Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

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Nirgon

YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE
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oh ya community domain, REALLY sick cuz of that hearth buff stacking with everything. Not nerfed yet?
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
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D&D is actually strictly built around exactly that concept, so it's traditional ! ;p

For Wrath specifically though, pure dps isn't really where you want to evaluate from - on high difficulty you flat out cannot survive without the mage buffs and CC - your unbuffed melee is going to wander into boss range, whiff 200 hits in a row while the boss laughs at him, and then get oneshot. It's actually kind of weird in that it wraps around entirely and mages ( especially sorcerers ) become better melee AND tanks than other classes, solely based on their self-only buffs.

Even on normal difficulty though, mages are still a significant force multiplier - don't look at what a fireball does, but how much extra damage the entire team gets out of a single haste spell, for example.
Yeah but that the thing, my bomber man gets haste spell/buffs and can cast it several times. With mythic feat he gets to do it 2x more too (Because bomber man does not have much going spell wise so hes all utility and buffs) But the dude can dish out some DMG too. Again I understand the utility they bring I just dont think the shit is balanced right.is all. Even the mass CC gets sketchy as all fuck without meta magic since everyone just rushes one or two dudes (typically my main dude) on your team so you have like 1-2 turns to cast it when you win the initiative check which is not all the time. And then your other dudes cant even get in range without the meta magic feat to beat on them. Maybe sitting and playing this shit on tabletop is different, and maybe the video game kinda exposes that more.

And you talk about bosses, yeah those fights are like 1 out of 20 in this game. Youre just fighting trash most of the game. And with trash what they seem to do is try and overwhelm you. So your options are to DPS down a few of them quick or CC them. Then you have the single CC spells that are ok for the 3 turns? But its one and done for a caster and now he has to rest after the fight unless you strictly build him out to be a CC whore, like I mentioned in my previous post. Now he can go like 2-3 fights before resting. Which is an altogether strange mechanic in a video game. IDK thats just my thought about it, and you might not agree. And thats the thing, you go like 1/2 the game like this before the mages finally come online and do some deeps.

I also seem to remember in Kingmaker the meta was all about summoners for the higher difficulties summoning huge ass beasts and not DPS mages.

Which is why Larian made their own rule set and uses the AP point system per turn for movement and abilities and then cool downs on certain attacks/spells instead of the dumb resting mechanic which kinda fits better to a video game. Dont get me wrong im enjoying the game its just shit like this gets on your nerves.

Taking account this rest mecanic, it might make sense in a tabletop game where shit takes forever to do. Or im assuming since youre rolling dice on everything from skill checks down to initiative and all that. But from a video game perspective, like take end of act 2 for example, where youre battling to take the city for hours, mostly against trash, fight after fight, this shit just gets tedious as fuck when you have to rest every other fight because your mages and clerics are out of juice.

But hey im just glad they are still making huge deep crpgs like this though so all is good. this is just a small gripe of mine in the grand scheme of things.
 
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Talenvor

Lord Nagafen Raider
916
219
…and rerolled a cleric and restarted the game.
Pardon my ignorance, but is there a reason you restarted to make a cleric and didn’t just retrain your MC at the main headquarters? I’m just wondering if there is a downside to the retraining. I rolled a mutagen warrior, but then as soon as I got to the retrainer I made a mad dog barb with wolf pet. Just wondering if I messed up or if it’s simply a preference thing retraining vs restarting.
 

mkopec

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IDK, I never figured out that retrain shit. Every time I get into his retrain menu I cant figure it out, but thats just for the companions that I ever tried. I was early enough in game that I just restarted few hours at most, especially when you skip most of the dialogue the second time. I dont think there is any downsides so dont worry.
 
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Qhue

Trump's Staff
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4,413
Playing through DL3 has given me a chance to experiment with lots of different builds owing to the different Tailwinds bonuses and there are definitely some that are better than others...by a large margin.

Kineticist is crazy strong, especially if you go Fire/Fire as you get a combo blast that is sti pure energy and thus only uses touch AC. With the various Gather Power upgrades and the few pieces of Kinetic-specific gear you can land ludicrously strong hits every round.

Pet classes are great because the pets make for damn nice tanks but also benefit greatly from a variety of buff spells and turn into forces of nature.

I almost always end up with one character being the 'buff bitch' however. They just get both of the Enduring Mythics that turn every spell with a duration over 10 mins into a 24 hour duration and then you toss a ton of buffs on everyone to make them permanent demigods. Angel is good for this as they have a number of Mythic specific buff spells, but you can do this with any of the Mythic paths.

I ended up 'beating' the standalone DL3 largely due to having the tailwinds that heals everyone in the group whenever something dies and which scales up with every 'natural' character in the group. You only need to have one level in the specific classes, however, so that opens up a lot of additional options for repurposing the non-pet natural classes.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
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Chugging through this atm on console. First impression is that there is a lot missing, option wise, from the last game in terms of races and some of the class options. Mythic character shit gets out of control really fast, though. I have to playthoughts going side by side (one evil one good) and I am running a Cav on a Sabre Tooth cat stat monster (put one level into Bard to get Dragon Disciple stat goodness) and with the Mythic Mount perk, I ride around pumping out so much fucking damage that bypasses most DR its ludicrous. Getting everyone Precise Strike and Unrelenting Assault is just such a force multiplier that the buffs almost don't matter, at least where I am at in the game. Scaled First/Dragon Disciple Monk is pretty damn good too, if you can keep them on their feet.

So I guess, if you abuse Dragon Disciple and sneak attack a lot, you can break the game pretty easily. Story is actually better, compared to the last one, if a bit standard. RTWP for trash, turn based for bosses. Pretty solid console game, if a bit intensive on the book keeping for some.
 

Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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First impression is that there is a lot missing, option wise, from the last game in terms of races and some of the class options.
Not sure I understand, I don't think they cut any races or sub-classes from Kingmaker going into Wrath.

If you mean dialog options then yea, that's mostly reserved for Mythic paths; not that they cut them all, there are still some race and class specific dialog flavor options out there. If you mean items that have class specific benefits, then those are still there and get more plentiful in chapters 3+.

As for difficulty, turn it up if it gets too easy/steamroll. The really OP builds are made for Unfair.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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I seem to remember more of the elemental races and Yaun Ti being options in the last one, plus more elven sub races? I could be wrong. As for being OP, I am in the sweet spot where I blow through trash using RTWP but have to buff and turn base on major bosses, which is where I have the most fun. Its just surprising how much damage a dude riding a saber tooth with the right perks can pump out.
 

Mythas 5thboardnow

Silver Knight of the Realm
414
72
So I just picked this up, and I have never played in the Pathfinder system or any previous king maker games. Is there a build that is forgiving or easy to use for someone that will undoubtedly make mistakes yet can still get through the game with little struggle. I mostly just want to experience the story and learn the mechanics of the game with hitting any brick walls.
 

Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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11,842
I seem to remember more of the elemental races and Yaun Ti being options in the last one, plus more elven sub races? I could be wrong. As for being OP, I am in the sweet spot where I blow through trash using RTWP but have to buff and turn base on major bosses, which is where I have the most fun. Its just surprising how much damage a dude riding a saber tooth with the right perks can pump out.
Negative, Kingmaker only had the core races plus Aasimar and Thieflings. You would have needed mods to get anything else. They did have the Serpent bloodline, so some classes could be kinda sorta Yaun Ti like.

There seems to be a lot of mount builds now that they fixed mounts. Pets were always OP, but it looks like even horses are good when you use them as a mount. I see ranged caster cleric and oracle builds that have them on mounts, which seems weird as I wouldn't think you would want them in melee range and I see no benefit from having the pets sitting there doing nothing in the mid line.
 
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Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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So I just picked this up, and I have never played in the Pathfinder system or any previous king maker games. Is there a build that is forgiving or easy to use for someone that will undoubtedly make mistakes yet can still get through the game with little struggle. I mostly just want to experience the story and learn the mechanics of the game with hitting any brick walls.
In the character creation screens, on the class selection page, there is a box that lists weather you can turn on an auto build feature for that class. It is in the read out for that class/subclass, where the class description is, what stat is the main stat, whether it is a caster or melee, etc.

So you can turn on auto level, and not have to deal with that part of the game, if you so wish.

Otherwise you can look for builds on reddit, or from these following place (almost all are min/max builds for highest difficulty):
 

Kriptini

Vyemm Raider
3,626
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I just dont think the shit is balanced right at all.
Correct. Pathfinder 1e is not balanced. When Wrath was announced, I was really hoping they would switch to the 2e ruleset, which is much better balanced and palatable for new players. 1e is so dense with nonsense that I haven't been able to resume my playthrough in Chapter 4 because I forgot my buff order.
 

Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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11,842
Correct. Pathfinder 1e is not balanced. When Wrath was announced, I was really hoping they would switch to the 2e ruleset, which is much better balanced and palatable for new players. 1e is so dense with nonsense that I haven't been able to resume my playthrough in Chapter 4 because I forgot my buff order.
It may be one of the reasons Owlcat decided it's next game would be 40k universe. To give time for the 2e to settle and everyone to get a proper handle on the rule changes.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
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Negative, Kingmaker only had the core races plus Aasimar and Thieflings. You would have needed mods to get anything else. They did have the Serpent bloodline, so some classes could be kinda sorta Yaun Ti like.

There seems to be a lot of mount builds now that they fixed mounts. Pets were always OP, but it looks like even horses are good when you use them as a mount. I see ranged caster cleric and oracle builds that have them on mounts, which seems weird as I wouldn't think you would want them in melee range and I see no benefit from having the pets sitting there doing nothing in the mid line.
Even if all you do is shoot shit from horseback, its worth it because the mount is going to have better defensive stats and mobility, not to mention speed, than any character on foot who is not a minmaxed melee build. And as much as it pains me to say this, Dragon Disciple should probably be yanked from the game if not PF entirely. Its a huge package of free stat points with a side of arcane casting with all the best buffs. Five levels plus the Bard Archaeologist level you take to unlock it are enough to make it better than going to 20 on any melee character class, pretty much, unless you are really making a laser focused fighter.
 

Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Even if all you do is shoot shit from horseback, its worth it because the mount is going to have better defensive stats and mobility, not to mention speed, than any character on foot who is not a minmaxed melee build. And as much as it pains me to say this, Dragon Disciple should probably be yanked from the game if not PF entirely. Its a huge package of free stat points with a side of arcane casting with all the best buffs. Five levels plus the Bard Archaeologist level you take to unlock it are enough to make it better than going to 20 on any melee character class, pretty much, unless you are really making a laser focused fighter.
Only pure casters are good for 20 levels in the same class in Pathfinder. Even a ranged, non mounted, bow user dips into other classes.

DD is great for a sorc melee build, but only for 4 levels, then it's better to go somewhere else. I have not seen a high BABS melee builds, like Paladin, Vivisectionist (a better rogue) or Magus use DD at all, there are just better options out there.

A bunch of the OP melee builds starts with 1 monk level and if you are going for a mounted build, you only have 4 levels in a non pet class that you can dip, before you gimp your mount.

I am currently running a playthrough for the enhanced edition, and loaded up some mods to make heavy armor better, since I am kinda sick of the 1 dip monk on melee.
 

Randin

Trakanon Raider
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So I just picked this up, and I have never played in the Pathfinder system or any previous king maker games. Is there a build that is forgiving or easy to use for someone that will undoubtedly make mistakes yet can still get through the game with little struggle. I mostly just want to experience the story and learn the mechanics of the game with hitting any brick walls.
The Pathfinder games (and I think this is equally true of the tabletop rules as well) are often balanced around the assumption of using builds that involve a lot of dipping, meaning that ideal builds are often going to be shit like Fighter 4/Monk 2/Alchemist 1/War Priest 10, and so on (not an actual build; I take no responsibility if you actually try and use it). If you're playing no higher than Normal, you can largely avoid having to do that, but any higher and it quickly becomes mandatory. If you don't want to deal with that shit, and don't want to have any extended smashing-head-into-wall situations, I'd recommend placing the difficulty to Normal, then dropping some specific metrics down just a bit further (these games have super granular difficulty settings), and then you can just find a class you like the sound of and ride it all the way to level cap, as well as keeping your party members in their default classes.
 

Kriptini

Vyemm Raider
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It may be one of the reasons Owlcat decided it's next game would be 40k universe. To give time for the 2e to settle and everyone to get a proper handle on the rule changes.
The 2e ruleset has been settled for about three years now. It's good. I've never wanted to go back to Pathfinder 1e since picking it up.
 

Burns

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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11,842
The 2e ruleset has been settled for about three years now. It's good. I've never wanted to go back to Pathfinder 1e since picking it up.
Sure, it would have been nice (if it's a better ruleset but not so dumbed down as D&D 5e), but internally, they would have started work on Wrath before or right around that time. Plus they already had the 1e rules all set up in Kingmaker, so all they had to work on was adding content, instead of overhauling it.

I mean I can see why they stayed with 1e for Wrath and maybe, now, give the 2e time to breath. Switching to 40k lets the PnP community really put the rules through the paces and find the strong and weak spots.

Point taken though, if people have been using it for 3 years+, they could have kept making a Pathfinder games, moved to 2e and probably been pretty safe on working with the new rules.
 
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Mountain Biker

Trakanon Raider
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So I just picked this up, and I have never played in the Pathfinder system or any previous king maker games. Is there a build that is forgiving or easy to use for someone that will undoubtedly make mistakes yet can still get through the game with little struggle. I mostly just want to experience the story and learn the mechanics of the game with hitting any brick walls.
You can also just play on a really easy difficulty. You can make it through these games with nearly any build on lower difficulty. I prefer to play on easier difficulty so I'm not reloading 100x on any tough fights.