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

[Yosharian]

Level 9 Sword Saint. BAB is +6. Improved Critical is available, which has a BAB requirement of 8. UI claims my BAB is 9.

What the fuck.

Never mind, Owlcat actually got something right for once

 

[Tsubutai]

Level 9 Sword Saint. BAB is +6. Improved Critical is available, which has a BAB requirement of 8. UI claims my BAB is 9.

What the fuck.

Welcome to owlbrew. At level 9, sword saints get a class ability called "Critical Perfection" that allows them to substitute their class level for their BAB to qualify for feats. Per tabletop rules, that should only apply to the Critical Focus feat and its derivatives but Owlcat have changed it so it applies to all feats with a BAB requirement.

 

[Yosharian]

Level 9 Sword Saint. BAB is +6. Improved Critical is available, which has a BAB requirement of 8. UI claims my BAB is 9.

What the fuck.

Welcome to owlbrew. At level 9, sword saints get a class ability called "Critical Perfection" that allows them to substitute their class level for their BAB to qualify for feats. Per tabletop rules, that should only apply to the Critical Focus feat and its derivatives but Owlcat have changed it so it applies to all feats with a BAB requirement.

OHHH. Holy shit I had completely forgotten about that ability.

 

[Grunker]

Lilitu in Sacred Lands is bugged and attacks no matter what option I choose.

 

[Jaedar]

Any tips for dealing with Ancient Blighted Treant with a low caster party (i.e. can't just spam fire spells)?

Come back and deal with it later. You'll have to return to wintersun later for a quest anyway.

Wenduag is really obviously performing a macho, because she grew up in a toxic environment and can't see past the "might makes right" framework

Except there were no such cruelty in the environment where she actually grew up - mongrels are a tight knit community that puts extreme value on the family bonds and and on communal responsibility. Many of them are completely enamored with the stories of crusades and all that duty + honor luggage that comes with it. So the "natural" inclination would be to protect non-combatants of the tribe, not to spit on them.

Still, she is not typical mongrel due to hers chance meeting with Hosilla, who fed Wenduag some demonic rage and made a good little minion out of her. Still, she willingly accepted cultist's philosophy, betrayed her own tribe and was proud to set up similar "accidents" for the promising younglings.

In short, I do not agree that it is environment's fault that Wenduag is dumb, cowardly and selfish bug-girl.

I got the impression that mongrels live short and fairly brutal lives due to their mutations and the hostile environment. Wendy desires to accomplish more than just scrabbling in the mud for her entire life.

I think a lot about her character is revealed if you pick Lann and then go back to the mongrel village. Wendy challenges you to a 1v1, predictably loses and then as she's bleeding out on the floor, she basically begs you to say she was a worthy opponent of the great knight commander so that she can feel like her life was worth a damn.

She's a very messed up "human" being who wants to feel powerful and in control.

 

[Grunker]

 

[Longes]

Wenduag is really obviously performing a macho, because she grew up in a toxic environment and can't see past the "might makes right" framework

Except there were no such cruelty in the environment where she actually grew up - mongrels are a tight knit community that puts extreme value on the family bonds and and on communal responsibility. Many of them are completely enamored with the stories of crusades and all that duty + honor luggage that comes with it. So the "natural" inclination would be to protect non-combatants of the tribe, not to spit on them.

Still, she is not typical mongrel due to hers chance meeting with Hosilla, who fed Wenduag some demonic rage and made a good little minion out of her. Still, she willingly accepted cultist's philosophy, betrayed her own tribe and was proud to set up similar "accidents" for the promising younglings.

In short, I do not agree that it is environment's fault that Wenduag is dumb, cowardly and selfish bug-girl.

They live in a shitty monster-infested cave, die of old age at 30, and the core tenet of their culture is "one day cool people from above will come and take us to fight and die in the forever war".
While Wenduag's motivations are very tainted by selfishness, her perspective on the tribe is "no one will accept us willingly, we should be ready to fight tooth and nail to protect ourselves once we get back above". Which given that Hulrun was the top dog before you - not an unreasonable perspective. I do not condone anything Wenduag has done. Her approach is toxic as shit. But I can see how she became the person that she is.

 

[IllusiveBrian]

The pillars in the Midnight Isles can fail a reflex save and fall into a pit spell. The graphic on the ground goes away but the effect doesn't, so your characters will slip and fall on nothing in the Earth one.

 

[Yosharian]

More testing with Demon. This ability:

Aspect of Kalavakus​

Demonic Aspect​

Demon adopts the aspect of Kalavakus, gaining a bonus on all Perception, Athletics, and Use Magic Device skill checks equal to half of the Demon's mythic rank plus one. Those bonuses do not stack with other bonuses from demonic aspects.

While in demonic rage, the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus gains a +2 bonus to CMD, CMB, and natural armor to AC. The bonus increases by +1 at 6th and 9th mythic rank.

Whenever the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus succeeds at a combat manuever check during a demonic rage, the Demon can make an attack against that target as a free action. When the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus hits with a charge attack during a demonic rage, the Demon can attempt to disarm the target as a free action.

is completely fucked. In my testing I am getting 10 free attacks whenever I charge something. I have no idea if the number of attacks is tied to anything - I tried increasing my available AOOs and it didn't change the number. Anyway, supposedly the aspect triggers a disarm action on the target, which provokes a 'free attack'.

Only there is never a disarm action taken in the combat log. Oh sure, a disarm actually takes place (i checked, the target was actually disarmed), but is there even a saving throw? Who fucking knows. What determines how many bonus attacks you get? Who fucking knows.

It gets juicier:

Aspect of Schir​

Demonic Aspect​

Demon adopts the aspect of Schir, gaining a bonus on all Lore (Nature), Mobility, and Athletics skill checks equal to half of the Demon's mythic rank plus one. Those bonuses do not stack with other bonuses from demonic aspects.

While in demonic rage, the Demon with an aspect of Schir gains a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls. The bonus increases by +1 at 6th and 9th mythic rank.

During a demonic rage, the Demon with an aspect of Schir gains a Powerful Charge ability, increasing the number of weapon damage dice by two and applying an additional one and a half of the Demon's Strength bonus to damage from the charge.

This thing isn't increasing my weapon dice by two, it's increasing Grave Singer's 1D12 to 5D12. Which then gets multiplied by your effective crit modifier (which currently I am aiming to push up to x5). So the base weapon damage can end up at 25D12. (note that it doesn't stack with other increases to your weapon die, such as Size or Lead Blades - though those will count for subsequent attacks)

The STR mod to damage is just as nutty - my character currently will have a STR modifier of +27, +40 on 2H attacks, so Schir increases the STR mod to damage of this charge attack (but not the subsequent free attacks, note) to +80.

 

[Daidre]

She's a very messed up "human" being who wants to feel powerful and in control.

She is indeed very messed up, but from what I saw, it is not a mongrel's harsh-but-honest way of living to blame, but a demonic "blessing" she got from Sava's poison and the chunk of aasimar meat (not good for sanity, what a surprise).

Spoilers for the Demon Path and mongrel quest line

There are some curious unique details for the Demon Mythic - most of the mongrels completely lose coherence after exposure to Savamelekh power and utterly loyal to him (he is their creator after all) but MC Demon can force them to obey him instead. There is one variant of Prologue's final fight where Wenduag is the only companion who helps berserk-ing MC to kick Staunton ass, when MC fails Will check against the demonic rage.
Also, her behavior does make sense if you see what Demon MC is going through with his hissy fits - usually at the first sign of a confrontation his demonic instinct says to teach some wretch a painful lesson, but it does complete 180 when you meet a proper demon lord - then your inner demon's first reaction is to "shut up and grovel", which is surprisingly close to Wenduag's attitude toward strong/weak.

 

[Humbaba]

Explain the joke

 

[Yosharian]

Ok I figured out something important - the 'free' attacks gotten from the Kalavakus aspect are not attacks of opportunity - they aren't getting the bonus from Ever Ready

 

[Grunker]

Explain the joke

Look for area exits

 

[Yosharian]

Never mind I figured it out, the math is correct.

 

[Jaedar]

Iirc there's several, they're just not on the map for some reason.
(This is the encounter with the ghost urging you to do puzzles right? Heed his warning, because it's not worth it)

 

[Humbaba]

Iirc there's several, they're just not on the map for some reason.
(This is the encounter with the ghost urging you to do puzzles right? Heed his warning, because it's not worth it)

You do get some cool loot at the end but the dungeon is ass. Just use a walkthrough, those puzzles suck.

 

[Yosharian]

Sooo next thing, you can't stack a Demonic Rage character who has Bloodrage/Barbarian Rage with a Skald giving Inspire Rage. And, activating Demonic Rage automatically activates your Bloodrage/Rage. So, if you're bringing a Skald, you mustn't take Bloodrager/Barb levels.

 

[Yosharian]

I just don't understand why the fuck the game tosses 10 free attacks at you when you charge with this aspect active. It just doesn't make any sense. You don't even need pounce.

 

[Daidre]

When the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus hits with a charge attack during a demonic rage, the Demon can attempt to disarm the target as a free action.

This gives you disarm attempt on Charge.

And that

Whenever the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus succeeds at a combat manuever check during a demonic rage, the Demon can make an attack against that target as a free action.

Gives you Extra Attack per disarm. Seems like those free attacks are still considered the part of the Charge.

As long as your Disarm beats enemy's CMD you go into loop.

Well, that is my best guess. I had a similar thing on doggy with Greater Trip - successful trip provokes AoO with Tripping bite that well... trips again, looping as long as doggy beats CMD and have enough AoOs from Combat Reflexes.

 

[Grunker]

When the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus hits with a charge attack during a demonic rage, the Demon can attempt to disarm the target as a free action.

This gives you disarm attempt on Charge.

And that

Whenever the Demon with an aspect of Kalavakus succeeds at a combat manuever check during a demonic rage, the Demon can make an attack against that target as a free action.

Gives you Extra Attack per disarm. Seems like those free attacks are still considered the part of the Charge.

As long as your Disarm beats enemy's CMD you go into loop.

Well, that is my best guess. I had a similar thing on doggy with Greater Trip - successful trip provokes AoO with Tripping bite that well... trips again, looping as long as doggy beats CMD and have enough AoOs from Combat Reflexes.

Dunno about the disarm, but the tripping loop is RAW. That's what my Archaeologist did when I played Serpent's.

 

[Yosharian]

Yes but you're missing an important part, these extra attacks are coming out of fucking nowhere. They're not my iteratives, and they're not AOOs.

And also the fact taht the fucking disarm doesn't register anywhere in the combat log. I guess disarming the tougher opponents will be hard, though.

 

[IllusiveBrian]

Yes but you're missing an important part, these extra attacks are coming out of fucking nowhere. They're not my iteratives, and they're not AOOs.

And also the fact taht the fucking disarm doesn't register anywhere in the combat log. I guess disarming the tougher opponents will be hard, though.

I think what Daidre is suggesting is that you disarm them successfully once, and then continue making free disarm attempts on each attack despite the enemy already being disarmed. I don't know if you can normally disarm someone without weapons with a normal disarm action or if it's blocked, if it's blocked maybe the game doesn't resolve the disarm attempt or resolves it but doesn't log it because the developers didn't intend for that case to ever fire, and then you get your free attack on disarm. Or alternatively the disarm attempt is blocked by the game but for whatever reason inappropriately treated as successful. If you are allowed to normally attempt to disarm someone who doesn't have a weapon then it does seem like the loop is working as written, even if the log isn't correct.

 

[Desiderius]

Do you have Disarming Strike Feat?

 

[Grunker]

DC38 Arcana check in a lab which you know is dedicated to experimenting on demons succeeded!

*knowledge washes over you*

 

[Grunker]

Out of curiosity

Spoiler

What are the "spill single drop of blood" checks in Areelu's lab? For some reason they can only use main char's perception, so I always fail the check.