Game News Pathfinder: Kingmaker DLCs revealed, first DLC releasing on December 6th

[Infinitron]

Tags: Deep Silver; Owlcat Games; Pathfinder: Kingmaker; Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Beneath The Stolen Lands; Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Wildcards; Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Varnhold's Lot

Pathfinder: Kingmaker was released almost two months ago in a disastrously incomplete state and to mixed reviews. That hasn't stopped it from selling about as many copies as Pillars of Eternity II and instantly becoming a new Codex classic, with over 450 pages of discussion as of this writing. We've all been eager to learn what comes next, but it's been hard to figure out Owlcat's strategy. After releasing no fewer than 16 hotfixes to get the bugs under control, they finally released the game's first major patch this weekend. There was also a silly Total War-style Bloody Mess free DLC last month. Now it looks like things are finally coming together, with the reveal of the game's DLC roadmap. The first one is due just two weeks from now. Here's the announcement:

Owlcat Games and Deep Silver announce the upcoming availability of the Season Pass for their critically acclaimed, cRPG Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Customers who purchase the season pass will receive access to all three upcoming DLCs (paid downloadable content). Each DLC will deliver fresh and exciting content: There are new locations, companions, items, modes and most importantly, new emotions to experience!

STEAM

• “DLC 1 – “The Wildcards” https://store.steampowered.com/app/900447
• Season Pass https://store.steampowered.com/app/937800

GOG

• Pathfinder: Kingmaker – The Wildcards: https://www.gog.com/game/pathfinder_kingmaker_the_wildcards
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Season Pass: https://www.gog.com/game/pathfinder_kingmaker_season_pass

DLC #1 – “The Wildcards”

Ardent adventurers of The Stolen Lands will soon have the chance to play the first new DLC! Featuring a new playable race Tieflings, a new playable class Kineticists, and of course combining a race with a class, you get a character! Prepare to welcome your new companion, the Tiefling Kineticist who comes, just like every other companion, with her own rich and engaging storyline.

Oleg Shpilchevsky, Head Of Owlcat Games explains, “A new playable race. During the poll to decide which bonus race we were going to add to the game, one particular option was requested a lot (besides the winner – Aasimars): Tieflings, the people with a drop of demonic blood in their veins. They didn’t make it into the base game, but became the natural choice for the first piece of post-release content.”

DLC #2 – “Varnhold’s Lot”

A new bonus campaign. While celebrating your victory at Jamandi Aldori’s mansion, you’ve met another hero of the Stolen Lands: the mercenary captain Maegar Varn. While you’re building your barony in the Shrike Hills and Narlmarshes, Varn and his people are establishing their own nation of Varnhold in the rocky foothills of Dunsward. What did they have to face? Play this new story, and export the consequences of the choices you’ve made there into the main campaign! This exciting new side story is about the size of one chapter of our main campaign and will take 6-12 hours to complete, depending on your playstyle.

DLC #3 – “Beneath The Stolen Lands”

A new game mode. Sometimes you want to play a story with memorable characters, rich lore, and a complicated set of choices and consequences. But then there are days when you just want to grab a sword, cast some spells, and destroy a horde of monsters! This DLC will introduce a rogue-like randomly generated endless dungeon, complete with a new unique boss. You can explore it in a separate game, or as a part of your main campaign. How deep can you go?

The Season Pass and the first DLC “The Wildcards” is due to be released on December 6 2018.

DLC Information (*dates are estimates and are subject to change)

• DLC 1 – “The Wildcards” On sale December 6, 2018
• DLC 2 – “Varnhold’s Lot” – February , 2019*
• DLC 3 – “Beneath The Stolen Lands” – April, 2019*

(All DLC content requires the base game Pathfinder:Kingmaker in order to play)

Stay tuned for more information soon!
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Some might find it disappointing that only the second one of these is a traditional story expansion DLC, but hey, the game is probably large enough as it is. Despite what the announcement claims, the Season Pass is already available for sale on Steam for $25. It's a $5 discount if you buy it instead of getting each DLC individually.

 

[Urthor]

Endless battle game modes are the epitome of easy to make game content to cash in on in a DLC. Does anyone actually like them?

 

[Septaryeth]

Endless battle game modes are the epitome of easy to make game content to cash in on in a DLC. Does anyone actually like them?

I thought steam reviews suggest the encounters are too difficult and people want easier combat. This will scratch that itch.

Is the game playable yet? Or should I wait 'till Christmas?

 

[Background Character]

I'm gonna wait till april see if I care

 

[deuxhero]

Well Kineticists are uh... not great. They can't do much more than blasting, aren't all that great at it and what they can do beyond that doesn't really translate into a cRPG (they can fly relatively easy and Aether ones can telekenesis stuff). Well at least with the game doing all the work for you they won't be confusing to read. Summoner, Oracle, Bloodrager, Warpriest, Slayer (in roughly that order) would all be ahead of it in priority for me. Tieflings are nice if you implement the alternate racial options.

Wonder what the companion's element will be. Fire is the obvious for demonspawn, but it's also pretty bad (You're fucked as soon as anything that resists fire appears). Aether is far and away the best element, though none of it's advantage would work in Kingmaker. It can make attacks from any angle (provided you aren't in some absolutely sterile environment with nothing to throw) telekinetic theft, not needing to actually touch any of the strange shit you find in a dungeon, throwing enemies around and (as mentioned above) flying are really something you can do well in Kingmaker. They'd be brilliant in Original Sin's engine though.

 

[The_Mask]

Sweet, sweet incline.

 

[Bastardchops]

I assume they'll have ironed out the bugs by the time this lot releases.

 

[Terra]

I'll take 3 DLC 2's please, joined together into a post-game expansion.

Eh, it's a sad/curious/annoying trend towards mid-campaign dlcs, Pillars 2 sits unplayed for me since I'm waiting for the last dlc, an Underrail playthrough is shelved (likely restarted) while waiting for a mid-game expansion and here too the game enters an incomplete state with the promise of additional content. I get why having this stuff be accessible mid-game makes sense financially due to low barrier to entry (anyone can buy it and play it) but unlike with true post-game expansions more often than not they just make me delay buying/playing your game.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I'm going for the season pass asap. Let's give Owlcat some funds to work with.

But I'm probably not going to play this until next year.

 

[Bastardchops]

Eh, it's a sad/curious/annoying trend towards mid-campaign dlcs, Pillars 2 sits unplayed for me since I'm waiting for the last dlc, an Underrail playthrough is shelved (likely restarted) while waiting for a mid-game expansion and here too the game enters an incomplete state with the promise of additional content. I get why having this stuff be accessible mid-game makes sense financially due to low barrier to entry (anyone can buy it and play it) but unlike with true post-game expansions more often than not they just make me delay buying/playing your game.

I assumed it was for them to generate more cash flow, but I agree I'd prefer it as a larger expansion further down the line.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Eh, it's a sad/curious/annoying trend towards mid-campaign dlcs

Maybe I read it wrong, but it sounds like DLC 2 is a seperate campaign where you play as Maegar Varn.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Wait so the first DLC is just a new race/class/companion?

For $10?

I can't help feeling that Horse Armor was a better value.

 

[Safav Hamon]

The season pass looks like a ripoff

#1 should be a free update and not a $10 DLC

#2 could be decent, but I dislike the idea of a seperate campaign that's only 6-10 hours.

#3 is about as lazy as it gets. $10 for a story-less dungeon is absurd, and they can't even bother to handcraft it.

 

[Van-d-all]

Have to compliment them for spreading the DLC across variety of types, so at least I could possibly get something out of this. As for me, Tieflings are skippable, Varnhold sounds quite decent, and the endless dungeon heavily depends on how good the map generation will end up being.

All that aside, given the game's current state, releasing a DLC in just 2 weeks seems like quite a tall order. Gladly the first one has barely any actual content. What brings up the question about individual prices, because if they are all at $10, a story DLC at the price of race pack doesn't sound too promising for the story (nor reasonably priced for the race either)...

 

[Infinitron]

The first DLC is actually $8. Second is $12, third is $10. Source: Season pass store page.

 

[Elex]

Wait so the first DLC is just a new race/class/companion?

For $10?

I can't help feeling that Horse Armor was a better value.

it’s basically some kicstarter goal that don’t made it.

next time put more money on the kickstarter!!

 

[Elex]

Well Kineticists are uh... not great. They can't do much more than blasting, aren't all that great at it and what they can do beyond that doesn't really translate into a cRPG (they can fly relatively easy and Aether ones can telekenesis stuff). Well at least with the game doing all the work for you they won't be confusing to read. Summoner, Oracle, Bloodrager, Warpriest, Slayer (in roughly that order) would all be ahead of it in priority for me. Tieflings are nice if you implement the alternate racial options.

Wonder what the companion's element will be. Fire is the obvious for demonspawn, but it's also pretty bad (You're fucked as soon as anything that resists fire appears). Aether is far and away the best element, though none of it's advantage would work in Kingmaker. It can make attacks from any angle (provided you aren't in some absolutely sterile environment with nothing to throw) telekinetic theft, not needing to actually touch any of the strange shit you find in a dungeon, throwing enemies around and (as mentioned above) flying are really something you can do well in Kingmaker. They'd be brilliant in Original Sin's engine though.

stuff with touch attack is always good in P:K many enemies have insane AC but low touch AC.
and if work wit arcane trickster is going to be even more powerfull.

 

[Thonius]

Well first dlc is - Race [subraces?] Class [Sub?] Companion +Quest + advisor slot + romance option.

 

[Kem0sabe]

More stuff to bug the game even further...

 

[Tao]

No dhampir...
No arcanist...

 

[Jimmious]

So I guess the way to go is: Buy season pass, uninstall game, wait till Summer 2019 and play proper finished game with as few bugs as possible.

 

[Mortmal]

Mid game content expansions are a terrible idea. Those does not even sell much i dont remember seing any of the last POE 2 extension in top sales. I am glad i dont have season pass, there's nothing of worth there.

 

[Terra]

Eh, it's a sad/curious/annoying trend towards mid-campaign dlcs

Maybe I read it wrong, but it sounds like DLC 2 is a seperate campaign where you play as Maegar Varn.

Maybe so, but if you're "exporting those choices to the main campaign" you sure won't be seeing any consequences if you're already at the end of the main campaign.

 

[wtrboy]

What? Can we please fix the friggin' base game before releasing a bunch of broke DLCs now?

 

[Gregz]

Here's wishing Owlcat a successful Steam rating reset.