Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker Builds and Strats Thread

[Delterius]

If only Blood Arcanist made it in.... you could have Arcane's bonuses to DC (+3 with metamagic and chosen school)... together with Exploit's (+2 with Potent Magic several times a day). Throw in gnome's illusion (+1) or foxfolk's enchantment (+1 as well), School Focus (+2). Why even give the enemy a fighting chance?

 

[Desiderius]

If only Blood Arcanist made it in.... you could have Arcane's bonuses to DC (+3 with metamagic and chosen school)... together with Exploit's (+2 with Potent Magic several times a day). Throw in gnome's illusion (+1) or foxfolk's enchantment (+1 as well), School Focus (+2). Why even give the enemy a fighting chance?

Now read Eldritch Font. Add in Mythic abilities and Gear and you'll get there fine. And will need to.

Spoiler

There's a ring (you can get it two places) from an early hard optional Army fight that gives +5 UMD and +2 Illusion DC. Both Nenio and Sosiel have extra Illusion spells.

 

[Delterius]

If only Blood Arcanist made it in.... you could have Arcane's bonuses to DC (+3 with metamagic and chosen school)... together with Exploit's (+2 with Potent Magic several times a day). Throw in gnome's illusion (+1) or foxfolk's enchantment (+1 as well), School Focus (+2). Why even give the enemy a fighting chance?

Now read Eldritch Font. Add in Mythic abilities and Gear and you'll get there fine. And will need to.

Spoiler

There's a ring (you can get it two places) from an early hard optional Army fight that gives +5 UMD and +2 Illusion DC. Both Nenio and Sosiel have extra Illusion spells.

Eldritch Font's surge can't stack with the Arcanist's standard DC increase.

 

[Desiderius]

We’ll see about that.

Owlcat likes ‘em stacked.

 

[Sergiu64]

Restarted the game and going to play as Sage Sorc in turn based. Think stats were 10 str, 13 dex, 12 con, 20 int, 10 wish, 10 cha.

Took improved initiative and spell focus illusion as the feats. Seems like the major questions for a full Sorc build will be what spells to take. Took Grease and Shield for now.

 

[Nano]

Restarted the game and going to play as Sage Sorc in turn based. Think stats were 10 str, 13 dex, 12 con, 20 int, 10 wish, 10 cha.

Took improved initiative and spell focus illusion as the feats. Seems like the major questions for a full Sorc build will be what spells to take. Took Grease and Shield for now.

> specializes in Illusion
> doesn't start with any Illusion spells

At least take Color Spray instead of Grease if you care about the RP, bro.

 

[Sergiu64]

Restarted the game and going to play as Sage Sorc in turn based. Think stats were 10 str, 13 dex, 12 con, 20 int, 10 wish, 10 cha.

Took improved initiative and spell focus illusion as the feats. Seems like the major questions for a full Sorc build will be what spells to take. Took Grease and Shield for now.

> specializes in Illusion
> doesn't start with any Illusion spells

At least take Color Spray instead of Grease if you care about the RP, bro.

I'm averse to picking up spells that become less effective on higher hd enemies with a Sorc. Grease is working well enough for now.

 

[Haplo]

Should have gone Conjuration.

 

[Delterius]

ye you can spare 4 School Focus feats and have conjuration as an auxiliary to your illusion, especially since illusion takes a bit of time to mature

 

[Desiderius]

I'm averse to picking up spells that become less effective on higher hd enemies with a Sorc. Grease is working well enough for now.

It does always Stun (very underrated condition, and if you use an extend Rod it extends the Stun duration), but then you've got DC problems, but same there for Grease.

 

[Xamenos]

I'm averse to picking up spells that become less effective on higher hd enemies with a Sorc. Grease is working well enough for now.

Tabletop Pathfinder doesn't have this issue. It allows you to retrain lower level spells in addition to gaining new spells on level up. It's unfortunate Owlcat did not implement this system.

 

[Nano]

Tabletop Pathfinder doesn't have this issue. It allows you to retrain lower level spells in addition to gaining new spells on level up. It's unfortunate Owlcat did not implement this system.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/175

This guy implemented it.

 

[Cael]

Tabletop Pathfinder doesn't have this issue. It allows you to retrain lower level spells in addition to gaining new spells on level up. It's unfortunate Owlcat did not implement this system.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/175

This guy implemented it.

Mods will fix it.

 

[Parabalus]

Eldritch arcana also adds spell retrains.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Guys, could you suggest good metamagic feats? I know about Quicken spell and Extend spell being good, but I am very confused about other, since one guide tells you that Dazing spell is shit and other tells you otherwise, saw people praising maximize spell - all guides shitting on maximize spell like hell. I know about rods existing, but not sure if cotw added rods with new metamagic into the game + arcanist have specific "metamixing exploit" and I don't know would this work on rods or not. Problem is that in the end I went with four man party and my arcanist school savant is main caster in the group (blast, cc, some buffs like haste and energy/aligiment protection and divination buff) and hedge witch is secondary (planned or her to use necromancy and enchantment on her, but she ended up spamming hexes only and some heal/support spells not available to arcanist). My group is doing well, I think,(probably thanks godlike martials in my party) but I have uneasy feeling that every time I ended up picking metamagic feat - it's a trap and dead weight in feat list.

 

[Yosharian]

Guys, could you suggest good metamagic feats? I know about Quicken spell and Extend spell being good, but I am very confused about other, since one guide tells you that Dazing spell is shit and other tells you otherwise, saw people praising maximize spell - all guides shitting on maximize spell like hell. I know about rods existing, but not sure if cotw added rods with new metamagic into the game + arcanist have specific "metamixing exploit" and I don't know would this work on rods or not. Problem is that in the end I went with four man party and my arcanist school savant is main caster in the group (blast, cc, some buffs like haste and energy/aligiment protection and divination buff) and hedge witch is secondary (planned or her to use necromancy and enchantment on her, but she ended up spamming hexes only and some heal/support spells not available to arcanist). My group is doing well, I think,(probably thanks godlike martials in my party) but I have uneasy feeling that every time I ended up picking metamagic feat - it's a trap and dead weight in feat list.

I feel like the issue with Maximise and Empower is that they're a little bit 'win more' and blasting isn't a particularly efficient way to win encounters anyway.

Unless you're an Arcane Trickster... and then you just use rods?

 

[Desiderius]

Guys, could you suggest good metamagic feats? I know about Quicken spell and Extend spell being good, but I am very confused about other, since one guide tells you that Dazing spell is shit and other tells you otherwise, saw people praising maximize spell - all guides shitting on maximize spell like hell. I know about rods existing, but not sure if cotw added rods with new metamagic into the game + arcanist have specific "metamixing exploit" and I don't know would this work on rods or not. Problem is that in the end I went with four man party and my arcanist school savant is main caster in the group (blast, cc, some buffs like haste and energy/aligiment protection and divination buff) and hedge witch is secondary (planned or her to use necromancy and enchantment on her, but she ended up spamming hexes only and some heal/support spells not available to arcanist). My group is doing well, I think,(probably thanks godlike martials in my party) but I have uneasy feeling that every time I ended up picking metamagic feat - it's a trap and dead weight in feat list.

Main thing is you can only use one Rod at a time. I know he has all meta rods at the Depths vendor. Maximize tends to be necessary to make the various nukes worth it but I usually use Rod for that since it tacks on three levels? There's a Robe that gives you six per rest as well.

CotW has some nice feats where you mix and match meta or get special benefit from having three. Don't just read guides to tell you what sucks or not, read to see their reasoning then test it to see if it's right. Daze is bad on things that are immune obviously but control + damage is what makes Kineticist so good so against things with weak Will it's great.

 

[Yosharian]

On a related note I wasn't able to get the Quicken rod working properly. Dunno why. Just seems to cast things like a regular spell.

 

[Parabalus]

You can also get free extends with the perfect component belts and with Oculus for all spell levels.

EA has selective spell which I found to be the most useful one, felt very OP though.

 

[Haplo]

Persistant Spell is very strong.

 

[Yosharian]

You can also get free extends with the perfect component belts and with Oculus for all spell levels.

EA has selective spell which I found to be the most useful one, felt very OP though.

Yeah Oculus extending ALL spells is like... damn I wish I'd told Tristian to go fuck himself and taken that thing, Lawful Good playthrough be damned

 

[Cael]

On a related note I wasn't able to get the Quicken rod working properly. Dunno why. Just seems to cast things like a regular spell.

If you are a spontaneous caster, Quicken doesn't work for you because applying metamagic to a spontaneous spell increases its casting to full round (unless it already takes longer). Quicken will just bring it back to normal speed.

Unless, of course, Paishit fucked it up as it is wont to do.

 

[NJClaw]

On a related note I wasn't able to get the Quicken rod working properly. Dunno why. Just seems to cast things like a regular spell.

If you are a spontaneous caster, Quicken doesn't work for you because applying metamagic to a spontaneous spell increases its casting to full round (unless it already takes longer). Quicken will just bring it back to normal speed.

Unless, of course, Paishit fucked it up as it is wont to do.

Quicken Spell:

[...]

Special: You can apply the effects of this feat to a spell cast spontaneously, so long as it has a casting time that is not more than 1 full-round action, without increasing the spell’s casting time.

And in 3.5 you just had to take a tax feat, Rapid Metamagic:

Rapid Metamagic
( Complete Mage, p. 46)

[General]

You possess an uncanny mastery of your magic, enabling you to modify spells on the fly much faster than others can.

Prerequisite
Spellcraft 12 ranks, ability to spontaneously cast spells,

Benefit
When you apply a metamagic feat to a spontaneously cast spell, the spell takes only its normal casting time.

Normal
Spontaneous casters applying metamagic must either take a full-round action (if the spell normally requires a standard action or less) or add a full-round action to the casting time (if the spell takes 1 full round or longer to cast).

 

[Cael]

On a related note I wasn't able to get the Quicken rod working properly. Dunno why. Just seems to cast things like a regular spell.

If you are a spontaneous caster, Quicken doesn't work for you because applying metamagic to a spontaneous spell increases its casting to full round (unless it already takes longer). Quicken will just bring it back to normal speed.

Unless, of course, Paishit fucked it up as it is wont to do.

Quicken Spell:

[...]

Special: You can apply the effects of this feat to a spell cast spontaneously, so long as it has a casting time that is not more than 1 full-round action, without increasing the spell’s casting time.

And in 3.5 you just had to take a tax feat, Rapid Metamagic:

Rapid Metamagic
( Complete Mage, p. 46)

[General]

You possess an uncanny mastery of your magic, enabling you to modify spells on the fly much faster than others can.

Prerequisite
Spellcraft 12 ranks, ability to spontaneously cast spells,

Benefit
When you apply a metamagic feat to a spontaneously cast spell, the spell takes only its normal casting time.

Normal
Spontaneous casters applying metamagic must either take a full-round action (if the spell normally requires a standard action or less) or add a full-round action to the casting time (if the spell takes 1 full round or longer to cast).

In other words, Paishit fucked it up.

 

[NJClaw]

In other words, Paishit fucked it up.

Allowing to do something for free doesn't sound like a fuck up, since before it just required you to waste a feat. But yeah, I'm all for bashing Paizo, fuck those motherfuckers.