Hah, I got stuck there my first time and had to reload from before I entered. Candlemere is one of the better designed areas for exploration, since it's got one wisp near where you enter. I wandered in there my first time and barely survived that first wisp and knew it was time to go somewhere else.
Candlemere Tower was... a disappointment for me. It got great environmental storytelling and helluva interesting cosmic horror writings on the tower walls. Not to mentioning those tasty diary entries of the dead adventurer group. But every single encounter there is either will-o-wisps or war-o-wisps... creatures which can be easily dealt with Protection from Elements/ Resistances to Electricity.
The fact that not a single abominable entity from the Dark Tapestry can be located inside the map was probably my greatest disappointed of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. *sigh*
I'm not as up on the lore, but I enjoyed the area. My point was that it's more well designed gating of the area. One tough wisp at the entrance to make people think twice if they want to keep going or turn back.
They could launch as a DLC. A lot of people will pay $5 for it. If i remember correctly sorcerer din't reached on solasta kickstarter and will come as a DLC
Mod Call of the Wild adds a Witch class. Yes I know a mod is not equal to an official DLC, but when it comes to this game the classes and archetypes added in the most popular mods are very, very well made and true to PnP (according to what I've read).
I have never tried it. I think the witch use a lot of hexes or something.
They could launch as a DLC. A lot of people will pay $5 for it. If i remember correctly sorcerer din't reached on solasta kickstarter and will come as a DLC
Mod Call of the Wild adds a Witch class. Yes I know a mod is not equal to an official DLC, but when it comes to this game the classes and archetypes added in the most popular mods are very, very well made and true to PnP (according to what I've read).
I have never tried it. I think the witch use a lot of hexes or something.
But the mod doesn't have most hexes, most unique stuff like familiar mechanics and i could't install...
Witches are present on the story from the second to the last chapter BUT you can't play as one. Imagine how cool to be Winter Witch with all cool hexes and in depth familiar mechanics... I
A witch DLC would be welcomed because we don't have a pure arcane companion. And Witches in pathfinder are far cooler than 5e warlocks. In some interpretations, they are just clerics of non deities and in other interpretations, they are outsiderish apprentices, but witches are a contuit to "forces" and their patrons can be anything, moon, sun, winter, etc; the familiars being the spell book who teaches and allow witches attune all spells who aren't hexes also improves a lot the dinamic between a caster and his/her familiar.
And since the "patron" is a non entity but a force or a concept, it blurs the line between arcane and divine casters. Allowing a little less destructive power than arcane powers and a little less healing power than a divine caster.
This is much better than the "cof cof" slayer class...
Nearly everything you come up with is either plain wrong or a complaint about realism.
That is my opinion on how I feel about the ingame events and mechanics. I get you like the game a lot and it's your favorite title for the last year+. Sorry if negative feedback about the game you adore makes you frustrated.
There is also some encounters and some zones where the enemies are simply much more high level than you, or your party just do not have the tools or spells needed until later. Thing is, it´s a crpg, they do not warn you that you are in a zone not intended to your level even if you have access to it. Several examples of that are with the encounter with the owlbears in the hidden clearing or maybe candlemere lake, the roc in the peak and the witch hut at the start of the chapter.
You do not really have to fight and win every enemy you met at your level with every party setup possible and without prior preparation. If you can do it that way, that would be a bad design of a game, IMHO.
This. Just because you can get to somewhere doesn't mean you should be there at your level. Exploration means you can wander into somewhere you'll get your ass handed to you.
This was the linnorm in the cave in that bridge area for me. The worst part was that even though underleveled, after a long and bloody struggle, I actually managed to get it to drop only then to discover I needed cold iron to kill it and did not have any such weapons with me.
There is also some encounters and some zones where the enemies are simply much more high level than you, or your party just do not have the tools or spells needed until later. Thing is, it´s a crpg, they do not warn you that you are in a zone not intended to your level even if you have access to it. Several examples of that are with the encounter with the owlbears in the hidden clearing or maybe candlemere lake, the roc in the peak and the witch hut at the start of the chapter.
You do not really have to fight and win every enemy you met at your level with every party setup possible and without prior preparation. If you can do it that way, that would be a bad design of a game, IMHO.
This. Just because you can get to somewhere doesn't mean you should be there at your level. Exploration means you can wander into somewhere you'll get your ass handed to you.
This was the linnorm in the cave in that bridge area for me. The worst part was that even though underleveled, after a long and bloody struggle, I actually managed to get it to drop only then to discover I needed cold iron to kill it and did not have any such weapons with me.
Ohhh man. That happened to me too.
5 reloads, and me be CONVINCED there was a bug. I dont think it was technically in the cave though - but a random spawn in Tenebreous Depths. That said, that might be worse for you, since I was probably higher leveled and still failed utterly.
There is also some encounters and some zones where the enemies are simply much more high level than you, or your party just do not have the tools or spells needed until later. Thing is, it´s a crpg, they do not warn you that you are in a zone not intended to your level even if you have access to it. Several examples of that are with the encounter with the owlbears in the hidden clearing or maybe candlemere lake, the roc in the peak and the witch hut at the start of the chapter.
You do not really have to fight and win every enemy you met at your level with every party setup possible and without prior preparation. If you can do it that way, that would be a bad design of a game, IMHO.
There are some interesting designs that go along with this, although I dont completely love or agree with them. For example - I was in the lonely mound last night. Bandits, Skeleton Champions etc - all pretty easy to deal with for my level 5 party.
The last room has the "Lonely Wander", which is a level 13 Barbarian / 2 Undead enemy. His AC is like 27, his saves are insane and he hits on every attack.
Now, I totally dont mind the idea of being able to stumble onto an area with fights that are too challenging for me right now. I dont mind when there are "hidden" encounters like the owlbears, that you're supposed to come back to later.
I dont love the design for the lonely mound, where it's 1 dungeon, and the final room has an enemy that isnt in step with the rest of the enemies. I think a more cohesive dungeon would have been one where every fight was clearly meant to be done by a higher level party, or where that final enemy isnt just 8 levels above the average enemy in the dungeon.
Hah, I got stuck there my first time and had to reload from before I entered. Candlemere is one of the better designed areas for exploration, since it's got one wisp near where you enter. I wandered in there my first time and barely survived that first wisp and knew it was time to go somewhere else.
Wisps are insane. I honestly think the first real "wake up call" I had from the game was the optional wisp encounter you can have outside the old sycamore tree. You're given context clues about a hard enemy, and that fight is WILDLY out of scope for your first visit to the tree in all likelihood. That said, it's totally optional, and so I think it's a wonderful piece of design.
Wisps are even worse in PNP. In fact in the (crazy) random encounter chart of the PNP campaign, you can find them as early as act 1 if you are unlucky enough. They also have:
Feed on Fear (Su) Any time a will-o’-wisp is within 15 feet of a dying creature or creature subject to a fear effect, it gains fast healing 5.
PD: They can turn themselves invisible so they just regain full health in a few rounds if someone´s dying or frightened, which is easy against an enemy with touch attacks, and your DM is wicked enough. Usually, you can counter that with protection from energy and some way of dispelling invisibility, but you do not usually have that prepared when travelling so random encounters with wisps are lethal for most parties.
There is also some encounters and some zones where the enemies are simply much more high level than you, or your party just do not have the tools or spells needed until later. Thing is, it´s a crpg, they do not warn you that you are in a zone not intended to your level even if you have access to it. Several examples of that are with the encounter with the owlbears in the hidden clearing or maybe candlemere lake, the roc in the peak and the witch hut at the start of the chapter.
You do not really have to fight and win every enemy you met at your level with every party setup possible and without prior preparation. If you can do it that way, that would be a bad design of a game, IMHO.
This. Just because you can get to somewhere doesn't mean you should be there at your level. Exploration means you can wander into somewhere you'll get your ass handed to you.
This was the linnorm in the cave in that bridge area for me. The worst part was that even though underleveled, after a long and bloody struggle, I actually managed to get it to drop only then to discover I needed cold iron to kill it and did not have any such weapons with me.
ah, that makes sense, i was wondering why i wasn't able to defeat that creature, i thought my game was bugging out to, but luckily coup de grace works and finished it off with that
in fact any creature that needs a certain something to finish off you can just coup de grace instead and as long as they fail they will become bacon bits ( although i haven't tried it on trolls ) but i found other enemies who were the same and i had to coup de grace them to finish them off
There is also some encounters and some zones where the enemies are simply much more high level than you, or your party just do not have the tools or spells needed until later. Thing is, it´s a crpg, they do not warn you that you are in a zone not intended to your level even if you have access to it. Several examples of that are with the encounter with the owlbears in the hidden clearing or maybe candlemere lake, the roc in the peak and the witch hut at the start of the chapter.
You do not really have to fight and win every enemy you met at your level with every party setup possible and without prior preparation. If you can do it that way, that would be a bad design of a game, IMHO.
This. Just because you can get to somewhere doesn't mean you should be there at your level. Exploration means you can wander into somewhere you'll get your ass handed to you.
This was the linnorm in the cave in that bridge area for me. The worst part was that even though underleveled, after a long and bloody struggle, I actually managed to get it to drop only then to discover I needed cold iron to kill it and did not have any such weapons with me.
ah, that makes sense, i was wondering why i wasn't able to defeat that creature, i thought my game was bugging out to, but luckily coup de grace works and finished it off with that
in fact any creature that needs a certain something to finish off you can just coup de grace instead and as long as they fail they will become bacon bits ( although i haven't tried it on trolls ) but i found other enemies who were the same and i had to coup de grace them to finish them off
Heh, it was during my first time playing, and I hadn't yet learned about coup de grace at that point.
yeah, i think its actually a relatively new thing ( last update perhaps? ) i remember defeating that guy for the first time a while ago and i must have lucked out in having the right weapon the finish the job thinking nothing of it
Nearly everything you come up with is either plain wrong or a complaint about realism.
That is my opinion on how I feel about the ingame events and mechanics. I get you like the game a lot and it's your favorite title for the last year+. Sorry if negative feedback about the game you adore makes you frustrated.
Yep. I understand why some people don't like pf:km; Anyway, since you are playing with a cleric, did you considered picking animate dead spells for the tough fights?
As a Cleric, you can get it as a tier 3 spell. Wizards can get as a Tier 4 and Sorcerers as as a 4th tier spell one level above wizard. Even gaining the spell very late on, he helped me a lot vs anything, including the "lich boss". A lot of people had problem with the fallen priestes (eg https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/0/1642042464742866334/ )
But animate dead can solve this problem easily. Since undeads has some nasty resistances/debuffs.
What I find surprising is if you google pathfinder kingmaker no reload, the thread @BelgarathMTH started and I picked up is the top result. I see tons of hits on those images on my server all the time.
I decided to restart my P:K playthrough. Installed a couple of mods to fix most glaring issues I have with this game, notably:
- Fatigue -> this is so annoying, having to rest every freaking 15-20 hours or so is almost made me rage quit once. Thank god there is a mod to remedy that. And please don't bring the "realism" aspect. I don't care about realism if it takes away my enjoyment from the game.
- Fast travel & movement speed -> Installed a mod that increase a movement on world map, because original movement speed slows down the game too much.
- Kingdom management -> tweaked a couple of aspects that are especially annoying (notably enabled possibility to enter kingdom from unclaimed territory and disabled failed end-month events)
- Class mods: Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic -> I ended up taking vanilla sage sorcerer in the end, but it's nice to have more options. Some mod added classes looks really fun on paper.
- Races unleashed -> for the drow, man, for the drow
- Quality of Life mods, like A Bag of Tricks, Autoheal, Respecialization -> for tweaking few things I don't particularly like or to ease up the game a bit. Respec is just a backup solution if I ever grow tired of this sorc sub class.
- Visual enhancements and portraits mods -> to make my drow look badass.
- Turn base mod -> and last but not the least, Turn base mod. I don't have particular preferences between RTwP and TB, but since this mod allows switching from one mod to another just by setting off/on one slider in Mod configuration menu (sic!) I figured why not! I'm wondering if this could make battles a bit easier for me and actually allows me to run this game on Normal.
I realized what is the main difference in my mindset playing RTwP and TB. Playing TB forces me to introduce a full character potential (spells, special attacks etc), because of the slower game pace. Since I need to micromanage a lot, I take my time to actually try out some new things, when the battle is especially hard. This makes my playing much more effective and could be that battles would be easier for me in this mode.
RTwP on the other hand is a much smoother experience in most cases (where I just hack through mobs without giving it much thought), but I don't use full potential of my party, because in most cases I rely on (ineffective) AI, hauling AoE spells from time to time, mostly at the beginning of the battle or when situation is more heated. So, having said all that I think I will use both mods, RTwP for most of the mob battles and TB for harder encounters. And I think this is a perfect solution, which Larian should really employed in BG3.
- Fatigue -> this is so annoying, having to rest every freaking 15-20 hours or so is almost made me rage quit once. Thank god there is a mod to remedy that. And please don't bring the "realism" aspect. I don't care about realism if it takes away my enjoyment from the game.
.
You don't need to rest. Is just -2 penalty. You can deal with the penalty and move on.
Exhausted is harder but you can only rest when reaching the objective.
- Fatigue -> this is so annoying, having to rest every freaking 15-20 hours or so is almost made me rage quit once. Thank god there is a mod to remedy that. And please don't bring the "realism" aspect. I don't care about realism if it takes away my enjoyment from the game.
.
You don't need to rest. Is just -2 penalty. You can deal with the penalty and move on.
Exhausted is harder but you can only rest when reaching the objective.
Yeah that's what I do. Even when exhausted, on the world map I just keep going and I do all the exploration I want to do to identify roads and nodes. Then, when I am ready to enter a location, that's when I rest.
- Fatigue -> this is so annoying, having to rest every freaking 15-20 hours or so is almost made me rage quit once. Thank god there is a mod to remedy that. And please don't bring the "realism" aspect. I don't care about realism if it takes away my enjoyment from the game.
.
You don't need to rest. Is just -2 penalty. You can deal with the penalty and move on.
Exhausted is harder but you can only rest when reaching the objective.
Yeah that's what I do. Even when exhausted, on the world map I just keep going and I do all the exploration I want to do to identify roads and nodes. Then, when I am ready to enter a location, that's when I rest.
Could be, but this seems like ignoring a mechanic that was put in game deliberately by developers. It does not change a fact that constant notification about the need to rest is super annoying. Glad I found a mod that eliminates this tiresome fatigue mechanics at all.
Back to TB for a moment. It seems it's like I suspectef, game is some what easier in TB and is actually managable for me on Normal. And fights are super fun now. I pay much more attention which spells am I using, actually use a charge ability and even throw alchemist fire or acid bombs once in a while. It didn't happen in RTWP where I just hacked through enemies, introducing more sophisticated tactics only from time to time.
I can see now the merits of having an option of TB mod in RTwP game, *when implemented right* (and this mod does it exceptionally well). Imagine it will be much more polished in P:WotR and I'm actually hyped. And for the record, I don't mean do discredit RTwP fans at all, just wanted to share my experience with this mod.
I finished Chapter 2 last night. It's incredible the difference some game metaknowledge and optimization of character builds makes.
Seriously. I probably died at the boss encounter in Chapter 2 20ish times on my last playthrough. This time? I did it in one go. Knowing what I'm walking into, and having all of the major damage dealers dip into rogue with accomplished sneak attacker made an absolute world of difference.
Started to plan my party in advance, which is something that I didn't do in a crpg since forever. This is a sign that I sunk up in the game for good. So, I need some advice how to build following NPC in the most efficient way based on my general pteferences described below. Please have in mind that I installed mod that allows to level up to 29th level (without possibility to advance above lvl 20 in single class) and Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic mods.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Started to plan my party in advance, which is something that I didn't do in a crpg since forever. This is a sign that I sunk up in the game for good. So, I need some advice how to build following NPC in the most efficient way based on my general pteferences described below. Please have in mind that I installed mod that allows to level up to 29th level (without possibility to advance above lvl 20 in single class) and Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic mods.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
My recommendations are far from well researched, but I can try to give some useful advice:
Valerie - Sounds good. The VB looked a little weaker than Tower Shield Defender + Stalwart, but it may have additional upside in damage output.
Amiri - I took a single level of vivisectionst. It adds 1d6 sneak attack and gives the strength Mutagen. If you increase her Int by 1 at level 4, she'll be able to cast a level 1 spell (I took shield, which gives a nice +4 to AC - but only for 1 minute). You can take the accomplished sneak attacker feat to make the sneak attack damage go up to 2d6.
Ekun - Added a single level of pure rogue. Added accomplished sneak attack to make it be 2d6. Since he'll get Manyshot and will be shooting often, it seems like it's really paying off
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
Tristian - I'm thinking it wouldnt be a good fit to combine Kineticist and Ecclesitheurge. Kineticists seem like they're mostly supposed to be played without dipping. On top of that, I think Tristian is probably the most OP character in the game, at least in terms of his general usefulness (If you keep him pure cleric). Decent damage dealing spells + the best possible healer in the game? Sign me up.
MC - Probably your best bet is to go all in on sorcerer. This isnt to say Sorcerers cannot MC, but I've found it's usually only a handful of levels to get a prestige class or the like (My first character was a Scaled Fist + Sorc + Dragon Disciple. Ended up pretty powerful).
Anyways. My suggestions arent terribly... adventurous, but they should be pretty useful if you want to make your party a little stronger and hit a little harder.
I installed the call of the wild and races unsleashed. An re playing as a male dhamphir winter witch and loving it. Wanna get Ice Tomb son as possible.
Some people here was saying that you can't retreat for battle and it is not true. Just use a spell like haste and run
Started to plan my party in advance, which is something that I didn't do in a crpg since forever. This is a sign that I sunk up in the game for good. So, I need some advice how to build following NPC in the most efficient way based on my general pteferences described below. Please have in mind that I installed mod that allows to level up to 29th level (without possibility to advance above lvl 20 in single class) and Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic mods.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
My recommendations are far from well researched, but I can try to give some useful advice:
Valerie - Sounds good. The VB looked a little weaker than Tower Shield Defender + Stalwart, but it may have additional upside in damage output.
Amiri - I took a single level of vivisectionst. It adds 1d6 sneak attack and gives the strength Mutagen. If you increase her Int by 1 at level 4, she'll be able to cast a level 1 spell (I took shield, which gives a nice +4 to AC - but only for 1 minute). You can take the accomplished sneak attacker feat to make the sneak attack damage go up to 2d6.
Ekun - Added a single level of pure rogue. Added accomplished sneak attack to make it be 2d6. Since he'll get Manyshot and will be shooting often, it seems like it's really paying off
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
Tristian - I'm thinking it wouldnt be a good fit to combine Kineticist and Ecclesitheurge. Kineticists seem like they're mostly supposed to be played without dipping. On top of that, I think Tristian is probably the most OP character in the game, at least in terms of his general usefulness (If you keep him pure cleric). Decent damage dealing spells + the best possible healer in the game? Sign me up.
MC - Probably your best bet is to go all in on sorcerer. This isnt to say Sorcerers cannot MC, but I've found it's usually only a handful of levels to get a prestige class or the like (My first character was a Scaled Fist + Sorc + Dragon Disciple. Ended up pretty powerful).
Anyways. My suggestions arent terribly... adventurous, but they should be pretty useful if you want to make your party a little stronger and hit a little harder.
Appreciate your suggestions, @BallpointMan! I would like to avoid adding 1 level of some class just to get some crazy ass builds, though. I'd like to develop my party with RP in mind, while not ended up to be underbalanced. So, no crazy 4/5-class builds. I remember I read an article back in the day describing the most powerful builds in NWN2. Oh man, that was insane and completely unimmersive.
I thought about adding some class to Tristan, because I generally consider cleric class to be dull, so the change would be mostly for RP reason. He doesn't need to be the most OP character. Good idea regarding Octavia, though. She seems as a natural fit for Arcane Trickster.
Started to plan my party in advance, which is something that I didn't do in a crpg since forever. This is a sign that I sunk up in the game for good. So, I need some advice how to build following NPC in the most efficient way based on my general pteferences described below. Please have in mind that I installed mod that allows to level up to 29th level (without possibility to advance above lvl 20 in single class) and Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic mods.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
My recommendations are far from well researched, but I can try to give some useful advice:
Valerie - Sounds good. The VB looked a little weaker than Tower Shield Defender + Stalwart, but it may have additional upside in damage output.
Amiri - I took a single level of vivisectionst. It adds 1d6 sneak attack and gives the strength Mutagen. If you increase her Int by 1 at level 4, she'll be able to cast a level 1 spell (I took shield, which gives a nice +4 to AC - but only for 1 minute). You can take the accomplished sneak attacker feat to make the sneak attack damage go up to 2d6.
Ekun - Added a single level of pure rogue. Added accomplished sneak attack to make it be 2d6. Since he'll get Manyshot and will be shooting often, it seems like it's really paying off
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
Tristian - I'm thinking it wouldnt be a good fit to combine Kineticist and Ecclesitheurge. Kineticists seem like they're mostly supposed to be played without dipping. On top of that, I think Tristian is probably the most OP character in the game, at least in terms of his general usefulness (If you keep him pure cleric). Decent damage dealing spells + the best possible healer in the game? Sign me up.
MC - Probably your best bet is to go all in on sorcerer. This isnt to say Sorcerers cannot MC, but I've found it's usually only a handful of levels to get a prestige class or the like (My first character was a Scaled Fist + Sorc + Dragon Disciple. Ended up pretty powerful).
Anyways. My suggestions arent terribly... adventurous, but they should be pretty useful if you want to make your party a little stronger and hit a little harder.
Appreciate your suggestions, @BallpointMan! I would like to avoid adding 1 level of some class just to get some crazy ass builds, though. I'd like to develop my party with RP in mind, while not ended up to be underbalanced. So, no crazy 4/5-class builds. I remember I read an article back in the day describing the most powerful builds in NWN2. Oh man, that was insane and completely unimmersive.
I thought about adding some class to Tristan, because I generally consider cleric class to be dull, so the change would be mostly for RP reason. He doesn't need to be the most OP character. Good idea regarding Octavia, though. She seems as a natural fit for Arcane Trickster.
I feel you. That's how I did my first playthrough - mostly kept characters in line on whatever class seemed to fit their archetype. On this playthrough, I'm trying to vary things a little bit just because I didnt want everyone to be exactly the same, but I agree that it totally breaks immersion when you give Amiri 1 level of vivisectionist.
Started to plan my party in advance, which is something that I didn't do in a crpg since forever. This is a sign that I sunk up in the game for good. So, I need some advice how to build following NPC in the most efficient way based on my general pteferences described below. Please have in mind that I installed mod that allows to level up to 29th level (without possibility to advance above lvl 20 in single class) and Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic mods.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
My recommendations are far from well researched, but I can try to give some useful advice:
Valerie - Sounds good. The VB looked a little weaker than Tower Shield Defender + Stalwart, but it may have additional upside in damage output.
Amiri - I took a single level of vivisectionst. It adds 1d6 sneak attack and gives the strength Mutagen. If you increase her Int by 1 at level 4, she'll be able to cast a level 1 spell (I took shield, which gives a nice +4 to AC - but only for 1 minute). You can take the accomplished sneak attacker feat to make the sneak attack damage go up to 2d6.
Ekun - Added a single level of pure rogue. Added accomplished sneak attack to make it be 2d6. Since he'll get Manyshot and will be shooting often, it seems like it's really paying off
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
Tristian - I'm thinking it wouldnt be a good fit to combine Kineticist and Ecclesitheurge. Kineticists seem like they're mostly supposed to be played without dipping. On top of that, I think Tristian is probably the most OP character in the game, at least in terms of his general usefulness (If you keep him pure cleric). Decent damage dealing spells + the best possible healer in the game? Sign me up.
MC - Probably your best bet is to go all in on sorcerer. This isnt to say Sorcerers cannot MC, but I've found it's usually only a handful of levels to get a prestige class or the like (My first character was a Scaled Fist + Sorc + Dragon Disciple. Ended up pretty powerful).
Anyways. My suggestions arent terribly... adventurous, but they should be pretty useful if you want to make your party a little stronger and hit a little harder.
Appreciate your suggestions, @BallpointMan! I would like to avoid adding 1 level of some class just to get some crazy ass builds, though. I'd like to develop my party with RP in mind, while not ended up to be underbalanced. So, no crazy 4/5-class builds. I remember I read an article back in the day describing the most powerful builds in NWN2. Oh man, that was insane and completely unimmersive.
I thought about adding some class to Tristan, because I generally consider cleric class to be dull, so the change would be mostly for RP reason. He doesn't need to be the most OP character. Good idea regarding Octavia, though. She seems as a natural fit for Arcane Trickster.
I feel you. That's how I did my first playthrough - mostly kept characters in line on whatever class seemed to fit their archetype. On this playthrough, I'm trying to vary things a little bit just because I didnt want everyone to be exactly the same on this play through, but I agree that it totally breaks immersion when you give Amiri 1 level of vivisectionist.
Initially I planned to gather an evil party, but surprisingly enough, I realized that good-aligned characters are more interesting for me in this game. And with all those quality of life mods installed I can finally enjoy the story and characters, without cursing on fatigue, encumbrance, movement speed and kingdom management. Adding up the fact, that I finally know what I'm doing during TB battles makes me actually like this game a lot! I really hope Owlcat will flesh out those features in their next game, because otherwise it really looks promising.
Other interesting class combinations could be Oracle for Tristian, Slayer for Nok-Nok, Bloodrager for Amiri, Vindictive Bastard for Valerie, Hunter for Ekun and Urban Skald for Linzi. Shuffling things up a bit via Respecialization and Call of the Wild is nice once in a while.
In other news, NPC HQ Textures is a fancy new mod for Kingmaker. 1GB of high-res textures for all equipment, race models, heads and hair styles. Also includes 1024px textures of zombies, skeletons, goblins and fey. Courtesy of Owlcat's community manager. Clearly the mod of the month in my book!
Other interesting class combinations could be Oracle for Tristian, Slayer for Nok-Nok, Bloodrager for Amiri, Vindictive Bastard for Valerie, Hunter for Ekun and Urban Skald for Linzi. Shuffling things up a bit via Respecialization and Call of the Wild is nice once in a while.
In other news, NPC HQ Textures is a fancy new mod for Kingmaker. 1GB of high-res textures for all equipment, race models, heads and hair styles. Also includes 1024px textures of zombies, skeletons, goblins and fey. Courtesy of Owlcat's community manager. Clearly the mod of the month in my book!
Some really interesting advice, thanks! Bloodrager for Amiri and Hunter for Ekun looks especially cool.
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
You only need the one level of rogue for Octavia, just grab Accomplished Sneak Attacker at level 3 and you can meet the requirements with 3 wizard levels and one rogue level, so it hurts her spell casting less. Just pay attention to what skills you buy so you can get your first arcane trickster level at level 5. That means she'll unlock the ability to sneak attack with any spell at level 15.
You might also consider a level dip into Vivisectionist for Ekun instead of Rogue. You get that sweet mutagen that lasts 10 minutes with even one level's worth. The downside being he can lose access to spells by dropping his wisdom when you take the dex mutagen.
I like to build Amiri with just a couple Barbarian levels and have her take at least 5 fighter levels. You could do either standard fighter and get weapon training (I recommend great axe for her) or do 2 handed fighter for over hand chop. At 7 plain fighter levels heavy armor won't slow her down, but 2 handed fighters don't get this. It's a good idea to get at least that on Val just so she can move faster in heavy armor.
Sorcerer is a great class, but since you're stuck with whatever spells you pick (you can't unlearn spells and swap them), it might be better if you can finish the game at least once with another class, so you know what spells scale well and can carry you through the whole game, kind of like with the Baldur's Gate games.
Comments
I'm not as up on the lore, but I enjoyed the area. My point was that it's more well designed gating of the area. One tough wisp at the entrance to make people think twice if they want to keep going or turn back.
Mod Call of the Wild adds a Witch class. Yes I know a mod is not equal to an official DLC, but when it comes to this game the classes and archetypes added in the most popular mods are very, very well made and true to PnP (according to what I've read).
I have never tried it. I think the witch use a lot of hexes or something.
But the mod doesn't have most hexes, most unique stuff like familiar mechanics and i could't install...
Witches are present on the story from the second to the last chapter BUT you can't play as one. Imagine how cool to be Winter Witch with all cool hexes and in depth familiar mechanics... I
A witch DLC would be welcomed because we don't have a pure arcane companion. And Witches in pathfinder are far cooler than 5e warlocks. In some interpretations, they are just clerics of non deities and in other interpretations, they are outsiderish apprentices, but witches are a contuit to "forces" and their patrons can be anything, moon, sun, winter, etc; the familiars being the spell book who teaches and allow witches attune all spells who aren't hexes also improves a lot the dinamic between a caster and his/her familiar.
And since the "patron" is a non entity but a force or a concept, it blurs the line between arcane and divine casters. Allowing a little less destructive power than arcane powers and a little less healing power than a divine caster.
This is much better than the "cof cof" slayer class...
That is my opinion on how I feel about the ingame events and mechanics. I get you like the game a lot and it's your favorite title for the last year+. Sorry if negative feedback about the game you adore makes you frustrated.
Ohhh man. That happened to me too.
5 reloads, and me be CONVINCED there was a bug. I dont think it was technically in the cave though - but a random spawn in Tenebreous Depths. That said, that might be worse for you, since I was probably higher leveled and still failed utterly.
Wisps are even worse in PNP. In fact in the (crazy) random encounter chart of the PNP campaign, you can find them as early as act 1 if you are unlucky enough. They also have:
Feed on Fear (Su) Any time a will-o’-wisp is within 15 feet of a dying creature or creature subject to a fear effect, it gains fast healing 5.
PD: They can turn themselves invisible so they just regain full health in a few rounds if someone´s dying or frightened, which is easy against an enemy with touch attacks, and your DM is wicked enough. Usually, you can counter that with protection from energy and some way of dispelling invisibility, but you do not usually have that prepared when travelling so random encounters with wisps are lethal for most parties.
ah, that makes sense, i was wondering why i wasn't able to defeat that creature, i thought my game was bugging out to, but luckily coup de grace works and finished it off with that
in fact any creature that needs a certain something to finish off you can just coup de grace instead and as long as they fail they will become bacon bits ( although i haven't tried it on trolls ) but i found other enemies who were the same and i had to coup de grace them to finish them off
Heh, it was during my first time playing, and I hadn't yet learned about coup de grace at that point.
Yep. I understand why some people don't like pf:km; Anyway, since you are playing with a cleric, did you considered picking animate dead spells for the tough fights?
As a Cleric, you can get it as a tier 3 spell. Wizards can get as a Tier 4 and Sorcerers as as a 4th tier spell one level above wizard. Even gaining the spell very late on, he helped me a lot vs anything, including the "lich boss". A lot of people had problem with the fallen priestes (eg https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/0/1642042464742866334/ )
But animate dead can solve this problem easily. Since undeads has some nasty resistances/debuffs.
EDIT : other hint. Hire a druid mercenary and a kineticist mercenary. It will help you a LOT and they are cheaper earlier on in the game
Yeah I discovered it only in my most recent playthrough and just assumed I hadn't known it before.
- Fatigue -> this is so annoying, having to rest every freaking 15-20 hours or so is almost made me rage quit once. Thank god there is a mod to remedy that. And please don't bring the "realism" aspect. I don't care about realism if it takes away my enjoyment from the game.
- Fast travel & movement speed -> Installed a mod that increase a movement on world map, because original movement speed slows down the game too much.
- Kingdom management -> tweaked a couple of aspects that are especially annoying (notably enabled possibility to enter kingdom from unclaimed territory and disabled failed end-month events)
- Class mods: Call of the Wild and A Touch of Magic -> I ended up taking vanilla sage sorcerer in the end, but it's nice to have more options. Some mod added classes looks really fun on paper.
- Races unleashed -> for the drow, man, for the drow
- Quality of Life mods, like A Bag of Tricks, Autoheal, Respecialization -> for tweaking few things I don't particularly like or to ease up the game a bit. Respec is just a backup solution if I ever grow tired of this sorc sub class.
- Visual enhancements and portraits mods -> to make my drow look badass.
- Turn base mod -> and last but not the least, Turn base mod. I don't have particular preferences between RTwP and TB, but since this mod allows switching from one mod to another just by setting off/on one slider in Mod configuration menu (sic!) I figured why not! I'm wondering if this could make battles a bit easier for me and actually allows me to run this game on Normal.
I realized what is the main difference in my mindset playing RTwP and TB. Playing TB forces me to introduce a full character potential (spells, special attacks etc), because of the slower game pace. Since I need to micromanage a lot, I take my time to actually try out some new things, when the battle is especially hard. This makes my playing much more effective and could be that battles would be easier for me in this mode.
RTwP on the other hand is a much smoother experience in most cases (where I just hack through mobs without giving it much thought), but I don't use full potential of my party, because in most cases I rely on (ineffective) AI, hauling AoE spells from time to time, mostly at the beginning of the battle or when situation is more heated. So, having said all that I think I will use both mods, RTwP for most of the mob battles and TB for harder encounters. And I think this is a perfect solution, which Larian should really employed in BG3.
i have that same mod and set it to max so now it takes 30 days become fatigued and i find the game to be way more bearable this way
You don't need to rest. Is just -2 penalty. You can deal with the penalty and move on.
Exhausted is harder but you can only rest when reaching the objective.
Could be, but this seems like ignoring a mechanic that was put in game deliberately by developers. It does not change a fact that constant notification about the need to rest is super annoying. Glad I found a mod that eliminates this tiresome fatigue mechanics at all.
Back to TB for a moment. It seems it's like I suspectef, game is some what easier in TB and is actually managable for me on Normal. And fights are super fun now. I pay much more attention which spells am I using, actually use a charge ability and even throw alchemist fire or acid bombs once in a while. It didn't happen in RTWP where I just hacked through enemies, introducing more sophisticated tactics only from time to time.
I can see now the merits of having an option of TB mod in RTwP game, *when implemented right* (and this mod does it exceptionally well). Imagine it will be much more polished in P:WotR and I'm actually hyped. And for the record, I don't mean do discredit RTwP fans at all, just wanted to share my experience with this mod.
Seriously. I probably died at the boss encounter in Chapter 2 20ish times on my last playthrough. This time? I did it in one go. Knowing what I'm walking into, and having all of the major damage dealers dip into rogue with accomplished sneak attacker made an absolute world of difference.
Valerie -> since I installed Call of the Wild mod, she is a Vindicative bastard. I would like her to be a heavy defensive fighter type, able to withstand massive damage.
Amiri - > Currently barbarian, but I would like to add another class to the mix, but with maintaining her barbaric character and massive melee damage capabilities. I want her to use two-handed heavy swords like she does from the beginning.
Ekundayo - > currently ranger, but I would like to improve his ranged attack skills and bonding with animal companions. He will be my main ranged attack party member.
Octavia - > I would like her to be mostly a wizard with limited rogue skills (since I don't plan to use Linzi, she will be my lockpicking girl). I'm open to suggestions, though, how to develop her to have a competent wizard in my party.
Tristan - > currently Ecclesitheurge (a cleric archetype), but I'm planning to mix hip up with psychokineticist (kineticist archetype) at some point. Is such build viable?
Main character - > currently Sage sorcerer. I want him to be my main magic damage dealer. Should I level up only in sorcerer class, or can I mix him up with another class to make him more even powerful? It's a shame that Dragon disciple prc is forbidden for this archetype, but maybe there is a way to make him more interesting?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
My recommendations are far from well researched, but I can try to give some useful advice:
Valerie - Sounds good. The VB looked a little weaker than Tower Shield Defender + Stalwart, but it may have additional upside in damage output.
Amiri - I took a single level of vivisectionst. It adds 1d6 sneak attack and gives the strength Mutagen. If you increase her Int by 1 at level 4, she'll be able to cast a level 1 spell (I took shield, which gives a nice +4 to AC - but only for 1 minute). You can take the accomplished sneak attacker feat to make the sneak attack damage go up to 2d6.
Ekun - Added a single level of pure rogue. Added accomplished sneak attack to make it be 2d6. Since he'll get Manyshot and will be shooting often, it seems like it's really paying off
Octavia - She's basically custom built to take 3 levels of rogue, 3 levels of wizard and go into Arcane Trickster (Which will advance her spell casting with each level, while continuing to improve her rogue skills as well). This approach is the standard, and was VERY viable. Her being a transmutation specialist will also help in the buffing department, since your main character is going to focus on nuking.
Tristian - I'm thinking it wouldnt be a good fit to combine Kineticist and Ecclesitheurge. Kineticists seem like they're mostly supposed to be played without dipping. On top of that, I think Tristian is probably the most OP character in the game, at least in terms of his general usefulness (If you keep him pure cleric). Decent damage dealing spells + the best possible healer in the game? Sign me up.
MC - Probably your best bet is to go all in on sorcerer. This isnt to say Sorcerers cannot MC, but I've found it's usually only a handful of levels to get a prestige class or the like (My first character was a Scaled Fist + Sorc + Dragon Disciple. Ended up pretty powerful).
Anyways. My suggestions arent terribly... adventurous, but they should be pretty useful if you want to make your party a little stronger and hit a little harder.
Some people here was saying that you can't retreat for battle and it is not true. Just use a spell like haste and run
And for call of the wild testers. Did you tested the arcanist? How the exploit mechanic is implemented?
Appreciate your suggestions, @BallpointMan! I would like to avoid adding 1 level of some class just to get some crazy ass builds, though. I'd like to develop my party with RP in mind, while not ended up to be underbalanced. So, no crazy 4/5-class builds. I remember I read an article back in the day describing the most powerful builds in NWN2. Oh man, that was insane and completely unimmersive.
I thought about adding some class to Tristan, because I generally consider cleric class to be dull, so the change would be mostly for RP reason. He doesn't need to be the most OP character. Good idea regarding Octavia, though. She seems as a natural fit for Arcane Trickster.
I feel you. That's how I did my first playthrough - mostly kept characters in line on whatever class seemed to fit their archetype. On this playthrough, I'm trying to vary things a little bit just because I didnt want everyone to be exactly the same, but I agree that it totally breaks immersion when you give Amiri 1 level of vivisectionist.
Initially I planned to gather an evil party, but surprisingly enough, I realized that good-aligned characters are more interesting for me in this game. And with all those quality of life mods installed I can finally enjoy the story and characters, without cursing on fatigue, encumbrance, movement speed and kingdom management. Adding up the fact, that I finally know what I'm doing during TB battles makes me actually like this game a lot! I really hope Owlcat will flesh out those features in their next game, because otherwise it really looks promising.
In other news, NPC HQ Textures is a fancy new mod for Kingmaker. 1GB of high-res textures for all equipment, race models, heads and hair styles. Also includes 1024px textures of zombies, skeletons, goblins and fey. Courtesy of Owlcat's community manager. Clearly the mod of the month in my book!
Some really interesting advice, thanks! Bloodrager for Amiri and Hunter for Ekun looks especially cool.
Can I safely install HD Textures mod mid-game?
You only need the one level of rogue for Octavia, just grab Accomplished Sneak Attacker at level 3 and you can meet the requirements with 3 wizard levels and one rogue level, so it hurts her spell casting less. Just pay attention to what skills you buy so you can get your first arcane trickster level at level 5. That means she'll unlock the ability to sneak attack with any spell at level 15.
You might also consider a level dip into Vivisectionist for Ekun instead of Rogue. You get that sweet mutagen that lasts 10 minutes with even one level's worth. The downside being he can lose access to spells by dropping his wisdom when you take the dex mutagen.
I like to build Amiri with just a couple Barbarian levels and have her take at least 5 fighter levels. You could do either standard fighter and get weapon training (I recommend great axe for her) or do 2 handed fighter for over hand chop. At 7 plain fighter levels heavy armor won't slow her down, but 2 handed fighters don't get this. It's a good idea to get at least that on Val just so she can move faster in heavy armor.
Sorcerer is a great class, but since you're stuck with whatever spells you pick (you can't unlearn spells and swap them), it might be better if you can finish the game at least once with another class, so you know what spells scale well and can carry you through the whole game, kind of like with the Baldur's Gate games.