If you've got one. I'm rolling with Val, Amiri, Jubilost, Linzi and Tristian this game, so haven't put anything into summoning spells either, since I'm a sorcerer and me and Linzi can't waste spell slots on spells that'll go obsolete. Tristian could memorize some, but I need the other level 3 and 4 spells for other necessary stuff ATM. I'm also just not a big fan of playing druids, either.
Here's a great example of how big a difference
bumping up to challenging makes. It took me 3 tries to kill that
greater cyclops in the Narl Marches. First 2 times he immediately got a
crit while cleaving and dropped Val with 111 damage the first time and
108 the second time. He even did like 55 damage to Amiri both times.
This is while fighting defensively and with defensive stance up.
That's my point, though: certain features are just that powerful and make the game noticeably easier. A buffed animal companion has both the ac and hit points to tank these 100+ hits. And it costs nothing to bring them back, since they respawn on resting.
I don't dispute that party affects difficulty, the point I'm making is challenging is a noticeable difference in difficulty from normal. The party was level 7-8, so it's tough to see a pet surviving 100+ damage hits at that level. Val and Amiri were fully buffed with divine shield, bark skin and shield on Amiri with good hope and haste on the whole party, and both in magical full plate. I never had any trouble with that fight on normal, because those epic crits from that cyclops are less likely to trigger. With the crit frequency increased, your pet can get dropped easier and there's a higher chance of a crit that'll kill your party members. On challenging, your party can also get chunked, and it makes Res impossible, so there's another added level of challenge. Even with the best wall of tanks, sometimes things slip through to the back row, especially with those dweomer cats. It just takes one good crit on some of the lower health characters to end them.
Haven't tried the normal difficulty, but I've finished the game on challenging and that was not my experience. Tbh, I don't even remember the cyclops, because all the difficult fights were either early game (low level, limited resources) or endgame (gaze spamming mobs).
The difficulty difference was probably just a lot more apparent for that fight since I was clearly way under leveled to do it. I think it's more for a level 10-11 party, so managing it on my third try at levels 7-8 was fun. On normal I was able to get away with that fight being pretty underleveled and it never gave me any trouble. With that same party at level 8, we took the Crag Linhorn at the bridge without any trouble, so the group works pretty well together. No pets for me this game, either, unless you count my viper familiar. Ekun left me because I let the kobolds settle in my kingdom.
I've had both kobold vassals and Ekun on board, so they don't seem to be exclusive, unless a hotfix changed things again.
Did you have him in the party when you did the troll fort? That might be a point where you can convince him to stay. I didn't have him in the party and when I got back to the capital as soon as I entered the main square he just left, along with any gear I had put on him, which fortunately wasn't too valuable. It's a little annoying, since I'll miss the xp from his quests. I also missed a couple other quests. I forgot to check up on Bart at the lone house before doing the troll fort and apparently if you turn in the herbs to the swamp witch before getting the mud bowl quest, she won't give you the mud bowl quest.
Apparently during the season of the bloom it's also possible to save both
[spoiler]
Kesten and Jhod without being lawful. If you go to the womb and save Kesten from the owl bear, but immediately turn back and go to your capital you can save Jhod, then head back and clear the womb. I haven't cleared the womb, yet, but they're both alive so far. This is the first game where I wanted them both and wasn't lawful, since I don't have Ekun.
[/spoiler]
Man, I wish they gave you another minister. WIth Ekun gone, I'm forced to keep Jaethal and play nice with her.
I've had both kobold vassals and Ekun on board, so they don't seem to be exclusive, unless a hotfix changed things again.
Did you have him in the party when you did the troll fort? That might be a point where you can convince him to stay.
Yes, he was in my party. He's hunting a troll that's at the fortress, so I don't think you can finish his starting quest without taking him there. Afaik Ekun won't agree to troll vassals, but he had no issue with kobolds.
I've had Ekun outside of the party when doing the troll fort and you can turn in the quest to kill the troll that killed his family at the capital afterwards. The rest of his quest can progress fine even if he wasn't with you at the fort. I've never let Tartuk stay before, so I guess it's Ekun not being in the party when you do the fort and letting the kobolds stay that triggers him leaving.
[spoiler]
You can even complete all of Ekun's quests and keep alive at the house at the edge of time without having him in the party at the troll fort.
Oh man, I hit a game breaking bug. It turns out you can kill the everblooming flower with a cloudkill spell. If you do that you can't interact with it and progress. Luckily I had a save from before I entered the area and was able to go back and confirm it.
*Edit* Just decided I'd play around with cloud kill some more and found out you can murder some of your advisors with it. It insta-killed Kassil and Kesten, but Jhod was unaffected by it.
The Cloudkill thing is a known issue. I wonder if it will also happen with Polar Midnight?
Not sure, does polar midnight have an insta-kill effect for low hit dice creatures? I'm pretty sure that's what does it, since there's no floaters for ability damage above them, no save or mention of ability damage in the log, just "everblooming flower dies" or "Kesten dies" when I was playing around with it. Interestingly enough Jhod didn't take ability damage even though party members in my throne room were taking it and Kesten and Kassil outright died from it.
Almost finished with my halfling sorcerer. When I got to Pitax, I got nearly a million xp in the tavern, just from the speech checks. That took my main from level 16 to 18, and then finishing Pitax took me to 19. I hit level 20 right when I entered the house at the edge of time. Even on challenging it is a lot easier with a 20th level sorcerer tossing around heightened and empowered spells. Most of my group is almost to level 17, except Octavia, who only got to 15, since I had only leveled her up with the projects.
Almost finished with my halfling sorcerer. When I got to Pitax, I got nearly a million xp in the tavern, just from the speech checks. That took my main from level 16 to 18, and then finishing Pitax took me to 19. I hit level 20 right when I entered the house at the edge of time. Even on challenging it is a lot easier with a 20th level sorcerer tossing around heightened and empowered spells. Most of my group is almost to level 17, except Octavia, who only got to 15, since I had only leveled her up with the projects.
I’ve been experimenting with it a little more and it looks like getting charname up to lvl20 ASAP through hoarding skill check XP and then sharing for the remainder of the game works out pretty well. You wind up with a lvl20 charname and the rest of the 6-member party is lvl17-18. This is without sharing with inactive party members, of course.
Almost finished with my halfling sorcerer. When I got to Pitax, I got nearly a million xp in the tavern, just from the speech checks. That took my main from level 16 to 18, and then finishing Pitax took me to 19. I hit level 20 right when I entered the house at the edge of time. Even on challenging it is a lot easier with a 20th level sorcerer tossing around heightened and empowered spells. Most of my group is almost to level 17, except Octavia, who only got to 15, since I had only leveled her up with the projects.
I’ve been experimenting with it a little more and it looks like getting charname up to lvl20 ASAP through hoarding skill check XP and then sharing for the remainder of the game works out pretty well. You wind up with a lvl20 charname and the rest of the 6-member party is lvl17-18. This is without sharing with inactive party members, of course.
Asides from Octavia, that's about where everyone in my party is at without turning it back on. Jubilost just hit level 18. Linzi probably would have been level 19 by now, but, well you know about her...
I wonder what level you'd get to if you left xp sharing for non party members and skill checks, but turned it off for just the tavern in Pitax. That was almost a million XP from 3 skill checks! At a guess I'd think you could hit level 19 that way by the end of the game with xp sharing on except for that one part.
I’ll give it a shot next run through. I’m having a hard time deciding if I ever want to share with non party members. I usually settle into a party pretty early and just swap members for their specific quests. Reg and Octavia are a little rough because that’s potentially two under-leveled members stinking up the ranks if I haven’t been using them. A single below average member is no sweat but two can be a stretch. For me anyway.
I’ll give it a shot next run through. I’m having a hard time deciding if I ever want to share with non party members. I usually settle into a party pretty early and just swap members for their specific quests. Reg and Octavia are a little rough because that’s potentially two under-leveled members stinking up the ranks if I haven’t been using them. A single below average member is no sweat but two can be a stretch. For me anyway.
At least their quest isn't particularly hard.
So this game I did the hidden romance, which provided some really neat twists at the end. I haven't quite had time to finish this run through, but am really close and past the house at the edge of time. Man that Forefather from the Tiefling twins battle at the end was a pain. I didn't have any weapons that could stop his regeneration. In the end I got him with a banishment spell, but it must've taken almost a dozen tries with it to get past his spell resistance and for him to fail his save.
Man, that fight with the lantern king was a pain. I haven't gotten that far since they nerfed Greater Shout and couldn't abuse it anymore. No matter, in the end I just abused heightened empowered sirrocos.
Now I can fire up Civilization: The Gathering Storm.
I've also noticed Inquisitors get an ability which according to the description is supposed to suppress regeneration on a critical hit. I haven't noticed if it works or not, but I'm planning on building the Deado the elf for criticals next playthrough.
I'll keep disentegrate in mind, next time. What annoyed me was I was prepared for all the other types of regeneration vulnerabilities, except the forefather required a good aligned weapon, which apparently holy weapons and damage don't count as. In the end I'm kind of surprised I could banish him, but it worked. This part also only turns up if you do the optional last chapter.
In between games of civ, I'm thinking of doing a Cornugon smash type character. I can't decide between a Paladin or Inquisitor of Shelyn. I also kind of want to do a run as a vivisectionist, too.
The description of the holy property for weapons in Pathfinder states thus
"A holy weapon is imbued with holy power. This power makes the weapon good-aligned and thus bypasses the corresponding damage reduction. It deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against all creatures of evil alignment. It bestows one permanent negative level on any evil creature attempting to wield it. The negative level remains as long as the weapon is in hand and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded. This negative level cannot be overcome in any way (including by restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded."
Just started into Varnhold's Lot. Here is some info to get you started.
1) You start the mission from the main menu. Eventually you can import into the main game.
2) You create a new character (although oddly from a story POV you can also import a character from a savegame). This character is Maegar Varn's "Right Hand". If female this character can romance Maegar. You are levelled to 5.
3) Your party consists of Varn (Rogue), Cephal Lorentus (Wizard), and three mercenaries. You can either make your own or take the three pre-gens - a freebooter, a scaled fist and a cleric.
Comments
It's worth noting that a high AC doesn't just make a hit less likely, it reduces the chance that a crit will be confirmed.
I’ve been experimenting with it a little more and it looks like getting charname up to lvl20 ASAP through hoarding skill check XP and then sharing for the remainder of the game works out pretty well. You wind up with a lvl20 charname and the rest of the 6-member party is lvl17-18. This is without sharing with inactive party members, of course.
Asides from Octavia, that's about where everyone in my party is at without turning it back on. Jubilost just hit level 18. Linzi probably would have been level 19 by now, but, well you know about her...
I wonder what level you'd get to if you left xp sharing for non party members and skill checks, but turned it off for just the tavern in Pitax. That was almost a million XP from 3 skill checks! At a guess I'd think you could hit level 19 that way by the end of the game with xp sharing on except for that one part.
At least their quest isn't particularly hard.
So this game I did the hidden romance, which provided some really neat twists at the end. I haven't quite had time to finish this run through, but am really close and past the house at the edge of time. Man that Forefather from the Tiefling twins battle at the end was a pain. I didn't have any weapons that could stop his regeneration. In the end I got him with a banishment spell, but it must've taken almost a dozen tries with it to get past his spell resistance and for him to fail his save.
I dig the awesome chest full of 100 stinky fish that is on that map.
Now I can fire up Civilization: The Gathering Storm.
In between games of civ, I'm thinking of doing a Cornugon smash type character. I can't decide between a Paladin or Inquisitor of Shelyn. I also kind of want to do a run as a vivisectionist, too.
"A holy weapon is imbued with holy power. This power makes the weapon good-aligned and thus bypasses the corresponding damage reduction. It deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against all creatures of evil alignment. It bestows one permanent negative level on any evil creature attempting to wield it. The negative level remains as long as the weapon is in hand and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded. This negative level cannot be overcome in any way (including by restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded."
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/pathfinder-10th-anniversary-books
https://owlcatgames.com/forums/showthread.php?6187-Varnhold-s-Lot-DLC-out-on-Feb-28!
I wonder if it will make me feel bad about
Oooh, when they said February, I never thought they meant this February!
1) You start the mission from the main menu. Eventually you can import into the main game.
2) You create a new character (although oddly from a story POV you can also import a character from a savegame). This character is Maegar Varn's "Right Hand". If female this character can romance Maegar. You are levelled to 5.
3) Your party consists of Varn (Rogue), Cephal Lorentus (Wizard), and three mercenaries. You can either make your own or take the three pre-gens - a freebooter, a scaled fist and a cleric.