Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition - now with turn-based combat

[Sykar]

I just use buffs which last several minutes und focus fire 1 by 1 wiping out enemy groups before doing anything major on the map. That usually wastes trash with little effort and minimal resources.

 

[ArchAngel]

Hmm, I've noticed that my archer misses a lot and decided to check AC bonuses between difficulty levels.
Same spider in CH1 has:
26 AC on Unfair
22 AC on Hard
16 AC on Challenging
12 AC on Normal

Am I paranoid or something is wrong with the numbers here? especially with 6 AC difference between Challenging and Hard.

... enemies from the same save file has 26 AC on GOG's 1.3 vs 28 AC in the steam beta 2.0...

"hard" aka "we just tweak the dice rolls to blatantly give the enemy an advantage"

That is how PnP works 90% of the time as well.

Only if your DM is shit...

Shit GMs are ones that prepare everything in advance and cannot improvise when needed. Good DM improvise to accommodate new situations and that often means adding numbers to enemies.

 

[Haplo]

In PnP it's rarely possible to stack such ridiculous bonuses as here is commonplace.

Easily available, semi-permanent (depending on party composition, of course):
1. Flanking (waaaay easier then in PnP) + Outflank + Freebooter's Bond: +6!
2. Good Hope / Heroism / Greater Heroism / Heroic Invocation: +2 / +4 AB
3. Inspire Courage: +2 up to +5 AB
4. Touch of Good (Tristan): +2 AB (can go up to +10 for 1 round, I think - but with limited use).
5. Magnetic Infusion: -4 enemy AC

So you can comfortably, easily and semi-permanently have a 16-21 point AB over AC advantage.
Also consider that with Dazzling Display and Shatter Defences all enemies that are vulnerable to fear will be permanently flat-footed and operate with vastly reduced AC.

Conditional but also fairly common/easy:
6. Haste +1 AB
7. Freebooter's Bane +2 up to +5 AB
8. Improved Invisibility or blinded enemy (for example Glitterdust): -2 enemy AC; flat footed!
9. Prone (for example Grease): -4 melee AC

So it's pretty trivial to reach a 25-33 AB over AC advantage.

Then you also have the like of Magus/Paladin Brilliant Energy enchantments, which ignore Armor and Shield AC vs relevant Targets or TrueStrike spells or Touch attacks, such as Alchemist bombs, Kineticist elemental energy attacks, Magus Dimension Strikes or mage ray spells, which resolve vs Touch AC. And more specific bonuses, such as temporarily adding Int/Cha to AB or getting bonus attack from Divine spells and/or Bane enchantments.

So, yeah, even a 16 point AC boost for Unfair is not that scary when you consider the above.

 

[Daidre]

So, yeah, even a 16 point AC advantage for Unfair is not that scary when you consider the above.

But it's kinda stupid in level 1-3 areas when 3/4 of your characters premades.
Edit: Spider in question was from redesigned Bokken quest.

 

[Haplo]

Guess so.
Early on it can be brutal.
But I guess it's called "Unfair" for a reason.

Despite the big boosts, Hard is still quite manageable IMO. It's just the "Unfair" boosts - such as dealing double damage - that really enforce cheesy tactics, particularly early on.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Those AC numbers don't seem unusual for unfair, given that even the tutorial assassins always had 22 AC at level 1.
Btw they nerfed the tutorial hard. You no longer get oneshot with 80 dmg, now you're getting oneshot with 30 dmg instead. Nerfed as fuck.

 

[Daidre]

It is number for Hard that boggles me a bit. Especially the fact that they have -2 AC when I load the same save on 1.3.

And I also when tinkering with options I noticed that "Moderately tougher enemies" gives +4 Difficulty AC but reducing(!) it to "Somewhat tougher enemies" gives +6 AC. Somewhat indeed.

I reported it yesterday but right now it looks like there is bug involved.
I kinda start to suspect that Difficulty options are bugged for a really long time now and numbers double dipping somewhere.
And this write up (only one I have found https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/0/1730963192537352029/) is muddles this even more.

 

[Lacrymas]

From what I'm reading, it seems like some kind of custom difficulty would be the best. I don't find the need to min-max difficult, just limiting in the amount of builds that are viable.

 

[ArchAngel]

From what I'm reading, it seems like some kind of custom difficulty would be the best. I don't find the need to min-max difficult, just limiting in the amount of builds that are viable.

With D&D like games, knowing how to make good characters is half the difficulty (and fun).

 

[Jenkem]

beneath the stolen lands stream is live now.. or wait for Infinitron to post the VOD

 

[santino27]

From what I'm reading, it seems like some kind of custom difficulty would be the best. I don't find the need to min-max difficult, just limiting in the amount of builds that are viable.

I basically do challenging difficulty, but then change mob scaling to normal. That's as close as you can get to core rules, I think, but it does make for easy times once you're able to stack bonuses in a manner pnp doesn't really allow.

 

[Shadenuat]

So far not impressed with rngdungon, they spent so much time tearing their hair out to make it work and it looks like a little dwarf Neverwinter Nights 1 teenager-modder quickly putting corridors and large empty rooms behind the scenes and some goblins and a chest in every room. If only they spent all that time on a solid MEGADUNGON...

 

[Shadenuat]

lol that prosper-effect on levels and enemies. ew

edit.: basically there are area affects which change area and monsters slapped on top of whole dungon level. one of them looks like beholder levels from BG or like Prosper designed it

 

[Shadenuat]

developers: actually we nerfed spiderswarms you can go around dem collect berries now
shadenaut: couldn't you just sneak for berries?
designer 1: ...
desiginer 2: ....huh I never even thought about it

(probably not due to skill check, idk myself has been too long and ih don't miss on xp)

 

[Thonius]

Sad, if true.

 

[Nihiliste]

While I’m enjoying this game I am tired of fighting mobs. This is one thing I hope RPG developers move away from, bloating game time with trash fights

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Yosharian]

developers: actually we nerfed spiderswarms you can go around dem collect berries now
shadenaut: couldn't you just sneak for berries?
designer 1: ...
desiginer 2: ....huh I never even thought about it

(probably not due to skill check, idk myself has been too long and ih don't miss on xp)

Yeah the first thing I tried to do was sneak by the swarms, it was annoying that I couldn't do it

 

[Zed]

anyone got their physical crap yet?

 

[Kruno]

Turn based mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX4_r5YPJ_Y

 

[Riel]

Yes, well what did you expect from a procedurally generated dungeon other than it being bland and uninspired. They hint at some mechanic related to dying and that having an effect over your next play-through, hopefully it's meaningful enough to make it interesting but otherwise.... it's going to grow old fast.

Anyway I haven't bought this DLC as of yet and I will probably not buy it. I'll see after the reviews come in.

 

[Lacrymas]

Why play this random dungeon generator when you can play an actual rogue-like that was designed around perma-death and bonuses for repeat playthroughs.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why play this random dungeon generator when you can play an actual rogue-like that was designed around perma-death and bonuses for repeat playthroughs.

because nearly every roguelike has shit combat

 

[Sykar]

So when will the big patch and DLC come out today?

Edit: Just checked out some of the recent negative reviews on Steam because it shows "Mixed Rating" again. I cannot believe I am still reading complete and utter bullshit like this for example:

"Unplayable, between bugs, crash, and the unbalance that game is literally unplayable. It's like everything is put to drain all the fun that you could have while playing.
I would not recommand, even to my worst enemy.
Pass you way if you seek for a real, immersive and fun RPG."

No fucking way is this fucktard honest with his review, no way. There is plenty to criticize about the game, but that reviewer is just flat out lying through his teeth. Worse you cannot even comment to correct them or at least show people willing to listen to these fucks to get a completely wrong impression. Worst of all it seems like a substantial amount of such fake reviews have come in dragging Pathfinder down to 69% positive reviews. That is a farce considering what kind of garbage has gotten overwhelminginly positive ratings on Steam.

Another one of those fuckwits:

"If you were expecting a baldurs gate-ish game you'll feel very fooled. This game starts off as a good old fashioned RPG, but after a couple of hours you have no storyline to follow at all. It turns into some sort of half♥♥♥♥♥♥♥management game combined with half♥♥♥♥♥♥♥map exploration. Maybe this semi-genre has a place for some people, but it sure didn't for me.

Ontop of the lack of storyline, you need the patient of.. I don't even know what. The movement in the game is the slowest I've ever come across in an RPG. Imagine playing Pillars of Eternity with Slow speed on ALL THE TIME.

And then there's the loading. The constant constant loading. I have the game on a m2 ssd, so the loading times aren't long, but boy are they frequent.

TLDR; Don't buy it if you expect story and/or have the patience of a snail."

The part about the story is a complete lie and considering he wrote this now at the start of June the loading times are tolerable, far better than they were at release so it is a complete hyperbole. About movement, I am fine with it, I know others find it slow too. That being said, it is again at best a nitpick and hardly worthy of using it as a major selling point for a negative review.

Or this crap:

"Sure go ahead and have alignment restrictions on classes but it should NEVER restrict your ability to choose."

This is at best a nitpick and he downvoted based solely on this nitpick. I mean I can get behind that someone might not like this but I also understand why Owlcat opted to have a few alignment restricted dialogue choices. Some are silly, others are meh and some are ok or even good so it is imo uneven and depends what alignment you have and what route you take.

Imho if you have not written a review yet and enjoyed the game to a reasonable degree write one just to alleviate some of those lying sacks of shite. If you bought it on Steam that is of course. I know I will today.

 

[Yosharian]

Perhaps it's unrealistic to expect the mainstream to appreciate a game like Kingmaker?