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

[AwesomeButton]

If you take exp only for active members, and you roll 5, and

I haven't paid attention to this, but I don't think so. Both in early access when I did a couple of story runs and on my current run after release I've always hit level 10 around the time you get the banner in ch. 2 with a 6 man party even when I was not exploiting the xp sharing mechanic in the prolog.

I am on hard from the start and I reached 10 after the optional boss in chapter 2.

The youtuber I'm watching has not turned off xp sharing but I guess he has done some better map cleaning than I have. I remember I didn't clean the lost chapel completely, after finishing the quest there. But I'll return there.

 

[ArchAngel]

Now that I am playing around in Abyss city I can say that this game is copying BG2 a lot. Abyss city is basically Drow city from BG2. It also happens at same time in the story. And the Mythic paths are basically Strongholds from BG2, they got about same amount of content.
And spellcasters are cheating like in BG2 with casting lots of buffs and spells at same time. And in most battles enemy casters also fuck me up.

On Core this game is much harder than PK1, at lvl 15 in PK1 was strolling through content easily.

Indeed, was playing on Daring but having to drop to Normal difficulty as many of fights are pain in the ass with enemies with sky-high AC.

PK1 was definitely easier on Core rules.

I am not complaining, I like that it is balanced so it is actually challenging and I find myself using Dispel Magic fairly often which I didn't in PK1.

 

[purupuru]

Why do people keep talking about "Core" on Kingmaker? There is no Core difficulty on Kingmaker.
Recently started a new Kingmaker playthough on Challenging and the wererats fight gave me more trouble than anything in the first two chapters of WotR.

 

[ArchAngel]

I fought Playful Darkness over the weekend.

Spoiler

I will admit I cheated because I cba to load previous save, change all my spells, rest and try again. So what I did is I abused my buggy Quicken spell rod that seem to have unlimited charges to double Negative damage Playfull darkness until he was down as that seemed to be only way to damage him with party I had at the time. I lost all 3 of my melee people in the fight and once he was down and I could not go around his Regeneration as it said Negative damage removes it but it didn't so I had to Coup de grace him with my 4 archers/mages/skeletal archers for about 10-15 rounds until he finally rolled 1 on his Fort save.
BTW if I wanted to fight him fairly I would basically start the combat with Corrupted Magic Lich lvl 9 spell that removes his buffs and gives him a penalty to AC and other things per each removed buff but I had used that in previous fight and as I said I was cba to go and rest and recast buffs. With Lich he seems fairly easy as long as you can buy yourself enough turns to beat him with Lich damage spells.

How did you guys beat him?

 

[ArchAngel]

Why do people keep talking about "Core" on Kingmaker? There is no Core difficulty on Kingmaker.
Recently started a new Kingmaker playthough on Challenging and the wererats fight gave me more trouble than anything in the first two chapters of WotR.

When we say core we are talking about the one that claimed it is like PnP or something which basically buffed enemy stats a bit in PK1 (I think it was called Challenging?!) . But it was marked the same as Core in PK2.

PK1 basically had 3 late game challenges, Wild Hunt gaze attacks that were destroyed with taking Blind Fighting with everyone. Mandragora swarms that were only a few enemies and Plague Cloud spamming ghost casters that would eventually blind everyone and had me buy a lot of Mass Heal scrolls on my 2nd campaign before going to the House.

 

[ga♥]

I fought Playful Darkness over the weekend.

Spoiler

I will admit I cheated because I cba to load previous save, change all my spells, rest and try again. So what I did is I abused my buggy Quicken spell rod that seem to have unlimited charges to double Negative damage Playfull darkness until he was down as that seemed to be only way to damage him with party I had at the time. I lost all 3 of my melee people in the fight and once he was down and I could not go around his Regeneration as it said Negative damage removes it but it didn't so I had to Coup de grace him with my 4 archers/mages/skeletal archers for about 10-15 rounds until he finally rolled 1 on his Fort save.

How did you guys beat him?

Spamming pillars of life, cave traps and fireballs on him, while blocked on stacked blade barriers by summons and selah with last stand.
He just died no regen in my case, I guess pillars of life blocks it.

 

[Daidre]

Hm, observation of the day: looks like some AI parts hardwired directly into difficulty level, no matter what additional options are chosen:

For example, when comparing default Hard against Core + Additional Enemies Behaviors on, it is quite noticeable that some kind of the "Smart" targeting taking the place - melees are lot less willing to continue whacking invulnerable dogs/horses/dinosaurs and move on to easier target in 1-2 rounds. And ranges often target rider instead of his mount or just have a huge hate boner for the party member with the least AC. Really, on Core, Ember was never shot at often enough to tempt me to take Pranked Beneficial Curse on her for the Mirror Image, but on Hard it is no longer the case.

And its seems that it worked similarly in Kingmaker, I just had not played on below Hard often enough to notice.

 

[Haplo]

Well, Linzi WAS a pincushion for enemy archers until I started using Mirror Image and buffing her defenses a little.

When I was doing Zacharius' cementary on Saturday, these deadly Champion archers definitely focused low AC characters too (and their placement was a bitch...).
Or these encounters with mostly ranged Drow parties (low Fort on them though ).

But yeah, I've not played these games below Hard, so I couldn't really compare either. Didn't realize that behavior was exclusive to higher difficulties.

 

[Daidre]

When I was doing Zacharius' cementary on Saturday, these deadly Champion archers definitely focused low AC characters too (and their placement was a bitch...).
Or these encounters with mostly ranged Drow parties (low Fort on them though ).

I think there are some enemies who always scripted to choose lowest AC in both games on any difficulty (like those maniacs from Pitaxian Palace & Linzi situation or Good-Smiting gargoyles from Wrath), but still, I had got through ch 1&2 with barely one point of damage on Ember & Nenio on Core, but on Hard they were constantly pin-cushioned by the Ghoul Hunters from the Chapel.

 

[ga♥]

I believe Linzi specifically was scripted to be targeted by enemy archers. Never happened with Octavia nor any merc even with suckier AC.

 

[Haplo]

I believe Linzi specifically was scripted to be targeted by enemy archers. Never happened with Octavia nor any merc even with suckier AC.

True. Though my Octavia held two daggers with AC buffs plus some other AC items, so her AC was significantly better then Linzi's (like 10 point higher), plus was often Invisible for a fair part of engagements.

 

[Orud]

But where can I get a proper +5 Greatsword? I just dealt with Iz and I'm stuck with a simple +3. Goddamit owlcat.

You don't have divine weapon bond?

 

[ga♥]

I believe Linzi specifically was scripted to be targeted by enemy archers. Never happened with Octavia nor any merc even with suckier AC.

True. Though my Octavia held two daggers with AC buffs plus some other AC items, so her AC was significantly better then Linzi's (like 10 point higher), plus was often Invisible for a fair part of engagements.

I usually used Linzi only in Pitax, and in my case she had far better AC than Octavia. Still Pitax archers just targeted Linzi.

 

[Orud]

Finally had some time to play games again after a few hectic work weeks, so picked up where I left my campaign at the start of act 3. Long story short; I ended up in Blackwater at level 10 on core difficulty.

I really dislike both the tone of the entire place and that you're sent there at the start of act 3. Don't get me wrong, me deciding to commit to the area after the initial fight is completely on me. I simply want to criticize how directing the players there at that stage is completely inconsistent with the difficulty of all other branches offered to you that early in the chapter.

Spoiler

The dragon, in comparison, was a cakewalk that I killed in less than one turn.

Doesn't mean I didn't beat the shit out the demons in there though, just that there was a very noticeable spike in difficulty. But I foresee quite a lot of people struggling there, and it's completely Owlcat's fault for triggering the quest that early.

 

[volklore]

Why do people keep talking about "Core" on Kingmaker? There is no Core difficulty on Kingmaker.
Recently started a new Kingmaker playthough on Challenging and the wererats fight gave me more trouble than anything in the first two chapters of WotR.

wererats is an exception though. There's nothing in PK akin to the kind of spells enemies use on you in wrath (until the house at the end pretty much). You face mass hold person at level 8, high DC confusions etc... In PK. enemies like wererats are rare and even then have early game counters (resist energy for the rat alchemist + glitterdust for the concealed guys). Most stuff is just balls of stat, in wrath they also fuck you up with spells.

 

[BarbequeMasta]

Black water is prolly the last area I tend to do in act3. First time I went there(at the start of the act) I fucked off after the first fight.

 

[volklore]

Hm, observation of the day: looks like some AI parts hardwired directly into difficulty level, no matter what additional options are chosen:

For example, when comparing default Hard against Core + Additional Enemies Behaviors on, it is quite noticeable that some kind of the "Smart" targeting taking the place - melees are lot less willing to continue whacking invulnerable dogs/horses/dinosaurs and move on to easier target in 1-2 rounds. And ranges often target rider instead of his mount or just have a huge hate boner for the party member with the least AC. Really, on Core, Ember was never shot at often enough to tempt me to take Pranked Beneficial Curse on her for the Mirror Image, but on Hard it is no longer the case.

And its seems that it worked similarly in Kingmaker, I just had not played on below Hard often enough to notice.

I think you need to buff up the AB of your tank. I tested that in KM back when but It seems it's similar in wrath that an enemy is more likely to move on from a target if it has high AC and low AB.

 

[Yosharian]

Spoiler

How it works:

1. Get Elemental weapon proc x2 on your weapon
2. Get Bane, Holy & Axiomatic on your weapon
3. Cast Geniekind x4
4. Hit things
5. Get Elemental Barrage proc x3 equal to mythic rank X 1d6
6. Get Geniekind x4 procs
7. All these procs incur Bane, Holy & Axiomatic damage
8. When you crit, EB & GK procs deal double damage

The picture shows damage from Mythic rank 3 because I'm legend, also I didn't have Axiomatic on, so it can produce a lot higher damage than this

 

[Daidre]

I think you need to buff up the AB of your tank. I tested that in KM back when but It seems it's similar in wrath that an enemy is more likely to move on from a target if it has high AC and low AB.

I... do not think I've ever built frontliner who is lacking in AB department. Especially with my obsession with Outflank.

I've witnessed this just now, with prologue boss, Hostilla - first round she've tried to hit my horse, but switched to Seelah the same second she entered the melee range. And completely lost interest in my Gendarme-Pala with the Glaive who was smiting her face with like +20AB.

 

[ArchAngel]

The amount of bugs connected with different mechanics or combinations of such is big. And this is just from my run with specific classes and abilities. I can only imagine how it is in the whole game. I don't see them ever fixing it all.

 

[ArchAngel]

Btw my Camilla finally got get own Smilodon to ride :D
Now I just need to figure out why it didn't turn large when it should at lvl 7 or so (hopefully resting will fix that). Now she will finally have reach without me needing to make her larger which costs her Dex.
And I need to get that mythic feat that lets you cast first spell in combat as quickened, she loses too much time buffing at start of battles.

 

[Daidre]

Yeah, bugs never stop ruining my mood.

My Pala should've gotten 1 lvl spells on level 4 (technically 0 normal slots + 1 spell slot from big CHA) but she only got an empty spellbook with Dismiss cantrip. Which promptly disappeared on reaload with my spells tab showing "Can't cast spells" message.

Проклятые бракоделы, мать их.

PS Sorry, don't have a words in English to describe my feelings.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I believe Linzi specifically was scripted to be targeted by enemy archers. Never happened with Octavia nor any merc even with suckier AC.

If that's true, I'm curious how would the same enemies behave with an full custom party.

 

[ga♥]

Spoiler

How it works:

1. Get Elemental weapon proc x2 on your weapon
2. Get Bane, Holy & Axiomatic on your weapon
3. Cast Geniekind x4
4. Hit things
5. Get Elemental Barrage proc x3 equal to mythic rank X 1d6
6. Get Geniekind x4 procs
7. All these procs incur Bane, Holy & Axiomatic damage
8. When you crit, EB & GK procs deal double damage

The picture shows damage from Mythic rank 3 because I'm legend, also I didn't have Axiomatic on, so it can produce a lot higher damage than this

It's old stuff, like everyone and their dogs getting a dip of scaled fist+oracle+archmage armor to get ridicolous AC.

 

[Daidre]

It's old stuff, like everyone and their dogs getting a dip of scaled fist+oracle+archmage armor to get ridicolous AC.

...Or sorc for Archmage Armor and complete immunity to sneaks and crits from Elemental Bloodline Ascendance.