Achilles

There is a lot explicit, horrific violence in this game. What is the criteria for determining which is ok and which is going too far?

Ah, I see you met my associates Sidenote for context: during my first pass, there was literally nothing memorable about the encounter, especially in comparison to the others. As you may have deduced from the subtle tone of my previous posts, this "new and improved" user experience is a feature of the latest patch. Had better luck on 2nd try with the new party. Hung back a little, rather than attempt to rush in/engage, and spread my folks out so that they couldn't be taken out all at once. Fear-aura-that-should-be-"immunable"-but-isn't has a range. Found I had a character (melee) that was pretty much useless the entire time (will be Ember or Sosiel with air domain metamagic'd lightning spells next time). Also, shouldn't have to say this, but new rule is TBM for all boss/mini-boss fights. Lastly, please don't judge me too harshly...found out a short while later that mercs don't count as party members unless the PC is leading them. Hope you recruited everyone Owlcat foisted upon you (and that you were generous with their gear). Alas, I somehow ended up with something less than a full complement and resorted to cheating rather than dealing with the drama.

To amend my earlier comment, everyone might want to wait for a rebalance tweak before taking off for the final area. TPW in three rounds with the new crew. Again, lots of bugs to be fixed, but no, priority is making act VI encounters harder.

Following last night's...frustrating foray into act VI, I decided to play around with caster merc builds. Sorcerer with 3rd level spell, Battering Blast + lots and lots of metamagic. is easily pushing really big enemies around the battlefield and taking huge chunks of health off of them in the process. After playing with, not one but two, Kineticists in KM, I decided to swear them off because the class feels a little too much like cheating. But since they put a non-optional "Playful Darkness"-level encounter right smack in the middle of chapter, I've decided to revisit that stance. Earth/metal/magma for Deadly Earth that overcomes rare metal DR FTW. Kinetic blast = ranged touch attack, so lots of easy hits for mop up. Passing this along for anyone who feels like rage quitting right before the end.

I chalked that up to WotR already being in the works, but that's speculation on my part (especially since I'm not incredibly savvy re: the timing of those events). But per @Gromnir it looks like they've already spoken on the matter, so I'll defer to those that follow this more closely than I do

Ah, ok. I wasn't sure if there was some aspect of her archetype I was missing or some item provided as part of her quest... Appreciate the write-up I don't think Paizo is going to be super excited to license old **** when they recently came out with new ****. Seems that it would be counter to the idea that new **** is better than old ****. So, while it's not inconceivable that I'm wrong, I don't think it's "dark horse" at all If it's not Pathfinder, then I'll probably pass for sure. They've had two games to iterate and have a good chance of making a third that it's quite the ****storm the last two have been. If they decide that now is the best time to try something completely different...well, I wish them luck.

I'll be very surprised if the next owlcat project isn't Pathfinder 2e

Curious about this. I've never recruited her, so I don't know anything about her build. What's the secret sauce?

The voice suggesting that maybe I not back whatever they do next keeps getting louder

Secret ending was...sufficient. Felt cleaner than the first one I got, so will probably be the head-canon route for future replays. Curious about the Legend path, so playing around with potential builds for that. Was initially thinking something involving hellknight, but am now leaning toward Aldori Swordlord/Duelist I suspect they need to justify all the time they spent on it. Again, really seems like they're more interested in forcing us to see what they want to show us rather than making a game that feels like it's "ours"

Haven't played around with skalds yet

Might want to hold off on that. Currently no button to execute Sentence/Greater Sentence

Apparently they don't have time to fix class bugs, but they have time to make the encounters in act VI harder

Agreed. Owlcat seems very interested in forcing the player into their curated experience. They did the same thing in KM (what's that? you don't want nok-nok in your party? of course you do!) I'm wondering if it's a cultural difference or if they just aren't very good at this. With that said, I have, without remorse, installed Toybox to get around that wrinkle for this playthrough (as the aforementioned quest is quasi-required for a certain ending that I am trying to get). I think in subsequent playthroughs, I'm just going to accept that some mysteries are better left unsolved. Re: the economy; I had the same problem in my last playthrough, so became much more aggressive with how I converted currency for crusade management this time around. Still ended up with almost 1m going into the final quest.

Based on the last patch, you can't complete quest without her. Not enough notes in the wild anymore

Interestingly, I'm playing with a build for Inquisitor (Judge) that's on this same track Just made third contact with Skeletal Salesman in Act V (personal protection gear) Heavy Armor +5, a Belt of Physical Might +6, and a +5 chainshirt called "Purging Chains". Seems like hunter gears steals the show.

Finnean is companion-locked behind one of many "options" I've yet to engage. While I think that's a questionable design choice, I have a feeling that I don't regret it too much. Sorry to hear you missed out on the bow Maybe that's it. I thought the tactician gal offered it as a "GG" after beating her little game, but I'm probably misremembering that.

Got him zero times in first playthrough. I have seen him twice so far. Wondering if appearance is tied to "random encounters" survived? I will admit that I'm totally "skinner boxing" that one Made the mistake of passing on Master of Maneuver III because I remembered getting it for free during the Fallout backer quest, but alas it played out differently this time and no such upgrade was forthcoming. Luckily army units are just an audience for their general's spellcasting prowess at this point.

How did it compare to the famous "Adam vs stone beetles" episode?

You are correct. I didn't double check before posting and confused you with someone else. I humbly apologize

I see. Well, apparently shame on me for not making it explicit that my offer for free keys was for people who didn't already have the game. Not cool man.

Really?

First two mythic levels are not tied to a mythic path. At mythic 3 you can choose from any of the paths you've unlocked. If you only have one or two options at mythic 3, then you've probably made role-play decisions that have closed some of them off to you.

Apparently I need mercs. Have had some fun playing with different builds. Sad to see how many classes/archetypes are still broken

So, I know where to get it, and can tell you how I get it, but not 100% sure it's the only way