Pathfinder Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Game of the Year Edition

[Stoned Ape]

The new DLC is prertty good so far. Starts pretty easy (even on higher difficulties) but ramps up to be quite challenging once you get to around 8th level.

I think it is superior to the Endless Dungeon by quite a wide margin.

 

[Lambach]

I already felt summons were behind the curve as far back as Kingmaker and now everything is so out of wack. Sure you can grab stuff like Aeon bonuses, certain items and so on. There's a datamined quarterstaff that gives a +6 to summons physical stats. I just can't see things adding up to more than cannonfodder but I would love to be proven wrong.

The sole Mythic Ability pertaining to Summons is also extremely "meh". An additional bonus of +1-6 in all Physical Attributes (depending on Mythic Rank) really isn't going to make a difference when the common mook is about 5+ levels above the most powerful thing you can summon, nevermind anything else.

Owlcat simply does not like summoning as a mechanic, it seems.

 

[Lambach]

Unless you are playing on Unfair you don't need it.

72 AC Mephistopheles on Core disagrees. The combined +14 AB buff from Sacred and Competence to the entire Party really makes a difference.

In fairness, the fight was actually a lot easier than I expected. For some reason, that dude provokes a lot of Attacks of Opportunity during his Turn, so my monstrously buffed MC, Aivu, Seelah and Sosiel were just constantly hammering on that guy with Ever Ready during his own Turn.

 

[Desiderius]

because the creatures you can Summon are the same as in Kingmaker, whereas the enemies you face are generally noticeably stronger at comparable points in the game.

I already felt summons were behind the curve as far back as Kingmaker and now everything is so out of wack. Sure you can grab stuff like Aeon bonuses, certain items and so on. There's a datamined quarterstaff that gives a +6 to summons physical stats. I just can't see things adding up to more than cannonfodder but I would love to be proven wrong.

Challenge accepted.

 

[Lambach]

Challenge accepted.

What are the conditions? "Beat the game as a Summon-focused build" doesn't seem enough, your other 5 Party Members can carry you there.

 

[Desiderius]

Summons get AoE buffs which you’ll start playing with when you find them because they’re good and benefit from all the good debuffs as well.

Augment Summoning is easy to get and is a flat +4 to stats. Animate Dead and the Druid Summons starting with Lizards (oops, Leopards. Lizards are good for Cleric/Wiz) are very solid. Shaman gets both.

Even Axiomites are good vs Undead if you can protect yourself from their Lightning. There’s also an item in main campaign that Summons Devas/Soul Eaters depending on alignment (reversed from normal).

 

[Desiderius]

Challenge accepted.

What are the conditions? "Beat the game as a Summon-focused build" doesn't seem enough, your other 5 Party Members can carry you there.

We all work together as a team. I just got owned by the Lizard on the first voyage on Core so looking like all hands on deck.

I don’t play solo but seems like the claim is you can’t do damage with Summons. Should at least be able to clear out adds with them.

 

[Lambach]

I don’t play solo but seems like the claim is you can’t do damage with Summons. Should at least be able to clear out adds with them.

You'll probably do fine with Summons early on, but the further into the game you go, the more your Summons will get outscaled by the enemies you're facing. A couple of moderate buffs to Attributes probably won't be able to make up for the disparity.

 

[plem]

Any DLC worth playing? Like we have a puzzle fest, a Dungeons & Kobolds DLC and .... IS the third DLC good?

I'm having fun with the dungeon crawler so far. being able to build a full party from scratch adds a whole new dimension to these games, and I don't like using hired muscle in the main story.

This might've been discussed in the thread already, but is it possible to make an effective Summon-focused build here (Core or above difficulty) ?

I don't know if it's worth incorporating it into a build, but I noticed that the ring that summons spiders whenever nearby allies die works on summons too. I used it to cheese Playful Darkness by blocking them with summoned dogs and each time they took one out 4 spiders spawned, so I just pelted them from range as they wasted all their attacks killing critters.

 

[Desiderius]

I don’t play solo but seems like the claim is you can’t do damage with Summons. Should at least be able to clear out adds with them.

You'll probably do fine with Summons early on, but the further into the game you go, the more your Summons will get outscaled by the enemies you're facing. A couple of moderate buffs to Attributes probably won't be able to make up for the disparity.

I… don’t use moderate buffs. Amazing what your buffs can do when you’re not nerfing yourself with splashes and Animal Domain.

And a pack of Smilos doesn’t need all that much help.

 

[The_Mask]

The problem with summons, other than their rather mediocre buffs, is that Owlcat has slightly upped their game in terms of map layout, and there isn't much room to spread your "army". There are far in between the instances where you're going to be able to unleash the fury. I suspect this is because pets were so interesting in Kingmaker, but that's just speculation on my part.

So... while I'm sure people will find viable builds, you're going to have learn how and when to use them. Just like any other tool.

 

[Cryomancer]

About summons, not only enemies are way stronger, but summons in general, weaker. For eg, animate dead. The skeletons which it raises has less than 20 hp. Any AoE in this agme can kill them all.

 

[Desiderius]

OK, now I’m going to have to play the Summon Bard.

BTW, Incense Fog *still* does nothing. Class has been an abortion since Alpha.

 

[Sykar]

Does anyone know if there's a portrait pack for Pathfinder that includes the NWN portraits, specifically the class emblem portraits? Doesn't have to be them singled out as long as they are included in the pack.



If not I might have to make it myself.

It feels weird to me that some people like NWN portraits. I think they are pretty meh and even hideous in some cases. I am that I never had to see them again after having played that shiteberg that is NWN OC.

 

[Yosharian]

There are fixes which didn't make it into the patch notes apparently. According to Vek, the mastermind behind the TTT mod, they've completely rebuilt the code behind the Brown-Fur Transmuter capstone ability and it now works correctly.

(Previously it was disappearing on load etc)

The game is definitely getting there but there are still bad bugs affecting some classes.

For example, the Cavalier has an ability Mighty Charge which is meant to give you the option to perform combat maneuvers for free when you charge, without incurring AOOs as you usually do.

1) You don't get to choose the maneuvers, you automatically get a trip and a bull rush

2) If the bull rush is successful then the target gets pushed away from you and and remaining iterative attacks you had on the target (i.e. in the case of pounce charging) are wasted and do nothing

3) You incur two attacks of opportunity. On your rider, not your mount. The game only lets one AOO occur because Owlcode, but still.

This ability basically ruins my pounce charge build that I'm working on so I have to remove it with Toy Box. Not ideal.

 

[Desiderius]

The Bull Rush bug has been in the code since P:K. Octavia Battering Blasted a *paralyzed* Defaced Sister and it killed two of my dudes on the way by. With Greater you both get the AoO.

 

[Haplo]

There are fixes which didn't make it into the patch notes apparently. According to Vek, the mastermind behind the TTT mod, they've completely rebuilt the code behind the Brown-Fur Transmuter capstone ability and it now works correctly.

(Previously it was disappearing on load etc)

The game is definitely getting there but there are still bad bugs affecting some classes.

For example, the Cavalier has an ability Mighty Charge which is meant to give you the option to perform combat maneuvers for free when you charge, without incurring AOOs as you usually do.

1) You don't get to choose the maneuvers, you automatically get a trip and a bull rush

2) If the bull rush is successful then the target gets pushed away from you and and remaining iterative attacks you had on the target (i.e. in the case of pounce charging) are wasted and do nothing

3) You incur two attacks of opportunity. On your rider, not your mount. The game only lets one AOO occur because Owlcode, but still.

This ability basically ruins my pounce charge build that I'm working on so I have to remove it with Toy Box. Not ideal.

Wow, that's... terrible.
I wonder why I haven't seen this mentioned sooner.

 

[Cyberarmy]

new class alert

shifter

Mistshifter?

 

[Haplo]

So, for the first time I skipped the Tavern fight. Didn't really feel like doing it again, particularly with a low damage main char.
Think I was also ready once before, but didn't click the option to begin Grey Garrison assault (of which you can still withdraw) and finally had the fight.

This time I rested only once after reaching the tavern. Which meant I hardly got to use any spells and buffs, but largely Hexes helped carry the day, of course. Difficulty being Hard.

Oh well, got some mop up to do: the small optional areas + Brimorak at the Market house. Wonder if the Nabasu will spawn if I skipped the brawl.

 

[Sarathiour]

Gold Dragon now properly converts d6 to d8 for spell damage calculations;

>No mention of the d10 spell damage calculations.


Well, I guess it's still a start.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Player base: "We don't like swarms much."

Owlcat: "How about a 253 HP 22nd level swarm on a 10th level island that can kill your entire party in a few rounds with unresistable CON drain while making sure the majority of your party can do absolutely nothing to it and your support mage has to slowly chew through all those HP with area effect spells."

 

[Hobo Elf]

The du

Does anyone know if there's a portrait pack for Pathfinder that includes the NWN portraits, specifically the class emblem portraits? Doesn't have to be them singled out as long as they are included in the pack.



If not I might have to make it myself.

It feels weird to me that some people like NWN portraits. I think they are pretty meh and even hideous in some cases. I am that I never had to see them again after having played that shiteberg that is NWN OC.

As I said, I wanted the emblematic portraits, not the ones with people in them. I can never find portraits that look good. Having a class icon works well enough for me, and in this case I think the ones in NWN are very good.



The only other options would be to port the IWD portraits, but then those don't take into account some of the races like Kitsunes.

 

[Stoned Ape]

By the way, the way to beat the swarm is not to fight it. The island objective reward is in a chest just behind the description panel (close to the right-hand Greater Fire Elemental). You have to get a sneaky character to grab the contents, then somehow get your party through a doorway next to it in order to get to the exit.

Unfortunately they won't leave the dungeon while under aggro and the elemental is very perceptive. It's also impossible to directly dimension door through the doorway as the angle won't let the caster see enough of the corridor to target the spell without standing on the fire elemental's toes.

On the positive side, after grabbing the chest you can get away with just casting haste and running the party past the elemental and lure both of them into the corridor to fight without triggering the swarm.

 

[Jaedar]

This might've been discussed in the thread already, but is it possible to make an effective Summon-focused build here (Core or above difficulty) ?

I'd say no, there is absolutely no way. Summons are just too weak, and disappear quickly enough that you can't put most buffs on them.
Summons are decent meat shields, but expecting them to hit anything for meaningful damage is asking too much.

 

[Stoned Ape]

A run doesn't take very long, but there's plenty of incentive to try another.