|
Namely, an entire mechanic?
Alignment: A mysterious avenger must be of a good alignment, and must be dedicated to the protection of the good and the powerless under her care. If she ceases to be good or betrays the trust of those she was sworn to protect, she loses her secret identity and greater charmed life class features. She can regain them if she atones for her violations by some means that the GM sees fit (possibly by way of the atonement spell if the mysterious avenger is especially religious).
What does this secret identity do for me? Why do I need to maintain it? How does losing it work? Can I suddenly not don my costume, suddenly be unable to claim to be Zorro? Does everyone magically know who I am, but forget once I've repented? If I lose my secret identity, say I'm captured and exposed to the city, do I lose Greater Charmed Life? Can I lose my secret Identity via the aforementioned mundane method?
Secret Identity: At 3rd level, a mysterious avenger's force of personality and dedication to her cause give her the ability to keep her true identity secret, even from magical prying. She gains a +4 bonus on Disguise checks in a single disguise of her choice, typically her avenger persona. Once this disguise has been chosen, it can't be changed. She also gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against divination effect. At 11th level, she becomes immune to all scrying effects and other magical effects used in attempts to uncover her secret identity.
Why would I want to do this? I could wear a full face mask for 1 Silver and Batman my voice and get +99 to my persona disguise. This loops back on my previous questions of why the secret identity even matters, why I should care about maintaining it, why I should bother with the 1d3 + 10 or whatever minutes it takes to put on a disguise. Why I would bother with not being able to to travel with my party during the day. "Well, those five always hang out together, I hear that swashbuckler fellow is quite the combatant. But when the group is gallivanting about slaying foes, the swashbuckler fellow is replaced by...a swashbuckler fellow in a mask...my god..."
I was originally thinking Avengers getting Finesse at lvl 2 was just an editing error, from back when swashbucklers got finesse at level 2, but now I'm thinking that it is in fact correct, and Avengers were supposed to get some sort of Secret Identity mechanic in its place at level one. At least, I hope that's the case since it's a hell of a lot more interesting than an arbitrary alignment restriction and some useless secret identity fluff that literally any other class could do except for maybe certain classes with arbitrary alignment restrictions.