When you are in an area of civilization, you can find information about fugitives and the bounties placed on their heads, and you can secure the legal authority to hunt down and capture or kill those fugitives. Sometimes the authorities will come to you, as an established bounty hunter, with specific requests. Your reputation and knowledge make it easy for you to establish useful contacts in the town watch or guard.

When you attempt to locate a fugitive, if you fail to locate that quarry yourself, you often know where to go and from whom to obtain information on that quarry’s whereabouts. Usually this comes in the form of contacts you have cultivated on past hunts. Your DM might rule that this information is unavailable— some creatures have ways of hiding themselves that are very difficult to uncover

Standing in contrast to the mercenaries who haul in anyone labelled a criminal for coin are those who target thieves, charlatans, and murderers exclusively - and for no material reward. Vigilantes are as often soldiers dumbstruck by newly-found social decay and corruption whence they return home from war, as they are wealthy citizens with a penchant for martial prowess an axe to grind against their city's seedy underbelly for a past, personal transgression. As a matter of course, a particularly zealous vigilante may come into conflict with a bounty hunter, deeming them as guilty of violating the law as any brigand skulking about an alleyway. If you indeed wish to be a vigilante, select the Crime Doesn't Pay feature outlined below instead of the Names, Faces, & Places feature above. Living a life of vigilantism means that you will always be on the lookout for criminal activity, especially so if you're within the boundaries of a town or other settlement you claim as your home. The promise of payment never sways your decisions in whom you target, and you hold yourself to a higher code than your capricious counterparts - you consider it preferable to turn your marks over to the appropriate authorities instead of harming them.

City guard and militia are likely to turn a blind eye to your unsanctioned activities unless you cross someone in their rank, be they corrupted, prideful, or otherwise. Additionally, as your reputation grows, you will gradually earn the accolades and support of the common people who find their streets safer, and petty thugs less inclined to hold them at knifepoint over a few coins. At the same time, organizations and individuals accustomed to using their coffers to help guide a settlement's definition of "criminal" (such as a merchant house, corrupt council member, and the like) will gradually grow to resent and perhaps lash out at your burgeoning reputation.

Pulling from your prior experiences as a soldier, mercenary, or even an extensive time living the life of a vigilante, you have the skills needed to wage a kind of psychological battle against the criminal elements of society. When interrogating someone to glean information about the location, motive, or operations of their superiors, they will easily buckle under questioning and often times readily give up sensitive knowledge without the need to press further. Any promises you may make concerning their fate in exchange for information you are not obligated to keep, short of killing them. You can coordinate this information with any authority in a city you're on amicable terms with, be it the guard or militia, your own old military unit, or even a sympathetic temple's leadership, provided that temple maintains soldiers of their own.

In addition, replace the Perception proficiency in the skills list above with Stealth, and substitute the hunter's traps and bounty trinkets with a magnifying glass and a set of manacles.