Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6

[Gromnir]

6 hours ago, Vaeliorin said:

the thing I was reading about it claimed a bunch of other fights that were super easy were really hard, so I take their claims with a massive grain of salt.

there is an undeserved and discouraging smugness which oozes from those it's so easy observations, no? is nothing particular clever or applause worthy 'cause some joker read online guides or has played wotr so many times they is aware o' every possible game exploit. those wotr sages feign surprise that not everybody is doing the protective luck and fortune hex exploits before boss battles, and 'course you all know the bane of spirit ring may convert your entire party's spell and weapon damage to irresistible force damage, yes? 

is our frequent complaint the game is tuned for difficulty bass ackwards. unfair difficulty encounters is appropriate for those players who know every loophole and is aware o' the less than obvious exploits, but core doesn't change unfair encounters save reducing the stats o' foes. what that means is players on core maybe don't need use every exploit but chances are they do need a few, or a guide, or help from a board community where they risk being mocked for not realizing how very easy __________ was. 

wotr is a role-play game which allows you to build characters and parties howsoever you wish, but if you build wrong or make poor crusade choices or, decide to do different than optimal, then you risk facing considerable gaming frustration. punishing the casual player is an odd design choice from our pov, but the wotr fanbase isn't exact rebelling or even complaining. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Sarex]

Apperantly the Pathetic Quasit is a rarer achievement than the Playful Darkness one. I can only imagine it's because it is harder to find the encounter. The fight it self was fairly straightforward.

[Humanoid]

I have purchased this month's Humble Choice so I can now participate in the most popular thread in the Obsidian forums. It's the only reason I bought it, obviously.

(Now to decide on whether to get the discounted season pass)

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

17 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

I have purchased this month's Humble Choice so I can now participate in the most popular thread in the Obsidian forums. It's the only reason I bought it, obviously.

(Now to decide on whether to get the discounted season pass)

It seems you broke the forum by doing so, unless you're also @LadyCrimson.

Of the first DLC wave, the side story is interesting, the roguelike mode is either a build tester or a megadungeon for the main game, and Inevitable Excess is bad. I'd go for it if it's cheaper than buying the first two.

[xzar_monty]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

Apperantly the Pathetic Quasit is a rarer achievement than the Playful Darkness one. I can only imagine it's because it is harder to find the encounter. The fight it self was fairly straightforward.

Have you seen any percentages somewhere?

And yes, I suppose anything that requires Dimension Door in the Abyss is more rare than everything that basically comes your way no matter what.

[Humanoid]

Testing to see if I'm me again.

[bugarup]

Quasit's seemingly easier because the game gives you 2 (or maybe even 3) myffik levels since Overtuned Furry on top of number of regular levels. I think he made me reload a couple of times because when he hits, he hits, but on Liches he was too busy putting his infinity+ buffs back to do anything. I do remember him well from super annoying bug, pardon, ~feature~ where you cannot loot him until he unpolymorphs like, hours later. 

 

 

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Have you seen any percentages somewhere?

This is on GoG, I imagine there is a larger player percentage on steam, but it should still track somewhat.

[xzar_monty]

Wow. Thanks. I think it's also interesting that both numbers are so low. The real hardcore players who have mastered the system are a small minority indeed.

[Sarex]

I think that the percentage of people finishing the game will also be fairly small. That is usually the case with games, especially with these kind.

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, bugarup said:

Quasit's seemingly easier because the game gives you 2 (or maybe even 3) myffik levels since Overtuned Furry on top of number of regular levels. I think he made me reload a couple of times because when he hits, he hits, but on Liches he was too busy putting his infinity+ buffs back to do anything. I do remember him well from super annoying bug, pardon, ~feature~ where you cannot loot him until he unpolymorphs like, hours later. 

 

 

treasure of the midnight isles extra level(s) and l00t, not to mention a considerable amount o' time elapsed making so there is all sorta guides and suggestions for companion and party builds, has no doubt made a difference in the perceived difficulty. the midnight isles vendor alone means your entire party is gonna be outfitted with +6 stat boosting belts and headbands which was not the case when we first encountered the quasit.

am recalling our first time we were caught off guard by the wail o' the banshee thing which insta killed nenio and 'cause o' unfortunate rng, did serious hurt to others. 'course sosiel were one level shy o' having mass heal. the necromancy blast which near crippled our effort presented us with a noteworthy wtf moment.

for a few party configurations, quasit presents particular challenges, and on unfair those succubus archers dish out murder.

HA! Good Fun!

[Zoraptor]

22 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I think that the percentage of people finishing the game will also be fairly small. That is usually the case with games, especially with these kind.

13.9% finished per the achievement for doing so. Though I also have 2.1 and 3.7% for Pathetic/ Playful rather than 2 and 3.

Number of players shouldn't make a difference from Steam, if everything else was equal. The two big potential differences is that GOG probably has a more, hmm, committed user base but also doesn't force you to use Galaxy- and if you don't you show as zero achievements.

[Gromnir]

we did mock the previous patch assertion that tb combat freezes had been addressed. the thing is since then we have been seeing a resurrection o' an old tb bug which has sosiel becoming stuck in tb combat.  the old bug were related to a two-handed weapon haver crossing paths with another party member in tb combat, so sosiel were likely gonna present the glitch as he wields a glaive and has relative bad initiative. regardless, am back to a situation where in tb combat sosiel all too frequent loses an attack and tb combat hangs 'for 'bout twenty seconds while sosiel and his mount jitter ineffectual.

HA! Good Fun!

[Sarex]

35 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Though I also have 2.1 and 3.7% for Pathetic/ Playful rather than 2 and 3.

Must be that it counted me.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Testing to see if I'm me again.

Something everyone should do once in a while.

18 hours ago, Sarex said:

Apperantly the Pathetic Quasit is a rarer achievement than the Playful Darkness one. I can only imagine it's because it is harder to find the encounter. The fight it self was fairly straightforward.

I think it's a combination of that and the fact that people tend to not finish games. Pathetic Quaist is a Sorcerer who ends up doing Dragon Shape 3 and that's not as hard as a powerful monster who does the monk dip/vivisectionist combo on top.

[InsaneCommander]

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

23 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

 

I was expecting a bit more tbh, oh this is a sound track? Given the harp, butterflies, and furniture this looks like a place for Desna, Shelyn, and Sarenrae to hang out. Fitting Valentine's Day drop considering the lore around those three.

[InsaneCommander]

1 minute ago, Fire Walk with KP said:

I was expecting a bit more tbh, oh this is a sound track? Given the harp, butterflies, and furniture this looks like a place for Desna, Shelyn, and Sarenrae to hang out. Fitting Valentine's Day drop considering the lore around those three.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Just now, InsaneCommander said:

That image is what popped right into my head when I saw the title and looked at the area.

[Gorth]

30 days to build a pyramid? Where is there a Pharaoh when you need one?

 

 

[Sarex]

Finished the second leg of the treasure dlc. Now I'm a millionaire! Well I can get that crit confirming item without worrying about the gold now, which is nice I guess. I actually laughed at the ping pong fight right before the last boss. (Those crystal bastards are actually the hardest fight of the dlc so far)

Edited February 17, 2023 by Sarex

[Gromnir]

6 hours ago, Sarex said:

Well I can get that crit confirming item without worrying about the gold now, which is nice I guess. 

if is the crimson banner, then am advising saving the 300k, or whatever ridiculous amount is required for purchase. with the banner equipped, crits by and against you is confirmed. 

alternative: the treasure islands vendor sells +100 potions of bless weapon. unfortunate, the drezen cleric only sells ten o' the scrolls. seelah also has access to bless weapon, but unless you took abundant casting, you won't have many casts per day. one reason am always making lann a divine hunter is not only 'cause he gets the celestial velociraptor murder machine with unlimited smites, but 'cause o' domains. iomedae domains is not amongst our must haves, but am thinking glory, particular for lann is underrated and we likely add one additional domain via the impossible domain mythic. in any event, as a lann divine hunter is a spontaneous caster, his domain spells is added to his pool o' spells as 'posed to needing use a domain slot as does a cleric. functional results in a whole lotta casts o' bless weapon per day. 

in any event, am not a fan o' the crimson banner as is as likely to result in pain for the user... and is sooper expensive.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited February 17, 2023 by Gromnir

[Humanoid]

Thought I'd at least go through character creation today, but it's a good thing that I decided to do some preliminary research first because my plan of creating a rogue wielding throwing daggers seems to have been scuppered by, well, the game not having throwing knives. I could have been so easily tricked into taking the Knife Master subclass.

Presently I'm having to look up the character backgrounds outside of the game itself, because unfortunately for the various Regional backgrounds, the game omits any sort of explanation of what or where these regions are. You'd think that these particular backgrounds would be the ones that would most benefit from a little one-paragraph blurb explaining them, but nope. Game, you don't need to tell me what a "Craftsman" is, but I'd sure like to know what the hell a "River Kingdoms Daredevil" is.

[Gromnir]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

 

Presently I'm having to look up the character backgrounds outside of the game itself, because unfortunately for the various Regional backgrounds, the game omits any sort of explanation of what or where these regions are. 

am finding our background selections is skewing complete practical 'cause am never having experienced meaningful in-game choices related to backgrounds. your deity choice provides a small handful o' additional dialogue options throughout the game, but you aren't even getting that much reactivity from background selections. as such, as am ordinary playing in turn-base, pickpocket is our assumed background choice, but the reality is we don't go the pickpocket route anywhere near 100%. initiative is extreme important particular as you push the difficulty slider to the right, so it is tough to do objective better than pickpocket, but again, is not as if we always chose pickpocket even if we would be hard pressed to identify a better option for most builds.  

in fact, and am not sure why we hadn't done sooner, give a melee focused sosiel one level o' instinctual warrior feels like kinda a no-brainer as almost his singular shortcoming is his relative bad initiative. also, for a party built to proc attacks of opportunity, it would be better to put a bardiche or falchion in sosiel's hands and the level o' instinct warrior means sosiel is getting martial weapons proficiency in addition to the major initiative boost.

admission: we have never gone full rogue or mostly rogue for a main character build. knife master and thug is great dip choices, but rowdy is representing the only archetype which interests us for more than one or two levels. am not suggesting rogue is bad, but am only saying our personal interest is limited. that said, a dual-wield ranged character is gonna be best achieved with a not rogue-- sohei, slayer, ranger or fighter (or combination)? you are kinda forced to choose throwing axes and with all the size boosting options available in the game, it makes sense to develop a strength focus on your axe hurler. am knowing sohei sounds like an odd possibility, and is kinda munchkin, but sohei weapon training and flurry includes the thrown weapon category. sohei/__________ is likely gonna represent whatever is the most op axe thrower in the game.

regardless, we wouldn't put too much thought into backgrounds 'cause owlcat didn't.  

HA! Good Fun!

[Humanoid]

34 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

regardless, we wouldn't put too much thought into backgrounds 'cause owlcat didn't.  

Yeah, perfectly understandable. But for my purposes, I'm planning on a low-difficulty, high-roleplaying sort of a run where I'm not optimising for combat at all, and I have no issue dropping the difficulty setting way down. Fundamentally I'm just looking for a background that matches my concept for a pure thief with a middle-class merchant sort of upbringing, and so none of the backgrounds really fit, unfortunately. I thought picking "none" might give me a generic bonus, but nope, it looks like doing that is a strict handicap. So I'm going with Varisian Explorer which seems the best fit for a non-combat oriented character.

I suppose in that context I'm overthinking things as I'm sure the game is perfectly playable even if I make a barely functional player character. I do still want the build to make logical sense though, and so I do still have mild concerns as for example, I'll probably start with a zero strength modifier, and it seems with their low base damage, thrown weapons really want to have a positive modifier. So then I thought I'd go with guns instead, because when skimming through all the regional backgrounds I did notice that one is for a nation known for its firearms. And yet ...no guns in this game. Figures. Kind of silly how the Alkenstar background is still in the game then.

So I've packed it in for now, because after a couple of hours I still haven't been able to answer the simplest of questions: what weapon my character will even wield. I'll delve into some basic Pathfinder mechanics first before I can come to a compromise decision on that.