Pathfinder: Kingmaker

[Sarafan]

"to" or "through"? That guy was death incarnate for me. I had to slowly... carefully... and with many re-loads... pick my away around the encampment and finish off everyone. Even then I had a pretty hard time. (It also gave me my first disappointment: I was really hoping I could keep that owlbear as some sort of pet.)

I used the same tactic. It's very hard to kill him with a different approach. A tough encounter in this phase of game.

 

[Sandwitch]

Nok Nok is one heck of a lock picker, too, which helps boost his level up. Ya gotta kinda spread that lock picking XP around some, IMHO.

"to" or "through"? That guy was death incarnate for me. I had to slowly... carefully... and with many re-loads... pick my away around the encampment and finish off everyone. Even then I had a pretty hard time. (It also gave me my first disappointment: I was really hoping I could keep that owlbear as some sort of pet.)

Can you only bring one AoE lightning protection?

Actually through! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going be - especially with Grease. Although what is really weird is that my fighters (Valeria, etc.) seem to be pretty much useless, they miss a LOT, so I had to really on the NPCs fighting each other, and then magic missile wands, among other magic spells, to kill off all the baddies.

Now I'm in chapter 2, and I feel a little like I'm aimlessly wandering, as I'm not sure what the main goals are (I have kingdom on auto, as I didn't want that on top of figuring out the combat. Perhaps a mistake, but it's set now.)

I still can't figure out why the melee fighters are just not the best - they just seem to miss a lot!

 

[Zloth]

Have you got any weapons that do elemental damage? I remember that helped a LOT in the early game. Basically double damage.

Weren't the trolls the second on the list? And finding a few more companions.

 

[Sandwitch]

Have you got any weapons that do elemental damage? I remember that helped a LOT in the early game. Basically double damage.

Weren't the trolls the second on the list? And finding a few more companions.

Ohhhh - I don't! Hmmm... I have:
- Valerie - Bastard Sword + 1
- Amiri - Flail + 1 or Ginormous Sword
- Jaethal - Scythe + 1

 

[Zloth]

I remember getting elemental-damage weapons definitely made the game easier once I found a few. Obviously, a fire or acid elemental sword would be exceedingly handy against trolls!

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

I remember getting elemental-damage weapons definitely made the game easier once I found a few. Obviously, a fire or acid elemental sword would be exceedingly handy against trolls!

In Troll Trouble you can easily find Trollreaper - my Amiri still uses it during Bloom. High damage, looks damn cool (I mean, it's giant axe!) and hace acid damage so you don't even have to worry about having spells or acid flasks ready when going against trolls.

 

[Sandwitch]

Oh I'll definitely check that out! Thank you! I wonder why I keep missing so much though. And yes, I'm checking the odds in the combat dialogue, but it would seem like fighters should hit more often than they do right now. So weird! The magic users don't seem to have nearly the same issues.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

I keep progressing along, just had

Spoiler

coronation event

and damn the problems in my kingdom are now insane. Problem cards appear when my top advisor have like 10% chances top. Will need to spend literally months strengthening my advisors and I have no trainings available.

On the other hand after 250h with the game I first time found Mandragoras. Seriously, I was so surprised to see new enemy type in narlmarshes and just level 5. How I missed them before?

Also: Chains of Light is my fav spell now.

This is like 3rd Ferocious Devourer that dies while paralyzed thanks to Harrim. My party at level 12-13 have issues with them and when I first met this thing, it wrecked everybody. This game looooves negative energy and stat drains.

 

[Zloth]

...the problems in my kingdom are now insane. Problem cards appear when my top advisor have like 10% chances top. Will need to spend literally months strengthening my advisors and I have no trainings available.

I hear that!

That shot was taken a few days before another shot in the dungeon you're in now. I'm afraid things are going to get a little worse on that front, too. Once that issue is resolved, you can START to get on top of things.

 

[drunkpunk]

Yeah I know the feeling, as you can see I don't do many projects

https://imgur.com/qFyZSEE

View: https://imgur.com/qFyZSEE

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

@Zloth number of cards ain't an issue, just the chances of success most of recent problems were in the "0%-15%" range and it kinda hurts. Just recently spent few weeks on "ranking up" people.

Dungeon I am in now? Ummm. I am in no dungeon right now. Right now I am after

Spoiler

Vordakai and war with barbarians

, claimed Silverlake region and

Spoiler

Varnhold

and visited every place I could - minus Pitax 'cause reasons.

What the hells guys, why you have so many cards. Are you visitting your capital only once per year? I have had this amount in my first playthrough maybe.... and it was 1-2 months after release. Now my kindom management looks like this:

PS - completed all advisory positions. I really hate the fact I need

Spoiler

Tristan or be left without advisor for his position

, seems like really bad design choice.

 

[drunkpunk]

That's just the projects tab, I do the events of course but don't do a ton of the projects. I have my kingdom on effortless though, lost my last game due to bad kingdom management so I'm taking it a bit easier on that part.

And yeah

Spoiler

I agree on the advisor stuff, my current game is lawful evil and I pretty much killed all my options for advisor because alignment reasons. i had to recruit a merc to fulfill the position, and because that's the only purpose for that merc, I just put all my points into wisdom and stacked it for advisor and he's actually better than tristan anyway

 

[Zloth]

Dungeon I am in now? Ummm. I am in no dungeon right now.

I meant the one in your 'chains of light' screenshot.

What the hells guys, why you have so many cards.

You've got 21 you haven't even read yet! You'll get plenty that you just can't do but the minuses can be countered by easier-to-do projects. Basically, you just do what you can and it pretty much works out.

That mystics advisor is the one that's most needed, I think. Not just for dealing with the events but for enabling the teleport pads!

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

I meant the one in your 'chains of light' screenshot.

That was just one of the locations on the map, not part of any dungeon trip.

In the meantime, I played for about 1 more hour. My kingdom was "stable" and had plenty of Building Points. Took two weeks to claim dire narlmarshes. Guess what happened in the meantime? All my advisors failed their tasks, got robbed twice. Now my kingdom is "crumbling" and my espionage stat is at 0.

So yeah I am step away from game over. Fun times. And no, next chapter didn't start yet so I don't have any quest to go for yet.

 

[Sandwitch]

So my team is finally around level 7/8--and I turned on auto kingdom/no fail kingdom just after all the reviews/forum posts. So I think I'm just waiting until something happens and the story advances? I've pretty much explored everything I can in terms of sites.

The game is definitely starting to make a little more sense in terms of combat. But still, fighters feel less powerful than the casters.

 

[drunkpunk]

So my team is finally around level 7/8--and I turned on auto kingdom/no fail kingdom just after all the reviews/forum posts. So I think I'm just waiting until something happens and the story advances? I've pretty much explored everything I can in terms of sites.

The game is definitely starting to make a little more sense in terms of combat. But still, fighters feel less powerful than the casters.

Yeah there are periods where you'll complete the main story quests and will have to wait for the next one to pop, usually it aligns with the ancient curse quest timer you'll see in the quest log. that's the best time to knock out any side quests, explore, do your companion quests, etc.

 

[Sandwitch]

Yeah there are periods where you'll complete the main story quests and will have to wait for the next one to pop, usually it aligns with the ancient curse quest timer you'll see in the quest log. that's the best time to knock out any side quests, explore, do your companion quests, etc.

Gotcha--thanks! It's very odd, this clock thing. But until BA3 gets its sealegs, this ain't bad! And there are moments of oddness that are really quite cool!

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Progressed past the hurdle that demolished my first playthrough and now I am in unfamiliar territory.

Spoiler

Pitax is mine

.

Also I would like to spend a moment saying damn to nine hells the

Spoiler

wild gaze from wild hunt fight on Bald Hilltop

.

Spending literally weeks now on progressing my advisors and other management stuff. No new quest around, kinda wondering what nasty thing will popup next. Also still having kingdom on "invisible mode" because I still have plenty of problem events with 0% chance of resolution and some of my kingdom's stats have fallen under 10.

Not gonna lie tho, the last conquest allows me to get some nice gear and I made like 500k in profit from just selling all the weapons and armors. War can be profitable, who knew?[/spoiler]

 

[drunkpunk]

I still need to make it that far. I've constantly restarted due to various things and have made it as far as pitax, now I just need to get through it. BG3 and my new Oculus Quest have kept me from doing much else lately but I think it's time.

Just curious what you thought about the quest The Price of Curiosity. Probably my favorite quest in any RPG in the last 20 years, perhaps ever. It's my favorite part of starting over.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

@drunkpunk I only did The Price of Curiosity on my first playthrough and don't remember it super well. I somehow missed Jubilost in my current game and I am not even sure why (probably moved to his location too early as I tend to explore a lot even before game tells me to go somewhere).

NPCs are good and I am actually surprised how Octavia changed due to my "advice" and how her quest ended.
On topic of NPC's, I can't stand Linzi after having her with me in Pitax due to her personal quest. The amount of times she failed skill checks and/or died + the fact i didn't know how to use her effectively due to me never having her in team made me decide to keep her locked up in capital forever and ever.

 

[Zloth]

You're closing in on the end game, @OsaX Nymloth !

My main character was a halfling so I wanted to romance Linzi. They made a nice pair, doing their little jigs from time to time. (Not like those SSSLUUUUUUUUUUPPPPING humans!) Alas, it wasn't to be.

You can take those massive wads of cash, dump them into your kingdom, and buy a bunch more buildings to prop up weak kingdom stats. You should be getting close to... uhhh... whatever it is that lets you train your advisors in half the time, too, which is a huge help. (Not avoiding spoilers there, I just don't remember how that ability came to be.)

That was also about the time I started running into some weird rewards for diplomacy. You always get xp in this game for doing skill-based stuff like lock picking but I got one lucky roll for diplomacy that gave me over a level's worth of xp! A few more followed, too. My lagging main character suddenly caught up to Nok Nok's level! I'm still not sure if that was really intended.

 

[Sandwitch]

You're closing in on the end game, @OsaX Nymloth !

My main character was a halfling so I wanted to romance Linzi. They made a nice pair, doing their little jigs from time to time. (Not like those SSSLUUUUUUUUUUPPPPING humans!) Alas, it wasn't to be.

You can take those massive wads of cash, dump them into your kingdom, and buy a bunch more buildings to prop up weak kingdom stats. You should be getting close to... uhhh... whatever it is that lets you train your advisors in half the time, too, which is a huge help. (Not avoiding spoilers there, I just don't remember how that ability came to be.)

That was also about the time I started running into some weird rewards for diplomacy. You always get xp in this game for doing skill-based stuff like lock picking but I got one lucky roll for diplomacy that gave me over a level's worth of xp! A few more followed, too. My lagging main character suddenly caught up to Nok Nok's level! I'm still not sure if that was really intended.

Out of curiosity, what level are your characters by the end the game typically?

 

[Zloth]

I think my main character maxxed out because of those diplomacy super-boosts and I think Nok Nok hit the top, too. I don't have any screenshots, though, so I can't be sure. Beyond those two, I'm not sure at all.

 

[Sarafan]

After 65 hours of play, I can finally sum up what I've seen to this point. The game isn't as good as Baldur's Gate unfortunately. It's a lot less engaging for me than many other RPGs. I don't know what exactly is the reason of this. Maybe the quite slow pace of the game has something to do with it. The text writing is very good, but the quality of plot leaves much to be desired. Chapters are quite separated from each other and the game lacks consistency. I like it when the main quests are strictly connected with each other. There's a lot of wilderness areas but they're mostly very small and uninteresting. Side quests are quite scarce.

It's still a solid piece of RPG however. Pathfinder ruleset implementation is very good. Combat is great, especially in turn-based mode. The disappointment is not huge. I expected that the game will be a little better, but I enjoy it as it is. I'd rate it 7 maybe 7,5/10 at this point. This might change though because I'm probably only half-way through. We'll see whether I'll be able to finish the game.

 

[Sandwitch]

After 65 hours of play, I can finally sum up what I've seen to this point. The game isn't as good as Baldur's Gate unfortunately. It's a lot less engaging for me than many other RPGs. I don't know what exactly is the reason of this. Maybe the quite slow pace of the game has something to do with it. The text writing is very good, but the quality of plot leaves much to be desired. Chapters are quite separated from each other and the game lacks consistency. I like it when the main quests are strictly connected with each other. There's a lot of wilderness areas but they're mostly very small and uninteresting. Side quests are quite scarce.

It's still a solid piece of RPG however. Pathfinder ruleset implementation is very good. Combat is great, especially in turn-based mode. The disappointment is not huge. I expected that the game will be a little better, but I enjoy it as it is. I'd rate it 7 maybe 7,5/10 at this point. This might change though because I'm probably only half-way through. We'll see whether I'll be able to finish the game.

Thanks for the great recap - I'm kind of with you, even though I'm not even done with the second chapter. I'm kind of wandering/waiting for something to happen (an ancient curse three), as I turned kingdom management to auto.

I like figuring out some of the mechanics, but for me, Divinity Original Sin 2's mechanics seemed more variable and interesting, whereas I am finding myself doing the same set approach for most of the combat. Also, I still can't seem to figure out my fighters, even with Heroism, and their seeming inability to hit anything.