For what it's worth, I'm having a blast in PFS with my avenger vigilante (wildsoul arachnid). Full disclosure: I started him at level 6 having built him out GM credits. I can't speak to the other archtypes, but having played this one several times, he just oozes flavor. I was surprised how few feats he needed to feel "dungeon ready." Power attack and Great Fortitude and away we go. Then I threw in Improved Initiative and Step Up for some speed and mobility. Then pumped acrobatics, perception and diplomacy. The related vigilante talents are great. He's human so I got the darkvision talent. Then the slayer/spider-sense talent. Then the web shooters talent (ranged touch entangle). Lastly, I bought a pair of red spider-step slippers to match his spandex... He literally does whatever a spider can! And the one-liners just write themselves during a session ("Stick around!" Eat your heart out, Stan Lee). I'm not completely enamored with the social talents. Mockingbird is pretty good. I still can't figure out why En Vogue is legal when its prerequisite is not. But that's a minor nitpick. This is my favorite martial class so far. And it works for PFS better than I thought. "With great plunder comes great responsibility."
Excellent timing with this new Kickstarter from Sandy Peterson...
Why are there so many
These archvillains have visions
So we've been told
Just finished Waking Rune. "One punch..!" Spoiler: I played Waking Rune with my friends this weekend. When we encountered Krune, my mutagenic/sheild brawler, "Captain Andoran" (naturally) beat him on initiative. My first attack was to use my knockout ability.
GM rolled a one. Krune went down. The table went crazy (I thought the restaurant we were at was going to throw us out). Krune eventually recovered but it was downhill for him from there. Best. Sesson. Ever
Waiting 5 minutes for abilities to kick in, can be deadly. +1 to this. I find the concept kind of interesting but in my experience, 5 minutes during battle is impractical and 5 minutes out of battle is irrelevant. I just can't see rolling initiative while in my social persona and telling my fellow players "I'll be back in 50 rounds with my good class abilities working!" Maybe have it full round at first level then eventually standard/move/swift as you level up? Maybe a "change in plain sight" ability or feat? It's a clever ability, it just seems to me right more hinderance than benefit which isn't so great for one of the main first level abilities.
It's likely that if you are personally stealthing or invisible, foes won't be aware of your presence at the start of combat (they may know about the other loud party members who were clanking from hundreds of feet away, but probably not you). Thanks, Mark! That's what I got from the second read. The challenge I'm seeing now (granted, without yet playtesting) is that having access to regular invisibility at low levels is tough, especially for such a key ability. Also, your example of party members "hundreds of feet away" hasn't been my experience in PFS play. More often that not, we end of bunched up due to map constraints then the GM yells "roll for initiative." Stealth during combat is really tough. |
