Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6

[kanisatha]

5 hours ago, Humanoid said:

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.

This is exactly how I'm playing the game as well. I'm having a lot of fun playing this way, including even the crusade mode of the game. My only issue so far is how alignment is handled, where because I keep picking "good" dialogue choices my alignment keeps moving towards neutral good, which is problematic for my paladin level. But I'm still in Act 3, and I expect things are going to get a lot dicier when I get into Act 4.

[Sarex]

Got back to Drezen, level 19, I think I might be overleveled at this point. I was disappointed that I couldn't keep the gift from a certain dominatrix, but I guess it make sense story wise. I was thinking about getting the demongraft from the arena on my MC, but tbh it seemed really scary for him to go in to a frenzy, but the buff is very good (still got it on Nenio)... At this point I think that I maxed out the attributes, item and book wise, I think there is one OP permanent buff that I'm most likely not going to take because of RP, but other than some mythic levels I think that this is it for my builds. Now you get to that part of the game where story/combat encounters need to do the heavy lifting. I do not think there was anything noteworthy in demon city.

Also Sosiel's Impossible Domains seem to be very powerful.

 

@Gromnir I found that my backline is rarely in danger, at this point I have so much money that I just wanted to spend it on something.

[Gromnir]

beta

have not looked at the fixes, so none o' our typical snarky commentary.

edit:

Otherworldly Companion's templates granted incorrect number of uses to Smite Good/Evil – fixed;

we suspected this day would arrive, but we held out hope it never would.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited February 20, 2023 by Gromnir

[bugarup]

3 hours ago, Gromnir said:

Otherworldly Companion's templates granted incorrect number of uses to Smite Good/Evil – fixed;

Damn. There goes all my parties. Will have to remember not to apply this patch, at least for a while.

[Sarex]

Temped to download that patch.

[Humanoid]

Figured I'd worry about the details later so I just made a thoroughly vanilla rogue and did the Temple of Trials. Nothing much to report in terms of gameplay but it does seem weird to me that they haven't tried to showcase any combat more complex than essentially 1-2 generic enemies bum-rushing you at a time, they may as well be rats for all the mechanics shown so far.

Biggest complaint so far is probably the camera controls, as I can't find a way to satisfactory pan the camera around. Ideally I'd want there to be a setting to hold down a mouse button (especially since left and right mouse buttons are essentially duplicated functionality by default), but that seems a no-go. I've since looked up the mods available and there's one to assign such functionality to the middle mouse button, which doesn't seem ideal to me, but I'll try it out the next time I play.

 

I'm a little confused why there was a temporary uncontrollable companion, who I guessed would die a few minutes into the game, but that hasn't happened. I'm now thinking it'd be cool if all my party members were autonomous like that.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Humanoid

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I'm a little confused why there was a temporary uncontrollable companion, who I guessed would die a few minutes into the game, but that hasn't happened. I'm now thinking it'd be cool if all my party members were autonomous like that.

anevia were not a mystery to us, but we did have pnp experience which colored our pov.

1) low-level pathfinder is stoopid lethal

(edit: there is a kinda spoiler if you read the anevia entry in the following link) the world wound incursion is the intro adventure to an mythic rules adventure path. to deal with the inherent power imbalance, in pnp you effective start with a party o' seven as the usual four players is joined by anevia, horgus and aravashnial (not in owlcat's wotr... well, sorta, kinda,) to deal with the inherent lethality o' low-level pathfinder combat wherein a single goblin with a sharpened stick or rusty kitchen knife may kill any party member on a crit.  anevia, exists to babysit your sorry arse (particular if you are playing core or above) until you level up at least once and is less likely to statistic face a probable one-shot death.  

2) is not atypical for important story npcs in crpgs to be immortal.

we were knowing avenia were integral to the basic pnp wotr story, so it didn't shock us she were uncontrollable. being not only immortal but more powerful than any other individual in your starting crew, anevia could solo all the combats you encounter, rendering those combats meaningless. removing anevia from your control means you is less likely to use her as an unkillable tank, although such is exactly how we would use her if we did an unfair run.

is probable best to think o' the shield maze following post level two as your actual tutorial.

aside, wotr rats only attack in swarms and is likely you will now need pay some kinda karmic comeuppance for the disparagement o' the tiny but ferocious mammal. your rat observation will metaphorical come back to bite you. enjoy.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Gromnir

[Humanoid]

11 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

your rat observation will metaphorical come back to bite you. enjoy.

Probably more intimidating than the nominal spitting centipedes that did not spit even once, I'm sure.

And yeah, I'd have had no way of knowing that the NPC is from a decade-old book, hopefully she doesn't come after me for stealing her portrait...

[InsaneCommander]

Quote

The Sirocco spell now can be bolstered by metamagic;

A scald didn't get the benefits of Rage Powers – fixed;

Better late than never.

[Sarex]

Level 20, decided to do Iz early, hopefully it doesn't lock me out of side content. At this point I think that my paladin could solo most fights.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

29 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Level 20, decided to do Iz early, hopefully it doesn't lock me out of side content. At this point I think that my paladin could solo most fights.

It's the thing after Iz that locks you out of stuff, if anything you get a bit more content, and a bit may be an exaggeration, by doing Iz first.

[Gromnir]

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Better late than never.

worth noting how in spite o' the claim in the video, the capacity to auto-resolve crusade battle were already in the game before this beta patch and all the patch does is add an additional button in the crusade ui. 

am assuming if mortismal don't seem to know 'bout the current implementation o' the auto-resolve feature, other players could be unaware. though is possible mortismal is the last wotr fan to be unaware and Gromnir is repeating info everybody else already knows-- if such is the case am apologizing for stating the obvious.

to implement the auto-resolve for tactical combats, hit the settings icon (little cog) to the right o' the "skip day" button on the world map ui. doing so reveals three options including the auto resolve o' tactical combats choice.

observation: don't be concerned 'bout getting struck with the rng bat or similar as you may opt-out o' auto resolution both before tactical combats begin and after they conclude. as such, if you do not like the outcome o' an auto-resolve battle, you may chose to fight such conflicts manually.

am not certain what maths owlcat uses to determine outcomes, but if you got better than numerical parity with foes and a decent number o' hospitals, you ordinarily auto-resolve w/o any losses which results in a minor but noteworthy gameplay time savings. 

am also gonna observe how the woeful undervalued enemy armies with their mage generals capable o' casting fire or lightning do suffer from this feature as those foes is treated as no more powerful than any other strength six, eight or whatever army you might encounter. use auto-resolve to dispatch the lightning hurling glabrezu near greengates makes the battle pleasantly anticlimactic. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorth]

Still 10 days to go (game time, not real time) before I get my pyramid. Pharaoh Gorth Ank Amun I is preparing a... house? warming party

Ok, no idea if that actually ends up with a pyramid building anywhere or not. But the idea sounded like fun at the time. Lets see what the actual end result is.

My necromancy focused sorcerer (undead bloodline) had a some fun with those blasted trees in WinterSun. I still need to clear out some forest there

Those ancient blighters hits like a hammer and their magic resistance is a problem for my level 10 party. Not at least because they have regeneration (vulnerable to fire) and my party has very little in the way of fire. A few wands of fireballs. Ember was down as was Sociel, so no help there. Wojthief (sorry, can't spell his name from top of my head) had burning hands and 3 fireballs from my staff all failed to overcome the downed ancient tree because it's magic resistance beats whatever those spells were cast with. In the end, 15 attempts of coup do grace actually did it in. I'll give the other trees a break a for now and work on better spell penetration for fire based spells before going back for the rest of boss trees (the "normal" angry trees weren't a problem, they didn't have regeneration, but those ancient bark fiends sure had)

 

[xzar_monty]

3 hours ago, Gorth said:

Still 10 days to go (game time, not real time) before I get my pyramid. Pharaoh Gorth Ank Amun I is preparing a... house? warming party

Is this DLC content? Sounds like that to me.

[bugarup]

I think Gorth is building a home for a Lich. And it's well ackshually a ziqqurat, but eh, pyramid-adjacent enough.

Good for you, Gorth. Liches is love.  Oh, and don't forget to visit that blighted undead druid on the hill on the Wintersun map with your Lich. 

[xzar_monty]

Ahh, ok. Thanks. Yes, I'm sure there's plenty of mythic path related content I have no idea about. "Home for a Lich" sounds like an interesting headline in a magazine on interior decorating.

[Sarex]

Well this is embarrassing, I didn't know there was a mythic spell book...

[majestic]

You played without any of the I WIN buttons in the Angel book?

[Gromnir]

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

You played without any of the I WIN buttons in the Angel book?

as a paladin he weren't gonna get too many o' those and not 'til relative late anyway, although a few o' the party buffs is quite nice. he won't even have access to the level ten silliness until the last few minutes o' the game.  not a major self gimp by forgoing the spell book... not major. 

@Gorth

the blighted treants is indeed vulnerable to fire, but to suppress their regeneration, any old fire will do the trick, including a flask of alchemists fire. not affected by the target's sr is alchemist fire. haven't tried, but am suspecting an ordinary torch would also work.

am not recalling if all the trees has deflect arrows or is just the one battling the demons. regardless, is advisable to use glitterdust as it ignores sr and will possible blind the trees.  similar, while the trees immune to mind effects, stuns and paralysis, they is not immune to prone. grease is another spell which ignores sr and it works 'gainst 'em, although on hard and above the reflex saves o' the trees were improbable good. a selective and heightened grease is as effective early game as it is late and deserves a place in your spell repertoire.

our biggest hurdle with the blighted treants is our self-ownage as am ordinary using multiple animal companions and when making natural attacks you become affected by the tree's sap which will cause disease with an extreme high dc. 

good luck.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited February 22, 2023 by Gromnir

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, Gromnir said:

the blighted treants is indeed vulnerable to fire, but to suppress their regeneration, any old fire will do the trick, including a flask of alchemists fire. not affected by the target's sr is alchemist fire. haven't tried, but am suspecting an ordinary torch would also work.

am not recalling if all the trees has deflect arrows or is just the one battling the demons.

That was the first one I fought (of the ancient ones) and the one that got down to -150hp when I realized I did not have a single alchemist fire bottle in any inventory (that I could access)

Its magical resistance is still in full effect when down and regenerating, hence why none of the "secondary" casters could harm it with their paltry fire based spells. Ember most likely could have hurt it, but she was one of the first to go down (I underestimated the reach of that tree when when it decides to hit my back line with its abilities). But as mentioned, after 14 failed coup de graces, the 15th did the trick

[Gromnir]

46 minutes ago, Gorth said:

That was the first one I fought (of the ancient ones) and the one that got down to -150hp when I realized I did not have a single alchemist fire bottle in any inventory (that I could access)

Its magical resistance is still in full effect when down and regenerating, hence why none of the "secondary" casters could harm it with their paltry fire based spells. Ember most likely could have hurt it, but she was one of the first to go down (I underestimated the reach of that tree when when it decides to hit my back line with its abilities). But as mentioned, after 14 failed coup de graces, the 15th did the trick

am guessing you ain't a compulsive hoarder. after the tavern defense we always have better than 50 vials o' the alchemist fire and we tote those around for the entire game even though we maybe use 'em during a couple encounters. maybe. why? 'cause. we also keep at least one torch in inventory as a crpg habit. is any number o' games wherein a torch is a puzzle solution or some such. our crpg hoarding is a kinda sickness and wotr animal companions mean am able to carry much useless baggage with us w/o it impacting encumbrance.

'course is moments such as the one you describe as to why am unlikely to streamline our crpg inventories in the near future.

aside, by level 10 you probably acquired two heavy maces of fire and the blaze of disaster staff.  maybe overlooked? chances are they were sold or are taking up space in the commander's chest.

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorth]

Three of my fireballs came from a staff (can't remember the exact name, most likely the one you mentioned). Sadly it resisted all 3 fireballs cast via the staff.

edit: not helped by my sorcerer not having any focus on/in evocation (iirc, that's the school fireball belongs to?)

And yes, in my first play through, I felt like I could open a garage sale with excess alchemist fire and the acid equivalent (I rarely found a use for them, except once or twice for exactly that purpose, overcoming regeneration). Of course I did not think at all about the 2 torches I had distributed to party members as secondary/tertiary weapons...

[Gromnir]

1 minute ago, Gorth said:

Three of my fireballs came from a staff (can't remember the exact name, most likely the one you mentioned). Sadly it resisted all 3 fireballs cast via the staff.

 

the staff and maces is flaming weapons. they do fire damage on a hit. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorth]

7 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

the staff and maces is flaming weapons. they do fire damage on a hit. 

HA! Good Fun!

Oh my.... /facepalm now that you mention it

I suppose my necromancer could've been a bit braver and approach the enemy once the smaller demons were dead and the tree prone on the ground

 

Edit: I think I acquired some kind of flaming cross bow at some point, but of course Ember has that one. Hugging it tightly while being busy being dead on the ground. Dangit Gorth... you're getting old. Potentially holding the answer in your own two hands the whole time

[Gromnir]

13 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Oh my.... /facepalm now that you mention it

I suppose my necromancer could've been a bit braver and approach the enemy once the smaller demons were dead and the tree prone on the ground

 

Edit: I think I acquired some kind of flaming cross bow at some point, but of course Ember has that one. Hugging it tightly while being busy being dead on the ground. Dangit Gorth... you're getting old. Potentially holding the answer in your own two hands the whole time

a considerable amount o' game hours elapsed before it occurred to us that the bane of spirit ring might be an effective counter to swarms. we had used the ring almost exclusive when dealing with incorporeal foes and didn't even consider the ring's impact on swarms.

is possible you never used the staff in question as a melee weapon, so am understanding how is possible to overlook. kinda. 

...

am admitted still baffled by how multiple obsidian posters mentioned they were unaware o' aivu spell casting. as a spontaneous caster, her spells is memorized automatic and as such they tend to fill up her action bar. so...

*shrug*

depending on how you play wotr, given all the options, am s'posing overlooking something seeming obvious is the norm as 'posed to the exception.

HA! Good Fun!