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[ColossusCrusher]

Feel free to port these directly into your Stalker Handbook and do whatever formatting you want, just make sure to give me the credit. :D

I will fully admit that I might have overvalued or undervalued certain things, and if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Spoiler: Brutal Slayer Guide

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Brutal Slayer: An archetype for the Two-Handed Fighting style, the Brutal Slayer focuses heavily on Strength and trades away features that are more appropriate for a Dexterity-focused striker.

What Changes

Maneuvers*****: You lose Thrashing Dragon and gain Black Seraph and Primal Fury. Getting a two for one trade is already great, and getting access to two of the highest-damage disciplines is just fantastic.

Maneuvers Readied**: Instead of getting extra movement and an AC boost, you get temporary HP and damage reduction for one round. Your next strike does a bit of bleed damage, instead of doing Deadly Strikes damage on your next attack. It's definitely a flavorful change, but it means that you have to stand and fight when you recover instead of dodging away and charging back in, and bleed damage probably won't rack up that high when you're using the powerful strikes you have access to. That being said, you do get an AC boost while recovering maneuvers from the Armor of Scars feature below, so the main loss here is the mobility. If that defensive boost were included in this ability, it would be green.

Brutal Strikes***: The Deadly Strikes replacement, Brutal Strikes gives a scaling profane bonus to Strength whenever you score a critical hit. This does less damage that Deadly Strikes, but your accuracy goes up and as it's a Strength bonus, the damage is increased on a critical hit, and since you're probably using a falchion or other heavy blade with an 18-20 range that's pretty good. Overall it helps hide the fact that you're a 3/4 BAB class while still keeping the crit-fishing aspect of the base Stalker.

Stalker Arts****: You get a few new options focused on Brutal Strikes, and can still take old options. If you want to go pure offense you can still pick up Scarlet Throne or Piercing Thunder with Lord of War!

-Brutal Ambush***: Get Brutal Strikes when you attack a flat-footed target, but only for that attack. Not terrible, but you probably have better options.

-Brutal Assault*****: Spend a Ki point to get Brutal Strikes against a single target for your initiation modifier in rounds. Great way to bring the smackdown on a single target.

-Furious Strikes***: The +2 Strength on your Brutal Strikes is fantastic, and you can treat your class level as your BAB for Critical Feats which stack with Fighter levels. If you're interested in those feats this is a must-have, but maybe not if you're just looking for the Strength boost.

-Cruel Strike*****: If you've activated Brutal Strikes, sicken someone without a save for initiation modifier rounds by reducing your damage by a quarter. A nasty debuff, but probably not one you want to use on a strike maneuver - save it for a full attack, since you only need to hit them once for the effect to kick in.

Armor of Scars***: Trading a dodge bonus for a natural armor bonus is a strict downgrade because it doesn't work with Touch AC. What saves this from a lower rating is that you get a dodge bonus when you recover maneuvers equal to your initiation modifier, which offsets the lack of AC boost from your maneuver recovery method.

Muscle Memory****: Your SAD package, you get Strength to AC and Reflex saves, letting you dump Dexterity. Your initiative will be lower as a result, and you still need to watch for your armor's Max Dex value, which is the only reason this isn't purple.

Final Ruling****: The Brutal Slayer takes a mobile, Dex-based striker class and turns it into a heavy weapon Strength brawler quite admirably - while also dripping with thematic flavor. If you like Stalkers and want to try something new the archetype will definitely scratch that itch.

Spoiler: Vigilante Guide

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Vigilante: The Vigilante is a skill and mundane-themed archetype for the Stalker that trades away the more explicitly supernatural aspects of the class for more grounded features.

What Changes:

Class Skills****: Free class skills are great. Unfortunately the ones you're getting aren't the best. But hey, they're free!

Maneuvers*****: You lose Solar Wind and Veiled Moon and pick up Scarlet Throne, Primal Fury and Tempest Gale. A three to two trade is great, while you lose Veiled Moon's teleportation you have a lot of tactical movement options in the replacements. Your initiation modifier is now Intelligence, which cements your role as a skillmonkey replacement. Just watch your lower Will Save.

Maneuvers Readied****: You have the same recovery method as the base Stalker but instead of Deadly Strikes you add Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack? You'll see why below.

Inspiration****: This is the whole reason to play a Vigilante - you're trading out your Ki pool for this, so it better be useful. You lose out on the versatility of Ki powers but you double down on the skillmonkey aspect. Remember that Initiative rolls are Dexterity checks, so you can add 1d6 to those too. Augmenting your attacks and saves are expensive, but can be worth it in a pinch. Augmenting Knowledge, Perception and Sense Motive checks for free is just gravy.

Trapfinding*****: It's free! Free is good! Just in case you still haven't gotten the memo that you're the Rogue replacement.

Sneak Attack****: Oh hey, more Rogue features. This time it's true sneak attack replacing Deadly Strikes. The only reason this isn't purple is because Deadly Strikes is better when you're in a one-on-one situation where you can't get flanking easily, which puts tactical positioning at a much higher importance for you than the base Stalker.

Stalker Arts****: Instead of taking a Stalker Art you can take an Investigator Talent. You're explicitly barred from taking Ki-based Arts or alchemy-based Talents, and any Talent that affects Studied Strike affects Sneak Attack instead. It's a nice little upgrade to your Arts that might be able to give you some extra versatility.

Inspired Vengeance****: Losing Retributive Ki would hurt a lot if we hadn't already given up all of our Ki abilities. Instead we get to add an Inspiration boost for free, and can now augment the save DCs of our maneuvers once per round by 1d6. Note that this is explicitly a 1d6 boost and not adding Inspiration to the DC, in case you picked up Talents that alter Inspiration.

Final Ruling****: The Vigilante is an extremely flavorful change to the Stalker that turns it from a mystical striker into a grounded Batman-type ambush striker. If you're interested in Stalkers and don't like Ki pools, or want to try being a skillmonkey while using martial maneuvers, I'd definitely suggest giving the archetype a try.