Vigilante Homebrew

[MadProphetDakar]

Hi all, I've made a first attempt at a 2e Vigilante Archetype. Our group was planning to play through 1e Hell's Rebels, but I think I will very likely convert to 2e. One of my players already had a concept for a Vigilante PC drawn up, so I'm trying to accommodate her rather than making her scrap it. I thought it would work best as an archetype, as the 1e playstyle was very much like a group of abilities tacked on to a fighter or rogue chassis. I have no real idea what I'm doing here in terms of balance or power level, so any criticisms and suggestions are very welcome.

VIGILANTE DEDICATION FEAT 2

Archetype, Dedication

Prerequisites Charisma 14

You have adopted two separate Identities, one used in polite society, referred to as your Social Identity, and one a secretive warrior known as your Vigilante Identity. It is not generally known that both Identities are you. Recall Knowledge checks about one Identity reveal nothing about the other, and divination effects that target one Identity do not affect the other. These effects do not apply to creatures who are aware that both Identities are the same person.

You are exceptionally practiced at misleading people as to your dual nature:

- Changing between Identities using Impersonate takes 1 minute instead of 10.

- You gain a +2 bonus to Deception checks made to Impersonate or Lie when protecting either Identity from suspicion. If you would fail a Deception check with the above bonus applied, you succeed instead.

- Other creatures take a -2 penalty to Perception checks against your Impersonate DC in either Identity. If a creature would succeed this Perception check, they fail instead.

- The bonus and penalty above increase by 2 for every Vigilante Archetype feat taken.

You become trained in Deception and Diplomacy. If you were already trained in either of these skills, you become expert instead.

Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the Vigilante archetype

RENOWN FEAT 4

Archetype, Downtime

You gain renown in a small community, either a village or a single neighbourhood of a larger settlement. You must spend one week in your Social Identity, socialising and making contacts, as well as spreading tales and rumours about your Vigilante Identity. At 8th level you may spend another week of downtime to increase your area of renown to a small town or two major districts of a city. At 12th level you may do the same to expand your area of renown to two separate towns or a full city.

Your Identities gain the following benefits while in your area of renown:

Social Identity: creatures whose starting attitude to you would otherwise be indifferent are friendly, and if their starting attitude would have been friendly it is helpful

Vigilante Identity: gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks to Coerce or Demoralise

STARTLING APPEARANCE FEAT 6

Archetype

(Vigilante Identity) When you make a Strike against a creature that you are Undetected by, that creature is flat-footed to all your attacks this turn. In addition, you may use a free action to Demoralise that creature and any creatures within 10 feet of you that you were Undetected by at the time of your Strike.

EVERYMAN IDENTITY FEAT 6

Archetype

You can disguise yourself as an unremarkable member of your race. This does not create a recognisable personality like your other Identities, but rather each time you adopt this Identity you create a new persona designed to give an impression of a mundane member of society. You apply all the benefits from your Vigilante Dedication check to your Deception checks made to maintain this disguise, as well as a +2 circumstance bonus when attempting to Hide or Sneak in a crowd. Neither your Vigilante nor your Social identity can be found with divination effects while in an Everyman Identity.

JACK OF ALL TRADES FEAT 8

Archetype

You’ve learned from varied experience fighting your enemies and picking up tricks from your allies. Gain a class feat from any other class. Your level when selecting this feat counts as half your class level. You must meet the feat’s prerequisites.

Special This feat can be selected more than once.

STUNNING APPEARANCE FEAT 8

Archetype

Prerequisites Startling Appearance

Any creatures who are Frightened by the effect of your Startling Appearance are also Stunned. Their Stunned value is the same as their Frightened value.

ANOTHER DAY FEAT 12

Archetype

[R]

Trigger You are brought to 0 HP while in your Vigilante Identity. Effect You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on checks to reduce your Dying level, until you either die or stabilise. If you stabilise, you appear to be dead instead of unconscious. Any creature inspecting you must make a Medicine check against your Deception DC, or believe you are dead. Any creature casting a spell that would reveal you were alive must make a check of the corresponding skill to their magical tradition, against the same DC, or also believe you were dead.

Special The first time you use Startling Appearance or Stunning Appearance within your area of renown after using Another Day, increase the degree of success of your Intimidation check by one

[Ellias Aubec]

I think being able to pick from any list for a class feat is a little overpowered. I’d probably limit it to choosing a class, then picking feats from that class for every time you take that feat again. Saves people going “I’ll take that cleric feat, then that ranger feat etc.”

[MadProphetDakar]

Ellias Aubec wrote:

I think being able to pick from any list for a class feat is a little overpowered. I’d probably limit it to choosing a class, then picking feats from that class for every time you take that feat again. Saves people going “I’ll take that cleric feat, then that ranger feat etc.”

Thanks for the feedback! I was hoping to emulate exactly that ability from the 1e Vigilante Talents; grab Shifter claws here, a familiar there etc. My thought was that the half level and prerequisite requirement would limit it from being OP, but if you dont think so I'll reconsider.

[Temperans]

I think it looks fine. But yeah as it currently stands, being able to get feats from any class is very overpowered (since everything else is so restricted). Restricting it to 1 class would certainly limit it. The other alternative is limiting how often you can do it (Ex: Once every X levels or Once for each proficiency rank of Disguise).

Also, I feel like Vigilante would benefit from having some linked archetypes, where their pre-reqs are tougher but you can skip them if you have the Vigilante Dedication.

Effectively, the base Vigilante archetype gives mostly general social/vigilante talents, while the other archetype are specialized.

Example:

An Avenger archetype requiring proficiency in weapons, it would then give weapon proficiency and abilities.
A Stalker archetype would requiring stealth (and/or something else), it would then give sneak attack, stealth, and other stalker based abilities.

It would also make it easier to add other vigilante options. Like say Warlock requiring minor spellcasting and granting bonuses to cantrips or Faceless Enforcer requiring armor and granting armor proficiency and abilities.

It would require some playtesting to make sure everything is balanced and well written.

[MadProphetDakar]

For Jack of all Trades, how about a pseudo dedication feat limitation, ie "you can select this feat again, but not until you have taken two other class feats"

[BellyBeard]

I like it! I think you've done a great job, and it doesn't seem overpowered to me (besides the Jack of All Trades, which others have covered). Taking a feat in any class at half level is like buying into every multiclass at once, so that would make this way stronger than multiclassing and many people would take it as a free way to multiclass many different classes at once.