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

[The_Mask]

2nd island boss has a 15s unskippable cutscene, and a 3-stage fight, that lasts at least 20 minutes in TB mode. Fantastic design.

In any case, I'm starting to like the DLC, as far as the main campaign goes. I would like it even more if it did have some glaring bugs:
-traps give exp at random
-traps are sometimes way too close to walls, so it's hard to disarm them mounted.
-traps are sometimes glitched, so you can only disarm them mounted
-and the ship has several spots where you can get characters temporarily stuck

All in all, great reasons to buy their future titles about 4 years after release.

 

[ArchAngel]

I never got any XP for traps. You should not be allowed to disarm traps while mounted anyways. I was able to disable all traps with no mount. True, it is irritating when you get stuck.

Oh and that boss sounds cool, I have not found any interesting ones yet.

 

[santino27]

Is there any option to disable fee for hiring chars? I see yet again they didn't learn from PK experience, there should be a menu switch for free hiring. Im not talking about respecing your story followers.

For some reason, even mods don't disable this, last I checked. But if you're going that route, you can just give yourself the gold needed with Toybox.

 

[Desiderius]

Man, these Tailwinds keep roping me in. Great, great idea:



Unfortunately that team got wiped by two skull Pirates at lvl 2, mostly because not enough Healing. Maybe need to stock up at Port? Rest into Corruption?

Next run started with Tank Crusader mostly for the healing, at least at first. Along with a Nomad - interesting class. Only Full Pet Ranger, Point Blank Master for free at lvl 5, only cost is having to take Archery Combat Style but it works out nicely if you just stay melee until lvl 6 and get Precise and Rapid from Combat Style (lets you skip Point Blank if you want) which frees up Feats for Mounted. Main problem with Archery Combat Style is not enough Feats you want but this way you can stretch it out and it works out well. Went with Aasimar since that unlocks Celestial Servant Feat on Mount. DR/Evil should be nice vs Pirates. Almost wiped again from lucky crit on Mount (which left the Rider Prone so was also easy fodder for lvl 5 Pirate (my team was still lvl 2) but Crusader saved the day.

This is also lvl 2. On Normal:

Completionism dreams up in smoke.

Lvl3:

Also Normal lol.

A little easier on defense.

Note the 17-20 Crit range Tailwind. That will eventually be a nice one. If I can live that long. Been leaning too hard on the Leopard tanking and getting lazy with consumables.

Very much a Roguelike feel.

 

[Desiderius]

Dorf Pal is pretty good what with a free Prestige included in the class. Goes well with Dorf Tailwind or Exotic.

 

[Stavrophore]

After meeting that Nenio character i know that this game doesn't take itself seriously. It's a fucking cringe fest. I rescind my earlier assesment about the quality of plot and writing, it's going down for sure.

 

[coldcrow]

Is there any option to disable fee for hiring chars? I see yet again they didn't learn from PK experience, there should be a menu switch for free hiring. Im not talking about respecing your story followers.

Use the Respec mod https://github.com/BarleyFlour/RespecMod/releases
You can respec companions as mercenaries and get the best of min-maxing and storyfagotry.

 

[Daidre]

After meeting that Nenio character i know that this game doesn't take itself seriously. It's a fucking cringe fest. I rescind my earlier assesment about the quality of plot and writing, it's going down for sure.

Well, I used to hate Nenio too, but right until I've got a good taste of Arushalae - with her endless "Beautiful animu thot looks at you longingly with hers oh so beautiful eyes" type of writing, that still awakens unbridled thirst for murder in me each time she opens her mouth and starts whining in her breathy voice. Every. Fucking. Time. Even after hundreds of hours spent in the game.
And know what is the most awful thing about it?
Only way to properly murder that plot-armored bitch is to fail her second quest and this means dragging her along for the two chapters.

 

[santino27]

Aru and Nenio do both suck. As do most of the companions. Narratively, at least. Regill is one of the few I didn't actively hate.

 

[Stavrophore]

So far i really cant make a band of truly good aligned chars. Seelah is fine, then that aristocratic bitch, well i dont know her alignment but she is probably opportunist cynic so most likely neutral. That lann guy is kinda ok for paladin good main char party. The guy inprisoned was a thief, the spider avatar blue monkey was evil. So im basically left with 4 people in my party, i had to refuse two outwardly evil characters(thief and demon ally) and refuse that nenio because he or she or whatever it is is an insufferable fag. I hope i will find more neutral or good aligned party members in future. It is hard to play with four chars.

 

[Rieser]

There are definitely 5+ good or neutral companions, so you should be able to round out your party in terms of alignment. Whether there's five companions who are also tolerable is another story...

 

[Yosharian]

then that aristocratic bitch, well i dont know her alignment but she is probably opportunist cynic so most likely neutral

 

[Daidre]

It does not happen to me often in RPG, but Wrath is the first game where my desire to murder some recruitable NPC outweighed desire for potential loot + xp I can get from their personal quest in so many cases. (Or at least to abort their quests at some point, like I do with Ember's in ch 3 now).

Owlcat's writing talent went to such places between the first and second game that even my inner completionist capitulates before the cringe. But I love party building in 3.5 too much to stop playing.

 

[ArchAngel]

It does not happen to me often in RPG, but Wrath is the first game where my desire to murder some recruitable NPC outweighed desire for potential loot + xp I can get from their personal quest in so many cases. (Or at least to abort their quests at some point, like I do with Ember's in ch 3 now).

Owlcat's writing talent went to such places between the first and second game that even my inner completionist capitulates before the cringe. But I love party building in 3.5 too much to stop playing.

I agree, it is so good that I also decided to tell some characters to go away instead of just ignoring effects of what they want just so I can get loot or XP. I don't remember the last time a game made me do it.

 

[Desiderius]

Cam and Wend were the only ones bad enough to make me do that. Daeran, Reg, and Lann are all pretty good and I know a lot of Seelah types in rl and they're fine, they'd just be nowhere near a crusade.

Ember's hard to fit in anyway (second coming of Xoti) but yeah it's hard to pass up Aru's skills/stats. I've gotten to the point where even clicking thru isn't enough tho so now that Daeran gets Nature Second Mystery for a Mount (and Barkskins) she's hit the bench too.

And Nenio is... I mean you know who else made their autist a girl? Sesame Street. About on that level. But the character is pretty much irreplaceable mechanically by midgame (unless I'm playing a caster MC) so I click thru. Her quests and the associated puzzles are Boggart Cave level crap. You can tell which areas that crew designed by the loot (or lack thereof).

 

[Desiderius]

Is there any option to disable fee for hiring chars? I see yet again they didn't learn from PK experience, there should be a menu switch for free hiring. Im not talking about respecing your story followers.

Use the Respec mod https://github.com/BarleyFlour/RespecMod/releases
You can respec companions as mercenaries and get the best of min-maxing and storyfagotry.

 

[ArchAngel]

Cam and Wend were the only ones bad enough to make me do that. Daeran, Reg, and Lann are all pretty good and I know a lot of Seelah types in rl and they're fine, they'd just be nowhere near a crusade.

Ember's hard to fit in anyway (second coming of Xoti) but yeah it's hard to pass up Aru's skills/stats. I've gotten to the point where even clicking thru isn't enough tho so now that Daeran gets Nature Second Mystery for a Mount (and Barkskins) she's hit the bench too.

And Nenio is... I mean you know who else made their autist a girl? Sesame Street. About on that level. But the character is pretty much irreplaceable mechanically by midgame (unless I'm playing a caster MC) so I click thru. Her quests and the associated puzzles are Boggart Cave level crap. You can tell which areas that crew designed by the loot (or lack thereof).

Sure Cam was bad (read evil) enough for me to get rid of her. Same for Lann that in my evil run I was glad to get rid of him fast as he is weak idiot. Regill was also kicked out in some runs when he was discovered as a spy. Nenio quest is so irritating I never finished it with anyone. I think you have to hate yourself to go do that dungeon. I tried it once, spent 1h inside and then loaded a save before I entered and forgot it exists for future.

 

[Desiderius]

Cam and Wend were the only ones bad enough to make me do that. Daeran, Reg, and Lann are all pretty good and I know a lot of Seelah types in rl and they're fine, they'd just be nowhere near a crusade.

Ember's hard to fit in anyway (second coming of Xoti) but yeah it's hard to pass up Aru's skills/stats. I've gotten to the point where even clicking thru isn't enough tho so now that Daeran gets Nature Second Mystery for a Mount (and Barkskins) she's hit the bench too.

And Nenio is... I mean you know who else made their autist a girl? Sesame Street. About on that level. But the character is pretty much irreplaceable mechanically by midgame (unless I'm playing a caster MC) so I click thru. Her quests and the associated puzzles are Boggart Cave level crap. You can tell which areas that crew designed by the loot (or lack thereof).

Sure Cam was bad (read evil) enough for me to get rid of her. Same for Lann that in my evil run I was glad to get rid of him fast as he is weak idiot. Regill was also kicked out in some runs when he was discovered as a spy. Nenio quest is so irritating I never finished it with anyone. I think you have to hate yourself to go do that dungeon. I tried it once, spent 1h inside and then loaded a save before I entered and forgot it exists for future.

It helped that my MC was a Legend by then and it was on Core so the fights were faceroll. Way too many and way too little point. Ton of potential there but none of it realized until (maybe?) very end. Too tired by then to try to figure out what was going on. At least final loot is worth it now I've heard. Originally was super niche.

Lann's neither weak nor an idiot. ZA's great or he's the only companion set up to multiclass reasonably well. Interesting Nomad. His quest is what Eder's should have been.

 

[Average Manatee]

It does not happen to me often in RPG, but Wrath is the first game where my desire to murder some recruitable NPC outweighed desire for potential loot + xp I can get from their personal quest in so many cases. (Or at least to abort their quests at some point, like I do with Ember's in ch 3 now).

Owlcat's writing talent went to such places between the first and second game that even my inner completionist capitulates before the cringe. But I love party building in 3.5 too much to stop playing.

Same here, it's amazing how much of a downgrade it is from Kingmaker where the characters all felt pretty reasonable (OK Nok Nok was mostly a joke but he's at least interesting and not cringe). I suffered through Beamdog's BGEE characters but I will never, ever take some Wrath companions. I normally play goody goody/rational characters but seeing the introduction of Nenio actually filled me with an unbridled rage that would gladly fall to evil and murder her.

then that aristocratic bitch, well i dont know her alignment but she is probably opportunist cynic so most likely neutral

He has to be the first person who doesn't see like 5 separate tells on her in the prologue.

 

[Desiderius]

Jesus this DLC makes me feel like such a newb. Normal (!) finally getting too easy and ready to kick it up to Challenging lol. Ward Hex nice on Horse and Crusader almost to 40 AC at lvl six so staying power getting there. Dirge Bard Dazzling affects Undead! And of course spells but don’t have enough casts.

Two rests max per voyage is just so different from the rest of Wrath. It’s worse than P:K. Even with Dirge Bard still not enough Religion Lore to reliably prevent corruption.

What are you guys doing with the Pillars? Are you just supposed to go around them? I can keep Resist up and wear them down but that high AC/DR suggests that isn’t the intended approach.

Anybody figure out the deal with Fluffy Boots?

 

[The_Mask]

I just witnessed Ember vs Nocticula. This dialogue was SO GOOD! You can tell this lady that VOed Nocticula had SO MUCH FUN!

10/10 - would Ember again.

 

[IllusiveBrian]

I guess I'm in the minority here in that I don't find any of the companions so annoying I won't use them, although I agree that the story lines sometimes fell flat. Camellia and Regill were probably the only two whose quests I liked throughout. I did like that Arueshalae's romance finishes with you fucking her so good Desna tries to woo you with flowers though.

 

[Daidre]

My favorites for Rogue-like are Witches - default one and Leyline Guardian. With Agility patron for Haste she got everything I could dream of - endless hexes, some cleric buffs (Deathward), healing, and could cover all 4 Lore skills + Use Magic Device with Healer background. She is even better with Tabletop Tweaks where she can get second patron and you can slap Healing patron on her for Restoration + Mass Heal or Deception and turn her into proper illusionist with Weird.

Kineticist is sill amazing as always, and not for the Deadly Earth spam as one may say. My Elemental Engine, fire on the full burn, was my only way to reliably damage those columns and two most annoying minor bosses on early islands, on Hard: Undead monk guy who got 29 AC against lvl 3-4 party, and undead fighter with Scimitar and +3 Shield with 40+AC vs lvl 6 party.

And my new discovery is Pack Rager. He shares combat Teamwork feat while raging but with Endless Rage + Cord of Stubborn Fury (random loot belt from Kingmaker that replaces Fatigue after Rage with 1-2 hp of damage) he can perma Rage, no extra clicks required. He can do it from lvl 7 and I prefer to share Sieze the Moment on everyone, to get extra attacks for my melees from my archery crits. He is like discount Azata. Owlcat also fixed Accept Rage switch to affect Inspire Ferocity, so I can share extra AB from Reckless Stance on damager without hurting AC on my tanks. Even more, if caster is affected with Lingering Rage Song from Skald now you can switch off Accept Rage and cast spell right in the same round in TB mode!

Alas, I have a big problems in getting decent performance out of classic mages, like Wizard or Sorc. Low rest environment does them no favors, and they can't really catch up to SR and DC climb with difficulty curve on hard without all the nice items provided in main campaign. I think I got more use out of Web than out of all direct damage spells combined.

 

[Tsubutai]

Been playing the new DLC as part of a main campaign run and honestly it's starting to feel like a tedious slog. Each island feels bigger than a dungeon floor in the kingmaker roguelite and whereas KM's version only opened up five floors per act this one has 13 islands so instead of being a sort of refreshing dungeon crawling break from the main adventure it's just a long grind. It doesn't help that they seem to have stuffed the enemy list with a selection of obnoxious beef gates (hi tower shield skeletons with 52 AC and mind-affecting immunity to block Evil Eye !) and things nobody has ever enjoyed fighting (hi mandragora swarms!). It's not difficult in the sense of posing a particularly tough challenge, even on an unfair run with a lot of self-imposed restrictions, but it is being quite effective at sapping my desire to continue playing.

It also absolutely showers you with gold, XP, and unique items so it probably breaks the difficulty curve of the main campaign pretty hard.

 

[Stavrophore]

He has to be the first person who doesn't see like 5 separate tells on her in the prologue.

She just joined the party suddenly, and didnt really tell anything about herself. I dont assume that everyone is evil at first meet. Havent really talked with her afterwards. If she is evil i will dismiss her. I will have to use cheats and buy three companions.