Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Clumber wrote:

Curious if I am screwed or not. I spent a lot of time marching my army around the map wiping out every single demon army before I did most of the main story in Drezen. With nothing to do but sit on their thumbs, morale has absolutely cratered.

Spoiler:

I've since entered the demon city and been relieved of command, just not sure if the army morale is going to be an issue in the future, or I no longer will have to do any crusade related tasks/missions.

Spoiler:

being relieved of your command is completely unrelated to army moral, I has at 20 the whole time and still hit that story beat. i suspect it's a forgone conclusion unless you are an Angel (i am a lich, so everyone is understandably squinchy about me)

I haven't gotten that far, but my understanding in that crusade mechanics come back in after you get back from the abyss, but i also understand the queen runs in into the ground in your absence so you will have started on the back foot regardless

It seems like the morale of the story is everything would be much better if you have a benevolent lich king running things.

Dear lord this game is long though. I like long games but it feels like too much time is spend moving back and forth between places. Already true in the overworld map in act 3 but especially in the kinda annoying act 4 map layout.

There are definitely some cases like that one cave area before Drezen where it is cool that they run you down a spiral. Not so cool that you have to run back up the empty spiral to exit

The gray garrison the first time you run it can be annoyingly back and forth wondering where to go to progress too.

This is probably my fault for skipping through tutorial pop-ups, but I'm just starting Act 2 and I've got no idea what to do with these demon armies on the map ?

I've been appointed to head up this crusade, leave the camp and go on to the map with my party, and head along the road to the first marked point (a camp where I'm supposed to recover a ring).

So there's this demon army marker on the road. I move my party to it...and nothing happens, so I go to this camp to find the ring. (Blimey, sounds like LOTR in reverse..anyway). Don't get ring, move back to the road, and still nothing happens.

Do I have to click on the army and do something else ?

Apologies to those who have given themselves eyestrain by rolling them too much.

That is crusade stuff. Either turn on auto mode if you don't want to mess around with it.
There are quite a few tutorials on crusade mode on YT. I cannot vouch for them since I just totally noped out of crusade mode.

The companion attrition rate in this game is crazy.

Spoiler:

I killed Camellia and Wenduag myself when they were revealed to be a serial-killing maniac and turned on me, respectively, Woljif ran off and never came back, and Lann just sacrificed himself to free the mongrels. That last one STUNG. He was both a likeable character and an absolutely LETHAL archer.

Is that after you find Woljiff

Spoiler:

overseeing a sacrifice? Woljiff then wants you to help him kill the demon following him because of the moon amulet?

In non spoilery terms, have you completed the moon amulet questline? I've started it in Act 3 so I assume it concludes at that point. But in all fairness, this game is so huge, it could be part 2 of 5

edit: also sounds like you need to fork over some cash for some custom companions. I am a little bummed at how expensive they are right from the get-go. It seems at every level at least from level 3-10, the cost of just one will empty your bank.

Miraculously, I still have a pretty functional party.

Spoiler:

I'm currently running with Seelah, Sosiel, Ember, and Arushale as the remaining 4. Lann was the fifth before he died. Though if something happens to Arushale, I'm in trouble. Between Woljif, Camellia, Lann, and Wenduag, I've lost two archers, an athlete, and two lock pickers. Fortunately, Arushalae is all three at once and also one of the most genuinely likeable people in the whole game. Her redemption/romance arc was genuinely touching, too.

So now I'm pondering who to put in in Lann's place. I have Daeran, Regill, Nenio, Greybor, and Trever available. It'll probably be Regill, Trever, or Nenio. I don't much like Daeran, and Greybor's low will save just bites me constantly.

I find that I like Regill more than I am comfortable with, especially after the stunt he pulled with the rest of the Hell Knights where he sacrificed his own reputation and standing because he deemed me the best chance to close the worldwound. He's very well written and his voice actor does an excellent job. Really a good example of "evil, but honorable" and his interactions with other members of the team are sometimes interesting; certainly moreso than Camellia or Wenduag's casual cruelty. He's also just lethal. That adamantine full plate doesn't slow him down at all, and he just wrecks everything with that gnome hooked hammer.

I like the idea of having Trever and Sosiel in the same party together for story reasons (I'd give them the pair of pendants and the pair of rings that give bonuses when they're in the same party to represent them being tougher as a pair than individually), so that might be fun. Trever is also a complete beast on the front lines.

Nenio is probably the "optimal" choice in some ways because of the whole "wizard" thing, but as I've complained about before, she lacks access to the Abjuration school, which drives me nuts. I don't care nearly as much about the lack of necromancy, but I really wish she could cast protective spells.

In the end, it'll probably be either Regill or Trever. Even with every spell penetration ability I can slot in, I find that my casters still often fail to get through the spell resistance of the various demons we're fighting and so someone who can just beat them down with weapons is likely going to work out better.

Re: Woljif:

Spoiler:

A quest to get him back popped up and then failed a while later. I ran across an encounter that apparently triggers the quest, but never saw anything else that hooked into it ever again, so I don't know if I'm the victim of a bug or what, but when Woljif left, for me, it was permanent.

Camellia and Wenduag are the foundation of my group. Main tank and main dmg for for quite some time. Not very likeable, unlike Regill who has grown on me. Never knew I was a Hellknight sympathizer. Ember, being her usually awesome self, is starting to deal some serious dmg, while here CC/buffing is getting less and less useful.

Spoiler:

Camellias questline is getting silly though. If I was roleplaying, not even my evil Lich should keep her around anymore, as she is clearly a danger to my survival. Wenduag on the other hand is fine, and it even seems like it might have some redemption arc in there, if I wasn't cheerleading her cartoon villain behavior that is.

Had to replace my other main tank, due to, circumstances... Now I have an immensely powerful skeleton guy, who is apparently a good aligned undead. Ugh.
My group has somewhat been lacking a cleric/main healer, but the available options seemed horrible.

All you really need to have a decent amount of base healing is to have someone with the channel energy ability. Both Sosiel and Daeran (and Seelah) have it in their auto leveling.

I can make my way with just one energy channeler in the party without using Ember's of Camelia's cure spells. If I have two channelers, you are well covered and don't have to rest for a long time.

Seriously, once you start using channeling, you won't go back to traditional healing again.

edit: also, Camellia as a tank? Color me intrigued...

Shadout wrote:

Camellia and Wenduag are the foundation of my group. Main tank and main dmg for for quite some time. Not very likeable, unlike Regill who has grown on me. Never knew I was a Hellknight sympathizer. Ember, being her usually awesome self, is starting to deal some serious dmg, while here CC/buffing is getting less and less useful.

Interesting to see how the different choices play out. I'm down a whole different path, narratively, having started out Angel and switched to Legend during the late-game decision point.

Spoiler:

I gave Wenduag a chance to redeem herself, and she basically threw it in my face and tried to kill me besides. She's admittedly the "broken and traumatized" kind of evil, but it doesn't seem like there's a genuine chance at redemption there. She doesn't want one.

Regill is interesting because he's not evil in the standard fantasy sense. He's pursuing a goal (closing the worldwound) that will definitely benefit the world if achieved and that's why he's pursuing it, but he's utterly pragmatic and ruthless in the service of that goal. He's willing to sacrifice anything and anyone, even himself, in pursuit of that goal. He's not a kind or compassionate person, but he's not a sadist. Everything is a dispassionate calculation. He's also very principled, and though I can't get behind a lot of those principles, I certainly can't call him a hypocrite.

fangblackbone wrote:

All you really need to have a decent amount of base healing is to have someone with the channel energy ability. Both Sosiel and Daeran (and Seelah) have it in their auto leveling.

Yep, haven't had channel energy the entire game, except for the short unfortunate moments where the game required me to bring Sosiel along. Haven't lvled Daeran, and well, Seelah took a different path (tank and buffer).

fangblackbone wrote:

Seriously, once you start using channeling, you won't go back to traditional healing again.

Yeah, didn't go anywhere in Pathfinder Kingmaker without it. That is why it hurts to be missing it.

fangblackbone wrote:

edit: also, Camellia as a tank? Color me intrigued...

Takes some time, but she gets some decent survival buffs from Shaman line. Seelah was tanking for the first half of the game, with Camellia trying to offtank, but around act 4 she easily outshined Seelah.
For the most part, this is what I have been going for; https://www.neoseeker.com/pathfinder...

There is something immensely counterintuitive about having to wear your Phylactery, to be able to get its benefit...

Shadout wrote:

Camellia and Wenduag are the foundation of my group. Main tank and main dmg for for quite some time. Not very likeable, unlike Regill who has grown on me. Never knew I was a Hellknight sympathizer. Ember, being her usually awesome self, is starting to deal some serious dmg, while here CC/buffing is getting less and less useful.

Spoiler:

Camellias questline is getting silly though. If I was roleplaying, not even my evil Lich should keep her around anymore, as she is clearly a danger to my survival. Wenduag on the other hand is fine, and it even seems like it might have some redemption arc in there, if I wasn't cheerleading her cartoon villain behavior that is.

Had to replace my other main tank, due to, circumstances... Now I have an immensely powerful skeleton guy, who is apparently a good aligned undead. Ugh.
My group has somewhat been lacking a cleric/main healer, but the available options seemed horrible.

re: Camellia

Spoiler:

Yea it's really interesting how her voice lines hit a bit different after doing her quest bit in act 3. Her interactions with Aeruchelay (sp) are very sour-patch kids: Sweet, but also sour and horrifying.

She is is my primary buffer and secondary dps. My still-technically-neutral lich is keeping her around because of her utility but it's also beginning to feel... unwise to do so, i'm considering respecting staunton until a buff bot to replace her when it eventually goes pear shapped, but i'm also hoping to keep her around long enough to make use of her in what I suspect but don't know will be required for my transformation into a lich

Also: how long *is* this game? I'm well over 100 hours and still going with a bunch of side quests to tackle.

For the Last Azlanti competition which pits streamers against each other on normal difficulty with game over on death, Mortisimal finished in about 60 hours. He got fourth place so far because he didn't do as many quests as the others, but he beat the leaders on time by 20+ hours.

And I just had my fifth companion departure.

Spoiler:

Daeran. Like Camella and Wenduag, I took him down myself. Really wish he hadn't taken Liotr down before I got him, he seemed like one of the good ones.

Timespike wrote:

And I just had my fifth companion departure.

Spoiler:

Daeran. Like Camella and Wenduag, I took him down myself. Really wish he hadn't taken Liotr down before I got him, he seemed like one of the good ones.

What act are you in? i am savoring act 4 at the moment and havn't really had anyone split, even thoug i fully expected seelah to have had enough of my lich sh*t by now.

And I just had my fifth companion departure.

Keep it up and your only choice will be The Swarm that Walks. Or I guess you can make all of them undead as a Lich...

fangblackbone wrote:
And I just had my fifth companion departure.

Keep it up and your only choice will be The Swarm that Walks. Or I guess you can make all of them undead as a Lich...

Way, way too late for that at this point. It's also noteworthy

Spoiler:

that everyone good aligned is still very much alive. It's equally noteworthy that everyone who died basically chose it themselves. The wages of sin is death, indeed.

thrawn82 wrote:
Timespike wrote:

And I just had my fifth companion departure.

Spoiler:

Daeran. Like Camella and Wenduag, I took him down myself. Really wish he hadn't taken Liotr down before I got him, he seemed like one of the good ones.

What act are you in? i am savoring act 4 at the moment and havn't really had anyone split, even thoug i fully expected seelah to have had enough of my lich sh*t by now.

I am

Spoiler:

Back from the Abyss, I've been through the scene with Iomedae, and I'm building up my forces for an assault on Iz. I have lost track of what act that puts me in. 4? 5?

And...finished. I set the difficulty on the final fight to story mode. After a couple of attempts that barely got to phase II of the fight, I just didn't feel like struggling to end the game. Final cut scenes & character outcomes were a nice read. Would have liked to get Lann his happiest outcome, but missed a pre-requisite quest in Act 3 and had to settle for the "okay" ending.

I went with an archer heavy party, mc was a rowdy rogue hunter (with 20 slayer levels on top after going the mythic legend path), Roosh, and Lann added in additional arrow volleys. Seelah tanked, Arenio did the spell work, and Daeran the healing. Boundless healing + mass healing is something I didn't discover until threshold. Better late than never though, because I would have never made it through there without it. I didn't min/max much, just went single classed on everbody. Went good aligned the entire way except for the gameplay choice made to keep Daeran in the party.

Definitely had a fun time, hit a few frustrating places, I'm semi-curious about the big upcoming patch, but I am not ready for another play through just yet.

I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end of my current run. I am still anxious to start another one as an Aeon, an Azata, or take one of the other late-game options that I didn't take.

Just finished it myself, and yeah, I turned the difficulty all the way down at the end, too. I just wanted to see what happened.

Trying to decide whether I want to try Aeon or Azata next. I can use my existing character to check out Angel and Gold Dragon, so I may just go ahead and do that at some point. Legend was definitely interesting.

In particular, Aeon (and maybe Azata?) may wind up with a larger team of surviving companions. Especiaqlly because apparently the Aeon can

Spoiler:

redeem and recruit Staunton Vhane, which just has me intrigued.

Finished a few days ago. They did the same mistake as in the first game imo, dialing up the difficulty too much in the last areas.
Definitely want to play it again, but think I will let them throw a bunch of patches after it first.

Aeon can

Spoiler:

"Fix" the timeline. Seemingly any of the big story beats are alterable.

I decided to go with Azata for my second playthrough. It was a very close thing, but I looked up the "superpowers" that the Azata gets and I'm intrigued.

I did however, send a nice little gift to future me: I've got a couple of clearly-labeled save files marked up after various prologue events but before you really start making key decisions. When I'm ready to try something different, I can just load one of those, go talk to Hilor, and start from there rather than replaying the whole caves under Kenabres sequence.

Timespike wrote:

I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end of my current run. I am still anxious to start another one as an Aeon, an Azata, or take one of the other late-game options that I didn't take.

I really want to run an Aeon Inquisitor cant decide between Dog or monster summoner.

NathanialG wrote:
Timespike wrote:

I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end of my current run. I am still anxious to start another one as an Aeon, an Azata, or take one of the other late-game options that I didn't take.

I really want to run an Aeon Inquisitor cant decide between Dog or monster summoner.

I could definitely see that.

I was actually thinking Balance Priest might be a cool class for Aeon, since it has the whole "cosmic balance" thing baked into the flavor from the outset.