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

[traa]

Haplo you've mentioned before that instead of scythe mobility trickster build could use great axe for more focused single target damage. Any particular reason(s) to use great axes (except that IMO they look cooler on character than scythes)? E.g. is there some nice weapons in the game available relatively early to use?

 

[Longes]

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

You say that, but Act 2 is long enough. And once I get Lich spells, Nenio will be even more useful because I'll be too busy casting awesome Lich spells to spend a round casting Haste.

 

[user]

Hard is ok after all - you just can't sleep on stuff. And the Azata Enchanter is more than viable and very fun to play, with Heighten meta and Ember (or Camelia) in the party and her evil eye that reduces saving throws without needing a successful save. Best Jokes mythic feat investment really came through. Even did a record speed kill for playful darkness surpassing my Lich, with feeblemind (charisma 1) + Arue with passion's sweet poison gloves that damages charisma (was a lucky 20 but still).

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

+10 wouldn't be good enough... But useless, no way! They usually buy me a couple of rounds by blocking the enemy. What I found kind of useless was Create Undead. Also these damn Eyes of the Bodak never seem to work for me (even without using physiology-altering spells like Ice Body).

 

[Average Manatee]

photo mode is weirdly elaborate for what it is and another confirmation that owlcat does not give a fuck in a very caring fashion.

Yeah. The two actual main features of EE were photo mode and being able to graphically modify your armors. I wonder who even asked for either of those things?

And for this they added showstopping bugs.

What's actually been confirmed by the EE is that Russian mobilization has been in effect for some time and only women are left.

 

[Desiderius]

Retreat can be shared by a BFT. In case of my char, its also on SS spell list (Animal Aspects too).
Tried disabling this TTT setting but still didn't benefit from those. The Monkey Aspect had a bonus that wasn't stacking and was trumped by other effects.

But that requires a BFT/Alch and is single-target. Lann's INT isn't great and Drovier is AoE. OP was asking for speed boosts and Lann Drovier boosts whole team while upgrading to Aspect of Wolf once speed is less of an issue.

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

Skellies have useful immunities.

I wonder who even asked for either of those things?

The wokels they hired instead of Vek and Holic desperately trying to justify their paychecks without having to do anything involving basic competence, since that's the wokel dump stat.

Many such cases.

 

[Jaedar]

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

Nah. Skeletons scale pretty high in the number of skeletons summoned, and most enemies dont have aoe, so a single cast of summon skellington will keep a lot of bosses busy for a turn or two. Of course, having +3 swords would not help.

Also these damn Eyes of the Bodak never seem to work for me (even without using physiology-altering spells like Ice Body).

I remember eye of bodak working quite well, but also that -1 level per round is not terribly impressive since most combats end in 2-3 rounds and enemies often have 30+ levels.

 

[Desiderius]

I tested a fifth level Earth Kin with Bowling and Blade Infusions. This is what I found:

(1) Specialization isn't even on the Character Sheet anymore. Is it on vanilla?

(2) Earth Blast (no Blade) properly (first specialization is at lvl 5, then every 3 after that) reduces cost of Bowling Infusion to 1 Burn. So Kinetic Knight should be able to use it without Gathering at lvl 8, regular Kin at 11.

(3) Instead Blade Infusion *reduces* the cost to zero on regular Kin instead of increasing it to 2 as it should.

Congrats, Average Manatee, you've found another absurd bug in Wrath.

 

[user]

A passive (planned 24h) level drain could really help my lich in some fights. But it being a cool spell is the real reason I want it. Alas, it does not work even when unbuffed (I think ice body for instance prevents it). I am a dhampir, don't know if that's the reason.

 

[Grunker]

So, this game is really fun so far. I've liked the first 6 levels much, much better than Kingmaker, both in terms of writing and gameplay. The clear highlight is encounter design - where Kingmaker would frequently have you fight off just 9 rooms of varying configurations of the same enemies, damn near half of WotR's encounter have had unique scripting, AI and premise excepting some Kenabres stuff, the enemy variety has been good. It's kind of awe-inspiring tbh, though I would guess you notice it less if you play on lower difficulties and beat the encounter on first try.

Also, while I think it was totally the correct decision to use positive reinforcement as a time limit instead of the shitty management mode forcing you to beeline stuff, it does make the crusade mode even more pointless. Right now it seems the main purpose is to have some sort of theoretical time pressure, but fights that give you morale are fairly plentiful (unless I run out soonish I suppose).

I have a lot of criticism and a ton of niggles (I am not impressed by the 16 billion """""unique""""" weapons with an enhancement modifier and an On Crit-effect I've found and a few too many encounters teleport your MC into melee range making the game even more initiative-dependent), but all in all, I've enjoyed it very much.

 

[LannTheStupid]

I tested a fifth level Earth Kin with Bowling and Blade Infusions. This is what I found:

(1) Specialization isn't even on the Character Sheet anymore. Is it on vanilla?

You tested the modded game? Why?

 

[ArchAngel]

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

Nah. Skeletons scale pretty high in the number of skeletons summoned, and most enemies dont have aoe, so a single cast of summon skellington will keep a lot of bosses busy for a turn or two. Of course, having +3 swords would not help.

Also these damn Eyes of the Bodak never seem to work for me (even without using physiology-altering spells like Ice Body).

I remember eye of bodak working quite well, but also that -1 level per round is not terribly impressive since most combats end in 2-3 rounds and enemies often have 30+ levels.

I love all these skeleton opinions when I finished the game with Lich Dhampir Cuoromancer thinking how I am going to be this awesome Necro summoner. Ended up as Necro Nuker, a very powerful one.
Skeletons are useless, even more than standard summons as they get one shot by everyone. What is not useless is Lich ability to bring back dead enemies that follow you around, they get their base stats plus all your buffs as they are undead now and you can have multiple of them.

 

[ArchAngel]

Started my Lich playthrough, now that EE is out. Thought Nenio would be obsolete in my party, but I think she'll stay as a permanent fixture. Summoning skelebros and having Nenio cast Haste in the same round is far too good. Get your second attack skelebros!

Really weird that Staff of the Necromancer didn't make it into the game. It's a quarterstaff that makes weapons of Animate Dead skeletons into +3 swords. It was present in Kingmaker, and the item itself is in the game files, but it's not available without Toybox. You'd think they'd put it somewhere for the liches.

Skeletons become useless very soon and you will not need Nenio once you get your Lich spells.

You say that, but Act 2 is long enough. And once I get Lich spells, Nenio will be even more useful because I'll be too busy casting awesome Lich spells to spend a round casting Haste.

Nenio casting Haste is more useful in this case then you casting Skeletons.

 

[Lambach]

A passive (planned 24h) level drain could really help my lich in some fights. But it being a cool spell is the real reason I want it. Alas, it does not work even when unbuffed (I think ice body for instance prevents it). I am a dhampir, don't know if that's the reason.

What's your game version? In the one I first started with (1.34), Eyes of the Bodak was bugged and did not work at all. It was later fixed in 1.37.

Given how long it took Owlcat to fix it (check when 1.37 was released compared to the initial first release), it's entirely possible something is really fucky about that Spell, and if you're on EE, they might've broken it again.

 

[ArchAngel]

What I am thinking and looking for ideas is solo DLC3 run (with XP sharing off). Thinking Swarm since that one is made for being alone. But that one is only gained at high mythic level (7?) so what should I do before then?
Another option would be Legend.
What character/class and starting Mythic do you recommend until then? Trickster to get feats?

 

[Jaedar]

Also, while I think it was totally the correct decision to use positive reinforcement as a time limit instead of the shitty management mode forcing you to beeline stuff, it does make the crusade mode even more pointless. Right now it seems the main purpose is to have some sort of theoretical time pressure, but fights that give you morale are fairly plentiful (unless I run out soonish I suppose).

There is no strict time limit. In theory the ai sends increasingly stronger attacks against you in crusade mode, but you'd honestly be hard pressed to lose to those, even if you are using the autoresolve. And it's also really really hard to get low on morale... there's way too many random events that raise it.

What general did you hire?

 

[Grunker]

Also, while I think it was totally the correct decision to use positive reinforcement as a time limit instead of the shitty management mode forcing you to beeline stuff, it does make the crusade mode even more pointless. Right now it seems the main purpose is to have some sort of theoretical time pressure, but fights that give you morale are fairly plentiful (unless I run out soonish I suppose).

There is no strict time limit.

That was my point

What general did you hire?

I have 1 Wizard and 1 Ranger-type guy, which I'm starting to think was a mistake because you don't get enough reinforcements for two armies at this point. Otoh you have more finances than you can spare so

 

[Daidre]

solo DLC3 run (with XP sharing off)

I think it is impossible. XP sharing switch was locked in the DLC 3 last time I've checked it.

 

[Grunker]

I'm strongly considering picking Brutality Incarnate after all, Daidre. It really puts a ceiling on the build's efficiency that everything has DR my attacks, and it's both a pretty sick and pretty fun build.

 

[Lambach]

I have 1 Wizard and 1 Ranger-type guy, which I'm starting to think was a mistake

Not really, it's a good idea to get 2 Generals in CH2 so you can level them both as high as possible before CH3. You can always swap Armies between the two to ensure they're both roughly at the same Level.

Your mistake was not getting 2 Mage type Generals because they're objectively far, far superior to other types. The gap in power only keeps increasing as they keep gaining levels.

 

[Grunker]

I have 1 Wizard and 1 Ranger-type guy, which I'm starting to think was a mistake

Not really, it's a good idea to get 2 Generals in CH2 so you can level them both as high as possible before CH3. You can always swap Armies between the two to ensure they're both roughly at the same Level.

Your mistake was not getting 2 Mage type Generals because they're objectively far, far superior to other types. The gap in power only keeps increasing as they keep gaining levels.

I know mages are most powerful, but I wanted to try them all. Seems like it's not going to be that hard anyway

 

[Daidre]

I'm strongly considering picking Brutality Incarnate after all, @Daidre. It really puts a ceiling on the build's efficiency that everything has DR my attacks, and it's both a pretty sick and pretty fun build.

You hadn't made first Storyteller artefact?

 

[IllusiveBrian]

solo DLC3 run (with XP sharing off)

I think it is impossible. XP sharing switch was locked in the DLC 3 last time I've checked it.

Does it matter if his character is solo? I haven't ever really messed with that switch or using smaller parties.

 

[Desiderius]

I tested a fifth level Earth Kin with Bowling and Blade Infusions. This is what I found:

(1) Specialization isn't even on the Character Sheet anymore. Is it on vanilla?

You tested the modded game? Why?

Because TTT fixes most of the bugs you clowns left in your game and Average Manatee is getting the same bug in Vanilla and mistaking it for intended. I'll try again unmodded.

EDIT: just confirmed, same on vanilla. Nice job eliminating Infusion Specialization from the Character Sheet altogether so nobody who hadn't played P:K (or tabletop) would even know the bug was there. Does that mean it's WAI? Blade gets iteratives *and* reduces Burn cost of Substance Infusions?

 

[Grunker]

I'm strongly considering picking Brutality Incarnate after all, @Daidre. It really puts a ceiling on the build's efficiency that everything has DR my attacks, and it's both a pretty sick and pretty fun build.

You hadn't made first Storyteller artefact?

Yeah but I gave it to Galfrey - I dunno, I usually prioritize that kind of quest-related stuff, I kindda sperg about it because I don't use guides and I get worried that I miss out on something

Doing that shit was what made me get the secret ending in Kingmaker in my blind playthrough

 

[Desiderius]

Also, while I think it was totally the correct decision to use positive reinforcement as a time limit instead of the shitty management mode forcing you to beeline stuff, it does make the crusade mode even more pointless. Right now it seems the main purpose is to have some sort of theoretical time pressure, but fights that give you morale are fairly plentiful (unless I run out soonish I suppose).

There is no strict time limit.

That was my point

What general did you hire?

I have 1 Wizard and 1 Ranger-type guy, which I'm starting to think was a mistake because you don't get enough reinforcements for two armies at this point. Otoh you have more finances than you can spare so

You get enough for three if you manage your Mercs well. If only you needed them there'd be a lot to the Crusade piece as is.

I'm strongly considering picking Brutality Incarnate after all, @Daidre. It really puts a ceiling on the build's efficiency that everything has DR my attacks, and it's both a pretty sick and pretty fun build.

You hadn't made first Storyteller artefact?

Yeah but I gave it to Galfrey - I dunno, I usually prioritize that kind of quest-related stuff, I kindda sperg about that stuff

For most of the life of the game DR could be bypassed with Magic Weapon, Greater but I've heard that that's been fixed. You've also got things like Bless Weapon for a similar effect and eventually native Weapon enhancements get high enough to bypass it.