Vindicator (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)
(art by MortemKimer on DeviantArt)
The War of Immortals book included a lot of fun ideas, including some that were clearly meant to be a way for 2e characters to tap into older 1e concepts with the new paradigm of the new system.
This includes things like bloodragers being blood-drinking magical barbarians rather than sorcerer plus barbarian, with the goal to create a more unique concept.
Today’s entry, however, is one of two that seeks to “redeem” a concept that was determined to be kinda iffy in its original lore.
Enter the vindicator! This class archetype for ranger turns the ranger into a hunter of the monsters that hide among mortals to prey upon them, using a mix of divine fury and encyclopedic knowledge of monsters to seek out and fight back against the things in the dark in the name of their deity!
…and if you’re familiar with First Edition Pathfinder, you might be thinking that this sounds an awful lot like the old inquisitor class, and you’d be right! In fact, the art for the archetype even uses the old iconic for the class, Imrijka, albeit swapping out her old red attire for some blues that more fit her role as a hunter of Pharasma’s enemies rather than the blood red meant to call back to real-world inquisitions.
When the time came to transition to Second Edition, the agreement upstairs at Paizo was that the inquisitor, for all it’s badass holy hunter vibes, made some folks whose ancestors had a history of being preyed upon by the real-world inquisitions uncomfortable, and the implication that goodly gods would have servants willing to perform acts of true brutality in their name did not sit well with plenty of people. And so any plans of bringing the class as it was to 2e were scrapped for the time being.
But a holy badass monster hunter is too good a concept to let go of entirely, so the vindicator is an attempt to bring back that concept without the baggage of the inquisitor name, with a heavier emphasis that these warrior specifically hunter monsters first and foremost, with any other activities and duties varying by religions and individual.
Which is why the only time this archetype is referred to as inquisitors in-universe is in relation to evil faiths that approve of oppressive methods of hunting heretics and mortal enemies of the faith.
This does, however, give the career path a reputation that lingers even with the servants of goodly faiths, causing laypersons that have dealt with evil vindicators and their methods to be wary of anyone calling themselves that, regardless of their allegiances.
Still, there are those that walk the path, hoping to protect others from the things in the dark, even if they must walk apart from the rest of civilization for it.
So let’s see what the archetype has to offer!
Naturally, as a class archetype, this one makes modifications before you even get a chance to take the dedication. Firstly, if the favored weapon of the vindicator’s deity is relatively weak, they gain blessings and training to improve the damage it can do.
Secondly, while normal rangers learn magic as primal spells, vindicators instead draw from the divine, and treat any spells they gain from this path as warden spells.
They also must take a special edge exclusive to this archetype. This vindication edge starts out by improving the effectiveness of all spells the vindicator levels against the target of their hunt, as well as granting them a spell that launches a magical dark at a foe, not only dealing damage but marking them so that they struggle to evade the ranger and take additional punishment from their attacks. Finally, they can dismiss it early to cause a final damaging burst on the target.
Additionally, when the vindicator learns how to move tracelessly, they can choose to either do so in the wild or in urban environments, depending on what areas they prefer to hunt in.
When they become masterful hunters, the benefits they gain to improving the effectiveness of their spells improve, making their spells that much harder to avoid or resist.
And after all that, we finally get to talk about the dedication feat for this archetype! With it, a vindicator can seek out a church of their faith in a settlement (as long as one exists) to get information, make requests, and the like, especially when such pertains to their hunted target.
Those dedicated to exploring the mystic arts associated with their deity’s area of influence often develop domain magic, adding it to their arsenal. Later on, they can also learn the advanced spell of their chosen domain or domains.
Many vindicators learn the most about their foes in the midst of combat, able to observe their foe’s reactions as they attack to gain insight into their capabilities.
With keen eyes, many of these rangers can investigate and perform other activities without even slowing their strike, their senses taking and processing information at a brisk pace.
Vindicators are also often intimidating interrogators, able to intimidate others into answering and the perception to see through lies. This is especially true when heretics and supernatural horrors attempt to infiltrate the very faith that they belong to, picking up on failures to behave correctly.
Some become so knowledgeable about their area of expertise (for most vindicators, a form of monster lore) that they can offer a lot of extra information when recalling knowledge on the topic.
Those vindicators that focus on spellcasting enemies of their faith often learn how to channel some of the wrath of their deity into their favored weapon, reflexively striking a foe as they cast and potentially disrupting the magic, especially if it is divine magic and the target is their hunted prey.
Proclaiming judgement against an enemy of the faith, some powerful vindicators can use the divine magic of their beliefs to make a foe especially vulnerable to their strikes and spells for a short while, more so the more drastically they fail to resist the power of this judgement.
The most experienced vindicators who work with allies are able to instruct their fellows in the best way to overwhelm the defenses of their hunted foe in melee combat. What’s more, they can extend any sanctified blessing they have to their allies for a cavalcade of divinely ordained destruction.
Making the vindicator a variant of ranger was honestly the best decision they could have made, in my opinion, since the ranger is already about hunting foes in the first place. Being able to mark a foe, gaining domain spells, and even borrowing monster lore nerd stuff from investigator all make these monster hunters a very iconic option. What’s more, with the depth of changes this archetype offers it definitely deserves to be a proper class archetype instead of merely being an alternate hunter edge and feat chain. Your exact build might vary based on any number of factors, but it’s a fun starting place.
The fact that vindicators are not necessarily hunters of heretics or mortal enemies of the faith anymore means there is a lot of room for more doctrines to make sense with this sort of character option, and makes playing a vindicator of a goodly or benevolent faith much less iffy than it did with the old inquisitor. After all, even a pacifistic god recognizes that there are some threats that cannot be reasoned with, only repelled or put down.
Someone is hunting the clergy of the Sterling Anvil, something that kills with both a dagger and hundreds of biting insects. Eager to put a stop to this spree of killings, Vindicator Gimmald sets out to find the killer. When the culprit is revealed to be a humanoid swarm called a thousand thieves, formed from the soul of a guild thief the faith played a part in condemning, he realizes he will need backup to put the skittering horror down for good.
Blessed with the mixed elemental power of a suli-jann with the shapeshifting of an anandi, Dojendu could have easily found a career in all manner of elemental or primal powers. Instead, however, he chose to become a trapsetter and monster hunter in the name of The Weaver, protecting communities from the predators of the Shadow World with trick and trap and fang alike.
When the undead menance escapes the party by disappearing into a magical book linking to other worlds, their vindicator ally dives in after them without a moment’s thought. Indeed, their behavior in seeking this foe has been strange. By rights the creature was driven off, their task complete. However, their obsession with ending the threat once and for all borders on heretical for their faith, suggesting some deeper, more personal connection.