Starting a new Vigilante character, how does this look for a build?

[Slyme]

Social identity is an aging actor who played an action hero during his prime, then ruined his career through a series of bad choices, arrogance, excessive drinking, womanizing, etc. He gets called upon to bring his former character to life. (Imagine a mash-up of Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest, Bruce Campbell in My Name is Bruce, Will Ferrell in Anchorman, and Woody Harrelson in Kingpin)

Vigilante identity is a classic pulp style action hero. Aristocrat by day, shadowy crime fighter by night. Trained how to fight and work from the shadows in the mysterious eastern realm of Tien-Xia...only the writers really didn't know much about Tien-Xia, so they got most of the details wrong, and his fighting style really isn't Tien at all. (Imagine a mash-up of The Shadow, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Dick Tracy, and a bunch of other 40's through 70's action heroes)

Appearance wise, his social identity would be slightly overweight and bald (which he covers with a fairly obvious wig, 30 years out of style), with a retro 70's style mustache, wearing outdated clothes that were in style 30 years ago when he was well known and liked. His heroic persona would be dark and stylish, with hints of Tien style that just misses the mark, with his signature weapon being a katana with a black pearl handle named 'Kagetsume' (The writers were trying to get a translation which meant something cool like 'The Shadow's Claw', but due to language barriers and misunderstanding got 'Shadowfinger', and didn't know any better)

Build Info:

Race: Half-Elf
Alignment: Social: CN / Vigilante: CG
Faction: ?

Str: 13
Dex: 15
Con: 13
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 16 (14+2 Racial)

Alternate Racial Traits:
Ancestral Arms (Katana Proficiency)

Traits: Shadow Whispers (+1 knowledge local, +2 Intimidate)
Reactionary (+2 Initiative)

1. Vigilante: Dual Identity, Seamless Guise, Vigilante Specialization: Stalker
Social Talent: Obscurity
Feat: Weapon Focus: Katana

2. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Shadow’s Speed

3. Vigilante: Unshakable
Social Talent: Social Grace: Intimidate
Feat: Dazzling Display

4. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Up Close and Personal

5. Vigilante: Startling Appearance
Social Talent: Well Known Expert, Social Grace: Bluff
Feat: Power Attack

6. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Expose Weakness

7. Vigilante: Social Talent: Entrepreneur
Feat: Cornugon Smash

8. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Twisting Fear

9. Vigilante: Social Talent: Feign Innocence, Social Grace: Diplomacy
Feat: Shatter Defenses

10. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Mighty Ambush

11. Vigilante: Frightening Appearance
Social Talent: Mockingbird
Feat: Disheartening Display

12. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Hide in Plain Sight

In combat he would focus on acrobatics and intimidation to get hidden strikes with Up Close and debuff with Expose Weakness, Dazzling Display, Cornugon Smash, Shatter Defenses, etc.

Out of combat he would be a face character (although an obnoxious one), with bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, etc.

Let me know if you spot any glaring flaws I missed, or if you know of any ways to improve the build.

[Slyme]

Oh, it is for PFS play. If anyone has any suggestions, I'll need them to be PFS legal :)

[ShieldLawrence]

I would invest less in CHA and more in your primary attack stat. Maybe more like STR: 15 DEX: 14 CON: 14 INT: 10 WIS: 10 CHA: 13. Add the racial +2 to STR.

Drop Expose Weakness. It requires more feats to make effective. Sure-Footed makes a great replacement for the acrobatics stuff.

[Slyme]

With a heavy focus on intimidation related abilities, I figured I would probably need a pretty decent Cha.

Maybe move things around more like this?

Str: 16 (14+2 racial)
Dex: 13
Con: 13
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 15

[Slyme]

Ah...forgot you need imp. dirty trick to not provoke with it. Sure Footed looks pretty decent, or maybe Evasive to make me a bit tougher.

[Slyme]

Ok, read a little more and came up with a revised plan of attack.

Revised Build Info:

Race: Half-Elf
Alignment: Social: CN / Vigilante: CG
Faction: ?

Str: 17 (15 +2 Racial)
Dex: 14
Con: 13
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 13

Alternate Racial Traits:
Ancestral Arms (Katana Proficiency)

Traits: Shadow Whispers (+1 knowledge local, +2 Intimidate)
Reactionary (+2 Initiative)

1. Vigilante: Dual Identity, Seamless Guise, Vigilante Specialization: Stalker
Social Talent: Obscurity
Feat: Weapon Focus: Katana

2. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Shadow’s Speed

3. Vigilante: Unshakable
Social Talent: Social Grace: Intimidate
Feat: Dazzling Display

4. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Up Close and Personal

5. Vigilante: Startling Appearance
Social Talent: Well Known Expert, Social Grace: Bluff
Feat: Intimidating Prowess

6. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Shield of Blades

7. Vigilante: Social Talent: Entrepreneur
Feat: Cornugon Smash

8. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Twisting Fear

9. Vigilante: Social Talent: Feign Innocence, Social Grace: Diplomacy
Feat: Shatter Defenses

10. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Mighty Ambush

11. Vigilante: Frightening Appearance
Social Talent: Mockingbird
Feat: Disheartening Display

12. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Hide in Plain Sight

Dropped Expose Weakness to pick up Shield of Blades, which freed up the feat slot I had for power attack so I could put it into Intimidating Prowess instead. That will let me shift my focus to strength and reduce my Charisma a bit and have an even better intimidation roll. :)

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

Got my vigilante all written up and ready to play, going to have his first session this afternoon.

Wish me luck :)

[Mark Seifter]

Best of luck!

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

Had to re-order the feats a little bit, forgot that weapon focus has a BAB 1 req. *smh*

Final Build?:

Str 17
Dex 14
Con 13
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 13

Alternate Racial Traits:
Ancestral Arms (Katana Proficiency)

Traits: Shadow Whispers (+1 knowledge local, +2 Intimidate)
Reactionary (+2 Initiative)

1. Vigilante: Dual Identity, Seamless Guise, Vigilante Specialization: Stalker
Social Talent: Obscurity
Feat: Intimidating Prowess

2. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Shadow’s Speed

3. Vigilante: Unshakable
Social Talent: Social Grace: Bluff
Feat: Weapon Focus: Katana

4. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Up Close and Personal

5. Vigilante: Startling Appearance
Social Talent: Well Known Expert, Social Grace: Diplomacy
Feat: Dazzling Display

6. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Shield of Blades

7. Vigilante: Social Talent: Entrepreneur
Feat: Cornugon Smash

8. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Twisting Fear

9. Vigilante: Social Talent: Feign Innocence, Social Grace: Intimidate
Feat: Shatter Defenses

10. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Mighty Ambush

11. Vigilante: Frightening Appearance
Social Talent: Mockingbird
Feat: Disheartening Display

12. Vigilante: Vigilante Talent: Hide in Plain Sight

[Tusk the Half-Orc]

I realize this may be off-topic, but I'm curious: how do you play a vigilante in PFS? Do you tell every party about the secret identity? Or do the other PCs just think the VC saddled them with a useless old actor and are totally surprised every time the Crimson Shadow appears?

[Chess Pwn]

however you want to pull it off.

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

In this case, I am playing it as the Pathfinder Society and his coworkers know his 'secret' identity, but the general public at large does not. With this characters personalty, if someone confronted him about his identity, he would probably be thrilled to sign an autograph for an adoring fan, especially if they are female. :)

I chose the obscurity social talent at level 1, as neither his actor side, nor his hero side is very well known in current society...maybe a rare elderly human might recognize him or his character from their childhood...or perhaps someone from a longer lived race might, if they were into theater 60 years ago.

Mechanically, there really is no penalty for exposing your identities...it seems to be more suited to home brew games, where you have a set territory.

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

Well, first session is done. Everyone got a kick out of my concept, and my level 1 social skills came in fairly handy.

I got to infiltrate the Aspis Consortium, masquerading as Thestil Shadowtongue and caused much strife between the Aspis and the cult of Lissala. Good times were had by all :)

[Mark Seifter]

Severing Ties is actually an amazing scenario for a vigilante. Now just try to play Serpents' Ire while this one is fresh in your memory...

[Tusk the Half-Orc]

Sounds like fun, and I enjoyed the description of your character.

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

Mark Seifter wrote:

Severing Ties is actually an amazing scenario for a vigilante. Now just try to play Serpents' Ire while this one is fresh in your memory...

That is one where you play as the Aspis pre-gens right?

Tusk the Half-Orc wrote:

Sounds like fun, and I enjoyed the description of your character.

Glad you liked it, everyone at the table to tonight got a kick out of it too :)

[Mark Seifter]

The Crimson Shadow wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

Severing Ties is actually an amazing scenario for a vigilante. Now just try to play Serpents' Ire while this one is fresh in your memory...

That is one where you play as the Aspis pre-gens right?

Correct.

[ARGH!]

I see three odd stats in your ability scores. Odd stats are a waste generally in pfs since you only get 2 boosts normally anyways. I would go 16 str 14 con 14 dex 10 int 12 wis 13 cha if you want to keep generally the same array, or would rework it to dump something(either int or cha) if you want to push strength higher to an 18. Either way being in the middle at a 17 does not benefit you. Since you can rebuild at first level in pfs you can even do that after playing him.

[Tariq Qadir al-Omash]

I was figuring I would put my level 4 stat into Str to even it out (since it is my primary stat), then my level 8 into either Con or Cha (depending on which I feel I need more at the time), then when I level out of the standard modules at 12 evening out the last one.

Odd stats might not be optimal to start with, but they generally save you points and allow you to build a more well rounded character without being forced into a dump stat.