LTTP -- Pathfinder: Kingmaker Enhanced Edition

[Miletius]

So, the announcement of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, a hefty discount during a recent steam sale, and an imminent increase in free time due to holiday vacation/travel finally convinced me to push this off my "want to play" and into my "am playing right now" list. The Western CRPG is among my favorite genre of game so I'm surprised I was able to stay this long. After digging into it this weekend I think this is going to be among one of my favorite games.

Firstly, the character customization is just insane in the best possible way. As a game based on a game system that is an offshoot of DnD 3.5 edition character creation feels like Neverwinter Nights 2 system on steroids. You've got your standard: fighters and wizards, clerics and rogues, elves and half-orcs. But for every one of those you also have dedicated hybrids like the Magus as well as new classes like the Alchemist. After spending hours thinking (and rerolling) I finally settled on an Sacred Huntmaster Inquisitor, which is a mix between a cleric and a fighter with an animal companion.

After a few more hours, I made it out of the tutorial area and into the wilds we go. The game opens up and the only 'task' I have so far is to track down some bandit lord, giving you three months (in game time) to do so. At my side are a cadre of classically designed CRPG party members, including a talkative bard (who also serves as the party trap disarmer) a barbarian and a cleric.

So I was just wondering if there is anybody out there in my shoes, experiencing the game for the first time (or has done so recently). Or if you've played through a while ago what kind of tips would you suggest to newcomers? I know there was talk of an upcoming console release, but I haven't heard about it recently.

 

[Deleted member 2834]

I'm interested in this game. How does it compare to Divinity 2?

 

[Potterson]

Is the story interesting? Is it written well?

I feel like everyone is always talking about gameplay only about this game :P

 

[Massicot]

It's a dense and massive game. Expect to sink 100+ hours into it if you stick with it.

I guess my main general piece of advice is to not fret about the timers too much...yes I know they can be anxiety-inducing but they are usually extremely lenient. With only a few exceptions:

-Whenever you get a Bald Hilltop event, make sure you're ready to head there asap.

-This is like 50 hours in but in Act IV, it's generally recommended to do Hour of Rage (Barbarians) before Betrayer's Flight. And try to find Armag's Tomb asap.

And if you want to gather Relics and Artifacts, this communal Google Doc is pretty good. Just strike out when you pick one up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...K6BKcD_mI9795U/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#

Try to do Companion quests whenever you can as well.

Set the Kingdom related difficulties to easy, but I wouldn't automate it. The balance is a bit off, but it has some interesting ideas.

Buying gear is not that important for the lion's share of the game, don't be afraid to dump gold (regular money) into Build Points ("kingdom money"). Make sure to buy any Bags of Holding you see though.

I'm interested in this game. How does it compare to Divinity 2?

Click to shrink...

The key difference is that it's not Turn Based. It's RTWP. It also has a big city/kingdom building element.

Edit: I haven't tried the turn based mod.

Is the story interesting? Is it written well?

I feel like everyone is always talking about gameplay only about this game :P

Click to shrink...

I think it has some really neat character writing and the premise of main conflict is pretty unique. And while the Companion quests are pretty plainly signposted, they are pretty varied and several of them strongly incorporate into the main story in interesting ways (especially Tristian, Amiri, and Linzi). A lot of the story-telling is a bit political (as in power struggles between nations, free cities, etc..) though and some of the plotlines are a bit flat (Valerie). But you have like 13 companions, each with 3 or 4 part personal quests, and I think the majority of them are really neat.

 

[superseohyun]

Use turn based mod.
Amazing game.

 

[Miletius]

Use turn based mod.
Amazing game.

Click to shrink...

I think I'm one of the rare people that prefers RTWP when the system is well designed. It makes the battles go faster. But yes, there is a turn based mod out there for people who prefer that sort of thing and I hear it is very well done.

Is the story interesting? Is it written well?

I feel like everyone is always talking about gameplay only about this game :P

Click to shrink...

I couldn't say definitively since I just started. So far, I think the plot has some decent hooks and the characters are varying levels of fun and interesting. Lizzie and Tartuccio (sp) have both been great for completely different reasons.

 

[Massicot]

Linzi's great, I love that the Journal/Quest log and storybook events are written in her 'voice.'

 

[sredgrin]

The turn based mod is actually pretty solid in this, and makes some of the early game stuff more bearable when you're super fragile and lacking in abilities. Lends itself better to the tanky characters drawing aggro and holding the line a lot better than the real time does, in my experience.

Does make battles against huge mobs a chore though.

As far as tips, one big one is watch your timers. They are very important in this game, and you can easily let them pass you buy and kill your campaign (or certain quests) if you have a strong sense of wanderlust.

Quicksave a lot. There's a trap (not in the sense of the trap mechanics) in one of the early areas where you can spawn a monster that you really just have no hope of denting, and the game doesn't support any sort of running away or escaping from combat once it starts.

 

[mogster7777]

Is it out on ps4

 

[xerzewatt]

I played it this year and it became one of my favorite games. The start is a bit rough with difficulty all over the place but once you get over that the game is amazing. I would still rank Divinity:OS 1&2 above this one but it is definitely better than any Pillars of Eternity or Wasteland game. As mentioned before a true successor to NWN2, the best char creator ever made. Towards the end of the game I used a mod to respec and remove class restrictions. Sorc1 Cleric1 Mystic T10 Arcane T8 build is absurdly fun and powerful. The story is interesting and I really liked the unconventional characters.

Linzi's great, I love that the Journal/Quest log and storybook events are written in her 'voice.'

Click to shrink...

Such a great idea.

 

[Miletius]

Thanks for the tips so far. I've made towards the first 'real' dungeon area by following

Early game spoiler

Spoiler

Tartuccio towards the kobold and mite battlegrounds

It's a very cute and unique area. My team has been pretty effective in combat so far, but with 5 bodies (Barb, Fighter, boar companion, cleric, and myself) on the front lines it gets kind of crowded. Will probably end up replacing one of the front liners. I also added a grenadier to my party by hiring him on as a mercenary. Mercenaries are really expensive, but with so many unique characters I really wanted to roll another one.

The timers so far feel like a way to keep you managing your resources and not to rest after every battle. They've been pretty generous with light health potions thus far, so I've been using them liberally to keep the party going.

 

[Deleted member 20831]

OP, you are in for an awesome! ride.

This game is literally Battlestar Galactica in DnD CRPG format, but feels like an actual tabletop experience with someone DMing the game for you.

I also suggest playing with the companions the game provides, they add to the atmosphere.

 

[Mudo]

I bought this way back and tried it for the first time 2 days ago. I was so overwhelmed with character creation that I looked up builds and followed a guide.
After that I played for an hour and it seems fun enough. The whole game system is foreign to me which is making it very hard to get into. I thought it was D+D but apparently Pathfinder is its own thing that's like D+D but not it.
Any advice would be welcome. I like the game well enough but was so overwhelmed I haven't played since

 

[Miletius]

I bought this way back and tried it for the first time 2 days ago. I was so overwhelmed with character creation that I looked up builds and followed a guide.
After that I played for an hour and it seems fun enough. The whole game system is foreign to me which is making it very hard to get into. I thought it was D+D but apparently Pathfinder is its own thing that's like D+D but not it.
Any advice would be welcome. I like the game well enough but was so overwhelmed I haven't played since

Click to shrink...

What are you getting stuck on? One thing that I looked up is that apparently the premade fighter has a really ridiculous stat boost compared to other characters. So if you are fine with playing a fighter to start he might be a good choice to remove some of the build anxiety.

Otherwise I think that trial and error is the way to go. Just get out there and explore a bit. Here is more specific advice that I found after a few hours

Spoiler

After the inn, I found it best to head south, and then intercept Tartuccio in the tomb as quickly as possible. You get an additional party member and the encounter in the tomb are not tough. Then, heading south to the overgrown sycamore after chasing him down leads you to an area that has a lot of weak enemies you can fight, mostly.

 

[Mudo]

What are you getting stuck on? One thing that I looked up is that apparently the premade fighter has a really ridiculous stat boost compared to other characters. So if you are fine with playing a fighter to start he might be a good choice to remove some of the build anxiety.

Otherwise I think that trial and error is the way to go. Just get out there and explore a bit. Here is more specific advice that I found after a few hours

Spoiler

After the inn, I found it best to head south, and then intercept Tartuccio in the tomb as quickly as possible. You get an additional party member and the encounter in the tomb are not tough. Then, heading south to the overgrown sycamore after chasing him down leads you to an area that has a lot of weak enemies you can fight, mostly.

Click to shrink...

This has been great advice thank you :) I'll fire it up and give it another shot

 

[Miletius]

So, I got to the kingdom builder portion of the game and it's kind of a bit like ordering an ice cream sundae and figuring out that there is a slice of pizza in the center of it. Any general tips on kingdom builder?

 

[sredgrin]

Early tip is, go find someone that can find the slot that's empty (econ? I wanna say). Following relatively the main plot of the game one of the first new encounters should lead you to someone that can fill it.

This is why I brought up timers too, one of the early subplots can easily be fucked if you don't take the hints the priests are giving you about cleansing the curse, which requires action in both the campaign map and the kingdom mode.

Lastly, if you haven't accepted it yet, don't accept the deal one of the nobles suggested about them giving you a bunch of BP and you have to contract to their builders. It ends up being a big resource sink paying them back, and early on, you likely won't need a ton of BP to do anything too useful (and you can buy it when it comes to needing to use it).

You will be getting a decent amount of party member subplots shortly that are all relatively clustered together. Mostly the newbies, but also Harrim, so bring him along until his is done.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

So finally going to start a campaign after kickstarting this game way back when. A few questions before I jump in.

1. Does normal difficulty provide much of a challenge? Never played a Pathfinder game but familar with D&D and have played through and beat most major party based crpgs (BG1&2, Pillars 1&2, DOS1&2, Dragon Age etc)
2. How is the kingdom management? I dont expect to be super invested in it so Ive heard knocking it down to easy makes sense but I wouldnt want to make it trivial.
3. Any options that are worth changing?
4. Is all the DLC mid or post game content?
5. Any core content that is misable to keep an eye out for?
6. Any key tips for a beginner?

Thanks!

 

[Mudo]

Sorry for the bump, but after owning this game forever, I decided to try it out this week.

To say the systems at play here are overwhelming would be an understatement lol.

I finally got a party made by doing online research as there are just so many options and it all sounds alien to me.

I am a few hours in and doing...ok, but I honestly feel completely lost regarding all the myriad gameplay systems at work. While I am "making it" so far, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Is there a good resource online that can get me up to speed so I have more knowledge about all the systems at play here? I'd like to be making more than uneducated guesses while leveling and trying to figure out skills/stats/classes etc.

Lots of fun so far regardless, but I feel I am missing out on some of the experience due to not knowing what's going on lol