Pathfinder Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Pre-DLC Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Haplo]

From what I've seen so far, I doubt the itemization here comes anywhere near Deadfire level, particularly in relation to gameplay and playstyle impact.

There are some pretty cool items. My fav at this point is a Scythe in ch2 that gives perma cleave on adjacent enemies. With mythic Power Attack and Cleaving Finish it is hilarious. Run to a bunch of Ghouls and all of them just blow up in the first round.

Sounds cool (vs mobs). What is included in this "cleave" damage though? The description mentions weapon damage. If its just that, it might not be exactly impressive. Though Owlcats have a tendency to program in such a way that some bonus sources of damage are re-applied too.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

So from what I gather, building positioning doesn't provide adjacency bonuses like it did in Kingmaker?

 

[Sheepherder]

It's possible to get 21 (or 22) charisma at character creation. Pick half-elf, pick kin raised and then pick CHA as your bonus stat. Half elves can even pick Elven Magic later on as a regular feat for an extra +2 CL for magic resistance bypass. They do lose out the other elven feat which gives another +1 CL. Beats having to play an elf tho

 

[Reina]

So from what I gather, building positioning doesn't provide adjacency bonuses like it did in Kingmaker?

For some buildings, it does. Read the descriptions.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

So from what I gather, building positioning doesn't provide adjacency bonuses like it did in Kingmaker?

For some buildings, it does. Read the descriptions.

Yeah, spoke too soon. Just saw it for some of them.

 

[Shaki]

So, Trickster Mythic Trick UMD rank 3 gives you a full wizard spell book which scales from INT.

Enlightened Philosopher Oracle gives you +5 INT if you stay as a pure class.

Both spell books benefit from abundant casting.

It's pretty easy to build one with 15 INT and 19 CHA, meaning you can either have both attributes at 22 (or 26 with Bokken potion + tomes by end game, or one at 24 and the other at 28).

Trickster Oracle is a better Mystic Theurge than a Mystic Theurge?

Trickster is a better anything than anything. Even with half of the mythic tricks being bugged and not working properly.

 

[Daidre]

From what I've seen so far, I doubt the itemization here comes anywhere near Deadfire level, particularly in relation to gameplay and playstyle impact.

There are some pretty cool items. My fav at this point is a Scythe in ch2 that gives perma cleave on adjacent enemies. With mythic Power Attack and Cleaving Finish it is hilarious. Run to a bunch of Ghouls and all of them just blow up in the first round.

Sounds cool (vs mobs). What is included in this "cleave" damage though? The description mentions weapon damage. If its just that, it might not be exactly impressive. Though Owlcats have a tendency to program in such a way that some bonus sources of damage are re-applied too.

I had not tested everything, but Power Attack and STR definitely applied. In general, damage numbers where pretty close for all hits, normal and cleaving, but I do not have any sneak dices.

 

[Parabalus]

In A5 you get to meet a stack of 900 Gargoyles.

 

[cw8]

So what Mythic path is good for lawful good Monk? I got screwed out of Azata coz I went into the game blind and didn't do the steps. Anyway, I think Azata requires Chaotic. Angel feels typical and boring. So Gold Dragon?

 

[Parabalus]

So what Mythic path is good for lawful good Monk? I got screwed out of Azata coz I went into the game blind and didn't do the steps. Anyway, I think Azata requires Chaotic. Angel feels typical and boring. So Gold Dragon?

Aeon, Lich

 

[Haplo]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor). Need almost maximum buff in every serious encounter.
The Cambion alchemist with his Mimic buddies was brutal. Lately met the Vrock I've carefree summoned before. Fun!
In general Ember's Protective Hex is the real, huge lifesaver. Really makes more offensive focused characters viable.

Decided to just go with 1 level of Rowdy for now - 2 in Instinctual and at least 6 in Vivi - need the defensive ramp from mutagen, protective spells and Feral Wings.
Although final split is a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, I want maximum Vivi for Persistant Mutagen, Legendary Proportions, Transformation.
On the other, that won't get me Greater Vital Strike (unless I cheat with some Trickster trick), Barbarian stance +2 to hit or Debilitating Injury for -4 enemy AC for next round. As a Vital Strike build with mostly just 1 attack per round I can't take proper advantage of Debilitating - but Trickster Mobility 2 could be fun to apply Debilitating passively, by moving trough threatened zones...

 

[Parabalus]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor). Need almost maximum buff in every serious encounter.
The Cambion alchemist with his Mimic buddies was brutal. Lately met the Vrock I've carefree summoned before. Fun!
In general Ember's Protective Hex is the real, huge lifesaver. Really makes more offensive focused characters viable.

Decided to just go with 1 level of Rowdy for now - 2 in Instinctual and at least 6 in Vivi - need the defensive ramp from mutagen, protective spells and Feral Wings.
Although final split is a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, I want maximum Vivi for Persistant Mutagen, Legendary Proportions, Transformation.
On the other, that won't get me Greater Vital Strike (unless I cheat with some Trickster trick), Barbarian stance +2 to hit or Debilitating Injury for -4 enemy AC for next round. As a Vital Strike build with mostly just 1 attack per round I can't take proper advantage of Debilitating - but Trickster Mobility 2 could be fun to apply Debilitating passively, by moving trough threatened zones...

If you're going Trickster, Persuasion 1 + Thug is great. Higher ranks of Persuasion aren't that good since the DC is based on rank, without bonuses.

 

[Haplo]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor). Need almost maximum buff in every serious encounter.
The Cambion alchemist with his Mimic buddies was brutal. Lately met the Vrock I've carefree summoned before. Fun!
In general Ember's Protective Hex is the real, huge lifesaver. Really makes more offensive focused characters viable.

Decided to just go with 1 level of Rowdy for now - 2 in Instinctual and at least 6 in Vivi - need the defensive ramp from mutagen, protective spells and Feral Wings.
Although final split is a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, I want maximum Vivi for Persistant Mutagen, Legendary Proportions, Transformation.
On the other, that won't get me Greater Vital Strike (unless I cheat with some Trickster trick), Barbarian stance +2 to hit or Debilitating Injury for -4 enemy AC for next round. As a Vital Strike build with mostly just 1 attack per round I can't take proper advantage of Debilitating - but Trickster Mobility 2 could be fun to apply Debilitating passively, by moving trough threatened zones...

If you're going Trickster, Persuasion 1 + Thug is great. Higher ranks of Persuasion aren't that good since the DC is based on rank, without bonuses.

Thank you. I was planning for Persuasion 1. No Thug though - rolling with Rowdy.
Guess it will finally be Vivi 12 (Greater Mutagen) / Instinctual 4 / Rowdy 4. Missing spells I will probably get from Trickster UMD Wizard spellbook.... The nice thing with such split is that it should let me pick GVS at level 20 with a rogue's combat Trick (and avoid investing in suboptimal Tricks to skip requirements). Less nice that I have to wait till level 20 for Debilitating.

 

[Daidre]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor).

As I have noticed, without aggressive soloing and xp hoarding you can easily spend first 30-40 hours below level 10. And it is huge chunk of the game. And spreading so thin on all necessary dips for built to come together later you a get a much shorter end of the stick in comparison with single class chars.

So imho, you'd be much better off just going full Rowdy in medium/heavy armor. There is a lot less Stat belts and headbands in first half of the game comparing to Kingmaker so getting necessary high DEX STR and WIS to be effective at tanking while unarmored is not really viable.

For example, I am close to CH4 and had not seen +4 WIS item yet.

 

[Parabalus]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor). Need almost maximum buff in every serious encounter.
The Cambion alchemist with his Mimic buddies was brutal. Lately met the Vrock I've carefree summoned before. Fun!
In general Ember's Protective Hex is the real, huge lifesaver. Really makes more offensive focused characters viable.

Decided to just go with 1 level of Rowdy for now - 2 in Instinctual and at least 6 in Vivi - need the defensive ramp from mutagen, protective spells and Feral Wings.
Although final split is a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, I want maximum Vivi for Persistant Mutagen, Legendary Proportions, Transformation.
On the other, that won't get me Greater Vital Strike (unless I cheat with some Trickster trick), Barbarian stance +2 to hit or Debilitating Injury for -4 enemy AC for next round. As a Vital Strike build with mostly just 1 attack per round I can't take proper advantage of Debilitating - but Trickster Mobility 2 could be fun to apply Debilitating passively, by moving trough threatened zones...

If you're going Trickster, Persuasion 1 + Thug is great. Higher ranks of Persuasion aren't that good since the DC is based on rank, without bonuses.

Thank you. I was planning for Persuasion 1. No Thug though - rolling with Rowdy.
Guess it will finally be Vivi 12 (Greater Mutagen) / Instinctual 4 / Rowdy 4. Missing spells I will probably get from Trickster UMD Wizard spellbook.... The nice thing with such split is that it should let me pick GVS at level 20 with a rogue's combat Trick (and avoid investing in suboptimal Tricks to skip requirements). Less nice that I have to wait till level 20 for Debilitating.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Perception 2 improved feats can't be taken with fighter combat feats or rogue combat tricks, and there are 4 or 5 of them.

My PC was Mutation Warrior / Thug 1, then I respeced to Rowdy/Two-weapon, even as a human it's very tight on feats.

I used Arcana 2 most of the time, the buffs to all items are great. You get the first Greater Trick at the end of C4, so it'll be a while.

With Arcana 3, you can reroll items, you could get a weapon with 3 elemental effects, triggering Elemental Barrage constantly. Then you respec to UMD wizard, and stack Geniekinds.

For example, I am close to CH4 and had not seen +4 WIS item yet.

They will start dropping from trash soon, and there are a few +6 in Ch4.

 

[Daidre]

My PC was Mutation Warrior / Thug 1, then I respeced to Rowdy/Two-weapon, even as a human it's very tight on feats.

I have some plans on going Rowdy + Fauchard/Elven Curved Blade + Trickster's all crit improving feats, should be really cool with mythic Vital strike and Power Attack.

But my current gig is riding murderous tripping super dogs with teamwork feats.

 

[Parabalus]

My PC was Mutation Warrior / Thug 1, then I respeced to Rowdy/Two-weapon, even as a human it's very tight on feats.

I have some plans on going Rowdy + Fauchard/Elven Curved Blade + Trickster's all crit improving feats, should be really cool with mythic Vital strike and Power Attack.

But my current gig is riding murderous tripping super dogs with teamwork feats.

I started with a cavalier, but mounts often just went berserk it RTwP, charging or not. Spamming move and they'd ignore it and just go for the enemy, gave up on it.

I have a Fauchard Rowdy now, but had to give up on PA a bit, AB wasn't enough. Just one Rowdy level seems best.

 

[Daidre]

I went sanctified slayer with animal domain.
]

That's my current char!)
With Azata's Shake It Off on whole party and Daeran's Friend to all Animals for his CHA to all saves, my dog have saves that put Iomedae's Paladins to shame.

 

[Sarathiour]

I barely watched the thread, because i wanted to avoid spoiler as much as possible, but from what i gathered :
- It again came riddled with bug, though maybe not as bad as kingmaker release, but still horrible.
- Lot of cringey character
- Encounter tend to be inferior to kingmaker, but combat sytem is still pretty robust.

I'm probably going to raise the black flag, at least for now.

 

[Zayne]

I also highly recommend you listen to his strategic advice.

I found Greybor's versatile troops more to my liking. They don't die after someone looks at them and can deal some damage to kill those fire immunity demons.

But definitely don't listen to Seelah and your generic advisor

 

[Daidre]

I almost agree, except Rowdy has bad saves. One level of Rowdy with anything else with two high saves that gets sneak is fantastic.

That wildly depends on Mythic path. Trickster can replace will saves with Athletics skill checks, Aeon gains immunities, Azata gains less direct immunities but shares anti-compulsion one on whole party.
Can't say about other mythic paths but there is lot of cool workarounds to bad Will saves.
And Rowdy gets last tier Vital Strike earlier than anyone else due to bypassing 16 BAB prereq.

 

[ArchAngel]

I done the Gargoyle boss in Act 2 with zero rests with lvl 7 party on Core. Even worse because I did a tough random encounter just before returning to camp and with that whole camp thing happening, had zero rests since that battle until I killed the Gargoyle like Demon.
It was fun using potions and scrolls for last battles. Keeping last Smite Evil and Smite Chaos for the boss :D

And damn, the Mongrel archer companion is owning everyone, she is by far the best DPS character so far and she is only getting stronger.

 

[volklore]

I barely watched the thread, because i wanted to avoid spoiler as much as possible, but from what i gathered :
- It again came riddled with bug, though maybe not as bad as kingmaker release, but still horrible.
- Lot of cringey character
- Encounter tend to be inferior to kingmaker, but combat sytem is still pretty robust.

I'm probably going to raise the black flag, at least for now.

Encounters are not inferior to KM at all - I don't see how you can come to this conclusion having played both games for at least 20 hours each.
In the first act alone I have met a ton of different encounters with different layout and immunities to go around, concealed enemies, disases, stat drains, and invisible conjurer (that one was brutal lol). Some I had to back out of because not having certain spells meant certain death (a fireballing demon out of LoS in a house, I don't think i can do this without resist energy).
In P:KM you fight mostly beasts and kobolds early on with barely any casters

 

[ArchAngel]

Well, finally a game where the difficulty settings seem to have correct meaning. Hard isn't "normal", the devs don't pull punches. Still early in chapter one (guess will storm Grey Garrison soon), but can't say its smooth sailing, even with a relatively Munchkin character (respecced back to Instinctual Warrior - Initiative helps and I hated the skill maluses of heavy armor). Need almost maximum buff in every serious encounter.
The Cambion alchemist with his Mimic buddies was brutal. Lately met the Vrock I've carefree summoned before. Fun!
In general Ember's Protective Hex is the real, huge lifesaver. Really makes more offensive focused characters viable.

Decided to just go with 1 level of Rowdy for now - 2 in Instinctual and at least 6 in Vivi - need the defensive ramp from mutagen, protective spells and Feral Wings.
Although final split is a difficult conundrum. On the one hand, I want maximum Vivi for Persistant Mutagen, Legendary Proportions, Transformation.
On the other, that won't get me Greater Vital Strike (unless I cheat with some Trickster trick), Barbarian stance +2 to hit or Debilitating Injury for -4 enemy AC for next round. As a Vital Strike build with mostly just 1 attack per round I can't take proper advantage of Debilitating - but Trickster Mobility 2 could be fun to apply Debilitating passively, by moving trough threatened zones...

I gave Protective Hex to Camilia and Ember uses Slumber

 

[cw8]

And damn, the Mongrel archer companion is owning everyone, she is by far the best DPS character so far and she is only getting stronger.

You mean Lann? Yea he's killing everything in the game together with my Monk Scaled Fist character. Both of them are monks.