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Playtest the First: Emerald Spire Part 1, the Tower Ruins
The Adamantine Abolitioner, or Adam for short, joined a caravan of Pathfinders north to explore the Emerald Spire ruins and report back. In addition to the Abolitioner, the Society sent Arabelle, a Swashbuckler (without access to any of the dex-to-damage feats at this point); a Chelish diva and associate of the Paracountess's by the name of Mistress Cathay; and at the last minute poor Kyra got to go on yet another mission.
The group went in the super-secret back way. The first encounter was to the north, in the kitchen lab. The light consumption effect was a big problem, which we attempted to deal with via the Mistress's dancing lights. Adam cast Gravity Bow, turned invisible, and made his way to the north end of the room while the other three moved into the middle. Skizzertz took some damage from Kyra and the Bard especially, while the vigilante, diva, and swashbuckler worked on Clanky. Skizzertz fled after several channels and sent in the goblins from the mess hall, while Clanky was slowly dealt with.
Class features used: some skill points on entry; invisibility and spellcasting in combat. Invisibility was minorly useful but the 1-round duration at level 1 makes utility a bit of a challenge. Gravity Bow was a nice addition and helped with the vigilante's damage, and would continue to for several encounters.
The small party found the secret passage to the Dead End tower, and a pull-rope that went (briefly) un-pulled. Emerging into the room between the Dead End tower and the Ruined Hall, the party quickly came face-to-face with a number of goblins. The vigilante and swashbuckler quickly dealt with them.
Moving fully into the Hall moments later, however, they encountered goblin commandos while Skizzertz pulled the rope and triggered the Dead End trap. While the trap didn't crush anyone, it did limit the team's tactical options.
In the meantime, goblin commandos charged the group. After a few rounds, the PCs were running low on HP--except for the Vigilante, who had been standing in the back firing arrows instead of being up-front, taking damage. The diva eventually fell into the negatives, bringing darkness to the room, and after another round Kyra went down under the onslaught as well. The Abolitioner quickly burned his final spell of the day on a Cure Light Wounds to bring Kyra back to consciousness and she was able to keep the team's hit points in the positives while the Swashbuckler and Diva continued to chip away at goblin HP.
Eventually the room fell silent. Bloodied and bruised, the team opted to flee, heal, and return the next day.
Class abilities used: invisibility was not a huge help here as mobility was significantly limited. Spellcasting was useful as Cure Light Wounds prevented what might have been a TPK. The two spells per day--even after investing resources into a 15 Charisma--were limiting. The vigilante didn't have anything in particular to help with damage output or accuracy after his spells per day were used up. Stealth was a tough skill to make use of without darkvision.
Resting and returning to the scene of the adventure, the party made their way through the back entrance once more. They were briefly harassed by the goblin cleric while retracing their steps to the north, and eventually headed south through the barracks and then west. Back in the ruined hall, they encountered more goblins--and Skizzertz. The cleric cast Fear on the Diva, who took with her the party's major light source. The next eight rounds consisted of a glorified slap fight between mostly blind adventurers and ineffectual goblins. The Vigilante was the successful target of a Command spell to approach, but the goblins failed to capitalize on their attacks of opportunity. After some time, the goblins were finally slain.
Class abilities used: Not terribly many. Darkness is hard. Not being able to see in darkness is a pretty limiting thing for stealth. I think there was a failed Intimidate check somewhere in here as well.
The party ended up exploring the rest of the ruins with little difficulty. Moving up a floor, they found the ostensible ruler of the goblin tribe. Grulk did not last particularly long. The Abolitioner did not roll particularly well and didn't contribute any damage to the encounter before the bugbear kicked the bucket.
Class abilities used: an opportunity for disable device here, although that's more of a trait than a class ability since the class doesn't have it as a skill.
The Abolitioner returned to Fort Inevitable with the party, changed into his Social guise, and gave a well-regarded speech on the dangers of slavery--and asked around to see if anyone had seen his poor wife--before being chased out of town. Because nobody really equated his social identity with the Pathfinder Society, he could achieve his Liberty's Edge goal without wrecking the Society's ability to operate in the area.
Overall feeling: seems mostly like an average level 1 character. It has hints of abilities that might be useful at a later point (read: higher level). Lack of smite was an issue; spellcasting was even more limited than it needed to be, I thought. The Zealot build, especially at level 1, could easily be outclassed by a cleric.
I didn't have any huge huge concerns but the most frustrating part was the distance between the conception of the class and the realities of the secondary class mechanics. The default, "secondary" class mechanics, like the various appearance abilities, seem to reward stealth and intimidate, but the Zealot talent list doesn't really interact with stealth or intimidate much at all and with only two talents in the first ten levels to spare, I wouldn't have an opportunity to take an intimidate talent if you wrote one. As written in the playtest document, you can get the talent to increase your intimidate and sense motive checks, but to what end? Even the medium armor proficiency doesn't interact well with the class features' emphasis on hiding, although as a high-dex archer, the Abolitioner is unlikely to encounter this problem to the same extent as if he were a melee-build Zealot. Additionally, the Fey power's invisibility ability will interact in a minor way with the various appearance abilities, while other types of Zealots won't have that luxury. Even so, it'd be nice to have something more to use in combination with the invisibility.
Side note: I'm having a harder time justifying the Vigilante identity in Golarion than I thought. The realities of what a world needs to be like to support a subculture of adventurers seem to reduce the number of problems that can be plausibly solved by a secret crime-fighting identity. Of course I'm not much of a comic-book fan so I just might not be the right person for this sort of thing.
Did I have fun? Yes. Did I like the character? He was okay. I'll play him again. (And already have!) If I were creating a new character, would I use this class? No, not as currently written. I can get more coherent sets of abilities with other classes and still fit the same general concept.
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Playtest the Second: The Veteran's Vault
Featuring the Adamantine Abolitioner
Adam, as he might be known, gained a level for this. He learned the Light cantrip, Read Magic, and Resist Energy; gained some HP and BAB; his saves went up a little; and he learned how to Smite things.
The Pathfinders sent a large contingent to Korvosa to retrieve a locket for an ex-Pathfinder of some renown. In addition to the Adamantine Abolitioner, the Society asked a Jeckyll-and-Hyde alchemist, Lirianne the Iconic Gunslinger, a dwarven Warpriest with a greataxe, a monk, a swashbuckler, and a cleric. With 7 people, I can't remember everyone's build. (Sorry!)
With 7, each character had less time to shine, so the vigilante didn't always get to participate.
Give Togg good food! The monk bought some chicken and we moved on.
The party was accosted by two thieves, one of whom was beheaded after threatening the Warpriest. The other gave up and was let go. The party did not find the unseen irritation.
Nobody could talk to the poor leshy, who got mad when the swashbuckler started cutting through the fungus in the leshy's garden. The vigilante, being a good sort, tried to halt the fungicide but wasn't terribly effective at it. While the other melee characters did most of the damage, Adam did manage to kill the final Xtabay. He stayed awake through the sporepocalypse mostly due to good rolls and the +3 from having a good Will save, although a reroll from the Warpriest helped too.
Class abilities used: Will saves.
Someone else spotted the trap (the alchemist, I think?) and Adam easily disabled it. The ensuing battle went slowly with the front-liners taking down a giant centipede while the swashbuckler one-shotted the darkmantle. The vigilante used his invisibility ability to catch the jinkin by surprise, although I forgot to use Smite. Overall, 7 adventurers simply overwhelmed the small group of foes.
Feedback: spellcasting was the biggest limiting factor compared to my experience with comparable characters of other classes. Being saddled with 1 spell per day (plus one bonus spell) for three levels is going to be brutal and really reduces the value of the spellcasting between spellcasting talents. It also reduced my willingness to cast those spells due to the opportunity costs associated with only having two spell slots.
Smite was nice, although I wish I'd had it at level one.
The alternate identity didn't come into play at all.
Did I have fun? It was okay. Too many characters. Did I like the character? Yes, more than I did at level 1. If I were creating a new character, would I use this class? Still no, not as currently written. The hunter-type spellcasting is nice but too limited. There are a few little mechanical indignities that I would rather not have to deal with (the spellcasting, not getting smite or another key ability until 2nd level) and I would probably want to play a class that didn't have those little problems.
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Build feedback!
This is more theorycrafting than playtesting, but it's informed by my playtesting to date.
Spellcasting: I was surprised at how painful it was to be stuck at 1 spell per day and not get another spell per day at 2nd level. With other spellcasting classes, I really take that for granted and to not get that additional spell really sucked. There's three levels of this to go, and then at 4th level I have to spend a talent to get spellcasting. And that talent is going to give me a whole bunch of spells, so it's WAY more valuable than any of the other talents available, so I will absolutely take it--but then there's three levels of spellcasting advancement withdrawal before you can get the third talent.
It really reminds me of an addiction--you get your hit for one level and then you have a bunch of levels of withdrawal before you can get your next hit. I'm not sure I want that type of relationship with a Pathfinder character.
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Vigilante talents part 1: it wasn't much fun to start without a talent at level 1. It was somewhat mitigated by the ranger/druid spellcasting list, which got me gravity bow, which is in some ways better than smite at level 1.
Smite worries me a bit because as a modular build, maybe I want to build a smit-y character (that's sort of what you get with the Zealot, I guess!) but looking at the typical ways of improving smite, they all seem to be built for Paladins. Adding a note in the talent that Zealot Smite counts as Paladin Smite for purposes of spells and effects that improve the Smite Evil ability would be nice.
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Vigilante talents part 2: the Vigilante feels to me like the Core monk. It has a hodgepodge of really cool things available, few of which synergize well. The class has Medium armor proficiency and an implied emphasis on the stealth and intimidate skills. The Stalker has many fun things to do with intimidate and surprise, plus hide in plain sight; it seems like the best-integrated of the bunch. Otherwise, the Avenger has a talent to allow for easier stealth in heavier armor. The Warlock and Zealot have a few fun stealth-like abilities. None of the other three classes integrate well with the Intimidate focus; the armor proficiency doesn't mesh well with the Stealth focus so it probably isn't going to get used very often except for characters who multiclass or drop the emphasis on stealth and surprise entirely.
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Vigilante spellcasting: a lot of fixes for the problems Paizo identifies during playtesting are going to be, I suspect, in the form of talents. More talents, better talent access, whatever. That's not going to work so well for the spellcasting specializations since they're so incredibly talent-starved. I really think that the Vigilante spellcasting needs to be normalized; it's too painful this way and it's making it hard to create balanced talents for those two specializations that people will actually use.
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The Stalker Specialization should die: I think it is mostly fantastic and you should kill it off. What?
I have two hypotheses/observations:
1. Many, if not most, Vigilante concepts include elements of the Stalker concept
2. The Vigilante class seems to have been written with many Stalker-like goals and maneuvers in mind
I think the Stalker specialization should be the vigilante. Take the Stalker talents and make them available to every class. Give the Stalker's Hidden Strike away as a general talent. Keep the other specializations; you pick one of those and can pick either its talents or the general (ex-Stalker) talents.
If it's too late in the game for that, give each class a talent that lets them co-opt a single talent from another specialization.
The class is designed to make me want to pop out of the darkness, surprise and cow the poor immoral fools around me, do my thing in combat, and then flee back into hiding. My Zealot would love to have darkvision so he could actually see in the darkness he's supposed to inhabit; he would love to be able to intimidate groups of people before 11th level; etc. He doesn't want to be a full-on Stalker, but it really seems like the Stalker is the Vigilante personified right now.
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Finally: things I like, because I don't want to be a "Negative Nancy" all the time, and because there's a lot of promise in the class so far.
I like the modular, talent-based build, even if I really don't like the way spellcasting got absorbed into it.
I like that you pulled out the social traits and turned them into talents. I don't think the social identity got a lot of additional power from it, but at least it can now be my social identity, and that helps.
I like the approach you took with the Zealot to make them more interesting and unique. I really love the Fey divine power, both in Vanish and in the Ranger/Druid spell list.
I like the changes you made to the Warlock to make it more appealing. It's a very nice set of talents.
I feel like the Stalker is the epitome of the Vigilante; it is very well-integrated with both the concept and the mechanics of the class. The d8 hidden strike was a brilliant move. Every time I tried to be stealthy with my Zealot, I ended up wishing I could take a Stalker talent or two to help. It is very well done.
The Avenger is a nice fighter alternative, and I think you did a good job figuring out how to make it a viable option in the face of the spellcasting specializations. Giving it pounce was a nice touch.
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Wrapped up the "final" playtest of the now newly-renamed Adamantine Abolitionist tonight. He was level 2 and played through Glass River Rescue (5-01). Playing along was a Diplomacy-specialized sorcerer, a traveling gnome monk, a sorcerer with a wand of magic missile, and a melee slayer who appears to have designs on joining the Red Mantis. (Not that it's a valid PFS choice, but it's the general theme.)
The Adamantine Abolitionist remains a Zealot vigilante with the Fey divine power, giving him 2 rounds of invisibility as a swift action (as per Vanish) after moving at least 10 feet as part of a move action. He's an archer, took Smite, see above. Blah blah blah.
The Abolitionist has only a single rank in any knowledge skill, Knowledge (Local), which gives him a big +4 bonus. He doesn't know anything ahead of time except for what we asked.
I got to use the social identity a bit, which was kind of fun but a little contrived, and hard to pull off correctly. I let my companions in on the secret early (Hey, this character hasn't figured out how to be a true superhero yet. He's only level 2.) Combat went sort of okay but none of the class abilities were terribly useful. Cure light wounds came into play twice, but it would have been nice if I could have cast it more than twice a day. Our gnome took a bunch of damage over the course of the adventure and I was the only real healer. And a really terrible one (i.e. very few castings per day), at that.
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OVERALL
1) I played this and really liked this, and here is why.
I thought I would like the invisibility more, and the spellcasting, and the smite, but it's all incredibly limited at low levels. It felt a lot like I was playing 3.0 instead of Pathfinder in terms of the class ability allocation. At higher levels this could come into play.
2) I played this and didn't like this, and here is why.
The spellcasting paradigm was just painful. It wasn't fun. It, by itself, is enough to make me want to pick any other class but this one.
The 6 skills per day, with implied skill point taxes for craft (or profession), intimidate, and stealth, didn't leave me with enough skill points to really be a competent rogue. That wasn't fun either. 6 skill points is a lot, but there are so incredibly many skills this class seems to need to function (like bluff!) and I found it wasn't enough to have an interesting set of skills plus enough skills to sell the backstory and do everything else. Which I also found weird, but that was my experience.
3) I played this, and really wish I could do this.
Bluff better without giving up my ranks in diplomacy or disable device. Acrobatics.
Do something with intimidate or stealth at low levels. Why invest in them now? That was a mistake.
4) I played this, and really don't understand how this is supposed to work.
I haven't figured out what the overarching goal of this class is with respect to intimidate and stealth. I'm good at those things, but why?
5) I played this and felt like I really enhanced the party and this is why.
I think the character did but the class didn't provide much of the benefits. The disable device was nice. The spellcasting was... marginally better than nothing.
6) I played this and didn't feel like I added to the party and this is why.
I'm not sure I really did. I brought the disable device skill, but that wasn't part of the class at all. I could heal a couple of times but not enough to play the role of a real spellcaster. A rogue would have had a little bit of a bonus to perception. A cleric or oracle would cast much better with the same basic stats. A paladin or ranger would have better base stats (and in the Paladin's case, way better saves.) It's hard to argue that the paladin wouldn't be a better overall choice. The only problem is the skill points.
7) I played this and it seemed totally broken, and here is why.
Not at all...
8) I played this and it seemed totally borked, and here is why.
The spellcasting. At level one the class is really just terrible. You don't even get to pick a vigilante talent. You pick up one thing to do at level 2 but that doesn't balance out with other classes that get their primary class abilities all frontloaded. And at level 2 and 3 the spellcasting doesn't increase so you can't possibly be a viable spellcasting class. The invisibility sounds great but it's hard to get to do anything right now. The Zealot abilities don't have any synergy with any other Zealot or Vigilante abilities; it's like a Core monk in that sense.
I've tried building Vigilantes of every specialization and the Fey Zealot was the only one I could sink my teeth into, in terms of abilities and concept. Even so, the class was frustrating to play and I would have rather played any one of my other characters than this guy. There are implied skill point taxes that aren't useful for anything at all until level 5 but then don't seriously affect anyone until level 10, at which point the character will basically be retired. The spellcasting hurts, but I've said that before. GMs and scenarios haven't used disguise for much so while the +20 is nice, I can't talk to anyone without rolling a bluff check or taking a very long time to explain this ability and that it says I should be using disguise. (Due to the wording, it's not even clear that disguise should function for many of the situations that come up.)