Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue (PFRPG)

3.40/5 (based on 19 ratings)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue (PFRPG)
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Words Cut Deep

In the right setting, a single scathing word can prove deadlier than a poisoned dagger. Behind the scenes of heroic battles and magical realms lies a seething underbelly of danger and deception. This world of intrigue holds endless possibilities for adventure, as heroes duel with words instead of steel, plot daring heists, and engage in battles of wills against relentless nemeses. A high-stakes game of shadows and secrets is yours to master—if you have the wits!

Whether the heroes are taming the blood-soaked back alleys of their favorite metropolis or jockeying for the queen's favor alongside highborn nobles, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue is an invaluable companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.

Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue includes:

  • The vigilante, a new character class that lives two lives—that of an unassuming member of the community, and a cloaked crusader with his own agenda!
  • New archetypes for alchemists, bards, druids, hunters, inquisitors, investigators, mesmerists, rangers, rogues, slayers, spiritualists, and more!
  • New feats and magic items for characters of all sorts, granting mastery of street-smart combat, impenetrable disguises, and misdirection.
  • Dozens of spells to manipulate tense social settings, whether to reveal adversaries' secrets or hide the truth.
  • A complete system of influence, providing new goals and rewards to challenge players and link their fortunes to nonplayer characters and organizations.
  • Systems and advice to help Game Masters introduce a variety of new encounters into their games­—daring heists, extended pursuits, and tense searches for buried secrets.
  • Rules for social combat and verbal duels, allowing characters to use words as weapons to sway hearts and humiliate foes.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-826-7

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

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Feat taxes for skill uses make them less relevant, not more

1/5

I'm seeing a lot of what I was afraid of here: Rumormonger like options. Options that don't expand the use of skills, bur rather by their existence constrain the use of skills only to people with a feat or special ability- feats skill focused characters don't have to spare.

One of the reasons people complain about caster/skill disparity is that the expanding system has expanded the capabilities of magic. "Abilities" that already do what the skill does constrains them and makes just getting a spell to do it an even better option.
According to this book you need a feat (or usually two, with one a pretty bad feat tax) to

Call for a truce

Plant something on someone (which i've seen used in pfs more than taking something off of someone)

use knowledge geography to know where you're going with a tport

Use aid another at range instead of... whatever aid anothers range was before.

Get a sense of how your bluff is going

Figure out what relationship two people have

Bluff check to help out someone with a disguise

size someone up

Those are basic skill uses and making a socialite burn what few feats they have on them in a book that was supposed to help them be more relevant is patently absurd. Those uses should have been included as an expanded use of the system and then feats added to work within the new system to make them work better, or even added as alternate skill unlocks.


Tone deaf advice and mechanics

1/5

Intrigue can be a difficult subject to deal with in Pathfinder and similar games. Unlike a story with a single author who can arrange just the right events, choices, and reveals for a compelling story a Pathfinder GM has to contend with a group of players with powerful abilities making their own decisions alongside tableside issues of player knowledge, time useage, and so on. Unfortunately, while Ultimate Intrigue occasionally mentions these things it does not interact with or address them, essentially explaining what intrigue IS without making it easier to pull off.

The advice segments use many pages on rambling descriptions not specific to the game, then vaguely handwave how to accomplish these events given the actual system. The Vigilante has a secret identity, but issues like the effects of being found out, changing identities, or even integrating it into a game are unexplored. When there is specific advice it is often terrible, for example fixing Leadership by making cohorts essentially NPCs you pay and increasing the cost of monster cohorts with "disruptive" abilities to the point they are nearly useless. Various spell "clarifications" are poorly thought out, for example detect poison firing off of low doses of things not normally considered poison, meaning things like salt or the arsenic in fruit would set it off. Heists are a difficult subject that have been done well by games like the Leverage RPG, but this book wastes tons of time describing them then handwaves the difficulties with a few sentences of vague advice.

The mechanics similarly have many issues. In the advice segments they have tables of DCs that appear completely ignorant of how Pathfinder scaling and divergence works. Various feats are required to do with skills what one would assume you could do anyway, limiting those skills for all players. Elsewhere there is advice on "calling for a ceasefire" that is so handwavey the feat may or may not be an improvement. Dual Identity is seemingly simple but actually very complex, with those complexities and anything but the most standard situation of "Bruce Wayne goes to a dinner party and changes costume in a closet" totally ignored.

I'm sure people will vehemently disagree with me, and I wish I could go into greater depth rather than a broad review like this. However it would take far more than a single review to get into the individual issues of underdevelopment, tone deafness, and mechanical failure of each part. I would recommend avoiding this book, and if you really want another ladle full of archetypes, feats, and magic just wait for it to be on an SRD.


Flawed Masterpiece

4/5

Let me get the reason I knocked a star off of this out of the way first: There are a couple of little editorial snarls that ring a little false(LE Antipaladins not explicity mentioning swapping out Anarchic for Axiomatic weapon properties, Vigilantes not having Knowledge: Nobility as a class skill, that sort of thing), and a couple of missed opportunities (such an archetype for letting a Vigilante just use its social persona, rather than having to play dress-up and run around skulking in alleyways)

I love everything else.

I almost passed on this book- the Vigilante's concept didn't ding my trolley, and I have a lot of experience running political scenarios.

But boy would I have missed out- this book is loaded with options, some of them expected (The Cardinal, a politically-oriented Cleric archetype), some of them less so (The Dandy is a Court-centered Ranger with favored Nations rather than Enemies).

All told, easily the best fluff-light book I've picked up-for ANY system-in quite some time.


Fey contents

5/5

This book is awesome for all of those who want to create more skill-monkey character than fighters. But the best adding of this product for me is the fey contents. Finally we have a fey eidolon for the unchained summoner, archetypes for druids, mesmerists, summonner, and feat for druid and ranger.
To put it into a nutshell: a must have for all fey-like character !


Surprisingly Awesome

5/5

I actually didn't have high hopes for this book, and so I didn't really bother with the Vigilante playtest.

But I like Paizo and what they produce so I kept my subscription, especially since I really liked Unchanined and Occult Adventures.

I was not disappointed.

Verbal Duels and the Vigilante class both look like they're gonna be a lot of fun, can't wait to try them out. Also hey, parkour stuff!


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Really looking forward to this one. :)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Nice cover art.


Could that masked character with Merisiel be the Red Raven?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cthulhudrew wrote:
Could that masked character with Merisiel be the Red Raven?

Actually that guy I believe is the new Vigilante Iconic.

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
zergtitan wrote:
Cthulhudrew wrote:
Could that masked character with Merisiel be the Red Raven?
Actually that guy I believe is the new Vigilante Iconic.

I think he means has the Red Raven become the new vigilante iconic? It's not too far fetched and if it's an update I could see the visual update.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The new guy looks awesome!

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

My thoughts on the cover art-Dynamic Entry perpetrated by something along the lines of "Sorry about the mess, but the Skull of Venca belongs in a museum, not in your grubby hands, DON ZUAN!!.*guards come in to stop them, a fight ensues, and the heroes triumph* gentle men and ladies I bid you a good evening and goodbye."

Liberty's Edge

doc the grey wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
Cthulhudrew wrote:
Could that masked character with Merisiel be the Red Raven?
Actually that guy I believe is the new Vigilante Iconic.
I think he means has the Red Raven become the new vigilante iconic? It's not too far fetched and if it's an update I could see the visual update.

Or it Could be the crimson Cowl, The scarlet rook, or even The Bloody Magpie. Who knows what face lies behind that dashing disguise... I Have no clue but i believe it is a man.

Also i love that the pair appear to be crashing into the shortest, most evil looking man at the masked ball..or at least Merisiel is.


That sword would not fit in that sheath.

edit:

Quote:
link their fortunes to nonplayer characters and organizations

This interests me greatly.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Who is the masked avenger? stay tuned next week to find out.


Dragon78 wrote:
Who is the masked avenger? stay tuned next week to find out.

But the book isn't available until April! Oh the humanity!

Scarab Sages Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Is that a ferret wearing a masque in the upper-left corner?

No, seriously, if I'm seeing right, this is my new favorite hardcover-cover.


Wow. The new iconic fits the look for my Crimson Falcon PFS vigilante perfectly!


I believe the masked hero with Merisiel is Blackjack, the Zorro-like vigilante-type character introduced in Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Doubtful. There's too much red in that outfit for Blackjack. Compare to Edge of Anarchy, page 57.

It's almost certainly the new iconic.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Consider me intrigued.


doc the grey wrote:
I think he means has the Red Raven become the new vigilante iconic? It's not too far fetched and if it's an update I could see the visual update.

That is indeed what I meant. Why invent a brand new iconic (with similar guise) when you've already got an established one you could use to showcase the vigilante class?

EDIT: Plus, tattered red cloak.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Wait, there is a masked ferret(or some kind of animal) on the balcony. Thanks for pointing that out UllarWarlord.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Speaking of the ferret, I hope that the warlock talent for getting a familiar with a secret identity from the playtest is now available for the base vigilante, or at least an option to give an existing familiar or animal companion a secret identity. Spunky animal sidekicks are definitely fun.

Edit: Hmm, I wonder if there's a way to get a pseudo-Leadership feat, or a talent or base ability that interacts with Leadership, to snag a vigilante Robin to your Batman. Looking forward to this...

Liberty's Edge

guess which one might be the host of the party on the cover. my best guess is the one that seems to be going "NO. Not my priceless wooden adornments and furnishings!!!" as the heroes come crashing in from on high to ruin the day of the unfortunate about to become a landing platform for the dynamic duo (Who I Will henceforth think of as THE GREAT DON ZUAN).

Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Nah, it isn't a ferret. If you zoom in, it's the outline of a woman, seemingly with her hand up to her mouth as she gasps.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Luthorne wrote:

Speaking of the ferret, I hope that the warlock talent for getting a familiar with a secret identity from the playtest is now available for the base vigilante, or at least an option to give an existing familiar or animal companion a secret identity. Spunky animal sidekicks are definitely fun.

Edit: Hmm, I wonder if there's a way to get a pseudo-Leadership feat, or a talent or base ability that interacts with Leadership, to snag a vigilante Robin to your Batman. Looking forward to this...

Well there is Cohorts and Companions which adds some of those things. Though hopefully we don't have the robin curse of a good number getting axed off in horrendous ways, or surviving just long enough to get a bullet in the back of the head.

Contributor

9 people marked this as a favorite.
donato wrote:
Nah, it isn't a ferret. If you zoom in, it's the outline of a woman, seemingly with her hand up to her mouth as she gasps.

So, let's say that is a ferret in the image...

Behold! The Furred Avenger:

LORD FAR’RETT ENTRIIGO CR 2
XP 200
Awakened male ferret vigilante 1
N Tiny magical beast (augmented animal)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +2 size)
hp 23 (4 HD; 2d8+2d10)
Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +4
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee mwk rapier +6 (1d2–4), bite +1 (1d3–4 plus attach)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks hidden strike
STATISTICS
Str 3, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Feats Weapon Finesse, Skill Focus (Disguise)
Skills Acrobatics +18, Bluff +4, Climb +9, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +7, Escape Artist +8, Knowledge (nobility) +7, Perception +6, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth, +8 Acrobatics
SQ dual identity (Furred Avenger; NG), seamless guise, social talent (social grace [Disguise]), vigilante specialization (stalker)
Gear +1 leather armor, mwk rapier, cloak of resistance +1
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Attach (Ex) When Far’rett hits with a bite attack, he automatically grapples his foe, inflicting automatic bite damage each round.

Korvosan nobles have a habit of overstepping their boundaries. When a noble family began encroaching on the woods outside of the city, the druid Miraneth chose to confront them. With his ferret companion in tow, he took on the noble family. What began as simple sabotage and guerrilla tactics, soon spiraled out of control. The nobles learned of the druid's work and hired a pair of mercenaries to capture him and burn down the woods, finally clearing the land for a new mansion. As he was taken in the night, Miraneth's cries to Shelyn echoed through the trees, overwhelming the ferret's senses as it ran away. Moments later, the Eternal Rose's blessing came down on the ferret, filling him with the spark of intelligence and creativity. The animal awoke to understand why he was blessed: it was up to him to rescue Miraneth and stop the noble plot. With his new skills, he took on the role of Lord Far'rett Entriigo, curious noble from a distant land. When not engaged in the noble courts, Far'rett dons the guise of the Furred Avenger defender of the weak and champion of nature.

Dark Archive

That new Iconic is very ugly.
Looks like a poor man's Batman.
And what's up with the super-long head?

Really bad costume design.
Not excited.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

.....ya...to super-hero looking. It's like a medieval Deadpool....


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

That new Iconic is very ugly.

Looks like a poor man's Batman.
And what's up with the super-long head?

Really bad costume design.
Not excited.

Maybe he's the Iconic Ultimate Intrigue deserves, but not the one it needs?

Liberty's Edge

nighttree wrote:
.....ya...to super-hero looking. It's like a medieval Deadpool....

I think its meant to be a blend of 2 styles, the piccareque heroes like zorro, the scarlet pimpernel or to pull from the court jester, the black fox, and the cowled and caped heroes of popular culture. Its unfortunate that people complain about something being too super hero looking. If you were to probably play a vigilante EXACTLY like a super hero from the comics, you probably are going to die in record time (even the batman clones).

Liberty's Edge

Marco Massoudi wrote:

That new Iconic is very ugly.

Looks like a poor man's Batman.
And what's up with the super-long head?

Really bad costume design.
Not excited.

1. It probably is. Vigilantes probably don't start off with a lot of money for gear, so they are not going to have much more than some leather armour, a fancy dagger, some climbing gear, and a handful of extra items or weapons, and the hooded read cloak. Batman he is not. Batman has a mechanised grappling hook and billions of dollars worth of equipment for one.

2.the Vigilante is being depicted from an angle, and a low angle at that, so some of the proportions visable are distorted as such.

3.The Mask is shaped, but not quite completely form fitting, so some of the features are still not going to be 100% of the head. He could even be wearing a mask under the cowl for all we know.

Its still your opinion if you like it or not. You don't have to play as him. When you get the book, you can play as whatever you like.

Dark Archive

Look again at the release date. Looks like we'll be having this a bit earlier!


*blink*


I like the cover - very light colour pallette with some great expressions on the partygoers/masque revellers faces as this event becomes truly masked... Loving the dynamic duo's actions lines. Nice work Wayne.

Looking forward to the book as well... ;)


I wonder if they went ahead with the idea of the Amateur Vigilante feat....


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I could not imagine that vigilante with any voice other then the Christopher Nolan Batman voice.

Dark Archive

zergtitan wrote:
I could not imagine that vigilante with any voice other then the Christopher Nolan Batman voice.

Now that you say it, i hear it too:

"I am Redman!" ;-)

Dark Archive

An iconic hero should look interesting and cool. So far everyone of them did.
To me this one (if it really is the iconic Vigilante) does not.
The knee pads and helmet/mask are way to bulky to be part of a costume/armor that can be changed quickly without magical help like a bag of tricks.
Also the "self-made" look of the headpiece due to the stitches in the middle doesn't do itself a favor.
When i think of iconic masked Pathfinder figures a "Red Mantis Assassin" or "Hellknight" or even the iconic half-orc "Assassin" come to mind immediately.
All of them are a better design.
Nothing about this guy on the cover is iconic. Not the color scheme, not the weapons or any part of his outfit.
Merisiel looks way better.
Why not use the "Master Spy" prestige class on the cover?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Maybe wait until we know more before getting too negative?
Also, I hear his voice as more Adam West batman...

The Exchange

nothing to be negative about here. It looks fine and is viewed from an odd angle.

Dark Archive

shadram wrote:

Maybe wait until we know more before getting too negative?

Also, I hear his voice as more Adam West batman...

The mask looks a lot like Adam West's Batman. ;-)

I'm not saying the Vigilante is a bad class, just that i don't like the cover image of the guy in red.

Contributor

Whereas I here that fiercest of vigilante battlecries, "SPOON!"

I dig the cover.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

An iconic hero should look interesting and cool. So far everyone of them did.

To me this one (if it really is the iconic Vigilante) does not.
The knee pads and helmet/mask are way to bulky to be part of a costume/armor that can be changed quickly without magical help like a bag of tricks.
Also the "self-made" look of the headpiece due to the stitches in the middle doesn't do itself a favor.
When i think of iconic masked Pathfinder figures a "Red Mantis Assassin" or "Hellknight" or even the iconic half-orc "Assassin" come to mind immediately.
All of them are a better design.
Nothing about this guy on the cover is iconic. Not the color scheme, not the weapons or any part of his outfit.
Merisiel looks way better.
Why not use the "Master Spy" prestige class on the cover?

Okay for starters, think about how you remove knee pads. These you probably undo with a set of straps or ties. fairly simple. The Vambraces probably come off in much the same way. the cloak has a easy to remove design. Now the rest probably come off fairly simply. remove mask, top half and bottom half(after undoing the belt first) and you should probably be in at most a simple undershirt and underwear. Also where are you going to change as a vigilante? Probably in a safe spot, where you probably had prepared ahead of time some spare clothes or an outfit to hide in.

Also if they simply used the master spy design, it would be partially redundant and confusing, like "Why is there the master spy on my ultimate intrigue book? I can understand that it sort of relates to intrigue with being a spy and all, but where is my iconic character?" Every player had at least some of the iconics (or races) contained within doing their thing(or in the case of the bestiary books, the monsters contained within). Its a sort of cover coding for what sort of things are in the book so people can tell from a glance if they would like to get it to add to their collection. If i saw only monsters from bestiary 1 on the cover of my bestiary 5 book, i wouldn't probably get it unless i already knew what was in it.

And "the nothing about this guys outfit is iconic?", Answer me this. IN WHAT PATHFINDER BOOKS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SORT OF PERSON BEFORE? NOT MANY I CAN TELL YOU THAT. Even if you personally hate the look of the character, YOU DO REMEMBER SOMETHING LIKE THAT. You remember who they are. And just to clarify, i don't care for the design of the cavalier iconic, the Warpriest iconic, or the Wizard Iconic. Do I HAVE to play as them specifically. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Will I Play A Wizard, Cavalier or Warpriest...maybe i will, maybe i won't. I certainly won't play as the Antipaladin Iconic(I just don't like his design), Though I would play as an Insinuator Antipaladin of my own development(Gwendolyn Thistleton was my choice of name).

There is NOTHING stopping you from not playing the Iconic Vigilante. If you don't like the character, don't play as them. You can play who ever you want. Its your choice. But please don't make the thread discussion all about how you don't like the look of the character on the cover. Taste is subjective, and a good number of the iconics are not very interesting to me.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Okay......

Everyone lets not get in an argument about art. After all beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and everyone is a critic. Some iconics a we'll like the look of and others we won't is just a part of the art world.

My own opinion is that the long eyebrow Gnome and huge pupil eyed elves are disagreeable to me, but others like the alien look to those characters and I just leave it be myself.

In terms of the appearance there are a couple of details we ALL need to examine before we start snapping at each other,

1. We haven't seen the character backstory yet as the iconic could have a social persona of a local backer thus making adventuring gear costs cheap.

2.we haven't gotten the official iconic solo image yet which will allow us to see more details of the iconic.

So let's leave this thread to the upcoming book and hold the character bickering (critique/support) till the official iconic reveal blog.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So back on topic, did the release date just get moved up a month!? So excited for this one!

Contributor

zergtitan wrote:
So back on topic, did the release date just get moved up a month!? So excited for this one!

I must admit that I don't know what the release date was before, but the entry for the book under my "My Subscriptions" tab says it will ship in early March.

Liberty's Edge

zergtitan wrote:
So back on topic, did the release date just get moved up a month!? So excited for this one!

I noticed as well. And I cannot wait to don the armoured Motley Attire of the Chaotic Champion of Comedy, HALIQUEEN, Member of the FORTUNATE FOOLS.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
zergtitan wrote:
After all beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Don't you know Beholders are still held enthralled by those dastardly wizards that live on the coast? ;)


I'll save you, but I'm gonna totally rub it in your face later.

Liberty's Edge

John Kretzer wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
After all beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
Don't you know Beholders are still held enthralled by those dastardly wizards that live on the coast? ;)

Also don't Beholders have multiple eyestalks that can cause all kinds of nasty things including disintegration. If Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder, then Beauty=destruction and harm. If Beauty=destruction and harm, then that means Rovagas, Zon-kuthon, And Lahamashtu are gods of beauty. And if they are gods of Beauty, then Shelya isn't the goddess of beauty at all and if that is true...THEN WHAT MANNER OF HORRORS HAS THE FOOLS WORSHIPING HER BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD!!!!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I love the cover!


So, is this the first time a iconic's finished artwork has been shown on the final cover of the book the class will be in?

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