Vigilante..just how do I play him / her?

[hughnme]

How can I have a secret identity from the rest of the adventuring party?

So some bad guys get the drop on us,how can I transform into my alter ego
in combat?

I've read the pages describing the Vigilante,it's not clicking.So I can be a Fighter and a Vigilante?

Vigilante sounded so cool,Ijust don't understand how to play it.

[wraithstrike]

It seems to be like a concept/class that works in certain types of campaings, but it won't fit for every campaign unless the GM goes out of his way to make it work.

[Blymurkla]

hughnme wrote:

How can I have a secret identity from the rest of the adventuring party?

Remember, player characters are not the same as players. If you try to hide a secret identity from your fellow players they're bound to be annoyed and you'll create a ton of extra work for the GM.

Instead, talk to your gaming group about your character concept. Get them to help out. Everyone around the table should know about your character's secret identity - but play their own characters don't know. That way, you can describe your character getting into the telephone booth to change costume (or what ever ;) ) and everyone gets along, another PC asking »huh? Where's Clark?« etc.

[Milo v3]

hughnme wrote:

I've read the pages describing the Vigilante,it's not clicking.So I can be a Fighter and a Vigilante?

Yes. In the same way you can be a Fighter and a Rogue.

[Harleequin]

I do almost feel that the vigilante is a hybrid class...its many archetypes reflecting different hybrids

[Deadmanwalking]

Firstly, in a conventional Dungeon Crawl scenario, you're probably not going to be switching identities. Really, ever. You'll just be in your 'Vigilante' persona the whole time.

When you get back to town, you can swap out to your social identity and either associate with the PCs as their 'non-adventuring' friend or go do your own thing without them.

But that's a dungeon crawl, not really the most useful scenario to be a Vigilante in. In a more urban game, you have more different possible strategies. Starting with doing the same (ie: running around in vigilante identity whenever you're with the PCs 'as a group' while using the social identity for other stuff), or mostly going around in social identity, switching to vigilante mode only when expecting a fight, or a host of other options.

Another thing to note is that you don't really have to keep your identity a secret from the other PCs. Not if you trust them, anyway. I mean, you can, but nothing actually requires it.

And finally, as Blymurkla notes, under no circumstances should you try and keep this a secret from the other players. even if their characters don't know, they should.

[Nohwear]

In a campaign with a lot of time between adventures, could spend most of the game time in your Vigilante persona while you do lot of your normal persona stuff off screen.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

hughnme wrote:

How can I have a secret identity from the rest of the adventuring party?

So some bad guys get the drop on us,how can I transform into my alter ego
in combat?

I've read the pages describing the Vigilante,it's not clicking.So I can be a Fighter and a Vigilante?

Vigilante sounded so cool,Ijust don't understand how to play it

First-

Vigilante wrote:

1: a person who is not a police officer but who tries to catch and punish criminals. 2:a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

This means you do not need 2 classes or anything like that. Being a Vigilante means you just take the law into your own hands. If you want an Alter ego that is accomplished Via Disguise in some manner or Magical changing. Alter Self, Disguise Self, Polymorph spells. Just make it so the real you is not linked to the Alter Ego. Wear Masks ect ect. I believe there is a Aasimar alternate blooded (Angel Blooded) that gives you Alter Self as a SLA. That might be a very easy method and start to this kind of character concept.

[Dave Justus]

Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Being a Vigilante means you just take the law into your own hands.

I believe he is talking about the Vigilante class, not the general concept of being a vigilante.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

Dave Justus wrote:

Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Being a Vigilante means you just take the law into your own hands.

I believe he is talking about the Vigilante class, not the general concept of being a vigilante.

Even still no special class is really needed for the Idea.

And I'm not familiar with it being an archetype for any class. But the Idea of a Vigilante is not hard to come by even without a specific class or archetype.

[Nohwear]

Depending on the campaign, the protection to your civilian persona and the Social Talents might be very useful, if not vital. If you want to talk about how you would rather not have another class, that is fine, but please take it elsewhere.

[Arachnofiend]

The Vigilante's near-supernatural protection against divination is pretty unique and is quite valuable in certain circumstances.

[Rycaut]

I think as a class it will work best with a campaign that is very urban (or at least highly social) and with a party that is either all Vigilantes (since between your social and vigilante personas plus archetypes you can really serve any role) or with characters designed to work with a party full of vigilantes (urban druids going to play up 1000 faces, as noted aasimars with the racial alter self, skin walkers, transmutation wizards etc - there are already many characters that could if they wanted to have many different guises.

As a GM I think building a campaign for a party of characters who can adopt many guises and roles could be a ton of fun - I would likely emphasize social interactions, heists, investigations - starting in a single smaller urban area and then as the campaign grew going further afield into a larger city and with the occasional game set out of the character's comfort zone (i.e. take a group of largely urban characters and give them a task that requires them to venture into the wilderness for a long trek and perhaps delve a dungeons along the way - as long as this wasn't the whole campaign I think it would be fun variation).

In many many ways I think the Vigilante class draws heavily upon superhero tropes - so think about how superhero teams handle secrets and secret identities - in many stories the team all know each other's secret identities (and some characters don't have a secret identity at all - they are well known as who they are - think Iron Man / Tony Stark or Captain America) - in those cases it is more whether or not they are in their full adventuring gear/armor etc.

In other cases the character may primarily be seen with other adventurers in their Vigilante identity - and their social identity might only be used in game when either they are off by themselves or when other PC's have donned appropriate disguises (magical or non-magical). But at higher levels other PCs would be able to accomplish some similar disguises - though might not have the same protections from scrying as the Vigilnate (which is fairly unique) - requiring either magical assistance or care by the PCs to avoid detection.

[hughnme]

Forgive me for necroing this thread,I see I failed to thank you all for your fantastic comments and advice.

Thanks heaps!

In the end I dialoged with the GM/Players about the Vigilante and she will appearing in an upcoming adventure.

You guys are awesome.