what I whipped up for my table:
** spoiler omitted **
ohh, no Seamless Guise? This shouldn't even be a class feature but be part of dual identity...
For example:
Fist of the Avenger (Ex): The vigilante gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, if he doesn’t have this feat already. In addition, whenever he successfully attacks with his fist or a gauntlet, he gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to half his vigilante level (minimum +1, maximum of +5). Only an avenger vigilante can select this talent.If a spike gauntlet is suitably punchy enough for you, it normally deals 1d4 damage.
A monk of 4th level deals 1d8 on their attacks.
A vigilante with the above talent will deal 1d4+2. Which is an average of 4.5. A monk will deal 4.5 avg damage as well. This keeps up for a while against the monk scaling damage.
He can also get lethal grace, which:
Lethal Grace (Ex): The vigilante combines strength and speed into incredibly deadly attacks. He gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, and if he already has the Weapon Finesse feat, he can immediately swap it for another feat for which he qualified at the level he chose Weapon Finesse. When using Weapon Finesse to make a melee attack using his Dexterity bonus on attack rolls and his Strength bonus on damage rolls, he also adds half his vigilante level on damage rolls. This bonus damage is not reduced or increased if the vigilante is wielding a weapon two-handed or in an off-hand.And don't forget you can wear brawling armor, which gives +2 to attack and damage with unarmed strikes.
You can also get a monks robe to fake it some too.
Also Vigilante's get a talent that basically gives them pounce.
Add on top of all that the Shield Gauntlet Style feat chain, which makes your damage dice with gauntlet attacks scale like a Warpriest's Sacred Weapon.
They don't get quite as big as a Monk's unarmed damage dice, but with all that your steel fists of justice should hit pretty hard, and you don't even need to boost your strength too much.
Yes, it's quite easy these days to play a punching (either unarmed or gauntlet) build that isn't a monk and have it be effective. Even without the damage dice increase from monk. In fact I've always been of the opinion that the damage dice thing is actually pretty overrated. I much prefer to see flat bonus to damage (such as lethal grace or fist of the avenger).
presumably the Shifter
What's a shifter?
presumably the ShifterWhat's a shifter?
New class in Ultimate Wilderness. From what I recall reading: Full BAB, can have claws from level 1, eventually gets wild shape, can combine different parts of different animals (so you can have claws and tentacles, say), sort of like a nature paladin in theme.