The ACTION MEN! Ultimate Intrigue Vigilante Playtest Thread


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ACTION MEN PFS Vigilante Playtest, Episode 4–01: Rise of the Goblin Guild

Characters
Due to a last-minute emergency, one of our vigilantes ended up having to GM to run this game; for no GM credit, even! Thanks Casey for allowing the show to go on even though it means you won’t get any playtest credit for rerunning the game for us. To compensate, we brought a second control character into the game.
— Cyril Takamine AKA Bloodhound (Warlock Vigilante 1)
— Thalamar Morsone AKA The Azlanti (Zealot Vigilante of Aroden 1)
— Sauce (Ranger; Control Group)
— Level One Sorcerer (Sorcerer; Control Group)

This playest WILL contained some spoilers for Rise of Goblin Guild, so be warned.

Vigilante Builds
— The Bloodhound is a kitsune warlock vigilante with Point-Blank Shot. My prepared spells were as follows: cantrips (acid splash, daze, detect magic, ray of frost), 1st-level spells (charm person, color spray, vanish, gravity bow)
— The Azlanti is a human zealot vigilante with Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot. His spells known were cure light wounds, bless, divine favor, and guidance. He had a bunch of other cantrips and one other 1st-level spell known, but they never came up in conversation. (If Jbt wants to chime in with his spells, that’d be cool.)

Act 1: About Magnimar
Part 1 of the scenario had us running around to various RP sites to run errands for the VC that called us to Magnimar. Cyril chose to spend the entire act in his social form while The Azlanti was on the prowl during our first stop, but he heroically jumped into a bathroom stall and adjusted himself to his Thalamar persona when he realized that socialization was needed. Bad roles left us in a bit of trouble in social form; despite being “socialites,” neither Thalamar nor Cyril had any special bonuses to Charisma-based skills beyond their ability modifiers, ranks, and class skill bonus. Both performed at roughly the same level of proficiency in this regard; on-par with the sorcerer, who was also trained in Diplomacy thanks to a trait. With some work, we managed to get through all three social encounters, plus a faction mission that our ranger needed to do for the exchange. It was weird that four a social intrigue class in its social form, us vigilantes weren’t all that remarkable at socializing.

Act 2: The Chase
After we got back from our outing, we went back to our temporary pad to eat and crash. Later in the night, we heard some strange noise coming from above us. Upon being alerted to the sound (which wasn’t easy since I only have a +4 Perception; rank plus class skill), Cyril began the five-minute task of switching into his social identity. But it might not have ultimately been a good idea; you see, we tried HARD to play up the whole, “dual identity” aspect of the class, so no one in the party knew my other identity in-character, and same went for Thalamar. So Thalamar went upstarts in his social identity to investigate with Level One and Sauce and a chase scene started immediately. Now, the party couldn’t wait for me to finish changing so they left; the whole chase took about a minute round-wise, so I wasn’t anywhere NEAR done changing by the time it was over. One can argue that my party should have waited for me to finish changing, but given the RP circumstances I think what happened was fair from a GM standpoint; it was, however, among the most un-fun gaming experiences that I’ve ever had at a Pathfinder Society table.

Finally I caught up with my group after they had completed the chase. Having learned our lesson, the party found some silly reason to allow Thalamar to change into The Azlanti before we continued. (I think we got the GM to let him change while the rest of us were interigating our captive.) When we had finished, we went down into the sewer to begin Act Three.

Act 3: The Dungeon
There were six combat in-total down in this part of the dungeon, so we got a fair amount of experience in how the vigilante specializations worked at Level 1. Before I begin, I want to preface by saying that luck was NOT on our group’s side this game. The fights were long and arduous because we rolled abnormally low. For that reason, I’m not going to focus as much on how hard we were killing things and how it felt on a turn-by-turn basis as we set out to use our awesome, vigilante powers.

Combat 1: Vs. Two Goblin Archers
The combat was over fairly quickly. The ranger quickly dispatched one goblin while another kept firing at us. I accidentally triggered a pit trap while trying to get close enough to the second goblin to use Point-Blank Shot, but luckly I made my save and didn’t fall in. The second goblin fled shortly after the trap was sprung. I did not cast any of my spells this fight, as I felt my bow was sufficient. (You know, except for the whole 3/4 BAB can’t hit anything at Level 1.)

Combat 2: Vs. Slime Mold
I’m not going to mention where we fought this monster because it’s a bit of a surprise, but it got our sorcerer and quickly began engulfing him. Bloodhound and The Azlanti shot valiantly at the slime mold, and even though the Azlanti had both Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot, Bloodhound’s luck at using Acrobatics to cross the pit and get a better vantage point was helpful. Sauce also pulled out his crossbow and shot down at the slime mold, and ultimately he was the one to pick it off for good. The sorcerer was amusing in this fight because he manifested dragon claws and swiped at the mold a few times. But then he got engulfed. That’s life, I guess.

Combat 3: Vs. Goblin Fighter
We caught up with that first goblin fight and in a stroke of pure luck, the sorcerer used his longspear (hey, it’s a simple weapon, right) and finished off the goblin in one critical hit. Considering the number of flumbs the Azlanti and Bloodhound were having, they both felt a bit emasculated.

Combat 4: Vs. Goblin Alchemist
This alchemist SUCKED to fight. It was hiding up on a ledge that required a combination of Acrobatics and Climb checks to reach (relatively high DCs at that). Sauce and the Azlanti finaly managed to get it off the ledge to fight us head-on, but not before reducing Level One to –2 hp. I spent most of the fight trying to climb up the wall to help while thinking to myself, “I wonder if Zatanna or Doctor Strange ever had to put up with this?” Finally the goblin came down and I spent my first spell blasting it with color spray, which it saved against. It was holding a thunder stone when that happened, so I used my move action to run away in fear. The goblin threw the stone at Sauce and the Azlanti to distract them before following Bloodhound out the door. A lucky crit with my bow ended the encounter.

Combat 5: Vs. Goblin Fighter and Goblin Bard (Court Jester)
There was a chasm in the middle of the room and the only way across was covered in caltrops. After a few turns of doing nothing but shooting at the goblins (my spells didn’t have the range or duration to be worth using them from so far away), we finally killed the goblin fighter and the bard ran away.

Combat 6: Vs. Bugbear
The bugbear managed to pull off Dazzling Display on us for three rounds before we got to do anything. I blasted it with color spray and it failed its save, blinding it for 1 round and stunning it for 2 rounds in all. The ranger went in with power attack and cut up the bugbear after getting flanking from the sorcerer from all people.

Observations
Bad luck nailed us hard this fight. We were not hitting or doing nearly enough to be effective. But part of that problem is that the vigilante doesn’t really have anything to do at 1st level. We had a couple of spells per day and that was it; a sorcerer would have had spells plus a bloodline power, an arcanist would have had spells plus an exploit, a wizard would have had spells plus a school power, a bard would have had spells plus bardic performance and bardic knowledge, and so on. Normally, spellcasting works by saving your spells for the best opportunity; being tactical. The vigilante’s only option when he’s not being tactical, however, is attacking with something; usually at a very poor bonus.

I already said it once, but getting locked out of the chase scene because of the vigilante identity SUCKED, especially since changing bad guys down after popping out of a phone booth is such a HUGELY iconic part of the Super Hero mythos.

Quotes
I wrote down some stuff that people said during the playtest about the class.

SOCERER (after being explained what Social Identity did): “Who’s going to scry on a Level 1 vigilante?”

RANGER: “For being in social form, you’re not very social.”

WARLOCK (after being told that I was basically out of the encounter): “This is stupid. ROGUES can “change minor details,” like clothing in a FULL ROUND ACTION if they take Quick Disguise, and I have to wait FIFTY rounds to join in the fight?”

ZEALOT: “You see, that’s the thing. In Pathfinder Society, everything just resets after the scenario anyway, and scenarios always involve stabbing; even when they’re social they involve stabbing. It doesn’t matter if anyone learns who I am in Pathfinder Society because it’ll just reset. I have no incentive to protect my vigilante identity.”

GM (who was going to be our Stalker): “I was really excited about this class when I read it, but now that I’ve seen it in action I’m terrified beyond belief to play it.”

RANGER (when asked what he thought of the vigilante from a Control Player’s PoV): “Not helpful. At all.”

SORCERER (chiming in): “What he said.”

Conclusion
We’re going to be playing again; probably July 11th from what our group’s scheduling has looked like thus far, but two more sessions of this before my Level 2 talent is going to be one heck of a hogwash. All of my suspicions in my theorycrafting thread ended up being confirmed with a vengeance; this was the most mechanically unfun game of Pathfinder Society that I’ve ever played, and I played Scars of the Third Crusade on a Level 1 bloodrager (with a trait for Diplomacy, but I digress). As written, unless the playtest document were updated with some significant changes and those changes were sanctioned for PFS play, I am unlikely to play this character again before Ultimate Intrigue is released next year if I don’t reach Level 2 before the playtest period ends, despite having unlocked it via the upcoming PFS chronicle sheet. Playing this character was a mechanical and emotional chore, despite the fun I had talking in a Christian Bale Batman voice for the entire game. But I don’t need a class feature to do that.

In another thread in the General Forums, I’m going to put on my designer hat and use the information that I gathered to make some mechanical suggestions. When we play again, I’ll post the playtest feedback into this thread, thus continuing the saga of THE ACTION MEN!


As an aside: you only have 4 level 0 spells prepared, and 2 level 1 spells prepared per day as a level 1 Warlock. I think you meant to say spells known in your above write-up. Otherwise informative.

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Trekkie90909 wrote:
As an aside: you only have 4 level 0 spells prepared, and 2 level 1 spells prepared per day as a level 1 Warlock. I think you meant to say spells known in your above write-up. Otherwise informative.

Yeah. My spells were color spray and one unprepared spell slot, which I ended up preparing using to prepare vanish. I listed all of the spells in my spellbook based on my level.

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Trekkie90909 wrote:
As an aside: you only have 4 level 0 spells prepared, and 2 level 1 spells prepared per day as a level 1 Warlock. I think you meant to say spells known in your above write-up. Otherwise informative.

Yeah. My spells were color spray and one unprepared spell slot, which I ended up using to prepare vanish. I listed all of the spells in my spellbook based on my level.

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ACTION MEN PFS Vigilante Playtest, Episode 6-22: Out of Anarchy

Characters
I GMed this game, so only one of our team vigilantes was in this group; Casey's vigilante (who was absent from the previous game).
— Taichoo the Tengu, AKA The Dark Dallion! (Tengu Stalker Vigilante 1)
— Four Control Group Members (Level 5 Paladin, Level 3 Mutt, Level 1 Barbarian, Level 1 Wizard, Level 1 Cleric)

Act 1: Finding Olandil
Part 1 of the scenario had the PCs running around Pezzack trying to find leads on missing Pathfinders. This section was mostly a social affair, and despite having an extra +4 bonus on Bluff checks thanks to social grace, Taichoo wasn't at much of an advantage because the scenario provides the whole party with an extra +5 circumstance bonus on such checks via a special disguise. Also, much of the scenario called for Diplomacy checks rather than Bluff checks, as you're trying to make people like you. (The scenario gives the threat of "dying via starting a revolution" early on, and I think my players were afraid to try anything underhanded as a result.) Still, that's not to say that Taichoo was terrible here; he wasn't noticeably better than anyone else is all.

Act 2: Chasing Olandil
Part 2 of the scenario had the PCs chasing after Olandil as he lead them to a safe house in the sewers. Here, the PCs had two combats: one with a giant grub and one with a pair of scorpions, culminating with a battle with some guards.

Giant Grub (Maggot): This fight was over quickly. The Level 3 character killed it before Taichoo had a chance to do anything. The players ran into the maggot and acted in initiative almost immediately. Taichoo spent his turn trying to move into a position where he could use hidden strike. (The tunnels were only five-feet wide, so he ended up running around for the one or two rounds that combat lasted.)

Giant Scorpion: This fight took a lot longer (it was against a giant scorpion and a cave scorpion), but that was mostly because the party encountered the scorpion right next to the door, meaning that it funneled the melee-heavy party. It was only after I allowed some rather kind movement on the unintelligent scorpion's part that more than two of the players were even able to get in and actually hurt the thing. Taichoo spent most of his time rooting around the area and exploring it for the rest of the party, so again, no real sense of the stalker's combat abilities at Level 1 here.

Loyalist Scum: This battle is versus a named guard and four rogues. The encounter begins with the PCs down in the middle of a hole with the opponents looking up around them. Thanks to his skill ranks (and an aid another check from a friend), Taichoo was one of the few characters able to climb out of the hole and attack his enemies. Between having no chance to catch his opponents unaware and some rather uncooperative tactics from several other melee characters (let's split up, guys!), Taichoo again never got to use his hidden strike ability and resorted to some rather outlandish tactics, like throwing random weapons at people.

Act 3: Gaining Loyalty
The next part of the scenario had the players seek out a Pezzacki faction and cut a deal with them for their support. After getting this mission, Taichoo ducked out and returned as Dark Dallard, complete with player-provided theme music. Dark Dallion had a significantly more impressive roster of weapons at his disposal (a player choice), including a number of exotic Eastern weapons thanks to his tengu racial trait. These came in handy against the first encounter in this Act.

Strixes: The party had to fight three strixes similtaneously. Because they are flying opponents with well-written tactics, Dallaion was again pressed for opportunities to use his hidden strike ability. Ultimately, some good tactics and fortuitous weapon drops helped other party members claim the victory.

Loyalist's Last Hoorah!: The final battle was against an evoker, two guards, and an incultus. (Squid monster that commands a zombie.) This fight was a pushover thanks to the higher-level PCs and some lucky critical hits.

Thoughts: This wasn't a great testing opportunity, in my opinion. Six players, including two out-of-tier players, is hardly a good show for testing combat. I didn't think that the stalker felt much different than a 1st-level rogue at 1st-level, and I suspect that a tengu rogue would have faired almost identically in this situation. That said, the unchained rogue is up one feat on the vigilante (Weapon Finesse), and personally I felt that this test supported what I saw in our first, round 1 game: the vigilante is missing some combat potential at 1st level. Unchained rogues have finesse training, for example, and I felt that the vigilante didn't have anything that made him feel all that different from a rogue in that game. (In Society, dual identity isn't much different then just using the Disguise skill to say you're someone else because people don't typically use divination magic on you in PFS.)

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ACTION MEN PFS Vigilante Playtest, Episode 5-10: The Confirmation
Characters
This was our biggest vigilante turn-out yet! James, player of The Azlanti, GMed this game, so we were left with three vigilantes of six PCs:
— Cyril Takamine AKA The Bloodhound (kitsune warlock 1)
— Taichoo AKA The Dark Dalliant (tengu stalker 1)
— "Some Curmudgeonly Old Guy" AKA Don Quixote (human avenger 1)
— The Control Group (Level 1 witch, Level 1 druid)

Act 1: Finding the Cave
The game began with us trying to find this place that Pathfinder Jinera found several months back. This was awesome for me because Cyril is an expedition manager as his Day Job (I even have the boon to prove it!) and as a result, he has EXCELLENT Profession: cartographer and Knowledge: geography checks. (Those are actually his social grace skills; I have enough signatures to get two from the ability at Level 1.)

Vs. Wolves: The witch slumber hexed wolf 1 on round 1, then wolf 2 on round 2. The encounter was over on round 3. Taichoo FINALLY got to use hidden strike!

Act 2: The Cave:
My Knowledge: geography again provided surprisingly useful as we needed to create a map as part of a puzzle. After the skill challenges, we ended up fighting some monsters.

Vs. Gelatinous Cube: As an aside, I learned a bit from my first game as Cyril and prepared far fewer save-or-suck spells. As a result, I shot the cube once and blasted it with magic missiles once. The avenger got enveloped and nearly died despite being our front-line character and Taichoo was disappointed to learn that he can't use hidden strike on an ooze. (He actually caught it unaware, too!) In the end, our druid and his T-Rex were the big winners of this fight; the T-Rex was our highest-damaging character. (Both Taichoo and Don were TWF.)

Vs. Gremlins: We fought several mites and their centipede pets next. With only two spells left, I saved my magic and simply shot at stuff with my bow to average success. Don held off the vermin nicely and Taichoo helped clear the mites with his reach weapons. (After the puzzle at the start of the act, Taichoo switched identities, claiming to have wandered off. I chose to say in my social identity for the whole mission after my good fortune in the puzzle chamber since my Knowledge: geography drops by 4 if I leave social identity.) Overall, it was a quick and easy fight.

Act 3: The Kid Gloves Are Off:
The scenario ends with a minotaur fight. (Cr 4 vs. 5 1st level PCs. FUN!) We all had to play VERY defensively and we're lucky that all three vigilantes are experienced placers. Don ended up failing an Acrobatics checks to cross a river and nearly got swept out of the combat, as did the druid. (We had to rush because our contact was near death by minotaur wounds.)

I ended up using my color spray spell to absolutely no effect, so I spent my last spell slot on magic missiles against the minotaur. Lucky for me, we found a wand of burning hands (CL 6th!) and I used that for the rest of the fight against the baddie. Dallant had some pro item usage when he glued the minotaur to the ground with a tanglefoot bag, and Don effectively stopped the rain of Cleave when he showed up. (The witch put the minotaur to sleep early on, but its duration was only 1 round and he did it too soon; no one was close enough to try and coup de grace the beast.)

Thoughts: Overall, I had fun on my vigilante, but afterwards I'm more confused than ever as to what my role is supposed to be. Am I a blaster like a magus? A control character like an arcanist? I don't have the gish abilities like the former or the high-level spells like the latter, and none of the talents that the warlock gets really help to give it a role. They're mostly defensive add-ons (plus bombs and mystic bolt) that don't actually say, "Hey! Here's how you play this character in a fight." Although I posted a build for him on Know Direction, I'm still not sure what my character is supposed to do, which is a weird feeling. When you play a zealot, you see the smite talent and say, "Oh, I guess I'm supposed to be good at hitting stuff." Am I a spellcaster first or a martial-weapon user first? (Currently, no 6th-level spellcaster is truly a spellcaster first.)

After my situation where I simply REALLY wanted to know more about geography and therefore refrained to change identities, I found it odd that social grace doesn't work in both identities, or at least allow you to pick skills for both forms or something. It would be fun to be able to swap, say, Profession: cartography for, say, Stealth, but also get the choice to keep Knowledge: geography.

Avenger seemed surprisingly solid, except he went down FAST when hit. He needs more hit points, whether that comes in the form of Toughness or bumping up his Hit Die to d10s.

Stalker was about the same as in Out of Anarchy; I didn't find him any different than a rogue of his level. (Which is admittedly low.)

On the plus side, I just reached Level 2 on my vigilante. Yay! I plan on playing him on Saturday, and my goal is to try to get him to Level 3 to get that sick "renowned in Absolam" boon. Plus we officially have one vigilante of each specialization in our group, so the tales of the ACTION MEN are bound to continue!

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