Also, unrelatedly, while I was re-speccing my party, I was a bit disappointed that a bug spoiled Camellia's alignment for me.
Like, in retrospect, especially looking at her battle cries, Chaotic Evil isn't that much of a surprise, and I was already pretty sure that they wouldn't be hiding it if she was just Neutral Good.
I was a bad boy, however, and glanced at her wiki page, so while I don't know everything about her and her story, I did see just enough to know that, no, she is definitely Chaotic Evil.
I do wish I hadn't seen it, because I think they've been doing a pretty good job of drip-feeding information to get you to understand that she's probably a lot worse than you might've even originally guessed.
I'm not sure that Camellia ever rang true for me -
I found it pretty obvious that something was up given the amulet that obscures her alignment, especially given that there's no reason for that unless you are doing something 'gamey'.
As for the eventual reveal it just felt like someone had been watching too many true crime serial killer documentaries on Netflix. Over all it was a bit flat.
I'm not sure that Camellia ever rang true for me -
Spoiler:I found it pretty obvious that something was up given the amulet that obscures her alignment, especially given that there's no reason for that unless you are doing something 'gamey'.
As for the eventual reveal it just felt like someone had been watching too many true crime serial killer documentaries on Netflix. Over all it was a bit flat.
For me it was the repeated occurrences of
Finding her next to a dead body she just happened to stumble upon with no apparent clue of what happened.
I think you are describing the rogue-like version of the dlc played separately. If you are doing the midnight isles as part of the main story it’s slightly different. Act 2 unlocks the first group of isles that have to be done in order, act 3 the next, and the last set unlock in act 4. Difficulty roughly corresponds to the midpoint of those acts.
Oh thank God, it stops, because this got tedious fast.
TRULY did not understand that this DLC is for people who really like the combat.
Like, I would've enjoyed this more if there was some story to hang my hat on, but there's not. It's just fight after fight after fight after fight, and I'm just trying to be done with it.
Then try the other DLC. It is more of a puzzle adventure.
Through the Ashes its called.
This is one of the few instances where the dlc is vastly inferior to the base game.
Come to think of it, I ran out of steam with both Pathfinder games around the time every little combat encounter was in the order of: mass haste, mass +5 stat spells, mass stoneskin, then the bajillion other class specific defensive and buff spells.
I mean, yeah it's cool when your min maxed hyper buffed party mince enemy encounters into chunks of pixels in but a few rounds of combat. But honestly I often had to scroll up after combat to read the log to figure out what actually happened. Then when I read it, the irony was regularly finding a particular mythic pet was responsible for landing the killer blow on tough monsters 
Drizzt would be proud!
What was uncool was if each enemy was rolling 4+ attacks per round and your positioning was off. Same thing but in reverse, suddenly half your party is downed before you could blink and work out what had happened. This was often the case if you didn't sit down to buff everyone to the nines d20s.
I've said it several times before, but everything you've described is my issue with the game. I don't mind doing some buff/debuff stuff, but on any appreciable difficulty level, you have to do the aforementioned min/maxing to oblivion.
And it's infurating because, like, I enjoy the game when it feels enjoyable! The entire fight through Kenabres felt like so much fun, and I was on such a high when I finished it! I quite want to get through the plot and I enjoy all the characters and choices I get to make.
And yes, I know I can knock it down to Story Mode, but the thing is, I noticed that the baddies barely use any of their abilities once you make them weaker, so it feels more like a fairly boring Diablo run. Fighting Dretches in Kenabres became far more interesting when they'd start using stinking cloud regularly. But like... that was it and I still could hit them without having to do the buff/debuff dance.
But honestly I often had to scroll up after combat to read the log to figure out what actually happened. Then when I read it, the irony was regularly finding a particular mythic pet was responsible for landing the killer blow on tough monsters Drizzt would be proud!
Yeah, that Outflank/Combat Reflexes/pet with Trip combo is hilariously OP.
I've got it to a pretty okay place atm, thanks to ToyBox. Basically, I've turned on Always Roll With Advantage and use the built-in Common Buffs. If I find an enemy annoying, I'll turn on "Always Crit," if they're really annoying, I'll turn on "All Attacks Hit" or "Always Roll 20," and if I'm just Done With This i'll just Kill All Enemies the second they aggro (anytime I see any swarms or am uninterested in figuring out why this enemy takes 0 damage from any of our weapons).
I'm gonna try and go back to playing at least closer to legit when I get out of the Midnight Isles, but it's just so infuriating because there are these moments, where I really, really, really like the game, even the combat (generally when fighting opponents with an AC <30). They've just been cut with all these other moments where I'm like "Christ, now I gotta fight this stupid trashmob who could literally kill us all if I don't do my buffs/debuffs."
I don’t mind having to do it, but I definitely look to build all buffing characters for 24hr buffs.
Yeah, crpgBro's guides are designed to give you that effect for a lot of em'.
Again, I gripe, but I really like the game! I just also find the combat tediously fiddly sometimes! It's weird! 
Yeah extending buffs via build is super cool. I mean not just from player convenience but also the way it makes certain builds viable due to how long a powerful buff can last. It means you can build very powerful clerics and hybrids. Classic example are divine buffs which are typically reserved to self buff only like you tend to find for the Clerics; they normally last a few rounds per character level but if you juice that up to 10 minutes/hour+ duration it's no longer that annoying to recast.
In some ways there's fun in that, like opening up the hood and tinkering to get that little bit of extra horsepower 1d6 or AC or attack bonus or higher crit range etc.
Some of the tedious bits can be addressed with the ability to town portal back to your stronghold to rest; I mean, there's the corruption mechanism that prevents the abuse of resting in the field. But yeah, it is annoying when you're fighting a mob of generic monsters and suddenly someone's downed because you underestimated their threat range.
I'm glad this game exists as a document of a relatively pure representation of Pathfinder 1E, and I even like the absurd fiddlyness of it all! But I really hope next Pathfinder game Owlcat switches to 2E. Also curious what Rogue Trader will end up looking like.
Gonna try and finish the Midnight Isles tonight, but guh.
I really rely on a sense of narrative momentum to help carry me through CRPGs, but the wholesale lack of a plot here and the combat (which, as noted, either you adore or you... well, don't) has made this... an experience.
Gonna try and finish the Midnight Isles tonight, but guh.
I really rely on a sense of narrative momentum to help carry me through CRPGs, but the wholesale lack of a plot here and the combat (which, as noted, either you adore or you... well, don't) has made this... an experience.
That's where I gave up on my playthrough.
I want to love all of this game and every time I come close it's like "Here's an enemy with an AC of 74 and eleventy-seven natural buffs/debuffs. Enjoy."
FINISHED.
Last four islands down.
(Did I just hit "Kill All Enemies" for 85% of the fights and run through it? Yes. And I regret nothing.)
EDIT: LOL NOW I GOTTA SELL ALL OF THIS SH*T
Well done!
Somehow, the final fight went... pretty smoothly?
EDIT: I FORGOT TO TURN OFF ALL HITS CRIT, THAT'S WHY LOL
Funny thing I noticed:
I was talking with a friend about the builds. As already noted, I'm basically following CRPGBro's builds to the letter, because I am not good at this game, and we both came to an agreement, at least in our opinions.
Many of the builds in the game, when properly utilized and min/maxxed, appear, to me, at least, to be broadly the same as if you were using ToyBox to cheat. You're just doing it within the rules.
Not that that's a slam or anything, but I watch CRPGBro's build videos, and they all open with a single character idly strolling around a room of insanely powerful demons and utterly laying them to waste without seeming to take one iota of damage.
Like, again, it's not a criticism, just an observation. The game is fundamentally built on a TTRPG numbers system, and if you know that system inside and out, you can exploit it in such a way that playing on the absolute hardest difficulty means the only challenge is the occasional horrific die roll and whether or not you can just remember which stuff to cast and when.
And I know this isn't new. I'm a big Paradox fan, and there are a skillion videos out there on YouTube of people who have mastered the underlying systems of those games and can achieve world domination with Brazil in Hearts of Iron IV. My best friend stopped playing Crusader Kings 3 because even on the hardest level, he knows how to utterly dominate the AI. The realization was just interesting, is all.
LOL, another evening spent not actually playing the game, just re-equipping and speccing out my party.
And yet, quite enjoyable!
EDIT: Did one small battle in the Worldwound, and killed it. Cannot wait until I get to a dungeon against some perma-buffed boss and all my goodwill goes away.
And yet! Can't wait to play again on Saturday.
It is a great game. What it does, it does so well. Its actually that type of game where the real game isn't completing quests. Its figuring out how to break the game and then break it better or break it more. And then change your playstyle and break it that way.
My thing with the build videos is that many require specific gear that I've never found. Or they have a character at level 20 that they retrain so there is no real experience actually trying to level with the build. And on builds that don't come into their own past level 18, it is easy to lose interest much earlier.
Me: Yeah, I think i've got everything working now! We're gonna kick ass!
Also Me: Gets caught in a random encounter while traveling, half my party is fatigued, gets absolutely washed by a bunch of Ash Giants.
Put Camellia down.
I'm genuinely kind of sad about it, which is weird, because she's been an asshole the whole time! But that's because every RPG up until now would've given me the chance to redeem her somehow. To make her "better."
So I do appreciate that the game makes clear, no, she's a stone-cold, remorseless psychopath. She kills purely for the pleasure of hurting others. There is no redemption, there is no path to her being an anti-hero. She's the worst kind of murderer, and either you keep her around, or you don't.
But yeah, genuinely kinda sad about it, but that's because literally every other CRPG up to this point would've made the character somehow redeemable. How many other RPGs have a companion who is an irredeemable, violent shithead? And not even in a Dexter way, in a "your party member is Ted Bundy" way.
Honestly, credit to Owlcat for making this choice, it goes against everything I expect in games.
Seelah marks an interesting female NPC in these games, in that I cannot romance her, and do not wish to.
But HOLY SH*T is she my bestest best buddy ever. Like, of all the characters in the game, she's the one I'd like to go drinking with the most. I would literally die for her, in a completely platonic way.
Seelah was, indeed, my favorite of all the Wrath companions. She's my bestie.
Huh.
So between the builds finally really coming into their own, and my team all being Level 13....
....I'm near the end of Act 3 and we are currently tearing the shit out of the Ivory Sanctum. Like, "trying out spells just for the f*ck of it" kind of stuff where you're basically doing the And 1 Mixtape/Jackass on trashmobs because they have no hope of doing any meaningful damage.
As I said, with good builds, the difference between outright cheating and good min-maxing in this game is minimal.
I HATE SWARMS IN THIS GAME SO GODDAMN MUCH
Yeah, I thought I hated swarms in Kingmaker, then Wrath said "LOL hold my ale"
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