Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, majestic said:

In an unmodded base game, transmutation effects stack even though they should not. If you cast Reduce Person on a Halfling before casting Frightful Aspect on them, you can put them on an enlarged mounts other than horses, so you could try Beast Rider for some more fun setups.

Thank me later.

I've got undersized mount as a feat with the mods, so you can ride things your size. It's very funny to see a human riding a medium animal like a wolf or smilodon, kinda like this

It also fixes animal companion sizes, so you can enlarge them properly. Poor horseys though, now they're always in last place.

[HoonDing]

"Reduce Person on a Halfling"

Does that make a Quarterling

[Gromnir]

@Sarex as o' five minutes ago, having reloaded the end boss o' colyphyr mines battle with our first aeon character, improved aeon bane, aeon immunities and aeon gazes work proper. we did not test aeon spells.

am not knowing what kp references by judgements for aeon as that ain't a mechanics thing but rather is quest related. inquisitors (save for a few archetypes)and a hunter archetype get judgements, so is not surprising the patch notes mentioned inquisitor judgements and not aeon judgements. the only aeon judgements in wotr is your mythic quest related pronouncements.

however, the aeon character we tested is a sanctified slayer multi-class with no judgements, so we could not test inquisitor judgements, in case such is a continued matter o' concern. unrelated, studied target definite were working. 

warning: we will observe how many months past, owlcat altered aeon gazes. owlcat decided those who are immune to gaze attacks should also be immune to aeon gazes, which were a serious nerf. a couple wide available feats will make enemies and companions immune to aeon gaze effects.  

complete unrelated: the colyphyr mine boss battle involves a dispel effect. as many have no doubt noticed, effects from most abilities (is a few exceptions... 'cause?) is not dispelled by the boss' mass dispel, so domain abilities typical persist. regarding cast spells, the dispel is near total and complete. however, there is a few spells effects which is not dispelled and am suspecting is 'cause the effects is coded as abilities and/or 'cause is stuff which modifies weapons as 'posed to party members. example: crusader's edge is not dispelled. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 1, 2023 by Gromnir

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

As of the recent update, Inquisitors and Aeons are back on the menu with no more crashes to desktop when using their core features.

A curious mod interaction allows Judgements and Enforcing Gazes to be activated outside of combat when they're unlimited. I don't think that it's a huge deal, as it only saves a single swift action, but if you have a swift action heavy character it may be a big boost. Assuming it also applies to the Judge archetype (which the mod I belive is causing it, Dark Codex, does), that would be a massive boost because the Judgement Aura becomes a permanent buff and Sentence + Judgement + Aura comes online in the first round instead of the third. So I guess if you ever wanted to play Judge Dredd, you can do that now.

Now that I think of it, there was another Inquisitor archetype that got a swift action ability, some kind of smite iirc. That also grabs a nice benefit from this. I still think that the Sanctified Slayer remains the best Inquisitor for single target damage though.

[kanisatha]

21 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

I remember when you were at a rather early stage in the game, playing an Angel, and wondering about Camellia, perhaps even as a possible romance interest (though I'm not sure about the last part).

I don't know what your expectations were, but I'm pretty sure Camellia didn't turn out to be the kind of person an Angel would happily go for a hot chocolate and a cookie with.

Hehe, yeah all true. I'm actually rather impressed that I was not spoiled about her, and for her revelations coming as a complete surprise to me within the game.

[HoonDing]

I'm somehow on the queen's romance path which I wasn't purposefully going for at all.

[uuuhhii]

tried angel with wenduag romance

very weird mix

[bugarup]

I was very happy with my Lich's romance with Daeran, when

Spoiler

I turned him into CHA bonus and then Papa Zach dragged him out of the afterlife just so I could sacrifice him.

It was all so romantic.

[HoonDing]

If you summon spider swarms (creeping doom) they immediately turn into a giant spider with the ghost ring when they're killed. Hysterical.

[Gromnir]

52 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

If you summon spider swarms (creeping doom) they immediately turn into a giant spider with the ghost ring when they're killed. Hysterical.

technical the swarm doesn't become a giant spider. through agency o' the clemency of shadows ring (one o' the best crusade relics in the game btw,) a giant spider is summoned for 3 rounds whenever a party member, including summons, is rendered unconscious or dies. 

if you want a cheap way to create a functional impenetrable wall of summons, the monster or animal summons 1 spells will suffice 'cause when the giant spiders die or is rendered unconscious, they also trigger the clemency of shadows summon effect. as such, starting the daisy chain with the lowest level spell possible makes tactical sense.

'course clemency of shadows is most useful 'cause o' the attacks o' opportunity modifier, but the summoned spiders is kinda a hoot.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Gromnir

[InsaneCommander]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:04 PM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Yeah I think that the button you're talking about only works for characters because it runs off xp, which animal companions don't use. Mythic Rank does work, so if you want mythic companions you can do it that way.

I'd still lean towards cheating if you're ok with it, I think animal companions have their natural armor and stat bonuses tied to their level in which case you'd be down a substantial amount of AC. If you want to play it fair-ish, you can take Boon Companion as a feat and add in Horse Master via Toybox so it'll act like you skipped the Caviler feature prerequisite that Horse Master has. As an even more cheating alternative, you can play around with an interpretation of Free Archetype from 2e and take Arcane Trickster as a gestalt. Though with +10 CL (you may have to uncap caster level, luckily Toybox has this option) and all the goodies from levels 11-20 of Sylvan Sorcerer you will be substantially stronger, like half a Legend with all the Trickster goodies.

Good to know all the options. Trickster will be my third or fourth run, so I have plenty of time to decide.

21 hours ago, HoonDing said:

I'm somehow on the queen's romance path which I wasn't purposefully going for at all.

Happened to me twice. It was subtle, so I could get out without embarrassing her.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

On 8/2/2023 at 8:44 AM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

As of the recent update, Inquisitors and Aeons are back on the menu with no more crashes to desktop when using their core features.

A curious mod interaction allows Judgements and Enforcing Gazes to be activated outside of combat when they're unlimited. I don't think that it's a huge deal, as it only saves a single swift action, but if you have a swift action heavy character it may be a big boost. Assuming it also applies to the Judge archetype (which the mod I belive is causing it, Dark Codex, does), that would be a massive boost because the Judgement Aura becomes a permanent buff and Sentence + Judgement + Aura comes online in the first round instead of the third. So I guess if you ever wanted to play Judge Dredd, you can do that now.

Now that I think of it, there was another Inquisitor archetype that got a swift action ability, some kind of smite iirc. That also grabs a nice benefit from this. I still think that the Sanctified Slayer remains the best Inquisitor for single target damage though.

Judgement Aura now indeed becomes a permanent buff with that mythic ability for limitless judgments and the mod that allows using Judgment out of combat, which would make the Judge a better bard than a bard in some ways.

48 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Good to know all the options. Trickster will be my third or fourth run, so I have plenty of time to decide.

Yeah, after the 1st run I'd reccomend going crazy with mods and stuff to do wild stuff, but different strokes and all that. A playthrough with lots of cheating fits the Trickster very well.

Trickster is more fun to play while the story is a letdown of fetch quests for a pervert who got dumped. But it has a very funny interaction with Legend's story in that you leave the council in the black lodge waiting for you to show up again.

I keep getting bit by rerolling Lich and have decided to play

Spoiler

Fire Emblem: Engage, which is very embarrassing to play in the same way that Atelier Ryza looks to be, but probably has the best Maddening mode difficulty in the series 

while I wait for the next (2?)DLC to drop and can give a Reanimator/Shadowcaster gestalt a test to see if I like it. After that I want to do Angel, Demon, Azata (again), Aeon>Devil, Trickster>Legend.

Edited August 3, 2023 by PK htiw klaw eriF

[HoonDing]

So even if my party is immune to fire, why do they still get hurt after taking down a balor.

[uuuhhii]

8 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

So even if my party is immune to fire, why do they still get hurt after taking down a balor.

enemy have mythic feat too

[Gromnir]

49 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

So even if my party is immune to fire, why do they still get hurt after taking down a balor.

according to pathfinder 2e rulez, only half the balor damage from its death throe is subject to fire resistance/immunity. there is some funny math involved as a few balor is not doing 16d10, but somehow their death throe is based on caster level, and as already noted in another post, owlcat decided cl = hd. as most wotr foes get kinda comical hd bloat... *shrug*

the balor you need watch out for is the one who does electricity damage, 'cause again, the beastie is doing damage based on a serious inflated caster level and 1/2 the damage the sparky balor does is listed as almost irresistible divine damage. angels may choose a halo effect which allows some resistance to divine damage, but the sparky balor is gonna overwhelm even that protection. 

beware the sparky balor.

HA! Good Fun!

[InsaneCommander]

22 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Yeah, after the 1st run I'd reccomend going crazy with mods and stuff to do wild stuff, but different strokes and all that. A playthrough with lots of cheating fits the Trickster very well.

while I wait for the next (2?)DLC to drop and can give a Reanimator/Shadowcaster gestalt a test to see if I like it. After that I want to do Angel, Demon, Azata (again), Aeon>Devil, Trickster>Legend.

I'm even considering having just one level of a class with an animal companion and 19 levels of Rogue. I'd have to level up somehow, but I'd not abuse it, I don't mean to have the animal companion in the front lines.

Anyway, for a Trickster, it would fit to cheat a bit. For other pts, I'm not planning anything like that. For now, my list is: Aasimar Court Poet/Azata, Damphir Cruoromancer/Lich, Hafling Arcane Trickster/Trickster, Human Cavalier/Aeon. Maybe the custom party I described already. Repetitive in some cases and probably no synergy for the Aeon, but I'm going for the classes I'd like to play and roleplaying.

Not sure I'll play a fifth time, but that would probably be my aborted Oread Iomedae Cleric/Angel or a Kitsune Hellknight Signifier/Aeon>Devil (the male Kitsune portrait is cool). The female is great too, I might pick it for my Trickster and drop the hafling, who knows.

 

[HoonDing]

The fat not-beholder orb at the flesh market had an AC increasing every round, not sure what he was on. Most annoying thing was he was immune to crits.

Also I like the look of those horned Skeletor guards. What kind of demon are they supposed to be?

Edited August 4, 2023 by HoonDing

[ShadySands]

36 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

Also I like the look of those horned Skeletor guards. What kind of demon are they supposed to be?

Is it one of these? 

https://pathfinderwrathoftherighteous.wiki.fextralife.com/Demons

Shadow demon maybe? At least my guess because I think they look cool

[Gromnir]

1 hour ago, HoonDing said:

 

Also I like the look of those horned Skeletor guards. What kind of demon are they supposed to be?

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/thanadaemon/

'course owl cat gave 'em the ability to cast horrid wilting.

HA! Good Fun!

[Gromnir]

5 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I'm even considering having just one level of a class with an animal companion and 19 levels of Rogue. I'd have to level up somehow, but I'd not abuse it, I don't mean to have the animal companion in the front lines.

there is a solution which don't require mods, but it kinda depends on what you want from a rogue. are you choosing rogue 'cause they get a whole lotta skills including perception and open locks/disarm traps? sneak attack? an inquisitor sanctified slayer with the animal domain gets you much o' what a rogue offers in addition to a potential mount.  shadow shaman is a stacked option but unfortunate you won't be getting a mount until level sixteen. 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

I don't typically use the triceratops statuette but it might help on some builds that get a pet/mount late or not at all

Edited August 4, 2023 by ShadySands

[Sven_]

After sitting two years on my SSD unfinished, I'd just uninstalled this today to make some place for BG3. The main reason being that I very much agree with the Codex review's assassment. Owlcat are Combat And Trash Mob Central, basically. And WOTR even tops Kingmaker in that regard in quite a few ways -- unlike Kingmaker, it doesn't have that "detective work" bloom chapter freshing things up either. Last year I completed Solasta plus DLC (not smallest of games either) in like two or three weeks. But that game actually knows combat pacing, and has dedicated dungeon areas where you sometimes have but one or two major fights. 

Whereas Owlcat outside a few select unique encounters has you fighting mobs over and over and over... Both Icewind Dale's have nothing on their design ethos. It's as if an intern is allowed to go over all their maps at the last minute. Like:

"Hey guys, I've spotted another couple empty spots on these maps."
"So what's your proposed solution to this?"
"I'll just paste&copy another couple mobs from the editor. I mean... these mobs are already plentiful, but more is more, right?"
"Ok, shoot. Just as long as we deliver on the promise of offering an experience twice as long as BG1+2."

It's always a tiring time sink after a while, wearing you down, like "Quantity Over Quality - THe CRPG". And the buffing routines naturally multiply the issue (which in Solasta, based on D&D 5e, naturally are a non-thing). Which is a shame, as else I quite like these things... so with Kingmaker I took one big break. With WOTR.... who knows. I mean, I want to. But, yeah.

May depend on BG3, which in EA already had more options to direct combat than anything Owlcat. Plus, depending on the race you picked, otherwise hostile NPCs turned neutral. Unlike DOS, the map also didn't play out like a thinly veiled combat parcours either (with clearly leveled zones), and was actually fairly open to approach from the go. To quote a current player on the final release: "I'm surprised how little combat I faced so far even with a low int Barbarian (through means of intimidation".

We'll see.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Sven_

[InsaneCommander]

On 8/4/2023 at 3:20 PM, Gromnir said:

there is a solution which don't require mods, but it kinda depends on what you want from a rogue. are you choosing rogue 'cause they get a whole lotta skills including perception and open locks/disarm traps? sneak attack? an inquisitor sanctified slayer with the animal domain gets you much o' what a rogue offers in addition to a potential mount.  shadow shaman is a stacked option but unfortunate you won't be getting a mount until level sixteen. 

HA! Good Fun!

That sounds interesting, especially considering that the Wizard spells I want will be available in the Trickster spell book.

Edit: Checked it now and I'd actually miss some interesting Conjuration spells like the ones that create pits. And I'd probably have a lower DC for my spells. Perhaps not the best choice then.

Edited August 6, 2023 by InsaneCommander

[HoonDing]

Is there anything that protects against stun at all (especially from those walking crystals). I've tried anything up til Mind blank.

[Gromnir]

4 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Is there anything that protects against stun at all (especially from those walking crystals). 

yes.

edit: you are looking for a solution in the wrong place. the crystal's aoe stun is sonic and not psionic. ordinarily pathfinder stuns is physiological and are opposed by a fort save as 'posed to a will save.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 6, 2023 by Gromnir