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Since the playtest went live I have been playtesting a Warlock Vigilante for PFS, and now that he is 4th level I am going to give some feedback on my experience playing him, and then my opinions on how I feel he will play out for the rest of his levels. I am also going to give my opinions on how I feel the other specializations will play.
Using the rebuild rules, I took a character that had not been played at level 2 yet and rebuilt him as a vigilante. This character got his first experience in April of 2014, so I figured I might try something that might not be able to be tried too much in PFS and made the character a Tiefling.
Playing at level 2 felt pretty similar to playing a low leveled wizard, relying heavily on a Wand of Magic Missile during combat and preparing spells with utility. The social features of the class are very forgettable, and since it takes 5 minutes to change identity, I pretty much had to decide at the beginning of the session which identity would benefit the session most (usually the vigilant identity) and just stick with it.
The real moment I got to shine was playing 6-22 "Out of Anarchy" where:
It is good that I retain my spells when in the social identity, but I imagine at later levels I am going to be very hobbled when caught in a combat situation in my social identity.
It seems a little off that the Warlock specialization does not get to cast in armor, other arcane casters with armor proficiency get it, so forcing me to take Arcane Armor Training is kind of rough, especially when I have to use my talents to keep my spell progression. I am not going to be one of the people that complains about needing to use talents to keep spell progression, I am fine with that. But having to use talent and feats just to be able to cast spells makes the class worse than other arcane casters.
So, some things that I feel need to be changed with the vigilante class as a whole:
Changing identities needs to be faster. Even if it is just allowing items like Hat of Disguise or Sleeves of Many Garments to speed up the process, something needs to be done about that. I want to be able to step in to a covered wagon, change identities, and hop out to help during a combat like Superman. 13th level is way too late to be able to change in any sort of timely manner.
If the process of changing is not sped up in some way, then the social identity needs to retain more of their combat skills. Otherwise they will be a total detriment to the party.
I also feel like a little more needs to be added to the social identity, right now if feels like playing an aristocrat and other class that cant be in the same place at the same time.
Opinions on the Warlock:
I feel the spell list should be changed to the Magus spell list, I feel the vigilante can really shine with touch spells using their Mystic Bolts in melee to release the charges, and the Magus spell list is just more suited for this. Additionally, the other casting class gets a 6th level caster spell list so their spells roll in when they should. It will also help the worlock feel less like an arcanist knock off.
Talents like Tattoo Chamber and Mystic Bolts are amazing.
Opinions on the Avenger:
The fact that they use their level as their BAB is nice, but they are still far behind other martial classes because of their d8 hit die. Maybe they should get something like Toughness as a bonus feat to help bring them closer to par with other martials. Some of the talents are neat thematically and can potentially lead to some fun combats. But Armor Silence and Armor Skin have no reason to be separate talents.
Opinions on the Stalker:
Their Hidden Strike ability has muddy wording that is just going to lead to confusion. I think it should just be changed to Unchained's sneak attack and call it a day. The talents are pretty cool, I see a lot of potential for cool intimidate builds using Dazzling Display and Twisting Fear.
Opinions on the Zealot:
I feel like it should have a talent that gives them the ability to smite an opposed alignment. To me this specialization has the most boring talents. Something needs to be done to make the class feel less like an inquisitor.
Closing thoughts on all specializations and the class as a whole:
I see no reason that an Extra Vigilante Talent feat shouldn't exist. With the spellcasters specializations needing to use talents to maintain their spells, and the martial and skill specializations both being not as powerful as their core class counterparts, allowing for some extra "more powerful that feat class features" shouldn't hurt anyone. There are already Discoveries, Exploits, Revelations, Hexes, etc. that are more powerful than feats so there isn't going to be a balancing issue by letting Vigilantes get more of their talents.
I also feel there should be some talents specifically for the social identities, and that can be taken by any specialization.
I think an archetype that let you take two specializations with some kind of downside (akin to Crossblooded sorcerers) would be a good idea and allow more concepts, like Batman as an Avenger/Stalker or Ironman being an Avenger/Warlock.
I look forward to seeing the psychic vigilante, and I hope to see the finalized version of the vigilante taking some of the feedback I have seen on the site to keep it from being a class that is only used by GMs who want to make their villains scry proof.