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There was a thread a while back similar to this. I posted in it when I was working up my Vigilante. I’ll try to track it down and post a link.
My Vigilante has three identities. I’ve managed to work all of them in, though usually I will stay in one for the scenario. He had his “origin” story recently. He was in his social/noble identity, but the situation necessitated some sneaking around at night. We were in Taldor, and he didn’t want to be recognized, so he brought an opera mask and wore that. At the end of the scenario, when the villain found a safe haven in Oppara, he realized that with that level of corruption, the city needs someone to patrol it, like a phantom in the night. He looked down at his opera mask, and became... The Phantom of Oppara!
Anyway, it was pretty fun to have his origin story happen in game, and it happened on the scenario that leveled him to the point he actually has useful Vigilante abilities. So that worked out.
He has three identities, because he’s a Dhampir and I took the Guise of Life Social Talent. So his IDs break down like:
With all the level dips (1 Scaled Fist UMonk, 3 Strangler Brawler, 7 Hangman Vigilante), he’s not going to have Quick Change until 11th level, so any change will be a slow one between sections of the scenario. But I like having the different fighting approaches for different IDs. Even if it ultimately will mean spending extra gold to enhance the sword. He can still grapple if needed in his social ID, and the only Social Talent that will require the Social ID is Social Grace. So he can pretty much use everything he has no matter which ID he’s in, and he’ll have the sword and Flurry for when grappling isn’t a good idea.
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Here’s the advice I gave in that earlier thread:
I like the difference between the identities but in order to avoid constantly demanding that the GM revolve the flow of the game around your need to change identities you really have four choices:
1. Pick an identity and stick to it.
2. Let your party in on the "secret" and trade identities when it looks like combat but not refuse to use vigilante abilities in your social guise.
3. Have a way to trade identities quickly and unnoticeably. Usually this means being at least 7th level (quick change) and being good at sneaking/invisibility.
4. Send your "companion" to do the combat stuff. This works well if you have a high enough Charisma to have multiple followers and just claim you want "my squire" to go in the dungeon.
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This really only works if you don't mind having a character that happens to be really bad at secret identities, but you could simply run around in your social identity most of the time and then whenever trouble arises, 'disappear' and 'reappear' except the only difference is that you're wearing a goofy black mask or something; ie. it's totally obvious that you're the same person but persist in playing dumb when people try to point it out :3
Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis
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When looking at this, I think you also need to consider the out of character aspect as well.
Although it is certainly tempting to not let the other players in on the secret, it probably works better to just announce Out of Character what is happening. That way everyone is 'in the know' and you don't have curious players poking at things.
Doing it this way also allows you to play it up campy. Have the social ID run around a corner, suddenly the vigilante ID comes out saying the other one said their help was needed. Everyone at the table is in on the joke, allowing people to laugh about it.
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On my Vigilante I went with the option that if he's on a mission, it's as his vigilante persona, and the social persona is largely his downtime face when he's doing day job things.
I recently earned a boon for con GMing that let him join the Liberty's Edge and now his social aspect is a member of the Review Council. And such a prestigious position can't be held by someone getting his hands THAT dirty.
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A vigilante works well as a skilled fighter or a rogue with actual talents.As a stalker, they can’t disable magical traps. Magical traps are very common.
If you want to be able to do that you need to multiclass with something that can handle magical traps.
My characters buy 4 scrolls of arem zeys focus and it usually lasts their careers.
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My characters buy 4 scrolls of arem zeys focus and it usually lasts their careers.Aram Zey's Focus is a criminally overlooked spells. And by that I mean that it's usually overlooked by the criminals that should be using it.
I agree. It’s a great spell.
It’s also not a given a Vigilante is going to be able to use it at lower levels in a timely manner. It’s a DC 23 UMD (plus a DC 24 check if you don’t have a 12 in the appropriate casting stat... INT, I think). If you’ve invested in UMD it won’t be long until that’s not an issue. If you’ve got a +5 or so at first level, it may take several rounds to get the scroll to work, which increases the chance of a mishap.
But disabling traps usually takes place out of combat, so it’s worth having it as an option.
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wow... I just had a concept...
Spend the PP to take a Vanity - say Porter. Gain a Porter that "looks like that Vigilante - The Porter"... so, whenever you need to be in full Vigilante Mode, the vanity porter disappears and the Vigilante takes the stage.
I have to give this some thought...
I was thinking about building a Multi-classed Faceless Enforcer with Armiger's Panopoly, and the porter carrying around the armor.
I think i disregarded that possible build as the archetype looses a lot of the available Talents for some not-so comparable abilities.
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The way I play mine is that she’s the daughter of my Venture Captain Seeker character, Roasa Del Noire and hides under the ID of the Steel Rose in the field. Brawn Del Noire is just a field scribe who helps out some times. The Steel Rose is a hooded warlock that occasionally shows up to throw lightning about and help out various teams of ‘trouble shooter’ pathfinders..you know..the ones who shot trouble
Mostly she explains it to her team mates that her mother did worse in her day but she worries about her daughter, so Brawen hides under the ID so mom doesn’t recall her to Lanmasss, which according to Brawen is ‘boring unless you like intrigue like mom does..k
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The PFS faq on what stat you need to use a scroll is kinda borked. The text says int, the example says int or charisma.
Agreed. I've run into table variation with some GMs letting Charisma count, and some requiring Int or Wis (for stuff like breath of life). One check at DC23 is still tough for a low level character. Having to make a second one at 24 is tougher. Having to make both on the same attempt to activate makes it very unlikely. 1.5% for the earlier mentioned +5 bonus, vs a 5% chance to mishap. Although I guess you would only potentially mishap after you've successfully emulated the stat, so .5% of the time.
Point being, it may not be the best solution at low levels or if you don't want to take UMD. Otherwise, I definitely make sure I have access to it on my Sorcerer, who has enough in Disable Device to get disable most traps, and can just dispel tougher ones (eventually).
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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I have a Magical Child. At the beginning of the Scenario, when it is just Pathfinders in the room, my social ID (An old male gnome jeweler) hands out contracts to keep his trade secrets about his profession. It happens to include the secret id of the Magical Child (Young girl gnome)
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Suggestion: go anti hero
I have a pre vigilante class "vigilante' that might give some ideas.
Character started out as my summoner's herold vanity/daughter (other "twin" daughter was my squire) who adventured in the summer to to pay for his daughters first class Taldan Education.
My character "played hooky" in the fall and joined the Silver Crusade (rather than Daddy's Soverign Court) because Paladins are naive and a little unskilled in figuring things out, and she could beg forgiveness if they did figured it out (some of the values have since stuck) and with an 8 wis, this seemed like a great idea. Besides, going on adventures let her earn money for really awesome shoes and a great wardrobe!
If I were to do a variation of this as a real vigilante, I'd do a NG "good girl" social identity and a CN vigilante identity. I might buy her as a vanity another PC. This could be really twisted with something like a splinter soul social gray paladin ID and CN Callistran Zealot vigilante id (and if anyone knows how to make that work for PFS, I'm impressed).
I could come up with a lot of variations of this type of anti hero vigilante.
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Many traps will also alert the opponents to your presence, which can be just as bad as any other effect.
Its not like most PFS parties let you sneak up on anyone without at least one sir clanks a lot tipping them off. Or that the bad guy won't be behind a closed door with a readied action surprise round no matter what.
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I currently have one PC with vigilante levels (this one).
Her vigilante identity is her normal identity, that of a ruthless (CN) undine pirate with her own vessel (ship vanity) named the "Nereid's Kiss."
Her social identity is that of a (N) Osiriani information broker (bought the vanity for that as well).
She also has the many guises ability due to her archetype so can assume the form of various mundanes. She often uses these disguises for infiltration purposes.
She's open to her fellow Pathfinders that she can disguise herself as mundanes, but doesn't connect her vigilante and social identities.
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I have two vigilantes in PFS:
One never uses her social identity, because the Pathfinder Society doesn't know about it (she's been sent to finishing school in Absalom, but regularly plays hooky to do unladylike things like go adventuring in dungeons and throw bolts around).
The second one I play in conjunction with my husband, and while we don't in character come right out and say we're vigilantes, we also don't try to be coy about the identity changes when they happen (most people pick it up on the first change). We always go to the briefing in our social identities (a halfling and human from Cheliax), because it makes the Liberty's Edge PCs cringe (but our vigilante IDs are very obviously Liberty's Edge, so once the others figure it out they're happy). There are some scenarios where we never change though, just because we don't need to.
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imitating a voice also comes under disguise.
"I am a young girl and not a young gnome" would be a bluff check.
presented in the Core Rulebook focuses on the visual
aspects of disguise that a character prepares, later rules
(such as the vocal alteration spell; see page 248 of Pathfinder
RPG Ultimate Magic) have made it clear that there are other
aspects, including voice, mannerisms, and phrasing. The
trick is to distinguish between the use of the Bluff and
the Disguise skills. Generally, Bluff checks cover telling
actual lies to support a disguise, whereas Disguise checks
cover the other aspects, such as imitating mannerisms
and speech
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Heh, as a newly created PFS Warlock Vigilante (in 2017 for PFS Online Gameday 6), I admittedly tend to downplay or sorta handwave that whole "secret identity" part as being that of just one Wayang among the many already present in the Pathfinder Society; I suppose it could be counted as being something similar to Terrytoon's/Bakshi's The Mighty Heroes, where we see our heroes change into their heroic forms from their unspecified day-jobs/secret id's in the Opening/(Untitled Sequence but the majority of their actual speaking parts in the episodes are mostly in their costumed identities.
While Thundercloud does have the Magical Transformation sequence ability (thus having the potential to be your bog-standard magical...erm, lad; ), he tends lean more along the lines of one Trans-Lux/Oriolo's The Mighty Hercules- complete with special effects and sounds from wearing his stylized signet ring. ;)
P.S. Of course, Minuro/Thundercloud still has some anime influences too, just in a slightly different genre than the usual Mahou Shoujo. ;)
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When I think of the magical child archetype, all I can think of is purry purry prisoner, from One Punch Man.
As far as my Vigilante goes, she has busted out her social persona a few times (and in one module got into a cat fight with a cat burglar)!
Her social persona is a half-orc merchant; by night, Wraith stalks the streets of Absalom, looking for criminals to break the backs of.
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Challenge accepted : my high AC ranger I think hits +20 stealth or more while underground, which is really useful if you want the scout to be able to take a hit.
Your stealth bonus is not the crux of the matter.
First of all, you have a large number of things which will completely negate stealth. Scent, blindsight, scent, life sense, tremorsense, scent.
Mechanics aside, the stealth rules have a large number of conditions you need to meet and doing so runs into more table variation than a second hand ikea store. Creatures don't spend a whole lot of time in locations where they have impeded vision, which you need to even try the stealth checks in the first place.
Then, you have the fact that advanced dungeons and dragons is not the only ADD in many gamers lives. you've got about 3 minutes to sort that all out with the DM before the other people at the table get bored and say "okay screw this i'm moving up..."
and then you have the worst enemy of the invisible character: the shut door. It doesn't matter what your stealth check is, an opening door is pretty easy to notice.
and THEN if you get a surprise round on the party, you get a surprise round, but sir clanks a lot loses a round and a half moving up to get to you.
It can be useful with the right combination, but it is going to vary a LOT.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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Probably the best experience as a PFS vigilante occurred during Masks of the Living God. I spent the week in my social identity spreading renown about EL OSO, THE SPIRIT OF ANDORAN. By the time the module reached the climax, everyone in the temple knew who I was when I appeared as my vigilante identity and the guards became terrified.
