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

[Desiderius]

You stack these things on characters that are already good to great casters with 10 levels of awesome shit to spam all day.

In that case Spell Chain turned on - all good! Somehow I've managed to penetrate SR just fine with four different casters in multiple playthroughs after getting over the Gargoyle hump. Did they scar you for life?

one of your weakest caster

(this is called begging the question, for those curious for an example)

Go back a few pages where I detail the feats you want to be competent in melee.

Competence in melee? Didn't have to choose any melee Feats on this bad boy:

Pls, instruct me further.

 

[Daidre]

Spell Pen? Are you familiar with how Allied Spellcaster works with Solo Tactics? LG gets *six* free Teamwork Feats. All of them trigger on any other friendly close by. Pet, summon, whatever.

It just +2 bonus, not +2 for each creature around. Nice, but nothing to write home about. If you had some grand idea about Inq's spell casting power built around abuse of one bugged teamwork feat - I had bad news for you, it was fixed.

 

[Desiderius]

Spell Pen? Are you familiar with how Allied Spellcaster works with Solo Tactics? LG gets *six* free Teamwork Feats. All of them trigger on any other friendly close by. Pet, summon, whatever.

It just +2 bonus, not +2 for each creature around. Nice, but nothing to write home about. If you had some grand idea about Inq's spell casting power built around abuse of one bugged teamwork feat - I had bad news for you, it was fixed.

No, that was widely know exploit*. Just brought it up half-jokingly since feature of most Inq archetypes is having teamwork feats coming out one’s ears with Solo Tactics making even all the otherwise bad ones the equivalent of a regular feat.

* - no inherent reason it shouldn’t stack, so not really an exploit

 

[Desiderius]

Detainer confirmed to proc on Kinetic Sharpshooter. Large knockback + Slow.

Kinetic Diadem from Atelier in Kenabres kicks up damage on Energy Blasts to 3d6+6 vs Touch AC with +2 to hit from XBow at lvl3. Detainer has +2 base - not sure what this is, +2 enhancement, +2 Overflow on damage. Can add Deadly Aim but need Spell Pen more I think. Likewise Weapon Focus XBow adds +1 to hit. No difference in damage between Light and Heavy, STR does nothing even on Composite Bow so XBow better for wider crit range.

Ember's Vulnerability Curse cancels Resist if you want, but damage powers through most of it pretty fast.



Still playing around with the effects of Infusion Specialization, but the Blast icon doesn't show accurate Burn cost if you have enough in the Quiver to cover it.



This shot used up three Quiver pts at lvl 5 (despite Infusion Specialization) using Empower and Exploding. Usually Blast icon will show burn cost but it just shows zero whatever you do because Quiver.

The Detainer proc save is way up at the top there so I think that triggers first, which took him out of Exploding range to hit the Evoker. Lann also has Foxfire for zero burn that can reveal the Conjurer once it casts Invisibility, but Detainer applies Slow to keep him from running away like he usually does. Foxfire (Faerie Fire) removes Concealment miss chance, on for instance Zach the Lich.

Will take Fire Bonus Feat Dazzling to set up Shatter and (TTT) Shatter Mythic. Not available until lvl 9 though since 3/4 BAB class.

Reduce Person has no downside. Don't have Cat's Grace up yet here. Should be able to reliably apply Shatter to anything not Fear Immune.

Accepting Inciter Rage prevented Bloodseeker Cam from Summoning her Dire Wolves in this fight BTW.

(little 7hp lvl 1 Bismuth from Random loot mod - 5%/10% chance to get anything, usually junk. Somehow gave me Bismuth this run).

 

[Mauman]

I've decided to not use Sable marine. Not because it's bugged and despite the flat footed attacks.

Why?

The Griffon is too fucking big. And God help you if you cast animal growth.

With animal growth he's four times the size of Bismuth! And Bismuth is already quite the chunky boi.

It's funny how I've come to appreciate how most animal companions can't grow in size from animal growth.

For bonus fun, cast legendary proportions on a Griffon (also say goodbye to seeing anything else).

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Accepting Inciter Rage prevented Bloodseeker Cam from Summoning her Dire Wolves in this fight BTW.

Unrelated but fuck, I couldn't seen how sick Bloodseeker camellia sounds.. Nice idea to do in my Trickster run.

 

[Desiderius]

Blazing Rondo on Chelaxian Diva is +1/+1 AB/AC AoE (60ft!) untyped per five Bard lvls (plus Haste of course). This is probably the buildaround. Bard doesn't usually buff AC. Guarded Hearth is Competence so now Bard has effect that stacks with it.

Downside is keeping it to 3 rnds (maybe, can always let hangover wear off after the fight). The damage add-on ability isn't much but it is passive (no Action required) and persistent. Once you have infinite performance rounds can tack on +2 DC for the save too. As fight goes on that save will naturally be debuffed. Any damage triggers concentration checks for casting. Diva Style could be interesting with Final Feint vs bosses/tougher enemies depending on how activating the performance add-ons works with triggering Free Feint.

 

[Desiderius]

Accepting Inciter Rage prevented Bloodseeker Cam from Summoning her Dire Wolves in this fight BTW.

Unrelated but fuck, I couldn't seen how sick Bloodseeker camellia sounds.. Nice idea to do in my Trickster run.

Mantis Daeran also nice fit.

Deadly Fascination is... pretty good with the built-in DC boosts.

 

[Desiderius]

I've decided to not use Sable marine. Not because it's bugged and despite the flat footed attacks.

Why?

The Griffon is too fucking big. And God help you if you cast animal growth.

With animal growth he's four times the size of Bismuth! And Bismuth is already quite the chunky boi.

It's funny how I've come to appreciate how most animal companions can't grow in size from animal growth.

For bonus fun, cast legendary proportions on a Griffon (also say goodbye to seeing anything else).

Pathing/blocking has been largely fixed so no big deal. Once it does first flight it's usually out of the way even if it were an issue.

 

[Average Manatee]

I've decided to not use Sable marine. Not because it's bugged and despite the flat footed attacks.

Why?

The Griffon is too fucking big. And God help you if you cast animal growth.

With animal growth he's four times the size of Bismuth! And Bismuth is already quite the chunky boi.

It's funny how I've come to appreciate how most animal companions can't grow in size from animal growth.

For bonus fun, cast legendary proportions on a Griffon (also say goodbye to seeing anything else).

Does the AoE trip effect of the charge scale up with their size? Because size also makes the tripping easier, along with the enemy already being flatfooted to the attack and getting additional bonuses to the trip.

Also I wonder if legendary proportions would be enough that just 5' stepping away would let you charge again. Meaning it'd be easy to charge the same target every round, tripping half the screen with massively broken trip checks.

 

[Mauman]

Pathing/blocking has been largely fixed so no big deal. Once it does first flight it's usually out of the way even if it were an issue.

It's just getting around that's the issue. Also, selecting other characters, or looting chests. It was getting insufferable. For combat, yeah it's not really an issue.....mostly. It's the everything else that was driving me nuts.

Also, it was a giant eyesore in general.

Does the AoE trip effect of the charge scale up with their size? Because size also makes the tripping easier, along with the enemy already being flatfooted to the attack and getting additional bonuses to the trip.

Also I wonder if legendary proportions would be enough that just 5' stepping away would let you charge again. Meaning it'd be easy to charge the same target every round, tripping half the screen with massively broken trip checks.

It doesn't scale the trip. The trip doesn't happen around the Griffon, it happens around your first target.

Yes, it's weird.

 

[Desiderius]

The interaction pathing is known issue on all mounts. Really bad on Order of the Paw (Halfling Rider). Can just select another character or make a companion the Sable Company Rider.

I like Mounted Ranged and Sable gets Point-Blank at level 6. TTT removes the Full Attack after Mount moves (unless you invest two more Mounted Feats to get it) so introduces some more strategy into it.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Desiderius]

There are some subtle gameplay changes that suggest the pros are back for awhile from RT tweaking their game.

 

[Desiderius]

Armored Battlemage (AB) has finally been implemented. A brief look.

The intended play with AB is a better fit with how many already use Magus (whacking with a big two-hander) than the base class or many of the other archetypes. It doesn't have the Spell Combat that isn't used with two-handing anyway and in exchange gets armor proficiency much earlier and Armor Training to work with it.

Early game:

It has Medium Armor Proficiency from the start and Armor training at lvl 3 removes the speed penalty and raises the max DEX bonus. With 14 starting DEX and Cat's Grace (pot) that's 4 DEX on top of the 7 AC from Breastplate +1, add in Shield Spell, prot Evil, and the Armor Enchanting AB gets in place of the usual Weapon Enchant and it's a lot less of a pincushion than a usual Magus.

On offense the Martial prof allows it to use the +1 Glaive bonus from the first book you find in the Maze and Marching Terror (or the Necromancer's Glaive if you want Cold Iron). For casting it can Spellstrike with Touch of Fatigue or the early Touch damage spells if you want some additional oomph (Shocking Grasp good vs Undead) or use them to attack Touch AC vs targets that are hard to hit otherwise. Mostly though you're a utility caster until midgame.

Midgame:

Heavy Prof shows up with the second Armor Training that removes the Speed penalty at lvl 7. Full Plate + two Armor Trainings allows a DEX bonus of 3 that goes up to 5 with Staunton's Armor when you get it. Once you get Empower Arcana it can be stacked with a Maximize Rod and Bolster Metamagic to perform some very large Spellstrikes. Falchion with Improved crit can double them with some frequency. Frigid Touch applies a round of Stagger with no save against the toughest foes, that can be applied vs Touch AC as needed.

Endgame:

The Armor Enchanting switches to Fortification once +5 Armors show up. DEX bonus goes up to 7 on Full Plate which means DEX-based with Elven Curve Blade is even an option (Elves get bonuses to INT/DEX and ECB as a Martial weapon). Favorite Meta on Maximize and Empower means every Touch is maxxed by some combination of the three (Rods + Arcana + Meta). Can get enough DC to do Cones where needed for AoE.

Mods (TTT/Dark Codex) allow key options like Rime and Intensified Metamagic.

The nice thing about the class is like a Vital Strike build it's using it's Standard Action so isn't reliant on Full Attacks, which means not having to figure out a way to get Pounce and/or less spending a whole turn standing next to a mob until you can full attack it. That is its own sort of defense. Unlike say, a Rowdy, it provides a source of Arcane utility spells like an Eldritch Scoundrel, albeit with a smaller spellbook, and can cover INT-based skill checks or if DEX-based even the DEX ones with help from Armor Training, likewise Athletics if STR-based.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Armored Battlemage (AB) has finally been implemented. A brief look.

The intended play with AB is a better fit with how many already use Magus (whacking with a big two-hander) than the base class or many of the other archetypes. It doesn't have the Spell Combat that isn't used with two-handing anyway and in exchange gets armor proficiency much earlier and Armor Training to work with it.

Early game:

It has Medium Armor Proficiency from the start and Armor training at lvl 3 removes the speed penalty and raises the max DEX bonus. With 14 starting DEX and Cat's Grace (pot) that's 4 DEX on top of the 7 AC from Breastplate +1, add in Shield Spell, prot Evil, and the Armor Enchanting AB gets in place of the usual Weapon Enchant and it's a lot less of a pincushion than a usual Magus.

On offense the Martial prof allows it to use the +1 Glaive bonus from the first book you find in the Maze and Marching Terror (or the Necromancer's Glaive if you want Cold Iron). For casting it can Spellstrike with Touch of Fatigue or the early Touch damage spells if you want some additional oomph (Shocking Grasp good vs Undead) or use them to attack Touch AC vs targets that are hard to hit otherwise. Mostly though you're a utility caster until midgame.

Midgame:

Heavy Prof shows up with the second Armor Training that removes the Speed penalty at lvl 7. Full Plate + two Armor Trainings allows a DEX bonus of 3 that goes up to 5 with Staunton's Armor when you get it. Once you get Empower Arcana it can be stacked with a Maximize Rod and Bolster Metamagic to perform some very large Spellstrikes. Falchion with Improved crit can double them with some frequency. Frigid Touch applies a round of Stagger with no save against the toughest foes, that can be applied vs Touch AC as needed.

Endgame:

The Armor Enchanting switches to Fortification once +5 Armors show up. DEX bonus goes up to 7 on Full Plate which means DEX-based with Elven Curve Blade is even an option (Elves get bonuses to INT/DEX and ECB as a Martial weapon). Favorite Meta on Maximize and Empower means every Touch is maxxed by some combination of the three (Rods + Arcana + Meta). Can get enough DC to do Cones where needed for AoE.

Mods (TTT/Dark Codex) allow key options like Rime and Intensified Metamagic.

The nice thing about the class is like a Vital Strike build it's using it's Standard Action so isn't reliant on Full Attacks, which means not having to figure out a way to get Pounce and/or less spending a whole turn standing next to a mob until you can full attack it. That is its own sort of defense. Unlike say, a Rowdy, it provides a source of Arcane utility spells like an Eldritch Scoundrel, albeit with a smaller spellbook, and can cover INT-based skill checks or if DEX-based even the DEX ones with help from Armor Training, likewise Athletics if STR-based.

Is this a mod or new patch ?

 

[Daidre]

It has Medium Armor Proficiency from the start and Armor training at lvl 3 removes the speed penalty and raises the max DEX bonus. With 14 starting DEX and Cat's Grace (pot) that's 4 DEX on top of the 7 AC from Breastplate +1, add in Shield Spell, prot Evil, and the Armor Enchanting AB gets in place of the usual Weapon Enchant and it's a lot less of a pincushion than a usual Magus.

Question is not what Armored Battlemage gets, but what he loses - who in the hell will give up Weapon Enchant on Magus? One of the biggest attractions of the class is to stack Holy, Axiomatic, Ghost, Brilliant Energy and Bane on weapon. But without it, he is just a mix of mid bab and mid spellcasting with limited book, and without some pet, domains or teamwork like Hunters/Inquisitors. Dimension Strike is nice, but not enough to play Magus who lost everything that made him Magus for some AC and armour enchants.

It is like a bunch of shitty paladin archetypes that give up Smite and Mark of Justice.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Just finished The Lord of Nothing. After the pretty abrupt and unsatisfying ending, I looked up some things and found out there's apparently an angel called Stalhmer who shows up and does a ritual, but this never happened in my playthrough. Did anyone else not have him in their playthrough? Is there some hidden check involving this? Or is this just a bug?

Also do any of the choices involving the different settlements (i.e. helping the villagers leave the jungle, getting that AI a body, etc.) have any impact on the main game?

 

[Desiderius]

Armored Battlemage (AB) has finally been implemented. A brief look.

The intended play with AB is a better fit with how many already use Magus (whacking with a big two-hander) than the base class or many of the other archetypes. It doesn't have the Spell Combat that isn't used with two-handing anyway and in exchange gets armor proficiency much earlier and Armor Training to work with it.

Early game:

It has Medium Armor Proficiency from the start and Armor training at lvl 3 removes the speed penalty and raises the max DEX bonus. With 14 starting DEX and Cat's Grace (pot) that's 4 DEX on top of the 7 AC from Breastplate +1, add in Shield Spell, prot Evil, and the Armor Enchanting AB gets in place of the usual Weapon Enchant and it's a lot less of a pincushion than a usual Magus.

On offense the Martial prof allows it to use the +1 Glaive bonus from the first book you find in the Maze and Marching Terror (or the Necromancer's Glaive if you want Cold Iron). For casting it can Spellstrike with Touch of Fatigue or the early Touch damage spells if you want some additional oomph (Shocking Grasp good vs Undead) or use them to attack Touch AC vs targets that are hard to hit otherwise. Mostly though you're a utility caster until midgame.

Midgame:

Heavy Prof shows up with the second Armor Training that removes the Speed penalty at lvl 7. Full Plate + two Armor Trainings allows a DEX bonus of 3 that goes up to 5 with Staunton's Armor when you get it. Once you get Empower Arcana it can be stacked with a Maximize Rod and Bolster Metamagic to perform some very large Spellstrikes. Falchion with Improved crit can double them with some frequency. Frigid Touch applies a round of Stagger with no save against the toughest foes, that can be applied vs Touch AC as needed.

Endgame:

The Armor Enchanting switches to Fortification once +5 Armors show up. DEX bonus goes up to 7 on Full Plate which means DEX-based with Elven Curve Blade is even an option (Elves get bonuses to INT/DEX and ECB as a Martial weapon). Favorite Meta on Maximize and Empower means every Touch is maxxed by some combination of the three (Rods + Arcana + Meta). Can get enough DC to do Cones where needed for AoE.

Mods (TTT/Dark Codex) allow key options like Rime and Intensified Metamagic.

The nice thing about the class is like a Vital Strike build it's using it's Standard Action so isn't reliant on Full Attacks, which means not having to figure out a way to get Pounce and/or less spending a whole turn standing next to a mob until you can full attack it. That is its own sort of defense. Unlike say, a Rowdy, it provides a source of Arcane utility spells like an Eldritch Scoundrel, albeit with a smaller spellbook, and can cover INT-based skill checks or if DEX-based even the DEX ones with help from Armor Training, likewise Athletics if STR-based.

Is this a mod or new patch ?

They finally fixed the missing class features from original release.

 

[Desiderius]

It has Medium Armor Proficiency from the start and Armor training at lvl 3 removes the speed penalty and raises the max DEX bonus. With 14 starting DEX and Cat's Grace (pot) that's 4 DEX on top of the 7 AC from Breastplate +1, add in Shield Spell, prot Evil, and the Armor Enchanting AB gets in place of the usual Weapon Enchant and it's a lot less of a pincushion than a usual Magus.

Question is not what Armored Battlemage gets, but what he loses - who in the hell will give up Weapon Enchant on Magus? One of the biggest attractions of the class is to stack Holy, Axiomatic, Ghost, Brilliant Energy and Bane on weapon. But without it, he is just a mix of mid bab and mid spellcasting with limited book, and without some pet, domains or teamwork like Hunters/Inquisitors. Dimension Strike is nice, but not enough to play Magus who lost everything that made him Magus for some AC and armour enchants.

It is like a bunch of shitty paladin archetypes that give up Smite and Mark of Justice.

That’s the downside. Trading it for 5-10 more AC from the get go, Fortification on Armor to prevent crits/sneaks, and the ability to take full advantage of Medium/Heavy Armors in parties that may be unable otherwise to do so.

Armor Training makes some of the good Banded Mail and Half-Plates playable that otherwise wouldn’t be. So you get those bonuses in lieu of Weapon Enchanting.

I’m taking Meta Arcana instead of the Enchanting stuff anyway. The biggest reason to play the class in general that people evidently still haven’t figured out yet is the unique additional layer of metamagic available via Arcana.

 

[Desiderius]

Yes I know that many think that Unfair makes AC irrelevant, but there are many sources* of AoE AC and debuffing of opponents that bring it very much back into play. Not everybody can tank bosses, but it’s more often about being free of worry about getting picked off by everything else.

* - including new ones from DLCs

 

[Mauman]

Did some testing with inciter's incite, the sneak attacks, and the dispel

Yes, dispel on sneak attack is shared to everyone.

Interestingly, it counts as the skald dispelling and not the individual characters. That means feats like dispel focus and the dispel stun feat work for everyone, not just the skald.

Even on unfair, you have a good chance of dispelling all but the hardest effects due to how many dispell checks are going to happen. Even the harder ones have a chance if only due to the sheer volume of checks.

edit - as an aside, I kinda feel bad for Aeon Mythic now, as mass dispels were kind of their thing (and one of the few really interesting things they get). No need for Aeon now if you want lot's of dispels on hit I guess.

 

[Desiderius]

TTT has a couple of the Touch spells that give you a use per level on one cast (like Frostbite). Combined with Rime meta pretty handy.

Holy etc isn’t as good if I’m only hitting once per round, and the gimmicky stiff that helps you hits stuff can be gotten other ways (don’t have any iteratives that need the help).

 

[Desiderius]

On Kin Sharpshooter Infusion Specialization currently applies (from 1 to 0) to Burning Infusion, so it can be used on all shots. At lvl 5 it does *not * apply to Exloding Arrows which is stuck at 2. Still have enough pts in Quiver to use it where it applies. Empower always costs 1.

Range appears to depend on the weapon, effectively giving Extended Range for free. Often worth it to move into Close Range for Point Blank bonus, and since you’re not using Full Attacks or Gather that’s typically doable outside of surprise rounds.

Feels a lot more mobile than conventional Archers/Kinnies. Could also just stand still and use Move Action for Ranged Feint to help Physical Blasts land if you can get Bluff high enough.

 

[Desiderius]

Effortless Armor does not raise the DEX Bonus like Armor Training does. Interested to see if the Skill penalty reduction stacks. Very relevant for Stealth and convenience since those penalties now affect Trickery.