What should I know before starting PF:K?

[gurugeorge]

Prepare for plenty of political correctness with the NPCs. One is very oppressed because she is beautiful...oh the horror but look out she can fight as well as any man. Another beat up her whole tribe of men and left.

It's a weird thing about PF:K, although it is horrendously PC in many respects, for some reason it doesn't bother me that much - not as much as the Pillars games and especially the latter BioWare games. One gets the feeling with PF:K that there's an overrriding love of character and story, a priority for those factors, that sort of makes the PC cult stuff passable because it's woven into the characters a bit more organically somehow.

Ironically, it might be the difference between genuine PC cultists and conformist virtue-signalers who are just box-ticking out of fear so they can keep their jobs. Hard to say. But I did think it was a curiosity about the game and my reaction to it.

 

[Jimmious]

It's just that the anti-SJW police decided that PF:K is the "antidote" to Deadfire but they didn't bother to really check what's happening in there first :p
If anything the way the bi half-orc constantly tries to fuck you is even worse than whatever happens in Deadfire :p

 

[Mark Richard]

I've been reading the older Pathfinder thread in preparation (and for comedy's sake) for my first ever playthrough next month. From what I've gathered, there's an undercurrent of... realism? Seems an ill-fitting term for a fantasy game, let's just say common sense. You're playing with a logical Dungeon Master and have to ditch the abstract gamey mindset to a certain extent. This means don't set fire traps in pouring rain, don't expect an event to balance the rewards if you send a brutish thug to do a safe-cracker's job, don't run off on a journey without serious preparation, and don't expect the world to stand still while you take a sabbatical.

 

[Van-d-all]

The game is meant to be minmaxed. Plan your builds ahead.

 

[whydoibother]

I'm finally going to try to get into this game, can anyone give me a basic rundown of things I need to know, what classes are fun, and things I should watch for? Thanks, much appreciated.

Don't play on the hardest difficulty, since it expects you to minmax hard, surrendering any character themes or roleplaying.
Look up enemies that bother you in the Wiki, because the game doesn't provide stats, resistances, etc that it really should, and that the GM will always tell you on the tabletop.
If anything seems weird to you, and doesn't make sense mechanically gameplay wise, Google to see if it isn't a bug. Its one of those games where you can't be sure if the game is trying to make you experiment and try stuff, or if its just quietly broken in the background. You don't want to lose hours of progress only too late realizing that this endless debuff isn't meant to be endless and the game just fucked you.

 

[Suicidal]

I recently started playing this as well (or rather, continued playing it, as I started a year ago but shelved it after learning that the game was a barely functional mess on release) and the best advice I can give is to save often and to multiple slots (set as many quicksave slots as you can and also make separate saves every once in a while). While the game is perfectly playable now, it's still quite buggy and sometimes I have to reload several saves ago to fix something. For example, just today one of my characters "disappeared" after I climbed a tree (the portrait was still there but I couldn't find her anyway on the map and she didn't respond to my move commands) and I only noticed this after killing several packs of mobs. Fortunately, I still had a quick save before that happened.

 

[Desiderius]

So much disinfo. I’ve played over 1,000 hours with no crashing or major bugs and very few minor ones in the last couple months. You have all the skills and abilities you need to do whatever you want (including a perfect breakdown of all monster stats) on any difficulty with the companions you’re given, no min/max needed.

 

[Desiderius]

It's just that the anti-SJW police decided that PF:K is the "antidote" to Deadfire but they didn't bother to really check what's happening in there first :p
If anything the way the bi half-orc constantly tries to fuck you is even worse than whatever happens in Deadfire :p

Newsflash: if you bring along a Chaotic Evil Half-orc he might try some shit that doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy. If you maintain a firm hand he’ll cut it out and even eventually make it all the way up to CN, where you can make him the Fey-resistant Druid (Feyspeaker is a CHR-based Druid) he was always meant to be.

 

[Desiderius]

A lot of people have poor initial experiences due to the default experience sharing setting explained here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/7/1630790506920383184/

If you get that fixed things will go a lot smoother.

 

[Desiderius]

Getting Information about monsters requires the Inspect (eyeball button) be turned on and the Knowledge:Arcana skill initially then Lore:Nature after they’re dead.

 

[Desiderius]

So much disinfo. I’ve played over 1,000 hours with no crashing or major bugs and very few minor ones in the last couple months. You have all the skills and abilities you need to do whatever you want (including a perfect breakdown of all monster stats) on any difficulty with the companions you’re given, no min/max needed.

I play unmodded. Bard with Good Hope (partywide, min/lvl) and Inspire Courage gives whole team +4 to hit and damage on every attack by level 7, obviating much of the work the min/max dorks are trying to accomplish with very little investment. Freebooter has a similar effect.

Playing the highest difficulties at the lowest levels gives a tremendously warped picture of the game, especially if you're on the wrong experience sharing setting. By lvl five Hard is a good challenge for a player with a feel for the game, with Unfair the same at 11/12. This is a non-minmaxxed Cleric with a party of Bard, Alchemist, Vanguard, Tactical Leader, and Freebooter to illustrate the power of team abilities:

 

[pomenitul]

That it's nowhere near as inclined as you've been led to believe.

 

[Desiderius]

That it's nowhere near as inclined as you've been led to believe.

If you stick with it long enough to learn how to play it very much is.

I've never seen so many comments that amount to "this game sucks because I didn't put a modicum of effort into understanding it." It's like dying to the rats in Candlekeep and bitching about BG.

 

[pomenitul]

I played it through to the end because I'm diseased like that. It was alright.

 

[Desiderius]

I played it through to the end because I'm diseased like that. It was alright.

Still finding significant things on my fifth time through (only once all the way). It grows on you.

 

[user]

Also rush the teleportation circles (google the requirements, think it's Arcane III) and place them in every village as they will save you a ton of time.

 

[Jimmious]

Desiderius is the future Celerity of PF:K. Needs some hundreds hours more to start attacking the game

 

[user]

Desiderius is the future Celerity of PF:K. Needs some hundreds hours more to start attacking the game

Half of the codex will start attacking the game in a few years when it becomes an old "overrated" classic.

 

[Desiderius]

Desiderius is the future Celerity of PF:K. Needs some hundreds hours more to start attacking the game

She's about to beg for mercy at this point. Plenty of attacking already. Will probably hang it up after this run for a few years and come back to enjoy the mods.

 

[Gregz]

I've been reading the older Pathfinder thread in preparation (and for comedy's sake) for my first ever playthrough next month. From what I've gathered, there's an undercurrent of... realism? Seems an ill-fitting term for a fantasy game, let's just say common sense. You're playing with a logical Dungeon Master and have to ditch the abstract gamey mindset to a certain extent.

Lol, boy are you in for a rude awakening, maybe if your 'logical' Dungeon Master looks like this:



Owlcat could give two fucks about the rules. They pervert and distort every encounter. What they do in the last two dungeons is grotesque. Honestly this game is a nightmare. The first few chapters are fun, but you'll never find a sober human being on this planet who actually enjoyed the final dungeon.

 

[Desiderius]

Also rush the teleportation circles (google the requirements, think it's Arcane III) and place them in every village as they will save you a ton of time.

60 Divine to unlock Arcane, 40 Arcane to rush Circles. Got them up around Womb now have 1500BP Trade Pact almost finished before Vordokai. Plus tons of phat loot.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I've been reading the older Pathfinder thread in preparation (and for comedy's sake) for my first ever playthrough next month. From what I've gathered, there's an undercurrent of... realism? Seems an ill-fitting term for a fantasy game, let's just say common sense. You're playing with a logical Dungeon Master and have to ditch the abstract gamey mindset to a certain extent.

Lol, boy are you in for a rude awakening, maybe if your 'logical' Dungeon Master looks like this:



Owlcat could give two fucks about the rules. They pervert and distort every encounter. What they do in the last two dungeons is grotesque. Honestly this game is a nightmare. The first few chapters are fun, but you'll never find a sober human being on this planet who actually enjoyed the final dungeon.

Are you still butthurt about them not including Zen Archers because they read your story.

 

[Desiderius]

I've been reading the older Pathfinder thread in preparation (and for comedy's sake) for my first ever playthrough next month. From what I've gathered, there's an undercurrent of... realism? Seems an ill-fitting term for a fantasy game, let's just say common sense. You're playing with a logical Dungeon Master and have to ditch the abstract gamey mindset to a certain extent.

Lol, boy are you in for a rude awakening, maybe if your 'logical' Dungeon Master looks like this:



Owlcat could give two fucks about the rules. They pervert and distort every encounter. What they do in the last two dungeons is grotesque. Honestly this game is a nightmare. The first few chapters are fun, but you'll never find a sober human being on this planet who actually enjoyed the final dungeon.

High level D&D has always been either a faceroll or a royal pain in the ass.

 

[Gregz]

I've been reading the older Pathfinder thread in preparation (and for comedy's sake) for my first ever playthrough next month. From what I've gathered, there's an undercurrent of... realism? Seems an ill-fitting term for a fantasy game, let's just say common sense. You're playing with a logical Dungeon Master and have to ditch the abstract gamey mindset to a certain extent.

Lol, boy are you in for a rude awakening, maybe if your 'logical' Dungeon Master looks like this:



Owlcat could give two fucks about the rules. They pervert and distort every encounter. What they do in the last two dungeons is grotesque. Honestly this game is a nightmare. The first few chapters are fun, but you'll never find a sober human being on this planet who actually enjoyed the final dungeon.

Are you still butthurt about them not including Zen Archers because they read your story.

No, shit for brains. Build diversity is just about the only thing this game does correctly.

I am butthurt that I gave these incompetent russian turds actual money for their shit game however.

 

[Delterius]

Desiderius is the future Celerity of PF:K. Needs some hundreds hours more to start attacking the game

Half of the codex will start attacking the game in a few years when it becomes an old "overrated" classic.

on the contrary, once they release pathfinder: jade caravan we are all going to reminisce about how cool kingmaker was