Pachfinder Bugmaker: The Rekkoning

[xzar_monty]

Hey all you good folks, has any of you played the Tenebrous Depths DLC?

What I'm wondering is this: is it really just a series of rooms with monsters and unlocked treasure chests in them? I'm on level 4 now, and it appears that there is no narrative, nothing. If this is all there is, I'm not going to get any further, as it just doesn't look interesting. I mean, compared to this, Watcher's Keep in BG2 is Nobel class writing. (And looking at it any way at all, WK is pretty nice.)

[Gfted1]

14 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

If this is all there is, I'm not going to get any further, as it just doesn't look interesting

Maybe there is some unique loot in there?

[xzar_monty]

Oh, I'm pretty sure there is, as it could hardly be otherwise. But I would be a lot more interested in the dungeon if there was at least an attempt at some kind of narrative. Or puzzles. Or something.

But in the first four levels, there was almost literally nothing. Just interconnected rooms with monsters and unlocked treasure chests in them, unlocked doors between rooms and sometimes the occasional unlocked secret door. Not very impressive.

Btw, was your comment written in the spirit of "I'm not going to spoil anything but you've got something good to look forward to", or was it simply a straightforward question?

[Gfted1]

It was just a straightforward question. When you mentioned WK it made me remember back and iirc, there was definitely some good stuff inside that dungeon crawl. Also, Im a powergamer so that type of loot always has appeal to me. 

[ShadySands]

As far as I've heard it's just a randomized place for people that love to dungeon dive. Supposedly dungeon depth is partially locked to your progress in the game if you play it as part of the campaign but I don't think there's any story to be found inside.

[MrBrown]

There's a subquest with Tenebrous Depths about killing some boss monsters in there, and there's some writing on items you can find there. But that's all there is, AFAIK. 

This is from playing it during the main campaign, completed 2nd tier. It's different if you just play it rogue-like, but I haven't tried.

[xzar_monty]

Ok, thanks.

 

I can't see why I'd want to play it rogue-like. I mean, it has all the subtlety of a colossal sledgehammer. NetHack is way better. But then, it's one of the best games there is.

[InsaneCommander]

Finally started playing, but I'm having trouble advancing because I decided to create two mercenaries while their are cheap and there goes a few more hours in character creation. lol

[bugarup]

16 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Hey all you good folks, has any of you played the Tenebrous Depths DLC?

What I'm wondering is this: is it really just a series of rooms with monsters and unlocked treasure chests in them? I'm on level 4 now, and it appears that there is no narrative, nothing. If this is all there is, I'm not going to get any further, as it just doesn't look interesting. I mean, compared to this, Watcher's Keep in BG2 is Nobel class writing. (And looking at it any way at all, WK is pretty nice.)

I don't have any DLCs, but think I read somewhere that dungeon comes in two modes -- one is no story thing purely for crawling, another is related to story somehow, with companions having quips in there and stuff. 

[MrBrown]

13 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Finally started playing, but I'm having trouble advancing because I decided to create two mercenaries while their are cheap and there goes a few more hours in character creation. lol

I seem to have about 400 hours played, I'm sure about 200 of that is character creation.

[ShadySands]

I still can't not use the created companions in these types of games. I dunno what it is.

[xzar_monty]

Content? I mean, if you create a set of custom characters, you will miss out on an awful lot of written content.

[majestic]

6 hours ago, MrBrown said:

I seem to have about 400 hours played, I'm sure about 200 of that is character creation.

And 150 hours of loading screens.

[InsaneCommander]

6 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Content? I mean, if you create a set of custom characters, you will miss out on an awful lot of written content.

This. I'll use the companions, but I still want to have a couple of mercenaries, just in case.

 

8 hours ago, MrBrown said:

I seem to have about 400 hours played, I'm sure about 200 of that is character creation.

It is even worse in PF, because I don't know the rules and subclasses.

[xzar_monty]

Everything works, optimization is not necessary. I think that's a good thing to keep in mind, if you're new to the rules.

 

I know that this a question that separates people on the basis of their temperament, and that's fine. For instance, my PnP role-playing group has a GM and three players. In the past twenty years (although it obviously took a lot less time than that), I have learned that it is extremely important for one of our players to calculate everything and figure out the optimum stats and approach for whichever character he happens to be playing. To me, it's not important, although I do not go out of my way to create bad characters. But since the point of the game is to have fun, I don't want to nitpick and spend extra amounts of time figuring out combinations that might, in the long run, improve my survival chances by, say, 3.75 per cent and produce, say, an average of 8.63 per cent more melee damage.

 

But I know that there are people for whom this is important, and, as I said, that's fine.

Edited July 20, 2019 by xzar_monty

[MrBrown]

On 7/20/2019 at 1:45 PM, xzar_monty said:

Everything works, optimization is not necessary. I think that's a good thing to keep in mind, if you're new to the rules.

As long as you don't multiclass very stupidly, or distribute your ability scores badly for your class, yeah, I guess.

And you can always lower the difficulty.

[InsaneCommander]

What is the deal with the Red Panda and Owlcat pets? They have only one charge, if I summon them, do they disappear later?

[xzar_monty]

No idea, sorry. I think pets are a silly idea, never even tried any of them in PoE or Deadfire, either. So you can definitely do without.

Maybe just try and see what happens?

[majestic]

When you use them they show up, stick around the throne room for a bit and eventually bug out. Or at least that's what happened when I played. It could work much better now. The item was still in my inventory - or rather, in the box, after using it. Not sure if everything worked as intended, game having had a rough launch and all.

[InsaneCommander]

Ok, I'll test them later and let you know. One of them gives +2 to Lore (Nature), which is significative in the beginning. And the other gives "emotional support" in saving throws, so I'm definitely giving it to Harrim.

Btw, they are making a survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScn2_tveYOMBaNprPIECqnwMTTVwy6BNBT6lYyz8CR4oHr6vg/viewform

[bringingyouthefuture]

I never used the Panda, but often things with one charge have permanent buffs, but not sure - per above - maybe you just have to carry it?  I honestly don't remember if just carrying it gives the buff.

Edited July 22, 2019 by bringingyouthefuture

[MrBrown]

I only have the cat, but to use it, you have to equip it on your belt, and then activate it from your abilities.

[InsaneCommander]

I restarted to change some stats, so I'm still in the kobold/mite mines. I'm enjoying the game so far, despite some occasional crashes and the strange bug (?) that forces you to click everytime you load/save or the game won't continue.

I'll test the pets when I have the throne room.

[Vaeliorin]

So...I finished the game.  Took about 140 hours (which might be the longest game I've ever finished...).  I feel like the game is really let down by the last 1/3 or so.  I know a lot of people complain about the enemies at the end (and they do get a bit repetitive for me, but I didn't find them particularly difficult on normal) but for me it was mostly the fact that so much of the last part of the game is spent staring at the kingdom management screen.  I would finish the actual questing/exploring stuff in an in-game month or so, and then spend 8-9 months staring at the kingdom management screen, which might be fine if kingdom management was more interactive.  I want to go on these expeditions to clear out spiders, or invasions from another plane, not just read about random adventurers doing them.

Still planning on another playthrough at least (I want to see the "true" ending) with a bunch of mods (mainly Eldritch Arcana and Call of the Wild).  Overall, glad I kickstarted it, and I'll likely get the next game they're supposedly making, though I don't know that it'll be at full price.

[Captain Corcoran]

I never finished this game.  I got all the way up to where I took over some bard's kingdom and then stopped playing.  It really was great, but after a while I got really tired of taking care of the kingdom.  I know I could put it on autopilot, but I set the game aside assuming I'd come back to it but never did.  I agree with you, Vaeliorin, about the kingdom management eating up time I could have spent questing.  I might get back to it, but time will be a premium in the coming months and I'm already in the middle of Divinity Original Sin 2.  I haven't actually finished a straight up RPG in years.  Halted on... Tyranny?  Whatever the game that Obsidian put out a while back.  I never got past the first five minutes of Deadfire.  I can't blame all that on the game, though.  I was basically unable to invest much time in gaming over the past couple of years until recently.

I *am* intrigued by Pathfinder and my wife and I are embroiled in a high level Pathfinder tabletop game with a bunch of folks.  I'm sure I'll eventually clear out all these games, assuming I live long enough.