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

[Desiderius]

Desiderius can you confirm that for me:

Your number of sneak attack dice cannot exceed half your character level (rounded up).

It means that its capped in-game and I can go only as high as 10d6 at level 20?

But you can stack Vitals on top of that.

 

[Desiderius]

I give you facts and knowledge and you give me parrots. Hardly seems a fair exchange.

 

[Technomancer]

But you can stack Vitals on top of that.

Damn it, that is why I asked and now I'm confused. So there is a cap on sneak attack dice but no cap on precision damage from other sources in addition? Or it is so because the spell specifically allows stacking?

Vitals works with AT spell sneaks?

 

[Desiderius]

Still only chip damage much of the time, but worth it on builds that want lots of attax (ranged, two-weapon).

 

[Yosharian]

Disease immunity is alright I guess. I'll take strong Will saves, personally.

 

[Desiderius]

Still only chip damage much of the time, but worth it on builds that want lots of attax (ranged, two-weapon).

It can go up to an extra 5d6 per attack. Hardly chip damage. That is 15 damage on average per successful hit.

Yes, by lvl 15 that’s chip damage.

 

[Desiderius]

Disease immunity is alright I guess. I'll take strong Will saves, personally.

Why are you still relying on PnP?

P:K Monk is Unchained.

 

[Desiderius]

A full Barkskin requires a Druid or Alchemist in your party. Sensei of course can save six spell slots even if you have one.

See Varnhold DLC for example where Ki Bark works well.

 

[Yosharian]

Yes and the unchained monk sacrifices strong will saves in exchange for full BAB you absolute tool

 

[gunman]

I have finally finished the game on Last Azlanti mode - normal difficulty, and the second time I have finished the game (having many failed and abandoned runs).

Here are my impressions:

- As it is well known, the game can be difficult at early levels and becomes easier as you progress. The issue is exacerbated at difficulty levels above normal, because a couple of bad rolls in the beginning can end an ironman run. But in the second half of the game my party was so powerful that I have played most battles on auto-pilot, just sit and watch.
- I have played with a party of four: Valerie, Harim, Ekun and MC (Arcane Trickster). Besides less micromanagement, they also leveled up a bit faster, which is important early game. MC reached 20 just upon arriving at the House at the Edge of Time. I have recruited two more level 20 mercs for the end of the game, just to use those cool +5 weapons that were laying all over the place, and it proved overkill.
- I have learned to approach skill checks well prepared, since there is no second chance if you fail. Buff the character that will make the check with items and spells: (greater) Heroism + Prayer, even Guidance at low levels. Later use the chocolate meal that grants +3 to checks. Of course, there are some situations when you cannot prepare beforehand, or you get surprised by a dialogue check. In the last part of the game I had Valerie (the party tank/persuasionist) running around in Mesmerizing Robe just to avoid surprise dialogue checks (and the armor was high enough from other items and buffs)
- I had a little problem with the Spawn of Rovagug so I could not kill it in my first try, I retreated from combat with the last character standing and came back a couple of levels later.
- I have missed the special ending because I have failed a persuasion check to find the briar in the House at the Edge of Time. I could have recruited mercs just to retry the checks but it felt to gamey and didn't bothered.
- End game is a lot more easier than I remember. The wild hunt mobs were nerfed and for a level 19-20 party they are just trash mobs now. While in my first run I had to reload 5-6 times to win the final battle, now it took me 2-3 rounds to beat each wave, and I killed the Lantern King in two rounds with my Arcane Trickster
- There is too much rain in the game, sometime it felt almost every new map I arrived on, the rain was about to start. I had to sit idle waiting for the rain to end because I was afraid to fail a perception check for a hidden container.
- I was afraid to run out of time before upgrading all kingdom stats to X, so I did the main quest for each chapter ASAP. I had the following rule on each chapter start: main quest > secondary quests > explore remaining map locations > kingdom upgrades with the time remaining until the next chapter. Result: in the last chapter I had all kingdom stats to 10, all secondary region upgrades, all map explored and all resource locations occupied, no quests to do and still over 100-150 days until the end of the chapter, with nothing to do except grinding random encounters or passing days in kingdom management screen.
- It think the top three mostly used spells during the entire game were Delay Poison, Stoneskin and Haste.
- Despite some annoyances, I hadn't such a blast since Baldur's Gate

 

[Desiderius]

Yes and the unchained monk sacrifices strong will saves in exchange for full BAB you absolute tool

You said full BAB was another bizarre feather in Trad Monk’s cap, in the context of claiming it is better than Monk. Bizarre makes no sense if you knew P:K was Unchained, and another feather implies you thought it was better than Base Monk.

Stop covering your ignorance with baseless insults. Nobody’s perfect.

 

[Desiderius]

Yes, if the Will save scales up to +6 that is a significant advantage, though I haven’t found the need to dodge many Will saves lately.

I play Monk with Pummeling line so you’re often an assassin Pouncing on (and Tripping) casters to prevent them from casting at all and away from other toons so less apt to get caught in dangerous AoEs.

 

[Desiderius]

Gunman, don’t understand what you mean about running out of time. If you hurry Ch 2 you miss out on the Bartholomew quest.

I try to dedicate as much time to rank ups as possible because so much is based on them. You can tell when you have to get on chapter quests when the problem cards start getting harder.

 

[gunman]

Gunman, don’t understand what you mean about running out of time. If you hurry Ch 2 you miss out on the Bartholomew quest.

Indeed, in chapter 2 I have talked to Bartholomew about the branded trolls, before discovering the troll lair, but the scene with him being attacked by trolls in his house never occurred. However, I have checked on him again after finishing the chapter, and he was available to hire as advisor at the court.

 

[Anthedon]

Gunman, don’t understand what you mean about running out of time. If you hurry Ch 2 you miss out on the Bartholomew quest.

Indeed, in chapter 2 I have talked to Bartholomew about the branded trolls, before discovering the troll lair, but the scene with him being attacked by trolls in his house never occurred. However, I have checked on him again after finishing the chapter, and he was available to hire as advisor at the court.

Same thing happened to me, only he was no longer around the second time I wanted to check up on him (I did warn him about the trolls).

 

[Desiderius]

You can rescue him from a troll invasion (and get a fair amount of experience clearing the map again) if you wait for the quest to save him to trigger.

I dedicate as much time as possible to rank ups until I get teleportation circles up. Last time was just before Womb.

If you take the 500BP and spam Shrines around a Monument in first three settlements it speeds things up a lot.

 

[Anthedon]

You can rescue him from a troll invasion (and get a fair amount of experience clearing the map again) if you wait for the quest to save him to trigger.

The quest triggered after the troll invasion was over and he was no longer around. The exact same thing happened in my first playthrough, come to think of it.

 

[Whisper]

- It think the top three mostly used spells during the entire game were Delay Poison, Stoneskin and Haste.
- Despite some annoyances, I hadn't such a blast since Baldur's Gate

Stoneskin is useless on harder difficulties. But normal is really easy, with saves or without.

 

[Desiderius]

- It think the top three mostly used spells during the entire game were Delay Poison, Stoneskin and Haste.
- Despite some annoyances, I hadn't such a blast since Baldur's Gate

Stoneskin is useless on harder difficulties. But normal is really easy, with saves or without.

Only if you’re getting hit regularly. Great protection against random crits.

 

[Desiderius]

Barkskin +5 (and empty neck slot, which you need for Fists) is lvl 12 for Monk. Early Ch 4.

Nat Armor +5 Amu is late Ch 6 or House.

 

[Technomancer]

Where can you find Gloves of Deathdealer? Apparently they are supposed to add another sneak attack dice. The net is empty. Skeleton Merchant perhaps?

 

[Desiderius]

I may have misread Yosh initially and in general I think the ki abilities could have been better implemented and I haven’t in fact ended up using them much outside of Varnhold. Spit Venom ends up being a little too good and I do like always having an Alchemist and/or Druid around.

If you want a solid low-maintenance (high Will save) Monk experience Trad is the way to go if Will does end up +6. I’ll confirm tomorrow.

 

[Yosharian]

Where can you find Gloves of Deathdealer? Apparently they are supposed to add another sneak attack dice. The net is empty. Skeleton Merchant perhaps?

I'm not sure but I am pretty sure that they are difficult to miss

 

[Xamenos]

Stoneskin is useless on harder difficulties. But normal is really easy, with saves or without.

What? Stoneskin is one of the most powerful buffs in the game. It might get comparatively weaker on Unfair because of the double damage, but what better use do you have for that 5th level slot?

 

[Yosharian]

The issue is that it drains your cash, not that it's useless